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Six Dissertations Upon the Subject of ChristmasShowing the Esoteric Significance of The GreatEvent

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Preface

The contents of this book were sent in lesson form tostudents from time to time by the author. Theycomprise six of his ninety­ nine epistles. The principalfeature of these lessons is the mystic birth and death ofthe great Christ Spirit, given from the viewpoint of aseer. The author received these rare gems of truththrough divine illumination. The most pronouncedmaterialist must become convinced of the divinity ofman after reading this writer's revelations on the innersignificance of the Christ and the principles which Heproclaimed.

Seventeen of the ninety­nine lessons have beenprinted in book form under the title, The Web of

Destiny; nine have been published under the headingof Freemasonry and Catholicism; nineteen on TheMysteries of the Great Operas; and twenty­four underthe title Gleanings of a Mystic. The remainder willappear later in a second volume of Gleanings.

We hope that the perusal of this volume on the holylife of Christ will stimulate a greater veneration for theChristian religion, now made acceptable to the reasonthrough the inspired work of this author, whosegreatest aim while he lived was to bring the Christ idealand the simple life of service closer to the hearts of thepeople.

—Mrs. Max HeindelOctober 28, 1920.

Contents

I. The Cosmic Significance of ChristmasII. Spiritual Light—The New Element and the NewSubstanceIII. The Annual Sacrifice of ChristIV. The Mystic Midnight SunV. The Mission of Christ and the Festival of theFairiesVI. The Newborn Christ

I. The Cosmic Significance of Christmas

Once more in the course of a year we are upon theeve of Christmas. The view which each of us takes ofthis festival is dissimilar to that of every one else. Tothe devout religionist it is a season hallowed, sacred,and fraught with mystery, none the less sublimebecause uncomprehended. To the atheist it is a sillysuperstition. To the purely intellectual it is a puzzle, forit 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. Nofurther explanation is made; the matter is left toacceptance or rejection by the hearer according to histemperament. If mind and reason dominate him to theexclusion of faith, if he can believe nothing whichcannot be demonstrated to the senses at any moment,he is forced to reject the tale as absurd and out ofconsonance with various immutable laws of nature.

Various interpretations have been given to satisfy themind, these principally of an astronomical nature. Theyhave set forth how, on the night between the 24th andthe 25th of December, the sun commences its journeyfrom the south to the north. He is the "Light of theWorld." Cold and famine would inevitably exterminate

the human race if the sun remained always in thesouth. Therefore it is a cause for great rejoicing whenhe commences his northward journey. He is then hailedas "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 (atthe spring equinox), and then commences his ascentinto the (northern) heaven. On the night when hecommences his northward journey the zodiacal signVirgo, the celestial virgin, the "Queen of Heaven,"stands upon the eastern horizon at midnight, and istherefore, astrologically speaking, his "rising sign."Thus he is "born of a virgin" without otherintermediary, hence, "immaculately conceived."

This explanation may satisfy the mind regarding theorigin of the supposed superstition, but the aching voidwhich is in the heart of every skeptic, whether he isaware of the fact or not, must remain until the spiritualillumination is attained which shall furnish anexplanation acceptable to both heart and mind. To shedsuch light upon this sublime mystery shall be ourendeavor in the following pages. The immaculateconception will form the topic of a future lesson; justnow we will show how the material and spiritual forcesalternately ebb and flow in the course of the year, andwhy Christmas is truly a "holy day."

Let us say that we subscribe to the astronomicalinterpretation as being as valid from its point of view,as the following is true when viewing the mystery­birthfrom another angle. The sun is born from year to yearin the darkest night. The world­saving Christ are alsoborn when the spiritual darkness of mankind is thegreatest. There is a third aspect of supremeimportance, namely, that it is no mere idle foolishnesswhen Paul speaks of Christ being "formed in you." It isa sublime fact that we are all Christs­in­the­making,and the sooner we realize that we must cultivate theChrist within before we can perceive the Christ without,the more we shall hasten the day of our spiritualillumination. In this connection we again quote ourfavorite aphorism from Angelus Silesius, whose sublimespiritual perception caused him to say:

"Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem beborn,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 furthestfrom the sun, but the solar ray strikes the earth atnearly right angles to its axis in the NorthernHemisphere, hence the high degree of physical activity

resulting. Then the spiritual radiations from the sun areoblique to this part of the earth, and are as weak as thephysical rays when they are oblique.

