Chapter Cut from Fifth Gospel - A Novel - TEMPLE SLEEP

TEMPLE SLEEP

‘And the youth looked at him and loved him.’

The secret Gospel according to Mark

To Lazarus Christ Jesus said, ‘Soon you will pass into spiritual worlds, and your sister shall prepare you for your burial, she will sit with you and hold you in her heart, for she shall be the guardian of your soul until I return…Have faith Magdalena,’ he said to her, ‘support your brother as you support me…for in every death there is a rebirth…Wait for my call, then shall you see the last sign before the Son of Man begins his journey to his death. In your brother shall be resurrected what lives in me, the eternal Word, the light and the life that comes from those heavenly spheres from which I have come to earth. He shall be the first to see the Kingdom in all its fullness on earth, for his illness is not unto death, but to the glory of God, to the revelation of the eternal Word.’ Now to Lazarus he said, ‘Through this initiation, you shall venture into spirit worlds and you will become another man, you shall have another name and they shall call you John the beloved disciple of Jesus. It is true that every birth is accompanied by an illness, the illness of the mother. But this illness does not lead to death, but to new life.’

Lazarus was amazed by these words but his eyes were heavy laden and his heart seemed to falter. At this point he heard his sister Martha hurrying into the booth. ‘Lord,’ she said, ‘do you not care that my sister has left me to serve you alone? Please tell her to come and help me!’

Mary answered, ‘Martha, sit with us…the master is speaking of eternal truths.’

But Martha’s voice, very far away now, came into his mind, irritated and unhappy, ‘There is so much work to do! I should also like to sit and to listen to eternal truths, but who shall feed the master, then?’

‘Martha, Martha,’ came his master’s gentle words, ‘you are careful and troubled about the food, which is your task for you must care for my physical well-being; in you lives what is active. But one other thing is also needful - Mary listens to my words because she has a task that is different from yours, she cares for my soul, what lives in her is contemplative…and as you have chosen, so too has she chosen what is suited for her part…and this shall not be taken away from her.’

Lazarus heard his sister’s voice say, ‘Yes, my lord,’ and after that her footsteps in the courtyard.

Christ Jesus continued with his teaching and as his words were spoken Lazarus felt his body at peace, its turmoil stilled. The world too seemed quiet, the sea, and air and the very heavens came to rest and among this harmony did his acquiescent soul lift up from him.

And he fell out of his head.

                        

               Lazarus sees himself stripped of all earthly pretensions standing beside his master in the temple of Jerusalem, before the Pharisees.

          ‘Verily, verily,’ Christ says, and it is as if Lazarus himself were saying it, and it seems not strange at all but the most simple thing, for he feels as if he is one with Christ. ‘I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death…’

The Pharisees answer, ‘Are you greater than our father Abraham which is dead, and the prophets which are dead? Who makes you so great?’

Christ tells them, ‘If I honour myself, my honour means nothing: it is my father who honours me, of whom you say that he is your God…but you do not know him! I know him! And if I were to say that I do not know him to please you, then I would be a liar, like you. I know him and I keep his word, you only speak of Abraham. Abraham himself rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad.’

‘You are not yet fifty years old, how can a man so young have entered so deep and risen so high as to have seen the father Abraham in the blood of his generations?’

‘I am not an initiate. I am the initiator, and yea more than that, I am the subject of initiation itself! I am the foundation of the very world! I am not only one with Abraham, but with what pulses in the entire cosmos, I was before Abraham was. Before Abraham was, existed the one who is I AM and I AM He.’

The people grow angry. They take up stones to cast at him and he has to flee. There are hindrances all around. He feels pain as stones strike him but they are not stones, it is that his soul is being wrenched from the temple, the grave of his body.

He realises that Christ is the door and that through Him he can enter a higher sphere, a glorious mountain.

From the outspread widths of space comes to him an angel, the self of his great teacher, John the Baptist, whose words had so often warmed his heart. His mighty cosmic form seems to Lazarus like Adam and he blesses him with his greatest gift – the gift of his own spirit. Lazarus feels it enter into his emptied soul.

I am John!

Now in the upper airs the moon’s snow face cuts the night’s skirt, and is stirred by delicate green whirlwinds that move from star to star inscribing in astral light grand pictures for his seeing.  He rises higher through the agency of another angel, upwards to a sea the colour of peach blossom that stretches out to distant purpling plains and resounds in glorious songs. This angel points to the father of his people. 

