The Mystical Interpretation
of Christmas
by Max Heindel
Six Dissertations
Upon the Subject
of Christmas
Showing the Esoteric
Significance of
The Great Event
The contents of this book were sent in lesson form to
students from time to time by the author. They comprise six of his ninety-
nine epistles. The principal feature of these lessons is the mystic birth
and death of the great Christ Spirit, given from the viewpoint of a seer.
The author received these rare gems of truth through divine illumination.
The most pronounced materialist must become convinced of the divinity of man
after reading this writer's revelations on the inner significance of the
Christ and the principles which He proclaimed.
Seventeen of the ninety-nine lessons have been printed
in book form under the title, The Web of Destiny; nine have been published
under the heading of Freemasonry and Catholicism; nineteen on The Mysteries
of the Great Operas; and twenty-four under the title Gleanings of a Mystic.
The remainder will appear later in a second volume of Gleanings.
We hope that the perusal of this volume on the holy
life of Christ will stimulate a greater veneration for the Christian
religion, now made acceptable to the reason through the inspired work of
this author, whose greatest aim while he lived was to bring the Christ
ideal and the simple life of service closer to the hearts of the people.
– Mrs. Max Heindel
October 28, 1920.
I. The Cosmic Significance
of Christmas
Once more in the course of a year we are upon the eve of Christmas. The
view which each of us takes of this festival is dissimilar to that of every
one else. To the devout religionist it is a season hallowed, sacred, and
fraught with mystery, none the less sublime because uncomprehended. To the
atheist it is a silly superstition. To the purely intellectual it is a
puzzle, for it is beyond reason.
In the churches the story is recited of how upon this, the holiest night
of the year, our Lord and Savior, immaculately conceived, was born of a
virgin. No further explanation is made; the matter is left to acceptance
or rejection by the hearer according to his temperament. If mind and
reason dominate him to the exclusion of faith, if he can believe nothing which
cannot be demonstrated to the senses at any moment, he is forced to reject
the tale as absurd and out of consonance with various immutable laws of
nature.
Various interpretations have been given to satisfy the mind, these
principally of an astronomical nature. They have set forth how, on the
night between the 24th and the 25th of December, the sun commences its
journey from the south to the north. He is the "Light of the World." Cold
and famine would inevitably exterminate the human race if the sun remained
always in the south. Therefore it is a cause for great rejoicing when he
commences his northward journey. He is then hailed as "savior," for he comes
"to save the world," to give it "the bread of life," as he ripens grain and
grape. Thus "he gives his life" upon the cross(ing) of the equator (at the
spring equinox), and then commences his ascent into the (northern) heaven.
On the night when he commences his northward journey the zodiacal sign Virgo,
the celestial virgin, the "Queen of Heaven," stands upon the eastern horizon
at midnight, and is therefore, astrologically speaking, his "rising
sign." Thus he is "born of a virgin" without other intermediary, hence,
"immaculately conceived."
This explanation may satisfy the mind regarding the origin of the
supposed superstition, but the aching void which is in the heart of every
skeptic, whether he is aware of the fact or not, must remain until the
spiritual illumination is attained which shall furnish an explanation
acceptable to both heart and mind. To shed such light upon this sublime
mystery shall be our endeavor in the following pages. The immaculate
conception will form the topic of a future lesson; just now we will show
how the material and spiritual forces alternately ebb and flow in the course
of the year, and why Christmas is truly a "holy day."
Let us say that we subscribe to the astronomical interpretation as being
as valid from its point of view, as the following is true when viewing the
mystery-birth from another angle. The sun is born from year to year in the
darkest night. The world-saving Christ are also born when the spiritual
darkness of mankind is the greatest. There is a third aspect of supreme
importance, namely, that it is no mere idle foolishness when Paul speaks of
Christ being "formed in you." It is a sublime fact that we are all
Christs-in-the-making, and the sooner we realize that we must cultivate the
Christ within before we can perceive the Christ without, the more we shall
hasten the day of our spiritual illumination. In this connection we again
quote our favorite aphorism from Angelus Silesius, whose sublime spiritual
perception caused him to say:
"Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn;
The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain,
Unless within thyself it be set up again."
At the summer solstice in June the earth is furthest from the sun, but
the solar ray strikes the earth at nearly right angles to its axis in the
Northern Hemisphere, hence the high degree of physical activity resulting.
Then the spiritual radiations from the sun are oblique to this part of the
earth, and are as weak as the physical rays when they are oblique.
At the winter solstice, on the other hand, the earth is nearest the sun.
The spiritual rays then fall at right angles to the earth's surface in the
Northern Hemisphere, promoting spirituality, while physical activities are
held in abeyance on account of the oblique angle at which the solar rays
strike the surface of the earth. On this principle, the physical activities
are at their lowest ebb and the spiritual forces reach their highest tidal
flow on the night between the 24th and 25th of December, which is therefore
the most "holy night" of the year. Midsummer, on the other hand, is the
sporting time of the earth-goblins and similar entities concerned in the
material development of our planet, as shown by Shakespeare in his Midsummer Night's Dream.
