Chapter 12. Pisces Synthetic channel from the buddhic body to the atmic Self
What sacred place in the soul of an atheist? The inclusion of Pisces signifies inner meditation of the higher body, which is barely or not at all consciously perceived by the person. He feels that something is happening to him—something subtle yet significant—but what exactly it is and what consequences it will bring, he cannot understand. First, due to the delicacy of the matter of the higher body, and second, due to the narrowness of his mental vocabulary. If positive Aquarian transmissions strengthen life positions and serve as signs of partial attainment of existential values, and these sensations have a fairly definite mental content, then positive Piscean transmissions strengthen the life mission of a person, that is, some abstract plan into which, as a whole, all the boundaries of clear perception are woven. The sensations of its processing, formation, or detailing rarely and very vaguely reach consciousness.
However, such atmic transformations are somehow perceived by the person, especially since they manifest the most essential thing that exists in his soul and life, ultimately determining his existence on all denser planes, including the physical. Until a person reaches a certain level of spiritual maturity, his atmic and buddhic bodies are often perceived as fused; thus, he tends to perceive the atmic as part of the buddhic, considering ideals a variety of values. The concept of some abstract “main” ideal, standing behind all specific values and virtues and filling them with energy, is simply absent in him.
If we speak at the level of collective consciousness, the separation of the atmic body of an ethnic egregore from its buddhic body corresponds to the idea of monotheism, which distinguishes the one and only God from hierarchically lower gods, angels, seraphim, and similar negative figures: the devil and his hosts. Thus, in mental representation, the separation of the atmic body corresponds to the recognition of the existence of a higher principle that unites all life values and programs of a person into one, not only at any given moment but throughout life as a whole. So, from a flatly rolled-out dough, a round roll is made: first, the sheet is rolled into a long tube, which is then wrapped into a ring, symbolizing eternity.
Thus, life in the direct atmic light is nothing other than life in God, Eternity, Truth, Divine Love… God has many names, and even more human missions (as many as there are people), and each of them is sacred in the sense that even the distant light of one’s atmic body is perceived by the person.
However, few reach the level of development where a person constantly and clearly feels and comprehends his mission; for most, such a state of consciousness, in which they at least partially open up, occurs rarely and unpredictably, as does the specific information and energy that then pass into the lower bodies. In other words, for the average person, direct vision of the mission is usually closed, and he lives, guided by his often contradictory values or simply floundering in the flow of events, not even attempting to grasp any meaning in his experiences, actions, and efforts. The latter, generally speaking, does not mean that he poorly fulfills his mission—it may happen that his fate is such that he has no special choice either upward or downward, and it is quite sufficient for him to live, guided by generally accepted social values: neither the abyss of depravity nor the joys of the holy path attract him, and he passes through, making certain choices along the way, which, however, have no essential significance.
Yet even indirect vision of one’s mission greatly changes a person’s life: a higher meaning and constant subtle joy appear, dependent on specific life circumstances; it does not compensate for everyday troubles or professional disappointments but colors them in a completely different hue, giving keys to transforming chaos, evil, and vice into order, good, and virtue: first in oneself, then in the world. It is precisely about this indirect vision and its possibilities, limits, and ways of expanding them that the main discussion below revolves; the themes of atmic consciousness are touched upon by the author only slightly.
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The Pisces channel transforms the fruits of buddhic meditations into the soil of the atmic body, on which the flower of mission grows. The seed of this flower is brought by the incarnating soul from another world, and by the moment of physical conception, a complete (i.e., having all seven bodies) prototype of the future organism is formed, which develops intensively during pregnancy. At the moment of physical birth, a tender sprout emerges from the atmic soil, which may wither prematurely if the person resolutely evades his mission, or bloom with strange beauty if, after difficult searches and relentless struggles with his lower nature, he finds his place in life and fulfills the assignment given to him by the soul.
The language of describing atmic programs is inherently highly abstract and therefore automatically esoteric; it can easily be spoken of, meaning its mental projection may seem simple (say, classification), but then significant difficulties arise in attributing the fate of a specific person to the corresponding program. Below, the author offers, as an example, a three-part classification of atmic programs in line with many religious traditions (Hindu: Brahma—the god-creator of the world, Vishnu—the god-preserver of the world, Shiva—the god-destroyer of the world; Christian: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit).
Atmic programs are divided into three main groups, guided by the Three Main Egregores, which are further conventionally called the First Egregore with the key words Will, Law, Creation; the Second Egregore, whose key words are Perception, Unity, Love; and the Third Egregore with the key words Action, Fulfillment, Destruction. The author writes the key words of the Main Egregores with a capital letter to emphasize their atmic resonance; they should be understood as broadly and abstractly as possible.
The following three characteristics are an attempt at commentary at the atmic level, after which the author, not wishing to tire the reader, switches to his usual manner of exposition.
