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.

The Seventh Holy Night - Virgin/Virgo

VIRGIN/VIRGO

The Region of Virgo is related to the Hierarchy of the Kyriotetes, or in Spiritual Science - The Spirits of Wisdom. The Imagination that corresponds to this Zodiac is of the leading Kyriotetes on the Sun, the Virgin depicted in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse of St John, the woman clothed with the Sun, wearing a crown of stars and standing on the sickle moon with the dragon at her feet. The Gnostics knew this being as the Divine Sophia whose wisdom has rayed down towards humanity during the three evolutionary stages prior to earth evolution - Saturn, Sun and Moon.  The twelve stars correspond to old Saturn evolution; the Sun image corresponds to Sun evolution; the sickle moon to old Moon evolution. 

As we have seen before, Christ in his descent to earth was 'born' into the sphere of Kyriotetes, into the sphere of the Sun Spirit, or Sun as a Star through the gate of Ram in order to redeem the twelve senses and the physical body.

The Mary of the Luke Gospel was closely related to this being of the Cosmos. She is the Twin Soul of the Nathan Jesus, a pure soul that like the Nathan Jesus had not participated in the fall of man and was Paradisal. Because of this she was given the task to make her own descent towards the earth carrying the wisdom of the Sophia down into the Souls of men ahead of time, in preparation for both the descent of Christ and the birth of Jesus who would become his vessel. Rudolf Steiner named her Anthroposophia, for she is the inspirer of the Wisdom that lives in the soul of Man. At the turning point in time, she had the task of uniting the Region of the Virgin to the Region of the Fishes through the deep connection that existed between the two Marys: Mary of Luke Gospel and Mary of the Matthew gospel.

Before the fall, one could say, the two Marys were one being, a being which separated just before the fall into two beings. These two sister souls found one another again in Palestine. Mary of the Matthew Gospel was the incarnation of the oldest woman the earthly Eve, while Mary of the Luke Gospel was the youngest woman, the paradisal Eve. And, in the same way that both Jesus children, one a young soul (Nathan) and the other an old soul (Zarathustra), united at the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem to create the perfect vessel for Christ, Rudolf Steiner tells us the two Marys united at the moment of the Baptism in the Jordan to create a vessel for the Divine Sophia. Mary of the Matthew Gospel, the old Eve individuality on earth, united with the Paradisal Mary of the Luke gospel, who had her abode in heaven, and this made the old Mary into a 'Virgin' again, that is, pure. Through the power of the Paradisal Mary or the heavenly Eve, the earthly Eve was united with the heavenly Sophia for all times. The heavenly Sophia  incarnated 'Vicariously' into the Matthew Mary right down into her bones, perfecting her soul into a 'Mother of God' in order to enable the Birth of Christ into Jesus of Nazareth. Thereafter, Mary of the Matthew Gospel became the earthly reflection of the Divine Sophia, and the bearer of the highest human virtue - the Wisdom of the Kyriotetes. From that time on humanity became the lowest member of the Sobornal (collective) being of the Sophia. And when the Matthew Mary died she became a Bodhisattva and joined the circle of masters.

At the foot of the cross it is John who is asked by Christ Jesus to take this Wisdom of the Sophia, the Mother of God, into his 'house' or soul. And it is for this reason that later he is able to write his Gospel and the Book of Revelations. John becomes known from that time on as John the 'Divine' because he is overshone by the Divine Sophia.

John's connection with this being occurred in a Macrocosmic way when he ascended,  many incarnations later, to a 'conscious' experience of Christ as the Cosmic Lamb in the region where Christ unites with Virgo - the Sphere of the Sophia or Kyriotetes in a marriage, an initiation which Valentin Andrea calls, The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz'.

Rudolf Steiner tells us that it is from the two Regions Fishes and Virgin that in future times will proceed spiritual forces that are beneficent for human evolution because this represents the boundaries of the workings of the Cosmic Sophia. The Hebrews knew that the Sophia would one day bring man in connection with the seven zodiacal regions - from Fishes to Virgo as stated in the book of Proverbs: 'Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars'.