If we swim with the tide at the time when it is strongest, we shall cover a
greater distance with less effort than at any other time. It is of great
importance to the esoteric student to know and understand the particularly
favorable conditions which prevail at Yule-tide. Let us follow Paul's
exhortation in the 12th chapter of Hebrews and throw aside every hampering
weight as do men who are running a race. Let us strike while the iron is
hot; let us specially bend all our energies at this time to spiritual
endeavor, and we shall reap a harvest such as we cannot obtain at any other
time of the year.
Let us remember also that self-improvement is not our first
consideration. We are disciples of Christ. If we aspire to distinction, let
us remember that He said: "Let him who would be the greatest among you be
the servant of all." There are much sorrow and suffering around us; there
are many lonely and aching hearts in our circle of acquaintances. Let us
seek them out in an unobtrusive manner. At no time of the year will they be
more amenable to our advances than just now. Let us strive to spread sunshine
in their path. Thus we shall earn their blessings and the blessings of our
Elder Brothers. The resulting vibrations in turn will cause a spiritual
growth not to be attained in any other way.
II. Spiritual Light:
The New Element and
the New Substance
Last year our correspondence course in Mystic Christianity was started
with a lesson on Christmas from the cosmic point of view. It was explained
that the summer and winter solstices together with the vernal and fall
equinoxes form turning points in the life of the Great Earth Spirit, as
conception marks the commencement of the human spirit's descent into the
earthly body, resulting in birth, which inaugurates the period of growth until
maturity is reached. At that point an epoch of mellowing and ripening has
its inception, together with a decline of the physical energies which
terminates in death. That event frees man from the trammels of matter and
ushers in the season of spiritual metabolism whereby our harvest of earthly
experiences is transmuted to soul powers, talents, and tendencies, to be
put to usury in future lives, that we may grow more abundantly rich in such
treasures, and be found worthy as "faithful stewards" to fill greater
the greater posts among the servants in the Father's House.
This illustration rests upon the secure foundation of the great law of
analogy, so tersely expressed in the hermetic axiom, "As above, so below."
Upon this, the master-key to all spiritual problems, we shall also depend
for an "open sesame" to our lesson on Christmas this year, which we hope may
correct, confirm, or complete previous views of the part of our students, as
each requires.
The bodies originally crystallized in the terrible temperature of Lemuria
were too hot to contain sufficient moisture to allow the spirit free and
unrestricted access to all parts of the anatomy, as it has at present by means
of circulating blood. Later, in early Atlantis they had, indeed, blood, but
it moved only with difficulty and would have dried quickly because of the
high internal temperature, save for the fact that an abundance of moisture
was supplied by the watery atmosphere which then prevailed. Inhalation of
this solvent gradually lessened the heat and softened the body until a
sufficient quantity of moisture could be retained within to allow of
respiration in the comparatively dry atmosphere which later obtained.
The earlier Atlantean bodies were of a grained and stringy substance, not
unlike our present tendons and also resembling wood, but in time
flesh-eating enabled man to assimilate sufficient albumen to build elastic
tissue necessary for the formation of lungs and arteries so as to allow
unrestricted circulation of the blood, such as now obtains in the human
system. By the time these changes within and without had taken place, the
grand and glorious seven-colored bow appeared in the rain-laden sky to mark
the advent of the kingdom of men, where conditions were to be as varied as
the hues into which its atmosphere refracted the unicolored light of the
sun. Thus the first appearance of the bow in the clouds marked the
commencement of the Noachian age with its alternating seasons and periods
of which Christmas is one.
The conditions prevailing in this age are not permanent, however, any
more than those of previous ages. The process of condensation which
transformed the fire fog of Lemuria into the dense moist atmosphere of
Atlantis, and later liquefied it into the water which flooded the cavities
of the earth and drove mankind into the highlands, is still going on. Both
the atmosphere and our own physiological condition are changing, heralding to
the seeing eye and the understanding mind the dawn of a new day upon the
horizon of time, an age of unification called in the Bible the kingdom of God.
The Bible does not lease us in doubt concerning the changes. Christ said
that as it was in the days of Noah so should it be in the coming day.
Science and invention are both now finding conditions not previously met.
It is a scientific fact that oxygen is being consumed at an alarming rate
to feed the fires of industry; forest fires are also drawing enormously
upon our stock of this important element, besides adding to the drying-up
process which the atmosphere is naturally undergoing. Eminent scientists
have pointed out that a day must come when the globe cannot sustain life
depending upon water and air for existence. Their ideas have not excited
much anxiety as the day they have named is so far in the future; but though
the day be distant, the doom of the current Fifth Epoch is as inevitable as that of the
flooded Atlantis.
Could an Atlantean be transferred to our atmosphere, he would be
asphyxiated as are fish taken from their native element. Scenes viewed in the
Memory of Nature prove that the pioneer aviators of that time actually did
faint when they encountered one of the air streams which gradually descended
upon the land that they inhabited, and their experiences caused much comment
and speculation. The aviators of today are already encountering the new
element and experiencing asphyxia as did our Atlantean forbears, and for
analogous reasons — they have encountered a new element descending from
above, which will take the place of oxygen in our atmosphere. There is a new substance also entering the human frame which will supersede albumen.
Moreover, as the aviators of ancient Atlantis fainted and were prevented by
descending air currents from entering, the "promised land," beyond the Atlantean continent prematurely, so will the new element baffle present-day aviators as well
as mankind in general until all have learned to assimilate its material
aspects. And as the Atlanteans whose lungs were undeveloped perished in the
flood, so will also the new age find some without the "wedding garment" and
therefore unfit to enter until they shall have qualified at a later time.
