I do not normally send out a new moon letter, but I just could not resist this time, due to its falling near the perihelion of Mars on Tuesday. I have been given over to musing upon the significance of Virgo and how extra-planetary affairs are modifying the influence of this great zodiacal sign the Sun has just entered. Virgo is one of the larger constellations on the path of the Sun, encompassing some 40 degrees of arc, as does its polar opposite, Pisces.

There are also a number of features for this sign that are given little notice by astrologers, but which have great significance, as we shall see. But perhaps one of the most profound secrets of Virgo that is generally little-known is that it is curiously connected with a certain Angelic Hierarchy, and that Mars has been playing a big role in the expansion and work of that kingdom of Nature of late, too. I can only set out the barest of outlines regarding that vast Kingdom of Nature. I will be able to give more detail in the next letter, though. With that, let us begin.

This new moon occurs on 28 Aug 2003 at 3:27 AM, AEST. The Sun and Moon will be at the 5th degree of Virgo, rounded up. Its symbol is particularly appropriate to the theme of this missive. It reads thus:

“A Man becoming aware of Nature spirits and normally unseen spiritual agencies.”

Every “dark” (new) moon has its own significance in the affairs of people. It is a particularly human period in distinction to the full moon, which is the spiritual high point of the month when the greatest Light is brought to bear on our globe. The new moon is a time when the past and present are aligned. It marks an opportunity for examination of the present situation (whatever that may be) with respect to the past and with the aim of seeing if the path we are on is proceeding according to plan and if there is anything from the past which is calling out for restitution or correction in the present. For that reason the new moon can be a dark time for people, particularly if there are heavy currents of guilt and unresolved negativity connected with the period of the year and sign in question. It can be a period of ego-dissolution or of quiet introspection. People born on a new moon can have a particular gift for being able to read the past or with reading the akashic records – the sum-total of our planetary history.

The new moon is also a time when the lower mind stands in the Light of the higher Self and can either obscure it or come into alignment with it. During the full moon, on the other hand, the mind is set aside altogether while the Light of the Soul floods in (hopefully). The analogy of “losing one’s mind” during the full moon is appropriate symbolism and is a further illustration of why the psychiatric profession gets a step up during the full moon period. Further, the new moon has a connection with the body on whatever plane and means that the body and psyche are as one. This can be either a positive or negative time, depending upon the orientation of the person. It is a time when extra consideration can be given to matters of health and the fitness of the body, which brings us to the theme of this letter.

People scarcely realize it, but there are evolutions and Hierarchies of Being which parallel our own and exist simultaneously with us on this globe. Some are not as advanced. Others are extremely advanced. The human kingdom actually lies somewhere toward the lower end of the evolutionary scale, much to our consternation. There are said to be 12 evolutions connected with our world, of which ours is but one. I will not enumerate them here. Perhaps I will as other letters come out. But, there is a particular evolution which runs very much parallel to our own and which merges with the highest aspect of every person at the very highest levels. This Hierarchy is called “The Divine Builders”, or “The Burning Sons of Desire”, and it is ruled by Virgo.

Let us be very clear. As I enumerated the levels of humanity in the last letter, we will be aware that the highest part of every person is what we might call the Eternal Spirit or monadic essence in esoteric terms. For general interest, there are said to be 60 billion human Spirits either on or connected with our Earth. Clearly, only the smallest part of them is actually “living” in physicality. Most of them are happily going about their business in other realms or planes. But, there is also a much larger number of the Angelic Host, all of which have their own Eternal Spirit. In fact, at that level, there is no separation between the two evolutions. This evolution is called the greater Devas, or Angels – the Army of the Voice, in Christian terminology – and they outnumber humans 2:1. But, what function do these Angels or Devas perform, and why do we not see them?

Humans and Angels can be perceived as two polarities of the same thing. The human Spirits are the masculine pole and the Angels/Devas are the feminine. Essentially, the Devas provide us with the forms which we need and use, much like a mother provides a body for her child. And, we humans set about finding new uses for them – to evolve Self-consciousness through the agency of our forms and thus fully express Love as our Maker intended. The Angels produce the material world as we know it and it is given over to humanity and the sub-human kingdoms to fully evolve that into a beacon of Love in our local universe. The whole matter is quite mysterious and a little difficult to understand. Suffice it to say that the Angelic realms are passive to the Will of God, whereas we humans are active and rebellious toward it. The Angels evolve by abiding strictly by God’s Law. We, on the other hand, are like little children who always have to push boundaries and test limits (and patience), but who cause our parents to evolve and learn to love much more rapidly than they would alone. It is all a joyous interchange and interplay. And, eventually, we all ideally grow into responsible and productive adults.

