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Malvin Artley has been a practising astrologer for more than a decade. He is an accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers.
Malvin is the author of Bodies of Fire: An Exploration of the Lesser Chakra System. He has authored numerous articles and was a member of the faculty of the University of the Seven Rays, a non-profit organization dedicated to the teaching of the Trans-Himalayan tradition as expressed through the books of Alice Bailey, Helena Blavatsky and others.
His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His special interests are the human subtle energy system and all the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all aspects of Chinese occultism. He has done extensive work with Chinese astrology and the cycles they use and seeks to synthesize the great Western and Oriental systems on such matters.
Malvin lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He also works in the engineering trades and sends out periodic emails about astrological happenings and developments. Click here to subscribe to Malvin's periodic letters.

The Festival of the Ashram 2004 [part two]
Subtle Meanings of the Full Moon in Capricorn

In this, the second part of the article, Malvin looks at the esoteric role of Soul in the evolution of Humanity. He reveals the nature and origins of the main groups of humanity, the Old Souls of lunar origins and Young Souls that found their generation with the Lords of the Flame, from Venus. When "animal man" was ready for consciousness during the Age of Cancer, the Lords of the Flame brought Soul to humanity on Earth.

Cancer is said to be one of the most misunderstood signs of the Zodiac. Given the fact that Neptune has sole rulership over it esoterically, the previous sentence comes as no surprise. But, the reasons for such misunderstanding go far deeper than that and reach all the way back to the dawn of human history, as I mentioned previously. Some of what we are about to consider will seem fantastic and implausible to some readers, but I ask you to simply let it all wash through and take it as a possibility or hypothesis if nothing else. Unless one is able to read the records of time in the akasha and thus the records of the Lords of Karma, hypothesis and conjecture is what that which is to follow must remain. If you want the full story, then a reading of The Secret Doctrine (by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky) will fill in the gaps. [It's a very long treatise in two volumes, so make the effort to obtain a copy of the hard cover version. You will want to keep this marvellous book forever and refer to it often — ed.]

Main Groups of Humanity

Many readers may not realize it, but there are three main groups of humanity upon our little globe. They are the human beings which were first incarnated on this globe, those humans who were holdovers from the Moon when it was a planet, and a third, much smaller, group with which we will not deal here. They are largely awaiting a later time in Earth’s history to “walk among men” and will be more involved with the closing of certain great cycles of the human race and with the inauguration of many new and unusual aspects to civilization.

Old Souls

The oldest, and thus the most advanced from a spiritual evolutionary perspective, appeared on Earth in the early days of Atlantis. They were the Atlanteans of historical interest, the advanced Atlanteans. They were held over from the Moon. The Moon is called the Mother of the Earth because it was the globe from which most life on our globe was passed when it met its untimely demise. You see, the Moon was a failed experiment in many ways in terms of a planetary development. To put it very simply, human evolution on the Moon when it was a planet went awry and it became too much of a danger to the other “locals” in our solar system. The higher Self of the Moon (yes, planets have higher Selves, too) at that time deemed it necessary to cut short the life of the Moon and its life was then passed on to our Earth at the appropriate time. The whole story is too long to unravel here. Suffice it to say that the Moon is now a dead body, circling its progeny (our Earth) and slowly decaying. The Moon was also the mother of the humanity on that globe so, no matter how we look at it, the Moon and Cancer are both closely associated with humanity. The Moon is the orthodox ruler of Cancer.

Young Souls

Our true Earth humanity appeared in Lemuria [a vanished continent in what is now the South Seas - ed.] some 18 million years ago. These Souls constitute what are known in the New Age movement as the “young Souls”. They represent the great bulk of humanity on our planet today. The Souls from the Moon are the most advanced in terms of spiritual development and comprise the intelligentsia and “Lighted” members of the human family.

There are always exceptions to any rule, though. It is said that there is only one example of true Earth humanity who has achieved the status of spiritual mastery thus far, and that Soul incarnated as the life we know historically as Jesus of Nazareth. His progress is said to be quite exceptional, and when his life is examined in that respect his words take on a very different tone. When he stated “These things you have seen me do, you will do also, and even greater”, it was at once a literal statement of fact and an example of what can be achieved by the humanity who became human on our planet. There is a fabulous message of hope in that and an indication as well of the promise that this little cosmic experiment we call Earth evolution holds for all involved. His life showed in full glory what is possible for all of us on this Earth—that evolution can be accelerated at a fantastic rate and that we do indeed have a lot to offer the cosmos if only we could get our collective act together. Most, if not all, of the other great spiritual Teachers who have walked the Earth are examples of Souls from the Moon.