It is therefore of the greatest importance to all to know about the new
element and the new substance. The Bible and science combined furnish ample information upon the subject.
We have stated before that in ancient Greece, religion and science were
taught in the mystery temples, together with the fine arts and crafts, as
one united doctrine of life and being, but that this condition is now
temporarily abrogated to facilitate certain phases of development. The unity
of religious and scientific language in ancient Greece made these matters
comparatively easy of comprehension, but today complications have set in
owing to the fact that religion has translated and science merely
transferred their terms from the original Greek, which has caused many seeming
disagreements and a loss of the link between the discoveries of science
and the teachings of religion.
To arrive at the desired knowledge concerning physiological changes now
going on in our system, we may call to mind the teachings of science that
the frontal lobes of the brain are among the most recent developments of the
human structure, and make that organ in man enormously larger
proportionately than in any other creature. Now let us ask ourselves: Is
there in the brain any substance peculiar to that organ, and, if so, what
may be its significance?
The first part of the question may be answered by reference to any
scientific textbook bearing upon the subject, but The
Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception on page 452 gives more, and we quote from it as
follows:
The brain....is build of the same substances as are all other parts of
the body, with the addition of phosphorous, which is peculiar to the brain
alone. The logical conclusion is that phosphorus is the particular element
by means of which the Ego is able to express thought....The proportion and
variation of this substance are found to correspond to the state and stage
of intelligence of the individual. Idiots have very little phosphorus,
shrewd thinkers have much....It is therefore of great importance that the
aspirant who is to use his body for mental and spiritual work should supply
his brain with the substance necessary for that purpose.
The indisputable religiousness of Catholics is partly traceable to their
practice of eating fish on Fridays and during Lent, which are rich in
phosphorus. Though fish are a low order of life, The
Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception does not approve of killing them but refers the
student to certain vegetables as a means of physically obtaining an
abundance of this desirable substance. There are other and better ways not
mentioned in the Cosmo-Conception, as it would have been a digression there.
It was not by chance that teachers of the Grecian Mystery School thus
named that luminous substance which we know as phosphorus. To them it was
patent that "God is light" — the Greek word is phos. They therefore most
appropriately named the substance in the brain which is the avenue of ingress
of the divine impulse, phos-phorus; literally, "light bearer." In the
measure that we are capable of assimilating that substance, we become
filled with light and commence to shine from within, a halo surrounding us
as a mark of sainthood. The phosphorus, however, is only a physical medium
which enables the spiritual light to express through the physical brain, the
light itself being the product of soul growth. But soul growth enables the
brain to assimilate an increasing amount of phosphorus; hence the method of
acquiring this substance in large quantity is not by chemical metabolism, but
by an alchemical process of soul growth, thoroughly explained by Christ in
His discourse to Nicodemus:
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world...He that
believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned
already...And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light...For every one that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be
made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:17-21.)
Christmas is the season of greatest spiritual light. During this age of
alternating cycles there is an ebb and flow of the spiritual light as well
as of the waters in the ocean. The early Christian church marked the
conception in the fall of the year, and to this day the event is celebrated
in the Catholic church when the great wave of spiritual life and light
commences its descent into the earth. The flood tide is reached at
Christmas, which is therefore truly the holy season of the year, the time
when this spiritual light is most easily contacted and specialized by the
aspirant through deeds of mercy, kindness, and love. Nor are opportunities
lacking to even the poorest, for, as so often emphasized in the Rosicrucian
teachings, service counts more than financial assistance, which may be a
detriment to the recipient. From those, however, to whom much is given,
much will be required, and if any one has been blessed with an abundance of
the world's goods, a careful dispensation of the same would necessarily accompany whatever physical service he may render. Let us further remember the words of the Christ: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Thus we shall follow Him as burning and shining lights, showing the way to the New Era.
III. The Annual Sacrifice
of Christ
Have you ever stood by the bedside of a friend or relative who was about
to pass out of this world and into the beyond? Most of us have, for where
is the house that has not been entered by Father Time? Neither is the
following phase of the occurrence, to which we would particularly direct
attention, uncommon. The person about to pass out very often falls into a
stupor, then awakens and sees not only this world but the world into which
he is about to enter; and it is very significant that then he sees people
who were his friends or relatives during the earlier part of his life —
sons, daughters, a wife, anyone in fact near and dear to him — standing around
the bedside and awaiting his crossing over. The mother will fondly stretch
out her arms: "Why, there is John, and how big he has grown! What a
splendid big boy he is!" And so she will recognize one after another of her
children who have passed into the beyond. They are assembled at her bedside,
waiting for her to join them, actuated by the same feeling that possesses
people were when a child is about to be born into this world, making them
rejoice at the new arrival because they feel instinctively that it is a
friend who is coming to them.
So, also, the people who have gone before into the beyond gather when a
friend is about to cross the border line and join them on the other side of
the veil. Thus we see that the birth into one world is death from the
viewpoint of another — the child that comes to us has died to the
spiritual world, and the person who passes out of our ken into the beyond
and dies here is born into a new world and joins his friends there.
