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Sabian ExpressionsDRIVEAries 6 - 107 Words of Drive (scroll down for questionnaire)
By Richard Grey This article addresses Drive related to spiritual awakening and development.
Drive is a compelling force, usually exerted in a single direction. Yet knowing how and where it’s best to apply it requires careful thought, trial and error. Whether on the receiving end, or as the source, application of drive is clear evidence of intent. A nail is said to be driven into a piece of wood. This needs power, determination, accuracy and direction. The end result is plain for all to see. Being half–hearted won't do. The effect will be reduced. Spirited effort is needed. Be clear about how you want to use your talents; where you want your nail to go. Like a Master-Craftsman, choosing the right tool and applying it in the right way is the best way to get the job done. Ambition and vitality are useful allies. Intuition too. When all is ready, hitting the ‘go' button, releasing the brake, and allowing the energy of propulsion, gets things moving. How far and how fast things go is up to us. When appropriate, we can harness the strength of others to assist. Then we can go further, faster. If we encounter resistance – which we inevitably will – it's good to have thought through beforehand what that resistance might be, and whether to push on through or ‘ease off the gas’. Some collateral damage may be necessary. Too much is not acceptable. Wherever we end up, new horizons appear. Paradigm shifts may occur. Resting and reflecting before driving on may be wise. Sabian Mysteries MeetingsRichard is the facilitator of a Sabian Mysteries Study group, which meets on Wednesdays at 7pm UK time to study:
VIDEO OF MEETING DISCUSSING DRIVE: Sabian Symbols6 A square brightly lighted on one side.
7 A man successfully expressing himself in two realms at once. 8 A large hat with streamers flying, facing east. 9 A crystal gazer. 10 A man teaching new forms for old symbols. Motivated by desire, we develop a particular drive and focus (6), which creates an extension of life possibilities (7). Then, guarding our sensitivities (8), we become able to open up to have a more subtle, visionary concentration of attention (9) and so find uniqueness in our perceptions and attitudes of being (10). |
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7 Words QuestionnaireDriveAre you comfortable employing Drive?
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Spurred to Further EffortBy James Burgess
As a very young boy, I was both competitive and determined, which led to various pats on the head, prizes and positions. On leaving University I began a 5-year course in accountancy; I hated almost every moment of the studies, yet I knew the final bit of paper was the difference between an easy life and constant servitude – so I yoked myself to the treadmill and learned things like ‘who gets the money if someone dies without a will’ and ‘when to use LIFO and when to use FIFO in stock valuations’. Gripping stuff! Things became more subtle later when I found I also had a lot at push in me towards unveiling the mysteries, so I read lots of books and attended workshops every week. My mental focus had to take a new form, yet the similarities were striking between puzzling over esoteric teachings and solving differential equations at University. I realised I could bend my focus of attention at will, whether on academic study, interpreting astrological aspects, or indeed repairing my motorcycle. I overcame my deep reluctance to submit to guidance, and found the process of following another person's intuition rather strange, but it forced me to learn finesse: “some guides are not to be followed while others can lift me up to a new level”, I was shown. In the end I learned to trust my own inner voice – and even then, I had to come to terms with the troublesome challenge of having two inner voices. One spoke true; one was false. Somehow, the need to differentiate between wisdom and silliness only spurred me on to further effort. After all, I had learned how to differentiate long ago, albeit using numbers and mathematical symbols. The mindset that made me compete with others as a boy also made me compete with myself as a man, and it never abated. Some would say I have drive, some say I am driven. But two things became clear - that it continues to move me forward towards a goal of optimal self-expression, and that it is much more subtle than just being energetic. |
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Aries & The Sabian Mystery ofDRIVEby Heidi Souffriau
“Everything is in movement, to live, it suffices to move forward, to go straight towards that which we love, I went straight towards you, forever towards your light.” (Paul Eluard, Ta voix, tes yeux, tes mains, tes lèvres…, 1926) Aries is the first fire sign, the ignition of the vehicle of life. Drive is the motor that gets us to a destination. But beyond getting us from point A to point B, the expression Drive also at once poses the deeper question of purpose, the fuel: why are we going there? What is it that lights our flame? It’s that which we love that gives us Drive. Aries 6°, “A Square Brightly Lighted On One Side,” brings forth three elements that give us the drive to mobilise our day-to-day experience: conflict, light and focus. The first degree of Drive first brings in a square: conflict. In astrological language, a square is called a ‘hard aspect.’ The conflict represented by the square is also the necessary innovative emergency that pulls us to act. Presenting with a square, we look to the left and to the right, we want to take action. If we want to act, we have to decide what we want: we have to ‘choose sides’. How? To live, writes Paul Eluard, all we have to do is to go straight towards the light. The bright light on one side of the square in this symbol inspires us to focus and choose a direction. And where there is light, there is a purpose. Aries 7°, A Man Successfully Expressing Himself In Two Realms At Once,” elaborates on how to harness our drive to move forward. The pleasure of achieving a material goal is ephemeral, for success is a personal inner experience. The notion that the drive to embody our dreams is fuelled by an inner sense of purpose does not exclude that we will need a grounded narrative to unfold this purpose in the outer world. And, even if our purpose and the goal are one and spiritual, as in for example ‘assisting in the awakening of human consciousness,’ how do we translate our vision into matter? We can for example choose to dance as our form of expression and call ourselves a dancer. The focused attention – the “I am a dancer” – then opens the gateway to a lifestyle that makes our heart sing, the inner realm of success, and pays the rent, the outer expression of success. Managing these polarities eventually promotes embracing success as an inner quality. And once our survival needs are met, we will naturally feel driven to deepen our spiritual understanding of what moves and drives us. This is where Aries 8°, ‘A Large Hat With Streamers Flying, Facing East,’ comes in. The East brings in the perspective of the soul. When the personality of Aries is soul-infused, Aries has the potential to tune the mind as a channel for the messages of the Divine. Each constellation rules a body part, and Aries rules the head. Instead of harvesting the drive to move forward in life from the need to make ends meet, Eastern philosophy opens the windows to the possibility of the soul’s freedom. The large hat protects the fragile personality from “too much, too soon.” If we’d have the crown chakra fully open, we’d be dripping with ecstasy and the grounded narrative or social roles established in Aries 7° would seem irrelevant. This is why meditation is such an important practise for Aries to sustain focus. During meditation, we learn to receive our thoughts instead of identifying with the thinking mind. Dropping into witness consciousness helps us detach from the personality to act more efficiently in the world. Eastern science of the soul matures our purpose by bringing a more inclusive perspective based on compassion for human suffering. Facing East, the question becomes: what does the world need? What do we need? In Aries 9°, “The Crystal Gazer,” we come to live and embrace the soul’s perspective of Aries 8°. As the enlightenment of the rock, the crystal holds the wisdom of eons of evolution of consciousness on the earthly plane. To work responsibly with the subtle realms, we have to give our personality the space to gradually become soul-driven. The rock did not become a crystal overnight. This symbol hints at patience, a soul quality to be awakened wherever the constellation of Aries graces our birth charts. As such, the Crystal Gazer is the embodiment of witness consciousness. Having practised non-attachment to our personality, we can use our visionary gifts and illuminated mind for the creation of a more beautiful reality. The Crystal Gazer watches the play of life, the variety of genres, and welcomes all of it. The sense that life is a play does not imply that we do not celebrate a joyous occasion or that a human drama leaves us cold and indifferent. Rather, it gives us an earnestness to experience life and we feel even more engaged to act: “Yes, it has been done before, but it has never been done by you.” This is Aries 10°, A Man Teaching New Forms For Old Symbols. In Drive’s final symbol, we give voice to what our life experience has taught us so far. We share our crystallized vision with the world. True maturity is most straightforwardly found in those who are able to pass on, to teach, what they have loved most, what was most ‘brightly lighted’. With its ‘New Forms’, the symbol embraces the evolution of consciousness. Parenthood is perhaps the most archetypal experience teaching humans the surrender of egoic needs and habit of clinging to the old. The child asks the parent, who is his first teacher, ‘why?’, and in this way the child teaches the parent where to renovate old ways. From the felt understanding that there is no difference between Life and its symbols –the tear we cry for our stolen motorbike holds all the tears human ever cried for his lost freedom and vice versa –we refine our intention and our service to the world. In the final degree of the expression, Drive has birthed continuity consciousness and searched the soil of the mind to reveal its next spring: Honour. |
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Sofyus on DriveThe greatest sage on your planet spoke of push and pull and the dangers of too much of either. ‘Let the ebb and flow of life be’, he seemed to say, ‘without interfering too much!’. Yet we all have curiosity, and we all have hormones, and we all have some limit to our self-control. These drives are best focused on one clear outcome since, as another great master taught, ‘seek and find’. How otherwise could we find ourselves?
A master has learned to inhabit the place above duality and exercise freedom of choice, protected from overwhelming power through the subtle philosophy that teaches of integration rather than differentiation. Sight is opened, and knowledge is no longer bound by time; past, present and future are all one. These teachings are by no means innovative or controversial; they do need to be constantly revisited and renewed however, so that their inherent inspiration is revitalised. Sofyus |
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