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| Simplified Scientific Christianity |
It is a spiritual axiom that behind every physical phenomenon of our universe lies its archetype. That field of causality we call Spirit, a field which is chaos to the unillumined mortal intellect but which is the seedground of cosmos to the illumined reason of the true mystic.
In the Mystery Temples of antiquity this was so well understood that the physical sciences and secular arts were looked upon as sacred and an aspect of religion; for it was really perceived that nature was a living alphabet through which God spoke to men. Initiate seers attached to the Temples read the phenomena of times and seasons as if they were hieroglyphs inscribed on space by the gods. Hence the curriculum of the Temple School included every branch of knowledge known to the human mind, summed up in the divine triad of Religion, Science, Art, which taken as a whole consti tuted the many-faceted diamond of truth, the divine wisdom, Gnosis or Sophia.
Of all the sciences, however, none was more sacred than astron omy and its sister science mathematics, which were the gift of the divine Hermes or Mercury, known in Babylon as the god Nabu (Nebo), patron of prophets and seers.
Smallest of all the planets known to the ancients, swallowed up as it were in the fiery furnace of the Sun, Mercury was nevertheless called the Captain of the Universe because he was the glittering symbol of the illumined reason, exemplified in the heavens in astronomical law and order and on earth in the luminous regularity of number and mathematical procedures. The triangle which enabled the farmer to measure his plots of earth gave to the priest-astronomer the measure of the universe; and to the priest-physician, in whose hand was the cure of soul as well as of body, the measure of the man.
Such was the reasoning of the Initiate in the ancient Mysteries, and by such reasoning he developed a science of the soul which has not yet been surpassed.
Today the world takes note of Equinoxes and Solstices as astro nomical events which influence the course of nature upon earth, but little realizes that these turning points of the earth's orbit have their corresponding significance in the soul life of the race. This know ledge the New Age Mystery School will restore, revealing the true character of the cosmic impulses which are released at these inter vals, and showing how man may learn to collaborate with them to his eternal benefit.
In what is sometimes termed t; "new" religion of tomorrow - although it is new only as a restateru2:lt of universal and everlasting verities - the primary sacred Festivals will once more, as in past ages, coincide with specific dates made significant by certain plane tary configurations in the skies, soch as those of special import at Equinoxes and Solstices and at New and Full Moon.
During the yearly cycle each month duplicates, in miniature as it were, the power of the four Sacred Seasons in the four phases of the Moon. The dark of the Moon corresponds to the Winter Solstice; the first quarter phase to the Spring Equinox; the Full Moon to the Summer Solstice; and the last quarter to the Autumn Equinox.
When the Mystery Schools are again established in their outer form, these four seasonal points, together with their correlated lu nar aspects, will be observed with an ever deepening reverence for their tremendous impacts on the body of the planet and the life of its humanity. Powerful and wonderful will be the spiritual demon strations during these high seasons.
The Mysteries of Egypt have had an influence upon Western culture little dreamed of by the scholars. "The power of God natural ly appeared to them first," wrote Eusebius, the third century Church historian, "and therefore, beyond all peoples, the work of His gospel teaching grew in strength among the Egyptians."
Egypt's Mysteries were handed down to the West by way of ancient Greece, whose profound veneration for all things Egyptian is well known, but only after strong opposition did they conquer Rome. In the Greek Mysteries, as in the Egyptian, the great re· ligious observances marked the four turning points of the year, al though .there were lesser festivals which preceded and followed the four major feasts, so that no month was without its sacred observance or holiday.
Some of the earliest of the great Egyptian festivals were celebrated at the Solstices. The most important of the Greek Mysteries were celebrated at the Equinoxes. Two spiritually potent stars shed their rays upon earth at these crucial times: the great blue-white diamond Sirius at the Solstices, and the magnificent golden Alcyone, star of the Equinoxes.
In Egypt particularly the solar festivals were celebrated with great pomp and pageantry and with impressive ceremonials in which priests carried the sacred books. The High Priest at Helio polis, the City of the Sun, was the chief astronomer of the land; and it was at Heliopolis that Moses was educated in all the knowledge of the Egyptians, just as in a later time Daniel and the prophets of the Exile received an education in the sciences of the Babylonians.
