To bring about the full presentation of the choice and to indicate the mode whereby the spirit of man can triumph, the influence of Pisces was called in or rather evoked. It is conditions which evoke, aided at times by voiced Words of Power on the part of the Hierarchy. Pisces, through its ruler, Pluto (ruling both the mass and the disciples esoterically), necessitated the triumph of death - not necessarily physical death - leading to the dissolution of the form of man. It is frequently the death or ending of old forms of civilizations which cyclically come and go; of religious teaching when it does not serve the need of the spiritual nature of the people (as is today the case); of educational processes which fail to educate the developing nature of man and serve only to delude and imprison. When I say this, I mean not the death of religion or of forms of thought. I refer here to death as the Great Releaser, which shatters the forms which are bringing death to that which is embodied. It is to this philosophic death in its lowest aspect that Germany has responded. The destruction of religion which Germany sought to bring about is not a prelude to the establishment of a better approach to divinity but the effort [546] to evoke the ancient gods, to deify the forms of matter and to make the state the supreme end of men's lives; the spirit of love and of individual right relations are not known - those relations which are so basically characteristic of the Kingdom of God.

The completely atheistic approach of Russia to the problem of religion at the time of, and during the period of, the revolution is much more sound than the German approach. The spirit of man in its essential divinity can be trusted to arise unhurt from the experience in answer to the call of the undying spirit. This call can sound forth clearly in a void and be evoked by time and circumstance - unopposed if the only difficulty with which it is confronted is the spirit of agnosticism and an attitude of questioning. But the imposition of the ancient myths in an effort to still the demand for truth and the carefully planned attack upon the Christ of the world is dangerous, evil, and will cause retrogression. Of these, the rulers of Germany were guilty. They did not succeed in quenching the spiritual life of the nation because religion in Germany was not corrupt as it was in Russia and needed not such a drastic purification. These are points which thinkers would do well to remember. In mystical Russia, the seeds of the spiritual life are emerging to fresh beauty and a triumphant religious ideal is on its way to manifest; in Germany, ancient crystallized forms of belief are met with something more ancient still and the combination of world dislike and decadent forms will make the lot of the German people one of great tragedy. In the consequent struggle for that which is spiritually alive and in the effort to regain belief in the realities of divine revelation, and in the determination to right the evil wrought by her rulers to the world, Germany may some day regain the expression of soul life. To this end, she must be first [547] released from evil rule and then aided to regain her spiritual standing.

In the few things which I have been able to say anent these constellations and their relation to our planet at this time, I trust I have made clear nd practical something which esoteric astrologers need unceasingly to grasp - the fact that once it has been established which constellations are at any one time influencing our Earth, which planets - exoteric and esoteric - are transmitting their influence and which rays are consequently active, it should be possible to prove then the fact of these distributed energies by the appearance upon Earth and among men of their appropriate results, and the expected response. [548]