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At the winter solstice, on the other hand, the earth isnearest the sun. The spiritual rays then fall at rightangles to the earth's surface in the NorthernHemisphere, promoting spirituality, while physicalactivities are held in abeyance on account of theoblique angle at which the solar rays strike the surfaceof the earth. On this principle, the physical activitiesare at their lowest ebb and the spiritual forces reachtheir highest tidal flow on the night between the 24thand 25th of December, which is therefore the most"holy night" of the year. Midsummer, on the otherhand, is the sporting time of the earth­goblins andsimilar entities concerned in the material developmentof our planet, as shown by Shakespeare in hisMidsummer Night's Dream.

If we swim with the tide at the time when it isstrongest, we shall cover a greater distance with lesseffort than at any other time. It is of great importanceto the esoteric student to know and understand theparticularly favorable conditions which prevail at Yule­tide. Let us follow Paul's exhortation in the 12th

chapter of Hebrews and throw aside every hamperingweight as do men who are running a race. Let us strikewhile the iron is hot; let us specially bend all ourenergies at this time to spiritual endeavor, and we shallreap a harvest such as we cannot obtain at any othertime of the year.

Let us remember also that self­improvement is notour first consideration. We are disciples of Christ. If weaspire to distinction, let us remember that He said: "Lethim who would be the greatest among you be theservant of all." There are much sorrow and sufferingaround us; there are many lonely and aching hearts inour circle of acquaintances. Let us seek them out in anunobtrusive manner. At no time of the year will they bemore amenable to our advances than just now. Let usstrive to spread sunshine in their path. Thus we shallearn their blessings and the blessings of our ElderBrothers. The resulting vibrations in turn will cause aspiritual growth not to be attained in any other way.

II. Spiritual Light—The New Element and the NewSubstance

Last year our correspondence course in MysticChristianity was started with a lesson on Christmasfrom the cosmic point of view. It was explained that thesummer and winter solstices together with the vernal

and fall equinoxes form turning points in the life of theGreat Earth Spirit, as conception marks thecommencement of the human spirit's descent into theearthly body, resulting in birth, which inaugurates theperiod of growth until maturity is reached. At that pointan epoch of mellowing and ripening has its inception,together with a decline of the physical energies whichterminates in death. That event frees man from thetrammels of matter and ushers in the season ofspiritual metabolism whereby our harvest of earthlyexperiences is transmuted to soul powers, talents, andtendencies, to be put to usury in future lives, that wemay grow more abundantly rich in such treasures, andbe found worthy as "faithful stewards" to fill greater thegreater posts among the servants in the Father'sHouse.

This illustration rests upon the secure foundation ofthe great law of analogy, so tersely expressed in thehermetic axiom, "As above, so below." Upon this, themaster­key to all spiritual problems, we shall alsodepend for an "open sesame" to our lesson onChristmas this year, which we hope may correct,confirm, or complete previous views of the part of ourstudents, as each requires.

The bodies originally crystallized in the terribletemperature of Lemuria were too hot to containsufficient moisture to allow the spirit free andunrestricted access to all parts of the anatomy, as ithas at present by means of circulating blood. Later, inearly Atlantis they had, indeed, blood, but it movedonly with difficulty and would have dried quicklybecause of the high internal temperature, save for thefact that an abundance of moisture was supplied by thewatery atmosphere which then prevailed. Inhalation ofthis solvent gradually lessened the heat and softenedthe body until a sufficient quantity of moisture could beretained within to allow of respiration in thecomparatively dry atmosphere which later obtained.

The earlier Atlantean bodies were of a grained andstringy substance, not unlike our present tendons andalso resembling wood, but in time flesh­eating enabledman to assimilate sufficient albumen to build elastictissue necessary for the formation of lungs and arteriesso as to allow unrestricted circulation of the blood, suchas now obtains in the human system. By the time thesechanges within and without had taken place, the grandand glorious seven­colored bow appeared in the rain­laden sky to mark the advent of the kingdom of men,where conditions were to be as varied as the hues intowhich its atmosphere refracted the unicolored light of

the sun. Thus the first appearance of the bow in theclouds marked the commencement of the Noachian agewith its alternating seasons and periods of whichChristmas is one.