So when we look up to the region of Virgo on this Seventh Night, may we see the connection between the Sphere of Kyriotetes, the Divine Sophia and the Sun. May we see how the Luke Mary descended to earth to give birth to the Sun Garment of Christ, the Nathan Soul, and may we see how she and the Matthew Mary enabled the Birth of Christ into Jesus at the Baptism. May we feel gratitude for the being of Anthroposophy and her connection to the Divine Sophia, for it is through this connection that we can acquire the wisdom to bring about the birth of the Christ within our souls! 

Twelve Holy Nights - The Sixth Night - Scales/Libra

SCALES/LIBRA

The Region of Scales is related to the hierarchy of the Dynamis, or Spirits of Movement. Scales or Libra are responsible for the balanced movement of the planets in relation to one another and this includes the sun, which is their principle abode and from which they send down their beneficent forces to the planets and to the earth itself. There are seven principal planetary Spirits of Movement.

The expression of this  harmonious movement of the planets through the guidance of these spirits is experienced through the medium of inspiration as the 'Music of the spheres' and is manifested on earth in the chemical properties of earthly substances. The Dynamis or Spirits of movement were the regents of that aspect of old world evolution designated as 'moon' and they were responsible for bringing about the right relationship between Sun and Moon forces at this time, so that both Sun and Moon stood like two sides of a balance.  Occultists named the Zodiacal sign that man was entering when the ego began to come into its own, as Scales. For although they were responsible for giving man the Astral body at this time, their sacrifice was the motivating impulse for the Exusiai, whom we mentioned on our journey through the Fifth Night, to sacrifice their lowest substance (Ego) to man on earth.  

The region of scales is also the lowest of the light aspect of the Zodiac or the seven 'ascending forces',   They became a part of the 'light' aspect long ago (middle of Atlantean times). It was from this time that the being of Christ began His descent through the Gate of the Archangels to redeem the Astral body (thinking, feeling, and willing) which had been gifted to humanity by the Dynamis or Spirits of movement during Moon evolution. If Christ had not sacrificed his own perfected Astral body or Spirit Self, a harmony and balance between these three soul principles could not have been brought about leaving these principles prey to a temptation to separate into three types of human beings: Thinking would have manifested in an Eagle-like human being; Feeling in a Lion-like human being and Willing in a Bull-like human being; while in an inner sense these human beings would have been dragon-like in their Astral nature.

The principle threat was in the thinking life and through it Ego-consciousness. This would have meant a complete extinguishing of the human Ego. 

In order to accomplish this sacrifice the Sun being, Christ, united once again with the Nathan soul so that He could become the bearer of the forces of Sun, Moon and Earth which correspond microcosmically to the forces of thinking feeling and will in the lower regions of the Sun sphere, which extends to the sphere of the Moon or Astral world. It is because of this that the region of Scales was able to move into the 'light' aspect of the Zodiac, in other words, the Dynamis began to move upwards to become a higher hierarchy. 

In the Greek mysteries the initiates saw this reflection of Christ from the Moon sphere and they called it, Apollo. Apollo represented the triumph of the Sun Spirit over man’s passions, for Apollo was the harmoniser of man's thinking, feeling and willing by way of the lyre, which sounded with the harmonious tones of the human soul. The Sun Spirit as the guardian of the wild moonlike, stormy passions was the champion of the rational, objective thinking which had brought order to the other soul components through music -  the Music of the Spheres, which is connected to the balancing and harmonising aspect of the Scales and its influence upon the Dynamis or spirits of movement.

The region of the scales is also related to Buddha, who ascended to this region after fully developing his Astral Body and his Etheric Body (Manas/Moon and Buddhi/Sun). Rudolf Steiner tells us that Buddha was able to achieve in himself a perfect balance between macrocosm and microcosm - Nirvana - through an inspiration from the Spirits of Movement or Dynamis. The spiritual Star of Buddha (Mercury) rose in the region of the Scales. For this reason Buddha was able to donate his Nirmanakaya, his perfected Astral body to Jesus of Nazareth. The Nirmanakay resounded as the 'choir' of heavenly hosts heard by the Shepherds at the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

In Jesus of Nazareth we see this perfect balance of Sun (Ego) and Moon forces (Soul - Astral body) through the unification of the Zarathustra individuality in Yeshua, and Buddha's perfected Astral body, his Nirmanakaya, in Jesus, which created the vessel for the Christ being at the Baptism at the River Jordan. 

