Man is a universe in miniature. All that lies about him in the heavens and upon the earth have their small reflection in his being. Like lxion in the Grecian myth he is bound upon a wheel. the wheel of nature, and he must perforce turn with that wheel until such time as he learns to perform consciously for himself those cosmic functions which he has hitherto performed unconsciously under the impulsion of unseen powers and the guidance of angelic intelli gences.
So the great wheel of the universe turns, and to the man on earth it brings seedtime and harvest, light and darkness, heat and cold.
But there is another side of the wheel which is unknown to the multitudes of men living upon the earth: the wheel of the gods, which is the universe as it appears to the eye of the spirit. Viewed spiritually the universe is seen as a living organism, whose intelligent purpose reveals itself in what men call the laws of nature.
These laws of nature are spiritual as well as material. That is, the laws of nature include laws of soul. of mind, and of spirit; they are not merely laws governing matter.
Man as a spiritual entity is a part of nature spiritually regarded, just as, regarded physically, he is a part of physical nature, with body made up of the elements which constitute matter. Thus when ancient sages declared that nature is reflected in man they meant far more than that nature's physical laws were represented in his body chemistry.
Viewed with the eye of spirit, each season as it comes and goes renders its own unique contribution to human unfoldment, and the gifts it brings are spiritual as well as material.
"God is the youth of the universe," wrote Edwin Markham, "and because of this each year April returns to the earth."
As the earth's year has four turning points which correspond to the four turning points of the planet's path around the Sun at Equinoxes and Solstices, so in the great cycle of soul unfoldment there are Four Greater Initiations or Mysteries, and Nine Lesser Mysteries leading up to these.
The ancients observed four great Festivals during the year; esoterically speaking, these belong to the Greater Mysteries. Adopted into Christianity they became, in their outer aspect, the chief re ligious festivals of the Church: the Winter Solstice with its Christ Mass or Christmas; the Spring Equinox with Easter; the Summer Solstice with Feast of St. John and Pentecost (Whitsuntide or the Ascension); and the Autumn Equinox with Michaelmas, the Mass or Feast of St. Michael the Archangel.
The Mysteries were not revealed in their true character until Christ came and rent the veil of the sanctuary. From these new Christ Mysteries of the early Church comes the tradition, as mention ed also in the Talmud, that Jesus performed his miracles by use of the Sacred Name, the Ineffable Word which is the Lost Key of Masonry. And St. Jerome, writing for the Roman Church as late as the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., said that there are in the Hebrew scriptures Nine Great Names of God, of which the Ninth is the Holy Tetragrammaton. This is the Word inscribed upon the central pillar which upholds the universe, the Pillar of Beauty, and around which the cosmos revolves. Inscribed vertically upon the pillar it outlines the Divine Man, who was made flesh upon our planet in Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians call the Savior of the World. Let him that readeth understand, for these are the Nine Keys of the Lesser Mysteries; the Ninth Key of the Initiate being also the First Key of the Adept.
Because of increasing materialism the Mystery Temples were removed from the physical plane, hut they continued to exist on the etheric. With the coming of the Aquarian or Air Age they will again be restored in their outer form also; and in that day, those found worthy to partake cif the sacred Rites will demonstrate greater spiritual powers than even the early Christians were able to do.
It must he understood that the earth globe is surrounded by sheaths of increasing tenuosity, which also interpenetrate the globe throughout. The sheaths, or envelopes, extend out into space far beyond the surface of the planet. The finer spheres are composed of ether, and of astral. mental and spiritual force substance in the order named. The Christian Mystery Temple has its densest ex pression in the ethers above the city of Jerusalem.
Man also possesses finer sheaths or bodies which interpenetrate and extend beyond the physical. -In order to enter the etheric Temple of the Christ Mysteries .he must learn to function consciously in his ethereal body, that body which St. Paul calls the psychical or Soul Body. The four Degrees of the greater Temple work correlate not only with the four Sacred Seasons but also with the four sheaths of man and planet.
The Temple of which we speak has been described poetically by St. John in his Book of Revelation. The twelve Gates of this Temple are guarded by the twelve Disciples. Esoterically speaking, there are twelve types of humanity, and eventually every member of our life wave will be drawn to this Temple, passing through the Gate whiLn corresponds to his Way or Path, under the guidance of the Disciple presiding thereat.
The Temple activities of the Autur:m Equinox are under the direction of all twelve Disciples, for this is the time when the awakening to the higher life is most general, and thousands of earnest souls feel the call of the Spirit. At the Autumn Equinox conditions are most propitious for passing from the physical to the etheric realm.
At the Winter Solstice the forces of the etheric plane are conjoined with those of the astral. Here the Temple activities are under the special charge of Angels: The keynote of the time is Love, and over the Door are inscribed these words: "Love ye one another as I have loved you." In this magical season the power of Love is paramount. The most calloused hearts are touched, if only women tarily, by the transforming flame as the Angels draw close to earth and are beheld by many, and their presence sensed intuitively by many more who cannot see them.
Where the forces of astral and mental realms meet, the Temple gates open for the Spring Equinox. Now Temple activities are under the special guidance of Archangels. The keynote of this Festival is Spiritual Power. Little can be said of the work accomplished, for those who partake have become more than man; they have begun to put on the robes of pure divinity.
