WISE MEN, RICH MEN AND LEPERS - Excerpt From Fifth Gospel - A Novel.

              

JESUS walked the road that led from Nazareth to Judea with his feet moving of their own accord and his thoughts vacant in his head.

During his conversation with his stepmother, what had lived embedded in him like a seal on wax had begun its leave- taking. This had made him feel bewildered and abandoned. As he walked now, he could no longer think coherent thoughts, and his movements followed only a predetermined design, towards the man who would take his destiny further.

At daybreak, a wind-storm announced itself in the anger of a red sky. Soon the air had picked up around him to sting his eyes. He stumbled and fell. Two men dressed in white garments with hoods over their heads and scarves over their faces, came from the road ahead, leading an overburdened mule.

The taller man helped him up, and said loudly over the din, ‘What is this? Jesus of Nazareth, is that you? Where are you going alone, my son?’

Jesus looked up at him, trying to understand words that no longer made sense. When his voice came from his mouth it sounded hollow, as if it came not from him but from the wind, ‘I am going to where people like you do not wish to direct your vision, where human pain can find the consolation that comes from what you have forgotten!’

‘Jesus of Nazareth!’ the other man shouted. ‘Do you not remember us from Engaddi?’ The man took the scarf from his face momentarily. ‘Do you see who I am?’

The shorter did likewise and said, ‘I once sat with you in the grotto...do you remember?’

Jesus did not see them. He saw only what they represented.

‘Come away from this scorching wind!’ the taller one said, ‘The Lord is a storm come to sweep away the world.’

‘You are lost lambs!’ Jesus coughed, walking away.

‘We are all lost, Jesus!’ the shorter one cried, ‘It does not matter how many psalms we sing, or how many temples we build, God continues to deny us our Messiah!’

Jesus stood in the tempest of elements and looked at them. ‘And when I become your shepherd,’ he said, ‘when you realise who I am, you will run away again and become lost, just as you ran away from me long ago.’

The men put scarves to their mouths to ward off the dust and debris. The shorter man said, ‘you must come with us...you are not well, there is a house of the order not far from here, where you can rest.’

‘Leave me be!’ he said to them. ‘I won’t go to your secluded house! You wear white, and you pretend to be pure, but you are not pious men in your hearts, because in you burns a fire that has not been kindled by God, but by your own ambitions. You bear the mark of the tempter! It is the tempter that has made you arrogant, so that your wool glitters with his fire!’ He put his fingers to his face. ‘The hair of this wool pricks my eyes but it will not blind me!’

The taller man shouted, ‘Rest assured, Jesus, it is the dust that pricks your eyes! You know we have shown the tempter the door, he has no part in what we do...you should’ve stayed with us, now look at what the world has made of you! Let us help you!’

‘Oh what arrogance and pride! You are only greater than others because you stand on their backs!’

They did not know how to respond to this, and he left them standing in the desert. Behind him the mule made its loud complaints, shaking its head, as the breath of Jehova carried the world away to blot out the sun.

The storm abated, and days passed without beginning and without end.

It was night.

Fatigued and cold, Jesus wandered towards a light in the distance. When he drew near to it, he saw a man sitting by a fire preparing to eat a meal. When the man looked up, he stood in a hurry, afraid, and called out to him with a mustered boldness, ‘Who are you? I am alone but I have a knife, and I shall not be afraid to use it!’

Jesus showed him his empty hands. ‘I thirst,’ he said, knowing he must pause, for his legs would soon give out from under him.

The man came to Jesus and helped him to a place beside the fire. ‘Forgive me...I am constantly afraid of being robbed by thieves, or killed by bandits! I see you are no thief, and no bandit...come...be my guest...eat at my table. I have made soup,’ he said, showing him the watery stew which he was pouring into a bowl. ‘There’s crow in it and wild mushrooms,’ he pointed out those meagre morsels with an approving eye, ‘and some other wild things I have no name for....once, you know, I would have spat at the thought of such a meal, but now I shake with anticipation. Look at my hands how they shake. Because of the crow, I have made it boil a good long while to kill the poison...that is what it has come to...still...thanks be to God, I have something!’ He sighed. ‘Israel mourns...Israel hungers...its people cry out in pain for deliverance, but first I must cry out for something to feed the hunger of my body! Something to put in my belly! After that, a man can turn his mind to the hunger of the soul. Until then, we are all animals...’ he looked at Jesus, ‘You need something in your belly too I’ll wager...you look like you have eaten nothing in days...come...it's good you will see, I have let it boil long to kill the poison...’

Jesus shook his head, ‘I want only water.’