As above, so below; the law of analogy, which is the same for microcosm
and macrocosm, tells us that what befalls human beings under given
conditions must also apply to the superhuman under analogous circumstances.
We are now approaching the winter solstice, the darkest days of the year,
the time when the light of the sun has almost faded, when our Northern
Hemisphere is cold and drear. But on the longest and darkest night the
sun turns on its upward path, the Christ light is born on the earth again,
and all the world rejoices. By the terms of our analogy, however, when
the Christ is born on earth He dies to heaven. As the free spirit is at
the time of birth finally and firmly encased in the veil of flesh which
fetters it all through life, so also the Christ Spirit is fettered and
hampered each time He is born into the earth. This great Annual Sacrifice
begins when our Christmas bells are ringing, when our joyful sounds of praise
and thanksgiving are ascending to heaven. Christ is imprisoned in the most
literal sense of the word from Christmas to Easter.
Men may scorn the idea that there is an influx of spiritual life and
light at this time of the year, nevertheless the fact remains whether we
believe it or not. Every one in the whole world at this time feels lighter,
feels different, feels as if a load were lifted off his shoulders. The
spirit of peace on earth and good will towards man prevails; the spirit that
we also would give something expresses itself in Christmas gifts. This
spirit is not to be denied, as is patent to anyone who is at all observant;
and this is a reflex of the great divine wave of giving. God so loved the
world that He gave His only or alone begotten Son. Christmas is the time of
the giving, though it is not consummated until Easter; this is the crux, the
turning point, the place where we feel that something has happened which
ensures the prosperity and continuance of the world.
How different is the feeling at Christmas from the one that is manifest
at Easter! At the latter there is an outgoing desire, an energy which
expresses itself in sex love with desire for perpetuation of self as the
keynote; how different this is from the love which expresses itself in the
spirit of giving that we find at Christmas time rather than that of
receiving.
And look now at the churches; never does the candle burn so brightly as
upon this, the shortest and the darkest day of the year. Never do the bells
sound so festive as when they ring out their message to the waiting world,
"The Christ is born."
"God is Light," says the inspired apostle, and no other description is
capable of conveying so much of the nature of God as those three little
words. The invisible light that is clothed in the flame upon the altar is
an apt representation of God, the Father. In the bells we have an apt symbol
of Christ, the Word, for their metal tongues proclaim the gospel message of
peace and good will, while the incense brings an added spiritual fervor,
representing the power of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is thus symbolically
part of the celebration which makes Christmas the most spiritually joyful
time of the year from the standpoint of the human race which is now embodied
and working in the physical world.
But it must not be forgotten, as was said in an opening paragraph of this
lesson, that the birth of Christ upon earth is the death of Christ to the
glory of heaven; that at the time when we rejoice at His annual coming, He
is invested again with the heavy physical load which we have crystallized
about ourselves and which is now our dwelling place — the earth. In this
heavy body He is then encrusted, and anxiously He waits for the day of final
liberation. You understand, of course, there are days and nights for the
greater spirits as for the human beings; that as we live in our body during
the daytime, work out the destiny which we have created for ourselves in the
physical world, and are then liberated at night into the higher world to
recuperate, so also there is this ebb and flow of the Christ Spirit. It
dwells within our earth a part of the year and then withdraws into the
higher worlds. Thus Christmas is for Christ the commencement of a day of
physical life, the beginning of a period of restriction.
What then should be the aspiration of the devout and enlightened mystic
who realizes the greatness of His sacrifice, the greatness of this gift
which is being bestowed upon mankind by God at this time of the year; who
realizes this sacrifice of the Christ for our sake, this giving Himself,
subjecting Himself to a virtual death that we may live, this wonderful love
that is being poured out upon the earth at this time — what should be his
aspiration? What but to imitate in however small a measure the wonderful
works of God! He should aspire to make himself more the servant of the
Cross than ever before, more closely to follow the Christ in every thing by
sacrificing himself for his brothers and sisters, by uplifting humanity
within his immediate sphere of work so as to hasten the day of liberation
for which the Christ Spirit is waiting, groaning and travailing. We mean
the permanent liberation, the day and the coming of Christ.
To realize this aspiration in the fullest measure, let us go forth during
the coming year with full self-reliance and faith. If we have heretofore
despaired of our ability to work for Christ, then let this despair pass, for
has He not said: "Greater works than these shall ye do"? Would He who was
the Word of truth have said such things if it were not possible to realize
them? All things are possible to them that love God. If we will really
work in our own little sphere, not looking for the greater things until we
have done the work close at hand, then we shall find that a wonderful soul
growth may be attained, so that the people who are round about us shall see
in us something which they may not be able to define but which will
nevertheless be patent to them — they shall see that Christmas light, the light
of the new-born Christ, shining within our sphere of action. It can be
done; it only depends upon ourselves whether we will take Him at His word so
as to realize this command: "Be ye therefore perfect as your Father in
heaven is perfect." Perfection may seem a very long way off; we may
realize more acutely as we look upon Him how far we are from living up to
our ideals. Nevertheless, it is by striving daily, hourly, that we finally
attain, and every day some little progress can be made, something can be
done, in some way we can let our light shine so that men shall see it as a
beacon light in the darkness of the world. May God help us during the coming
year to attain a greater measure of Christ-likeness than we have ever before
attained. May we live such lives that when another year has rolled around and
we again see the candle lights of Christmas and hear the bells that call us
to the Holy Night service, we shall then feel that we have not lived in vain.
