(As a back-drop to the drama enacted in each Sign this brief summary seems to integrate the Hercules Series)

The progress of Hercules from the mental plane, through the emotional or desire plane and out into physical manifestation, and then his journey through the twelve signs, and by means of the twelve labors, to the point where he becomes an inspired Initiate, can be outlined for us briefly in the following statement:

In Aries (March 21 - April 20, the Ram), (The dates given are approximate, they vary according to different authorities.) through the capture of the Man-Eating Mares, we see him make his start, react to thought impulse, and learn something of mind control. As the intelligent disciple, he starts out upon his career, beginning with an undefined spiritual urge to righteousness and ending as the world savior.

In Taurus (April 21 - May 20, the Bull), he has to learn the nature of desire, to transmute it into aspiration, to dominate sex, and use it rightly, and thus capture the Cretan Bull. This strong urge, and the potency of attraction, is that, as we shall see, which produces the great illusion, but which can, eventually, become the cause of illumination.

Passing on into the sign Gemini (May 21 - June 20, the Twins), the progress of the disciple, hitherto subjective and characterized by thought and desire, works out into expression on the physical plane. In this sign he arrives at knowledge of himself as a personality and gathers the golden apples of knowledge, subordinating to his enterprise the three aspects of the personal lower self, the physical body, the desire-feeling nature and the mind.

In Cancer (June 21 - July 21, the Crab), the higher faculty of the intuition is brought into play, and this is symbolized for us [226] in the capture of the elusive Doe, or Hind, sensitive and difficult to find. In his previous cycles of life experience, he has transmuted instinct into intellect, but now as the disciple, he must transmute intellect into intuition. The higher correspondences of all the lower powers have to be developed and utilized.

Thus equipped, in Leo (July 22 - August 21, the Lion), he undertakes the best known of his labors, the killing of the Nemean Lion. He demonstrates in this test the power to do two things and proves to his watching master, Eurystheus, that his refocused and coordinated personality is characterized by that determined courage which is the gift of people born in this sign, and he testifies through this labor also that the lower can be subordinated to the higher. Through the service rendered and the sanity of his procedure he gives a guarantee of the strength of his purpose.

We might regard these five labors in Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer and Leo, as covering the entire period of the Path of Probation, and the killing of the Nemean Lion is the climax of that part of the struggle. Now he is ready to tread the Path of Discipleship, in which the indwelling Christ is gradually revealed, matter is steadily subordinated to the uses of the soul, and the form aspect comes to be regarded simply as the mother of the Christ Child. This progressive knowledge begins in Virgo, the sixth sign, the sign of the manger, and is consummated in Capricorn, the tenth sign, the birth sign of all the sun gods. On the Path of Discipleship, he has, secondly, to demonstrate that he has overcome illusion, that the magical glamor that matter imposes upon spirit no longer deludes. This is dramatically shown in the labor performed in Scorpio, the killing of the Nine-Headed Hydra. After Capricorn, he becomes a server of humanity, consecrated to the work of the Hierarchy, and this spiritual dedication to service finds its expression in the two last signs of the zodiacal round, those of Aquarius and Pisces. [227]

In Virgo (August 22 - September 21, the Virgin), therefore, the first of the disciple signs, he performs his sixth labor, and seizes the girdle of Hippolyte, the Queen of the Amazons. It is interesting to note that the first labor on the probationary path started with a partial failure, in Aries, and the first labor on the Path of Discipleship in Virgo is also "done, but badly done". The disciple must never be off his guard, for there is always the danger of error and of mistake. His very virtues can become his problem and we are told that it is possible even for a high initiate son of God to drop back from the Path of Attainment. His failure is, however, only temporary. Fresh opportunities occur. The consequence of his mistake has been delay, but the day of restoration and of renewal inevitably recurs. In Virgo we have depicted the preparation for the first initiation, the birth of the Christ, called in Christianity the birth of the Christ in the heart. This is a physical plane happening as well as a transcendental one, as we find when we study the signs of Virgo and of Capricorn.