The Lords of the Flame

This brings us to a consideration of the role Venus has played regarding Cancer and why its station and resumption of direct motion when the Sun is in Cancer is such a potent symbol. Human individualization occurred in Lemurian times as stated when the Sun was in Cancer by the precession of the equinox. In short, we were in the Age of Cancer when Earth humanity took form. I made reference in recent letters about Venus to the effect that Venus represents the same relationship to the Earth that the Soul does to the persona (animal man) and that every change in Venus is somehow reflected upon Earth.

In those ancient days there were certain classes of animals that had evolved instinct to a point where a true fusion of mind could take place and thus allow a higher expression of life to occur. Coincident with that, there was a parallel development on Venus (all planets have a humanity of some sort or density) wherein a certain number of its humanity achieved liberation and the lower aspects of their Souls were no longer needed. God is an economical sort and the stage was set: Give the potential Earth-humans the aspects of Soul needed for their full development as humans from the liberated aspects of Venusian humanity. In Theosophical literature this is known as the Lords of the Flame coming from Venus and giving self-consciousness and thus Soul to Earth humanity. I am deliberately leaving a lot out and being sometimes not pedantically correct, but the gist of the story is what is important here. Venus gave us our Souls as Earth humanity. The rest is history, occult and otherwise.

Stranger than Fiction?

I told you a lot of this might seem fantastic and, like the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction. The Light that Cancer conveys is called the “Light within the Form”. It is a diffuse, incoherent light—the dark light of matter itself awaiting stimulation by a higher power (the Light of the Soul). In those ancient days the world was heavily pregnant with lives ready for the Light of Self to overshadow them. They were unconscious and instinctive. There was light there, but it was diffuse and unfocussed. The lunar Lords who comprised them were ready for liberation. They demanded salvation and the cry went forth. The Souls from Venus responded. It is said that when those Lords of the Flame appeared on our globe and made union with the lesser lives there was an electrical storm of such magnitude that it has not been seen since. It was planetary in its scope and a mass extinction took place. Old forms were shattered, lesser lives were liberated and “man’s troublous journey thus began”.

I have spoken before of the analogy between lightning and the action of the Soul and ceremonial magic at times. There is a “cry” that goes out from the lower forms. If that invocative response achieves contact with the higher forms, then a huge current of spiritual or electrical force (depending upon the type of energy involved) follows the initial charge to earth and union is thus achieved. That it often produces destruction is true, but this is only temporal and illusory from the higher perspective. New forms are built upon the destruction that can withstand the increased vibration and evolution proceeds at a much accelerated pace. There is a clue in this for all who would invoke the fires of Spirit, as well as a warning—be sure you are ready for the consequences of that which you seek! There has been a long litany of wrecked lives as a result of people invoking things from the higher planes before they are ready to receive them. In spiritual practice, plodding is ever desirable for that very reason and things such as spiritual awakenings should happen either on their own as a natural outcome of right living or only under the strictest care and guidance of One who Knows. A great many of the animal humans in those days were not fully ready for the coming of the Lords and the consequent union destroyed them. The process of reincarnation took care of providing a new body, but the population was so decimated that it took a long while to re-establish humanity on Earth.

In the skies today we see a reflection of these ancient days in the fact that Venus is again very active while the Sun is in Cancer and is offering opportunity for accelerated evolution and liberation. But, this is only a very small and dim reflection of those days. Still, there is a great cry going out from the masses of people everywhere for better conditions, for the amelioration of suffering and, above all, for Light. And Light will come. For those people not ready to receive it the coming years will be strained to say the least. Instability will increase throughout the globe before it gets better, but the promise of better days to come is plainly evident for those who have the eye to see. For myself, I have great faith that humanity will win the day and a better life will come for all. I spoke of faith with my family while I was overseas and, in the world today I see all around me “the substance of things hoped for ad the evidence of things not seen”. Venus is in its Lucifer phase for the next 9 months—the period of human gestation—and Light will indeed be cast on dark corners as it fulfills its role as Lucifer—“Light-Bringer”.

In part three of this article, Malvin concludes yet another illuminating article with a discussion of the esoteric rules of reincarnation, especially with regard to the way we are born in karmically related groups, such as the family. This is the focal point of Cancer and the light of salvation through the redemption of an ancient pledge.

Read part three of The Festival of the Ashram

Malvin Artley is an accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers. His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His special interests in those fields are the human subtle energy system and all the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all aspects of Chinese occultism.
He sends out periodic emails about astrological happenings and developments. These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list please let me know. If you feel inspired to pass them on please do so, but do so without alteration or charge. They are sent to people of many persuasions, not just astrologers. Blessings. Click here to subscribe to Malvin's periodic letters.