The Fixed Stars

The Fixed Stars in Esoteric Astrology

There are numerous references in Alice Bailey’s Esoteric Astrology to individual stars and constellations. The main three represent the three major principles as the source of the first three rays.

The Great Bear

Ray 1, via Leo-Saturn-GreatBear

Sirius

Ray 2, via Pisces-Uranus-Sirius

The Pleiades

Ray 3, via Capricorn-Mercury-Pleiades

The Pointers and Polaris

• the two pointers in the Great Bear represent: body (Dubhe), soul (Merak), with Polaris (spirit),
• with Polaris: “star of re-orientation”, completing three stages of the will with the pointers

Other Stars and Constellations

One of the Pleiades, Alcyone is mentioned specifically and connected to Ray 3 as “the Star of the Individual—governing Humanity” and the “star of intelligence”. The constellations Cassiopeia and Coma Berenices (in the Virgo cluster of galaxies), with Andromeda—the spiral galaxy closest to the Milky Way—are all mentioned briefly in a paragraph about how the exaltation of the form or matter/mother principle, symbolised overall by the Moon, can be traced throughout the entire zodiac. Virgo—the most important of them all—and Venus are also included as playing key parts in this symbolism:

The exaltation of the form, ruled by the Moon, can be traced throughout the entire zodiac and provides in itself an interesting and progressive story … told by the various women who figure in the different constellations and around them some day the astrology of the form will be built. (EA 400)

At the time, Bailey states that this is a field of thought and astrological investigation hitherto untouched and a vast and profitable field of knowledge. Since then, astrological author Demetra George¹ has covered much of this in her detailed work on the asteroids, which—although never mentioned in Esoteric Astrology—can also be seen as an integral part of the matter/mother principle under Ray 3.

See the Moon for more about the occult role and cosmic history of the matter principle.