Abraham!

He is one with Abraham. his ancestor.

A light rises over the horizon of this unpolluted, immeasurable landscape. A sun, suspended, luminous, diaphanous. incandescent and transparent all at once permeates the heaven-opened world from all sides like the rays of a dawn sun. These throw their luminance upwards to the hems of a lowering cloud making it gleam all gold.

The Sun is the light and life and love of the world and it is born now in me!

I am a Son of Man!

I am one with Christ who is the light of the world.

From those mighty cosmic reaches, come the resounding words,

‘Lazarus…come forth!’

And Lazarus tells himself, 

‘Now do I truly recognise without hindrance what lives in the soul of Jesus…Him who has awakened me - the sublime being of Christ!’

             

Epiphany Part II 'The Baptism', Excerpt from Fifth Gospel - A Novel.

THE BAPTISM

     

T

HE day was nearing its apex. Sharp talons of light fractured the water and made short shadows of men. From the crowds, Jesus saw the priests of the Sanhedrin leave the river, and he waited for a time, until the voices of the people had died down and many had left, seeking their midday meal.

He laid aside his garments and took himself to the river in his loincloth. The man in the river was aglow with light. Colour spilt over him like fluid fire. Jesus saw him put a hand over his brow. He did not pause but entered the silvered water. First his feet, then his ankles, and knees, until the cold came over his thighs, until he stood before the man whose height was greater than his, and whose face was, of a sudden, full with awe.

The man let go his staff into the water, and his knees buckled and he fell into it.

He cried, ‘I should be baptised by you! I cannot endure to do it!’

‘In the same way that once my presence awoke your limbs in your mother’s womb, I shall awaken your thoughts to your duty!’

The man called John looked up and Jesus’ shadow fell over him. Jesus could now see, unclouded and undisturbed by the light, a reflected mirror image of himself in the other man’s face. An image of something he had misplaced. He was given the knowledge at Qumran that this man was the same as Elijah, and now he recognised in him, the oldest soul of humanity, Adam, and he realised that some part of him belonged to this man and was conjoined by a remembrance of times lost in a dream.

When the baptiser stood, it was a signal to Jesus.

He crossed his arms over his chest. He felt a support behind the small of his back. It seemed to him then, that although Yeshua was leaving him, little by little, the soul of the baptiser was uniting with him –  to sure up the pathway to the God. And he was comforted by it.

John guided him into the water, and he was submerged into light and colour and sound. His soul was wedded to the element of the river. All the pictures of his life rushed past his eyes until he heard a flute song, and he could smell sheep, earth and grass. All of it was married to the warmth of friendship, the lulling breezes, the glow of the sun, the fingers of the wind, the soothing feel of his mother’s hand and the cry of a child in the wilderness.

Now, there was nothing more.  

He did not breathe. He was lost. He was alone. A flame hovered over him. A sparkling, ever-tranquil, lilting radiance issued from the encircling round, and above him the spirit of Yeshua gathered up to form the shape of a bird. It lingered a moment over him, as if in a final farewell, and was given up, with light in its wings and life in its breast.

Surrendered!

The majestic and wise spirit of Yeshua, which had fashioned his soul and body over eighteen years, was severed from him. Within him was left a hollow place, unopened yet to the spirit, like a spring bud that trembles in a cold wind.

How could he open it, when he had no forces left to him? A great lassitude overwhelmed him and threatened to extinguish him. He was alone. And yet…and yet…Jesus sensed the soul of his dead mother draw near. His mother, whose purity was the likeness of his own, came to his aid. She plucked tenderly at his heart, to unfold him in readiness for the descent of grace; for the pulse of heaven’s glory. When the clouds parted and rent was the veil that separates above and below, the God fell downwards, from the heart of the Father, like a brand of light moving through the spirit’s fluid stream. Jesus inhaled the breath of the God into his lungs, and the spirit orphaned from heaven, innocent of evil, immortal, blameless, without guilt and eternal, began its descent into the soul of Jesus.

Now, when Jesus opened his eyes, he saw the world differently for the second time in his life, and in his ears the thunder call came:

 ‘Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I behold my very own Self, in whom my own Self confronts me! Now you are begotten in Jesus!’

     

                                

The Day of Epiphany! A New Season - Excerpt from Fifth Gospel - a Novel

A NEW SEASON

I

T was the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberias, on a day when Venus stood in Aquarius that John the Baptiser awoke, feeling his muscles and sinews taut, his mind awake and alert and his heart calm.