As the forces of the mental realm unite with those of the spiritual, the full splendor and glory of the Temple are revealed, for the Summer Solstice and its activities come under the guidance of four exalted celestial Beings. One of these Beings "rules" during each of the three month periods which constitute the Sacred Seasons: Michael at the Autumn Equinox, Gabriel at the Winter Solstice, Raphael at the Vernal Equinox, and Uriel at the Summer Solstice. But just as the twelve Disciples together presided over the functions of the Autumn Equinox, so now the four Archangels together preside over the sublime Rite of the Summer Solstice at its culmination. Here all separateness yields to unity. The keynote of the season is Spiritual Ecstasy.
The day must come to every man when the veil parts from before the face of nature and he sees in their true form the intelligences which have been his invisible guides and mentors, and among whom he now learns to move and labor in complete consciousness. The pagans called these powers gods and goddesses; the late Hebrews and Christians (as shown in the Dead Sea texts) supplanted these terms with the words Angels or Messengers, and as such they are generally known today.
But the Christ Mysteries cannot be restored until humanity in general once more recognizes the high import of the Sacred Seasons. This awakening is now not far away. Since 1950 mass thought has turned ever more eagerly toward holy truths, and the signs of the times are such as to promise sure fulfillment of Madame Blavatsky's prophecy that a new messenger would be sent to the world in 1975 (a century after her own founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875). Other messengers will follow to lead the world into the Aquarian Age proper.
A few pioneers of that glorious Age are even now striving to reawaken in the mass consciousness some comprehension of the cosmic Festivals, together with their earthly correspondences. With Art, Science and Religion again united in the Temple, ceremonial will have its place as a pure art-form; for ceremony, when co-ordinated with cosmic forces, is a channel through which the imagination is awakened to dynamic spiritual power, and man becomes able to collaborate with the gods by its use; able to control, in some measure at least, the wheel of nature upon which he is bound.
The multitudes of that day may indeed see no more than the dramatic spectacle, the grand convocation; but to the ever-enlarging circle of Initiates the New Age ceremonials will be as an open path way to the gods.
Such ceremonials must of necessity take into account the season al changes characteristic of the latitude and geography of the place where they are enacted. In the northern hemisphere it is customary to think of the solar year (as distinguished from the calendar year} as starting with the Equinox in Pisces-Aries; the season when: color and music seem to return to the earth after the gloom of winter.
Of course the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere, There spring is associated with the Equinox in Virgo-Libra; but the time of spring's coming varies from latitude to latitude, from equator to the poles, in both hemispheres. Since the Mysteries of the post-Atlantean Epoch were created largely in the northern hemisphere (which includes most of the land area of the globe and therefore also most of its population). and since the Mysteries included great dramatic spectacles representative of natural phenomena, it is the northern landscape which furnishes most of the allegorical material of the Mystery drama as we know it today and as the ancients knew it. That will not always be so; in the New Age the Mystery School of the southern hemisphere will also come into its own.
Spiritually interpreted, however, the northern allegories are universally applicable. It is the Idea of Spring, eternally new in the Mind of God, which is important to the soul. In spiritual conscious ness neither time nor space exist. Meditation bridges all seasons and attunes the aspirant in the Mysteries to the archetypal world where all is Now and Here.
The Neophyte learns therefore to think in terms of a soul-year which opens for him with the Autumn Equinox, no matter where he may live on the earth's surface. At this time a new spiritual im pulse descends upon the earth globe and so the esotericist says that the soul of the earth begins then to awaken, and man's spiritual consciousness begins to awaken with it. In consonance with this cosmic downpouring, the Neophyte begins his spiritual work, the work that is to produce the pure White Stone, in the season of the Autumn Equinox, which may or may not be the fall of the year where he resides.
It is the astronomical and not the geophysical aspects of the seasons which are important in the Mysteries, which deal directly with archetypal forces.
Regardless then of where he may be situated geographically, the Neophyte's First Work is a work of the Autumn Equinox. The Second Work belongs to the Winter Solstice; the Third Work to the Spring Equinox; and the Fourth Work to the Summer Solstice. Four keywords give the clue to the work accomplished in each Season: for the Autumn Equinox, Preparation (purification); for the Winter Solstice, Dedication; for the Spring Equinox, Resurrection (transmutation, new life); and for the Summer Solstice, Consumma tion ( transformation, the ecstasy of fulfillment). which the alchemists called bringing the Great White Work to its lunar perfection.
It was in reference to this final work that the Christ said to His Disciples, "I go unto my Father... ye cannot follow me now, but ye shall follow me later."
The Christ is a Cosmic Being and His life is outlined in the stars. Initiation in the Christian Mysteries is also a cosmic process whereby human evolution is accelerated so that man may the sooner join the fellowship of Angels, a work most beautifully exemplified in the life and labors of Mary of Nazareth. The Path of the Christ as dramatized in the solar ceremonies is also the Path of Initiation for every man. "As above, so it is below." All men are Christs in the making. The stars outpicture an anticipated biography for them as well as for the World Saviors. The awakening of the Christ within man is the consummation of our present phase of earthly evolution.
By prayerfully meditating upon these truths the Disciple finds a new and holier interpretation of the Christ's parting words: "Lo, I am with you always. even unto the end of the world." He comes to understand by first hand personal experience the harmony existing between the life of Christ and the cycles of nature, for nature is God in manifestation. Thus does he take upon himself some of the divine qualities of the World Saviors, and joins the ever growing host whose primary aim it is to assist the Christ in His redemptive labors for humanity.
— Corinne Heline
