It is said that the practice of harmlessness is the greatest spiritual tool (besides meditation) that one can possess. Harmlessness on all the levels of personality expression: mental, emotional and physical, or in thought, word and deed.

How often in our everyday life do we harm or injure others emotionally or mentally? Whether we are in traffic, directing negative thoughts to someone close to us, or criticising verbally or mentally – we are not practicing harmlessness, which is really an aspect of the law of love. Its practice is not about being a peace-loving wimp, it is in fact a dynamic practice associated with the spiritual will, and can be a most demanding path to follow.

The fact that we are all incarnate indicates that none of us have really fully achieved this state of being, otherwise we would be liberated from human evolution. Harmlessnes may be practiced/perceived from the very obvious to the quite subtle.

Gemini, the Twins, are known as the two quarreling or warring brothers. Harmlessness is obviously not their forte. Gemini rules Humanity in general, or “average humanity”, hence the state of the many “warring brothers” in the world today. The Gemini solar festival (usually in June) has as its theme the unique relationship of Christ or Lord Maitreya to each individual human being. This full moon period is an opportunity to get in touch with that Christ force.

The new spiritual cycle of the year starts in Aries at Easter and the celebration of Christ’s resurrection; is consolidated upon in Taurus at the Wesak festival of the Buddha; and is distributed at the Gemini festival of the Christ. Christ focusses within himself the outgoing spiritual aspiration of Humanity.

Gemini is a sign of the “common” cross, and Gemini’s are noted for their ability to find a point in “common” with almost anyone they meet, establish a dialogue and hence develop a relationship. This makes Gemini (apart from Libra) a primary sign of relationships.

Gemini only has one ray passing through it, Ray 2 of Love-Wisdom. Gemini is ruled by Mercury the Divine Intermediary, and god of speech and communication. Therefore communication is the key element that underlies the expression of Love. Hence speech is sacred.

Gemini, therefore, is the ideal sign that relates Humanity to the Christ and Christ to Humanity. Humanity is the younger brother and Christ the Elder Brother in our planetary family.

Gemini is very sensitive to its environment and wants to react and respond to it immediately, such is the restless, quicksilver nature of this sign. Therefore Gemini’s can be quite garrulous at one extreme, not pausing for deep and considered thought. They are gatherers of information, not necessarily having complete discrimination about what is gathered. Of course there are many other planets in the horoscope that modify these qualities in an individual.

However, this has been bought out because Gemini has a lot to do with the lower mind, or kama-manas, “desire-mind”, where most of humanity are polarised today. Therefore the “two brothers” are the lower mind and the higher mind, the latter being  the seat of the soul. The “war” is between the desires of the lower mind and the spiritual will of the soul.

The lower mind is really “emotional-mind” where thinking is coloured with emotion of some kind. Emotions “idealise” an idea (mental), rendering it somewhat distorted from the original.

The symbol of the two pillars of Gemini, are where we bang “from pillar to post” in balancing the pairs of opposites within ourselves – on all levels. Its is for this reason that Gemini is the sign in “common” with all pairs of opposites in the zodiac, and is the “third party” in the Science of Triangles so fundamental to Esoteric Astrology.

Yet it is also between these two pillars that Gemini finds peace from ceaseless thought and activity. It could be said that the stilling of thought preliminary to meditation is in fact practicing harmlessness. It is not allowing mind chatter to “harm” or block the overlighting influence of the soul.

When meditating, not allowing any thoughts is in one sense practicing harmlessness, as it is a process of not reacting or responding to stimuli in the environment, whether it is an itch, noise, or thought that can lead to a whole chain of lower mental thoughts and chatter, sometimes called the “monkey mind”. An analogy would be practicing harmlessness toward someone who is angry or insulting toward you, by not responding or reacting – not engaging in dialogue. Practicing tao.

When one stands poised between the two pillars, thought as we know it disappears and intuition supercedes. This is why the more advanced Gemini’s are extremely intuitive. Time also disappears, and one glimpses the Eternal Now, where neither the past nor future penetrate.

Venus is the energy responsible for bringing about this intuitive state. She is the soul ruler of Gemini and harmonises the pairs of opposites on the mental plane, so that it in turn can be a vehicle for the intuition from the buddhic plane. Mercury as personality ruler also has much to do with the process, as it has a close association with the buddhic realm.

The Twins of Gemini are sometimes known as the “brothers who live in the light”. The twins could also refer to the two rulers Mercury and Venus, as they are the two most light reflective planets of the solar system, and also known as the “most occult” planets.

When standing between the pillars, in the intuition, one has also engaged the polar opposite of Gemini, Sagittarius. The one-pointed concentration of the Archer has been bought into play, and he aims his arrows between the pillars, thereby eliminating dualistic thought, and honing to the “target” – meditation. One shoots the arrow, but is also the target!

The soul ruler of Sagittarius is the Earth, which is to Venus what the personality is to the soul – therefore Venus and the Earth are truly the warring brothers – one already a sacred planet (Venus/soul), and the other (Earth/personality) in the process of becoming sacred. Venus is primarily a planet which governs right human relationships:

“He [The Christ] announced [Gemini 1945] to the assembled spiritual Hierarchy and to all His servants and disciples on Earth that He had decided to emerge again into physical contact with humanity, if they would bring about the initial stages of establishing right human relations.” (ROC31)

That obviously includes right relationship between the brothers – soul and personality. In our ongoing internal personal wars, (you don’t have one?) the solar plexus centre is where most of the action is – where the smoke of the “ground” arises. The solar plexus is the expression of emotion and lower mind, the “animal brain” and its direct chakra correspondence is the heart, to where its energies are raised. The heart of course is the chakra/organ expression of love, therefore the heart and solar plexus can also be seen as the “warring brothers”, as harmonisation and alignment are bought about between the two.

The Christ heads the great Ray 2 department of the Hierarchy, and is the outstanding example of Love-Wisdom expressing on this entire planet. This has ramifications that extend beyond this solar system to Sirius and the Cosmic Christ, but is beyond the bounds of this discussion.

It was no accident that at the Gemini full moon of 1945 (at the end of the war) that the Great Invocation, a new prayer for the Aquarian Age, was given by the Christ to Humanity – for “the common man in the street” it was so described. Let us hope that the ‘warring brothers’ in India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine and elsewhere can meet ‘between the pillars’ in cooperation and mutual dialogue – as a result of the Gemini influences and our harmless thoughts.