The influence of Mercury as it relates Scorpio and Gemini is to inaugurate that final stage in consciousness which will place the soul within the form surely in the place of power, swinging the earlier achieved balance and control definitely into the realm of the soul. It is this which, in the Scorpio experience, produces the terrific experience of the disciple and which, at this time, is one of the predisposing causes of the present world conflict. It is of interest to note that the struggle is going to be conditioned primarily by decisions arrived at in London (which is ruled by Gemini) and in the United States (which is also governed by Gemini). Humanity is now upon the Path of Discipleship as I have frequently told you and Scorpio rules that path; Gemini governs the way of many changes which conditions the struggle which began in Aries, focused in Cancer, is brought to [361] a crisis in Scorpio and ended in Capricorn. When Gemini, Scorpio and Mercury are correctly related we shall see the United States moving also on to the Path of Discipleship through a release from its present self-centered policy, its well-meaning evasion of responsibility and its innate fears and distrust. When the focus of the power in London is also rightly oriented and is released into increased effectiveness by drastic purification of motive, then the united effect of both these clarifications will be human liberation. These facts are being slowly realized in London, ahead of the realization which is more slowly awakening in the States.

• These potencies, when effective, lead to true service in Aquarius.

All this activity is intensified by two facts: one is that the Earth is the hierarchical ruler of Gemini and the other that Venus is the esoteric ruler. This intensifies all that goes on and leads to the unfoldment upon our planet of the consciousness of universality - to which the word "Hierarchy" is the key. Venus is also the Earth's alter ego, as it is called in the occult literature, and its true supplementary and complementary planet. You have thus established a double dual relationship: that of Gemini itself, the two brothers, and that of the Earth and Venus. The Earth is peculiarly related to the "brother whose light is waning," for it is not a sacred planet, as you know, and to that aspect of divinity which is material or substantial; Venus is closely related to the "brother whose light grows stronger cycle by cycle" and thus to the soul whose nature is love. It is this Gemini-Venus situation which lies behind the fact that our Earth is uniquely the "planet of releasing sorrow and of purifying pain," the energy producing these releasing factors being focused through Mercury and Venus upon our Earth. You will see, therefore, the significance of that triangle of planets [362] (at which I hinted in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire): the Earth-Venus-Mercury. From certain angles, these are related to the Personality of our planetary Logos:

1. The Earth - planetary vital body.
2. Venus - planetary astral vehicle, or Kama-manas.
3. Mercury - planetary mind.

The Earth itself is, on a small scale, also an intermediary or a relating planet, because it is found ruling both Gemini and Sagittarius and is potent, therefore, only within the line of this dual relationship, existing between this particular pair of opposites. In the Earth a great balancing process is going forward between two great streams of cosmic energy, emanating the one from Sagittarius and the other from Gemini. This condition, aided and influenced by Mercury and Venus, produces the somewhat unusual situation in our planet.