It bears repeating that these images weren’t divined in order but blindly (literally) but a blind seer. Yesterday we trekked toward illumination and today we find that, at Pisces 12°, In The Sanctuary Of An Occult Brotherhood, Newly Initiated Members Are Being Examined And Their Character Tested. The gist of this symbol is hinged on the fact that, just because we move in a direction and seek acceptance by a group, we might not find that acceptance to be automatically on offer. We must prove ourselves capable and worthy. We might claim an inherent divine right to do this (yesterday’s symbol is ruled by Leo which governs that internally fixed fire) but we have to demonstrate certain adeptness, that we have utilized that internal fire and allowed it to purify us of ego and other impediments. Today’s image is ruled by Virgo in a twelve-fold sequence, the mutable-earth sign that follows the fixed-fire of Leo. It is associated with the god of the forge, Hephaestus, who was an alchemist and a, rather ironic, god of humility in service to gods and men. That Leo fire might send us on that trek, but the journey should be humbling and cause a change in us, rendering us something different from how we started out, changing our make up as befits Virgo’s humbling mutable-earth status, changing all that we are wrought of if not our material selves.

Leo is all about our ideal selves, being the best we can be—as a fire sign it points to what that ideal is, in spirit. Then we must physically align ourselves via our Virgo natures, changing our routines and habits—under the rulership of Virgo’s sixth house—which must be put in service to that ideal. That is the true nature of Virgo’s motto “I serve”. Are we serving the divine god-monarch within? Virgo, in all its humility, sees us don the habit of novice or initiate, shearing the lion’s mane of Leo pride and ego, shadow sides of that ideal sense. And whether you get theself to a nunnery or monastery (flash back to dream I had last night where I was told that my lifestyle was indeed quite monkish, which isn’t true at this juncture, but probably in some sense, essentially so), or you simply put yourself in service to a spiritual ideal, you will be offering yourself up to some sort of group, whether organized or not. We can’t always seek, we must find, there must come a point where we find welcome in some collective that reflects our inner callings. And having found our place we must prove ourselves able to, and worthy of, fullfilling the (here comes another Virgo word) function associated with it.

If we are seeking we are perhaps lost. If we are found than we might not longer be free, in the individual sense, but an agent, The Vehicle (name of the Virgo man chapter in Sextrology) or The Vessel (name of the Virgo woman chapter in Sextrology) via which the whole of the good might operate through us. But we must be made of certain qualities to qualify for this; we must be humbled in our exaltation, and have undergone an alchemical change to release our expectations of individual power or recognition. We must be, like Hephaestus, a god of the forge, using our divinity to serve common purposes, not least of which, is the enlightenment of all wo/mankind. We must at all times prove our worth in this.

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Men Traveling A Narrow Path, Seeking Illumination is just the kind of Sabian Symbol you’d expect in these last hurrahs of our journey around the wheel. It points to the capacity inherent in every individual to seek at whatever cost entrance to a transcendent real of reality. I immediately think of those trekking to Shangri-La. The sign of Pisces, and its twelfth house, does represent the transcent realm of reality, that of Nirvana (of course Kurt Cobain was a Pisces, that band’s in-utero imagery speaking to the womb/tomb nature of that sign. This image symbolizes, according to scholar Dane Rudhyar, “the ancient, eternal path of discipleship—the greatness of man is that he can always be greater; and the belief—deeply rooted in men’s inner nature—that if he fulfills the necessary conditions he can find ‘Elder Brothers’ who have already attained a higher level of consciousness and will transfer their attainment and light to him.” There’s that Brotherhood of Light again. And Rudhyar goes on to explain that it requires a purity of heart, mental awareness, mastery of emotions and spiritual self-motivation.

The pure at heart. This speaks to this being a Leo-ruled image, in a twelve-fold sequence. And, as often happens when we get to a Leo-ruled symbol, we find ourselves on a golden pathway akin to Dorothy in Oz with her companions personifying the metaphysical levels of existence, that story being one we cite, specifically, in the Leo woman chapter of Sextrology. We can always walk this path, we can always go further. The most difficult thing to do, typically, is to take the first step, not because the journey ahead is daunting, but due to the guilt, shame, regret of not having started sooner. It’s easier said than done: that it’s never to late to take to the path; but we have examples of those who have gone before, having lived a life of earthly attachment and delight. So, put on your happy feet and get going.

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