Strictly speaking, what I have to say now concerns the pure first ray type because Aries is the zodiacal sign through which the first Ray of Will or Power reaches our planetary life. Such pure types are rare indeed and at this period of evolution well nigh unknown. Most people are governed by their personality ray and as the present first ray types are expressing themselves through personalities which are on all the rays, I would simply ask you to consider what I have to say from the angle of character effects, of problems presented and of quality unfolded. It is well nigh impossible to be more explicit until such time as the Science of the Rays has been further developed; the astrologer must ascertain the ray type before he will be able to cast the adequate horoscope of the soul. My remarks are therefore general and not specific and are universal and not particular. I impose no doctrine. I indicate phases of speculation which might prove illuminating and fruitful.

Aries is one of the constellations of the Cardinal Cross of the heavens. This is the cross of God, the Father, and, therefore, of the incarnating monad. It is the expression of will or power as it expresses itself through the great creative process. When the initiate (as we shall later [92] see) transfers himself on to the Cardinal Cross from which he descended when coming into incarnation and mounted in its place the Common or Mutable Cross, he no longer identifies himself with form or even with soul, but with the will of divinity and with the eternal plan and purpose. It becomes his plan and purpose. He knows no other in a sense which is unknown even to an initiate of the third degree. He then enters into the council chamber of God; he becomes a part of the conclave at Shamballa; he functions no longer simply as a member of the Hierarchy upon the mental plane. He can now function through all the three world centers - Humanity, the Hierarchy and Shamballa.

Aries initiates the cycle of manifestation. All souls, as individual entities, come into human incarnation for the first time in the sign of Cancer, emerging as mental entities in the sign Aries, as emotional-desire entities in the sign Taurus and as vital entities in the sign Gemini, taking then physical form in Cancer. This is an involutionary, subjective cycle. Thus they emerge into the ocean of physical plane existence, into the world of matter. Yet the first impulse is awakened in Aries, for Aries is the place where the initial idea to institute activity takes form. It is the birthplace of ideas, and a true idea is in reality a spiritual impulse taking form - subjective and objective. There originates the response of the soul to the highest aspect or quality of deity because there appears the "will to incarnate." The first ray aspect of the Monad, responding to the first aspect of deity, evokes response from the first ray aspect of the soul and the first step towards incarnation is taken on that plane in the system which is the mental plane. Aries "awakens the will to reach the lowest and there control, to know the uttermost and thus to face all experience" - thus runs an ancient statement. [93]

The keynotes of the sign Aries are four in number, all conveying the same idea. They can be expressed in the following four injunctions which are given, symbolically, to the incarnating soul:

1. Express the will to be and do.
2. Unfold the power to manifest.
3. Enter into battle for the Lord.
4. Arrive at unity through effort.

Creation - Being - Activity - Strife - Synthesis, these are the nature of the Lord of the first constellation and enable Him to influence our planet to these results.

And thus the great cycle of struggle towards expression starts and the foundational words of The Secret Doctrine, with which you are all so familiar, express the goal and the purpose of the first sign of the Cardinal Cross:

"Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this plane of existence, and soul is the vehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation of spirit, and these three are a trinity synthesized by life which pervades them all."  (S.D. Vol. I, 80)

What appears in Aries as spiritual energy enters into the soul stage in Cancer, in which sign the soul incarnates for the first time in form, reaches a point of equilibrium in Libra, in which sign soul and personality achieve a balance of cooperation and, in Capricorn, the will nature arrives at fulfilment and a visioned goal is reached. In Capricorn, the man reaches either the height of personal ambition or he becomes the initiate, attaining his spiritual objective. The difference between these two goals depends upon the mode of progression around the wheel of life. It should be remembered - generalizing again and speaking symbolically - that the Crosses also turn, being the spokes of the great [94] wheel. The undeveloped man goes from Aries to Capricorn and to Libra and Cancer, whilst the developed man reverses the process. We could, for the sake of clarity, consider the great experience of life as taking place upon the three wheels within the wheel of Life, viewing it from three angles:

I.

1. The Wheel of Incarnation.
2. The cycle of ordinary evolution.
3. The period of captivity, wherein the man is bound upon the wheel.
4. The fourfold influence of the Common Cross.
5. Life in the three worlds.
6. The development of personality.

II.

1. The Wheel adjusted or reversed.
2. The cycle of discipleship.
3. The period of emergence, wherein the man alters the revolution of the wheel.
4. The fourfold influence of the Fixed Cross.
5. Life in the five worlds of superhuman evolution.
6. The unfoldment of soul through the personality.

III.

1. The wheel controlled or dominated.
2. The cycle of initiation.
3. The period of liberation from the work of the Great Wheel.
4. The fourfold influence of the Cardinal Cross.
5. Life in the seven worlds of our seven planes.
6. Fusion of spirit, soul and personality.