First Egregore: The World is Created by Will, which establishes Law.
Second Egregore: The World is realized by Perceiving Will and its Law; this Perception sustains the Unity of the world; Love is a necessary condition for Perception and Unity.
Third Egregore: The Fulfillment of Will is called Action and is always accompanied by the Destruction of Law and Unity.
In ordinary language, this roughly translates to the following. There are three main evolutionary programs, and accordingly, human fates can be divided into three categories that differ, however, not so much in external attributes (though the latter are also important) as in the intimate, often unconscious attitude of a person toward what happens to him and within him.
The First Egregore of Will, Law, and Creation guides the program of transforming the laws of the external and internal world of a person, according to which these laws constantly evolve, creating ever new potential realities that must be actualized (realized) and then destroyed. The actualization of a new reality, that is, bringing the world into accordance with the laws created by the First Egregore, is the responsibility of the Second Egregore of Perception, Unity, and Love; in doing so, a new world is actually created in which these laws will operate. After this, the new world is realized, that is, it lives out its fate according to its own laws, and this process is governed by the Third Egregore of Action, Fulfillment, and Destruction—the last word symbolizes the fact that the Absolute does not repeat itself, so as a result of its realization, the world created by the Second Egregore is destroyed.
The First Egregore is served by people whose efforts lay the foundation for a qualitative change in the world in which we live—this includes pioneers, inventors, the best writers and artists, creators of new languages and symbolic systems—all those who do not speak about something but create something new, paving new paths of evolution and sometimes even crossing out the old.At a high level, these people essentially become prophets, revealing God’s current Will to the world, yet even they cannot ensure it is heard or what it may lead to. Thus, in the Pisces era, when the Main Egregores were largely isolated from one another, a typical person of the First Egregore often found themselves powerless and blind to the surrounding world—unless they received proper support from people of the Second and Third Egregores. Even then, they frequently became victims of deep injustices and disillusionments, reduced to exclaiming, like Marx in hindsight: “Workers of the world, forgive me!” Yet people who belong to the First Egregore exist in every era. They are characterized by an inner sense of participation in creating a new reality that has never existed before.
The Second Egregore is served by those whose purpose is to perceive the ever-changing laws of the world set by the First Egregore and embody them in its structures, as well as dismantle structures that uphold the implementation of repealed laws. The set of world laws is always complete—in the sense that it ensures its perfect coherence, meaning every object or phenomenon is reflected in any other object or phenomenon, so the world remains a unified whole governed by the holographic principle—symbolically represented in any of its parts.
However, if the First Egregore operates intensely and laws change rapidly, the Second Egregore may lag behind, creating a temporary impression of a fragmented world and the collapse of temporal connections. This signals that it is time for those serving the Second Egregore to step in—people whose primary tool is attention, sustained by love for the world and the laws governing its development. Their efforts restore the world’s unity and materialize the will of the First Egregore within auxiliary structures that help fulfill it—primarily various communication systems.
Thus, the Second Egregore is served by those who perceive changes in world laws and prepare the ground for their implementation; their main task is transforming all systems of communication—from postal to interpersonal. For example, the Pisces era was marked by hierarchical connections where information flowed from superior to subordinate and back, but not sideways, whereas the Aquarius era prepares for subtle networked communication systems (everyone with everyone within the egregore and with the egregore itself), reflecting, evidently, a shift in the governing Law.
People of the Second Egregore are characterized by keen attention and love for the world, seeking hidden connections—logical and associative—within it. These are scientists and poets, as well as philosophers and priests; at a high level, they are saints who can see through the human soul and fate but have no direct influence on the world, let alone coercion. Nonetheless, their indirect influence can be very powerful, especially if they are connected to people of the Third Egregore.
A defining trait of serving the Second Egregore is the sense of sufficiency in a certain level of attention to the Invisible and love for the world—one feels their mission precisely in this, rather than in concrete creativity or social labor in the conventional sense of these words.
The Third Egregore implements the Law’s programs on the material of the world already prepared by the Second Egregore. This process transforms both the world and the Law simultaneously: once a law is fulfilled in a place, it ceases to operate there—or rather, becomes less applicable. People who serve the Third Egregore transform the world in accordance with the Law, actively using the connections and channels created and purified by those of the Second Egregore. This may include businesspeople, organizers, executors of specific tasks, but at a high level—nation-builders who guide their ethnos toward fulfilling the next stage of its mission.
A defining trait of serving the Third Egregore is the feeling of fulfilling an external will—actualized relative to the person—whereby the volitional impulse is expended, and a fragment of the world (external or internal) is qualitatively and irreversibly transformed.