So when we look up to the region of Scales on this Sixth Holy Night, may we see the connection of the Scales and the Dynamis, the spirits of movement, with the human soul and the consciousness of the ego through thought. May we see the descent of Christ through the gate of the Goat into the Moon sphere as an impulse for the harmonisation of our souls, seen on earth as Apollo with his Lyre. And finally may we see on earth the connection between Jesus and Yeshua and Buddha and Zarathustra as an earthly reflection of this harmonisation of Sun and Moon forces. 

The Fifth Night - Scorpion/Eagle

SCORPION/EAGLE 

The region of Scorpion/Eagle is connected to the higher beings called Exusiai in Christian Esotericism, and the Spirits of Form in Spiritual Science. They 'form' the 'body' of the sun and so, light is the principle garment that they use to manifest their influence in the world, while their essence is Spiritual Light.  They are responsible for all that has self contained form on earth, therefore, they have been given the leadership of earth evolution. The Exusiai or Elohim receive their forces from the realm of the zodiac called Scorpion/Eagle.

In Genesis, the leading 6 Exusiai on the sun are called 'God'.  'Father God'  refers to the entirety of the six Elohim together with the seventh who is called Jehova. Jehova is the god who sacrificed his abode on the sun to become the regent of the Moon, so as to be closer to human beings. Through the co-operation of the entire circle of 7 Elohim the human being was able to receive the 'provisional' ego - the breath of life.  The Elohim accomplished this deed because they were able to connect to the sphere of the Holy Spirit through Elohim Jehova on the Moon. The reflected Holy Spirit in turn enabled the descent of Christ into the 'body' of the sun.  

The double image of Scorpion Eagle, as we have noted before, illustrates the peculiarity of the ego. 

The bible tells us that in receiving the ego from the Father God, the human being was exposed to Luciferic temptation. The human being ate from the apple of good and evil, that is, he/she grew conscious of the world and of the inner self and in so doing also began to lose his/her connection to the gods. 

The Scorpion is that aspect of the ego that seeks only the darkness of earthly things. It is the base, selfish aspect in all of us; the aspect that denies the light of the spirit. On earth Judas is a representative of Scorpio.

The Eagle on the other hand, soars aloft in the heavenly spaces and represents the ideal human being, the one that is 'Christ-like' or has the Light of Christ shinning into his Ego - or to put it practically, his blood, because blood is the physical expression of the Ego. In the drama of the life of Christ Jesus on earth the light aspect of this Zodiac, Eagle, is represented by Lazarus/John, the writer of the Gospel of John and Apocalypse.

This region is also connected to speech as only ego-bearing beings can speak and this leads us to how this Zodiac relates to the descent of Christ. 

In an earlier earthly, evolutionary stage (Atlantis), the human being faced a temptation that was connected to his seven organs. Selfishness of the seven principle organs would have led to illness without resolve. Rudolf Steiner gives us indications that  unbridled desires would have been the result of a distortion of human language because language would have expressed only the inner subjective experience of pain or pleasure of the individual organs and would not have related a human relationship to the outside world. Had human beings succumbed to this temptation we would never have been able to work creatively through the word.

In order to harmonise these Etheric forces of the human organs Christ had to sacrifice his perfected Etheric body, or Budhi by descending to that sphere where our organs receive their enlivening: the region where resides the spiritual archetypes for our physical body, the Sun as it appears as a focus of the Planetary Sphere (lower Devachan) or the sphere of Exusiai, who are said to safeguard our language. Once again the Nathan Soul who incarnates later as Jesus Christ's vehicle for this.  On earth this sacrificial manifestation of Christ is seen by initiates in the mysteries. They called this manifestation, Krishna. In the Bhagavad-Gita Krishna is the teacher of morality, of overcoming temperament, slavery to impermanence and habit through the power of an Ego that has taken into itself the Word, the Law, and Devotion.

