Like Leo, which is ruled in all its three expressions (orthodox, esoteric and hierarchical) by the Sun, Cancer is the only other sign which is ruled by only one planet, though in orthodox astrology, the Moon is substituted for Neptune because it is the form nature which is dominant in the longest stage of human unfoldment, just as esoterically, it is the feeling-sensitive nature which dominates the average man; it is with this stable tendency that the disciple has to [322] wrestle. In the mass mind (of which Cancer is the truest expression), it is fortunate that Neptune is veiled by the Moon and that the form fails to register or step down many of the impacts to which the true man is sensitive. Average humanity is not yet fully equipped to bear the full range of these impacts, to handle them constructively or to transmute them and interpret them accurately. Upon the Path of Discipleship and along the line of esoteric development, one of the major difficulties and great problems of the disciple is his extreme sensitivity to impacts from every side and his rapid ability to respond to contacts coming from "all points of the compass, from every angle of the zodiacal wheel and from that which is within as well as from that which is without, from that which lies above, below, and upon every hand," as the Old Commentary expresses it. It is also as difficult and hard for the average student of modern times to grasp the mass-consciousness of Cancer as it is for him to grasp the group-awareness or the universal consciousness of Aquarius and to this final development, humanity is hierarchically related by the Moon, veiling Neptune. The average human being is just beginning to grasp the stage of the individual Christ consciousness of Virgo to which he is related by the same planet.

The unveiled Neptune relates Cancer to no other constellation or sign, and this fact is of very great importance, because it indicates the fact that when a man is an initiate, he does not react to ordinary feeling, sentiment or to personality relations as they express themselves in pleasure or pain. All these are surmounted and eventually the watery life of emotional reaction is superseded by the life of true and of inclusive love. Soul control esoterically "obliterates" the Moon and all traces of Neptunian life. The initiate is no longer ruled by the Mother of Forms or by the God of [323] the Waters. When the "waters break and are carried away," the Mother gives birth to the Son and that individual spiritual entity then stands free. I would ask you to ponder upon this point.

Indirectly, and via the influences of the Cardinal Cross (of which Cancer is a part), the Cancerian subject is affected by or influenced by five other planets, which are Mars, Mercury, Uranus, Venus and Saturn. The Cancerian subject becomes responsive to the uses of conflict (Mars), to the functioning of the light of intuition (Mercury) and to the cosmic pull of Uranus, plus the intellect of Venus and the presentation of opportunity (Saturn). These, however, play subjectively upon the dweller in the form and are not consciously registered as potencies by the individual for many aeons of time and not until the life of the form and the reaction to sensitive emotion-feeling has played an active and an educational part in the awakening of the mind. Once that awakening of desire and its transmutation into the higher aspiration has taken place, then the Virgo influence comes in and the responsive soul - developed by the five indirect influences of the Cardinal Cross - begins its active conscious participation in the drama of life. Thus the direct and the indirect influences of the seven planets play their [324] varied parts in man's unfoldment, and students would find it of interest and of value to relate the effects of these seven planetary forces to the unfolding seven principles of man.