�Aries is the secret of beginnings, of cycles and emerging opportunity �it is the source of initial energy producing the New Age.� 

Each year the great rotating Celestial Sphere brings us to the beginning of the zodiacal year and the full moon of Aries. The first impulse to initiate activity begins to awaken with the approach of the Aries full moon and along with it the life force that has been dormant throughout winter. For those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere, the green buds and perfumed blossoms of spring inspire and invigorate. The earth seems to stir with a newfound enthusiasm and creative potential as nature and all its inhabitants respond to the primal, dynamic power in Aries. That segment of the annual cycle that contains all the latent forces of the preceding year and provides the basis for a new cycle and the birth and renewal of all nature has arrived.  

On a deeper level we recognize that this period with its exuberance and fertile potency initiates the first phase of a three-part cycle of heightened spiritual approach to divinity � the three major Spring Festivals of Easter, Wesak and Goodwill. These three linked festivals offer us an opportunity to cultivate and strengthen our relationship with the three great spiritual Centers and establish in our awareness the divine aspects of Will, Love and Universal Intelligence. 

The Easter Festival, the first of these three linked Festivals, is dedicated to the Risen Christ and the Hierarchy, and to the spiritual possibilities inherent in every human being as they begin to awaken to the Christ presence in their own hearts and in all life. In particular, the Easter Festival calls to our attention the fact of Resurrection as the universal keynote of nature. Resurrection, the culminating point in the life of Christ, is not concerned with the raising of the dead from the tomb but emphasizes �the passage from the death of self absorption to the life of unselfish love, the transition from the darkness of individualism to the light of universal spirit, from falsehood to truth, from slavery of the world to the liberty of the eternal.� (From Bethlehem to Calvary, p. 252) 

From the aforementioned statement we understand that the Easter Festival is a most joyous occasion, a time of expectancy, striving and accomplishment. It represents the triumph over death and over the restrictions of form. 

We also understand that the Aries Full Moon initiates a creative process, the coming together of spirit and matter in a great struggle to express the world of light, love, beauty and purpose hidden within. Aries, therefore, effects a great transition based on the death and relinquishment of all that is outworn and limiting to humanity�s progress on the Path. 

In Aries there are powerful energies that foster and nourish this creative process. They include the energies of Mars, which embodies the Sixth Ray force of Idealism and produces conflict and purification, those of Mercury, which embody the energy of the Fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict and act to illuminate the mind and mediate between Soul and personality, along with the energies of Uranus and the Seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order, which produce an entirely new order of life. These energies, when combined with the First Ray of Will and Power, the prominent ray in Aries, make it one of the great transformers in the Zodiac and one of three signs in which a �death� is undergone. This death, which is symbolized for us by the crucifixion, concerns the needed phase of purification and abstraction, preceding the release and resurrection into a new center of consciousness and spiritual livingness. 

This new level of awareness is not based on escape but rather on a level of mastery where the potent, dynamic fire in Aries is consciously contacted and expressed as the will to live life as the Soul. This same idea is expressed for us in the keynote for Aries, which says, �I come forth and from the plane of the mind I rule.� This keynote asserts the fact of the Soul�s rule and of the total subordination of the lower to the higher, of the material to the spiritual, of the personal to the divine.  

From what we know about Aries thus far, we can see that the energies in this sign start a process of reorientation that opens the heart and mind to the fact of God�s Love, to a recognition of the Plan and a vision of the emerging possibilities and opportunities for humanity as a whole. These possibilities emerge in Aries as ideas and this is why Aries is described as the �birthplace of divine ideas� - ideas concerning the nature of the Soul and �ideas of God in the form of Hierarchical plans to which the initiate becomes sensitive.� The Tibetan tells us that when these ideas are understood by aspiring humanity, two key developments take place. �First they initiate a period of destruction and breaking up of that which is old and hindering, and this is later followed by the clear shining forth of the new idea and its subsequent grasping by the minds of intelligent humanity.� (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. 2, p. 140) He goes on to say that �these ideas embody great principles and constitute the New Age ideas.� 

Those of us who struggle to look beyond the present chaos in the world � the rampant materialism, social decay, violence and environmental degradation � understand that this massive reorientation process, with its shattering of all that is useless and limiting to humanity, is well on its way. The pronounced turmoil and conflict in the world can be seen as the last death throes, the tests and trials of Initiation before the New Age and the Kingdom of Souls can be restored on Earth.  

The potency of Aries as it initiates the trends that will produce the New Age is also clearly evident. It shines forth in the widespread appeal of the new spirituality and systems thinking, in the fight for human rights and freedom, the trend toward unity and synthesis, for economic restructuring, and in the overall growth of understanding, goodwill and right human relations. These developments, while still tenuous, indicate that the obstructions and miasmas clouding the Path are gradually giving way to the vision of a new and better world. In other words �the things of old are passing away.� The heart and mind of humanity are beginning to arise from the deathbed of old ideas and methods of living, and a nascent spirit and sense of direction based on clearly enunciated spiritual principles are beginning to emerge. 

