Johfra Boss­chart — Zodi­ac-Paint­ings — Capricorn

The Path­way to Perfection 

The Sun stands still. That is what the word sol­stice means. In ancient times, peo­ple stopped what­ev­er they were doing, as they watched and wait­ed. Would the dark­ness pre­vail or would the light return? Would their hopes be dashed, or their faith restored? They wait­ed for a sign, for the promise of light and love to return to Earth.

We have reached anoth­er turn­ing in the Astro­log­i­cal cal­en­dar. Four moments each year when we seek to under­stand the great turn­ings, and we know and under­stand them as the Four Ques­tions of life, “Who am I, and who are you, where do I come from, and where am I going”. These are the noble “Four Direc­tions”, the “Four Cor­ners of Life”, and you should at this most sacred time of the year con­sid­er them all as you con­sid­er the path that you are on today.

Yes, you are at a turn­ing point, and the only ques­tion is, “which way should I go, what path is right for me, what is my Destiny?”

The hid­den mes­sage behind the realm of Capri­corn is often said to be that “Char­ac­ter is Des­tiny”. But for those who under­stand the true pur­pose behind our lives, we can reverse this phrase and say equal­ly that our “Des­tiny is Character”.

The tru­ism that “Char­ac­ter is Des­tiny” is an ancient and holy under­stand­ing about the jour­ney of the human spir­it. More recent­ly, it was attrib­uted to the philoso­pher Her­a­cli­tus of Eph­esus who lived between 540–480 BC. His keen­est obser­va­tion, which is very much in keep­ing with one of his con­tem­po­raries, the Bud­dha, is that “…Every­thing flows, every­thing is in con­stant flux and move­ment, noth­ing is abid­ing. There­fore, we can­not step twice into the same riv­er. When I step into the riv­er for the sec­ond time, nei­ther I nor the riv­er are the same…”. This is a restate­ment of the Ancient Wis­dom, that behind all of Cre­ation is the eter­nal Spir­it which ever strives to be and become, mov­ing in and out of forms, the pro­tean spir­it of Spir­i­tu­al Alche­my behind the mys­tery of Creation.

But what Her­a­cli­tus also said was that “our char­ac­ter is our fate”, that our char­ac­ter or our lev­el of devel­op­ment cre­ates the kind of life we will live and so forms our des­tiny. With regards to the Ancient Wis­dom, what this means is to the extent you have become more self-mas­ter­ful, that you have achieved a greater under­stand­ing of your own true self and so equal­ly of the world around you, then to that extent your life becomes more aligned with your true spir­i­tu­al nature.

By the gift of self-aware­ness, by this pre­cious gift that makes pos­si­ble the evo­lu­tion and “devel­op­ment of char­ac­ter”, we see that an indi­vid­ual is no longer sub­ject to being seized and dri­ven by uncon­trolled pas­sions from with­in, nor are they cap­tured by the dis­si­pat­ing attrac­tions from the world around them. By this ris­ing light of con­scious­ness, an indi­vid­ual on the path of awak­en­ing is no longer the pawn of “the fates”, no longer held in chains by the per­fect­ly equi­table but mind­less action/reaction of the ordi­nary life. Instead, they have become a mem­ber in a great com­pa­ny of souls, they have become anoth­er self-direct­ed aspi­rant on the Path­way of Perfection.

But this is also why those who have come in any life to that turn­ing point or por­tal that divides the more fat­ed from those of freer wills, and who by mak­ing this choice to take the steep­er path of self-quick­en­ing, so that their life and pur­pose becomes ever more firm­ly focused upon self-mas­tery and wis­dom, which will bend their life increas­ing­ly towards a path of self­less ser­vice, com­pas­sion, and love, that it is by this lov­ing choice of faith over fear that they will tru­ly under­stand that our “Des­tiny is Char­ac­ter”. But what does that mean?

Humans have dis­cussed, debat­ed, and argued as to what is our des­tiny, of what is the true pur­pose and mean­ing behind our life here on Earth, of what pur­pose are we made for or des­tined to be. For those who study the great works of Ancient Wis­dom, or equal­ly observe the great souls in action, they under­stand and know that our pur­pose and des­tiny is quite sim­ple, real­ly; we are here for one pur­pose, which is “to become a bet­ter human”, and even­tu­al­ly become a com­plete human.

How do we do this? By using all our fac­ul­ties of body, feel­ing, mind and spir­it; by learn­ing through tri­al and error, by striv­ing and fail­ing and try­ing again. It is by this slow, steady climb up what we might imag­ine is the moun­tain that is life, it is by this that we will slow­ly raise our­selves up as we learn what not to do and so how to be better.

This is the les­son and gift of Capri­corn, that the most pre­cious moments in this life, and in all your lives, are when you “failed”; when you tried and fell short, but you did not sur­ren­der. The spir­it with­in you did not dim; it grew stronger, more deter­mined, more pur­pose­ful so that in the end you did mas­ter that craft, you did acquire that strength, you did find a way to not only know the Truth (as in Sagit­tar­ius), but you also felt a burn­ing light in your heart that your true pur­pose was to live by Truth, and in fact to be this Truth.

But what you have also learned is that every obsta­cle you over­came, and in each chal­lenge well met, is that your vic­to­ry over fate and your devel­op­ment of a freer will, was some­thing that you did not do on your own or by your­self. No, you are part of a nev­er-end­ing Hier­ar­chy, like a Rib­bon of Light in Space and through Time, formed by all the souls above and all the souls below you, both here today and in the far, far dis­tant past. Yes, you stand upon the ever­last­ing foun­da­tions built by all your ances­tors, by all of humankind, and your pur­pose now is to add to that foun­da­tion for those who will come after you.

Our Des­tiny is Char­ac­ter, as we are for one anoth­er both pupil and teacher, and in every encounter with all whom you meet in this or in any life, is that you are to under­stand that your expe­ri­ences with one anoth­er are the very means by which each of you will forge a greater wis­dom that is revealed by your com­pas­sion and love for one another.

At this time of the year, and wher­ev­er Capri­corn is found in your chart, you are remind­ed that what you are today, and what you will be tomor­row is no acci­dent. You are the Mas­ter Builder, you are the pil­grim and the seek­er, the teacher and the pupil, the child and the wise one too. And all that you do, from the sim­plest of tasks, to the great­est con­tri­bu­tions and ser­vices you offer, all of it was part of a “mas­ter plan” to bring you clos­er to your Destiny.

That is why, at this time of year we give thanks to our ances­tors; we bow our heads and bend our knee and pledge to one anoth­er that the Light will not go out, not on our watch, not in our time. We will keep the promise, that we will take care of one anoth­er, and we will con­tin­ue to fol­low the path of Light that is the Hier­ar­chy of Love and Compassion.

At this sacred hour, in this moment when the light returns once more, we say:

THE GREAT INVOCATION

From the point of light with­in the Mind of God

Let Light stream forth into our minds

Let LIGHT descend on Earth.

From the point of love with­in the Heart of God

Let Love stream forth into our hearts

May LOVE increase on Earth.

From the cen­ter where the Will of God is known

Let pur­pose guide our wills

The PURPOSE which the mas­ters know and serve.

From the cen­ter which we call Humanity

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out

And may it seal the door

where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Pow­er restore the Plan on Earth.