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The following is a compilation by Marie-José Clerc

from the writings of Max Heindel and the

Holy Bible which she prepared for a presentation

at Mount Ecclesia

Voluntary and Involuntary

Clairvoyance

from the Rosicrucian Point of View

       One can realize that he is not sufficiently aware of the influence, the effect, nor the impacts done on one or the other of one’s nervous systems, when he reads a book or attends a lecture.

Transparent Involuntary,

Voluntary Nervous Systems

         We have two nervous systems: the involuntary or sympathetic nervous system, that was first developed during the Moon Period, and the voluntary or cerebro-spinal nervous system, that has been developed, from the involuntary nervous system, during the Earth Period.

Transparent Involuntary,

Voluntary Clairvoyance, Normal Man

         We know that our nervous systems relate to the faculties of clairvoyance: the involuntary clairvoyance is connected with the involuntary (or sympathetic) nervous system, and the voluntary clairvoyance is connected with the voluntary (or cerebro-spinal) nervous system. Both kinds of clairvoyance also relate to the pituitary body and the pineal gland, however by a different way.

         Thus, we shall try to gather pieces of information on these two kinds of clairvoyance in both the Bible—given to humanity by the Recording Angels—and the Rosicrucian Teaching, given to Max Heindel by the Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order.

         Here are some pieces of information given by the Rosicrucian Teaching on both the Old and the New Testaments:

         “The Gospels are not simply stories of the life of an individual; they depict dramatically and in symbol the incidents in the path of attainment; they are formulæ of initiation.” (Q&AI, Q94)

         “Contrary to the ordinarily accepted opinion, the four Gospels are not at all the biography of Jesus, the Christ; they are Formulæ of initiation of four different Mystery Schools, and in order to veil their esoteric meaning, the life and ministry of the Christ is also intermingled.” (Q&AI, Q99)

         “In the first place let it be understood, as previously said in speaking of the Christian mysteries, that the four Gospels are not merely accounts of the life of a single individual, written by four different people, but they are symbolical of different Initiations. Paul says, ‘Until Christ be formed in you’. (Galatians 4:19; II Corinthians 13:5) Everyone will some day go through the four stages that are depicted in the four Gospels, for everyone is unfolding the Christ spirit within himself. And in saying this of the four Gospels, we may also apply the same assertion to a great part of the Old Testament, for it is a wonderful book of occultism.” (TI, pp. 192-193)

         These statements on both the Old and the New Testaments show the great importance that each candidate on the path should give to Bible study and understanding.

         Before reading some excerpts in the Bible, let us refer to The Message of the Stars, (MS, section Taurus-Scorpio pp. 16-25) where the meaning of both the involuntary and the voluntary clairvoyance is given. Here are some explanations concerning the word Naioth, that we read in the Bible, “On looking up the word ‘serpent’ in the Bible, we shall find that there are about seven words that have thus been translated; but one of them, which was borrowed from Egypt, is Naja. This word is found in the old tablets in the ancient temples of Egypt where Osiris, the Sun God, is hailed when arising from the primordial deep. He was then crowned with glory and has the Uræus Naja, an emblem of cosmic wisdom. The Uræus was a part of a serpent’s body, with its head depicted as protruding from a point in the forehead just above the nose, where the human spirit has its seat; and Christ therefore referred to the ancient Serpent Initiates, when He said, ‘Be ye wise as serpents’. ( Matthew 10:16) …The serpent is certainly not sufficiently sagacious to warrant a literal meaning of this saying; but when we understand that when the creative fire is drawn upwards through the serpentine spinal cord (note: that is to say through the voluntary or cerebro-spinal nervous system) it vibrates the pituitary body and the pineal gland, connecting the Ego with the invisible worlds by opening up a hidden sense, the allusion is perfectly clear.

         There is, however, a lower phase of spiritual development, symbolized in ancient times by placing the Uræus or serpent at the navel, to show that the mediumistic faculties in the solar plexus (note: the solar plexus is linked with the involuntary or sympathetic nervous system) had been developed. Mediumship is a negative phase of spiritual sight or hearing possessed by a person who, under the control of an outside intelligence, prophesies. This undesirable phase of seership was represented in the Zodiac by the symbol of the Scorpion, which has the sting in its tail. In the Serpent Initiate, the Creative Cosmic Fire was drawn upward through the head to serve a spiritual end; in the Medium the creative energy is expressed for selfish, sensual ends through the pro creative organ ruled by Scorpio.

         The point between the eyebrows, whence the serpent of wisdom protrudes, is the seat of life, whereas all that opens the womb is subject to the sting of death, contained in the Scorpion’s tail.

         If we now turn with this information to our Bible, we shall find that a great many things, previously obscure, will become clear. As said, the Egyptian word for this Uræus or serpent is Naja and it was borrowed by the Israelites who expressed the negative faculty of mediumship by affixing the feminine ending ‘oth,’ giving Naioth; while those able to function consciously in the spiritual worlds were given the positive, male plural ending ‘im,’ and were called Naim. If we read the nineteenth chapter of first Samuel with this understanding we shall readily see that the incident there narrated was of a mediumistic nature:”

         “And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David payed with his hand.” (Samuel 19:9)

         “And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fledm and escaped that night.” (I Samuel 19:10)

         “So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.” (I Samuel 19:18)

         The word Naioth is mentioned four times in chapter 19, and once in chapter 20.

         The word Endor is another word to know and to understand:

         “Then said Paul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor.” (I Samuel 28:7)

         Already at this time, it is forbidden to consult familiar spirits, as mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:10-11:

         “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,

         Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.”

         Let us go back to The Message of the Stars, where we still find other pieces of information on the same subject, “Naioth is supposed by Bible translators to be a place, and maybe a village so named. But if that was the case, it was because the people who lived in that place were Naioth, or mediums. They were called prophets in the chapter before us, and it is significant that as soon as anyone came within their camp, he commenced to prophesy or speak under control. Even Saul, who came there, anxious to get David away that he might slay him, was seized by the spirits and prophesied, to the amazement of all present.

         In the New Testament, (Luke 7:11-17 ) we are told that Christ went to the city of Nain and there raised the Son of a Widow. In the Latin Testament, this city was not called Nain, but Naim. And it is very significant that all three, Naim, Naioth and Endor where the sorceress that assisted Saul is supposed to have lived, are in the same locality by Mount Tabor.

         Every Freemason knows that the brethren of that Order are called ‘Sons of the Widow.’ And it is stated in the Bible that Hiram Abiff, the Master Builder of Solomon’s Temple, was the Son of a Widow, a cunning craftsman… But suffice it to say that in the Bible story to which reference has been made, we have one of the Naim, a Widow’s Son or initiate of the old Serpent School, for the priests of Egypt were ‘phree messen,’ children of light. Each had within, the ancient Serpent wisdom. But a new religion was being inaugurated, and it was necessary to raise the ancient Initiates to the Mysteries of the Coming Age. Therefore the Christ, the Lion of Judah, Lord of the new Kingdom, went to the Widow’s Son of Naim and raised him up by the strong grip of the Lion’s paw. And we may here emphasize that the first Initiate under the new system was Hiram Abiff, the highest Initiate of the old system, who, by this new initiation given him by the Christ, became a Christian, pledged to bear the Rose and the Cross, which were the symbols of the New Mystery Teachings of the Western World and he was then given the symbolical name, Christian Rosenkreuz.” (MS, pp. 23-24)

         Concerning the Lion of Judah, we may gather some pieces of information in both the Old and the New Testaments:

         “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck ot thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.

         Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

         The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”(Genesis 49:8-10)

         “And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.” (Matthew 2:6)

         “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” (Revelation 5:5)

         Thus, among the numerous pieces of information gathered as well in the Bible as in The Message of the Stars, we shall keep the most important ones, that are the key-words of our evolution; that is to say those that enable humanity to pass from the involuntary clairvoyance to the voluntary clairvoyance. And this change may depend on the fact that the spiritual Teaching we study is working—quite unconciously at the beginning of this study—either on the involuntary or sympathetic nervous system, or on the voluntary or cerebro-spinal nervous system. The involuntary or sympathetic nervous system develops our passivity; the voluntary or cerebro-spinal nervous system develops our activity, our will and our dynamism.        

         As mentioned before, the words Naioth and Endor describe the mediumistic faculties developed through the solar plexus which is a nervous plexus of the sympathetic or involuntary nervous system.

         In Astrology, the solar plexus is ruled by Venus, (Q&A II, Q 52) which exerts a magnetic energy which draws to her. (MS, pp.170) Its action is opposite to that of the electric planets which give out their energy. In The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception,we are told that it is quite easy to regress to the involuntary clairvoyance:

         “…The latter (who are in the vanguard of evolution) are emerging from the acme of materiality, and are again divisible into two kinds, one of which develops in a passive, weak-willed manner. By the help of others they re-awaken the solar plexus or other organs in connection with the involuntary nervous system. These are therefore involuntary clairvoyants, mediums who have no control of their faculty. They have retrograded.” (CC,  pp. 241-242)

         The words Nain or Naim, and Juda or Lion of Judah describe the positive faculty of voluntary clairvoyance of “those who by their own wills, unfold the vibratory powers of organs now connected with the voluntary nervous system and thus become trained occultists, controlling their own bodies and exercising the clairvoyant faculty as they will to do. They are called voluntary or trained clairvoyants.” (CC,  pp. 241-242)

         In the Bible, we find the same Teaching given by “Christ Himself, when He said, ‘Be wise as serpents.’ (Matthew 10:16) The serpent is certainly not sufficiently sagacious to warrant a literal meaning of this saying; but when we understand that when the creative fire is drawn upwards through the serpentine spinal cord it vibrates the pituitary body and the pineal gland, connecting the Ego with the invisible worlds by opening up a hidden sense, the allusion is perfectly clear.” (MS, pp. 21-22)

         We know that “Leo rules the heart, the dorsal region of the spine, the spinal cord, and the aorta.” (MS, pp. 542 ) Moreover, “The heart and the pons varolii, or vital knot, situated in the brain, are the principal parts of the body ruled by the Sun,” (MS, pp. 545 ) which rules the sign Leo.

         Thus Astrology confirms the pieces of information given in the Bible (the Lion of Judah) concerning the voluntary or cerebo-spinal nervous system.

         Now, it would be interesting to find in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception when our two nervous systems have been evolved.

         In chapter 8, The Work of Evolution, we read, in the section The Moon Period, page 214:

         “In the Moon Period it was necessary to reconstruct the dense body or make it capable of being inter-penetrated by a desire body, and also capable of evolving a nervous system, muscle, cartilage and a rudimentary skeleton. This reconstruction was the work of the Saturn Revolution of the Moon Period.

         In the second or Sun Revolution, the vital body was als modified to render it capable of being interpenetrated by a desire body, also of accomodating to the nervous system, muscle, skeleton, etc.

         In the third Revolution the proper Moon work commenced. The Lords of Individuality radiated from themselves the substance which they helped the inconscious, evolving man to appropriate and build into a germinal desire body….”

         In chapter 10, The Earth Period, page 239-240:

         “The reconstruction of the dense body in the Saturn Revolution of the Earth Period was for the purpose of rendering it capable of inter-penetration by the mind. It gave the first impulse to the building of the frontal part of the brain; also the incipient division in the nervous system which has since become apparent in its subdivisions—the voluntary and the sympathetic. The latter was the only one provided for in the Moon Period. The voluntary nervous system (which has transformed the dense body from a mere automaton acting under stimuli from without, to an extraordinary adaptable instrument capable of beinf guided and controlled by an Ego from within) was not added until the present Earth Period.”

         In chapter 17, Acquiring First-Hand Knowledge, in the section The Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland:

         Page 473, 474, “”In the brain, and in approximately the positions shown in diagram 17, are two small organs called the pituitary body and the pineal gland… They were connected with the involuntary or sympathetic nervous system. Man then saw the inner Worlds, as in the Moon Period and the latter part of the Lemurian and early Atlantean Epochs. Pictures presented themselves quite independent of his will. The sense centers of his desire body were spinning around counter-clockwise (following negatively the motion of the Earth, which revolves on its axis in that direction) as the sense centers of ‘mediums’ do to this day. In most people these sense-centers are inactive, but true development will set them spinning clockwise, as explained elsewhere. That is the difficult feature in the development of positive clairvoyance.

         The development of mediumship is much easier, because it is merely a revival of the mirror-like function possessed by man in the far past, by which the outside world was involuntarily relfected in him, and which function was afterward retained by inbreeding…”

         Page 476, 477, “In the ages that have passed since the Lemurian Epoch humanity has been gradually building the cerebro-spinal nervous system, which is under the control of the will. In the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch, this was so far evolved that it became possible for the Ego to take full possession of the dense body. That was the time (previously decribed) when the point in the vital body came into correspondence with the point at the root of the nose in the dense body and the indwelling spirit became awake in the Physical World but, so far as the greater part of humanity was concerned, lost consciousness of the inner Worlds.

         Since then, the connection of the pineal gland and the pituitary body with the cerebro-spinal nervous system has been slowly building, and is now all but complete.

         To regain contact with the inner Worlds, all that remains to be done is the reawakening of the pituitary body and the pineal gland. When that is accomplished, man will again possess the faculty of perception in the higher worlds, but on a grander scale that formerly, because it will be in connection with the voluntary nervous system and therefore under the control of his Will. Through this inner perceptive faculty all avenues of knowledge will be opened to him and he will have at his service a means of acquiring information compared with which all other methods of investigation are but child’s play.”

         These excerpts from The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception show that it was “in the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch…that it became possible for the Ego to take full possession of the dense body.” (CC, pp. 476) Simultaneously, “the indwelling spirit became awake in the Physical World but, so far as the greater part of humanity was concerned, lost consciousness of the inner Worlds.” (CC, pp. 476) The true meaning of this is that man could not “see” any longer the entities of the Inner Worlds through the involuntary clairvoyance. This probably means that since the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch, humanity should have ceased, as a precaution, to practice involuntary clairvoyance through which contact with the good or evil entities of the Spiritual Worlds is looked for, as now, the greater part of humanity is no longer able to “see” these entities. This is the reason why the Rosicrucian Teaching shows the path of voluntary clairvoyance:

         “The aspirant need never fear, however, that for want of a teacher he will be delayed in taking these steps; nor need he be concerned about looking for a teacher. All that is necessary for him to do is to start to improve himself, and to earnestly and  persistently continue therein. In that way he will purify his vehicles. They will commence to shine in the inner Worlds, and cannot fail to attract the attention of the teachers, who are always watching for just such cases and are more than eager and glad to help those who, because of their earnest efforts to purify themselves, have won the right to receive help. Humanity is sorely in need of helpers who are able to work from the inner Worlds, therefore ’seek and ye shall find,’ but let us not imagine that by going about from one professed teacher to another, we are seeking…

         The time required to bring results from the performance of the exercises varies with each individual and is dependent upon his application, his stage in evolution and his record in the book of destiny; therefore no general time can be set… yet the results will be there, and the aspirant who faithfully persists will some day, in this or a future life, behold his patience and faithfulness rewarded…” (CC, pp. 495-496: “Adoration.”)