This current world crisis, with its profound difficulty and its striking potential, can be traced, in large part, to the fact that �so many millions of people are beginning to think.� The education of the masses is having a liberating effect, enabling humanity to think independently and respond to a wide range of ideas. There are new concepts and expectations of major significance taking shape in the mind of humanity that are altering the general trend of thought and creating definite patterns of living. And, as a result of this stimulation and the grasping of key ideas and concepts, a point of tension has been created that will result in a great movement forward on the Evolutionary Path. All this has produced a transition or paradigm shift that will eventually allow humanity to respond in unison and as a group to the inflow of spiritual energy and the great tide of renewal and restoration.  

While there is much cause for hope in these developments, there is also much to be done. A great responsibility rests with the New Group of World Servers, with the disciples of the world, as well as with all intelligent people of goodwill. As mentally focused aspirants and disciples, we recognize that our task is not only to acknowledge and nurture these new ideas and trends but to take this �thinking process� several steps further so that we can play a conscious and creative role in absorbing and transmitting these new ideas and �seeds of hope� for the future.  

To more fully cooperate with the Plan, facilitate a closer rapport between Hierarchy and Humanity and contribute to the healing of the present world cleavage, we must develop in ourselves what the New Testament describes as �the Mind that is in Christ.�   

Let us for a moment consider the nature of the mind of Christ. In Esoteric Psychology, Vol. 1, p. 95, we are told that �the mind of Christ is a phrase conveying the concept of the rule of divine intelligent love, which stimulates the rule of the Soul within all forms and brings in the reign of the Spirit.� As we know, Love is the keynote of the Christ. And it was this rule of the Soul, or divine intelligent Love, that the Christ presented to the world through the example of His life, death and resurrection, in a complete and perfect representation of the Deity.  

Interestingly, the concepts of God as Love, of God revealed in us through love, and of love as radical transformative power were relatively unknown until the Christ presented this new idea to humanity two thousand years ago. In Esoteric Astrology we are asked to remember that the impulse and energy that enabled the Christ to inaugurate the Christian era or the age of Love and Service definitely came from the sign of Aries. It was that divine impetus in Aries that enabled the Christ to embody the concept of the �will to love� and to �sound with clarity the note which can usher in the new civilization and the new world order.�  

But it is not until this same note, the note of intelligent love, resounds in us, conditions our consciousness and is expressed as service, that the Mind of Christ can be understood as a fact and that we can come to know ourselves as we truly are. For �apart from Christ we know neither what our life nor our death is, we do not know what God is nor what we ourselves are.� (Pascal, Pensees)       

So when we speak about developing the �Mind that is in Christ,� we are speaking of Soul contact or Soul living and of �Hierarchical inclusion� as one of the climaxing phases of our development. However, it is important that we bear in mind that this phrase is intended to symbolize yet another level of development. In The Rays and the Initiations we read that when the Christ came He demonstrated in Himself the vision of the Christ-consciousness (Soul consciousness and Soul control) in its completed perfection. �But he did far more than this�. He pointed beyond Himself to the one Who was responsible for His Being, and to the Way of the Higher Evolution,� via the Antahkarana. �He gave the teaching which summarized all the past and indicated the new aspects and ideas for the future teaching�. He opened the greater door beyond the lesser door and anchored the Will of God on earth�. and was the first to blaze the trail to the higher spheres of revelation.� This consummating effort by the Christ made it possible for those who had achieved some real measure of Soul control and mental polarization to evoke and access ever higher levels of abstract thought and divine inspiration and to relate, step by step, in full awareness, Humanity, Hierarchy and Shamballa. 

This sequential movement forward, from the first impulse toward life, to the return to the originating source and Monadic realization, was made possible through the initiating energies or will in Aries. And it was this full and glorious spiritual manifestation that the Christ referred to when He said of Himself, �I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.�  

The spiritual impulses and energies originating in Aries began a supreme creative process that made it possible for the Christ to present to humanity, for the first time, a new, triple approach to divinity. This triple approach, which was symbolized for us in the life, death and resurrection of the Christ, is outlined as follows: 

1.  The opening of the door to the third initiation and to complete Soul control and relationship with the Hierarchy. 

2.  The anchoring on Earth of �the will of God in the matrix of love,� making it possible for humanity to recognize the idea of its full divine nature, the unconquerable nature of goodness and the ultimate triumph of good.

3.  The pointing of the way that gives entrance to the Spiritual Triad and Shamballa and enables humanity to recognize and cooperate with Divine Will and Purpose with complete understanding and intention. 

From this outline it is apparent that �the Christ was the first to carry right through - from stage to stage - the complete revelation of humanity and of the Hierarchy to Shamballa� by way of the completed Antahkarana. This new approach toward divinity, with its grand synthetic scope, made it possible for humanity to undertake those activities that will lead to the manifestation of the Soul, and to the manifestation of spirit through the Soul.  

Through His example the Christ demonstrated to us the meaning and purpose of the divine life in Him and in us all. Through His life, death and resurrection we were given a full and complete vision of what we must �reach, realize, and express,� to reclaim our true selves and to do our part in healing and transforming the present suffering in the world. 

As the Aries Full Moon acts to both reveal and re-ignite the spiritual possibilities inherent in us and in all life, let us dedicate ourselves anew to the demand for light from our own Souls. Let us strive to let love hold sway over our every thought and action, and let us unite together in a general Soul awareness and group consciousness to invoke the Christ�s love and power and express it as service so that �the new and deathless race� can be surely brought to flower.