Tapestry of the Gods
Volume III
by Michael D. Robbins (c)

Astro-Rayology
in progress

Aries
& Ray 4

Introduction - Expression in the self-centered - Expression in developed man - Expression in disciples and initiates - Directives - Mantra - Symbols - Contrasts - Similarities - Famous People 

Sun or Ascendant in Aries with Ray 4

 

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Sun Aries (or Ascendant Aries), R4P (or R4S)
 Plus Constellationally Transmitted R1 and R7

A strong mutual reinforcement of ray and astrological energies emerges due to the transmission of the fourth ray through Mercury, the esoteric ruler of Aries. This reinforcement is Strong by Rulership—Class 2, indicating that it would be more pronounced for fourth ray disciples (those with personality or soul upon the fourth ray) than for average individuals with fourth ray personalities.

 

Selfish, Self-Centered or Self-Serving Human Being

Selfish, Self-Centered or Self-Serving Human Being

    1. The combativeness and warlike nature of the self-centered Aries person combines with the frictional turmoil, stress and strain induced within the insufficiently spiritualized personality by the fourth ray.

    2. The rajasic aspect of the fourth ray is emphasized over the tamasic aspect.

    3. Warlike, full of conflict, friction, wear and tear.

    4. Wearing oneself out prematurely. Exhaustion through excessive and often-unnecessary conflict.

    5. First urge is to fight. Often mindless or confused combat.

    6. Sudden reversals and stressful changes.

    7. Lost opportunities due to recklessness or unreadiness.

    8. One becomes “one’s own worst enemy”. Most wounds self-inflicted.

    9. Strong contrasts between approach and avoidance. Aggressive but inconsistent. “Flight or flight.” Lacking continuity.

    10. Fighting for the sake of harmony, but unable to keep the peace.

    11. Unconscious, dramatic self-centeredness.

    12. Vehemently pursuing opposing or conflicting points of view.

    13. Sudden reversals of loyalties. Traitor to himself and to others.

    14. “Ne’re do well”.

Advanced Human Being; Aspirant; Disciple: Additionally, where relevant, combine Ascendant Sign with the ray of either the ray of the personality or soul.

Advanced Human Being; Aspirant; Disciple
Additionally, where relevant, combine Ascendant Sign, Aries, with the fourth ray as either the ray of the personality or soul.

  1. The willingness to engage and confront with complete frankness, characteristic of the advancing Aries individual, combines with the power (even in very stressful situations) to bring harmony out of conflict—a power induced within the spiritually unfolding personality by the fourth ray.

  2. Courage in conflict.

  3. Adventurous self-expression.

  4. Willingness to persist in inharmonious and conflicted situations in order to see peace and harmony emerge.

  5. No friend of superficial peace. “Stirring the pot” if tranquility is seen to be artificial, superficial or imposed.

  6. Engaging in war to seek real peace. The attitude is: “Let’s work it out!”

  7. The active enemy of dissonance. Instantly and assertively responsive to discord.

  8. On the Path of Discipleship: strenuously engaged in the battle between the opposites on the Paths of Aspiration and Discipleship.

  9. On the Path of Discipleship: a willingness to “fight the good fight” on the Paths of Aspiration and Discipleship: engagement in the many battles of the Path. Thus a willingness to “enter into battle for the Lord”. (EA 93)

  10. On the Path of Discipleship: never inert for long when treading the Path. Challenging all tamasic conditions.

  11. On the Path of Discipleship: the use of Fire-by-Friction to achieve a more harmonious (sattvic) condition.

  12. On the Path of Discipleship: confronting all issues needing harmonization—both within the personality vehicles and between the personality vehicles.

Advanced Disciple; the Initiate: Additionally, where relevant, combine Ascendant Sign with the ray as either the ray of the personality or soul.

Advanced Disciple; the Initiate
 Additionally, where relevant, combine Ascendant Sign, Aries, with the fourth ray as either the ray of the personality or soul.

    1. The power to willfully rise out of form into the freedom of the formless worlds—a power with which the soul-infused disciple/initiate born in or under the sign Aries is endowed, combines with the liberation into buddhic harmony and beauty induced within the soul or spiritualized personality by the fourth ray.

    2. Actively seeking participation in the World of Harmony—the buddhic plane.

    3. Cultivating an assertive intuition which penetrates the world of ideas.

    4. Wresting ideas from the formless realms and clothing them in abstract thought.

    5. Killing the complexity of mental illusion through the “straight-knowledge” of intuitive thought.

    6. Experientially knowing the difference between “rupa” (form) and “arupa” (formlessness).

    7. Finding oneself the vehicle for an idea “whose time has come”—not just for a thought which seems timely!

    8. Intuitively understanding the way in which apparently contradictory thoughts may be harmonized.

    9. Intuiting new patterns in the development of the arts. Daringly apprehending and expressing new forms of beauty.

    10. Understanding the beauty revitalizes and brings new life.

    11. Harmonizing the self and the cosmos.

    12. Understanding the Principle of Cosmos—that all is a Unity in Beauty.

    13. Understanding that all opposing diversities can be resolved into the One Thing.

    14. Understanding that beauty is victory.

    15. Understanding that beauty leads to resurrection.

Directives

(On Behalf of Humanity and the One Great Work. These are Meant to be Suggestive; Your Intuition Will Supply the Directives and Counsels Most Suitable to You)