In Libra (September 22 - October 21, the Balance), Hercules captures the Boar and, through the performance of this labor, demonstrates his fitness to take the second initiation, which concerns the emotional body. He balances the pairs of opposites and demonstrates it in an amusing and symbolic manner. He proves that poise and equilibrium are now achieved characteristics and that he is fit to undertake the tremendous task provided for him in the next sign.

In Scorpio (October 23 - November 22, the Scorpion), he enters upon his supreme test, which is also the supreme test for humanity, and which, if we study the times and seasons, appears that to which humanity is subjected at the present time. The problem before Hercules was his emancipation from illusion and the freeing of perception from the mists and miasmas, the glamor and the appearances, behind which Reality veils itself. In this sign he passes successfully through his greatest trial and [228] thenceforth his problem changes. He has controlled and demonstrated his capacity to overcome desire; he is poised and balanced in his point of view; now, because he is no longer taken in by that which appears and because he can walk one-pointedly in the Light, he becomes a world worker.

This one-pointedness is demonstrated for us in Sagittarius (November 23  - December 22, the Archer), where we have the consummation of the task begun in Aries, which was the right use and control of thought. In Aries he captured the Man-Eating Mares and bent them to his use. Now he slays the Man-Eating Birds of Stymphalus and puts an end to all tendencies to use thought destructively.

In Capricorn (December 23 - January 20, the Goat), he becomes an initiate and appears before the world as a savior, a liberated son of God, able to work in Hell, on Earth, or in Heaven. He carries Cerberus up from Hades, and through the symbolism of the three-headed dog portrays the elevation of the personality, the triple matter aspect, into Heaven. Thus he demonstrates that he has undergone the necessary development and experienced the strengthening tests which will enable him successfully to pass through the experience of the third initiation, that of the Transfiguration.

The next two signs, Aquarius and Pisces, show us the liberated Hercules at his work, the saving of the world. His tests are no longer personal and individual, but are universal in their application and demonstrate to us the inclusiveness of the consciousness and the vastness of the methods employed by the disciple who has climbed the mountain in Capricorn and has no longer any personal problems.

In Aquarius (January 21 - February 19, the Water Carrier), Hercules cleaned the Augean Stables by turning a river through them. They had not been cleaned for many years. Thus did he symbolically pour out the cleansing waters in service to man. This is the important sign into which we are now entering; the [229] most menial of all the labors falls in this, next to the culminating labor of all. One may think with reverence of Jesus the Christ washing the feet of his disciples, after following the man with the water pitcher on his shoulder, into the upper room.

In Pisces (February 20 - March 20, the Fishes), we find by contrast the most exalted symbol. For here Hercules captured the Red Cattle, placed them in a golden bowl (the Holy Grail), and flew them to the Temple. Such is the crowning beauty of the sign in which man becomes a world savior, all that is of animality having been redeemed and transcended. Interpolated.

This short analysis of the twelve labors will give us a somewhat synthetic picture of the work done by every disciple who is truly in earnest, as he progresses from Aries to Pisces. It is a work arduous, slow and carried forward under great difficulties, and often in blind ignorance of the forces released and of the results to be achieved. But step by step the aspirant is led along the path of self-knowledge. His character and nature have been tested and tried until the qualities which characterize the form have been transmuted into those which reveal the soul.

"The help has to come from a source other than this limited existence, but this source must not be something wholly outside us, in the sense that it has no understanding of our limitations, and hence is not in any way sympathetic with us. The source of help must have the same heart as ours so that there will be a current of compassion running between the two. The source-power must be within us and yet outside. If not within us, it could not understand us; if not outside, it would be subject to the same conditions. This is an eternal problem, to be and not to be, to be within and yet to be outside, to be finite and yet ready to serve the infinite."

D. T. Suzuki.