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Of course, there are other types of descriptions of atmanic programs; the author’s book “Kabbalah of Numbers” is devoted to them in particular. All such descriptions are necessarily highly abstract, as they must encompass a person’s entire life. Yet if one manages to concretize their mission even slightly, their ideal becomes clearer, followed by their value system, allowing them to better understand and occupy their place in life, living more fully and effectively while bringing more good and order to the world.
What efforts can a person make to better understand and fulfill their mission? Part of the answer lies in the channel of Aries, which adjusts the system of life values in accordance with the turning points of the main life path. Yet there is another, less obvious part of this answer tied to the Pisces channel.
By drawing conclusions from their life, a person lays the groundwork for correcting their value system (Aquarius)—but this proves insufficient. The current value system is not an end in itself; it is meant to help a person embark on the path of self-actualization—that is, fulfilling their mission—and in this sense, the Pisces channel provides feedback, strengthening the foundation of the mission with the fruits of buddhic meditations, such as the outcomes of the process of reevaluating values.
These are very subtle sensations rarely rising to explicit consciousness; they may manifest as follows. A person feels their old value system aging and, whether by their will or against it, somehow restructuring, transforming into another form. The result of this transformation is not only the disappearance of certain values, the emergence of others, and shifts in the significance of existing ones; the person also experiences a sense of deep inner movement whose meaning lies in strongly supporting (or undermining) the feeling of justification for their earthly life—its uniqueness, synthetic nature, and the subtle necessity of the world.
Engaging the Pisces channel grants a person a state akin to confessing to their higher beginning: God, inner teacher, or ideal. What, then, interests them—or in other words, what energetic information enters this channel? The fruits of buddhic meditations are by no means achieved values: not a large bank account, social status, a palace, nor long labor of virtue or talent rise above the buddhic plane. All of these indirectly relate to fulfilling one’s mission, helping a person redirect and focus their spiritual (i.e., atmanic) efforts toward their ideal direction.
If the goals of buddhic development are chosen correctly, the result is an increase in a person’s spiritual potential—that is, their ability to nurture the flower of their mission, secretly hidden in their soul and constituting the main inexpressible task of their life in its entirety. The existence of the atmanic body, in a certain sense, devalues all buddhic values; it turns out they are purely auxiliary, and their development and its (always indirect) fruits matter more than their actual content.
What, then, are these fruits, more precious than any buddhic attainment? They are subtle soul attainments—certain higher wisdom acquired over a lifetime, formed through soul evolution and enabling a person to rise, as it were, above their ordinary values, seeing them in the light of the ideal. These are meta-values, too subtle to be perceived as ordinary values, yet possessing a precious information-energetic nature that, after being processed by Pisces, can become the foundation for developing, shaping, and fulfilling one’s mission.
In general, buddhic meditation is the process of changing values, beliefs, life positions, long-term programs for developing abilities, and actualizing talents.They change quite slowly, but at some point a person feels that they have qualitatively changed: a shift or reorientation occurs not in individual values but in entire large groups of them, and this change does not happen by chance but is based on a mature principle or meta-value that has ripened through long spiritual experience and significantly alters the hierarchical order. For example, values can be divided into external (social) and internal (virtues, talents), and a person may long prioritize the former over the latter, only to suddenly become disillusioned with any social activity, money, titles, etc., and turn to self-knowledge and inner development. This would mean that a meta-value has matured within them as a result of buddhic meditation, which they may formulate for themselves, for instance, as: “The Kingdom of God is within us.”
How exactly the Pisces channel transforms this and how beneficial it proves to be for an individual’s mission cannot be predicted in advance, since objective truth always has a chance of revealing itself as subjective illusion. When discussing and attempting to comprehend buddhic meditations, there is a great danger of equating them with their mental images. The mental-buddhic body, including the mental image of an existential worldview, is always far more primitive than the buddhic body itself. Among other things, a person is not inclined to display their true values, even to themselves, and there is a censorship of the subconscious that is very difficult to overcome. It is all the more important to approach the understanding of meta-values and other fruits of buddhic meditation with great care—these can only be grasped in a rough and approximate mental form, which, despite this, may sometimes prove valuable and useful for inner work.
Thus, while Aquarius actualizes the issue of inner honesty as the undistorted expression of life experience, Pisces poses the issue of spiritual honesty as the undistorted expression of soul transformations and experiences—something far more complex, since their comprehension and mental description are usually very approximate. Moreover, they often lack logic: indeed, why did I love my homeland—both its external and internal politics—for twenty years, only to burn out and completely focus on breeding pedigree dogs? I don’t know… something like that failed to meet my imperial hopes, but for some reason, those hopes lasted exactly twenty years before suddenly vanishing, and why dogs emerged in the first place remains unclear. Yet the lack of logic can still be reconciled. What is worse is that the very object of consideration is so subtle and delicate that it immediately resists coarse mental examination. As a result, a person is often reluctant to speak or even think about the fruits of buddhic meditation, and they flow into the Pisces channel completely uncontrollably, sometimes heavily polluting and poisoning the atmic soil.
