Travelling On The Great Wheel Of Life
The story of Hercules has been told time and again. On one occasion it was done by the American esoteric writer, Alice Ann Bailey, 1880 – 1949. A writer and theosophist in occult teachings, esoteric psychology and healing, astrological and other philosophic and religious themes, she was born as Alice LaTrobe Bateman, in Manchester, England. She moved to the United States in 1907, where she spent most of her life as a writer and teacher. Her works, written between 1919 and 1949, describe a wide-ranging system of esoteric thought covering such topics as how spirituality relates to the solar system, meditation, healing, spiritual psychology, the destiny of nations and prescriptions for society in general.
Alice described the majority of her work as having been telepathically dictated to her by a Master of Wisdom, initially referred to only as ‘the Tibetan’ or by the initials D.K., later identified as Djwal Khul. Her writings were of the same nature as those of Madame Blavatsky and are known as the Ageless Wisdom Teachings. Though Bailey’s writings differ from the orthodox Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky, they have much in common with it. She wrote about religious themes, including Christianity, though her writings are fundamentally different from many aspects of Christianity and of other orthodox religions. Her vision of a unified society includes a global spirit of religion that is different from traditional religious forms and including the concept of the Age of Aquarius.
The book ‘The Labours of Hercules’ is a most enlightening and thought-provoking read. I share her view that the tale describes the evolutionary travels of the human soul on the wheel of life, whose symbol is the zodiac. The legend represents the tests and trials all of us have to deal with on a daily basis and the various initiations every one of us earthlings eventually has to undergo. Hercules having been given the task of working his way through twelve labours is an allegory of humankind going round and round the zodiac and taking part in the many diverse life lessons every human soul has to experience in earthly life. The twelve signs and houses of the zodiac are an excellent description of this journey.
Aquarius being the eleventh sign and the eleventh house its natural domain, it is not surprising that the eleventh labour of Hercules is so relevant to the issues that are currently facing us and our world, individually and collectively. First in line this labour deals with the main obstacles every soul on its evolutionary pathway has to overcome and the many mountains that are still waiting to be climbed by each one of us.
The Heracles/Hercules/Jesus stories and all other myths and legends our world has ever known were mainly designed to drive the point home that, whether we are as yet aware of this fact or not, we are half earthling and half God. Sons/daughters of the Great Father/Mother of all life, we are as much children of the Earth as of the Heavens, a metaphor for the highest levels of life. And from each one of us children a veritable Herculean effort is required. We too have to work our way through the tests and trials that have to be endured and carried out in the course of our long evolutionary journey through Earth life.
To ensure that we find our way home again at the end of travail, a deep yearning has been programmed into every soul for its home and mother and the security she alone can offer during the stage of our development we spend in her womb. For a long time these feelings have to remain hidden in the deepest innermost recesses of our soul memories. All we are aware of on the surface of things is a deep inner ache. What we don’t know is that our pain has its roots in a special kind of homing device that is specially designed to start drawing us back into the oneness with God, as soon as our earthly education draws to its close. What we feel is a nagging ache and a restless urge that slowly becomes more and more powerful, until it takes over our whole being and creates the danger of spoiling every part of our life.
In the end these sensations grow so strong that we feel intuitively drawn to go in search of things that will somehow satisfy our longing. Alas, when at last we pay another visit to our old home and mother, we may find that she has turned into an angry and embittered unpleasant old woman. Looking around, we can draw no other conclusion than that there is nothing for us in the place we once used to call home. Should this happen to you, as it did to me, it may take you a while before you realise that your uncontrollable longing in truth was for your true parents and home and not their earthly counterparts.
It is then no longer difficult to understand why your encounter had to be such an unpleasant one and that it had been designed that way to fulfil a wise higher purpose. Without it you could easily have got lost in the illusion of Earth life and remained stuck on this part of your evolutionary journey, unable to move on. Now you appreciate that there is every reason for you to give thanks and praise for everything that ever was in your life, even for the bitter disappointment and the heartache caused by the above mentioned reunion.
These experiences have helped you to become aware that the security human beings are seeking cannot be provided by anything that belongs to earthly life. Believing that it is possible to find it here and especially in human relationships, but also things and places is part of the illusion of this existence. We are shown these things to teach us that true and everlasting security and peace can only come to us through our reunion with the Great Father/Mother of all life, our true parents and home.
During our lifetimes in physicality the right place for going in search of these things is within. In our meditations and quiet reflections we need to let the things of earthly life fall from us and surrender our whole being, mind, body and soul, to the exploration of the joys that can only be found on the spiritual planes life. Practising this in the fullness of time assists us with remaining dispassionate in any kind of turmoil and disputes in the outer world.
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The above is a chapter from ‘Myths & Legends For The Aquarian Age’.
If it has whetted your appetite to read more, please follow the link below:
‘Myths & Legends For The Aquarian Age’