         Another encouragement to follow the path of voluntary clairvoyance which is linked with the voluntary or cerebro-spinal nervous system, is the following statement: “There was no initiation prior the end of the Mars half of the Earth Period. The lesser mysteries embrace human evolution in the Mercury half of the Earth Period.” (CC, pp. 413: Diagram 15)

         This statement is confirmed in The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers: (Q&A II, Q 73)

         “… If you read Freemasonry and Catholicism, you will find that Lazarus had previously been Hiram Abiff, the Master Mason, and chief builder of Solomon’s Temple; that Jesus had been previously embodied as the personality called Solomon; and that the Christ Spirit dwelling in Jesus at the time of the recorded raising of Lazarus was the great Initiator who raised him up and made him a Hierophant of the Lesser Mysteries. He is now known as Christian Rosenkreuz, the Head of the Western Wisdom School, and co-worker with Jesus to UNITE humanity and bring them to the Kingdom of Christ.”

         We are given, here, the precious indication that Christ was/still is(?) the great Initiator for those who were/are(?) worthy to be the Hierophants of the Lesser Mysteries.

         In The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, page 523 and 529, we read further:

         “There are upon earth seven schools of the Lesser Mysteries, five of the Greater Mysteries and the whole grouped under one Central Head Who is called the Liberator.”

         “Graduates from the various schools of the lesser mysteries advance into five schools of the greater mysteries. In the first four they pass the four Great Initiations and at last reach the Liberator…”

         After having read the pieces of information on the raising of Lazarus, we may be sure that Christ is the Liberator:

         “The Bible says that the law was supreme until the advent of the great Sun Spirit. Christ started a new phase of evolution under the principle of love, and regeneration. This ended the regime of Jehovah and the sway of Saturn…”

         “The advance guard of humanity, the Initiates who have passed both the lesser and greater Initiations and appear before the Liberator (the great Being in charge of evolution on Earth), are given the choice of staying here and helping their brothers in this world or of going to Jupiter and preparing the conditions under which humanity may evolve in the future Jupiter Period.” (Q&A II, Q 77)

         The last five excerpts are undoubtedly the confirmation—and also the proof—that the four Gospels, and also The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, which is a brilliant comment of the Bible, describe in fact the past, present and future evolution of humanity. Astrology has clearly shown that, through the existing relationship between Christ the Lion of Judah, the Astrological Sign Leo, the Sun (ruling Leo), voluntarily clairvoyance is now the path of evolution for humanity, as voluntary clairvoyance is under the control of the Will and is linked to the cerebro-spinal or voluntary nervous system.          

In the article, Spiritual Aspiration and the Southern Hemisphere, you will see an illustration of a very large painting that hangs in the Guest House at Mount Ecclesia. 

Unfortunately, your editor does not know the history of this painting or who painted it.  Surely, someone out there knows more than nothing and can share a story – whatever you know about this beautiful representation of Christ. 

At last sight, it was suffering considerable damage from age and was very much in need of repair.   We are very fortunate that an excellent photo reproduction was made in the past and published in Rays from the Rose Cross. 

Friend@rffriends.org

Spiritual Aspiration and the Southern Hemisphere

            Max Heindel gave us a wonderful body of spiritual literature, rich with information suited to practical application in service.  It is filled with lofty ideas and ideals to inspire us to live in our true spiritual nature.  It is supernally beautiful and it speaks to our hearts.  It is permeated with the love of Christ.  It is comprehensive to all areas of human endeavor.  It is clear — so clear that we often think we know things that actually take many years to really know well enough to be able to live them out in our lives.  As clear as the writings of Heindel are, there are some parts which need even more clarification to fulfill the needs of the modern Rosicrucian Fellowship.  Max Heindel wrote for the Fellowship members of his time, not for the membership that was to come.  Heindel was writing for students living mostly in the northern hemisphere; now many of the members of the Rosicrucian Fellowship live in the southern hemisphere.

            The solstice and equinox services of the Rosicrucian Fellowship are exquisitely poetic, but they require further clarification.  Like much poetry, they are condensed for ease, simplicity and inspirational beauty.  In these services the activity of Christ in the Life Spirit is treated simultaneously with the earthly etheric cycle of activity, the ethers of which are the reflective-projection of the Life Spirit.  In the northern hemisphere the activities in the ethers are synchronous with the activities of the Life Spirit in the earth; in the southern hemisphere they are not.

            The cycle of the efflux and withdrawal of the ethers at the surface of the earth associated with the seasons is very old.  It has been active since the dense physical earth crystallized out of the solar system and was permeated by an etheric body to give the life needed by every living creature on the planet.  Everything that lives on earth has cycles of active expression, and then dormant withdrawal to process the experience gained during activity.  Even in the heart of the tropics there are seasonal changes.  We know from the Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception that these cycles are universal in evolutionary creation all the way to the creative days and cosmic nights.

            In this cycle the ethers are more outward and active in the seasons called spring and summer and are more inward and less active in the seasons called autumn and winter, irrespective of hemisphere.  Mr. Heindel tells us that angle is the primary factor in stellar influence.  The cycle of the ethers is no exception.  The rise and fall of the ethers and the plant sap that follows it is determined by the angle of light from the external sun.  Since the axis of the earth is inclined in its orbital path, the ecliptic, and because the axis constantly points in the same direction in space, the stage of the efflux and withdrawal of the ethers must be opposite in the northern and southern hemispheres.  The earth in this respect resembles birds that sleep standing first on one foot while the other is resting and then the other.  It is a wonderful way of alternate expression within the constant progression of time–areas of greater activity simultaneous with areas of rest and assimilation.  Efficiency.

            The cycle of the ethers is not merely limited to efflux and withdrawal.  There are seasonal coetaneous shifts in emphasis within the four ethers.  In spring and summer activity increases in what might be called the middle ethers, the life and light ethers.  It is warmer and more colorful, functions of the light ether, and there is more growth and propagation, functions of the life ether.  In autumn and winter there is more emphasis in the activities of the extreme ethers, the chemical and reflecting ethers.  The chemical ether is active in the condensing and crystal-forming activities of ice and snow; and any gardener can tell you that when the life and light ethers of spring and summer withdraw, one focuses in the reflecting ether, remembering last year’s garden and dreaming and planning the garden for the coming year.  In this regard the extremes of the cycle of efflux and withdrawal are almost constant at the extremes of the earth.  In the tropics the angle of incidence of the sun is almost always direct.  Consequently it is almost always warm, plants grow year round, it is wet, and color in the plant and animal kingdoms abounds–the life and light ethers are in perpetual activity.  The poles are cold deserts with no growth, everything is crystalline ice and the animals tend towards white and colorlessness.  Thus the seasonal effect of the angle of sunlight is to raise and withdraw the ethers and to shift the emphasis within the four ethers with extremes where the angles are extreme.  This cycle has been active for millions of years and it is one of the things we reverently appreciate in the solstice and equinox services.

