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Sabian ExpressionsHONOURAries 11 - 16by Richard Grey
Honour is a quality describing a person whose behaviour is consistently in alignment with a code of principles, which can be personal or communally-agreed. Often an honourable person is described as principled, ethical, decent, respectable, moral and honest, and are known to keep their word, be reliable and of good faith. They take these aspects of personality to be important and win the respect and love of their circle through their nobility of character. In a very tangible way honour represents a form of social contract between the community and the individual, and frequently defines that which is held to be legal, morally acceptable, and even sacred. Failure to attend to such matters brings censure and often penalty, strongly laced with shame, embarrassment or guilt. A person of honour will always try to do the right thing no matter the cost and measure as successful a life lived by always showing profound respect for every living being. Such a path shows in their noble bearing as grace and beauty, and this atmosphere is the true meaning of aristocracy. Sabian SymbolsAries 11 The president of the country
Aries 12 A flock of wild geese. Aries 13 An unsuccessful bomb explosion. Aries 14 A serpent coiling near a man and a woman. Aries 15 An Indian weaving a blanket. ARIES EXPRESSION of HONOUR Having studied the projection of disciplined will (11), we gain mysterious awareness of the soul's transcendence (12) and take sincere, if naïve, steps towards self-perfection (13). Through the recognition of the sacredness of relationship (14) we discover the importance and joy of sanctifying life itself (15). |
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7 Words QuestionnaireHonourAre you an honourable person?
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Honouring a Masterby James Burgess
I met Sheikh Abdullah in Turkey in a small, insignificant town, which we had both simultaneously visited on a whim, and, having met as if through the will of the gods, had together boarded a bus to Istanbul within a few hours – spending the 16-hour journey beginning my training in Sufism. The time we spent in the harsh city was very difficult for me; he treated me more like an obedient dog than a friend, and gave me very little of what I had hoped for, until a couple of days before my departure, when he spent almost an hour instructing me in a very complex spiritual practice involving words, breath, visualisation and a considerable discipline of mind. Bizarrely, he sternly forbade me from even attempting this procedure again, and demanded that I gave him my word on the matter. I wandered off to my hotel frustrated, confused and even a little angry. When I returned next day, he was very warm and friendly - "Now! you may do this practice. Do it every day and it will change things for you”. When he saw my quizzical look, he explained: "You have not tried the practice alone; you kept your word. Because you are a man of honour, you may progress in Sufism. Subsequently, I did the practice for a long time, without fail, every day, and it did change me thoroughly and positively. What sticks in my mind is not his capacity to read my energy field accurately enough to see that I had not broken my word, (amazing!), but how deeply important it is to keep faithfully to what we have said we will do – as a matter of honour. In this case it was what opened up my whole life direction, yet even without such benefits, I cherish the aspect of my personality that demands of myself that I behave with honour at all times. |
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Council of Elders by ShaRyn Maatthews
In that beautiful place where sleep meets wakefulness, I first heard the word “Dana” spoken as if in my ear. I know myself to be clair-audient (see my article last month for more information) but I’ve always heard the voice internally. On this spring day, I heard the voice externally and my eyes popped open as I looked around the light filled room. It’s quite a way to wake up! Dana is considered by the Tu’atha de Danaans to be the goddess of alchemy, the great mother creator goddess. Her name stems from Dan or knowledge. I was grateful to meet with her and held that space for our communion to expand. I had already started to think about the many allies I appeared to have in the non-physical world, Beings I felt in some way connected to, and this visit from Dana (or Danu) began to further shape my thinking. What if, these beings were making themselves known to be a part of a council of elders? To come forward with their special gifts to support me, as and when the situation arose. It felt a little fanciful (and somewhat egotistical) and yet the idea very quickly took root and a life of its own, and I began to research. Perhaps there could be a council of 12 who might sit with me around the table not dissimilar to the Knights of the Round Table, where each one took a role in the community that aligned with their specific strengths and gifts. Maybe this was on offer as a gift from the magical realm? Could there be help and support from different deities for the many aspects of life, creating a community within/out me? Being