Each time we give ourselves in service to others we add to the lustre of
our soul bodies, which are built of ether. It is the Christ ether that now
floats this sphere of ours, and let us remember that if we ever want to work
for His liberation, we must in sufficient numbers evolve our own soul bodies
to the point where they may float the earth. Thus we may take up His burden
and save Him the pain of physical existence.
IV. The Mystic
Midnight Sun
Exoterically the sun has been worshiped as the giver of life from time
immemorial, because the multitude was incapable of looking beyond the
material symbol of a great spiritual truth. But besides those who adored
the heavenly orb which is seen with the physical eye, there has always been
and there is today a small but increasing minority, a priesthood consecrated
by righteousness rather than by rites, who saw and see the eternal
spiritual verities behind the temporal and evanescent forms which
clothe these verities in changing raiment of ceremonial, according to the
times and the people to whom they were originally given. For them the
legendary Star of Bethlehem shines each year as a Mystic Midnight Sun, which
enters our planet at the winter solstice and then commences to radiate from
the center of our globe, Life, Light, and Love, the three divine
attributes. These rays of spiritual splendor and power fill our globe with
a supernal light that envelops every one upon earth from the least to the
greatest without respect of persons. But all cannot partake of this
wonderful gift in the same measure; some get more, some less, and some, alas!
seem to have no share in the great love offering which the Father has
prepared for us in His only begotten Son, because they have not yet
developed the spiritual magnet, the Christ child within, which alone can
guide us unto the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
What profits it the Sun doth shine,
Had I not eyes to see?
How shall I know the Christ is mine
Save through the Christ in me?
That soundless voice within my heart
Is earnest of the pact
'Twixt Christ and me — it does impart
To faith the force of fact.
This is a mystic experience which will not doubt ring true to many among
our students, for it is as literally true as that night follows day and winter
follows summer. Unless we have the Christ within ourselves, unless
thatwonderful pact of blood brotherhood has been consummated, we can have
nopart in the Savior, and so far as we are concerned it would not matter
though the Christmas bells never ring. But when the Christ has been formed
in ourselves, when the immaculate conception has become a reality in our own
hearts, when we have stood there at the birth of the Christ child and
offered our gifts, dedicating the lower nature to the service of the Higher
Self, then and then only the Christmas feast is spread for us from year to
year. And the harder we have toiled in the Master's vineyard the more
clearly and distinctly shall we hear that soundless voice within our hearts
issue the invitation: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.....for my yoke is easy and
my burden is light." Then we shall hear a new note in the Christmas bells
such as we have never heard before, for in all the years there is no day so
glad as the day when the Christ is born anew into the earth, bringing with
Him gifts to the children of men — gifts that mean the continuance of
physical life; for without that vitalizing, energizing influence of the
Christ Spirit the earth would remain cold and drear, there would be no new
song of spring, no little woodland choristers to gladden our hearts at the
approach of summer; the icy grip of Boreas would hold the earth fettered and
mute forever, making it impossible for us to continue our material evolution
which is so necessary to teach us to use the power of thought in the proper
creative channels.
The Christmas spirit is thus a living reality to all who have evolved the
Christ within. The average man or woman feels it only around the holidays,
but the illumined mystic sees and feels it months before and months after
the culminating point on Holy Night. In September there is a change in the
earth's atmosphere; a light begins to glow in the heavens; it seems to
pervade the whole solar universe; gradually it grows more intense and
seems to envelop our globe; then it penetrates the surface of the planet
and gradually concentrates itself in the center of the earth where the
group spirits of the plants make their homes. On Holy Night it attains
its minimum size and maximum brilliancy. Then it begins to radiate the
light concentrated, and gives new life to the earth wherewith to carry on the
activities of nature during the coming year.
This is the beginning of the great cosmic drama "From the Cradle to the Cross," which is enacted annually during the winter months.
Cosmically the sun is born on the longest and darkest night of the year
when Virgo, the Celestial Virgin, stands upon the eastern horizon at
midnight to bring forth the immaculate child. During the months next
following, the sun passes through the violent sign of Capricorn where,
mythically, all the powers of darkness are concentrated in a frantic endeavor
to kill the Light-bearer, a phase of the solar drama which is mystically
presented in the story of King Herod and the flight into Egypt to escape
death.
When the sun enters the sign Aquarius, the water-man, in February, we
have the time of rain and storms; and as the baptism mystically consecrates
the Savior to his work of service, so also the floods of moisture that
descend upon the earth soften and mellow it so that it may yield the fruits
whereby the lives of those who dwell here are preserved.
Then comes the sun's passage through the sign Pisces, the fishes. At
this time the stores of the preceding year have been almost consumed and
man's food is scarce. Therefore we have the long fast of Lent which
mystically represents for the aspirant the same ideal as that cosmically shown
by the sun. There is at this time the carne-vale, the farewell to the
flesh, for everyone who aspires to the higher life must at some time bid
farewell to the lower nature with all its desires and prepare himself for the
passover which is then near.