            The other thing we celebrate is the cycle of Christ in the Life Spirit entering into the ethers and into our earth.  The religion of Christ, the religion of the Son, is radical.  It is unlike anything that preceded it in the Jehovistic religions of the Holy Spirit.  Unlike the cycle of the ethers which is as ancient as the earth, the religion and cycle of Christ is new.  It is so new that all attempts to manifest love-wisdom of the Life Spirit have fallen far short of the task and have hardened into distortions from the Christ ideal.  Glimmerings of parts of the teaching of Christ shine beautifully in some pre-Christian religions but there is nothing of the scope and magnitude of grace-filled forgiveness that “makes all things new,” nor of the creative love that “makes all things new” every moment, and all of the other qualities of the Life Spirit made manifest and humanized in the incarnation of Christ-Jesus.  It is that incarnation and the subsequent and mounting reincarnations that we celebrate each year as Christ comes to us and then returns home, leaving us yearning to follow.

            Our language is not adequate to describe the Life Spirit.  Our consciousness is habituated to a fallen, materialistic, three dimensional outlook while the Life Spirit is beyond even the abstract mind; therefore, anything said about the Life Spirit must be only a distant reflection of that sublime reality and grossly inadequate to the task of true expression of its glory.  Moreover, one must have character and soul growth to even speak of such lofty things.  Christ-Jesus may be able to say “God is love” and carry that love in the words, but if we try to say the same thing, it might sound trite and relatively meaningless, depending on our soul growth and strength of character.  The following re-expression of the annual cycle of the Life Spirit returning to and entering our earth may suffer in that manner.

            Max Heindel tells us in the Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception that the being we know as Christ is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, also known as the Son.  In this office Christ represents the second attribute of the godhead and as the central focus of the macrocosmic Life Spirit, it is Christ’s Life Spirit body so to speak.  After one annual Christ impulse returns to the Father when the sun enters Cancer, a new impulse is given and the cycle begins anew.  A ray or spiritual impulse issues from the Spiritual Sun into the Life Spirit.  It is something like the urge to help we feel when we see someone who is ill, but on a scale beyond our comprehension.  Three-dimensional consciousness cannot do justice to the phenomenon but it can help us, provided we do not get stuck in that limited consciousness and believe it is all that there is; the whole reality.  Pure Life Spirit, unfettered by any form of limited, concrete existence, is found in interplanetary space.  Speaking in the personality of Jesus, Christ could literally and factually say “I am the Light.”   The light referred to in that statement is not outer sunlight but the inner spiritual light one experiences in intuition–when the lights go on with the light of truth.  This very subtle light of truth, subtle beyond even ideas, is a constant in the Life Spirit.  If we can imagine the spirit in this light of divine intellect concentrating itself within its universal being into something like a sphere of special definition and intent, we have a vague three-dimensional picture.  As the sun passes through Cancer, Leo and Virgo this sphere becomes smaller and more concentrated in its loving intent.  When the sun enters Libra it is congruent and coincident with the physical body of the earth and then it begins to draw into the earth and is concentrated until it is a small ball of very intense love-wisdom, a little sun, in the heart of the earth. This process applies the same principle of usefulness Max Heindel describes with the image of a magnifying glass concentrating sunlight into a useful ball of energy able to burn through anything.  At Christmas Eve it has concentrated its sphere of light as far as is possible, transforming it into useable love-wisdom.  It then begins to expand and work its way through all of the vehicles of the earth from within–when we accepted Christ as one of us it was a momentous moment in the history of the earth that allowed this working from within even though Christ had to go through the experience of death to gain such acceptance.

            While the work of the Life Spirit is parallel to some of the work done in the etheric cycle because the ethers are the reflective-projection of the Life Spirit, the work in the ethers is certainly not identical.  The work of the ethers is vital life and the transmission of experience to and from the dense physical world and bodies.  The work of the Life Spirit is new creation, creation from within and not without.  As a result of the acceptance of Christ and the Life Spirit into our earth and our humanity, evolution on earth can proceed more rapidly and more harmoniously because of this new internal activity.  Several special and important things happen because of the three-year mission of Christ in the dense physical and vital bodies of Jesus.  Two are important for our fallen humanity.  First pure life, light, love and truth are brought to us in a humanized form as grace if we accept it into our lives in freedom without any external coercion.  The other thing for us is that when we do our healing prayers in the Healing Service we can bring in the Life Spirit in a manner similar to the way Christ enters the earth every year.  Moreover, because of the sacrifice of Christ it is given to us to transduce Life Spirit into the etheric healing panacea mentioned in the Healing Service.  This marks the beginning of regaining the ability to realize ethers out of the Life Spirit much like plants still specialize the ethers out of sunlight.  Long ago we sacrificed this ability in order to bring motivation into our dense bodies through a desire body.  As we regain this ability, like we try to do in the healing service, we regain it at a higher level, just as Max Heindel said we would.  When we pray and transduce Life Spirit into etheric healing panacea, it is not a passive activity as with plants, it is a free, volitional act driven by love and sacrifice for others.

There is also something for Christ in the original and annual sacrifice into earthly limitation that goes beyond the opportunity to give where it is most needed.  The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception tells us that the chemical region of the physical world is the reflective-projection of the Divine Spirit, the etheric region is the reflective-projection of the Life Spirit, and the desire world is the reflective-projection of the Human Spirit, with all of the reflective-projection being done through the crux of mind.  The Human Spirit focused through the Holy Spirit, the Highest Initiate of the Moon Period, is self-consciously aware of its reflective-projection (the desire world) from within the desire body of Jehovah.  The Divine Spirit, focused through the Father, is never self-consciously aware of its reflective-projection (the chemical region of the physical world) because it has never incarnated into a dense physical body, it is even incapable of building such a body.  The Life Spirit focused through Christ, the Son, would never have been self-consciously aware within the etheric region if it had not been for the sacrifices of both Christ and Jesus.  The incarnation of Christ at the baptism by John must have been a stupendous self-recognition in the Life Spirit, a déjà vu of cosmic proportions, greatly expanding and enhancing our entire evolutionary creation, as it experienced its reflective-projection for the first time in a way that was never in the cosmic plan.  Such is the way of grace; one sacrifices with no thought of self and then is rewarded beyond one’s conception in ways that one could never plan.

            Even though the way that Christ enters and leaves the body of the earth is not like the way we daily enter and leave our bodies (it is similar to the way we enter our bodies at rebirth), that way is not without perspective.  The perspective is that the North Pole is like the top of the head of the earth so to speak, and the South Pole like the bottom of the feet.  This is why Max Heindel could fuse the cycle of the ethers as seen from the northern hemisphere with the cycle of the Christ in his writings for northern hemisphere students.  This does not mean that the northern hemisphere is better or more right or anything like that — Aries and the head are not more important than Pisces and the feet, both are necessary.  There have to be two hemispheres, or there is no whole sphere.  This observation of the head of the earth did not originate with Max Heindel.  It can be found in the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, one of the first to be influenced after the Rosicrucian Order formed in 1313.