Why are we not aware of Angels, though? The fact is some people are. For most of us, though, the reasons for that lie in the misuse of power that we wrought in Atlantean times, when we knew and had interchange with the Angelic realms. But, we abused the privilege and had our inner sight taken away from us, largely for our own safety and the safety of the remainder of the evolutions on our globe. There are many classes and types of Angels. But, they all exist and work on subtle levels, so to the average person they are invisible. The angelic hosts in their divisions are not unlike the divisions of Nature as we known them. They range anywhere from the tiniest of the Nature spirits which work with the care and maintenance of all the subhuman kingdoms to the mightiest and most exalted of spiritual Beings.

There are also classes of devas who are of equal rank and development along their line as the various grades of people in the world.  Each has their task and their purpose, their own consciousness and their own distinct appearance. There is a special class of Angels who work specifically with the production, care and maintenance of the human form. The important thing to remember with all of them is that they are connected with forms of all types and with the evolution of substance in tandem with the evolution of consciousness in every part of Nature. In fact, one could say that their function is to provide a suitable body to match the level and quality of consciousness to any life.

I was at an intensive some years back in San Diego and went to dinner with a few of my colleagues. As we ordered our food two of us sat fascinated with the behavior of the other two, because the other two people with us were both Virgoans – one man and one woman. Their food had to be ordered in a specific manner and exactly according to their tastes. When it arrived both of the Virgoans proceeded to examine the food quite carefully, to pick it to pieces as they ate it, seemingly to ensure that every bite fit the bill and to comment on it more than is usual among other signs. My other friend sat and watched them for a time and smiled at them like the cat that ate the budgie. When the Virgoans asked her why she was smiling at them, she commented that she found it amusing the way that the two Virgoans at the table were fussing over their food while she and I could have cared less so long as it was well prepared and edible. The Virgoans were not amused and had a few comments to make to my other friend. Anyone who has eaten regularly with Virgoans has sat there either with benign amusement or with bitten tongue as the Virgoan goes through their obligatory ritual.

The point of the story is not to poke fun at Virgos, but to illustrate the essence of the Virgo/Angelic connection (although it can be quite amusing). I know I will get myself into trouble with my Virgoan friends, but I tell the story with all affection toward them. (We’ll see if I get invited to dinner with them!) The point of this is that, since the Angels work with the care and refinement of bodies of all types, it is no wonder that there should be such attention to detail with something even as simple and basic as food. Since Virgo rules this kingdom it is small wonder that Virgoans are so picky about details – and, we should add, rightly so.

The task for any person born under a given Sun-sign is to incorporate the functions of that sign to the fullest measure possible. People are apt to forget that just because a person is a Leo, for instance, that person is not automatically a leader. They are born as Leos to learn leadership and to exemplify it as much as possible. On the same line of thought, every Virgo has within them this attention to detail and the knowledge somewhere within their psyche that purity in every aspect of living is important. The Angels do not normally draw nigh to coarse people. They do, however, draw close to all who seek to refine, to redeem and to build according to divine Law, though.

It is important, too, to realize that devas do not work in dense substance. They work in the ethers of the various planes – i.e., the subtle grades of matter on every plane. The particular class of Angels which Virgo rules has a specific affinity and are most easily contacted through the finest ethers – what scientists would classify as fine sub-atomic matter. It is a curious thing to note that, even though we live in a world where we have access to the most fantastic variety of foods, we have less vitality than many of our forebears did.

The reason for that is because we routinely destroy much of the most refined essence in our food when we process it and through over-cooking, we do not get out in the Sun enough or we do it for too long and, we are tending to be a society of sedentary souls, bathed in artificial light, exposed to all types of spurious and dangerous radiations and eating a lot of the very things we should avoid. Food is over-processed, micro-waved (which destroys the ether in food), irradiated (which does the same as microwaves and worse), loaded with chemicals, stripped of its most refined and potent qualities and then presented to us as the most amazing thing since sliced bread. You even have to be careful with sliced bread these days. All in the name of progress. It is enough to make the Angels weep!