This is especially dangerous when major buddhic programs come to an end—whether positively (the goal has been achieved) or negatively. At such moments, the buddhic tree dies but inevitably leaves behind final fruits that must be sent into the Pisces channel rather than trying to send them along with the withered trunk into Taurus. In plain terms, this can be expressed as follows: during long-term programs, a person accumulates a certain wisdom that is meant not to serve practical purposes but to strengthen their spiritual power. This wisdom is usually subjective in nature—often incomprehensible to others (though the person themselves may not realize this)—yet it is invaluable to them. The key is not to squander it on trivialities.
Working with zodiacal channels, in this sense, is a struggle against atheism, each case having its own resonance. Awareness of descending channels is a struggle against atheism of the first kind, so to speak, whose goal is to recognize the leading role of the higher body in a person’s life and to study its influence on the lower. Awareness of ascending channels, on the other hand, is a struggle against atheism of the second kind, whose purpose is to recognize the influence of the lower body and the responsibility it bears toward the higher.
At the level of the higher body and the channels of Aries and Pisces, these themes manifest, for example, as follows. An atheist of the first kind says: “There is no God, or if He exists, He is very distant, and therefore His influence on my life is negligible—almost as if He does not exist at all.” This denies the Aries channel. An atheist of the second kind asserts the opposite: “My life means nothing to God; I have no influence on Him and therefore bear no responsibility toward Him.” This denies the Pisces channel.
Thus, while denying Aries leads to a rebellious defiance of God—the Lucifer complex—denying Pisces results in fatalism as spiritual irresponsibility, i.e., the denial of one’s ability to influence their own and the world’s destiny in any way. It is therefore important to distinguish between Aries-like humility before the atmic will and Piscean fatalism, which serves to justify the most base emotional impulses and obviously profane values. Fatalism is by no means identical to godly fear, since its essence and hidden meaning lie precisely in the denial of Pisces, not in the affirmation of Aries.
When Aries is strongly activated, as they say, everything becomes clear: it seems that in the light of divine revelation, a person clearly sees their true and false values, and is filled with soulful energy, preparing to attain the former and discard the latter. As for the activation of Pisces, it is more reminiscent of the twilight of the gods: it is a report on completed soul work before a silently listening God, whose reaction is felt in the atmic body—either its soil becomes richer, more energetic, and better suited to the needs of the mission’s flower, or it is exhausted and impoverished. Yet both outcomes are perceived by the person indistinctly, and visible results take time to appear: until the flower grows, absorbing the transformed soil, and then drops a dry petal or leaf into the Aries channel, which will turn into the seed of a new value or life stance, a considerable amount of time may pass—years or even decades. Therefore, for someone seriously walking the path of self-knowledge, it becomes necessary at some point to cultivate atmic sensitivity, including creating a kind of analyzer of the atmic soil to immediately detect its impoverishment and poisoning, without waiting for it to manifest in the flesh of the atmic flower.
A few words should be said about how a person perceives and comprehends their atmic body as spiritual development progresses. This perception passes through several stages, briefly outlined as follows.
In the first stage, a person experiences their atmic body as a special energy of an intensely intimate nature, which lends an additional, uniquely personal coloring to their values and, to some extent, depends on their attainment. This energy gives them a sense of elevated solemnity and satisfaction, as well as great power over others, though its origin remains unclear and its manifestations uncontrollable. At this stage, the atmic body is undifferentiated and perceived as a whole, purely energetically; it is not seen at all.
In the second stage, the person separates the atmic body from the buddhic but only perceives its lower layers—the soil—as a certain spiritual potential sustained by the proper general course of life, though they cannot say what “proper” means. At the same time, they feel that this spiritual potential holds a certain power over them and indirectly influences their fate and changes in their value system, though the mechanism of this influence remains unclear.
In the third stage, the roots of the mission’s flower become visible, and the person senses many previously unseen connections in the events of their life. In a sense, only now does the word “destiny” acquire a concrete meaning for them. They feel that they do not live aimlessly but for a reason, though they still do not see how the different plotlines of their life connect or suspect that they must all be woven together.At the fourth stage, a person sees the flower of their mission in its entirety, that is, with its roots, stem, leaves, and flowers, but not in great detail, as if from a distance. Now their fate is a single whole for them, meaning all plot lines are connected and support one another, though not every event can be precisely attributed to a specific part of the mission. This is a high level of self-actualization when the question of the meaning of one’s life is resolved, a place in life is found, and intense work is carried out on the causal plane, constantly illuminated by an ideal.
