70 Spiritual Astrology
The egos of men have reached the human stage of
evolution after passing through the mineral, plant and
animal stages of consciousness. However he has only the
animal instincts in him in the form of associations
(Samska-ra-s). He can master these lower qualities by a
harmonious accentuation of the counterparts of those
animals in him. In the words of the spiritualist, man gains
mastery over his external fellow-beings by gaining
mastery over his inner beasts. This is the truth underlying
the symbolic animal sacrifices of the ritualists. Man can
identify, along the ecliptic, the original moulds of all
animals that are born periodically through the various
seasonal effects on this earth. The zodiac is the body of a
higher being (the Year-God) of whom the man on this
earth is an epitome. Every animal has a shape which
reflects in the space around this earth. The geocentric
space is negative while the heliocentric space is positive
in nature. As the earth furrows the space in its journey
round the Sun, the pre-existent shapes of various animals
are impregnated by the positive space. When the negative
space is thus charged or impregnated by the space, along
which the Sun’s rays reach the earth, the shapes in the
negative space are brought to light. By a study and
progressive meditation upon the shapes of the various
animals in the zodiac, man overcomes the animal nature
in him and is raised to a level which is above the riddle of
this creation. Atonement and sacrifice are the key-notes
of this process in occultism.
The above process gradually eliminates the
polarities of each sign or a group of signs from the nature
of a personality of the disciple to that of a soul. At first
there is the elimination on the functional level of a few
signs here and there and this is achieved by Pra-n.a-ya-ma.