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For the Disciple. who knows something of the deeper aspects of the Easter Festival from first-hand experience, this is the glorious season of Transfiguration, in which he, following nature's pattern of blending the Water of Pisces with the Fire of Aries to produce the Resurrection-tide, learns to unite the cleansed fire of the desires with the purified emotions and to pour this liquid fire, this aurum potabile or drinkable gold as the alchemists termed it, into the new Soul Body of his personal resurrection or Initiation.
He does not merely observe in outward ceremonial the rising of the Easter Sun as do the majority of Christians and even the Neophyte on the Path. but beholds with the eye of spirit the glory of the risen Archangelic Christ. He is acutely aware, on Easter morn, of His nearness; he bathes in the outpouring of His bless ing and feels himself at one with the mighty stream of love and compassion which pours out upon the renascent earth.
He knows that it is the ability to fashion the soul-garment of light. called the Soul Body, and to function in it in the spiritual world. which constitutes the work of Discipleship in the Easter Mysteries. Having achieved this, he has become that most blessed of all servers in the Master's Vineyard, the conscious Invisible Helper. As such, he is no longer impeded by physical limitations of time and space, but is free to respond to calls of suffering ones from land, sea or air, and during all the hours of the day and night. He gives his all in love and service, and in return is compensated by the supreme gift of the New Age Initiation, the ability "to travel in foreign countries" where he learns new crafts of the Spirit.
The conscious Invisible Helper knows as his prayer of dedication each night, "While my body is peacefully resting in sleep, may I still be found faithfully working in the vineyard of Christ, for as Spirit I need no rest."
In the trascendent beauty of the inner plane Easter Ceremonial the Disciple sees many of those yet living upon earth in bodies of flesh who, like himself, have earned the rare privilege of functioning in the radiant soul garment, and they move triumphantly, like shin ing stars, amidst the glad chorusing of the angelic hosts.
The work of Invisible Helpership was part of the Discipleship of the early Christian Church also, although this has long since been forgotten, and it was the witnessing of such transcendant Easter spectacles as we have described that moved the Initiates to hail one another on Easter day with the words: "The Christ is our Light."
To the Disciple who has acquired the freedom of the inner planes, the Easter Season brings renewal of the age old legends of the Holy Grail. These still sleep in the mass consciousness, in which the current scientific materialism has caused the senses of the spirit to lie dormant; but to the Disciple, in whom these senses are stirring from sleep, the ancient legends are alive and meaningful, now even more than in past ages.
There are, in every age, however sunk in materialism or psy chic corruption, germinal traditions, or legends, which belong not to time but to eternity. They kindle soft lights within the soul and awaken dim, fragrant memories, for they rise from some past event which struck deep into the race consciousness and cannot be forgot ten. Of such is the sweet, old legend which comes out of Galilee — the Quest of the Holy Grail.
The Grail was the Cup from which the Lord Christ celebrated the Rite of the Eucharist with the most advanced of His followers in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, just preceding the Crucifixion. The same Cup, according to the familiar legend, was used by one of these Disciples to receive the blood flowing from His wounded side on Calvary. As the Eucharist and the Calvary Event hold the deepest esotericism of the Christian religion, it is plain that the Quest of the Grail must lie at the very root of the Christian Mysteries.
There were two halls in which the Last Supper was served. One of these was occupied by women Disciples; the other by men. The women's tabie was presided over by the Blessed Mary; the men's by the Master. Thus polarity, the secret of the eucharistic power, was present not only in the bread and wine but also in the dual grouping of the attending Disciples. Initiation can never reach its highest development until man and woman, hand in hand, pass between the two columns that guard the portal of eternal Truth. This inner teaching has been forgotten by many esoteric groups. the Masons among them. The great Akhnaton, the Christ messenger to ancient Egypt and High Priest of the Mysteries during his hfc, entrusted the sublime Mystery of the Divine Feminine to his queen, Nefertiti. The splendid Pyramid of Gizeh stands as a memorial to the ancient Egyptian Initiation; and beside it is the Sphinx, emblem atic of the Mysteries of the Divine Feminine.
Long and arduous must be the labor of the aspirant who desires to partake of this holy Eucharistic Rite. Often many lifetimes are devoted to preparation alone. Thus the Disciples of the Christ were not ignorant fishermen, as commonly held, but had been carefuily trained by John the Baptist, an Essene, that they might be ready to receive the higher work of the Lord Christ.
