The most profound mystery connected with human evolution is that of the Immaculate Conception. Its truths have been veiled purposely from the mass mind, which is utterly incapable of comprehending it. The Rite of the Immaculate Conception has always been a part of the Mysteries, but as the ever-deepening materialism of the race has closed, one by one, the doors of the Mystery Schools, so also has the term Immaculate Conception come to bear no special significance.
The Rite of the Immaculate Conception must therefore be restored to its rightful place in human understanding, and this will come about when, in the New Age, it is again an integral and important part of the spiritual life of the people, for then truths formerly taught secretly to the few in the Temples win again be given openly and freely to all who seek them. The nadir of materialism has been reached. Henceforward human evolution proceeds upon the ascending arc.
Every experience in the life of Christ Jesus parallels a similar experience in the life of the Christed man, as will be shown more fully in succeeding chapters. Suffice it to say here that each aspirant, as he qualifies for it, passes through the Rite of the Immaculate Conception. A long period of preparation is necessary for so high an achievement — a period extending through many lifetimes. However, there are those among modem mystic Christians who are now aware of this fact, and who have already begun to work definitely towards its accomplishment in some future earth embodiment.
The early alchemists gave out a profound truth when they declared that the Living Stone (New Age body) was to be formed of the union of the Sun and the Moon. it is within the two crown jewels which adorn the head (the pineal and pituitary glands) that this divine work is primarily consummated. A veritable germ of light, a Sun-seed, forms in the pineal gland of every human being. It is a part of his divine or Christed heritage. However, this seed of light remains dormant, lies fallow, until one is wise enough to know how to use it. As the aspirant becomes sufficiently dedicated and spiritualized, each year, immediately after the Summer Solstice, this Sun-seed begins an annual circuit through the body, simulating the path of the Sun in its course through the heavens. (The currents of life in man and nature are always in accord unless man himself disturbs that harmony.) By the Autumn Equinox the Sun-seed reaches the heart center, and at the Winter Solstice, as the Sun arrives at its southernmost declination, it touches the solar plexus. It is for this reason that in the ancient Mysteries the solar plexus center was termed the Manger of the human body-temple. Following the ascent of the Sun, the light-germ again touches the heart center at the time of the Spring Equinox, and at the Summer Solstice it is lifted to its home in the pineal gland as the Sun attains its northernmost position once more.
During this annual circuit of the Sun-seed, the body is electrified with new life, new radiance and the powers that make for eternal youth: hence those who walk the path of first-hand knowledge are always filled with a rare and shining light. They have become one with the glory of that inner Light which never lay on land or sea.
Meanwhile, concomitant to the Sun cycle, each month at the New Moon there forms in the pituitary body a lunar germ. This Moon-seed follows the path of the Moon. By the time of the Full Moon it has reached the center of generation. The Full Moon therefore marks the crucial time of the month. In the body of a person living the ordinary life of the world the lunar germ is dissipated and its life powers lost. In the consecrated aspirant, however, the lunar germ is conserved and lifted again to its home in the pituitary at the time of the New Moon, where its forces are fused with those of the newly formed lunar germ. Now at the Summer Solstice, for one treading the path of holiness, a true Christ-mass is celebrated in the purified body-temple, for it is then that the twelve lunar germs conserved through the year are united with the solar germ. Their fusing place is the third ventricle, which is the bridge between the pineal and the pituitary glands.
The third ventricle thus becomes the marriage bed in which the Holy Child (union of the solar and lunar seeds) is conceived and born. It is also called a "manger," the pineal and pituitary glands being the holy parents participating in the alchemical union.
Such is, briefly, an outline of the fundamental occult process which underlies the Rite of the Immaculate Conception. As previously observed, it is a work which extends over many Incarnations before the aspirant is ready to know the full glory of this holy mystery, one of the highest ever to be given upon this planet.
Early man was androgynous. Humanity became uni-sexed as the creative force was divided, half of it henceforth being used to build and feed the brain and the other half for the generation of new race bodies. During the earliest periods of human evolution, the sympathetic nervous system — the particular avenue for the forces of the cosmic Feminine — was dominant, but as the ego descended further and further into materiality the feminine powers resident in the sympathetic nervous system became largely dormant. After that, the ego worked for the most part through the cerebro-spinal nervous system, which is the cornerstone of modem Initiation. However, this unequal condition cannot go on forever, and so the symbol of the New Age is that of the androgynous figure of Aquarius, symbolizing the bipolarity of a new Christed humanity, when the forces of the sympathetic nervous system (the feminine column of the body temple) is re-awakened and revitalized through pure living. This involves the formation of a second spinal cord through the activities of the forces generated in the blending of the solar and lunar seeds, and when this is completed a bridge of light will connect the masculine and feminine columns at the base of the spine. Then generation will have become regeneration.
The feminine column is being built as the love ray of Venus is superseded by the higher spiritual force of Uranus exalted in Scorpio, the sign of regeneration. As this tremendous regenerative power begins to operate within the body, gradually a second bridge is formed between the two columns which will span the throat center in the larynx, at which time the mystic Mason will find and use again the mighty creative power of the hitherto Lost Word. (The full power of the exaltation of Mercury in Virgo is here indicated.)
When the dual force reaches the spiritual organs of the head, the pineal and pituitary glands, a third bridge is formed in the third ventricle. The body is then full of light, and in such an illumined temple the aspirant is prepared for and passes into the supernal soul glory of the Holy of Holies, which is known enigmatically as "the Rite of the Immaculate Conception." Such was the exalted attainment of the great woman-master, the Mother of the holy Jesus, who worked consciously on inner planes to assist Him in preparing the most perfect body ever builded on earth.