We see this connection to the word characterised in St John's (Eagle) Gospel: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word.' He was able to write this because he was  taught the mystery of the Word by an initiate of Ephesus when he was only a child. Afterwards he was initiated by Christ who was the 'word' incarnated in the body of a human being. Later John journeyed to Ephesus, to the old mystery centre that was closely connected to speech, in order to Christianise the initiation of the 'Word'.

At the last supper we see a picture of what every human being must accomplish in order to unite their egos with Christ: they must replace the lower ego (intellect) with the higher ego, that is, with the Holy Spirit, or Higher Self (Spirit Self), just as Judas was replaced by John the Evangelist in Christ's circle.

An important reincarnation of St John the Divine was that of the enigmatic Christian Rosencreutz. In the future, Rudolf Steiner tells us, he will take up the task of transforming the lower ego into the higher ego and will undergo a great sacrifice because of it. He will take into his karma, the karma of all who do not, of their own accord, rise to the higher ego consciousness of Christ.

So when we look up to the region of Scorpion/Eagle on this Fifth Night, may we observe there the connection of the Elohim with Christ and Krishna (the Nathan soul) in the heavens and see on earth the double edged sword of the dark aspect of Scorpio and the light aspect of the Eagle represented by Judas and John - two aspects that live in our own souls side by side. 

May the Eagle of St John in us overcome the Scorpio of Judas and may we unite with Christ through the esoteric wisdom of Christian Rosencreutz!  

   

The Fourth Holy Night - Archer/Sagittarius

ARCHER/SAGITTARIUS

The Archai rule the region of the Archer or the Centaur/Sagittarius. The Archer represents the visible imagination of the two opposite poles in the human being - the human and the animal, the higher and the lower man. In a child the forces of the horizontal, that is, the crawling stage, are overcome finally, by the upright walking stage and signify a victory of the human nature over the animal nature. The higher beings that belong to this hierarchy, the Archai, are the ones who inspire uprightness in the human being (the ability to stand inside the physical body provided for a particular incarnation) because they were undergoing their human stage when the foundations of the physical body of human beings were laid down at the beginning of the creation of our cosmos - on old Saturn. The Archai were then connected with the forces of thinking in relation to the physical body (the physical brain) on Old Sun. One could say their task now, is to bestow on humanity the forces necessary for ego consciousness to arise through thought, which is signified by the arrow inside the bow. Ego consciousness enters the 'person' and is individualised to become what we call the 'personality'. That is why the Archai are sometimes called the 'Spirits of Personality'.

This relates cosmically to the descent of the Second Logos (Christ) into the realm of the Sun as a star, or the Sophia (the Spirits of Wisdom), as we mentioned in our first Holy Night. Christ entered the womb of Sophia through the gateway of the Ram or Lamb and that is why when viewed from this perspective, He is characteristically called the 'Cosmic Lamb'.

In order to enter the womb of Sophia or the Region of the Sun as a spirit, Christ had to relinquish the lowest aspect of His being, that aspect that is connected to our physical body by the barest thread - His perfected physical body, Atma or Spirit Man.

In earthly terms this sacrifice occurred when humankind was assuming an upright position (Lemuria). This upright bearing tore human beings away from the spiritual forces of the earth and made it possible for adversarial powers - powers that worked contrary to man’s true path of development - to desire to bring disarray to humanity’s twelve sense organs.

We can see how the upright position relates to the sense organs when we consider that the spine is the protector of the nerves which carry impulses to and from the various sense organs. The foundation for these twelve senses (Word Sense, Thought Sense, Ego Sense, Touch, Life Sense, Motion Sense, Sense of Balance, Smell, Taste, Seeing, Warmth sense, Hearing) had been established on old Saturn when a seed for the physical body was laid through the working of the twelve cosmic streams proceeding from the twelve-fold circle of the zodiac (remember the Archangels we spoke of yesterday?) but they acquired their full significance when man became an Ego-bearing being and became upright. The human task was to harmonise these senses with the twelve zodiac streams and it was this harmonisation that the adversarial powers desired to prevent. We see here a connection with the 12 masters of Harmony of Feelings and Sensations. 