It is for a good reason that one of the Grail legends states that after the Ascension Joseph of Arimathea took the consecrated Cup and, accompanied by Mary Magdalene and others of the early Christian School, went into Britain ( by way of France), and there founded the Grail Castle of Glastonbury. Many other beautiful legends are told of the Castle of the Grail in northern Spain. In these hallowed retreats the same esoteric truths were disseminated as given to the first Christians by the Master Himself. The focus of power in each of these Grail Castles was the Rite of the Eucharist. When the Christian brotherhood celebrated this holy Rite the bread and wine were so powerfully imbued with spiritual force that it was carried forth and used for the healing of the sick and afflicted. Some touched the sacred relics and others only looked upon them, but the heatings were instantaneous.
The Rite of the Eucharist belongs to ages immemorial. In the mystic formula of the bread and wine lies the secret of immortality: the equalizing of the two divine polarities in humankind, which has been symbolized from most ancient times in the mystic marriage of gods and goddesses. In Christianity the terms god and goddess are not generally used, for the Hierophants of the Christian Mysteries felt that these words led the mind away from contemplation of the Unity of the Supreme Being; they taught instead the use of the term Angel. which means Messenger, thus pointing, whenever the word is used, to the One Supreme God whose Messengers they were. They also ceased to speak of Angels as either masculine or feminine since in reality the polarities of the angelic life wave function in perfect equilibrium, so that sexuality as mankind knows it. is unknown to the Angels. Yet there was a time, in an earlier period of our solar system's evolution, when the Angels were, if not human, at least human-like, and at that time they had to evolve into the state wherein the opposites were resolved into unity.
Both in the Bible and in the kabbalistic books, the Feminine of Deity and the universe is distinctly recognized, but as Principle not person; and it is in just this sense that the Disciple — while yet in his novitiate — learns to think of polarity as the interaction of the two poles of Divine Principle in a creative unity, whereby all that exists was created in the beginning.
The doctrine of polarity was part of the science of the Mysteries in ancient times and understood even by those who, like Plotinus, continued to speak of gods and goddesses; since by these terms they meant no more than the Christian means when he speaks of Angels. The Initiate of the old Mysteries did not confuse the terms gods and goddesses with God, the Supreme Being, but looked upon them as His representatives and, as with our own Angels, he often pictured his gods and goddesses as winged. In the temples the Initiates were shown a dramatization of the sacred marriage rites of god and goddess: Isis and Osiris in Egypt, Ishtar and Tammuz in Babylon, Jachin and Boaz in what is now called Masonry, Joseph and Mary of the New Testament.
In the Easter Season they celebrated the "mating" of the Divine Principle in nature, as all about them the Waters of Pisces blended with the Fire of Aries, producing in their fusion the glorious floodtide of vernal life. The Christ laid these secrets open to whoever willed to receive them. and all were invited to partake freely of the Waters of His Cup.
Every equinoctial observance the world has ever known has been, and still is, a reflection of this Cosmic Passover of the Spring Equinox. The biblical Passover is the signature of the Old Dis pensation which has been superseded by the Eucharist, the signature of the new Christed Dispensation.
Thus in the mystic month of March (Pisces) the Cosmic Grail finds its reflection in the bursting green buds which are luminous with the white life force; miniature grails issuing forth from nature's heart when touched by the magic fires of Eastertide, to explode in a fairy world of blossom and leaf.
Again the power of the Cosmic Grail is foreshown in the beauty of the equinoctial Full Moon as it ascends in all its glory above the eastern horizon. The mystic emanations from this Moon of the Grail must impinge upon the earth before the Easter fires are lighted and mankind can know the full spiritual power of Easter morn.
As the Disciple remains faithful to the Quest, the Grail Cup is formed within his aura; that Lily Cup of which we have spoken, which shines with soft luminosity in the aura of the head and wreathes it with light. Without the presence of this Lily, blooming in the Soul Body, the Cup of the Lord's Supper is empty, and the Supper itself no more than a beautiful and inspiring ceremonial. the bread of which is powerless to sustain the heart.
But for him who has the Lily, each year on the night of the Spring Equinox, in the high realms of Paradise, there is spread a great Table of Light: and here are brought all who are accounted worthy — of every race, creed. cult and belief — to partake with Christ of this Bread of Heaven and Wine of the Spirit.
The Lord Christ is accompanied in this service by innumerable angelic beings chanting Gloria in Excelsis Deo — Glory to God in the Highest — celestial music which forms the soul-theme of all Temple chants and masses the world has known; celestial music which is, in fact, the Word, nourishing and sustaining all things that live upon the earth; celestial music which all mankind yearns to hear for it holds the panacea for every human ill. Richard Wagner heard this music with spiritual hearing, and transcribed it in the Grail motifs of Parsifal and Lohengrin, which one inspired critic has termed "infinite music". It is something of the power of the "infinite music" that the Disciple is beginning to comprehend, though faintly and afar off.