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The conditions prevailing in this age are notpermanent, however, any more than those of previousages. The process of condensation which transformedthe fire fog of Lemuria into the dense moist atmosphereof Atlantis, and later liquefied it into the water whichflooded the cavities of the earth and drove mankindinto the highlands, is still going on. Both theatmosphere and our own physiological condition arechanging, heralding to the seeing eye and theunderstanding mind the dawn of a new day upon thehorizon of time, an age of unification called in the Biblethe kingdom of God.

The Bible does not lease us in doubt concerning thechanges. Christ said that as it was in the days of Noahso should it be in the coming day. Science andinvention are both now finding conditions notpreviously met. It is a scientific fact that oxygen isbeing consumed at an alarming rate to feed the fires ofindustry; forest fires are also drawing enormously uponour stock of this important element, besides adding to

the drying­up process which the atmosphere isnaturally undergoing. Eminent scientists have pointedout that a day must come when the globe cannotsustain life depending upon water and air for existence.Their ideas have not excited much anxiety as the daythey have named is so far in the future; but though theday be distant, the doom of the current Fifth Epoch isas inevitable as that of the flooded Atlantis.

Could an Atlantean be transferred to our atmosphere,he would be asphyxiated as are fish taken from theirnative element. Scenes viewed in the Memory ofNature prove that the pioneer aviators of that timeactually did faint when they encountered one of the airstreams which gradually descended upon the land thatthey inhabited, and their experiences caused muchcomment and speculation. The aviators of today arealready encountering the new element andexperiencing asphyxia as did our Atlantean forbears,and for analogous reasons—they have encountered anew element descending from above, which will takethe place of oxygen in our atmosphere. There is a newsubstance also entering the human frame which willsupersede albumen. Moreover, as the aviators ofancient Atlantis fainted and were prevented bydescending air currents from entering, the "promisedland," beyond the Atlantean continent prematurely, so

will the new element baffle present­day aviators as wellas mankind in general until all have learned toassimilate its material aspects. And as the Atlanteanswhose lungs were undeveloped perished in the flood, sowill also the new age find some without the "weddinggarment" and therefore unfit to enter until they shallhave qualified at a later time. It is therefore of thegreatest importance to all to know about the newelement and the new substance. The Bible and sciencecombined furnish ample information upon the subject.

We have stated before that in ancient Greece,religion and science were taught in the mysterytemples, together with the fine arts and crafts, as oneunited doctrine of life and being, but that this conditionis now temporarily abrogated to facilitate certainphases of development. The unity of religious andscientific language in ancient Greece made thesematters comparatively easy of comprehension, buttoday complications have set in owing to the fact thatreligion has translated and science merely transferredtheir terms from the original Greek, which has causedmany seeming disagreements and a loss of the linkbetween the discoveries of science and the teachings ofreligion.

To arrive at the desired knowledge concerningphysiological changes now going on in our system, wemay call to mind the teachings of science that thefrontal lobes of the brain are among the most recentdevelopments of the human structure, and make thatorgan in man enormously larger proportionately than inany other creature. Now let us ask ourselves: Is therein 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 byreference to any scientific textbook bearing upon thesubject, but The Rosicrucian Cosmo­Conception onpage 452 gives more, and we quote from it as follows:

The brain....is build of the same substances as are allother parts of the body, with the addition ofphosphorous, which is peculiar to the brain alone. Thelogical conclusion is that phosphorus is the particularelement by means of which the Ego is able to expressthought....The proportion and variation of thissubstance are found to correspond to the state andstage of intelligence of the individual. Idiots have verylittle phosphorus, shrewd thinkers have much....It istherefore of great importance that the aspirant who isto use his body for mental and spiritual work should

supply his brain with the substance necessary for thatpurpose.

The indisputable religiousness of Catholics is partlytraceable to their practice of eating fish on Fridays andduring Lent, which are rich in phosphorus. Though fishare a low order of life, The Rosicrucian Cosmo­Conception does not approve of killing them but refersthe student to certain vegetables as a means ofphysically obtaining an abundance of this desirablesubstance. There are other and better ways notmentioned in the Cosmo­Conception, as it would havebeen a digression there.

