The Summer Solstice Festival is above all else the Feast of Light and Beauty, and for this reason it comes under the guardian ship of Uriel, whose name means God is Light, or Light of God; and who dispenses the blessings of spiritual light and beauty through out the midsummer season.
Beauty and Vision are the keynotes of the Summer Solstice. Beauty and Vision characterize the activities of Uriel, the mighty Archangel. Legend has it that Uriel was the teacher of the prophet Esdras, and that it was amidst the beauty of meadows flowering with asphodel — the mystic Ardath — that he bestowed upon his pupil the gifts of spiritual vision whereby he saw the Christ face to face and prophesied His descent in the end of the age.
During the holy midsummertide, when the fields are a-flower and the mystic senses the supernatural ecstasy flowing through all living things, Uriel stands in the shining Star Gate of Cancer in his cosmic robe of ethereal blue, and the spaces in which the world floats are filled with the sparkling of microscopic stars,. the gift of the Cosmic Madonna. It is the intermingling of this mystical blue of the Archangel Uriel with the silver of the Mother of Stars that covers the face of nature at this time with a soft and silken veil; and in this intermingling lies the Mystery of the Summer Solstice, in celebration whereof the Mystery Temples are festooned in shining colors of blue and silver, while, in the midst of all, angelic and arch angelic Hosts chant their adoration of the Ascended Christ.
Now one who has eyes to see beholds how new streams of cosmic life are flowing into the earth from interstellar space by way of the Sun in Cancer; and these forces are, to spiritual vision, rayed forth by Uriel. the divine Archangel. The entire earth is veiled in a blue mist in which sparkle the myriads of silvery stars. But the veil does not stop at the surface of the planet. It falls softly into the earth, to the heart of the globe, and there, floating as it were amidst these soft mists, the flower Angels are busy tracing their cosmic patterns in silvery-blue lines, and from these patterns the little nature spirits, the little beings of fairyland, create the colors and forms which bloom upon the earth's surface.
In this lies one explanation of fairy tales which tell of a marvelous land underground, lit by no visible Sun, yet everywhere alight, in which are gardens of most wonderful flowers forever fresh and beautiful.
For him who is found worthy to enter the Temple the fairy vision now awakens, and he finds himself veritably in a new world — new, and yet old, for it has never been far away from the threshold of his ordinary senses. The opening of the new vision is by slow degrees. First he sees hosts of glimmering lights dancing like fireflies in all directions. Later, seen more clearly, these lights become the tenuous and lovely forms of the fairy world. As the vision continues to unfold, luminous sheaths of light seen flitting to and fro along the horizon become transformed into the exquisite figures of Angels. And as the vision expands still further, the tremulous waves of blue and silver mist appear to condense high above the earth, and there in the midst of the nebulous folds appears the sublime figure of the Archangel Uriel, cosmic guardian of the Summer Solstice, accompanied by multitudes of his ministers who pour forth their blessings upon the earth in the form and fragrance of celestial blossoms.
Of such blossoms are formed the wreaths which adorn the brow of the immortals of legend and of the faithful Disciple in the Christ Mysteries who stands at the open portal of the Temple await ing his Initiation in the Rite of the Mystic Marriage. And it is at this season of cosmic flowering that the earnest aspirant dedicates his life anew to the pursuit of that beauty which is also the Face of Love turned upon our world, inspiring him to live purely, as the flowers are pure, and with his heart turned always to the glorious Spiritual Sun toward which all creation yearns.
— Corinne Heline