Egypt's long history saw first Sagittarius, then Scorpio, and then Libra, as constellations of the Autumn Equinox. This was the time during which the Vernal Equinox was retreating through the constellations of Gemini, Taurus, and Aries. It was in the Arian Age (when the Vernal Equinox was in Aries) that Akhnaton and Moses appeared in Egypt to launch the great monotheistic move ment which was destined to transform the world in the Name of Christ.
Egyptian priests said that it was through Scorpio, sign of the scorpion, that souls descended to earth, to be reborn at the Vernal Equinox by the power of the lamb, Aries. Spiritually interpreted. this yields. a close approximation to current Christian teachings: that the soul is tempted and falls through the Satanic power symbolized in Scorpio by the scorpion and is regenerated, reborn of water and spirit, through the Christ power symbolized in Aries, the Lamb of God.
Though channeled through Hebrew sources the Masonic legend of Hiram Abiff has strong Egyptian overtones, in addition to the more generally recognized Phoenician elements. Astrologically con sidered the murder of Hiram Abiff is a story of the Autumn Equinox. The three murderers are Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius. The dying Hiram is the Sun of winter, raised up at the Vernal Equinox by the Divine Word to become the World Savior, the Sun in Aries.
To the forces active at the time of the Autumn Equinox the Egyptians ascribed the origin of all evil. It was held that as this season ushered in the chill and darkness of winter, so likewise did the cosmic Scorpion bring temptation and sin into the souls of men.
The Egyptians were not alone in this belief. All peoples have worshipped a god whose strength and weakness were symbolized by light and darkness, by alternating warmth and cold, as marked by the passage of the Sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Hercules was revered among the Greeks for hundreds of years before the establishment of the Grecian states, his twelve labors describing the path of the Sun through the twelve signs. Among the Hebrews Jacob and his twelve sons bore a like significance, and later in Hebrew history the giant Samson.
In the Talmud it is stated that the Temple around which the spiritual life of Israel revolved was built half in light and half in shadow. In the Temple of Christianity today the work also goes forward half in light and half in darkness; for much has been lost.
Most Christians celebrate only two of the four sacred Festivals, the Winter Solstice (Christmas) and the Spring Equinox (Easter); and even these are celebrated only in their limited personal or his torical aspect. as feasts commemorating the birth, death and resur rection of the man Jesus of Nazareth. The cosmic significance has been forgotten. Of equal importance in the spiritual life of the planet are Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox, but these pass by virtually unnoticed, their corresponding festivals having fallen into general disuse. How literally true therefore is the ancient saying that the Temple stands in half light only!
At each of the four turning points of the earth in her orbit the planetary alignment is such that the gates of the spirit world open and release a fresh outpouring of spiritual forces upon the planet. The nature of the forces released differs with the seasons. Under their impact the earth undergoes a series of subtle changes. Even its atomic structure is modified, so that the etherealizing of its phys ical substance proceeds simultaneously with the increasing sensitiza tion of the life waves evolving upon and within it. Intercommunica tion between the physical and superphysical planes of nature takes place more widely and with greater ease; and so all who are sensitive to such influences are impelled to give expression, in one way or another, to emotions which arise in the depths of their being.
Astronomically the Equinoxes occur at opposite points where the Sun crosses the celestial equator, when the duration of day and night is equal and a state of cosmic equilibrium prevails. It may also be noted that the Equinoxes fall on the horizon line: the Vernal Equinox on the eastern horizon, the Autumnal Equinox on the west ern. Figuratively speaking, it is here that heaven and earth, spirit and matter, meet. Man occupies a position on the horizon line, partaking of the nature of both. As he responds to one or the other, the scales of destiny tip to right or left, toward light or darkness, good or evil, life or death.