In April, when the sun crosses the celestial equator and enters the sign
Aries, the Lamb, the cross stands as a mystic symbol of the fact that the
candidate to the higher life must learn to lay down the mortal coil and begin
the ascent of Golgotha, the Place of the Skull; thence to cross the
threshold into the invisible world. Finally, in imitation of the sun's
ascent into the northern heavens, he must learn that his place is with the
Father and that ultimately he is to ascend to that exalted place.
Furthermore, as the sun does not stay in that high degree of declination
but cyclically descends again toward the autumn equinox and winter solstice
to complete the circle again and again for the benefit of humanity, so also
everyone who aspires to become a Cosmic Character, a savior of mankind, must
be prepared to offer himself as a sacrifice again and again for his fellow
men.
This is the great destiny that is before every one of us; each one is a
Christ-in-the-making, if he will be, for as Christ said to His disciples:
"He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater." Moreover, according to the maxim, "Man's necessity is God's
opportunity," there never was so great an opportunity to imitate the Christ,
to do the work that He did, as there is today when the whole continent of
Europe is in the throes of a world-war and the grandest of all Christmas
carols, "On earth peace, good will toward men," seems to be further than
ever from its realization. We have the power within ourselves to hasten the
day of peace, by talking, thinking, and living peace, for the concerted
action of thousands of people does carry an impression to the Race Spirit when
it is there directed, especially when the Moon is in Cancer, Scorpio, or
Pisces, which are the three great psychic signs best suited to esoteric work of
this nature. Let us use the two and one-half days during which the moon is
in each of these signs for the purpose of meditation upon peace — peace on
earth and among men good will. But in so doing let us be sure that we do not take sides for or against any of the battling nations; let us remember
at all times that everyone of their members is our brother. One is entitled
to our love as much as another. Let us hold the thought that what we want
is to see universal brotherhood lived upon earth, namely, peace on earth and
among men good will regardless of whether the combatants were born on one
side or the other of an imaginary line drawn upon the map, regardless of
whether they express themselves in this, that, or the other tongue. Let us
pray that peace may come upon earth; everlasting peace, and good will among
all men, irrespective of all differences of race, creed, color, or religion.
In the measure that we succeed in voicing with our hearts, not with our lips
only, this impersonal prayer for peace, shall we further the Kingdom of
Christ, for remember that eventually that is where we are all bound
for, — the Kingdom of the Heavens where the Christ is "King of kings and Lord of lords."
V. The Mission of Christ
and the Festival
of the Fairies
Whenever we are confronted by one of nature's mysteries which we are at
a loss to explain, we simply add a new name to our vocabulary which we then
use in learned juggling to hide our ignorance of the subject. Such are the
ampere which we use to measure the volume of the electric current, the volt
which we say indicates the strength of the current, and the ohm which we use
to show what resistance a given conductor offers to the passage of the
current. Thus by much study of words and figures, the master minds of
the electrical science attempt to persuade themselves and others that they
have fathomed the mysteries of the elusive force which plays such an
important part in the world's work; but when all is said and they are in a
confidential mood, they admit that the brightest lights of electrical science
know but very little more than the schoolboy who is just beginning to
experiment with his cells and batteries.
Similarly in the other sciences, anatomists cannot distinguish the canine
from the human embryo for a long time, and while the physiologist talks
learnedly about metabolism, he cannot escape the admission that the
laboratory tests whereby he endeavors to imitate our digestive processes must
be and are widely different from the transmutations undergone in the
chemical laboratory of the body by the nourishment we take. This is not said
to disparage or belittle he wonderful achievements of science but to emphasize
the fact that there are factors behind all manifestations
of nature — intelligences of varying degrees of consciousness, builders and
destroyers, who perform important parts in the economy of nature — and until
these agencies are recognized and their work studied, we can never have an
adequate conception of the way the nature forces work, which we call heat,
electricity, gravity, chemical action, etc. To those who have cultivated
the spiritual sight, it is evident that the so-called dead spend part of
their time in learning to build bodies under the guidance of certain
spiritual hierarchies. They are the agents in the metabolic and anabolic
processes; they are the unseen factors in assimilation, and it is therefore
literally true that we should be unable to live save for the important aid
from those we call dead.
To grasp the idea of how these agencies work and their relation to us, we
may recall an illustration used in the Cosmo: Suppose that a mechanic is at
work making a table, and a dog, which is an evolving spirit belonging to
another life wave, sits watching him. It then sees the process of cutting the
boards; gradually the table is formed from the material, and at last it is
finished. But though the dog has watched the man work, it has no clear
conception of how this has been done nor of the ultimate use of the
table. Suppose further that the dog were gifted with only a limited vision,
hence unable to perceive the workman and his tools; then it would have seen
the boards gradually falling apart in certain places, then joined and
assembled in another manner until the table took shape and was finished. It
would see the process of formation and the finished product but would have no
conception of the fact that the active agency of a workman was necessary to
transform the lumber to a table. If it could speak, it might explain the
origin of the table as Topsy did her own by saying that it "just growed."