            Even though we are one earth and one humanity, there are differences in spiritual aspiration in the northern and southern hemispheres.  Because the cycle of the Christ is asynchronous with the cycle of the ethers, some aspects of aspiration are different in the southern hemisphere.  It is natural to withdraw and turn inward at midwinter, so aspiration at Christmas is enhanced by nature in the northern hemisphere.  It is much more difficult to withdraw and turn inward when it is warm and when natural growth is luxurious and abundant.  Spiritual students in the southern hemisphere swim upstream with regard to the Christ cycle.  This exactly conforms with the Rosicrucian spirit.  In our services we face west and swim upstream.  We are pioneers working to bring in new things in the face of the prevailing westerlies. While it may be more difficult, in terms of the ethers, to turn inward and seek to unite with Christ in midsummer, it is a difficulty whose fruits are commensurate with the effort, similar to the reward to Christ and the Life Spirit for the depth of sacrifice and effort.

The Rare Virtue Of Humility

A Chapel Talk

By Allyce Cay-Bothmann

        Why do I call humility a rare virtue?  As one of the ten virtues of Aristotle, it is acquired and eventually balanced after many lives and saintly practices.  You could say that a poor homeless man, a beggar, and a little child have humility.  You may say that usually a reticent person has humility.  …….No. 

        Reticence is often born of fear and withdrawal.  Humility as a virtue comes from deep realizations.  It is the distillation of wide-ranging experience.  Humility is born of the demise of egotism and often is the phoenix of humiliation.  It comes to the surface when ignorance and arrogating attitudes go out and bring consequences home to roost.

        Even with the world’s elect, Aristotle’s ten virtues are extremely hard to come by.  Let’s look at his list again: wisdom, the culmination of experience; justice, encompassing a fine sense of honesty, trustworthiness, and consideration—even the golden rule could apply only to human behavior.  Then, there is fortitude—the ability to endure, the patience to prevail and stand against odds of all kinds.  It takes a long time to build fortitude.  This virtue wins battles and eventually our liberation from mortal bonds.  Self control, necessarily achieved before one can be entrusted with spiritual powers, must be won at great price.  True love is a virtue brought forth in the Christian era.  However, anything done with love is enhanced both within and without.  Aristotle emphasized the importance of a positive attitude.  Cheerfulness ingratiates the day.  I didn’t think that hard work was that much of a virtue, but I could surely notice it made a real difference, and it was the precursor to accomplishment.  Revenge and an unforgiving attitude are the hardest work of all and retard the soul’s development.  There are many individuals these days who haven’t learned the wonderful advantages of good hard work.  Loving what you do or doing something with reverence changes work into play, as Mother Teresa showed us.

        The last three virtues include integrity, gratitude and finally the last on Aristotle’s list, humility.  It may be that most of us are in denial.  We can’t face our wrongdoing.  We all want to be more good-looking than we are; we all want to seem more intelligent than we are; we all want to receive appreciation and positive attention whether we deserve it or not.  We are easily offended.  We harbor an insult to our precious egos to the point that is highly adverse to our Christian religion.  What does it take to keep our self-respect and still have humility?

        We hear a lot about self-esteem these days.  We can have appreciation of ourselves as children of our Father in Heaven.  Still as far as our dealings with others and our place and work in the world are concerned, we are so riddled with contradictions, unconscious denials, uncontrolled thinking as well as compensating drives that a fairly wise person today would be busy keeping the reins of personal control in hand.

        We like to think we are reasonably humble.  Just let someone criticize us on a sensitive point.  You may not have made a study of your sensitivities.  Even in retrospection, we skip over many of these uncomfortable areas in the character.  For example, you may be proud of your family, or it could be your high IQ or fine appearance or beautiful house or neat job.  Now, it is not these advantages per se that may make us proud.  It is anything we have a complex about; so if we come across someone or something that ruffles the rationalizations we have unconsciously constructed, it usually causes anger at the judgment of the person or source of the discomfort.  From this defensiveness comes much of the world’s drive toward the negativity of vindictiveness and revenge.  We cannot face the abyss of our imperfections. 

        Christ showed us the perfect way.  We have to grow to the maturity of humility.  In his life he gave all credit and glory to the Father.  In spite of his obvious superiority and expressed consternation of the often disquieting incomprehension of his followers, in spite of his stupendous advancement and purity of being, in spite of his miracles, patience, forbearance and fortitude, he demonstrated true humility as the messenger of the righteous laws of peace, culminating in washing his apostle’s feet.

        In reading about the life of President William McKinley, we see a fine example of a person who was brilliant, accomplished and important with no conceit or affectation.  Although as a rising politician with alluring attributes, he married a frail little woman who, after losing two children, came out of a deep depression with epilepsy.  When her husband went to any social functions, she enjoyed attending.  At some point in the proceedings, she would usually go into an epileptic seizure and her dear husband would quickly cover her distorted face with his handkerchief and carry her out to another room. 

        As a statesman McKinley had to make many trying decisions and weather the Spanish American War.  He was a particularly likeable person and worked most conscientiously with a demanding wife who kept him so busy it was like he had another job.  On September 5, 1901, at the International Exposition in Buffalo, New York, he was shot by an anarchist, making him a martyr in the service of his nation.  After nine days of agony, this humble, sorely chastened man died on September 14, 1901. 

        History is replete with examples of the virtue of humility.  It seems that the Lord loved and rewarded the humble Ruth.  Naomi’s daughter-in-law, Ruth, was appreciated because of the virtues of her late husband’s mother and said that wherever Naomi lived, that would also be her home and country.  The Bible doesn’t say that Ruth was beautiful, but her humble and sweet manner attracted Boaz who owned the fields where Ruth gleaned a few stalks of wheat.  She is in the genealogy of David who was the progenitor of the Messiah.  The truly great come to a state of humility by realizing that regardless of their elevation of position there are always greater heights to attain.  The apostles of our Lord were among the most humble of God’s children, being so close to the divinity of Jesus; they were meek in comparing themselves to him. 

        There was a King Louis who is now dubbed a saint.  He saw a sick and depraved beggar on the streets of Paris and remarked, “There but for the grace of God go I.”  Didn’t our Lord admonish us to not have the attitude of taking the important seats in the congregation, lest we be asked to step down, but take the lower seats, and then if we are recognized for our worthiness, we will be asked to come to the higher places?

        There is always someone ahead of even the seemingly most exalted.  It is remarkable how quickly celebrities and world famous persons of high recognition are forgotten.  I think it was President Reagan who said that it was amazing how much could be accomplished as long as it wasn’t important if someone else got the credit.  In the world, people vie for credit, give their names to their philanthropy or strive to “make a name for themselves.”  Again Christ always maintained that all power, glory and credit was to be given to the Father. 

        The worldly self or selfish self works for attention, credit, recognition, fame or reward.  The more advanced worker serves with quiet graciousness, whether in high or low positions, with devotion to duty as he sees the best for the most.  Egotism is a basic quality in all of us at times throughout our lives, and we will undergo tests of power until a deep humility is realized when, before our Creator, we understand that each of us is just a member of this vast cosmos, no matter how far we have come.

        The Old Testament is replete with examples of God’s prophets pleading, admonishing, threatening and generally railing against Israel’s and Judah’s people to refine their ways and humble themselves before the Lord.  Jeremiah, especially, worked with the kings of his time.  Ezekiel predicted the captivation of his people, but to no avail.  We are now at a time in the history of this country where our information is adroitly controlled and the forces with insidious power do not realize that they are erecting their own destruction. 

