Welcome to the first of our Three Linked Festivals in the solar month of Aries. It is indeed well that you have come, for Aries is all about beginnings. Whatever we initiate in Aries, especially from the new moon to the full moon tomorrow afternoon, sets the tone for the entire year. Aries is the cardinal fire sign where the new, immediately overshadowing aspects of the Plan first come to light on the mental plane. Known as the “birthplace of ideas”, Aries distributes the 1st Ray of Purpose, Power and Spiritual Will, as well as the 7th Ray of Ceremonial Ritual, which seeks to bring Spirit fully into Matter. These two Rays form a stupendous pipeline of energy, connecting the highest and the lowest in a fiery kiln of creative potential. From this dynamic matrix, Aries continually initiates the creation of new forms to better embody Divine Purpose as our consciousness evolves.
 

Given the 7thRay is moving into more general prominence, and we are still reverberating from the 1st Ray Shamballa impact of 2000, Aries’ power is particularly potent right now. The 2000 Shamballa impact focused, not on the best-known destroyer aspect of the 1st Ray, but on its second aspect, the Will to Synthesis. Synthesis is to be a keynote of the Aquarian Age. Aries can help us to understand and wield this transformative energy, which creates new dynamic wholes from parts that previously had been unrelated, misrelated or downright polarized.
 

To aid in this magical work, Master R offers us further encouragement regarding the present opportunity. He states that a whole new order of devas has evolved, untainted by all our wrong thoughtforms of the past. These remarkable new devas have synthesized 1st, 2nd and 7th Ray energies within themselves, which are the Rays Master R associates with the Ashram of Synthesis. These devas can only be contacted by soul conscious groups. Aries’ fiery light can help us, together, to become aware of these wise and powerful beings. This awareness is the first step toward forming a conscious cooperative relationship with them to build the New Civilization.
 

These are some of the higher aspects Aries has to offer to those who can register them. Unfortunately, these aspects are not how the bulk of humanity experiences this sign. While the lower bodies or the separative personality “controls the outer form,” Aries is ruled by Mars. Those with a separative mindset experience Mars as the fiery-tempered, desire-ridden, macho god of War—hence our current world predicament. Mars, although it is a non-sacred planet, nonetheless purifies our equipment through the suffering that selfish desire and conflict inevitably bring.
 

Only when the Soul begins to control does Aries’ ruler shift to the sacred 4th Ray planet, Mercury—the Messenger of the Gods. Mercury brings in access to the intuition and the love/wisdom of the 2nd Ray line. Mercury is the “illuminating principle” which releases the mind from dualistic and oppositional thinking. It purifies our perception, teaching us the lessons of harmony through conflict. Ultimately, it grants us the gift of spiritual vision and holistic thinking.
 

Mercury’s energy literally mediates between Father Spirit and Mother Matter. It allows the two poles of the Universe to work together constructively within our instruments, ending aeons of misalignment. This mediation work is a daunting task. In the Piscean Age, in our attempts to rise beyond the form to a transcendent God, many of us decided matter was bad. Unfortunately, the devas believed us, and many of them no longer see themselves as part of the Plan. The Aquarian Age, which Aries will help to initiate, must undo this wrong programming. We must re-impress the feminine devas that they are an essential and invaluable part of the Plan. We must recognize them as an integral part of ourselves and treat them with the reverence due all aspects of the One Life. This means relating to our own bodies, Nature and each other in a much more compassionate, nurturing and inclusive manner.
 

The need to update the devas’ programming goes far beyond the blind spots of the Piscean Age. You see, the first solar system was masculine and the matter of our world and bodies comes from that solar system and still carries its impress. Humanity is also a masculine Hierarchy. However, the current solar system is feminine, as is the United States. The third solar system will be hermaphroditic with a final grand synthesis of male and female, but that ultimate synthesis cannot occur, until we fully realize the feminine aspect of Deity in this solar system.
 

After many hard lessons, Mercury in Aries lifts the veils and reveals to us that matter matters. We learn that matter is not to be controlled, destroyed or exploited to suit our selfish little wills, but is to be cherished as the feminine creative pole of the One Life. To emphasize the essential unity of the masculine and feminine aspects of Deity, some traditions are shifting from only identifying the masculine pole as God, to terms such as “Father God Mother God.” To move beyond the distorting potential of gender-loaded terms, some Buddhists substitute the concept of “expansion” for the masculine aspect and “contraction” for the feminine aspect. They emphasize the rhythmic reciprocity and inseparability of the two aspects in their eternal life-giving dance, one breathing in while the other breathes out, both parts of the same breath, and both equally essential for Life.
 

When the Aries warrior recognizes that the feminine aspect is not weakness to be exploited, but rather an infinite source of complementary power, Mercury’s light guides him/her in the redemption and reprogramming of all the past wrong identifications with others and matter. When the warrior has sufficiently integrated the feminine in his/her own equipment, inner peace results. S/he is then capable of bringing peace to the world. Seeing the interconnectedness of all Life, all grasping and desire to dominate atrophy. Having cleared the mind of its illusions, the mature Aries soul sees how to “tame” the world with love.
 

We leave you with a long quote from The Rays and The Initiations (p.246-7) to illustrate that when one skillfully wields masculine Power and Purpose in full concert with Feminine Matter, Beauty prevails.
 

“Does it mean anything to you when I say that the ceremonial ritual of the daily life of Sanat Kumara, implemented by music and sound and carried on the waves of color which break upon the shores of the three worlds of human evolution, reveal—in the clearest notes and tones and shades—the deepest secret behind His purpose? It scarcely makes sense to you and is dismissed as a piece of symbolic writing, used by me in order to convey the unconveyable. Yet I am not here writing in symbols but am making an exact statement of fact. As beauty in any of its greater forms breaks upon the human consciousness, a dim sense is thereby conveyed of the ritual of Sanat Kumara’s daily living. …Only by attempting to grasp the whole inner synthesis will we arrive at the merest hint of the nature of that exalted consciousness which has brought our planet and all that is within and upon it into being.”
 

When Beauty prevails, a cycle of Aries’ work is done, for Beauty is as much of the Divine as any form can hold. Let us follow Sanat Kumara’s lead and in union with the Mother of the World bring Beauty to our world.
 

Miki Webb, Aries 2003