The Cosmic Christ is the embodiment of solar force, and as such He makes four major contacts with our planet in the course of a year. the first ocurring at the Autumn Equinox. To the esoteric Christian this is the real Crucifixion, for then the Christ Spirit, as a Cosmic Being, takes upon Himself the cross of matter. At the Vernal Equinox, the time historically associated with His Crucifixion, He is actually liberated from this cross and returns to His Father in heaven. It is necessary to keep well in mind this distinction between the historical Crucifixion of Christ Jesus and the planetary Crucifixion of the Cosmic Christ.
In orthodox churches it is customary to lament, to pray, and to praise the Christ because He died once for us upon the Cross. In the wider conception of esoteric Christianity we come to realize that He sacrifices Himself perennially, and will continue to do so through all the cycles of ages that must yet run their course before the evolutionary plan for earth ha, been consummated; which means, until every member of the human race has evoked the Christ powers within himself.
St. Paul spoke from Initiate knowledge when he said, "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together... awaiting the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."
The cosmic cycle may also be compared with the chief events in the life of Christ Jesus as narrated in the Gospels. When the Sun enters Virgo a planetary Immaculate Conception takes place; when it enters Libra at the Autumn Equinox and the descending Christ Light touches the physical realm of earth, there comes the divine wonder of a planetary quickening.
From the Autumn Equinox until the Winter Solstice every day is a holy day, a time when one who is dedicated may walk increas ingly in the Christ Light. During each day of this sacred interval the Light penetrates more deeply into the body of earth until, at the Winter Solstice, it is focused at the very heart of the planet and the Hosts of heaven chant of the midnight birth of the year's new Sun.
Then the Christ Light gradually withdraws from the heart of the earth, until at Easter time it is seen rising upward from earth's surface like the lifting of a golden veil. The Christ completes His re-ascension at the time of the Summer Solstice, when the Sun enters the sign Cancer. As the Sun passes from Cancer into Leo He unites, amalgamates and transfixes the Fire Force of Leo with the Waters of Cancer, producing a spiritual amalgam which has the appearance of a vast sea of fluidic golden glory - the Molten Sea of the Mystic Mason. This takes place during the months of July and August, as the Ascended Christ restores and rebuilds the glo rious spirit body in which to return to earth at the Autumn Equinox. It is this body that will sustain all life-waves in evolution upon this planet - mineral, vegetable, animal and human - throughout the ensuing year.
Again it may be said that "as above, so it is below". Just as the lives of World Saviors, the Christ's in particular, are portrayed symbolically in the solar cycle, so also is the life of every man a correspondence of the four Sacred Seasons.
In the white silence and peace of the Winter Solstice is set the night of the Holy Birth, for to each human ego the turning earthward to resume the responsibilities of a new incarnational pilgrimage is a most holy event.
In the Spring Equinox, with its mighty outflowing and uprising life forces, we find the correspondence of Youth and its surging tides of enthusiasm and inspiration. Easter is therefore above all a Holy Youth Festival, as Christmas is the Festival of the Holy Child; and the world's resurrected Saviors have almost always been shown as young men who sacrificed themselves in the springtime of their lives.
The Summer Solstice ushers in the season of resplendent beauty, the culmination of the life force and creativity of nature. The human correspondence is the Adult, the fruit of the human race plant. The powers of soul which budded in Youth have grown and blossomed into the rich perfection of maturity.
And finally, with the Autumn Equinox there comes the time of harvest, or spiritual recapitulation. The Sun which rose with the Youth time and reached its zenith in summer, now glides softly toward the west, filling the horizon with golden glory. For this is the season of Age, wherein the human spirit, hallowed, purified, glorified, stands ready for the luminous transition. It is the time of the Great Passing, wherein the spirit in unbroken continuity of consciousness passes, awake and triumphant, from mortal life into immortality. No more is death either a sleep or a terror, but a bridge of light connecting the seen with the unseen.
Such, in brief. are the teachings of New Age Christianity which are treated of in the following pages. They are majestic concepts and transforming truths, presented not merely to satisfy intellectual inquiry but to induce a more spiritual way of living. As we grasp their meaning and put them into living practice, we are no more mere onlookers of the cosmic drama but a vita:1 part of it, co workers with the Christ in His divine task of establishing the Father's King dom upon the earth.
— Corinne Heline
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