The Quest of the Grail is the quest for light, the quest for things eternal. It is the Way of Divine At-one-ment with God.
The Holy Grail and the Mystic Love Feast (the Eucharist) are inseparably connected. The Love Feast has formed the nucleus of the Temple Mysteries in every land since the beginning of time.
This is the theme immortalized by the celestial music of Parsifal. In the Temple scene the Grail is exposed, the Knights kneel in prayer. Suddenly the Grail glows and Angels sing in ecstasy. What has happened? It is a spiritual force, generated within the Knights themr selves and sent forth in blessing to the world, that causes the Grail to glow. It is in fact the same power that was generated in the Love Feast of the early Christians and poured into the sacred bread which was afterward taken out to hospitals and prisons to heal the sick. This important work they assembled to perform each evening at six o'clock. The "charged bread and wine" is thus the panacea or elixir drawn upon in every Mystery School, both ancient and modern. The spiritual development of the Knights or Disciples taking part in the service represents the highest attainment belonging to the earth plane. It is for those of the inner circle.
The powers of the Sacred Spear and the Holy Grail are close!y related. Before Parsifal can heal Amfortas, the Spear point must glow as does the Grail. The Spear represents the spinal spirit fire which when lifted to the head stimulates the pineal and pituitary glands; and as these organs awaken, their aura assumes a flower shape resembling a lily, as we have previously shown. Into this Grail, or Lily Cup, is poured the transmuted life essence, the power of which may be used to magnetize any external object chosen for the purpose and thus convert it into a magic talisman for healing; or it may operate without a talisman of any sort, by direct spiritual action in mental space.
The evil Klingsor, who sought to destroy the Grail Castle, could not use the Sacred Spear, he had not its power: but in the hands of ParsifaJ it could dissolve the evil garden created by Kling sor's black magic.
Melchizedek, High Priest and Hierophant of the Atlantean Mys teries, gave this magic secret of the Eucharist to Abraham, the Fifth Root Race pioneer, as the highest teaching for the Arian Age. Christ, the Supreme World Teacher, gave it to His mos.t advanced Disci ples at the culmination of His earth mission. The true meaning has been all but forgotten, but in the New Age this will be revived in its full mystic power.
Only the few now comprehend the Eucharistic Mystery in its deep inner import: yet no observance, however superficial. is unat tended by a downpouring of angelic power, and always there is the mystic chorus chanting: "Love grows cold without the observance of the Mystic Love Feast."
The Quest of the Disciple does not end with the Lord's Supper, celebrated at the Table of Light. When the Disciple has found him self at this Table, seated in the company of fellow "Knights" — although many are called and the door is open to all, there are only a few gathered here — he looks upon them and beholds a trans figured humanity, with bodies formed of a luminous celestial substance, and about their heads a nimbus of vibrating white light which seems to emanate from the pineal and pituitary glands, for they are filled with the living bread. There, also, clearly outlined within the aureole of light, is the sacred Wine Cup, otherwise known as the Lily, the glowing petals of which has been nourished by the Fire and Water of the Disciple's own spiritualized life-force.
The Companions who are seated about this Table are being prepared as teachers and leaders of the New Age and as guardians of the new race. Thus slowly but surely humanity is made ready for the glory of Aquaria.
After the Supper comes the Garden Rite. Few were the Companions who supped with Christ at the Table of Light. Fewer still are they who accompany Him to the Garden of Sorrow.
This is no passively observed drama; it is a living activity of the soul, and only that Disciple who has the strength to stand with Christ in darkness as in light can watch with Him in the Garden. Here he experiences with the Master, both as observer and actor, the final and supreme act of Transmutation. (For these alchemical processes are never completely separated one from the other: they may overlap, or run parallel, and are sometimes even superimposed.) Here the unreality of what is mortal is clearly evi denced and the Watcher learns to claim his divine heritage, which belongs not to this one incarnation alone but to all future lives in the cycles of time remaining to this Period.
The Garden to which the Disciple comes has twelve Gates, each guarded by one of the prototypal twelve Disciples of Christ Jesus. The Disciple is led by his own heart to his own Gate and to the Gate's Guardian, by whom he is admitted into the Garden. Each of the twelve Guardians is a gloriously beautiful figure, possess ing a wonderful calm, and radiating an aura of light across inestimable miles of inner space.
The work of transmutation inaugurated by the Archangel Michael at the Autumn Equinox continues as the foundational work of Discipleship at the Vernal Equinox. The sinister thought form built through man's ancient and continuing evil is not easily dissolved. Since man himself wrought this dark form, man must. in the final analysis, also dissipate it by his own efforts, although cosmic Powers stand by to aid him at all times.