        The vehicles in the brain take much evolving.  At the end of a cycle, the less astute and altruistic spirits are sent en mass for their expressions.  The mighty plan of our God works perfectly, regardless of mere human interpretations.  He engineers worlds, nations, and the destinies of such as you and me—all to fit into the grand denouement of each Globe’s round, and the scheme of every great period, universal or personal.  I have to watch myself that I don’t get disheartened when I see how successfully old Lucifer, in all his released power, is making lucid the faults and failings of us humans at this stage of our mortal journey on this planet.  To achieve a glimpse into God’s doings, it takes a well-founded trust in the love, wisdom and power of our Creator.

        The Apostle Peter is an illustration of an impetuous spirit progressing, through his master’s life, modeling the higher principles to great advancement and accompanying humility.  He, along with John the Divine, realized the tremendous gulf between the ordinary human and the point of ascended glory witnessed on the Mount of Transfiguration.  Great saints such as Saint Francis of Assisi, who was born of a wealthy merchant’s family, through his desire to serve God purposefully humbled himself, suffering bodily pain and much personal inconvenience.  You may have noticed in yourself a critical feeling from time to time.  It helps to remind ourselves that we are all Christs in the making.  Peter was so humbled, even though suffering imprisonment and rejecting the world that he, in his final hours, at his martyrdom, requested to be crucified upside-down, as not being worthy to die as did our Lord.   

        At present we go through many pious motions.  All the same our emotional bodies are not tamed.  When we hold resentments—especially if we give words to swelling irritations—to say the least—we are not progressing.  Humility often takes courage to suppress a negative feeling.  We sometimes have to act just the opposite of our feelings.  Not everyone has good manners.  Some of our dearest ones, for instance, may do things we find offensive, such as meddle with our things or talk on cell phones when they are supposed to be visiting us.  It is not pleasant to have someone probing or poking another person to make a point or expostulate with loud or unpleasant noises, not to mention the many other idiosyncrasies that are annoying.  Then there are each person’s glaring and impossible character defects which with close acquaintance can just be too much to deal with.  Of course, we are most often blissfully unaware of our own defects and their effects on others.

        Then, with time, if one lives long enough, there gradually emerges a realization.  It is born of embarrassment and the mounting experience that life vouchsafes.  Our improvement in the virtue of humility does not of necessity have to be born of shame, but we do privately take an upward footing and adjust to the new perspective.  Inasmuch as change is not easy, until we get into the swing of hard work on ourselves, it may take the shock of the misstep, ignoring rules, repercussions of thoughtlessness or any ignorance coming to the surface.

        Our invisible guides and teachers are committed to helping us to decry in each consequence the freeing of mind and emotions from a mistake.  The individual who does not ignore mistakes and takes them as lessons, understanding that there will be more of such learning experiences is on the way to acquiring the virtue of humility.  Aristotle’s virtue of a positive attitude encourages and enhances the efforts toward the building of our soul temple in the daunting wilderness of all that as yet we have not mastered.

        Sometimes in the dangerous cycles of affluence and personal triumph, it is natural for people to be lifted up in the pride of accomplishments.  Our way-shower and model, the Christ, demonstrated the relativities of what and who is most important.  There have been many great persons with most inspiring accomplishments, but there are still the angels, archangels, gods, and proceeding incomprehensible beings, yet there is only ONE all encompassing Presence throughout the cosmos.  As pilgrim mortals our future is un-limiting.  We lowly creatures are in the seventh super universe.  The mineral, plant and animal life is behind us.  We have been victorious to this point to this day.  With prayer and study and with the open way of humility—having risen above the roils and toils of egotism—we love and appreciate the wondrous opportunity for godliness freely given by the Father.  We can work to control the body and the emotions and build the noble and great Spirit marked out for our personal destiny. 

        Being open and teachable, self-mastered and ever prayerful, learning to keep our thoughts watchfully positive, with the guide of scripture and the cosmic conception in even this mortal life, we will overcome the world.

Allyce Cay-Bothmann

Is it spring yet?
Part of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and
Sinding’s Rustles of Spring link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWmg-Mr7yMs
In the complete work, classical goddess Venus emerges from the water on a shell, blown towards shore by the Zephyrs, symbols of spiritual passions. Zephyrus is known as the fructifying wind, the messenger of spring. She is joined by one of the Horae, goddesses of the seasons, who hands her a flowered cloak.
The effect is distinctly pagan, considering it was made at a time and place when most artworks depicted Roman Catholic themes. It is somewhat surprising that this canvas escaped the flames of Savanarola’s bonfires, where a number of Botticelli’s other alleged pagan-influenced works perished.

Microcosm Lecture Series Notes

Transitioning Into The Aquarian Age

Lecture 3 of 25 by [R]

Cultural Vehicles and the Evolution of Consciousness

The last of the introductory talks.

            This will be a focusing kind of talk. Years ago I used to go to a lot of movies.  They used to show cartoons and one of my favorites was Speedy Gonzalez.  It was the usual scene, a starry night, revelry and cantina music.    The focus – first the Solar system, and then the camera zoomed to earth, then to North America, then to the Texas border and you keep hearing the music and finally you see a sleepy little village and a cantina.  The cantina is closed but if you looked in through a window you could see a mouse hole with swinging doors on it and the mice are all inebriated and wearing sombreros and having a great time when they are set upon by El Gringo Pussy Cat.  He wants to sneak up on them and eat them and then Speedy Gonzalez comes to the rescue and the cat goes up in smoke.  After a minute the scene is run in slow motion, so you get to see what Speedy Gonzalez has done to the cat.  Like the cartoon, we are trying to focus away from the cosmos and zoom in to earth, and it may sound like swinging doors by the time we are done.

            Heraclitis says you never step into the same river twice or we can say one never steps the same into the river twice.  Either way, the river is altogether different or the individual is altogether different.  The concept of perpetual l change in time is a very important concept for spiritual students.  Heindel says that adaptability is the key to evolution.   We see this in our daily lives. 

            If a person is living in his rational consciousness he is living in the past because rationality usually comes after the experience.  Rationality is dead compared to living spontaneously.

            Laws, science, culture, etc. were all developed by people who are now gone so we are sort of trapped in the past.  We even cling to our memories whether we know it or not.  For example –in the last few days I had a picture come to memory out of my past experience and it was very real like walking into the picture and I began to feel sentimental.  Even though I realized those memories were like death I felt the inclination to hang on to that memory.  It grabbed at me, but in order to be a free person and live in the now it takes courage.  One has to be willing to let go of all of that. 

            In terms of precession of the equinox we are working toward a new age and a new epoch – an epoch when there will no longer be national and cultural division.  All will be defined by the one being.  There will no longer a focus of the material part of existence.  We have to be ready to accept something new without pre-defining it by the past.  Whether we know it or not we usually define things by our experiences of the past.

            The first time I tasted a mango I tried to define the taste and thought to myself “this is a peach gone to heaven.”  While that may have been clever it was doing nothing for the mango but defining it in terms of the peach.  People want to be understood for what they are.  That is one of the things about newness.  We don’t want to be stuck or stay with things the way they are.  We are trying to be awake within the spirit of the times in order to get the most out of it.

            We will look at changing consciousness as it is experienced through a vehicle of consciousness–the vehicle of the evolution of astrology.  Astrology is in a sense an essential part of people’s lives.  We are living a superstructure that is astrological.  We are talking about a cycle of becoming and about a clear focus.  What we have done or not done in the past and what we are becoming is what we are now.  Step into the future—it’s not an easy thing to do.

