Like all other parts of the Christian Mysteries, the Transubstantiation of the Host has its spiritual counterpart inherited from the Mysteries of antiquity but still valid for our own time.
According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the Host, or sacred wafer of the Mass, is transformed miraculously into the very substance of the flesh of Christ and the wine of the Mass is transformed miraculously into His very blood. While the faithful followers of this teaching do not expect to see the wafer turn to flesh and the wine to blood, they hold that despite all appearances to the contrary, this transformation, or — more accurately — transubstantiation, does literally occur, being of essence, not form.
The esotericist sees behind this concept the vestigial doctrine of the Cosmic Transubstantiation by which the Archangelic Christ descends in light into the earth and gradually transmutes its substance into ether. Necessarily this process means the equal and continuing transmutation of everything that lives and grows upon the planet, down to its atomic structure. Thus all the fruits of the earth are in very truth the body and blood of Christ, and in a very special sense the body of the Initiate is transubstantiated in this Christ Light so that it is literally representative of Him. It is for this reason that certain early Gnostic cults saw their lnitiate leaders stand before them in the holy ceremonial. with arms outstretched to show them selves as a living cross.
For these Christed Men, or Initiates, were in an even greater degree transformed by the Christ Light than were the atoms of the planet and the lower kingdoms of life who share the planet with them. The lnitiate body, thus displayed as the Cross of Christ before the holy congregation, consisted of the Four Sacred Elements which are symbolized in the Four Sacred Letters of the Name of God.
As the priest officiates at the altar where the common substance is transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ, so at the cosmic Table of the Universe it is the Archangel Michael who is High Priest, and it is he who assists the Neophyte in the work of tran substantiation by which his body becomes Christed; but the other Archangels are also included in this work, since the four Archangels operate as a Crossification of the Life Forces of the cosmos.
Again, as the four Seasons are ruled by the four Archangels, the great celestial Festivals marking the Equinoxes and Solstices cor relate with the basic spiritual elements named in ancient Gre k philosophy Fire, Water, Air and Earth. These spiritual elements are not to be confused with the chemical elements discovered by modern science. Before the atomic age, science listed only ninety two elements but recently more than a hundred elements have been announced. These elements, however, are material, not spirit ual, whereas the Four Elements of antiquity were, so to speak, the ROOT of all of the physical elements, the four streams of ether from which the Root Substance emanated in the dawn of our Earth Period.
In the initiatory work of the Mystery Schools it is still customary to speak of the Four Elements, as we have done in previous chapters; just as it is customary to use the ancient terms Lesser Mysteries and Greater Mysteries, although the meanings of such terms have undergone an evolution since the closing of the old Mysteries in the end of the Arian Age.
During the four day interval which marks the culmination of each of the four Seasons, at the time of the Equinoxes and Solstices, the desire currents of the earth are stilled and spiritual forces take the ascendancy. It is this condition which makes the Planetary Festival a time favorable above all others for the Disciple to con tact the higher planes of nature, and to enter into the Temple of the Mysteries.
In that Temple, which is in the larger sense, the earth itself as perceived by spiritual organs (as the Eleusis legend also suggests), the candidate learns that the four Great Initiations bear a correspondence with the four Sacred Elements and with the four Sacred Seasons, and again with the four Archangels who govern the four Seasons.
At the time of the Winter Solstice, under the ministry of Gabriel and his Hosts of Archangels and Angels, the worthy Disciple is initiated into the Mysteries of the Earth Ceremonial, for the four vehicles in which man incarnates are also correlated to the four sacred Elements. During the Winter Solstice Season therefore the work of the Neophyte is concerned with the purification of the physical body, while the Disciple at the same time works toward its transmutation through a basic alchemistry which creates the "soft, white stone" of the Adept, the body immortal. This work, whether of physical purification in the case of the Neophyte or transmutation in the case of the Disciple, is not accomplished in one season or in one life time; but the degree to which the work is accomplished determines his fitness to take part in the sublime Earth Ceremonial of the Winter Solstice Season.
The Spring Equinox is correlated with the Initiation of Fire, under the guidance of the Archangel Raphael and his ministering Host, and the work undertaken has to do with the purification of the desire body and its transmutation into soul.
The Summer Solstice is correlated with the Initiation by Water, under the direction of the Archangel Uriel and his Angels, and the work done by them concerns the sensitizing and spiritualizing of the vital body, and its transmutation into corresponding soul power.
The Autumn Equinox correlates with the element of Air, and the work is under the direction of the glorious Michael and his Hosts, and is concerned, as St. Paul phrases it, with the renewing of the mind.
In our present stage of evolution, the work of Michael is the most important, as we have shown, for the spiritualization of the mind is the pivot of the entire scheme of human evolution. It is perhaps for this reason that the eminent modern spiritual scientist, Rudolf Steiner, gives to Michael a place more prominent than that given to the other Archangels whom he describes as aiding the evolution of humanity. The occultist knows that "the Mind is the Path", the avenue through which Spirit works upon and eventually conquers or transmutes matter and all things pertaining to the physi cal world. St. Paul understood this truth, and that is why he in sisted that his disciples must, above all else, Christ the mind. Where this Christing of the mind has taken place, man achieves mastery over heaven and earth; that is, over the four elements.