Enveloped in the luminous glory of hosts of triumphant Angels and Archangels heralding the glad New Day of woman's emancipation and chanting mighty hosannahs for the coming Master, Mary, the perfect Type-Pattern of the New Age, was caught up in clouds of light to welcome, without anguish or physical pain, the incoming of her Divine Son.
Mary's crowning initiatory experiences occurred in connection with the Crucifixion of Christ Jesus, and the events associated therewith. An early Greek hymn commemorates her promise to watch with the Master for the mystic sunrise on Easter morning, It was during the interval between the Crucifixion on Good Friday and the Resurrection of Easter dawn that the initiatory experiences of the blessed Virgin reached their culmination. These transcendental experiences Mary described to the Disciples when she assumed leadership of the esoteric Christian work following the Ascension of the Lord Christ as related in the Apocrypha.
She said unto John: "I will tell thee an astounding and hidden Mystery, which cannot be known by the heart or mind and cannot be comprehended by the understanding, which my Lord Jesus Christ, my beloved one and my Redeemer, revealed unto me at Golgotha. A shining cloud came and bore me along and took me up into the Third Heaven and set me down at the boundary of the earth. I looked and saw the whole world was like a thing of nothing".
It is from this state of exalted consciousness that Mary reads the Akashic Records, the Cosmic Scrolls which contain an outline of the past, present and future of the human race. This Cosmic Scroll. Mary described as a "lofty pillar of gold covered all over with inscriptions."
Mary, like Paul, was caught up into the Third Heaven and there "saw things not lawful to reveal." She witnessed the processes of purgation whereby the spirit upon release from the physical body is cleansed from the stains of earth: "And there stood before its eyes all the sins that it had committed from infancy to the end of its days."
The soul lamented: "I did not know all that would take place here. Had I but known I would never have given sleep to mine eyes. I would never have eaten food or drunk water until I had obtained a little rest from the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost."'
The nature of the soul's examination she described as follows: "The Spirit of Fornication, the Spirit of Pride and the Spirit of Falsehood came before that spirit and examined it and found their portions in it and said unto it, 'O, Soul thou art not yet wise enough to enter Heaven. Thou hast (in earth life) loved darkness rather than light.'"
Mary witnessed the liberation of the righteous, also: "I saw shining Angels and in their hands were golden censers. They came down to meet the soul of a righteous man. They surrounded him and the Angels crowned him with light and said, 'Come forth, thou soul, in peace! Rejoice, O pure bright soul and be glad.'" Mary continues, "I went with the Angels to salute that soul and uttered cries of joy with them. The Father," she says, "gave to that soul a white garment, whiter than milk, and three shining crowns brighter than the Sun and Moon. God called the Archangel Michael and said unto him, 'Take this soul and bring it into the Garden of Delight.'"
In the story of the righteous man Mary gives the after-death experience of the advanced soul. The milk-white garment is the soul body fashioned through spiritual living, and the triple crown of light is the purification of the three aspects of personality — physical, desire and mental, or body, soul, mind. Such a man has no need of purgation and passes immediately into the spiritual realms, or Garden of Delight.
The spiritual realm. designated by the esoteric Christian as the First Heaven is thus described: "And I saw a city which was shining more brightly than the Sun or Moon. There were many kinds of fruits and flowers whose perfume and tastes carried away captive the heart."
Mary states that the keynote of this realm is found in the words of Matthew: "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." She says that here she was greeted by many of the prophets — Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel and Zechariah, also Zephaniah, Haggai and Ezra. Hanna, the prophetess, and Elizabeth and her son John the Baptist, were with them. They saluted her with song: "Greeting unto thee, Mary, thou white dove. Blessed are the eyes that see thee."
The next higher realm, known as the Second Heaven, is described thus: "And then my Son showed me a white land which shone seven times more brightly than the Sun and Moon and Stars and the whole of it was decorated with gold and silver."
The Third Heaven is described as a shining city whose brightness was seven times greater than the Sun. Mary states that she was carried upward toward this shining city in a ship of gold. There she saw gleaming white houses formed of light with couches of gold and many thousands of jeweled crowns which were for those who had overcome the world. This is the place of the final Great Overcoming.
And there came hosts of saints to greet Mary singing, "Hail to thee, Mary, thou fortress of the holiness of God. Blessed are the eyes that see thee."
Mary then ascended into the heavenly Jerusalem, the homeworld of the Christ, and the realm from which John received inspiration for his Revelation. Mary says that here "I saw a sanctuary of light, a pavilion of light and a tent covered with fire." Here she was greeted by David who shone like the Sun, who sang Hallelujahs in her honor which he accompanied on his harp, and his music caused the foundations of the Garden (realm) to shake.
Her next ascent is to the City of God (World of Divine Spirit) which she says is a shining city built in the form of a rose and "whereof the boundary and the end and the riches cannot be known." And the Christ reveals to her that "None hath knowledge of this city and habitation and none shall enter therein except Myself, My Father and the Paraclete."
To reach this exalted sphere means the attainment of the Christed consciousness and the development of the dual or androgynous power of the Holy Ghost, when, having finished all Initiations belonging to the earth, the spirit is ready to take up life with the Angels. Such was now the attainment of the divine Mary, supreme among the world's women Initiates, by reason of which she was chosen as leader of the early Christians after the Christ's Ascension, and by reason of which she has received the profound reverence and homage of the Church ever since. She is truly the angelic Mother of all mankind.
This is the culmination of her spiritual work, and the Christ grants her a throne among Angels: "Do thou enter in and this shall be thy city and thousands of Angels shall minister unto thee."
— Corinne Heline