            I met a strange man who was as intractable as a child—four planets in Taurus all opposite something in Scorpio.  When he got into the army he refused to get out of bed in the morning.  The sergeant first put him together with his bed in the shower, but he still would not get up.  Then, the sergeant turned his face into hamburger and he still would not. 

            Eventually he got a guitar and he played it all the time.  He listened with his ear right down on the strings.  Finally, when he couldn’t get what he wanted out of the guitar, he threw it down.  There was a book near him, and he picked it up and read it.  Then, he picked up the guitar again and mysteriously he could play it and he realized that something he had read enabled him to play the guitar.  Years later he was very accomplished at playing the guitar.

            When I lived with him he was composing music and it was fascinating to hear this because he would play the same bars over and over again—hoping to jump off into the next note or the next few cords.  But even after he found just the right note he would still have to try all of the other notes—he was so thorough.

            We are going to do this with this talk—take a run through recent history and hope that we can jump off into the future.  Not just jump off but see if we can accept the future with what we have lived.  (a reference to the Neoplatonists and their mythological idea of time, titanic time—maintaining that the gods got younger instead of older.)

            In the age of Taurus most of western culture has to do with Babylon and Egypt.  The most important concept of this talk is: The consciousness that we had in Babylon or Greece etc is not the same as the consciousness that we have now.  When we are awake now we think that this is it the true consciousness and it is, especially if we can share things, and we are the same being but our consciousness is different quantitatively and also qualitatively different, so we have different kinds of consciousness at different times.  As spiritual students it kills our spiritual life if we think of this consciousness as what we have always had. 

            A friend of mine studied both Heindel and Steiner and had a momentary waking experience in the desire world.  It was so chaotic, and because there was so much there he was befuddled.  He thought, “Wait a minute this is not anything like what Max and Rudy said it would be like.”  How could they speak so clearly and so objectively about something that is so chaotic?  We have to prepare for anything and cannot assume anything.  Also, we have to remember that our whole perception is skewed by our attitude.  In the inner worlds that is a very dangerous kind of thing. 

            Historically, mankind had an atavistic clairvoyance where they could see and they saw spirits and could relate, but they could also sense that they were losing that inwardness.  Even though it was involuntary clairvoyance it was still a wondrous experience.  They knew it was superior in that it could be a realm that was more causal and not so much the realm of effects, so when they began to lose this faculty they were desperate to have guidance.  Much of this was divinatory.  If you wanted to know something they would sacrifice a bull and the priest would read the liver.  This way they got in touch with the forces coming into the spiritual worlds.

            It had some scientific basis—everything is stored in the liver.  They looked for certain bulls with certain markings etc and the bull was put in a chamber and people watched every movement and that all meant something. 

            A lot of the astrology was based on New Moons and they scrutinized and watched the formations on the moon, so they were using things of nature as divinatory to get in touch with what they had lost.  Most of the astrology was in the hands of the priests.  The age being Taurus, it was characterized by negative polarity.  So the church was stronger.  In a positive age the scientists would be stronger.  Now that we are moving into the Age of Aquarius science dominates. The kings depended on divination and the priests to tell them what to do because they were the only ones capable of doing divining.  Chaldean revolutionary astrology is one of the major pagan vestiges of society, and we have the days of the week and each segment of 4 hours has a rulership by one of seven planets.  A continuous cycle—every year is ruled by a planet and it goes all the way out to the age of the cosmos itself.  But all of the observation was by divination.  The lower astrologers were con men and soothsayers and they were there in a different way.

            At the end of the period of Taurus things did become more scientific.  An astronomer named Saros discovered that New Moon and Full Moon eclipses repeat themselves in cycles and so we have Saros series of eclipses and some deep initiate wisdom.

            At the same time that involuntary clairvoyance waned, perception and intellection was increasing.  The more one came, the more the other disappeared.

            Greece and the Middle East hold a particularly beautiful place for the beginning of western mysticism and the end of eastern mysticism.  Whereas Socrates called himself the mayudic philosopher (of a midwife) considering himself the midwife of new ideas.  We are talking about out the beginning of evolutionary consciousness and the end of involutionary consciousness in this epoch.  The Greeks were pretty extreme.  Heraclitis thought everything arose out of fire, another thought everything was created out of air, another out of water.  None thought everything was created out of earth.  That would be the superstition for the moderns who thought everything came out of matter.

            There were many philosophers of that time and they were all extreme—lots of mystery schools: the orphic mystery schools; schools of Apollo; Isis schools etc.  Especially in Rome, one philosophy became more accepted and that was the philosophy of stoicism.  You might say that there was a higher group of stoics (an intelligentsia), and the others—flatterers and intriguers who were the lower philosophers.  It was like John McCain using Joe the Plumber.  Like when they paid off an astrologer to say someone had the qualities of an emperor, etc. Tiberius had an astrologer help him and then had all of the astrologers executed.

            As the head of the Praetorian guard, Sejanis would just choke to death anyone that he did not like.  Goat Island was the Isle of Capri. (Capricorn)  In order to get to his palace you had to climb steps and he was interviewing candidates to get an imperial astrologer.  He would ask questions, they would do calculations, and if he did not like what they said he would give a signal to his man and the candidate would end up falling off the steps.  He found an astrologer who gave all correct answers, so Tiberius asked the candidate to read his own horoscope.  The astrologer blanched white and said my horoscope tells me that I am in mortal danger.  He got the job. 

            The intelligentsia stoics were also astrologers themselves.  There were emperors who studied astrology, but the consciousness had changed.  Involuntary clairvoyance was not such a general property.  It was even a good thing – people are now coming into matter.  Man’s destiny was that matter must be overcome as it becomes the vehicle for creative expression.  You cannot be only a dreamer or become a creative being only in fantasies.

            This is why among noble people stoicism was taken up as a fad but it was for a definite purpose.  The stoics were famous for suicide.  It was not a bad thing to die, everyone had the same kind of experience and the only thing that differentiated the philosopher from an ordinary life was a determination to live through it nobly.  What astrology did was help people.  They would know that something was coming and they knew that they could not run from it but must live through it and they could be prepared to keep their composure.  There was a dinner party, and the stoic said, “toast me, for the Moon is in Aquarius and I am about to be assassinated.”  And somebody came in and shot him.

            Astrology helped them live through the spirit.  The Gnostics were more extreme than the stoics.  They believed that the gods had made a mistake and this was the cause of suffering.  So they railed against the gods and felt that they had a right to speak out against divine stupidity.  They tried to figure out what the gods were up to and then they tried to do the exact opposite.  Did you see the movie, Little Big Man?  The man was the epitome of contrariness and did everything in reverse.  He rode his horse backwards.  This is not to say that the Gnostics had no spiritual knowledge or sacred and spiritual things going on.

            The movements of evolution are to help everyone.

            Toward the end of the age of Aries we had great Aryan martial-type figures, one a Macedonian, Alexander the Great, and the other a Roman, Julius Caesar.  Alexander went conquering all the way to India and Julius Caesar did the same all the way to Britain and created an empire.  These things don’t happen by accident.  They produced a more unified over-all society.  The seeds were being planted for a totally different kind of religion.  Before this, all religions were separate, cultural, racial, tribal, etc.  Ultimately the destiny was to produce individuals and for us to be awake to our own divinity.  This we cannot do without the experience of the Holy Spirit or of knowing oneself in a divine sense.  Race religions had to give way to a universal religion.  The seeds were planted in the age of Aries. 