‘Only water...!’ the man said, peering at him with more intensity. ‘Are you a prophet? Yesterday, I heard tell from a holy man, of a prophet in these parts...So help me God! He was described to seem just like you! Many don’t trust prophets, they think them mad people with one foot in heaven and the other in hell...but I believe it a good thing to know a prophet who can speak to God.’ 

The man gave him some water, which Jesus drank with gratitude. ‘I thank you for the water...but I am not a prophet.’

‘What a shame!’ The man’s spirit drooped. He took a thoughtful gulp of his soup. ‘If you were a prophet,’ he continued, ‘I would ask you to speak to God on my behalf...on account of the paths my soul has taken.’

Jesus was directed to an apparition that loomed large and red over the man. ‘What are these paths? I have seen you before...a thousand years ago. You were different then!’

The man grew fearful. ‘What do you see? Oh, dear God of Abraham, what do you see? Is it the Devil sitting on my shoulders? Is it? Yes...?’ He shuddered and moaned, and shuddered again. ‘Would you send it away? It hounds me. I have given up everything, and yet it follows me! I admit that I was never a pious man. My heart was always bent on acquiring riches and high honours. I thought that I was of greater value than others. One day I had a terrible dream. I saw what had made me rich. It was not I, myself, it was a black angel with huge red wings, and I was terrified because I knew that it was the devil! I took to my heels to escape him, abandoning everything, and I have been going about for a long time, fleeing from what sits on my own shoulders...’ when he said this, his eyes clouded with tears and he seemed to be lost in a vision of his own wretchedness.

‘I have seen this spirit that hounds you before,’ Jesus said to him, ‘at the pagan altars...it is the spirit of pride and arrogance!’

‘Yes...yes...!’ the man said, with eyes wide. ‘Pride and arrogance! Exactly! That is my weakness!’

Jesus could not help him, he could not help anyone, not yet...something was waiting for him in the Jordan and he had to go. He stood and with a heart full of woe, left the man in his misery.

He walked day after day with the sun’s fingers on his brow, and spent the nights huddled, trembling from cold, with his teeth chattering and only his thin, white robe wrapped around him. On the morning of the thirteenth day when the fire-ball came out of its rocky bed he was up again, walking, and came upon the disfigured shape of a man sitting beneath a solitary tree.

Already the world was a furnace and he knew he must have shade, but as he neared the tree the man sitting there raised his head and Jesus could see that his skin was covered in pustules, leaking with suppurations, that his nose was a hole in his face and that the lids over his eyes were gone missing, giving him the look of a living cadaver. The leper tried in vain to cover his malignancies with a hand eaten and ravaged. ‘Go away!’ he said to Jesus. ‘I am foul! Hurry! Don’t come near, for the path I walk is not your path, my son. I beg you to leave while you can...!’

Jesus sat near the man and wiped his brow with a sleeve and said. ‘It is hot.’

‘Yes, yes...it is hot...but please, save yourself! Must I take upon my soul your death on top of everything else I have to bear?’

Jesus heard snakes hissing behind rocks and when he looked at the leper he saw blue wings and a cold eye. He had seen this eye before in the faces of those Temple priests. The eye looked at him while its wings enfolded the man.

‘Tell me,’ Jesus said to him, ‘where has the path your soul has taken led you? I know you, I saw you thousands of years ago, but you are now changed, you are come down to earth!’

The leper was terrified. He sucked in a breath through the purple edged crater that was his mouth, and from within this cavern he emitted a strangled voice, ‘Do you see it? Oh the misery! Where is the Messiah? When will he come to release me from this dreadful thing that claws into my flesh? He came so gradually, you know. At first I thought he was the Archangel Gabriel and I adored him but I soon realised that he was another...I realised he was the angel of death! Death itself gnaws at my bones and feeds on my flesh...look at me! Me, a learned rabbi, a powerful man in the synagogue! Now I am defiled and no one will have me near them, and I have to

walk alone in desolate places like this, scarcely able to beg for what scraps people will give me at their doors.

‘When you came I was waiting for death to tear me to pieces with his jaws...I have waited! But he wants to torture me more...’ He began weeping then into his ulcerated hands.

‘I have seen it,’ Jesus told him, putting a hand on the man’s shoulders, ‘It is the sharpness of your dead thoughts, rabbi...these are like corpses and rotting carcasses.’

The man was so frightened that he put both hands over his face to ward off the picture of it.

Jesus pointed his head to the sun and bellowed an ‘Ahhh!’ into that white light that blinded his eyes. ‘I am a grain of sand in the desert! What can I do?’ he said to it. He got up, hot tears falling on the dirt, and with exhaustion in his limbs went on his way.

And like the wise men and the rich man, this leper did not see him go until he was a speck on the horizon.