In foregoing chapters we have discussed the work which each of the four great Archangels accomplish during the course of his respective Sacred Seasons, but it is necessary also to realize some thing of the unseen work which is done by them continuously through out the year; for their work is not limited to one season. Each has one season in which his power is dominant; but all work unceasingly, passing from higher to lower planes of nature just as Christ does in His descent and ascent. and as man does in the cycle of rebirth. The Season which any one Archangel dominates is, in a sense. that time in which he may be said to be incarnated upon the earth; during the other Seasons he is operating on one or another of the four cosmic planes which include human evolution. Thus the work of the four Archangels is unceasing; it is a continuous interweaving of forces from one year's end to the next. They are always in the midst of the earth at all times and in all seasons, but in harmony with the cosmic forces weaving from star to star one is more in evidence than another at any given season. They work together, not separately.
The exchange of forces from one to another of these Archangels is part of the seasonal ebb and flow of the magnetic tides of the universe. But the earth is a sphere, and when it is winter at one place on the planet's surface it is summer at another; and when it is autumn in one place it is spring in another; and there are all the gradations of climate, of flora and fauna. with the variations of seasons from one latitude to another. Astronomically. however, the Sun's crossing of the equator stands as an isolated cosmical fact, and in the soul world its meaning remains as an Idea, or cosmic concept; and the same is true of the Solstices. The Greater Mysteries of the Christian Initiation are therefore astronomical rather than geographical, but the geographical elements are not ignored, for the world customs associated with the seasonal aspects of the Sacred Festivals do in fact reflect, however faintly, the eternal Truth which is known· in the soul world concerning them.
Regardless of what constellation of the Zodiac the Sun occupies at Equinox and Solstice, each of the four Archangels who rule the grand Festivals is known by his ancient title - Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel or Michael. But since the earth is a sphere, the "hidden" Archangel of the Gate opposite that in which the Sun stands con tinues to shine through the earth globe, and his forces therefore intermingle on the inner planes with those of the Archangel who governs the Festivity. Like the cherub of Ezekiel's vision who had four faces and turned not when he went, but went straightforward, so each of these Archangels is one aspect of a fourfold Cosmic Being, and when one is addressed all reply, no matter which face is turned earthward. Man sees but one Fa e at each season; the other Faces are hidden from him by the planet's bulk.
Thus when at the Winter Solstice the earth is impregnated by the powerful Love current sent forth by the Archangel Gabriel and all hearts rejoice in the Christmas season, the inner realms are suf fused with the beauty ray of Uriel: and when the Disciple enters the Temple to attend the Holy Night Ceremonial it is these Angels of beauty who attend him and awaken within him the rapture of the Christ Child. It was to this august Ceremonial of the Winter Solstice that the ancient writer referred when he wrote: "The Neo phyte glimpsed a vision of a vault beneath the earth shining amid the darkness. There at midnight he beheld the Sun blazing with a bright light and he entered the presence of the gods (Angels) above and the gods (Angels) below."
At the time of the Summer Solstice, on the contrary, it is Uriel who stands before the open Star Gate of the constellation Cancer, and it is his beauty which is reflected in the radiance of the summer; while on the inner planes Gabriel receives the candidate at the door of the Temple to conduct him to the Love Feast of the ascending Christ.
Again at the Spring Equinox, when Raphael guards the Star Gate of Aries, pouring into the earth his energizing ray, it is Michael who stands within the Temple in the soul world, and it is his spiritual valor which inspires the candidate to the Lenten sacrifices which precede the Easter Ceremonial of the Risen Life.
But when Autumn comes again to the world, and the Christ Spirit descends from His celestial home to resume once more His annual burden; when Michael stands before the Star Gate of Libra demanding self-judgement and renunciation of the enlightened candi date, then it is Raphael who shines within the sanctuary of the soul world, and it is his healing emanation which descends upon the candidate as he touches the hem of a new and resurrected life of the soul. lf the sword of judgement which called for Renunciation has left the aspiring soul weak with pain and sorrow, Raphael's cup of healing brings peace and strength.
It has long been the erroneous belief of the Christian wodd that the magnificent ceremonials of the ancient Mysteries, keyed to these sacred times and seasons, were wholly pagan and outmoded by the observance of the incoming Christian religion. But nothing is farther from the truth. It was a sure instinct which caused the ancient civilizations to retain, as far as possible, the primitive sense of identification with nature, for man has not yet outgrown the tutelage of his ancient mother and her hosts of helpers, visible and invisible.
The Mysteries have, perhaps, put off their old raiment; but the new Christ raiment, which is revealed to the Candidate through meditation and contemplation, is pure and perfect; seamless, trans parent, the veil in which the Earth Soul is enwrapped, hidden by that very clearness which seems to hide nothing at all.
Within this crystal veil which reveals all to him who has earned the right to see, but which reveals nothing to anyone else, the Cosmic Drama is repeated from age to age; and as we meditate upon this Drama, as we meditate upon the truths which are shown in tradition, in the arts, and in the secret places of the soul. we comprehend with an ever-deepening reverence' St. Paul's words: "In Him we live and move and have our being."
From the beginning of time the ancient Drama has shown the Way which leads to the Mount of Consummation in the Christ. The truly wise among the ancients understood this, and that is why the Ceremonials which they created were a prophecy and a promise of the Great Fulfillment. And so they wrote, "God left not Him self without witnesses through the ages, for the Holy Spirit worked through pagan systems to prepare the world for greater things than these." And therefore also it has been said that Christ is the heir of the ages, and therefore the ritual pattern of the pre Christian Mysteries reflect the divine scheme for the redemption of the human race and its ultimate reunion with God.
The celestial pageantry continues to be reflected in the ever changing beauty of nature: the calm, white stillness of winter; the exuberance and uprising joy of spring; the luxuriant beauty and fulfillment of midsummer; and the tender, golden melancholy of autumn; for nature is God in manifestation, and:
— Corinne Heline