The sun had popped up out of its desert crib to cast its fiery eye over Israel and to beat upon the brows of men and the backs of beasts. Each day he faced this sun, standing waist deep in that freezing river, observing with an unfaltering eye the whirling tumult of dead thoughts and sins that were discharged into the river from the souls of those whom he baptised. Each day he wondered where the strength would come for his work and each day he was given the forces necessary. But this day something was altered. In himself he felt it, the nearness of the fulfilment of his task, accompanied by a strange bewilderment…since he found himself desiring to forestall it!

In this mood he left his hut of rushes to say his prayers to the God of Israel and to perform his ablutions before taking himself to that little bend in the river near Bethany, situated in the lower Jordan. 

Large crowds came to be baptised and he worked for hours without pause, looking into each soul to determine its measure and value, dividing the lambs from the vipers. Near the midpoint of the day the leaders of these vipers arrived at the river, a deputation of priests and Levites upon asses preceded by a retinue of guards whose swords caught the bold sunlight and reflected their sharp sting into John’s eyes. They pushed aside the crowds to allow the priests to come to shore.

Well…well…his words had moved across the land, so that even the Temple in Jerusalem had heard of him! He was pleased for the sake of his task.

He said to them, ‘The Masters of the ancient wisdom of the snake, the brood of vipers, the initiates of Lucifer, have come!’

One Pharisee said from his high position, ‘We are here on behalf of the Sanhedrin, to ask you some questions.’

‘Questions?’ the baptiser said, looking about with mockery in his eye. ‘If you come asking questions concerning laws that are written in books, you will not find anything here to satisfy you. I do not answer to laws that indicate this or that to be right or wrong. I answer only to the power that exists in every man to know right from wrong in his own heart!’

‘Heresy!’ the Pharisee said, ‘A son of Abraham must follow the laws of Moses!’

The Baptist looked at him with flares for eyes. ‘You make much of having Abraham for a father, but this alone does not make you worthy! Your body of flesh is like the stones at your feet…in the same way that you can pick up any of these stones and make them yours…God can make any man, a child of Abraham.’

Gasps came from the priests. Rants, and raves and astonishment filled the air. ‘You dare to say, any man can be a child of Abraham! Any man can enter the lineage of the blood tree of your forebears, which is sanctified by God!’

The Baptist roared like a lion at them, ‘Why do you call on this dying tree! God has given me the axe–and I will cut it down!’ He pointed to the people and cried, ‘Israel! This tree no longer bears good fruit!’

The delegation was turned over into a rumble of voices. The guards stood at the ready with their weapons.

‘Jerusalem!’ He pointed at the delegation. ‘Your laws and your knowledge were brought to you by way of Moses, but the time of these laws is finished now! Soon, grace and truth will come into the world by way of the anointed one. He will descend to earth so that the blind sons of Israel may see Him! But only those who can hear the voice of conscience in their hearts will recognise him!’  

The rabbis, priests and the Levites talked in an excited fashion among themselves, shaking their heads and distorting their countenances. They could not agree. Meanwhile in the crowds, a man called out to John,

‘But how shall we become good men? What is this voice you speak of, that is in the heart?’

John the Baptiser answered, ‘Do you not shrink to see others cold or hungry? Do you, who have much, not hear a voice that tells you to help those who have little? This voice speaks tenderly in the wilderness of your soul, and it will say to you: he who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has meat, let him do likewise.’

Then a publican called out, ‘But what of our livelihood?  We have to earn a living, from shelter and food! What will you have us do? Give men a bed, and a bowl of soup for free, to be good?’

‘Listen to the voice, it will say: Do not ask for more than is rightfully yours.’

And the soldiers, who were Herod’s men and had come with the priests and Levites, asked him, ‘How can we soldiers be good men, if we must use a sword and accuse others for our wages?’

John the Baptist told them, ‘The voice will say: do not do violence to any man and do not accuse another falsely. What you do, must be good and right, if you are to take to yourself your wages and be content.’

‘Who are you?’ Another Pharisee called out, ‘Are you the Messiah?’

John knew these questions needed to be asked, to prevent confusion in the people’s minds, and so he answered, ‘Listen to me…all of you…know that I am not the Christ. He shall come after me!’

‘Do you say that you are Elijah, then?’ Another priest said.

John shook his head, ‘I am sent in the spirit of Elijah.’

