Most attributes are dual or two-sided in their nature, and when looked
at superficially, each side or half appears to be contradictory and even
diametrically opposed to the other. When considered more fully, however,
they are found to constitute one harmonious whole. These attributes may be
described as "pairs of opposites."
We may say that the study of the pairs of opposites tends to logical
reasoning one cannot advance very far along any line of thought without coming
to grief. Especially is it useful in helping us to avoid the pitfalls which
await us when we take up the study of occultism and astrology. We will
enumerate some of the "pairs," and then consider a few in greater detail:
astrology and astronomy; altruism and selfishness; art and science; belief and
doubt; cause and effect; cosmos and chaos; day and night; eternity and time;
health and disease; involution and evolution; joy and sorrow; macrocosm and
microcosm; optimism and pessimism; opulence and penury; pleasure and pain;
truth and error.
We may consider these pairs of opposites from various points of view.
First from the view of opposing forces or the powers of Light and darkness;
second, as it were, from the reverse sides of a medal, each side different and
distinct from the other, yet each side different and distinct from the other,
yet each incomplete without the other; third, in terms of astrology, from
opposite characteristics such as given by Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter is known
as the great benefic and Saturn as a malefic planet, but both the Jupiterian
and Saturnian influences are necessary to make the fully developed, useful,
and powerful character. Some astronomers speak of astrology with scorn and
derision, but astrology is spoken of by its adherents as the soul of
astronomy. Astronomy gives us very valuable facts about the starry spheres,
but astrology gives the spiritual meaning of these facts. Astronomy may be
likened to the body and astrology to the soul; both, however, of value, one to
the other. The so-called malefic planet Saturn gives steadfastness, endurance,
fortitude, patience, chastity, and fixity of purpose. The opulence and
impulsiveness of Jupiter would run riot but for the restraining influence of
the slower vibrations of Saturn.
Therefore we see, if we delve beneath the exterior or surface of
things, that everything in the universe is good and ruled by unerring wisdom.
It is only when we allow ourselves to be influenced by the personality, with
its likes and dislikes, that we become ruffled by the conduct of others or by
distasteful circumstances. What does it signify if we are rudely jostled in a
bus or spoken to slightingly in a shop or have to encounter disagreeableness?
Nothing whatever can hurt us or ruffle our Spirit unless we allow it to do so;
the fault, if we do become antagonistic to our conditions, it is a sure
indication that we still are bound by the pairs of opposites; otherwise we
should know that whatever occurs to us each day is what is needed for our
Spirit's advancement, and also that we have chosen this particular
incarnation. So we should not be annoyed or perturbed by what we ourselves
have chosen to experience.
We all desire and strive to possess joy and happiness, each in his own
particular way. These attributes are considered the most desirable, and
their opposite, sorrow, the least so, to be shunned if possible. But does
joy teach us many valuable lessons? Probably not many. Ask one who has
passed through seas of trouble which state has taught him the most, and he
or she will admit that sorrow has taught him or her all he/she knows of
fortitude, endurance, sympathy, patience, and compassion. Lessons learned
from joy are fleeting, but those learned from sorrow endure. Therefore,
sorrow, as well as joy, is good.
Then let us consider the states of night and day, sleeping and waking.
The student, the philanthropist, and the very busy person in any walk of
life are apt to regret and curtail the hours spent in sleep, forgetting in
their eagerness for action that during the hours of sleep, when the Ego is
released from the bondage of the physical body, far more work both for
oneself and one's fellow creatures can be accomplished than could be done in
the waking hours. In the darkness and in sleep our vital functions are
renewed. The poisons from destroyed tissue, which have been caused by the
mental and physical activities of the day, are eliminated. Also during sleep
the Ego takes the mind and desire body into the Desire World, there to
restore their rhythm and harmony. These two bodies, when strengthened,
restore the vital body, which in turn works upon the physical body, bringing
to it renewed life and vigor for the next day's activities. When the
physical body sleeps and the Ego is released from the lower vehicles, much
more work can be done in healing and comforting the sick and troubled when
awake. Those who are doctors and those who study and practice the art of
nursing, if spiritually developed, are able to do their greatest work of
healing during what we call the sleeping hours. Sleep, then, instead of
being so many wasted hours, is to be desired and cultivated for the
restoration of the Ego's several vehicles and for the help which through it
we can give to mankind.
The first half of each pair of opposites corresponds to the positive
principle and the second half to the negative. If we take each pair separately
and meditate upon it sufficiently long and earnestly, a host of enlightening
thoughts will flood the mind. For instance,consider involution and evolution.
To the average mind, the former word conveys little or no meaning, and the
latter is applied only to the physical body. But in esoteric philosophy
involution describes the flight or journey of the Virgin Spirit through
revolutions, periods, epochs, and aeons of time until at last it reached the
Earth as we now know it and became enmeshed in the physical body. The Spirit,
having reached the nadir of materiality, then began the upward and return
journey. We are now upon the ascending arc, the evolutionary stage, and shall
by a gradually accelerating process, reach our zenith at last, having then the
added knowledge, experience, and power which we shall have acquired during
this long, long journey.
Words are sacred, and many have a spiritual as well as a literal
meaning. Small and seemingly insignificant pairs of opposites, such as up
and down, to and fro, back and forth, high and low, far and near, ebb and
flow, all typify in their esoteric or spiritual meaning the involution and
evolution of the spirit, or man's gradual unfoldment from a trance-like
state to the stature of a god.
For a moment, let us consider health and disease. Health we regard as
one of the greatest blessings, and illness as a calamity. But in sickness, how
frequently the soul of the sufferer advances by leaps and bounds. Experiences
are then gained on the higher planes which influence all the remainder of life
and teach as no earthly experience could. Also, those who attend the sick
often mature in gentleness and patience. Therefore, we do not call sickness
evil.
We, especially those of us who still to some extent creedbound and who
have not quite freed ourselves from the narrower teaching of early
childhood, are apt to think that the period spent in chaos is one of
inactivity, a time of utter uselessness. But in the light of greater
revelation we know that cosmos is the manifested order of Creation, and that
when the Earth passes through a period of chaos, it is far from being a
state of uselessness and inactivity, for "chaos is the seed ground of
cosmos." It certainly gives a rest from manifestation, and it is a time of
assimilation of cosmic experiences which enable the Earth to evolve and
emerge into a higher and fuller development when the dawn of the next great
Cosmic Day arrives.
The aim and intention of life is not happiness, as we are so prone to
think, but experience. To gain this, we must of necessity pass through ALL
phases of emotion and thought, through all the experiences which the pairs of
opposites bring. As the plant and grain are brought to maturity by the
interplay of sunshine and rain, so the Spirit reaches perfection by
experiencing both joy and sorrow, elation and depression, faith and doubt,
truth and error. But when we have gained all the experience which these
seemingly opposing forces can teach us, and when we can transcend them, then
will come the time when we no longer shall be stretched upon the cross of the
pairs of opposites. We shall be able to cast off the conditions that fetter
the Spirit as with bands of iron, and we shall loosed forever from the
thraldom of the pairs of opposites. Then for us there will be no longer any
darkness, for all will be light. Doubt will be swallowed up in belief,
ignorance in knowledge, sorrow will be merged into perfect joy, and hate will
give place to love. Then shall we have freed ourselves from the Wheel of
Destiny, and we shall become pillars in the Temple of our God, whence we shall
go no more out. — I.J.R.
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