Capricorn 2023 – Introductory Talk

Capricorn is a sign of dualities, of conclusion and renewal, a time for reviewing the past and considering the path ahead.  It’s no great surprise that people are often moved to make new year resolutions at this time. Whether they are kept or not is irrelevant; it is the fact that we are cognisant, on some level, of an inherent need to take stock and to set new goals.

Here in Australia, it’s customary to take a couple of weeks off around this time of the year for the ‘summer break’, taking advantage of a lull between the old year and the new, preparing for change and at times, implementing that change.

It’s a wonderful interlude.  In Leaves of Morya’s Garden, 146, Master M writes:

I give you happiness—accept it and learn to comprehend the Teaching.

All that is possible to hasten without destruction will be hastened.

Life bares its teeth, but the spirit is undaunted.

Calmly face the new year, full of events.

The tide of spirit is rising. I send My Blessings.

Last month, in Sagittarius, we reached a goal and saw another – Capricorn takes that thread a little further.  It is often associated with the path, ever upward, of the initiate seeking to reach the mountain top of initiation.  Yet it seems to me that whenever one stops on the way up the mountain (for whatever reason), there is an opportunity to not only see where one has been, but to recognise that others are also striving to reach the summit.   The higher we climb, the wider the perspective.

Capricorn gives us the opportunity to not only choose our next steps on the path, but it allows us to review, forgive and accept the lessons of what has passed. Each of us, in our true nature, is Soul, and as Souls, we direct our incarnated selves on an evolutionary path. Humanity, likewise, is constantly evolving, as is our planet, and the solar system in which it revolves.  Less of a direct, lonely trek upwards to enlightenment, and more an ever-widening arc of inclusive identity.

Elsewhere in Leaves (314) we read:

We send you this message:

Let the stones speak the truth,

Let the plants and trees proclaim the joy of creation,

But action is for humanity.

For in action is buried the fruit of man’s striving.

Birds do not remember their deeds

Or the deeds of others;

Therefore they return to their old nests.

So let man forget his mistakes, and let him strive

on the path of Great Silence and Bliss.

The Great Silence is like the roaring of an ocean

and the quietude of an empty house.

It is in that great silence that we discover our own Soul and come to recognise that we are all part of the One Soul.  What’s more, we are increasingly finding ourselves working together in group, for the benefit of all mankind, rather than striving on our individual paths. It’s almost like humanity has reached that point in its trek upward where we have realised that sharing the journey diminishes the hardship and increases the joy.

We’re seeing greater numbers of men and women of goodwill working together in group than ever before, such as with the Global Silent Minute; what started in 2019 when a handful of people thought to reprise a phenomenal peace action from World War II has developed into a considerable world-wide movement, holding almost-exclusively online events.  Even this group of ours here right now, is seamlessly drawing together co-workers from across Australia and around the world, who might previously have joined with us once or twice a year in person.  It’s almost as if the pandemic has been another initiation, but on a global, group level.

In Initiation Human and Solar, AAB wrote that ‘each initiation entails the realisation of an increasing unity with all that lives and the essential oneness of the self with all selves’.

‘Lost am I in light supernal, yet on that light I turn my back’.  The keynote of Capricorn reminds us that it’s not about achieving samadhi (staying ‘lost in light supernal’, however wonderful that may be!) and then deciding ‘ok, that’s perfect, no need to do any more’.  The individual Soul’s path up the mountain might be difficult or not, but ultimately, maybe it is not about one’s own goals of ‘spiritual enlightenment’ – but rather, as JF Kennedy once said, ‘ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country’.

In Esoteric Psychology (II), when laying out the ‘Seven Laws of Soul or Group Life’, the Master DK said:

We stand today on the verge of great things.  Humanity … is moving forward along a path which will lead it eventually into light and peace.  It will find its way into ‘the peace which passeth understanding’ … the peace of serenity and of joy – a serenity based upon spiritual understanding; and a joy which is untouched by circumstances.

This joy and serenity is not an astral condition but a soul reaction.  These qualities are not achieved as the result of disciplining the emotional nature, but demonstrate as a natural, automatic reaction of the soul. This is the reward of a definitely achieved alignment.

These two qualities of the soul—serenity and joy—are the indications that the soul, the ego, the One Who stands alone, is controlling or dominating the personality, circumstance, and all environing conditions of life in the three worlds.

The sign of Capricorn is the goat.  It has been interesting to see an uptake in the last few years of the usage of the acronym GOAT, as in the ‘greatest of all time’, recognising that someone – a sportsman or other skill-wielder – has reached the pinnacle of his or her chosen field of activity, often through a great deal of hardship and sacrifice.  Some scholars contend that Capricorn’s goat transforms into a unicorn when it reaches the summit of its mountain, so it’s not surprising that many of those people go on to use their fame, money or position to benefit others.

Capricorn – sign of contradictions that it is – is also about impersonality, moving beyond one’s own goals and expanding the love we have for another, for family or friends, into a love for humanity, this planet and all her inhabitants.   It is not a sentimental love, nor is the impersonality a state of withdrawal or cold-heartedness in the face of tragedy or destruction.  It is the selfless love that drives each of us to do what we can, whatever our chosen vehicles are best equipped for, to lift, nurture and aid others on their path up the mountain.

We’ve been told that the path may well get harder before it gets better (life will ‘bare its teeth’), yet in Rays and Initiations, Rule Twelve (234) we are also told:

The future holds within its silence other modes of saving humanity.  The cup of sorrow and the agony of the Cross are well-nigh finished.  Joy and strength will take their place.

Instead of sorrow we shall have a joy which will work out in happiness and lead eventually to bliss.  We shall have a strength which will know naught but victory and will not recognise disaster.  …  Only the dawn is with us as yet—the dawn of the Aquarian Age.  The full tide of light is inevitably moving upon its way towards us.

Within the light of Capricorn, we reflect on the journey upward toward our own mountain summits, taking breath and gaining perspective of the lengths we have scaled so far, with awareness and gratitude to the souls journeying upward alongside us, near and far.

We’ll finish here, with another quote from Morya’s Garden (157):

Mist blinds the worldly eye, but the one who can observe the realities of life

also beholds the flow of events.

Our Gates, once conquered, lead toward untold wealth.

Each golden beam of sunlight is a shield against the lunar light reflected onto Earth.

Between the paths of sun and moon must one choose.

The sun fills the day with miracles.

The moon begets fleeting phantoms.

Walk in the sunlight, open-eyed, and your day will become a wondrous fairy tale.

The keynote for Capricorn is ‘Lost am I in light supernal, yet on that Light I turn my back.’