‘But it is said, that a prophet will come before the Messiah comes, are you not that prophet?’

‘I have told you…do not look at me, look for that other who will come!’

‘Who do you say that you are? We must return to tell those who have sent us, the council of great men at the Sanhedrin,’ that same Pharisee said.

‘Tell them, that I am the voice of the soul, crying in solitude, cut off from the likes of those who hold fast to the blood of Abraham. I am the free voice, without a folk, who seeks Him who comes to sustain me!’

‘Why do you preach repentance and baptise, and make pure men, if you are not a Prophet, or Elijah, or the Messiah?’ A Levite gave back.

‘I baptise with water, but there stands one among you that you do not recognise. He has the forces derived from a higher source than mine! He is mightier than I, for I am not worthy to stoop down to unloosen even the laces of his sandals. I baptise you with water. I do this in preparation for Him, who will baptise men not with water, but with the Holy Spirit fire!’

‘Is he here?’

John’s heart was full with joy, ‘I feel he is among us!’

The priests looked about them.

Each man searched his neighbour.

‘Where is he?’ they asked.

‘You shall not see Him until He makes himself known to you.’

The priests mocked him and said he was a madman. They told the crowds that no man should believe such lies and with their dispositions proud, gathered to them the reins of their animals, and took themselves and their soldiers from the shores of the river. But two members of the Sanhedrin remained behind, and sat among the crowds. John sensed that these men had been touched by his words.

After that, he continued with his work until the sun reached its zenith, and the crowds began, as was their custom, to disperse for the midday meal. Now standing alone in the chilling water, he saw a man step forward and come to the edge of the river.

He put a hand up over his eyes to see, for the sun’s rays were shimmering on the surface of the river, blinding him.

He recognised the man’s form and the contours of his face. How bright did the sun shine at that moment! As if it’s body were leaning over to touch the river! John squinted, and still he could not see, and yet he did see. This was a man he knew, and yet, it was not simply that he saw a man he knew, for this man, whom he had met at Qumran, seemed not to be there at all, but in his place was a soul that he recognised in its essential foundations. It was as if he were looking at his own reflection, a part of himself, long lost and forgotten. Did this soul that came towards him not seem like the youngest, and purest, soul in the world? And was this not the opposite of his own soul, which felt to him ancient, cracked, and used up, like an old jug emptied of its contents?

His heart near burst with the mighty impression this thought created, and his eyes filled with tears, and he let go his staff into the water.

The Twelfth Holy Night - Ram/Aries

RAM/ARIES

We have been on a long journey and we have now come to the highest and most exalted region of Ram or Aries, which one could say sits at the 'head' of all the zodiacs and which is connected with the principle of the Sun/Christ and the highest archetype of the human being - Adam Kadmon, or the redeemed physical existence of the human being - from Alpha to Omega, from Physical body to Atma - Spirit Man.

It was through the gate of Ram that the Son Logos Christ first entered from beyond the realm of the Zodiac to be born into the Spirit and soul of the Sun in order to redeem the physical body through the twelve senses (as we saw on the first night), and it was this sign which also stood in the heavens at the Baptism in the Jordan, when the Christ being descended into the Sun-soul and physical body of Jesus of Nazareth in order to perform, three years later, his fourth and most important sacrifice.

It is the constellation of Ram that is the source of Christ's spiritual influence in the cosmos and it spreads its beneficent emanations down towards the first seven of the zodiac signs to the region of the Scales. In the sphere of Virgo and Scales, the Sophia meets the being of Christ and this is where the Chymical wedding is consummated. These seven Zodiacs may be called the body of the Mystic Lamb, from Ram to Scales, and from Virgo to Pisces we have the body of the Divine Sophia.

The Hebrews recognised the connection between the Messiah and the region of Ram, and the ritual of sacrificing lambs for the sins of Israel, and at The Passover, was a preparation for the true'SacrificialLamb', Christ, Who was  destined to be led to the slaughter for the sins of the world.

John the Baptist was the foremost initiate of the Hebrews. He was the old Adam individuality, the first man to take up a physical existence on earth, and for this reason he was given the task of baptising the people in preparation for the descent of Christ, the First God to enter physical existence on earth. His task was to sort the Lambs - those ready for the new initiation, from the Vipers, those old souls incapable of the new initiation in that life.  