            The religion of the future will be all of us in unison being attuned to the universal spirit,   but it will not be a humanity being guided by higher beings.  It will be a humanity which has come into its own divine powers and capacities and has freedom.  We will unite with others in a universal friendship as an act of freedom.  This is where we are going and so the seeds of this are what is called the birth of Christianity. 

            We are not talking about anything that the world has seen so far as Christianity, and probably when it comes into its full it will not even have that name – perhaps the “religion of love” or the religion of this or that. People have believed everything blindly.  It had to go into a period of incubation and that incubation is what we call the Dark Ages, roughly between 500 and 1000 ad.  This doesn’t mean that all of the culture was lost, because everything that ever happened is recorded in the spiritual worlds.  If you can get into the memory of nature you can call back anything that ever was.  You can know things and about the intent behind what has been created and know about what has been compromised, like the Bible, etc. 

            With reference to the culture of the classical times; that went south.  It went mostly to Arabia.  It is said to this day that it was entirely due to the Arabs that all of the Greek culture was preserved, that Arab chieftains hold documents that had been saved from the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.  Islam was also monotheistic but it was a very stripped-down kind of monotheism.  It needed to have more rigor in the control of their lives. 

            There was sort of an intellectual schizophrenia.  The astrologers that were Islamic thought that everything that happened was the will of God and the law.  Astrology was used to read the mind of God.  It was fatalistic.  When astrology came back into Europe it was discriminated against as not believing in free will.  Fatalism was another side of Pisces, the belief that things have to happen when one is already so over burdened with past experience that things do happen fatalistically.  And this was happening with Arab astrology.  After the crusades astrology made its way back into Europe.  Now consciousness includes science, includes creativity.  It is a mistake for students of astrology to fall back into the old patterns of practice and past modes of consciousness.

            People were blind and no longer had the spiritual vision.  The Christian attitudes were meeker and more accepting than the stoics.  Stoicism and astrology wouldn’t work in these times and astrology became more democratized.  So there developed a practical astrology for shop keepers, military men, doctors etc.  When they couldn’t see what was going on they used astrology to reckon their consciousness and there was the term “judicial astrology.”  Intellectual consciousness was maturing and they could adjudicate.  These are extreme statements but they apply generally. 

            Another kind of astrology developed: polar negative.  The church became very strong and was basically like a superstition that one couldn’t go against.  Did you know that the pope bathes in a tub that has the signs of the zodiac around it?  If he is a Jesuit he probably does know the astrological meaning of it.  You dare not think too much because if you think too much you are vulnerable to the devil.  Inquiring minds had to do what they did in secret. So there were secret societies, alchemists magicians, cabalists and they spoke with each other.  Even though they were becoming rational, they spoke with each other symbolically because they had to be discreet.  They were a cult of secrecy — alchemists and other symbolists.  Astrology became symbolic, and people translated the symbols. 

            One very famous one: Nostradamus.  He was a very grave man who lived by patronage, went to the school of the Medici’s that taught astrology and things of that type – at the same time as Jerome Chardin.  He would go around visiting people and stay for a fortnight. And he would have to regale them.  Once when conversing with a skeptic two pigs ran across his path.  The nobleman, being a wise guy, asked what is the fate of the two pigs?  He said, “The white pig shall go to the dogs and the black pig shall be for dinner.”   So, the skeptic went to the kitchen and said, “Be sure to serve the white pig for dinner.” But later as the servant looked the other way the dog grabbed the pig off the table.  The cook had to save the day, so he prepared the black pig and they  were having dinner.  The man said, “I think this is the white pig.”  Nostradamus said, “no this is the black pig.”  The skeptic then asked the cook which pig they were eating, and the cook said that the dog had devoured the white pig, so they had to prepare the black pig.

            [R] tells another story about Michael the Scot’s prediction of his own death.

            Another story — Escalus (?) thought he would die from an object falling on his head.  On the day that he thought he would die he went to the countryside and sat there in the open.  A sea eagle flew over head with a turtle and was looking for a rock to smash the turtle on.  Since Escalus was bald, the sea eagle saw the shiny pate of Escalus, thought it was a rock, and it was like Billy Mitchell the dive bomber and that was the end of Escalus. 

            Toward the end of the Piscean age, symbolism is carried to its height and we have Elmer Bachman and Carl Jung and people like that – taking the symbols and trying to see universal ideas with them.  This is where, for the most part, astrology stands in our times.  Not as a simple material adjudication but as a discernment of a higher meaning of things.  It’s not to say that what Jung and Bacher said is all true or right but it is in touch with the times. We are talking about the evolution of consciousness.

            We are back to a time when there was then pragmatic, then scholastic, then very abstract perceptions.  Things have passed from family consciousness and inbred clairvoyance, to a few noble individuals who could get little pictures from their lives, to a time of pseudo imperialism, and to scientific and rational practices with a loss of involuntary clairvoyance.

Now all is old age – I do not try to perpetuate old views of astrology.  If astrology didn’t try to become something different it would be very disastrous, like people who practiced ancient religions, very ancient religions.  As times changed, instead of having the gods from these old religions, the demons moved in and people like Alistair Crowley and others became possessed by demons.  Astrology as practiced in antiquity is not of any value to us.

            We are turning back into the spiritual worlds and taking all of the experience that we are garnering here in the physical world. And as we turn back it is a reflection, and in that reflection an evolution of consciousness has to be found. 

            When we talk about evolution we are not talking about something like an express railroad that just goes from one point to another and is on a track.  You see there are branches and all sorts of sub branches.  Experiences are too valuable to be wasted

          On a taxonomical tree there are all kinds of side branches and as we enter into the Aquarian Age and are looking for a cultural vehicle for the changing of our consciousness it is there.  We will use the psi symbol.  This is the direction into the future — at least in linear time.  If we take the left branch which is not completely pro-evolutionary but will have value anyway you can see it in statistical studies. That would be a byway for astrology—to find out how statistically likely something is.  If there are definite statistical tendencies they are usually a consequence in evolution of trying to move something one way or another.  It’s like chaos science which fits very well with astrology.  If 96 percent of all people are not going to be in an auto accident you want to know if you are in the 4 percent or the 96 percent. 

            The right wing is humanism.  It is based on knowledge of materialism.  Like with the spiritual hierarchies, there is the tendency then to become anthropocentric in the cosmos and believe that we are the end and this is a very big vanity in thinking that man is a highly evolved life form when actually we are not.  We are actually somewhat more near to the bottom, but this is a by way and it is important.  When you look at two horoscopes you can see that one is radically different from the other—but they’re all right.  We can appreciate differences or acquire the ability to appreciate differences in human beings—a very valuable thing. 

            Then there is straight-ahead astrology which will eventually outdo other forms of astrology.  It will not be like the shopkeeper in the middle ages trying to figure out if a person is a crook or not.  Astrology is something to guide our consciousness—to guide our intuition or has to do with things of our perception.  Our intuitions have to become aligned with our perceptions to see the world with interior/exterior guides to observation and to reveal process.  The astrology of future will not be just horoscopes.  It will be a study of the progress through time and to see all of the facets that are a part of consciousness-–a more spiritual circular consciousness to produce the forward looking and blending of inner and outer things.  Eventually, symbolic astrology must also lead us into the inner consciousness of divine beings.  That astrology is after all–eventually, if they do well with it—they will look directly into the beings of other entities and with the ability to judge.  It will allow us to penetrate into the inner consciousness in the Aquarian age.