This sign is also dual. In Aries we have the duality which is attached to the bringing together of spirit and matter in the great creative activity of manifestation at the beginning of the evolutionary cycle, whilst in Pisces we have the fusion or blending of soul and form as far as man is concerned, producing the manifestation of the Incarnated Christ, the perfected individual soul, the completed manifestation of the microcosm. Thus the greater and the lesser polar opposites - the human being and God, the microcosm and the Macrocosm - are brought to their destined expression and manifestation. Until man is nearing the goal, these words mean but little though a study of the sign Pisces in the two ways intended may reveal much that is significant and suggestive. The goal of Deity, the emergence of God's plan and the nature of His eternal purpose is for us only a subject of interested speculation. There is a possibility that this plan and purpose may be vastly different to our surmise which is based upon our formulation of a Deity who is the product of our mental processes and of devoted idealism (two of the three aspects of the personality nature), and the attempt to interpret His infinite purposes in terms of our own finiteness. Let us always remember this. The mechanism for divine perception has not yet been developed in the human family on any large scale and is only achieving some measure of usefulness in the initiate of the third degree.

In the first cycle of experience upon the wheel, the soul itself is in captivity to substance; it has come down into the prison house of matter and linked itself to form. Hence the symbol of Pisces, of the two fishes linked together by a band. One fish stands for the soul and the other for the personality or form nature, and between them is to be found the "thread or sutratma," the silver cord which keeps them bound to each other throughout the cycle of manifested life. Later on, upon the reversed wheel, the personality is brought into captivity by the soul, but for long aeons the situation is reversed and the soul is the prisoner of the personality. This dual bondage is brought to an end by what is called the final death, when the complete release of the life aspect from the life of form takes place. It should be borne in mind also that the soul itself is of the nature of form from the standpoint of the Monad, though it is a form far subtler than any that we know in the three worlds of human evolution. There is also a dual renunciation referred to in these key words, for first of all the soul renounces the life and light of the Monad, its source (symbolized by the words "the Father's home"), and descends into the ocean of matter; then, reversing itself, the soul renounces the life of form, the personality center. The soul detaches itself (in consciousness) from the Monad, the One, and functions from its own center, making its own new and material attachments. Then, upon the reversal of the wheel, it proceeds to detach itself from the personality and reattach itself in consciousness to the One Who sent it forth. Such is the climaxing story of Pisces. The Lords of Will and Sacrifice come down into manifestation, sacrificing their high position and opportunities upon the higher planes of manifestation in order to redeem matter and raise the lives by which it is informed (the lower Creative Hierarchies) to the [117] status of Themselves in so far as They constitute the fourth Creative Hierarchy. This is the subjective purpose, underlying the sacrifice of these divine Lives Who are ourselves essentially, Who are qualified by knowledge, love and will, and animated by ceaseless persevering devotion. They seek to bring about the death of the form in its occult significance and the consequent release of the indwelling lives into a higher state of consciousness. Of this process, all the world Saviors - past, present and to come - are the manifested symbols and the eternal guarantees. It is in such recognitions as these that the mainspring to the life of service must be sought. People born in this sign are frequently to be found serving the race and ministering to its needs upon some level of consciousness. Thus they are prepared for the final sacrifice in Pisces which "absorbs them back into their originating Motive," as the Old Commentary expresses it. It is for this reason that the life of service and the directed intention to serve constitute a scientific mode of achieving release. In Aquarius, the sign of world service, the lesson is finally learned which produces the world Savior in Pisces. Hence my constant emphasis upon service.