Christ Jesus was the archetype of the redemption of the physical body of human beings, which had fallen into disarray through the fall of Adam. The physical body, was intended to be more spiritual, less material and its 'fall' will be righted by the Resurrection which is an archetype for the rise of Adam/Kadmon - the perfect human being - in times to come. The human physical body which entered too deeply into materiality will then be as it was intended for humanity by the gods from the beginning. It is for this reason that John says to his disciples that he must decrease while Christ Jesus must increase, that is, Adam the physical man must die away in order that Adam/Kadmon the Spiritual man might be born in every human being, right down into his bones.

At the baptism in the Jordan we are given a wonderful picture: Adam stands in the glistening water, looking impossibly tall before his 'brotherly' soul, the Nathan Jesus who is kneeling. John recognises that below him is the Nathan Soul, which was that part of him separated from him before the fall. At the same time John is given the vision that above him the Dove is descending over Jesus of Nazareth, which indicates to him that the Holy Spirit is making possible the entry of the Lord, the being of Christ, the Lamb of God into the body of the Son of Man.

Later after John the Baptist's death his spirit united with Lazarus during his initiation by Christ, so that Lazarus became Lazarus/John or John the Divine. John the Divine showed his recognition of Christ as the Son Logos, the Word, in the Gospel of St John. In his Apocalypse he showed his  recognition of Christ's connection to Ram, for Christ is depicted as the heavenly Lamb who guards the Book of Seven Seals. 

So on this night, as we gaze upwards to the realm of the Ram, may we see the connection between this region and the Son Logos who descends towards earth through this gate. May we see, on earth the connection between the first Adam - John the Baptist, and the archetype of the redemption of Adam in Christ Jesus, Adam Kadmon. And may we prepare our hearts for tomorrow, when we celebrate Epiphany, the birth of the Son Logos, Christ into the physical body and soul of Jesus as an archetypal image of what must occur in our own bodies and souls, the birth of Christ in all of us and in the earth!

The Eleventh Holy Night - Bull/Taurus

BULL/TAURUS

In exploring this Zodiac of the Bull we now move from the sphere of the hierarchies to the region of the Holy Cosmic Spirit from which forces emanate towards the planets.

The Holy Spirit is also called the Lunar Logos because of its kinship to the Moon. This kinship was the result of an important task during Christ's descent towards the earth. The birth of the Sun Logos into the Body of the Sun was made possible by the Holy Spirit principle working into the sphere of the Moon through the communion of the entire circle of the 6 Elohim and Jehova as we have seen in previous posts. The Holy Spirit is connected, therefore, to the Moon Sphere by virtue of this union and the entire third hierarchy of angels, in particular their representatives the Archai.  It is for this reason that the Holy Spirit has a special connection to the Astral body of man or the soul, which was created on old Moon and its connection with the consciousness of the entire soul - the Consciousness Soul - or the 'Conscience Soul'.

We see this relationship between the Moon and the Sun through the Holy Spirit in the various cults of the Bull in Egypt and Sumeria. In Egypt the Egyptian Goddess Isis was the Goddess of the Moon, and her image arose out of the union of the Moon with the Sun, that is, of Sophia with Isis and through them, the union of the region of Virgo with the region of the Bull. This connection was depicted in various ways depending on what forces were prevalent at the time, for instance:

In the Third Cultural Epoch whenever the influence from the sphere of the Virgin was the more prevalent there arose the image of the Moon Goddess Isis, representing the Sun spirit, the Divine Sophia, the World-Soul, carrying her Sun-child Horus. Whenever the image of the Bull or the entire macrocosm prevailed in Egypt, Isis was seen with Cow Horns on her head - as an image of her representation of the World Spirit. Furthermore when, within these cow horns was  depicted the Solar disc, it signified the upward striving of the Spirit of the Bull from the Sphere of the Moon to the Sphere of the Sun or the region of Ram. This depicted an ascent from Holy Spirit to Christ, which signified a move from the Third Cultural Epoch, Egypt to the Fourth - Greco-Roman Epoch, when Christ would be born on earth.  The Luciferic principle which long ago had cut itself off from the Holy Spirit on Old Moon, did not choose to strive upwards to the Sun Sphere but chose to remain egoistically within the boundaries of the Moon Sphere. This is the picture of the Luciferic Holy Spirit that does not seek to find Christ and it is for this reason that in the Greco Roman era the Bull thereafter became the image of the Luciferic principle. 

We see this imaged forth in Roman times in the cult of Mithras, the god whose task was to slay the bull of passions and egoism, and in the time of Moses as the cult of the Golden Calf.