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 Tenth Holy Night - Twins/Gemini

TWINS/GEMINI

The region of the twins is connected with the Hierarchy known in Christian Mysticism as the Seraphim and in Spiritual Science as the Spirits of Love. This hierarchy is known by this name because it is the bearer of the forces of spiritual love, a love that arouses the will to sacrifice. The Greek myth of the twins Castor and Pollux is a representation of such a love, where one twin is willing to sacrifice even his immortality for his brother.

We have seen this will to sacrifice through love, in the being of Zarathustra, who, at the turning point in time, incarnated as the Jesus of the Matthew Gospel (Yeshua) mentioned previously in several of our Holy Nights. We see it in the being of the Nathan Soul, the Jesus of the Luke Gospel, who sacrificed himself four times to be the vessel of Christ. We see it in the Mary of the Luke Gospel, who united with Mary of the Matthew Gospel. 

Ultimately this will to sacrifice can be seen in the Being of Christ Himself, who sacrificed his Godliness in order to descend from the heavenly spheres beyond the Zodiac, to earth evolution so as to unite Himself for all times with humanity by performing the highest sacrifice of all. Christ brought to Earthly evolution, thereby, a love that is not founded upon blood-ties. A spiritual love that lives in an etheric body that has been impregnated with the Christ Spirit. A love capable of inspiring a greater sacrifice than the sacrifice of Castor and Pollux who were blood brothers, because it can inspire sacrifice in 'brothers' who are united in Christ. It is a love that can also sacrifice not only immortality but the bearer of immortality, the lower ego itself, in order to receive it again as the immortal True Self from the being of Christ. This is characterised by the two brothers who are not brothers in blood - Yeshua and Jesus - who united through the Christ Spirit to provide a vessel for Christ's incarnation. After that Christ's command to his followers to love one another and to lay down their souls for their 'friends' because 'there is no greater love than this', was given its ultimate example on the hill at Golgotha when Christ Himself, a God, lay down his life for the world, to die an earthly death in Jesus.

It is from the region of Gemini that all impulses towards community, mutual love and the social life arise. The Seraphim also have the responsibility to ensure the regulation of a loving communion of the planets, that is, their communications with one another across the widths of space.

In ancient Persia, the age of Gemini, Zarathustra, the great Magi, was able to foretell the coming of Christ, whom he saw as Ahura Mazdao. This vision gave him the impulse to sacrifice himself in his coming lives in order to prepare for it, finally incarnating as Yeshua, the Matthew Jesus. Since his own sacrifice at the baptism, where he separated himself from the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth, the individuality of Zarathustra has incarnated again and again as Master Jesus -  and is one of the circle of twelve Bodhisattvas or Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings and Sensations who inspires humanity towards developing this 'selfless' love.

The sixth epoch will see a recapitulation of the age of Gemini on a higher level. It will be a time that stands under the signature of the Wedding at Cana, where those who unite in the Spirit of Christ will feel good-will towards one another even though they are not blood relations. Finally at the end of earth evolution, this sacrificial love on Vulcan will have created a new Cosmos, a cosmos of love created by  human beings - the hierarchy of Freedom and Love.

So, when we look up to the region of Twins/Gemini this Holy Night, may we see the connection between it and the Seraphim, the Spirits of Love. May we see how Castor and Pollux represent, in  our times, the image of a higher sacrificial love, a love that is capable of uniting 'like minded' people who are willing to lay down their lives for one another, because within their thinking hearts they are conscious of the Spirit of Christ, who sacrificed his life for all men. May the Glory of God in our hearts, the love in our hearts inspire good will among men so that peace may reign on earth.

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 Eighth Holy Night - Leo/Lion

LEO/LION

The region of Lion is related to the Hierarchy that is known in Christian mysticism as Thrones, and in Spiritual Science as the Spirits of Will. This hierarchy is connected to the earthly developmental stage which Rudolf Steiner calls 'Saturn' or the primal beginnings of earth evolution. The sacrifice enacted by the Spirits of Will on Saturn was the motivation for all that happened afterwards on the Sun and for this reason the Lion is associated with Sun forces in the outer Macrocosm and inwardly, Microcosmically to the human heart - the inner Sun. Leo's relationship to Saturn means it is also associated with the Karmic Past, Karmic Laws, since Saturn is the Father of Time - Chronos.

The foundation for the human heart was laid down on old Saturn and it is in the region of the human heart that we find the 12 petalled chakra, or heart chakra. Six Petals relate to Buddha's 6 fold path and the other 6 petals relate to the 6 Beatitudes of Christ. The complete development of this chakra creates a fifth chamber, a Fountain of light which generates a spiritual heart, that Rudolf Steiner calls an Etheric Heart. The Bible calls this spiritual heart the fountain of love from whence comes the Water of Life. In Arthurian Mythology it is the Holy Grail in which one finds the mana of life, the transmuted sacrificial substance through which we commune with God - Communion.