drawn to Druidism I began my research with the deities of the Celts. I sat outside in the sun and brought to mind each of the deities in my book on the subject, asking them if they were indeed part of this council of elders. Then I expanded my invitation to include any deities I’d ever met or worked with. Some of them said “Yes”, and some said “No” and amusingly one even said, “Not yet”. At the end of my session in the sun, I had a council of 12 goddesses, which felt a little strange as I have never particularly been gender focussed, however they worked with me over the time I was in that house (which I instinctively felt was built on or around the site of an ancient medicine wheel). My connection to this group of deities has waned as I moved out, and actually 12 seems too many for me to hold and build strong relationships with at one time, so during this month of focusing on Honour I intend to revisit and perhaps invoke a new council of 7 and we will explore this concept together in the Unicorn Magic Circle which meets each Thursday at 4pm. I’ve already started, beginning to explore what honouring myself means. I’m at the table too! I begin by recognising and embracing all aspects of myself without judgement. To redefine my values, my thoughts, my action in the world without the pressure of being in service or on purpose. I’m imagining that just my presence on earth is more than enough, so any next steps, acts of service or purpose can be born truly from joy and curiosity. Then I’ll turn my attention to honouring those who wish to walk the path with me, in the physical and non-physical realms. For me honour is like the breath. A circle of giving and receiving. There is a mutuality to it, being honourable, engaging honourably with other honourable people, receiving honour. Knowing when there is a lack of honour and stepping back, gracefully. All important aspects of the same thing. I’m looking forward to how this unfolds as we explore this expression in our Sabian Mysteries groups. |
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Aries & The Sabian Mystery of Honourby Heidi Wang
“I am not afraid. I was born to do this.” Those are the words of Joan of Arc. “Joan the Maiden” was burnt at the stake at 19. She lives on a hero for God and country. Her attitude capture the essence of the Code of the Warrior, as taught in the Bhagavad Gita. In this Hindu verse scripture, Krishna, the Supreme Godhead, conveys to Arjuna, a warrior torn about the why of war –and why would we kill our brothers and sisters? –that it’s indecisiveness and inaction which is dishonourful. Here, The Gita touches Aries at its core: we have the duty to engage with life. “We were born for this,” in the words of Joan of Arc. In the days of war and true warriors, the concepts of Honour and heroism were closely knit together. But where are the heroes today? Now that fighting for a king or a title has lost all sense, where lies the battlefield from which the soul harvests Honour? Moving from an outer experience –The President Of The Country – to an inner experience – An Indian Weaving A Ceremonial Blanket —the 5 Sabian Symbols of Honour are on a journey of spiritualizing our movement in the world. This journey inwards evolves Honour from a personality expression to a quality of the soul: the awakening of the inner hero. Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, is traditionally ruled by Mars, the planet of action and fire, our yang principle. The esoteric school of astrology names Mars as the personality ruler of Aries, and Mercury, the planet of Mind, as its soul ruler. Until we decide to word our thoughts out loud, they are a private affair. Thinking is yin. “To Be Impeccable with the Word,” the First Toltec Agreement[1], requires that Action (Mars) and our language or Word (Mercury) operate as one. In the first Labour of Hercules, the hero is to capture the wild horses devastating the countryside. The horses are symbol for our thoughts, the mind we learn to control and direct. A Noble Warrior mounts the right horse, for they remember the flame that sparked them into being. Ideally, The President of the Country is a man of his word, whose actions are aligned with his words and his thoughts. Yet in an era of accelerated dispelling of glamour, most political activity is but a television show. The unmasking of the president as an actor and actors becoming politicians or vice versa are symptoms of our soul’s claim to sovereignty. The lack of Honour in the President or the people who carry titles in society also serves to re-write the definition of Honour in its yin-expression: honour as an inner experience. We no longer fight for country, we fight for Self. To complete the journey towards sovereignty, we have to learn to control our mind and use our Word, our sword, with precision. Honour is the freedom to live our soul’s desire stripped from societal conditioning, says Aries 12° ‘A Flock Of Wild Geese’. The honour to be yourself. Hindu philosophy names this “longing for liberation” as one of the three gifts of existence. Every bird in flight is a freedom fighter and a symbol of liberation. The wisdom of the bird, however, lies not in the individual, but in the flock. When soaring the skies, birds seamlessly flow from a