The Holy Spirit that emanates from the region of the Bull down into the Moon Sphere was seen at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist through the agency of his angel in the form of a Dove. He saw this image of the dove because, interestingly, Rudolf Steiner tells us, the cow seen inspiratively, takes on the image of a dove since astrally the cow is like a bird. 

It is the Holy Spirit which, once again enables the birth of Christ into the Sun-Soul of the Nathan, in the being Jesus of Nazareth at the baptism in the Jordan. Christ is born, not only through the highest earthly representative of the region of the angels or Waterman - John the Baptist - but also through the co-operation of the Mary of the Matthew Gospel, the old  Eve through her unification with her sister soul Mary of the Luke Gospel. 

Mary was was once seen as Isis on her descent into the human soul and it is through this heavenly Isis/Mary that the Mother of God is united with the Divine Sophia, the World Soul itself. The birth of Christ is made possible, therefore, by a communion of heavenly and earthly representatives of the Sphere of the Bull and and Virgin - that is the spirit in the soul. Similarly, it is also the Holy Spirit from the region of the Bull that, in uniting with the sphere of Twins or Seraphim (represented by the sacrifice enacted by both Christ and the Zarathustra individuality at the baptism) that created the possibility for the birth of  the highest principle of Sacrificial love, Christ, on earth. Christ, the Sun Being was then able to walk the earth to speak of a love that is not connected by 'blood' kinship  a love that is free and connected only by 'spirit' kinship. He could do this through the agency of this region which rules the Larynx and speech (Bull) and the Spirit of Community (Twins).  It is for this reason that speech connects us with others in a loving marriage of souls. Rudolf Steiner even goes so far as to say that the Larynx will one day not only speak forth words, but will be a creative organ, a higher version of the organs of reproduction which are, at present, possessed by human beings. The larynx will offer itself up, chastely, to the Holy Lance of  Love - the Holy Spirit - in order to bring to 'birth' the spirit of Christ, not only in the soul, but within the soul of a 'community' and in the Soul of the earth, as a moral creative force. In this way The Bull also connects the realm of Twins with the realm of Goat, the realm of Archangels, in particular Michael who, as the highest Archangel of the Sun and the Countenance of Jehova, had a special relationship both to the Sun Logos and the Holy spirit  - the Word and Thought - that is, the Cosmic Intelligence of Christ.

At the Wedding of Cana we see this relationship between the Sophia the Holy Spirit and Christ, the Mother the Son and the water(Spirit) creating Good Will among a community of men and women not connected by blood, as a precursor to the Pentecostal experience of the Holy Spirit among the 12 disciples which created a new 'Christ Community' through the agency of the Spirit working in the Mother of God. This prefigures the community of the Sixth Epoch, the epoch of the Spirit, in which all will 'Think Speech' in the same spirit language.

So on this Holy Night when we gaze up at the region of the Bull (Thought), may we see the connection between it and the Holy Spirit, the Lunar Logos working particularly through the Moon Sphere of the angels to enable the birth of Christ (The Word) firstly into the body of the Sun and secondly into the body of the Sun-Soul Jesus of Nazareth. May we see how it once united with the Mother of God which was really the 'Vicarious' incarnation of the Sophia - the World Soul on earth, in order to make this possible, and how it united again with the Mother of God twice: at the Wedding at Cana and at the Pentecost in order to bring about a free 'common love' among men who are not blood kin.

The Ninth Holy Night - Crab/Cancer

CRAB/CANCER

The region of Crab or Cancer is connected with the hierarchy of the Cherubim in Christian Mysticism, or Spirits of Harmony in Spiritual Science. The symbol of the crab is the vortex, which expresses the harmonious transition between one cycle and the next. All transitions on all planes of existence are led by the Cherubim. We see their harmonious influence in the great transitions of world evolution from Saturn to Earth. We see it also in  those smaller transitions (led by the lower hierarchies inspired by the Cherubim): the great epochs of the earth - Polarian, Hyperborean etc; the cultural epochs - Indian, Persian, Egyptian etc;  and the four seasons of the year.  They are responsible for taking up the plans of the Seraphim, who are like the architects of the gods, and initiating an impulse towards a manifestation which is then worked on further by the Thrones who bring the plans to fulfilment. It was the task of the Cherubim to create the circle of the Zodiac on old Sun as a protective sheath. So it is for this reason that they have a deep connection with the thorax in the human being, that is, the rib cage and the twelve pairs of ribs that protect the heart. On old Sun the Cherubim were the highest beings taking part in its evolution and the Archangels were the lowest beings. The Cherubim created the protective sheath while the Archangels imbibed the wisdom of the Kyriotetes and from it created the light of the Sun. 