Had the human being not been able to harmonise these sense organs, they would have acquired an independence of their own – a selfishness. Each organ would have become egoistic because the Ego's individualising power would have gone too far, making the organs of perception acquire a kind of personality and only want to transmit to the soul what it sensed of pain or bliss. This turning inward, if you like, would have prevented human beings from retaining their uprightness through the chaos that would have ensued. Therefore, by necessity, humanity would have had to return to the forces of the earth (the horizontal forces) to survive.

Christ had to descend from his lofty heights to overcome this threat and he did so by uniting with the Nathan Soul,  the sinless soul untouched by the fall, who later incarnated as Jesus of the Luke Gospel. 

Together they harmonised the forces of the twelve Zodiacs and produced an Etheric image of the ‘Ideal’ man. An echo of this ideal man was seen by human beings on earth as 'Rama'.   In the Ramayana, Rama is the eldest son of king Dasaratha of the Suryavanshi (of the Solar Dynasty) the direct descendants of the Sun. Rama is known as a sat-purusa, the ‘ideal man’ the ‘upright man’ in control of his ‘senses’. Note how he holds the bow and arrow in the picture, how balanced his posture is, how he holds his head, how his feet touch the ground but he seems not to be affected by gravity!

Such a sacrifice seen by human beings inspired them to remain upright so that each sense organ could say:

‘Not us but the ideal man in us; not us but the Christ in us.’

On earth we know that both Jesus Children were sons of Abraham. These children like all others  learnt to crawl and to walk. They could only do so because Abraham, as the Father of the Jewish people, provided a lineage for the creation of the appropriate physical bodies. As such Abraham is closely connected with this Holy Night. Abraham was the one who was willing to sacrifice his son Issac as a sacrificial lamb because God had commanded it.


This walking and crawling is the beginning of a three-fold process for the two Jesus children. The first was the unification of the two Jesus children at the Temple steps in Jerusalem. At this point the Jesus of the Matthew Gospel relinquished his physical body to enter into the body and soul of Jesus of the Luke Gospel, who could then say, 'Not I, but Yeshua in me!' And Yeshua could say, I experience the world through Jesus' twelve senses. From that time on he was able to 'stand-in' his own 'Personality' before the Rabbis in the Temple.

The second process was at the Baptism in the Jordan, when the Spirit of the Matthew Jesus, Yeshua, once again sacrificed life in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, to allow the Spirit of Christ to enter so that Jesus could then say 'Not I but the Christ in me - I experience the word through my Twelve Senses! Christ himself could say, I experience the world through Jesus' twelves senses!

The third process occured after the Mystery of Golgotha and the death of Christ Jesus, at the resurrection of the 'ideal' physical body, that is, after the spirit of Christ had permeated the entire physical body of Jesus and by this means spiritualised it. This created a potential for each individual human being to do the same, to say: Not I but the Christ in me. It also marked the beginning of the spiritualisation of the 'body' of the world itself, so that the world could say the same.

So on this Fourth Holy Night, when we look up to the heavens to the region of Archer, may we see cosmically the connection between the Archai, the Region of Ram, the first sacrifice of Christ in the vessel of the Nathan soul. On earth, may we see the connection between the physical body and ego consciousness and how Abraham is connected to the physical body of both Jesus children and the twelve senses, to prepare the perfect vessel for Christ.

May we stand upright, knowing that with our physical being (that which is the most perfect and the oldest) we may be the highest being on earth but we are also in the process of becoming the lowest being of the hierarchies. A being that is in some ways the most important being in creation, for human beings are the only beings that have 'Free Will' because human beings are not bound to the animalistic physical body, but are free to find their way to the Spirit by their own efforts!