When the Sun reaches its farthest point north of the celestial equator and the year has its longest day, astrologers say that it has entered the sign Cancer.
Cancer is the Mother sign of the heavens. In her heart well up the waters of life, as from a fountain fathomless as eternity itself. In these waters are generated the seeds of life which animate all physical forms, from the dawn to the twilight of this Cosmic Day of Manifestation which we call the Earth Period.
The music of the Summer Solstice is attuned to the keynote of fecundity, to the life rhythms which have their source in the Cosmic Feminine. Nurtured by cosmic Love, seeds expand and put forth their leaves and flowers and fruits in physical form. So impelling are the rhythms of the time that even mankind joins in the great creative work, commemorating the glories of God in music and the dance.
Under ordinary circumstances, the forces of the Cosmic Feminine are too high for human contact except as they are reflected in nature. Man's closest approach to the powerful Cancer current is actually through the archangelic realm of Capricorn, which stands opposite Cancer in the Zodiac. From Capricorn its reflected powers ray forth into the Spiritual Sun, and are then cast directly into the earth wherein they reinforce the powers of the planetary Christ in His redemptive work for the planet. These scintillant streams of life force from Cancer are poured upon the earth in three degrees of intensity, by way of Neptune, Jupiter, and the Moon - the three Cancerian planets. The Neptunian Ray is received and disseminated by the Christ, the Jupiterian Ray by the Archangel Uriel, and the Lunar Ray by the Archangel Gabriel.
The great mass of humanity responds only to the Lunar Ray during the Solstitial Seasons ( midwinter and midsummer); but all who are engaged in creative and artistic endeavors receive inspira tion through the Jupiter Ray, while those who are found worthy to pass beyond the shining Temple doors in Initiation come directly under the divine forces of Neptune.
Now the successful Neophyte, aspiring toward Discipleship in this sacred time, will, under the guidance of Uriel, begin to know something of the joy of expanded faculties, for truly· blessed are the eyes that see spiritually in this festival of Christ's Ascension.
It is in the effulgence of the power of Neptune that the Christ is lifted to the throne of God, where He begins to rebuild the glorious Light Body with which He will again clothe the earth at the follow ing Winter Solstice and wherein it will live and move for another year.
As the Sun enters Cancer, the Christ fashions the matrix of this Body of Light, and when the Sun enters Leo the matrix is in fused with the Fire of Love; and when it enters Virgo ( as shown previously) a planetary conception occurs as the Christ Ray touches the earth's atmosphere, to be followed by the planetary quickening when the Sun enters Libra at the Autumnal Equinox.
The Cross and the Star are the chief insignia of the Christian Mysteries. The Star symbolizes the Divine Coming, and the Cross the Divine Departure. As the four Sacred Seasons correlate closely with the principal events of the life of Christ, so do Cross and Star correlate with the spiritual meaning of the Sacred Seasons.
The Star we know as emblematic of the Holy Birth at the Winter Solstice, and the Cross as signifying the great liberation at the Spring Equinox. These two cosmic stations of the Sun are therefore linked together as Cross and Star.
But again at the Summer Solstice we find the Star, which now ascends to the summit of the heavens and melts away in the fires of the Sun: whence it descends at the Autumn Equinox to its plane tary immolation. Therefore these two stations of the Sun are also linked together as Cross and Star.
In the Zodiac, again, there is a star always associated by the ancients with the goddess of heaven; in Egypt called the Star of Isis, whose sunrise ascension marked the time of the rising of the Nile waters bringing life to that historic land: the star Sirius, which glitters in the darkness of Holy Night at the Winter Solstice. From Sirius flow divine currents into the winter world of the Archangel Gabriel. and also into the summer world of the Archangel Uriel. At midwinter the celestial Madonna, Cancer, stood near the zenith with Sirius not far off, when the Sun Child was born beneath the earth. At midsummer that Sun Child itself is in the sign of the Mother, and the currents flowing from Cancer and from nearby Sirius are transmitted through the Archangel Uriel and his archan gelic hosts. It is by means of these forces flowing from Sirius that Beauty as a Power will become manifest in the New Age man.
Thus the forces of the four signs governing Equinoxes and Sol stices, flowing across and through the earth globe, set their impress upon it in the form of a Cross; and for this reason Plato declared that the World Soul is crucified. And since the same Cross of the Seasons symbolizes the Path of Initiation, leading through the four major degrees of Birth, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension, the Christ said, "If you wish to be my disciple, you must take up your cross and follow me."
On the Path of the Neophyte the four Festivals of the year are milestones of light, for by Purification and Transmutation the cross which he has borne so long and faithfully becomes at last the Star of the victorious Disciple; and being admitted into the Temple by the Archangel Uriel. who guards the Gate, he comes into the presence of Gabriel who greets him as a Son of the Star, the name by which the Christ Initiates have been known ever since the Holy Mysteries were first founded by Michael in Atlantis, millennia ago.
— Corinne Heline
