Do you grasp the significance of this statement, and its fundamental simplicity? Let me give you a hint. The earthy triplicity has been designated by astrologers as embodying the idea of plains (Taurus), of caves (Virgo) and of rock (Capricorn). It might be stated that these caves exist in the rocks, deep under the plains. I am speaking figuratively and symbolically. Out of the rocky cave, the Christ emerged [385] and walked again upon the plains of Earth and from that time "the woman knew Him not." Form had no further hold upon him for He had overcome it in the depths. Into the cave of Initiation, the light of resurrection streams when the stone at the entrance is rolled away. From life in the form to the death of the form - deep in the rocky place, down in the crypts of the Temple - the human being goes. But into that same place, the new life streams, bringing fresh life and liberation; old things pass away and the darkness becomes light.

The esoteric ruler of Taurus is Vulcan, the forger of metals, the one who works in the densest, most concrete expression of the natural world (from the human angle). He is the one who goes down into the depths to find the material upon which to expend his innate art and to fashion [386] that which is beautiful and useful. Vulcan is, therefore, that which stands for the soul, the individual, inner, spiritual man; in his activity we find the key to the soul's task upon the eternal round of the wheel of life. You will remember how Hercules upon the Fixed Cross had to fashion his own weapons before he succeeded in the struggle. This is in reality a reference to the art of Vulcan who rules the inner man and guides his fashioning.

Vulcan also rules nations at a certain stage of embryonic soul expression, such as the present, and governs their activities, fashioning the instruments of war when war and conflict are the only means whereby liberation can come, though woe betide those through whom wars come. Vulcan then takes hold and - since the Middle Ages - has brought the mineral kingdom, "the depths from which supply must come," under human control. In the present war, Vulcan is concerned along with Venus in the relation of man to man, and of man to the mineral kingdom. Venus, the mental energy of humanity, establishes relation between man and man, between nation and nation whilst Vulcan establishes relation between the fourth kingdom in nature and the first. Vulcan, as we shall see later, is governed by the first ray, and the first ray and the first kingdom are definitely bound together. This, therefore, brings in the Shamballa force and you consequently have an esoteric triangle of energy - will, humanity and the mineral kingdom. They have a very close rapport with each other, both from the angle of the Plan and from the expression of material selfishness. Hence the great use of minerals (iron, copper, etc.) in the World War II. It is literally a war in which the mineral kingdom is used against the human. Humanity had gone down into the caves and the depths of concretion and is ready now for an upward shift or move, this time consciously taken [387] and taken all together. This is a most difficult situation for the average man to comprehend but the entire problem of the conscious use of that which exists upon the planet and also its destructive usage is tied together into one most critical situation. Part of the solution will come along similar lines and of this the prophecy now coming into the racial awareness that there are those "who sleep in the caves of the earth who will arise and bring liberation" has reference. But be not too literal in interpretation for "that which is of the earth can also be found in the sky."

Hierarchically also the ruler is Vulcan, conditioning the planet and determining the fact that man is the macrocosm of the microcosm and that the fourth kingdom fashions or conditions all subhuman kingdoms.