Seen from a broad perspective,
the ascent of consciousness and the descent of transforming power
constitutes a single bipolar process;
but in the life of a particular individual,
one of the two polarities, or directions usually is emphasized.
Each movement has its own requirements,
its special modes of activity and its characteristic features.
The mystic seeks union with the Divine;
the avatar (or in a more limited sense, the truly creative genius)
carries the transformative power of the Divine into the field of society and culture –
perhaps even of matter itself.
He fecundates this field with "seed ideas"
and with the vision of the next phase of achievement
in the evolution of planetary humanity.
In both the avatar and the mystic,
the I-sense – which today actually means the personal ego –
has to be transformed and transfigured.
But the mystic seeks either to make of his consciousness a quiet lake
unrippled by ego tensions or conflicts,
so that the light of the Divine may reflect itself
upon the inner mirror of the pacified heart,
or to completely lose himself in a "unitive state",
while the Avatar and the "inspirited" (rather than merely inspired) genius or hero,
uses his mind, his feelings, and even his total person as an accurately formed lens
to focus the flow of whatever spiritual energy it is his burden of destiny
to impress upon his mental, psychic, social or material environment.
In many instances this energy has initially a destructive character –
for the new reality has to emerge phoenix-like, out of the ashes of the consumed past;
yet it need not totally shatter the obsolescent forms,
if their inertia can be overcome by the fascinating power of the new vision.
-Humanistic to Transpersonal Astrology