At the fifth stage, a person sees their atmanic flower in great detail, tracking its vegetation, growth from the soil, the withering of leaves, and partially the connections with other atmanic flowers growing nearby. This is a fairly clear vision of the subtlest (atmanic) karma no further than the nearest social environment.
At the sixth stage, a person sees the unity of their life programs both with one another and in their temporal unfolding, and many connections between their mission and the missions of the broader social environment become clear to them. This is the level of nations, great social figures who change the fates of entire peoples. Here, the flower of the mission is perceived as part of a single meadow on which it grows.
At the seventh stage, a person perceives the atmanic air around the flower of the mission; this revelation of the unity of the atmanic plane is so clear to them that their fate and the fate of the world as a whole become one and the same concept.
At the first level of processing Pisces, a person has no understanding of this channel, and Piscean transmissions are perceived extremely vaguely, as “weirdness,” a “roof that’s come off,” and so on. Questions of mission formation and fulfillment, self-actualization, adequate compensation for the sacred wound, and taming the chaotic demon do not concern them, and changes in the value system often go unnoticed by their consciousness. They perceive the completion of buddhic meditations pragmatically, that is, from the perspective of their possible applications on the causal plane; the question of finding their place in the world does not trouble them, and they perceive the strengthening or weakening of personal charisma as occurring by their own efforts, without linking it to changes in moral image or worldview.
Thus, from the results of buddhic meditations, they are interested only in those that enter the Taurus channel, that is, dry leaves and branches, and they do not notice the fruits at all or attach no significance to them. This level is characterized by fatalism, that is, the belief that whatever one is, that is what one will be, and what is born cannot be escaped. If one is destined to be a great commander, then one will be one; if a thief, then one cannot escape that either. Pushed to the causal extreme, fatalism leaves a person with no free will at all, absolving them of moral responsibility for anything, including their own soul.
In addition to what might be called theoretical fatalism, the first level of Pisces processing is marked by value relativism and voluntarism, that is, the belief that no value system is better than another, and each person is free to choose the goals they like and pursue them. In this case, Arian influences are perceived as personal whims, and the person does not hold themselves accountable for the completion of buddhic meditations or their fruits. If a person’s values tend toward degeneration and the meta-values formed in this way poison the atmanic body, the person certainly feels something is wrong with them but expresses it in the vaguest terms (“I’m not the same as I used to be”), thinking along the lines that life’s cold experience and youth’s warm illusions are simply leaving their mark, rather than attributing their spiritual degradation (primarily, the lowering of their ideal) to the poisoned fruits yielded by the buddhic trees.
In our enlightened age, public consciousness offers a wide assortment of poisonous buddhic saplings with a guarantee of the corresponding quality of future fruits. If a person takes it upon themselves to cultivate them, at the first level of Pisces processing they can completely distort the brightest mission.
Below are seven examples of such saplings, which represent nihilistic life positions regarding the chakras.
Muladhara: The grave will straighten the hunchback.
Svadhisthana: If you don’t keep up, you won’t feed or make an enemy.
Manipura: You don’t roof houses in the rain, and the bucket won’t fill itself.
Anahata: Your own shirt is closer to your body.
Vishuddha: You can’t drink water from your face.
Ajna: Live and learn; you’ll die a fool.
Sahasrara: The church is near, but God is far away.
At the second level of Pisces processing, a person receives some forewarning of the mission: they notice that sometimes their life is a significantly more meaningful chain of events than it usually seems. This happens at moments of significant turns in fate; sometimes, in critical situations, they feel that they were long and carefully prepared for them in diverse ways, and the lines of this preparation suddenly come together, though previously they seemed completely heterogeneous and scattered.
Such moments in life—usually preceded by a strong Piscean transmission—seem very important to the person (at least in the moment of experiencing them), as they feel they
An overall plan of his life unfolds—so far only partially and in the most general outlines—but even this makes a very strong impression, especially in our atheistic-voluntarist age, when the flow of life seems to the mind a jumble of random events with faint traces of clumsy attempts to direct it by will.
This person distinguishes negative, poisonous Pisces transmissions from positive ones by their effect on his ideal: in the first case, the ideal merely loses strength and degrades, while in the second, on the contrary, its meaning and radiance grow. At this level, the end of buddhic meditation, the shift in values, and the formation of meta-values are still perceived rather vaguely, yet they are still recognized by the person as important changes in his soul and fate.
In the positive variant, he feels that his spiritual potential has grown, as has his authority in the eyes of others, his ability to influence human souls and destinies in general, and at the same time his own steadfastness in the sea of life: now he can, with good reason, create his own ethics and shape life around him in accordance with its rules.