People would be much better off if they learned to cook again and if they learned to love their food as they cooked it. We would certainly take more care with it. In the ritual of cooking is to be found communion with certain types of devas, too. All Angels respond to ritual and are drawn to it like a magnet. And what about the human interaction that is lost when we do not take the time with eachother as we prepare food with our families and friends and in the ritual of the family table? Love is built with steady, sustained contact, not with hurried, splintered distraction and sensory overload. Added to that is the fact that we do not know where our food comes from when we eat fast food or eat out. How many different cattle go into the making of a single hamburger, for example?–hundreds, sometimes.

Is there a magic formula for working with the Angels, especially in terms of our bodies? Well, yes, there are magic formulae, but they are not for us to know. There is good, sound horse-sense, though:

–Eat only food that has contacted the Sun, and raw as much as is possible

–Get outdoors and get the Sun on the upper body, especially between the shoulder blades and on the forehead (with the eyes closed, of course), but away from the hours of 10-3

–Use plenty of pure water daily, internally and externally

–Avoid all processed foods

–Give yourself regular quiet time in natural surroundings and take time to experience Nature

–Throw out your microwave and use land-line phones as much as possible instead of cell or mobile phones

–Get off your tail and move it (exercise regularly).

–Rest as fully as you can when given opportunity, for in rest we find the needed repair and repose to fortify us for the next task at hand

Some will say that the above is unrealistic, given our modern world and the pace of it. The fact of the matter is that we live the way we desire to in the West for the most part, not the way we have to. Everyone has their story and a thousand and one reasons why things are the way they are in their lives. Convenience is often another word for dependency and enslavement. If we wish to become more attuned with the Angels who watch after us then we have to approach them in their way, not ours, for our way is often the way of recklessness, carelessness and ignorance.

At the time of this new moon in particular we are presented with a unique opportunity to reconnect with our bodies and to throw off a lot of psychic refuse. Mars is causing excess heat in people’s systems and this causes things to be burned away and cast off at an accelerated rate. This has been the cause of a fair amount of discomfort for some people, causing fevers, general lassitude and a feeling of being wholly uncomfortable in one’s skin. Such things will dissipate quickly to normal levels as Mars recedes back to its normal position over the next 6 weeks. It will be especially important for all of us over the next weeks to keep things moving and flushed out. In general, we could say that our systems have been super-saturated over the past 2 months and, now the heat is taken away, that things will begin to rapidly precipitate out since there is no longer the excess heat there to support them. Watch for that sort of thing on the world stage as well as at a personal level.

There is a direct correspondence between the Hierarchy of Angels Virgo rules and our own physical bodies, but only in the most refined essence of our bodies. The Eternal Spirit is said to be the eye of God, just as our Souls are said to be the eye of the Spirit. The function of every Spirit at that level is to fully manifest the Will of God on Earth. This is why They are called the Greater Builders. But, They are born out of the desire of God to fully manifest the world as we know it, hence the name “Burning Sons of Desire”. Here we can begin to see the reason why Virgoans have been called “the work-horses of the zodiac”, so strong is the desire to build the required and desired forms or work and so strong is the need to painstakingly make the end product suit the need. We could all stand to take a page from a Virgoan’s handbook every now and then. We should also pay more attention to them when things do not seem quite right in a certain piece of work, unless we know they are obsessing. The Devil is in the detail, as we say.

So, when we speak of Angels we also speak of ourselves, for always are we the same as them in our highest Truth and Essence. Every Eternal Spirit or Monad is a divine Architect for the Vision God has for this world. And, when we enter the sign of Virgo every year we get a reminder and an opportunity to build more carefully and more suitably with as much of the highest good in our lives as we can exhibit and sense. Every Virgo knows the truth in the words “There are no little things.” And, on Angel’s wings comes the call and the certainty that every small detail is as divine and relevant in its own way as is the largest of issues, for the manuscript of God’s Plan is not done until every mark is correct and proof-read again and again to insure the accuracy, potency and suitability of every word and phrase. The Army of the Voice awaits the collective sounding of the Herald each year to build anew and to redeem that which has been laid amiss. Let our call be clear, sincere and unified within the great Brotherhood of all Beings.