At the Winter Solstice the Sun again turns northward after having reached its furthermost southern declination.
Like the Autumn Equinox, this physical phenomenon has its spiritual counterpart in the Cosmic Christ's ministry to our planet, for at the Winter Solstice the Christ Light reaches the inmost center of the globe. There it remains for the four days of the Festival Season proper, impregnating the sphere with its life.
The Hebrew Feast of Lights, which is celebrated in the winter season and sometimes overlaps the Christian Christmas, is a survival from the time when the Hebrews also celebrated the Winter Solstice and dedicated their altars to the new Light of the World. This aspect of the celebration has long since been forgotten by the majority of Jews and Christians alike. Today the Feast of Lights — or Feast of Dedication, as it is also known — is regarded solely as commemora ting the re-dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem in 165 B.C., after it had been profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes.
With the "birth" of the Sun inaugurating a new growth cycle, the earth and its inhabitants are made ready for a fresh beginning; and each year this beginning is on a higher level of the evolutionary spiral as a result of the Christ Impulse emanating from the mid winter Sun. Each succeeding year brings more of the energizing, regenerating Spirit than the previous one, and so planetary conditions grow more favorable to man's spiritual awakening and fulfillment.
As taught by the Rosicrucians esoteric Christianity varies some what from orthodox Christianity, although it shares with the latter a recognition of the ,great spiritual values brought to earth by the Christ. But His 6'.Ctual work for the human race is interpreted differently.
It has been shown in previous chapters that, according to the esoteric teaching, there is a cosmic Principle of Love and Wisdom which the spirituaL scientist identifies as the Cosmic Christ, and that this cosmic Principle has a special center within the solar orb which acts as governor of our solar system. From that central vantage point the Logos turns His attention to the planets of this system as each one reaches a place in evolution where it can respond to the particular influences He sends out, or where there is a spe cial need for His assistance. The earth planet reached that point about two thousand years ago, just before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
Now it is a law of the universe that, upon descent to lower worlds, a divine Being must conform to the laws governing those worlds in outward seeming at least. So the Cosmic Christ had to seek human embodiment. Great Initiates upon earth prepared for His Advent. Initiate members of the Order of Essenes brought forth the Child whom they named Jesus, who was thus under the care of the mystic brotherhood from his very birth and was prepared by them to be the vehicle for the descent of the Christ Archangel from the Sun. That is why it is stated in the New Testament: "The dayspring from on high hath visited us." The Sun Spirit Himself, the fountain (spring) of Light, had visited the earth.
The Christ, however, is of another order as we have seen. In o..ir present period of evolution, technically known as the Earth Period although it includes the whole solar system as at present constituted, the Christ is the Solar Regent or Logos: but as an in dividualized entity He belongs to a life wave two stages ahead of our own, technically known as Archangels. He is the highest Initiate among the Archangels, who, with a few exceptions, inhabit the Sun in astral fire-bodies invisible to human sight. He is far beyond the level of ordinary Archangels comprising the solar life wave, for He achieved union with Godhead in the Sun Period, the Second Great Creative (evolutionary) Day. At that early time, long before there was a solar system such as we now have, He dedicated Himself in service to all forms of life in what was to be that system. Neverthe less, the Christ is not God. He is the Solar Logos, Chief of the Archangels, but He is not the Supreme Deity.
It was the Master Jesus who was born in Bethlehem on the first Holy Night. The Christ Star hovered near, since Jesus was one day to be the means for His earthly "incarnation". That in carnation did not take place during the course of the infant's gesta tion but at the Baptism of Jesus by John in the River Jordan, a fact well known to the early Church but later repudiated. It was at the Baptism that the real Christ Birth took place, when Jesus surrendered his physical and etheric bodies to the glorious Archangel for use in His redemptive ministry to mankind. The Being who emerged from the waters of the Jordan was Christ Jesus, an Archangel in human flesh and unique in the course of evolution. It is nowhere suggested that such an incarnation will occur upon other planets: but conditions on earth necessitated its happening here.
We repeat, a unique Being came into existence, a God-Man, Christ Jesus. Divinity took on flesh and dwelt among men. The Love Light of God actually entered human embodiment. A power and a substance were planted, seed-like, in the stream of humanity, and they have worked transformingly in the collective consciousness of mankind from that day to this.
The Event on Golgotha terminated the earthly union of Jesus and the Christ. At that time the Christ Archangel abandoned the borrowed vehicles, and the Master Jesus reappropriated their seed atoms for future use. On leaving the body of Jesus, the Christ Arch angel (or Ray of the Spiritual Sun), entered directly into the earth sphere and assumed regency of our planet in a very special sense.
This labor of love was made necessary by the age-long influence of the Lucifer Spirits, as they are known in Christian esotericism.
These fallen Angels led mankind into its "fall", causing the human life wave to lag far behind in its evolutionary progress until it was in danger of losing its place in the scheme altogether. The death-dealing forces which had entered human evolution were such that, had no counteracting influences become operative, they would have led slowly but surely to racial annihilation. Of this we shall have more to say in our discussion of the Vernal Equinox.
Every year since His coming to earth as its Redeemer, the Christ has re-enacted on a cosmic scale the drama of two millennia past. With each recurring Winter Solstice He is "born" anew, and the planet is given a spiritual impulse that adds to its light and strengthens the Love Principle in the heart of men.
Christmas is made glorious by the Event which it commemo rates; it is made redemptive by the cosmic activity which takes place each year. Whether conscious of it or not, at this season all are exposed anew to a divine radiation working redemptively in our earthly sphere. When individuals participate in that activity with true understanding and high spiritual intent, their inner enrichment is increased enormously. That all might receive of these riches in abundance the Christ established His Mysteries among us, rending the veil of the Sanctuary which had formerly hidden them from the multitudes, and making them available to every seeking soul.
— Corinne Heline