In the negative variant of the Pisces transmission, by contrast, the person experiences a global decline of spirit, a fragmentation of his existence, incompatibility of life programs with one another, and their divergence from the ideal, which itself grows dim and fades; the person begins to fall into melancholy or flounder, instinctively seeking authorities and spiritual guidance in the external world, yet usually finding nothing worthy. Life loses its meaning and flows past somehow, yet the person is quite unable to understand the causes of this.
The main temptation of the second level is that the person confuses the fruits of buddhic development—especially meta-values—with their results, i.e., achieved values. He sometimes spends long years and decades striving for goals set in youth, consciously high and noble, yet upon achieving them, he does not feel spiritual joy, but instead falls into melancholy or looks for a new occupation without the influence of an ideal, merely to keep himself busy. It turns out that along the way, the ideal somehow dimmed and became a puppet, and no new one announces itself; the person cannot understand what is happening: after all, he wanted something better and more, and he achieved it!
The outcome is discouraging: though values attained through long labor, the path obscured the ideal, and the person did not notice how it became a puppet—guaranteeing the negative character of the meta-values produced at the end of buddhic meditation.
The problem is compounded by the fact that in this case, large cycles—feedback periods—are involved: achieving a serious external value, as well as developing a virtue or talent, requires a decade (or more), and just as much time may pass before the poison of the atmic ground soaks the flower of the mission, which will miss the poisoned petal of Aries, leading to a buddhic catastrophe.
The main achievement of the second level of Pisces processing is the beginning of understanding that values, talents, life positions, etc., must not only be noble and realized but also constantly evolve in a quite specific direction indicated by Aries transmissions, and the maximum value (and harm) for the main plot of a person’s life consists in the special side-fruits of this evolution—the vibrations that arise alongside it, as it were, its higher morality.
At the third level of Pisces processing, the person masters the truth that he is responsible before God for his abilities and talents, which are given to him not merely to amuse girls or serve as a source of income or a tool of socialization. Moreover, he senses which virtues he should cultivate (and from which bad habits and inclinations he should rid himself) in the current period of life, guessing what they will be needed for in the next few years.
If Aries is processed to the third level, the person masters operational feedback between the atmic and buddhic bodies, able to guess the beginning and see the end of the buddhic program from subtle external and internal signs, and thus avoids gross errors tied to the inconsistency of his ideal and values; the latter are mainly conscious to a person at this level, while the former is seen so clearly that he notices its changes in time and does not confuse them with a puppet.
This person pays attention to the meta-values produced by buddhic meditations and feels their importance for his spiritual development and self-actualization, yet he does not clearly imagine their transformation in the Pisces channel or what they become in the atmic body; he sees the biocenosis of the higher body overall correctly, but not in detail, and almost cannot control it, in particular lacking the art of purifying the poisoned fruits of buddhic meditations at the stage of their Pisces transformation.
Therefore, he tries to improve the quality of these fruits, most often distorting the natural direction of buddhic development determined by the Aries seed (growing on Aquarian soil) by artificially imposing on himself evolutionarily inflated values (this ailment is typical of the second level, yet relapses occur even at the third). For example, the atmic body, preparing the person for a certain turning point in fate (a change of profession), hints through Aries at the need to cultivate higher patience and neatness than are currently natural to him. For some reason, he begins to be irritated by disorder in the apartment and the lack of clarity in his business connections: he feels that he is too impatient and partly inconsistent.
The quietest inner voice tells him quite precisely: nothing major needs to be changed in life right now, yet stop making unnecessary calls, wash your dishes immediately after eating, and tidy up the apartment once a week as usual.
However, feeling the extraordinary importance of all this for himself and thinking that the matter lies not in specific circumstances but in character, he may impose on himself a far stricter discipline and in a short time cultivate the necessary virtues at a level far higher than needed. In doing so, he significantly weakens many of his life programs, disrupts the balance of the organism as a whole, and most importantly—cultivates meta-values that are entirely the wrong ones for the soil of his atmic flower.
Such an experience is not in vain at this level, and the person understands the higher goal of his buddhic efforts: they lie in supporting the mission and nothing else; in other words, the person moves away from the stereotypical values of societal subconsciousness, which he achieves with great effort, and learns to constantly hear the voice of the inner spiritual teacher—in our terminology, the faint Aries transmissions.
At this level, the person already better senses his mission, and many plotlines in his life are interconnected; past, present, and future are no longer perceived as hopelessly divided. Here, too, a high level of spiritual honesty and the habit of inner confession are developed, when the person becomes aware of changes in his life positions and value accents, catches the moral sense of these changes, and reports it to his God (the higher beginning). He feels that great sincerity and subtlety are required here, while mental models operate crudely and are therefore of limited significance (though sometimes they can still be useful).
Such inner confession differs sharply from repentance in the traditional religious sense—first, because its starting point is values and life positions, not specific events, and second, due to its complete lack of emotion: this is a person’s report on changes in his main life programs, not judged by him, or rather by his God, while any artificially imposed emotions disrupt the work of the Pisces channel even more strongly than inappropriate rationalizations.
