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An ancient sage declared that as above, so below, and as below, so above. All true Mystery Temples on the physical plane are constructed in harmony with the zodiacal pattern in the heavens. In that circle of twelve constellations Cancer and Leo form a two-columned entrance into that cosmic Temple. By correspondence, symbolical columns have been placed at the entrance of all Mystery Temples; between them every candidate must pass on his way to illumination. These two pillars have borne many names down through the ages, and their significance has been emphasized in the mystery literature of all nations. They are referred to as representing the elements of fire and water; as indicating the two precious metals, gold and silver; and again, as symbolical of the two planetary bodies, the Sun and the Moon. Cancer has been called the mother and Leo the father of souls.
Between these columns New Age man and woman must pass, hand-in-hand, in complete equality, to receive the glorious heritage which that Age will bestow upon its pioneers. The Masonic Craft has yet to learn that its deepest secrets will never be understood until the Divine Feminine has been restored to its original estate of equality with the opposite masculine polarity.
The Ancients depicted the sign Leo as a high priest seated in a chariot and driving two sphinxes, one white and the other black. A similar symbol relates to Gemini; but in this instance the two sphinxes kneel before the high priest, meaning that it is for him to choose whether he will follow the path of light or the path of darkness. In Leo the decision has been made. Both his lower and higher natures have been brought under control.
The keywords of Leo are authority, rulership and triumph. One of the symbols of Leo is a sword, sign of conquest and victory. That the sword also represents the creative power within an individual is indicated in several biblical stories. In Genesis, for instance, there is the account of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because they had eaten of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. In consequence of their sin, Cherubim stand guard before the gate brandishing a flaming sword lest man, through access to the Tree of Life, should acquire the secret of the etheric body and learn thereby to immortalize his imperfect physical form.
These same celestial Beings were represented as standing before Solomon's Temple, but a full blown flower had replaced the sword. Here, in exquisite symbology, is depicted the attainment of a high Initiate, whose body is described mystically as a flower garden. In this garden the two principal flower-centers are the heart, the day star of the body, and the pituitary gland, the highest of the two spiritual head centers. It is through these flower centers, when they are awakened, that the powerful fire forces of Leo play upon the whole body.
In the life of the Christ, His Triumphal Entry correlates to the regal radiations of Leo. The Christ Spirit was at that time magnetically charged with the effulgent glory of the Father, which had been bestowed upon Him as the Sun was transiting the kingly sign of the heavens. This instinctively called forth from the populace the hosannas that accompanied His entry.
That triumphant scene was the beginning of culminating events in Christ's earthly ministry, to be followed by His assumption of the regency of this planet for the redemption of the world. It also typified the festival processional of a successful candidate entering an initiatory Temple of Light. It was then that he heard the angelic chant from heaven: "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord (law)" — that is, he that walketh in spiritual light and love.
Material science recognizes the Sun in its physical aspect only. Esoteric science recognizes two additional solar spheres or interpenetrating spiritual bodies. The first of these is the vehicle of the Solar Logos whom we know as the Cosmic Christ; the other, of still higher vibratory frequency, is the celestial body of the Father of our solar system.
Ordinary humanity responds chiefly to the influence of the physical Sun, the emanations of which correlate to Jehovah and the race religions fostered under His influence. It was during the Jehovistic regime that the Lesser Mysteries were inaugurated by the Lords of Mercury. With the coming of the Christ a new era was instituted, under which man was to look no longer to the law outside himself but to the law within as the chief purpose of life is for man to awaken his latent divinity, the Christ within. Under the influence of Mercury the early Mysteries were inaugurated. The Christ came bringing the four Greater Mysteries, an outline of which is given in the four Gospels of the New Testament. Neptune, the planet of divinity and Initiation, gives humanity the necessary aid for apprehending these Greater Mysteries, which hold the loftiest truths it can grasp at this time. Later will come the religion of the Father. When pioneers have qualified for the higher illumination inherent in that religion, the spiritual planet Vulcan will emerge within man's ken — a fact dependent upon the law that in the sequence of time outer events follow their occurrence on inner planes. This will mean the revealing of glory and power far beyond the present capacity of the human mind to comprehend or of human speech to describe.
It has been said that as the Sun transits the sign Cancer and Leo during July and August the Christ ascends to the throne of the Father where He bathes in the Father's transcendent glory. It is here that He renews and revitalizes Himself, attracting higher and more spiritual forces for continuing his earthly ministry when He returns to the realm of humanity at the Autumn Equinox. During His sojourn in the high heavens the earth planet, clairvoyantly observed, appears luminous with His radiations; and the observer comes into a profound realization of the meaning of His statement that "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."
When the Sun is thus transiting Cancer and Leo, an illumined one who treads the Path of Holiness ascends to the highest spiritual realms of this planet and enters into a deeper consciousness of transcendent power. He begins to understand that love in its highest aspect is not passion or a sentiment, but a phase of divinity itself. It was with such power of love that Peter was imbued. He himself referred to this power of love when he said to the lame man beside the gate of the Temple Beautiful: "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee . . . arise up and walk." Again, it was this same power which so animated Paul that, despite all persecutions and imprisonment, he was able to utter those sublime words: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not love (charity), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."
When an aspirant reaches this degree of spiritual attainment the Christ is all in all to him. To serve as He served, and to love as He loved, becomes his highest aspiration. The biblical keynote of Leo is sounded in the words "Love is the fulfilling of the law." Such an one is permitted to view in the Akashic Record the sacred and illuminated heart, and to learn of the profound mysteries connected therewith. He begins to understand the intimate connection between the Hierarchy of the Lord Christ and the center of light in the human body called the heart. One of the foremost akashic pictures he studies represents the Christ standing before a door upon which he knocks. In His hand He bears a light and He is saying, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man will hear my voice, and open, I will come in unto him."