Directives for Aries and the Fourth Ray
(On Behalf of Humanity and the One Great Work)
(These are Meant to be Suggestive; Your Intuition Will Supply the Directives and Counsels Most Suitable to You)

    1. Arouse To Battle

    2. Battle For Beauty (“Enter Into Battle For The Lord”)

    3. Be A Leader In Humanity’s Struggles To Overcome Conflict

    4. Be Brave As A Warrior

    5. Be Courageous In The Preservation Of The Beautiful (“I Preserve” Is the Motto of Germany—Fourth Ray Soul with Aries as the Soul Sign.)

    6. Be Daring In The Creation Of Beauty

    7. Be Fertile In The Generation Of Analogy

    8. Be First To Seek Peace

    9. Be The Warrior Aflame

    10. Be The “Artist Of Your Life”

    11. Begin All Things In Harmony And Beauty

    12. Burn Away Ugliness

    13. Dare To Be Colorful

    14. Demand Concord

    15. Confront For The Sake Of Harmony

    16. Create Abundantly Through The Imagination

    17. Enforce The Peace

    18. Exert Yourself As “Corrector Of The Form”

    19. Expend Great Effort In The Mediation Process

    20. Express Energetically, Forcefully, Assertively

    21. “Fight The Good Fight”

    22. Find Beauty In The Flame

    23. “Force The Conflict To Subside”

    24. Generate Music Prolifically (J. S. Bach)

    25. Give Yourself Without Reservation To Artistic Inspiration

    26. Hasten To Appreciate Beauty

    27. Hold Nothing Back In Expressivity

    28. Initiate Conflicts And Conflict-Resolution

    29. Initiate Harmonization

    30. Insist On Cooperation

    31. Inspire Encounters

    32. Instigate The Friction Necessary For Fine-Tuning

    33. Vigorously Live A Life Of Contrasts

    34. Paint With Boldness (Van Gogh)

    35. Penetrate (With Force) The Realm Of Buddhi

    36. Pierce And Enter The Formless Realms

    37. Pioneer The Expression Of New Artistic Forms

    38. Proclaim Accords

    39. Promote A New Understanding Of Aesthetics

    40. Push For Peace

    41. Resurrect The Power Of Art

    42. Originate New Forms Of Artistic Expression

    43. Send Forth With Power—Waves Of Beauty (Sanat Kumara’s Daily Ritual)

    44. Sound The Keynote Of Cosmic Harmony

    45. Spear-Head A Drive For The Promotion Of The Arts

    46. Take The ‘Kingdom Of Beauty’ “By Storm”

    47. Throw Yourself Into The ‘Dance’

    48. Vitalize Culture

    49. Wrest Symbols From The Superconscious Realms

Mantra
  Mantra for Aries and the Fourth Ray

Mantram for the Disciple’s Consciousness
I seek to harmonize all opposites into the Beauty of Oneness-of-Being.

Mantram for the Initiate’s Consciousness
When “Two Merge with One” in Beauty, Oneness-of-Being is Revealed.

 

Proposed Symbol, Image, or Scene

Proposed Symbol/Image/Scene for R4/Aries

Vibrantly responsive to the scintillating ‘Spectrum of all Rainbow-Colored Tones’, the ‘Artist of his Life’ conceives a beauteous pattern new which eagerly, exuberant, he seeks to launch into the world.

 

Discover Potentials to be Derived from Energetic Contrasts

    Discover Potentials to be Derived
    from Energetic Contrasts Between Aries and R4

    Utilize these contrasts to understand how these two energies may contrast or conflict with each other when they are found together within the human energy system.

Aries

In Comparison With

Ray  4

  1. Transmits R1 and R7 constellationally

  

  1. R4

  1. Transmits principally R6, R4, and R7 through its planetary rulers.

  

  1. R4

  1. Colors: carmine red (or scarlet red) and possibly (on a hypothetical color-scale incrementally related to the chromatic musical scale) red, red-orange, orange (“roaring orange”).

  

  1. Colors: yellow, green, cream (cf. EP I 419)

  1. Note: DO or C

  

  1. Note: MI or E

  1. Expresses through the crown center, and secondarily, via Mars and Mercury, through the solar plexus and ajna center (near or following the third initiation).

  

  1. Expresses through the ajna center at a relatively advanced point of evolution. Related as well to the fourfold base chakra.

  1. Creative Hierarchy II, liberated

  

  1. Creative Hierarchy number II, liberated, and Creative Hierarchy number IV/IX, unliberated

  1. Hypothesized as especially expressive in relation to the Mineral Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom and the Kingdom of Solar Lives.