At the fourth level of Pisces processing, the person already senses his atmic body much more clearly and can distinguish its vibrations from buddhic ones; this leads to a reversal of the significance accents of these bodies: now the person sees the atmic body as primary, while the buddhic is perceived as its instrument and source of nourishment.
This signifies a profound shift in worldview and perception, as all current values that define long-term programs of external and internal causal human development cease to be merely unimportant—they are perceived, so to speak, purely in a service capacity. Even meta-values, as fruits of buddhic meditations, stir the individual only in relation to the mission they are growing into. At this level, a person experiences the synthesis of Pisces, meaning the simultaneous influence of all fruits of their inner life upon fulfilling their mission, and partially masters the management of one of the most mysterious processes in the organism—the Piscean transformations of meta-values into spiritual potential.
At the same time, the paths and boundaries of change, or rather, the correction of their mission in the course of its realization, become apparent. This work can unfold in the present, past, or future, since the person now experiences the synthesis of their fate and its interconnectedness both through life programs and across time. Only now does it become clear not only to the mission itself but also to the ability to creatively alter it, considering the circumstances in which they incarnated. This is where their highest freedom and creativity lie: first accepting the obligatory contours of their mission, then realizing it in the most refined and creative manner.
At this level, a person perceives Piscean transmissions not so much as repentance or confession but as feedback that allows adjusting atmanic development in accordance with the current state of the buddhic body, its needs, and potential future imbalances. The general moral attitude toward the organism depends primarily on the era; the author hopes that in the Aquarian age, the idea of seeking the highest type of organismic equilibrium will prevail, rather than emphasizing one body over another, as was customary in the Piscean era. During that time, the prevalent idea was the sacrifice of certain bodies for the sake of others, resulting in grotesque forms of human and collective organisms and a low (crude) level of equilibrium they achieved.
However, the paths to a more refined equilibrium open up only when self-actualization has occurred—that is, when a person has found their place in life and is satisfied with it. After this, the main life concerns shift significantly, largely moving to the higher body, and Piscean aspects in the horoscope begin to interest the individual far more vividly than before, when they seemed like religious obscurantism or mystical haze. Strong Pisces pose problems that are utterly incomprehensible to others and often to the individual themselves.
The echo of Scorpio may bring heightened emotionality—but that is not the point, for whether they wish it or not, the person will remain deeply dependent on shifts in their worldview, value system, and life positions. The meta-values and metapositions that arise strongly influence their ideal, either confirming or negating it. At lower levels of Piscean processing, the individual scarcely recognizes such effects; rather, they feel their results: their passionarity has risen or, conversely, diminished—that is, their general drive to set and achieve distant, complex goals—yet they do not understand the source of this force.
At the same time, strong Pisces typically provide a powerful atmanic foundation, whose energies suffice not only to cultivate their own atmanic flower but also to assist the surrounding atmanic plane. A strong Pisces can indeed become a spiritual teacher in the truest sense—helping their students find themselves and their place in the world—but this assistance is fundamentally subtle. Learning to both give and receive it is difficult, and even with the best intentions, a person remains, for a long time, a more or less skillful manipulator who can replace one thing with another but is utterly incapable of bringing themselves or others even slightly closer to the true fulfillment of their mission.
As a result of such activity—often under the banner of spiritual discipleship, mentorship, or guidance—a soil inappropriate to the mission’s flower emerges beneath it, sometimes even poisonous to it, yet rich enough to sprout a multitude of weeds that strive to strangle the mission’s flower and take its place. If this occurs, the person either dies quickly or experiences a spiritual catastrophe in this incarnation—when, as they say, they sell their soul to the devil, surrendering control over theirThe mission assigns it to a rigid atmic egregore. At the same time, it still retains (as does the entire world) some freedom of choice, though much less than the average person, and escaping spiritual slavery is extremely difficult—most often, unfinished karmic work from this mission and the karma created under rigid control must be completed and resolved in subsequent incarnations. Here, it is crucial to understand that the theme of spiritual mentorship and discipleship, that is, preparing oneself and others to fulfill the mission, in one form or another, inevitably arises in the life of a strong Pisces (even if the person is a complete atheist and believes solely in the power of the electromagnetic field), and demands very responsible processing. First and foremost, this requires attention to the changes in their spiritual potential, the sense of self-actualization, and the feeling of unity with the world and their destiny.
Weak Pisces sharply reduce the relevance of the theme of spiritual discipleship and leadership, the search for one’s place in life, confirmation or rejection of an ideal, and spiritual life in the narrow sense. This does not mean that these themes are unimportant for the person—rather, they are resolved primarily indirectly, so to speak, through following a path, often without even realizing that a relationship with a particular partner served as pure spiritual discipleship, or that moving from one place of residence to another was essentially a spiritual initiation and the beginning of life under the direct light of an ideal.