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It was not by chance that teachers of the GrecianMystery School thus named that luminous substancewhich we know as phosphorus. To them it was patentthat "God is light"—the Greek word is phos. Theytherefore most appropriately named the substance inthe brain which is the avenue of ingress of the divineimpulse, phos­phorus; literally, "light bearer." In themeasure that we are capable of assimilating thatsubstance, we become filled with light and commenceto shine from within, a halo surrounding us as a markof sainthood. The phosphorus, however, is only aphysical medium which enables the spiritual light to

express through the physical brain, the light itself beingthe product of soul growth. But soul growth enables thebrain to assimilate an increasing amount ofphosphorus; hence the method of acquiring thissubstance in large quantity is not by chemicalmetabolism, but by an alchemical process of soulgrowth, thoroughly explained by Christ in His discourseto Nicodemus:

God sent not His Son into the world to condemn theworld...He that believeth on Him is not condemned: buthe that believeth not is condemned already...And this isthe condemnation, that light is come into the world,and men loved darkness rather than light...For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh tothe light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he thatdoeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may bemade manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John3:17­21.)

Christmas is the season of greatest spiritual light.During this age of alternating cycles there is an ebband flow of the spiritual light as well as of the waters inthe ocean. The early Christian church marked theconception in the fall of the year, and to this day theevent is celebrated in the Catholic church when thegreat wave of spiritual life and light commences its

descent into the earth. The flood tide is reached atChristmas, which is therefore truly the holy season ofthe year, the time when this spiritual light is mosteasily contacted and specialized by the aspirantthrough deeds of mercy, kindness, and love. Nor areopportunities lacking to even the poorest, for, as sooften emphasized in the Rosicrucian teachings, servicecounts more than financial assistance, which may be adetriment to the recipient. From those, however, towhom much is given, much will be required, and if anyone has been blessed with an abundance of the world'sgoods, a careful dispensation of the same wouldnecessarily accompany whatever physical service hemay render. Let us further remember the words of theChrist: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of theleast 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 orrelative who was about to pass out of this world andinto the beyond? Most of us have, for where is thehouse that has not been entered by Father Time?Neither is the following phase of the occurrence, towhich we would particularly direct attention,

uncommon. The person about to pass out very oftenfalls into a stupor, then awakens and sees not only thisworld but the world into which he is about to enter; andit is very significant that then he sees people who werehis friends or relatives during the earlier part of his life— sons, daughters, a wife, anyone in fact near anddear to him—standing around the bedside and awaitinghis crossing over. The mother will fondly stretch out herarms: "Why, there is John, and how big he has grown!What a splendid big boy he is!" And so she willrecognize one after another of her children who havepassed into the beyond. They are assembled at herbedside, waiting for her to join them, actuated by thesame feeling that possesses people were when a childis about to be born into this world, making them rejoiceat the new arrival because they feel instinctively that itis a friend who is coming to them.

So, also, the people who have gone before into thebeyond gather when a friend is about to cross theborder line and join them on the other side of the veil.Thus we see that the birth into one world is death fromthe viewpoint of another—the child that comes to ushas died to the spiritual world, and the person whopasses out of our ken into the beyond and dies here isborn into a new world and joins his friends there.

As above, so below; the law of analogy, which is thesame for microcosm and macrocosm, tells us that whatbefalls human beings under given conditions must alsoapply to the superhuman under analogouscircumstances. We are now approaching the wintersolstice, the darkest days of the year, the time whenthe light of the sun has almost faded, when ourNorthern Hemisphere is cold and drear. But on thelongest and darkest night the sun turns on its upwardpath, the Christ light is born on the earth again, and allthe world rejoices. By the terms of our analogy,however, when the Christ is born on earth He dies toheaven. As the free spirit is at the time of birth finallyand firmly encased in the veil of flesh which fetters it allthrough life, so also the Christ Spirit is fettered andhampered each time He is born into the earth. Thisgreat Annual Sacrifice begins when our Christmas bellsare ringing, when our joyful sounds of praise andthanksgiving are ascending to heaven. Christ isimprisoned in the most literal sense of the word fromChristmas to Easter.