  

  1. Related to the Vegetable Kingdom and the Human Kingdom.

  1. Rajasic

  

  1. Rajasic and tamasic

  1. Frontal fortitude

  

  1. Vacillation

  1. Persistence

  

  1. Inconstancy

  1. Overpowering

  

  1. Engaging

  1. Confrontational

  

  1. Confrontational and peace-making

  1. Disruptive

  

  1. Disruptive and cooperative

  1. Destructive

  

  1. Bridging

  1. Synthesizing

  

  1. Harmonizing (leading to unifying)

  1. Often fanatical

  

  1. Usually seeing both sides, and preserving the best of the old in relation to the emerging new.

  1. Emphasizing principles on which there must be no compromise

  

  1. Emphasizing the value of compromise

  1. Usually first or at the head

  

  1. Usually in the middle

  1. Rajasic

  

  1. Rajasic and tamasic

Discover Potentials to be Derived from Energetic Similarities

Discover Potentials to be Derived from
Energetic Similarities Between Aries and R4

Utilize these similarities to further understand how these two energies may combine with or reinforce each other (for better of for worse) when they are found within the same energy system.

  1. Processes of Conflict and Struggle: Aries and the fourth ray are both energies which emphasize the processes of conflict and struggle.

  2. Warfare and Victory: The theme of warfare is strong in relation to both energies. Aries is the sign of victory, implying that it will feature, as well, in the dynamic of defeat. The fourth ray is forever struggling between victory and defeat. At last, Humanity, the fourth kingdom of nature, is meant to be victorious, as it rises in resurrection (Aries) from the lower four (the planes of the three lower worlds) to the higher four, the four higher ethers of the cosmic physical plane.

  3. Harmony Through Conflict: The fourth ray is the ray of Harmony through Conflict. Regardless of the nature of the conflict, the fourth ray inclines towards the eventual achievement of harmony. Even Aries has its harmonizing tendencies: “Harmonising the cosmos and the individual through conflict, producing unity and beauty.” (EA 67)

  4. Relation to Fire By Friction: Both Aries and the fourth ray are influences which induce friction, stress and strain. In this way they are related to “Fire by Friction”.

  5. Relation to the Sex Life: Both Aries and the fourth ray can be seen as strongly related to the sex life. Aries is “the Ram that breeds and fertilises all” (EA 155). Further, Aries brings about the relation between the sexes in the more systemic/cosmic sense, for Aries relates Spirit (male) and Matter (female). For its part, the fourth ray is engaged in uniting the pairs of opposites upon the physical plane (the fourth plane in the lower three worlds), and producing the often stressful relationship between male and female. The fourth ray contains in its nature both tamas (dense physical matter) and rajas (the inner principles). It is interesting that fighting, or what appears as fighting, is so much a part of so many mating rituals—those of humans included. Further, tying the fourth ray to the question of sex, the entire problem of sex is only solved at the fourth initiation, which is ruled by the fourth ray.

  6. Active in Relation to the Fourth Initiation: The fiery processes of the fourth initiation in which the lower atomic triangle is destroyed and the causal body consumed in fervent heat is related to Aries. The power of the monad descends to ignite the conflagration. Interestingly, it is the fourth ray which is predominant at the fourth initiation.

  7. Active in Relation to Processes following the Fourth Initiation: The true “Resurrection” initiation is the seventh, but there is a ‘rising from the dead’ which follows the “Crucifixion” and for which the Master Jesus is renowned. In the process the antahkarana (“Bridge of Light” ruled by Mercury and, thus, the fourth ray) is resolved into the ‘Oneness of Being’ characteristic of the fifth degree and to which Aries (the sign of ‘Pure Being’) gives entrée.

 

A List of Famous Individuals for whom this combination is prominent

List of Famous Individuals for Whom Aries is Either the Sun Sign or Ascendant and in Whom the Fourth Ray is Proposed as Prominent

Hans Christian Anderson
Renowned Danish Author and Story-teller (Sun Sign)

Johann Sebastian Bach
German Master Composer (Sun Sign)

Charles Baudelaire
French Poet, Translator, and Literary and Art Critic; Author of Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil) (Ascendant)

Johannes Brahms
German Composer of the 19th Century, With Beethoven and Bach, One of Germany’s ‘Three Great B’s’ (Ascendant)

Isadora Duncan
American Pioneer in “Modern Dance” (Ascendant)

Vincent Van Gogh
Dutch/French Expressionist Painter (Sun Sign)

Francisco Goya
Spanish Artist Who Portrayed Historical Upheavals in a Shocking and Sometimes Ghastly Manner (Sun Sign)

Franz Joseph Haydn
Austrian Classical Composer (Sun Sign)

Modest Mussorgsky
Russian Nationalist Composer (Sun Sign)

Raphael
Italian Renaissance Painter (Sun Sign)

Algernon Swinburne
English Poet and Critic; A Mid-Victorian Poet in Revolt (Sun Sign)

Rabindranath Tagore
Bengali Poet, Short-Story Writer, Song Composer, Playwright, Essayist, and Painter who was Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 (Ascendant and Moon)

Arturo Toscanini
Fiery, Brilliant Italian Orchestral Conductor, Considered the Greatest of the First Half of the 20th Century (Sun Sign)

William Wordsworth
English Romantic Poet; Poet Laureate of England (1843-1850) (Sun Sign)