When Christ entered into the realm of the Zodiacs through the Gate of Ram the way for his descent to the Sun as a star had been prepared by the Cherubim. 

John the Baptist was born under the sign of the Crab and he connects the Zodiac region of Crab with the Region of Waterman, the region of the angels from which he observed the Sun at midnight. Because of this John the Baptist was able to connect the Cherubim with the sphere of the angels and the angel of Buddha in particular, who became his 'inspirer. 

Like the Cherubim John the Baptist prepared the way for the descent of Christ. 

In previous lives he had been Elijah and before that Adam, the first earthly man. The story of the fall speaks of the separation of Adam from Eve after Jehova breathed the provisional Ego into their lungs. Thereafter there was an 'expulsion' from Paradise, that is, the human being was cut off from consciousness of the realm of the Father God, the realm beyond the Zodiac, and the way to this consciousness was barred by the Cherub with the flaming sword.  The Cherub with the flaming sword is an imagination of the voice of Conscience, which proceeds in its highest aspect from the realm of the Cherubim. The Consciousness of the 'impulses of our will' that is, Conscience,  was a necessary requirement for an understanding of Christ.  In the wilderness of the soul the voice of conscience speaks, like the 'voice of God' - Repent and make ready the way of the Lord! - and proclaims the coming of the Lord of the Soul - the highest expression of the Ego - Kyrios - the Higher Self.

India stood under the sign of Cancer/Crab and it was Buddha who prepared the way for Conscience to arise in the world. Many of John the Baptist's sermons were a reflection of the Sermon at Benares because the angel of Buddha was inspiring him. Moreover, it was John the Baptist's heightened sense of Conscience that enabled him to be the first to meet Christ on earth and to recognise the vessel that would be placed at his disposal - Jesus of Nazareth. John the Baptist points to Christ as the Lamb of God and connects Him with the Sphere of the Ram - that Zodiac through which He entered into the realm of the Spirit of the Sun. When John the Baptist sees Jesus of Nazareth he also recognises the pre-fall nature of the Nathan Soul which was once united with him before it was separated out and sent to the sun-sphere so that it might unite with Christ in His descent to earth.

Interestingly after John the Baptist's death he remained hovering over the circle of the 12 disciples around Christ Jesus,  as a reflection of the work of the Cherubim in creating the Zodiac as  a protection for old Sun evolution and the Thorax as the protection of the inner sun of the heart.

The Sixth Cultural Epoch of earth evolution will be the Age of Waterman or Aquarius. At this time Jeshu ben Pandira will return again as the Maitreya Buddha, who will be the preparer of the consciousness of human beings for the Etheric Christ, just as John the Baptist was the preparer of the consciousness of human beings for the physical Christ. He will not only speak of morality but he will teach morality - or conscience. The Age of the Consciousness Soul is a preparation for this because ego consciousness in the entire soul requires a lighting up of thought in the will. This is an ability to understand the intentions behind actions - Moral Cognition - or a thinking with the heart, which is the seat of the will. 

At the end of earth evolution when both sun and moon have united with the earth and it has become spiritualised in the fiery furnace of sacrificial Vulcan, the earth will turn inside out, that is, what was once at the centre will form a new Zodiac at the periphery, taking the work of the Cherubim in the human heart to a new stage - a stage where conscience is transformed into love.

 So on this ninth night, when we turn our consciousness to the realm of the Crab may we discern there the connection between this Zodiac and the realm of the Cherubim who created the entire circle of Zodiacs on Old Sun. May we see the Ram as the highest Zodiac which formed the first gate through which Christ entered the sphere of the Sun on his descent to earth, and  may we see the connection of the Cherubim to the Archangels who had their Ego consciousness on old sun and now live in the etheric body of human beings and who belong to the region of the Goat, which formed the last gate through which Christ descended to the earth.  On earth may we see the connection between the Cherubim and John the Baptist who recognised Jesus and who prepared the way for a consciousness of the physical Christ and the Maitreya Buddha who in the age of Waterman will prepare the consciousness of human beings for the Etheric Christ.

May we hear the voice of conscience in our hearts as an imaginative inspiration from the realm of the Cherubim  and may it engender in us a fiery love for the good action.