And so the region of Lion is associated with the courageous heart forces necessary for Sacrificial Will, which comes about through the activity of the spiritualised blood - water - in the heart, working into the physical body - the metabolic system and the limbs - engendering Eternal Life. The alchemical Sulphur process and warmth associated with it, is, spiritually speaking,  the sacrifice of the blood as it 'dies away' into the muscles and limbs and 'moves' the human being towards acts of 'Goodness' - or 'Good Will'. That is why Rudolf Steiner calls the heart the seat of the will.

On Saturn was also seeded the human ability to stand upright (something which we have already seen was vouchsafed by Christ when he entered into the sphere of the stars through the gate of Ram, coming into relation particularly with Leo and through it to its planetary counterpart Saturn). This ability also relates to the Archai who were the ego bearing beings of Saturn (in us this is denoted by the fact that the ego has its seat in the warmth of the blood). For this reason 'heart' consciousness is connected to this sign and it is through this connection of heart and consciousness that the redemption of the physical body will eventually take place, through the fructification of the entire bony system by way of the blood.

Interestingly, Jesus of Nazareth was called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah because the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve tribes of Israel related to this region of the Zodiac designated as Leo. When speaking of this aspect of Jesus, the writer of the Matthew Gospel was referring to the individuality of Zarathustra, who had once been the pupil of Manu/Noah, or Melchizedek. Melchizedek was also the teacher of Abraham. Abraham was given the task by Melchizedek (both pictured on the right) of preparing the forces of the physical body for the birth of Jesus children. Forces which unfolded over 42 generations. We see how Leo's connection to Saturn and to the physical body relates to this mystery, creating in Yeshua of the Matthew Gospel, in particular, not only wisdom and an understanding of Laws, but also courage and the will to Sacrifice (we should note that the individuality of Zarathustra not only sacrificed his physical body twice, once on the temple steps and again at the baptism, but in earlier times he also sacrificed his etheric body which he donated to Moses and his Astral body which he donated to Hermes, according to Rudolf Steiner).

On the other hand Leo and its influence on the development of the Etheric body during old Sun evolution is connected to the 12 petals of the heart chakra. This path relates to the special development of the loving heart forces that were inherent in the Jesus of the Luke Gospel and accounts for his heightened ability to 'heal'.  A different stream - the stream of the Essenes - had the task of preparing the right 'community' into which this Paradisal (Etheric) Nathan Soul could incarnate. These conditions were created by Jeshu ben Pandira, the leader of the Essenes who had once been inspired by Buddha. A hundred years before Christ he created the 'pure' etheric community into which the child who was united with Buddha - that is, whose etheric had united with the Astral body or Nirmanakaya of Buddha, could incarnate. 

Cosmically speaking Christ sacrificed himself four times in order to take upon himself the 'sins' or objective karma of mankind bringing the old Laws of Saturn (of the Father and the Sabbath) the Laws of necessity, to an end, and inaugurating the new Laws - the Sun (Son) Laws, the Laws of freedom from karmic necessity. In other words He is the Lord of Karma. On the other hand His forces worked particularly strongly in the heart of Jesus. Mark, the Evangelist has always been seen to be related to Leo and Rudolf Steiner tells us that the Gospel of Mark is a 'cosmic gospel', that is, it focuses mainly on the journey of the outer sun of Christ which entered the inner sun/heart of Jesus so that it could walk about the earth in a physical body. Christ's connection through Jesus to the Etheric of the earth is illustrated in the Transfiguration.

Since the Mystery of Golgotha the forces of Christ Live in the Sun/Heart of every human being (whether that human being knows it or not) and in the etheric sheath of the earth.

So, when we look up to the region of Lion this night, may we see its connection to Saturn and Sun Evolutions. May we see the connection between Melchizedek and Abraham and Jeshu ben Pandira and the Essenes, both preparing the way for the two Jesus Children, Matthew and Luke respectively. May we  see the sacrifices that were made by Jesus of Nazareth and Christ to enable His birth for the salvation of the Heart Consciousness of humanity.

Sun, thou bearer of rays,
Thy light's power over matter
Magics life out of the earth's
Limitless rich depths.

Heart, thou bearer of soul,
Thy light's power over spirit
Magics life out of the human being's
Limitless deep inwardness.

If I gaze upon the Sun
Her light speaks to me in radiance
Of the Spirit, filled with grace,
Wielding through the beings of worlds.

If I feel within my heart
The Spirit speaks its own true word
About the human being, loved by him
Through all rhyme and eternity.

Looking upwards, I can see
In the Sun's bright disc
The mighty heart of worlds.

Looking inwards, I can feel
In the heart's warm beat
The human Sun ensouled. - Rudolf Steiner.