The Disciple is taught by the Masters how to effect the trans mutation of this evil force. The three most advanced Disciples of Christ who took part in the prototypal Garden Rite were receiving instruction in the art of transmutation. The fact that they fell asleep und were not able, in the words of the Master, to watch with Him for one hour, is a veiled allusion to their lack of the power needed for its acomplishment. As the Disciple works to dissipate the dark thought form which hovers over the earth he is at the same time dissolving the form of his own Dweller on the Threshold. His Dweller, as he well knows by this time, is the symbolical form built through an accretion of all negative words, thoughts and deeds belonging to the entire cycle of his earth lives; and not until this Dweller is completely vanquished is it possible for him to pass through the portals of the Light Eternal. He will go in and out of the Garden many times before he penetrates to its inmost Mystery.
The Garden Rite is the last of the preparatory steps; it leads to Golgotha itself. On Golgotha, the Christ took upon Himself the burden of this world, and so lifted the mass consciousness of the race as to make Initiation possible to all. Before this Event, man was able to contact only the emanations of the Cosmic Christ from His throne in the Sun; with Golgotha the Christ became the personal Savior of every human being, and Hierophant of the new Mysteries.
The events of the Master's last days on earth are a kind of recapitulation of the initiatory ceremonials of the pre Christian Temples, for His coming was foreshadowed in them; but the Christ lived the Mysteries openly, thus "rending the veil of the Temple."
A tremendous power was released into the earth globe at each stage of the Christ 'drama, as it approached its climax on Golgotha; and the initiatory drama of the inner planes at Easter reflects these several emanations or inpourings of cosmic power as the Initiate relives the Christ life and becomes himself Christed, a center through which the vibrant, uplifting forces of the cosmos may work toward the world's regeneration.
The Temple Ceremonial of Easter comes under the supervision of the Archangel Raphael. Raphael is the Angel of healing, and he is therefore also the Angel of immortality; for as it has been said with much truth, every human ill is a little death, and death itself an ill to be healed. So also that darkness of the senses which se parates mankind from Paradise is an illusion which Raphael heals in his Mysteries, for he opens the senses of the soul so that, in Initiation, man may see and know. It is he, accordingly, who heals the invisible wounds of Golgotha, ministering to the spirit in the Tomb and preparing it for Resurrection.
The Temple Ceremonial observed on the inner planes on Good Friday is, contrary to popular usage, all joyousness and light. Here the Disciple learns that it is only because the senses of the soul have been dulled by misuse that this holy day is observed with sorrow and tears and contrition. Not so do Angels view this day.
Within the Temple on the inner planes stand three mighty crosses of light. The central and largest of the three radiates a force so powerful as to be felt throughout all the interior realms of the planet, and its image is impressed in multiple upon the ethers so that during the whole of the Easter season he who possesses the open vision of the seer beholds, wherever he may look, this cross fashioned of innumerable shining lights.
These three radiant crosses are symbolic of the Path of the Threefold Transfiguration which the Disciple himself must follow to the transformation of the dense body, the transmutation of the etheric body, and the glorification of desire body and mind, where by he achieves liberation.
From the midnight hours of Holy Saturday until the hours of the Mystic Sunrise on Easter morn, the inner realms are vibrant with living power. No power ever released upon the earth is compa rable with this which accompanies the Easter sunrise. Musicians who have felt and endeavored to express it in terms of our music give no more than an intimation of the reality; yet always the music of Easter is the chant of triumph, the- paean of victory, the song of unshadowed joy which floods the universe beyond all capacity of human genius to emulate.
So also the radiation which surrounds the resurrected Christ is beyond all human description. The soul world becomes as it were whirlpools and cascades of flowing melody which is at the same time visible as color and light and tangible as life and joy. If man kind once learned to attune itself to this music, sickness and sorrow would disappear from the earth immediately and forever.
Because of this outpouring Christ Song, this great pulsating force which ascends yearly from the center of the earth, the keynote of the planet is changing as it becomes attuned to the cosmic sym phony. St. John was caught up amidst the glories of lnWation to view this sublime spectacle of the earth being made new, and that is why he tells us so beautifully of the New Song which is sung by the Holy Ones.
Easter is the season of nature's resurrection, it is the time when the Christ glory illumines the earth's atmosphere, and it is the most joyous season of all for those who lay aside the shackles of flesh and come forth clad anew in the golden, radiant wedding garment of Spirit.
The medieval alchemists summed it up well when they said: "'It is in the form of the Mass that man will find described the precious Stone."
— Corinne Heline
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