Our relation to the nature forces is similar to? that of the dog to the
invisible workman, and we also are apt to explain nature's mysteries as
Topsy did. We learnedly tell the child how heat from the sun evaporates the
water of the rivers and oceans, causing it to ascend to the cooler regions
of the air where it condenses to clouds which finally become so saturated
with moisture that they gravitate towards the earth as rain to replenish the
rivers and oceans and be again evaporated. It is all perfectly simple, a
nice automatic perpetual motion process. But is that all? Are there not a
number of holes in this theory? We know that there are, though we can not
digress too far from our subject to discuss them. One thing is lacking to
fully explain it, namely, the semi-intelligent action of the sylphs who lift
the finely divided vaporized particles of water prepared by the undines,
from the surface of the sea and carry them as high as they may before
partial condensation takes place and clouds are formed. These particles of
water they keep until forced by the undines to release them. When we say it
storms, battles are being fought on the surface of the sea and in the air,
sometimes with the aid of salamanders to light the lightning torch of
separated hydrogen and oxygen and send its awe-inspiring shaft crashing
zig-zag through the inky darkness, followed by ponderous peals of thunder
that reverberate in the clearing atmosphere, while the undines triumphantly
hurl the rescued raindrops to earth that they may be again restored to union
with their mother element.
The little gnomes are needed to build the plants and the flowers. It is
their work to tint them with the innumerable shades of color which delight
our eyes. They also cut the crystals in all the minerals and make the
priceless gems that gleam from golden diadems. Without them there would be
no iron for our machinery nor gold wherewith to pay for it. They are
everywhere and the proverbial bee is not busier. To the bee, however, is
given credit for the work it does, while the little nature spirits that play
such an immensely important part in the world's work are unknown save to a
few so-called dreamers or fools.
At the summer solstice the physical activities of nature are at this apex
or zenith, therefore "Midsummer Night" is the great festival of the fairies
who have wrought to build the material universe, nourished the cattle,
nurtured the grain, and are hailing with joy and thanksgiving the crest wave
of force which is their tool in shaping the flowers into the astonishing
variety of delicate shapes called for by their archetypes and tinting them
in unnumbered hues which are the artist's delight and despair.
On this greatest of all nights of the glad summer season they flock from
fen and forest, from glen and dale, to the Festival of the Fairies. They
really bake and brew their etheric foods and afterwards dance in ecstasies
of joy — the joy of having brought forth and served their important purpose
in the economy of nature.
It is an axiom of science that nature tolerates nothing that is useless;
parasites and drones are an abomination; the organ that has become superfluous
atrophies, so does the limb or eye that is no longer used. Nature has work
to do and requires work of all who would justify their existence and
continue as part of her. This applies to plan and planet, man and beast,
and to the fairies as well. They have their work to do; they are busy folk
and their activities are the solution to many of nature's multifarious
mysteries, as already explained.
We are now at the other pole of the yearly cycle, where the days are
short and the nights long; physically speaking, darkness hangs over the
Northern Hemisphere, but the wave of spiritual light and life which will be
the basis of next year's growth and progress is now at its greatest height
and power. On Christmas night at the winter solstice when the celestial
sign of the Immaculate Virgin stands upon the eastern horizon at midnight,
the sun of the new year is born to save humanity from the cold and the famine
which would ensue were its beneficent light withheld. At that time the
Christ Spirit is born into the earth and commences to leaven and fertilize
the millions of seeds which the fairies build and water that we may have
physical food. But "man shall not live by bread along." Important as is
the work of the fairies, it fades into insignificance compared with the
mission of Christ, who brings to us each year the spiritual food needed to
advance us upon the path of progress, that we may attain perfection in love
with all which that implies.
It is the advent of this wonderful love light that we symbolize by the
lighted lamps on the altar and the ringing of the Christmas bells which each
year announce the glad tidings of the Savior's birth, for to the spiritual
sense, light and sound are inseparable; the light is colored and the sound
is modified according to vibratory pitch. The Christmas light that shines
on earth is golden, inducing the feelings of altruism, joy, and peace which
not even the great war could entirely obliterate.
The war is past, and as we always value that most which we have missed,
it is to be hoped that all mankind will unite this Christmas in the songs of
songs "On Earth Peace, Good Will toward Men."
It has often been said in our literature that the sacrifice of Christ was
not an event which took place on Golgotha, and was accomplished in a few
hours once and for all time, but that the mystic births and deaths of the
redeemer are continuous cosmic occurrences. We may therefore conclude that
this sacrifice is necessary for our physical and spiritual evolution during
the present phase of our development. As the annual birth of the Christ
Child is now approaching, it presents again a never old, ever new theme for
meditation from which we may profit by pondering it with a prayer that it
may create in our hearts a new light to guide us upon the path of
regeneration.
The apostle gave us a wonderful definition of Deity when he said that
"God is Light," and therefore "light" has been used to illustrate the nature
of the Divine in the Rosicrucian teachings, especially the mystery of the
Trinity in Unity. It is clearly taught in the Holy Scriptures of all times
that God is one and indivisible. At the same time we find that as the one
white light is refracted into three primary colors, red, yellow, and blue,
so God appears in a threefold role during manifestation by the exercise of
the three divine functions of creation, preservation, and dissolution.
When He exercises the attribute of creation, God appears as Jehovah, the
Holy Spirit; He is then Lord of law and generation and projects the solar
fertility indirectly through the lunar satellites of all planets where it is necessary to furnish bodies for the evolving beings.