Such a person struggles to learn how to pray correctly, and the need for inner (let alone outer) confession may be almost absent, resulting in a low level of religiosity in the social sense. Yet this does not imply distance from God or the insignificance of feedback with Him. With a strong Aries, a dangerous imbalance arises (a feeling like: “God is everything for me, but I am nothing to Him”), and processing Pisces becomes very important, even if the person perceives it as insignificant and unnecessary. With a weak Aries, a peculiar form of psychological distance from God emerges—but this does not mean His absence or inattention. The person sends Him quiet but deeply meaningful reports on the conclusions and results of their inner life.
Harmonious Pisces provide a person with excellent opportunities to compensate for and overcome the most severe inner crises, as well as a great temptation to misuse their own and others’ inner experiences. Here, the theme of feedback between the mission and its fulfillment at the level of the value system sounds muted, and even the most radical conclusions a person draws about themselves—not mentally, but existentially, based on decades of life—somehow harmoniously take root in their spiritual soil, continuing to nourish it for a long time.
The problem of harmonious Pisces is largely the problem of profaning a high ideal—particularly a religious one—and, in general, diminishing one’s mission. What God does not do—He makes everything for the better: any experience, including negative, is valuable—and even necessary—for my spiritual growth and self-knowledge! The collapse of values, disillusionment with oneself and life, seduction of the innocent, and transformation into a complete parasite—harmonious Pisces will justify and soften all of this, both in others and, of course, in themselves. Even meta-values arising from detachment from God, loss of connection with the mission, and devoted service (albeit temporary) to a rigid egregore turn into nourishing atmic soil—but what and how will grow from it?
Harmonious Pisces can be a wonderful gift of fate and its worst curse—it all depends on the person’s level of self-awareness and their processing of the channel. At a low level, they create serious obstacles to spiritual development: despite any inner turmoil or formation of negative meta-values, the person remains, on the whole, so complacent and satisfied with themselves that even issues of the buddhic level do not touch them. As a result, the soil around the flower of their mission becomes swampy and rots, and the person begins to suffocate: the light of the ideal still dims, and life becomes endlessly dull and meaningless.
Processing involves taking responsibility for quite serious problems, such as shattered fates of others, but the main work, as always, remains internal: the person has great potential—they could feed the suffering, return the lost to the true path, and heal the spiritually weak—but to begin doing this meaningfully, they must cultivate enough spiritual honesty to see where they lie to themselves and indulge on a grand scale, and repent not in words but in deeds.
Afflicted Pisces usually bring a difficult fate, as the flower of the mission is forced to grow in poorly suited soil—but this does not mean the person will be generally unhappy or struggle daily. Their problems will be poorly understood even by themselves, and their inner world is likely to be complex and dynamic. They will not be drawn to smooth, standard spiritual teachings of social significance, or they will seek their spiritual path on the stony shoulder of such teachings. Their relationships with spiritual teachers will be very complicated—for them and for the teachers—because beneath the proselyte’s fanatical enthusiasm lurk sharp doubts about themselves and their path, nihilism, pessimism, and a desire to disprove the teacher—ultimately, to strip them of authority.
If an afflicted Aries gives a fate somehow tied to god-defiance, afflicted Pisces pose the problem of betrayal of God, and first and foremost—betrayal of oneself, that is, failing to fulfill one’s mission. Here, the search for one’s place in the world, regardless of the person’s level of self-knowledge, will be long, and weaving the threads of life’s plotlines into a single meaningful narrative will be difficult, though their interweaving will be numerous and constant hints at the unity of the world and personal destiny will irritate their mystical imagination.
Such people are often superstitious and drawn to occultism and religious philosophy in one form or another, but their attempts to understand themselves and their purpose through meditative practices of any kind will fail (though they may provide temporary distraction). The reason is that to unite life’s plotlines, one must learn to live through them honestly, cultivate meta-values, and then transform them into a relatively acceptable soil for the mission—and with the latter point, afflicted Pisces face difficulties of an absolutely irrational nature, perhaps as karmic repayment for religious hypocrisy in past lives.
In any case, it will be very difficult for such a person to sincerely repent and confess to their God about their inner changes, and it may be even harder to implement the life values that emerge from such confession—but without this, they cannot understand their main purpose or fulfill their mission. The processing here is not only difficult—it is extremely subtle, requiring the cultivation of spiritual honesty and precision, concepts about which modern culture has the vaguest ideas. Yet precisely these people fulfill the most delicate and responsible karmic programs related to purifying and correcting the atmic plane, and the author sends them, often unnamed, a deep bow. Moscow—Aniškiai, 1991–92