leadership position into that of follower. Flapping their wings synchronously one after the other, they move as one soul. Like the geese are in it together, we are all here to free the soul. When we express soul freedom, it has a ripple effect on all those around us and the totality of the human family. The frequency of the group soul is elevated. Aries 12° flies in the future of soul group consciousness. In Aries 12°, Honour is a grace extended to the those who feel honoured to be part of a community and to be participating in the human evolution of consciousness. In Aries 13°, An Unsuccessful Bomb Explosion, we’ve got the fire and excitement of the beginning, but we lack the humility of the beginner’s mind. Humility is knowing one’s limits and the ability to ask for help. The aspiring hero who places a bomb represents the peak of adolescence: the need to overcome the mother. It’s important to challenge those in power, our Presidents and our parents alike, to grow into ourselves. Only to do so successfully, we need an honourable mind. Everyone can build a fire. Building a good fire however requires Devotion, the heart of Mars, and skill, the applied mind of Mercury. Together, Mars and Mercury attend the school of Patience, the virtue Aries comes to acquire. The symbol suggests that we must not look for another battlefield, externalise another enemy to strategize against. Perhaps the most heroic thing to do is to look inwards and confront our thinking, the battlefield where all contradictions flow together, and remember our soul’s freedom. The soul knows no such things as ‘success’ and ‘failure’. These are labels we give to events of the illusionary world of duality. The soul’s wish is to evolve, and to do so, the soul wishes to travel through the entire rainbow of circumstances, conditions and identities, in its back pocket the permanent invitation to reveal the harmony underneath the binary. The failure of the bomb is a success: no harm was done, and, we are gifted the educational experience of failure. This provides the motivation to improve our skills, beautify our mind, and reset course. A Serpent Coiling Near A Man And A Woman, Aries 14°, brings in the Tantra. Aries is fundamentally connected to our sexuality. Biologically, the yin of the egg awaits the yang of the sperm cell, and only one party has the honour to be the first. This Martian quality of Aries seeds our need for a battlefield to balance our polarity within and to learn to control our instinctual nature. Whether between gender or nations, war is a way to re-enact the unconscious cellular memory of creation. All creative energy is sexual energy. In A Serpent Coiling Near A Man And A Woman, we have landed in the repository of Honour: the honour to have a human body fuelled by Desire and participate in the pleasure of aliveness, free from the cultural prison where the concept of Honour is tied with control over female virginity, and thus used as a tool to maintain (gender) separation. In one word: the Tantra, Sanskrit for ‘essence’. In Aries 14°, the Way of Kundalini-Shakti, The Coiled Serpent, we no longer fall from grace, we rise in grace through tantric ritual. The Tantra’s cause is a transcendental ideal in which Aries’ creative life force, our sexual power, is no longer used to selfish ends, but becomes an offering to the Divine. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna: “the commitment of the warrior is to action alone, not the fruits of the action.” Practising non-attachment to the outcome of our work gives way to the work, the process, itself becoming the fruit. We are not in it for the pleasure of the outcome. We come together in divine union to remember our essential wholeness, to celebrate the creative pleasure of the Divine Mother. Mantra, visualisation and specific touch help us reveal our divine, regenerative power as ‘A Man and A Woman’. From our willingness to be vulnerable, a new type of courage, the yin of courage, is born: the courage to be truly seen by another. Through sacred sexuality, Aries 14° represents the honour of soul union: the personality becomes a vehicle to express soul. The word tantra is derived from the verb tantori, “to weave.” Tantra can also be translated as ‘the essence of that which is woven’, which is represented in the Ceremonial Blanket of Aries 15°. In An Indian Weaving A Blanket, Hercules has tamed the horses of mind and his devotion is growing. Aries’ passionate energy is directed towards divinity. In a state of meditation, the weaver lends his hands to the divine flame of creativity and has become God’s instrument –the weaving, the artwork and the weaver are one. In the deeply symbolical yet useful object of the Ceremonial Blanket, the weaver’s devotion materializes the metaphorical web of our interconnectedness, the fabric of life. Not only is the blanket he weaves a ceremonial one, the weaving itself is a ceremony. The everyday marries the transcendental. Honour is no longer confused with fame or power, nor with recognition by a force or person outside of ourselves. Honour is accomplished as an inner, sacred experience, a grace lived in a pure and peaceful mind. [1] The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz |
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