When He exercises the attribute of preservation for the purpose of
sustaining the bodies generated by Jehovah under the laws of nature, God
appears as the Redeemer, Christ, and radiate the principles of love and
regeneration directly into any planet where the creatures of Jehovah require
this help to extricate themselves from the meshes of mortality and egoism in
order to attain to altruism and endless life.
When God exercises the divine attitude of dissolution, He appears as The Father who calls us back to our heavenly home to assimilate the fruits of
experience and soul growth garnered by us during the day of manifestation.
This Universal Solvent, the ray of the Father, then emanates from the
invisible Spiritual Sun.
These divine processes of creation and birth, preservation and life, and
dissolution, death, and return to the Author of our being we see everywhere
about us, and we recognize the fact that they are activities of the Triune
God in manifestation. But have we ever realized that in the spiritual world
there are no definite events, no static conditions; that the beginning and
the end of all adventures of all ages are present in the eternal "here" and
"now"? From the bosom of the Father there is an everlasting outwelling of
the seed of things and events which enters the realm of "time" and "space."
There it gradually crystallizes and becomes inert, necessitating dissolution
that there may be room for other things and other events.
There is no escape from this cosmic law; it applies to everything in the
realm of "time" and "space," the Christ-ray included. As the lake which
empties itself into the ocean is replenished when the water that left it has
been evaporated, and returns to its as rain to flow again ceaselessly toward
the sea, so the Spirit of Love is eternally born of the Father, day by day,
hour by hour, endlessly flowing into the solar universe to redeem us from
the world of matter which enmeshes us in its death grip. Wave upon wave is
thus impelled outward from the sun to all the planets giving a rhythmic urge
to the evolving creatures there.
And so it is in the very truest and most literal sense a New-Born Christ
that we hail at each approaching Yule-feast, and Christmas is the most vital
annual event for all humanity, whether we realize it or not. It is not
merely a commemoration of the birth of our beloved Elder Brother, Jesus, but
the advent of the rejuvenating love-life of our Heavenly Father, sent by Him
to redeem the world from the wintry death grip. Without this new infusion
of divine life and energy we must soon perish physically, and our orderly
progress would be frustrated so far as our present lines of development are
concerned. This is a point we should endeavor to thoroughly realize in
order that we may learn to appreciate Christmas as keenly as we should; and
we may learn a lesson in this respect, as in many others, from our children
or from reminiscences of our own childhood. How keen were our anticipations
of the approaching feast! How eagerly we waited for the hour when we should
receive the gifts which we knew would be forthcoming from Santa Claus, the
mysterious universal benefactor who brought the toys of the coming year!
How should we have felt had our parents given us the dismembered dolls and
drums of yester-year? It would surely have been felt as an overwhelming
misfortune and would have left a deep sense of broken trust which even time
would have found it difficult to heal; yet it would be as nothing compared
with the cosmic calamity that would befall mankind if our Heavenly Father
should fail to provide the new-born Christ for our Cosmic Christmas Gift.
The Christ of last year cannot save us from physical famine any more than
last year's rain can drench the soil again and swell the millions of seeds
that slumber in the earth and await the germinal activities of the Father's
life to begin their growth; the Christ of last year cannot kindle anew in
our hearts the spiritual aspirations which urge us onward in the quest any
more than last summer's heat can warm us now. The Christ of last year gave
us His love and His life to the last breath without stint or measure; when
He was born into the earth last Christmas, He endued with life the sleeping
seeds which have grown and gratefully filled our granaries with the bread of
physical life; he lavished the love given Him by the Father upon us, and
when He had wholly spent His life, He died at Easter-tide to rise again to
the Father as the river, by evaporation, rises to the sky.
But endlessly wells the divine love; as a father pities his children, so
doth our Heavenly Father pity us, for He knows our physical and spiritual
frailty and dependence. Therefore we are now confidently awaiting the mystic
birth of the Christ of another year laden with new life and love sent by the
Father to succor us from the physical and spiritual famine which would ensue
were it not for the annual love-offering.
Younger souls usually find it difficult to disabuse their minds of the
personality of God, of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, and some can only
love Jesus, the man. They forget Christ, the Great Spirit, who ushered in a
new era in which the nations established under the regime of Jehovah will be
broken to pieces that the sublime structure of Universal Brotherhood may be
built upon their ruins. In time all the world will realize that "God" is
spirit to be worshiped in "spirit and in truth." It is well to love Jesus
and to imitate him; we know of no nobler ideal and none more worthy. Could a
nobler one have been found, Jesus would not have been chosen as a vehicle of
that Great One, the Christ, in whom dwelt the Godhead. We shall there-fore
do well to follow "in His steps." At the same time we shall exalt God in our
own consciousness by taking the word of the Bible that He is spirit, and
that we cannot make any likeness which will portray Him for he is like
nothing in heaven or on earth. We can see the physical vehicles of Jehovah
circling as satellites around the various planets; we can also see the sun,
which is the visible vehicle of the Christ; but the Invisible Sun, which is
the vehicle of the Father and the source of all, appears to the greatest of
human seers only as a higher octave of the photosphere of the sun, a ring of
violet blue luminosity behind the sun. But we do not need to see; we can
feel His love, and that feeling is never so great as at Christmas time when
He is giving us the greatest of all gifts, the Christ of the new year.
Reference: The Mystical Interpretation of Christmas, by Max Heindel (1865-1919)
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