This passage immediately calls to mind Holman Hunt's realistic portrayal of it. His canvas has immortalized the soul-searching aspect of our Redeemer. One may reasonably conclude that the creation of this masterpiece was inspired by the higher presentation which the artist beheld, either consciously or superconsciously. Disciples working on inner planes often stand before this picture and meditate upon its profound meaning, for the door before which the Christ stands represents the heart of man.
In the approaching Aquarian Age, as the love influence of Leo penetrates the earth more deeply, more and more seekers will become conscious of the Christ's nearness and will hear His pleading words as they echo down through the corridors of time: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man will hear my voice, and open, I will come in unto him."
The constellation of Leo belongs to the Fire Triplicity. Light, love, authority and rulership are among its keywords. The heart rules the human body-temple and is the center of love. With its increasing spiritualization, the heart of a disciple grows more luminous until finally he walks in the light as Christ is in the light. By virtue of its radiance, it commands attention and wins allegiance. The Hierarchy of Leo is implanting this ideal in the innermost self of mankind as it focuses its power of love and light upon the earth.
The parable correlating with Leo is that called the king's marriage feast for his son. There was a certain king who prepared a great feast in honor of his son, and he sent his servants out to invite all who would come to attend this feast. But everyone they approached — made light of it, and went their ways." The king then sent his servants into the highways and byways, telling them to bring in the lame, the halt and the blind to attend the feast. When they were assembled he observed that one man wore no wedding garment. The king demanded, "Friend, how comest thou in hither not having a wedding garment'?" The man was speechless. Then the king ordered his servants to cast the offender into outer darkness, saying, "Many are called, but few are chosen."
The wedding feast is, of course, Initiation. There is no season of the year when the portals of the Temple swing wider or the light is more insistently bright than during the time that the forces of Leo are focused upon the earth. The lion, symbol of Leo, represents the cosmic fire within man. When the fire is lifted to the heart, that organ becomes the divine regenerative center of the body-temple. This is the highest meaning of the lion standing with an uplifted paw, which symbolizes the highest aspect of Initiation. In the magnificent ceremony of the Masonic Lodge, it was the lion with an uplifted paw that raised the masonic hero, Hiram Abiff, from the darkness of death into the glory of immortal life.
Initiation as it existed before the coming of Christ was a very different process from what it is today. Ancient Initiation was termed the Path of Illuminated Mysteries, and it consisted of a magnificent ceremonial depicting important events in the life of great world teachers, from birth to their resurrection. With Christ's coming Initiation underwent a marked change, and is now termed the Path of the Solar Mysteries. Christian Initiation still depicts important events in the life of the Lord-birth, baptism, transfiguration, resurrection and ascension. Now these must become workable, vital experiences within the consciousness and the body of a disciple. Thus we see how much more difficult is Initiation under Christ than was pre-Christian Initiation. Therefore St. Paul, one of the leading exponents of the Christian Mysteries, gave what amounts to a mantram to his disciples — one applicable to those of modern times — when he said, "The Christ be formed in you." All of the various schools of metaphysics, New Thought, Christian Science, and so forth, which teach the manifestation of the Christ within are preparatory steps leading toward the supreme attainment of man's life: Initiation into the Mysteries brought to earth by the Christ.
Another pronounced difference between pre-Christian Mysteries and those taught by the Christ is that in ancient times every city had its own initiatory Temple wherein the Mysteries were observed. During the Golden Age of Greece no man was permitted to hold a state position unless he was an Initiate of the Mysteries. These earthly Temples have all been closed and the true Mystery Temples are located in the etheric realm. Therefore an aspirant must build his own "wedding garment" before he can enter for he can never gain entrance therein in the physical body.
The ethers are divided into four gradations of density. As previously observed, so long as man is of the earth, earthy, and lives to eat, drink and be merry, his etheric body is composed chiefly of the two lower ethers. When he begins to forego the ways of flesh and to aspire toward the things of spirit he draws to himself more of the two higher ethers.
In this modern day the high and sacred meaning of Initiation has been lost to the great majority. Consequently there is little or no recognition of the deep spiritual significance attached to the initiatory feasts and rites observed in the Ancient Mystery Temples. These were not ceremonials open to any and all as some may unthinkingly assume. They were accessible only to those duly qualified to participate. This is the truth elucidated in the parable of the king's supper. Only those could enter who were arrayed in the "Golden Wedding Garment." This garment of the soul cannot be bestowed upon one by another. It must be self-woven. It comes into being through "living the life," through sublimating the lower desires into powers of the spirit and in rendering loving, self-forgetting service to one's fellow man and every lesser living creature. This is the truth emphasized in esoteric Christianity. Whereas orthodoxy places virtually the whole of the burden of man's salvation on the Christ, esoteric Christianity places it where it rightly belongs, on man himself.
While the Hierarchy of Leo is pouring its forces upon the earth, it is most fitting that an aspirant dedicate himself anew to walk the Path wherein he fashions the shining garment that will open to him these streamers of light and radiations of love. When this garment is ready he will be found worthy to attend the mystic marriage feast and be counted among the sons of the King. This feast is always blessed by the presence of the Christ. When one is permitted to attend he will stand in His presence, seeing Him face to face and knowing Him as He is.
— Corinne Heline
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