The Second Holy Night - Waterman.

WATERMAN

The region of Waterman is connected with the hierarchy of the angels who have a special affinity with water in the world, water being the element in which they manifest outwardly. Inwardly they are connected to the etheric body in human beings.

The etheric body not only provides the physical body with life, but is also the tableau in which memory is written. That is why the etheric body is called the 'Water of Life' in the bible, and why the angels are called the 'Sons of Life' in various mystery traditions. It is also why angels are known to be the holders of the 'memory' of our past doings - in other words, why they are considered to be the Guardian Angels of human beings.

We see these two qualities of the etheric body illustrated in the various mystery traditions as: the water of Lethe and Eunoe (the draught of remembrance and forgetfulness); the Egyptian river on which travels the boat of Isis or the soul; and the Nepenthe given to Isolde which allows her to forget her duty to marry Mark so that she can fall in love with Tristan.

The Second Holy Night, in the earthly sense, is connected to the two Johns in the bible: John the Baptist and John the Divine, the writer of the Gospel of John and Revelations.

Why is this so?

The sign of the Waterman is cosmically connected to the Moon sphere and represents both the angel and the spiritualised human soul which is filled with the spirit or Manas, enabling it to have imagination as a form of higher perception or Moral Cognition. 

John the Baptist was the representative of this stage in human development. He received a special initiation in which he experienced the Sun at Midnight from the constellation of Waterman, the constellation ruled by the moon, and for this reason he was able to baptise with water to loosen the etheric bodies of those whom he baptised.

The second John, John the Divine, is always represented by the Eagle and is connected to the higher ego, the lower Ego is the Scorpion represented by Judas. The higher ego or spiritualised intellect can create the right conditions in the soul for  a unification of the soul with the spirit from the realm of Waterman - this is called the Consciousness Soul. That is why he was never baptised by John the Baptist and had to wait for Christ to baptise him with Fire.

So we have two Johns - John the Baptist - Waterman and John the Divine - Eagle who are the earthly 'Guardians' of the second Holy Night. 

What about the Cosmic descent of Christ we spoke of yesterday?

From a Cosmic perspective this Holy Night is also a depiction of Christ's Descent from the Spirit of the Sun into, yes, the region of Scorpion/Eagle! That is, into the realm of the body of the Sun. This happens because the Sun Elohim who are the Gatekeepers of the Region of Scorpion Eagle enabled it. How did they do this? They united with  Jehova Elohim on the Moon. The consequence of this for human beings is depicted in the Bible when the 'breath of life' that is the Ego is given to Adam/Eve.

So on this Holy Night when we look up to the Constellation of Waterman, we should not only imagine  the human being's ascent from the darkness of matter to a 'perception' of the spirit, but we should also imagine the descent of Christ from the spirit of the sun, through the Zodiac gate of Scorpion Eagle to the body of the sun. 

This night is therefore the night in which we can draw close not only to our angels who guide us and shine the spirit downwards into our souls, but also to the two Biblical Johns who achieved ahead of time, what we are still striving to achieve. May we honour them.

The Baptism of Jacob - Excerpt from 'Fifth Gospel'

He crossed his hands over his chest as he had seen others do, and the Baptiser immersed him into the water. He held his breath. An instant stretched to eternity, an eternity fashioned an instant. Full of fear, fear and panic, and fear again, he held to his heart, for harder tests had he withstood. Finally, he let go his dread of death and allowed the water to wash over him.

He was dying and in this dying something began to prise open the eyes of his soul, to reveal not the form-dwindling water, but something else – the weaving of his life in picture forms. Everything lay around him: his accomplishments and his many failings; his desires; his passions and his weaknesses; all of his vices and his sins; all the defilement of this life’s journey and the dust of his misplaced hopes and dreams. All the content of his life until now, was added to the river’s many voices. By way of the stream’s sacrifice, these remnants floated away from him, leaving him clean. Now, a vision of profound beauty was granted him, so great and so mighty as to cause him to feel the very ground of his being shaken with love.
He saw, in his mind’s eye, a man carrying a lamb on his shoulder.

Of a sudden, he was lifted out of the water and he gasped for breath. He felt life enter into the dead parts of his soul. He heard a voice, ‘Arise, you have seen the good shepherd!’

Jacob knew his wound was healed, and his pain was eased! He had found harmony in the stream of his life, for in the river’s stream, he had found his salvation.