Palestine was a center of great unrest during the Roman rule. Since there were very few who had sufficient courage to defy openly the strong autocratic power of Rome, spies lurked everywhere. Teachers and leaders were compelled to instruct by means of parables and in cipher. Everywhere Messianic expectations were high. A new leader was eagerly awaited. The people anticipated a re-embodiment of one of the prophets such as Moses, David, Elijah or some other teacher of high spiritual attainment. Crowds gathered about every impostor who declared himself to possess any unusual power.
The end of an age is always one of difficulty and trial. The religion of the closing age had reached its final state of crystallization. The spirit was lost; the form had become supreme. The new phase of spiritual light was but dimly perceived and its few adherents became the object of bitter persecutions. The masses of people, feeling the inadequacy of the old, and yet not ready to accept the new, were in a state of chaotic unrest that expressed itself in excesses of desire and emotion. Such were the conditions before the coming of the Supreme Teacher and the incoming of the Piscean Dispensation, the cycle astrologically symbolized by two fishes. It was under the approaching Piscean influence, the sign of this age, that the early Christians suffered martyrdom as a result of their efforts to give to the world the truth of the new religion. The Piscean Age began about 498 A.D., marked by the decline of the Roman Empire in the West.
A similar chaos and confusion exists in the world today as the end of the Piscean Age approaches. Multitudes again eagerly await the coming of a new World Teacher who shall appear as a veritable Son of Man bearing the glad tidings of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Every teacher and every school that points the way to the birth of the Christ within man is a pioneer of that New Age and is a herald of the new, World Teacher who is soon to come. The Piscean Dispensation is to be succeeded by the Aquarian Age, in which the vision of the prophets is to be realized. The Son of Man (the symbol of Aquarius) is to rise with healing in His wings.
We cannot understand the Bible mysteries without considering the astrological symbolism which was as much a part of the habitual thinking of the Bible writers as scientific discovery is of our own. The seers of the Bible lands lived in closest communion not only with the physical phenomena of the starry skies but with the celestial Hierarchies associated with them, and with whom they learned to commune at will, as we see in Daniel's converse with Gabriel (Angel of the Moon) at Babylon and Esdra's converse with the Archangel Uriel (another name for the solar Archangel) in the Field of Ardath, and also at Babylon.
This kind of symbolism is more ancient than the Bible itself. It has been discovered in the cuneiform tablets recovered from ancient Chaldea, inscribed long before Abraham left the city of Ur where Sumerian traditions had been carefully preserved for many long centuries.
Thus the progress of man as outlined in the Bible is often concealed beneath astrological figures. The sacrifices prescribed in the Old Testament, for example, consisted of bulls and lambs; in the New Testament Dispensation they were loaves and fishes. The bull was the symbol of the Taurean Age, and the sacrifices made by the truly awakened worshippers was the carnal nature, the "old" Adam, symbolized by a beast; it was not the literal sacrifice of an actual animal. Animal sacrifice as such was made only by exoteric religionists. The ram signified the Arian Age and the spiritual advance that came with it; to those of the inner school the sacrifice of the ram meant a surrender of the lower self, or transmutation through purity. The Arian Age was the "new" age to Moses.
In the New Testament the Master taught the use of fish, and Hit final Ascension did not take place until the Disciples had learned to work properly with fish, as explained in John XXI. This is one of the most esoteric teachings in the Bible, wherein the fish is used as a symbol of the teachings of the then New, or Piscean, Dispensation.
In the Old Testament the goat is featured as prominently as the fish is in the New. The goat is the symbol of Capricorn and signifies the awakening of the higher spiritual power which leads to mastership. To attain this mastership has always been the work of all Schools of Initiation.
Observe that the goat is sacrificed, not worshipped — the exact contrary of the cult of evil. In the lower nature of man the goat represents cupidity and selfishness. True attainment is found only through the sacrifice of self, or by following the selfless way. Those who learned to walk in this path during the Arian Age (Old Testament period) became the pioneers of the new Piscean Day, and the first followers of Christ Jesus.
The Arian religion of the Christ will be the dominant religion of the earth during the sidereal year which commenced with its inauguration. That will be for a period of 25,868 years, or the time required for the Sun's precessional passage through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The Christian sidereal year commenced approximately 2000 years ago when the Sun was by precession on the cusp of Aries and will end when it returns again to the same position. With the Sun's passage through each of the twelve signs the Christian religion will express various phases of truth and development and bring added revelation of the Mysteries to those qualified to receive them.
The Old Testament contains the description of the preparation for, and inauguration of, this sidereal religion of the Christ. Hence, Aries will always play a dominant role in Christ symbolism.
As previously stated, the comparative status of religions can be adequately comprehended only through an understanding of the varying influences brought to bear upon humanity by the Sun's progressive passage through the Zodiac. The day is not far distant when theologians will recognize and read the revelations contained within the stellar scroll of the heavens, and incorporate this knowledge in their curriculum.
The history of the Bible may be discovered astrologically in the following pairs of signs: Aries-Libra, Pisces-Virgo, Aquarius-Leo and Capricorn-Cancer.
Abraham, the first of the Arian teachers, was the pioneer of the Aries Dispensation. Exoterically, he taught the sacrifice of the lamb (Aries) and purity in the marriage relationship (Libra) as then understood, with monogamy as an ideal projected into the future. Esoterically, he inculcated under Aries the principle of self-sacrifice and transmutation, and under Libra communion with the Archangel Michael at the autumnal Feast of Atonement, which is commemorated today by the Christian Church as the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. The next phase of the Arian religion was that inaugurated under the influence of Pisces-Virgo, when Christ Jesus came and introduced the teachings of the "loaves and fishes." Initiation (Pisces: fish) was then made possible to all through chastity (Virgo: wheat). Mary's immaculate conception represents an ideal of purity for all mankind to emulate. Thus conceived, the Christ within is destined to be born to each and all.
The New Testament also deals with a yet higher attainment when, as John states, we shall no longer be called servants, but sons of God. This points to the Aquarius-Leo Age which is now immediately before us, the Son of Man being the symbol of Aquarius. In this new day everyone will be anointed with the powers of the Christ. The esoteric schools will then be under the heart sign of Leo, and the power of love, that love of which Paul sings, will dominate the world.
John, in the sublime vision transcribed for us in Revelation, looked upon the wonders and glories of the Capricorn-Cancer cycle, and saw them as they will appear to all, when the Christ shall have returned unto His own, and when there shall be no more sorrow, pain, nor death, for the former things shall have passed away. Capricorn will govern the exoteric phases of religion during that cycle, and Cancer the esoteric. At Christmas (Capricorn) the Church celebrates the birth of the Christ. At the Summer Solstice (Cancer) there is celebrated a festival of deeper import when the aspirant endeavors to follow the Cosmic Christ in His annual ascension into the high spiritual realms whither He goes to prepare a place to the end that where He is, there we may be also. This was a promise of the Christ and applied not only to His immediate disciples, but to everyone who follows in His steps. The path of the Christian School of Initiation leads beyond Ascension into the glory of that high spiritual realm which is the home world of the Christ.
— Corinne Heline