Men may scorn the idea that there is an influx ofspiritual life and light at this time of the year,nevertheless the fact remains whether we believe it ornot. Every one in the whole world at this time feelslighter, feels different, feels as if a load were lifted off

his shoulders. The spirit of peace on earth and good willtowards man prevails; the spirit that we also wouldgive something expresses itself in Christmas gifts. Thisspirit is not to be denied, as is patent to anyone who isat all observant; and this is a reflex of the great divinewave of giving. God so loved the world that He gaveHis only or alone begotten Son. Christmas is the timeof the giving, though it is not consummated untilEaster; this is the crux, the turning point, the placewhere we feel that something has happened whichensures the prosperity and continuance of the world.

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How different is the feeling at Christmas from the onethat is manifest at Easter! At the latter there is anoutgoing desire, an energy which expresses itself in sexlove with desire for perpetuation of self as the keynote;how different this is from the love which expressesitself in the spirit of giving that we find at Christmastime rather than that of receiving.

And look now at the churches; never does the candleburn so brightly as upon this, the shortest and thedarkest day of the year. Never do the bells sound sofestive as when they ring out their message to thewaiting world, "The Christ is born."

"God is Light," says the inspired apostle, and noother description is capable of conveying so much ofthe nature of God as those three little words. Theinvisible light that is clothed in the flame upon the altaris an apt representation of God, the Father. In the bellswe have an apt symbol of Christ, the Word, for theirmetal tongues proclaim the gospel message of peaceand good will, while the incense brings an addedspiritual fervor, representing the power of the HolySpirit. The Trinity is thus symbolically part of thecelebration which makes Christmas the most spirituallyjoyful time of the year from the standpoint of thehuman race which is now embodied and working in thephysical world.

But it must not be forgotten, as was said in anopening paragraph of this lesson, that the birth ofChrist upon earth is the death of Christ to the glory ofheaven; that at the time when we rejoice at His annualcoming, He is invested again with the heavy physicalload which we have crystallized about ourselves andwhich is now our dwelling place—the earth. In thisheavy body He is then encrusted, and anxiously Hewaits for the day of final liberation. You understand, ofcourse, there are days and nights for the greater spiritsas for the human beings; that as we live in our bodyduring the daytime, work out the destiny which we

have created for ourselves in the physical world, andare then liberated at night into the higher world torecuperate, so also there is this ebb and flow of theChrist Spirit. It dwells within our earth a part of theyear and then withdraws into the higher worlds. ThusChristmas is for Christ the commencement of a day ofphysical life, the beginning of a period of restriction.

What then should be the aspiration of the devout andenlightened mystic who realizes the greatness of Hissacrifice, the greatness of this gift which is beingbestowed upon mankind by God at this time of theyear; who realizes this sacrifice of the Christ for oursake, this giving Himself, subjecting Himself to a virtualdeath that we may live, this wonderful love that isbeing poured out upon the earth at this time—whatshould be his aspiration? What but to imitate inhowever small a measure the wonderful works of God!He should aspire to make himself more the servant ofthe Cross than ever before, more closely to follow theChrist in every thing by sacrificing himself for hisbrothers and sisters, by uplifting humanity within hisimmediate sphere of work so as to hasten the day ofliberation for which the Christ Spirit is waiting, groaningand travailing. We mean the permanent liberation, theday and the coming of Christ.

To realize this aspiration in the fullest measure, let usgo forth during the coming year with full self­relianceand faith. If we have heretofore despaired of our abilityto work for Christ, then let this despair pass, for has Henot said: "Greater works than these shall ye do"?Would He who was the Word of truth have said suchthings if it were not possible to realize them? All thingsare possible to them that love God. If we will reallywork in our own little sphere, not looking for thegreater things until we have done the work close athand, then we shall find that a wonderful soul growthmay be attained, so that the people who are roundabout us shall see in us something which they may notbe able to define but which will nevertheless be patentto them—they shall see that Christmas light, the lightof the new­born Christ, shining within our sphere ofaction. It can be done; it only depends upon ourselveswhether we will take Him at His word so as to realizethis command: "Be ye therefore perfect as your Fatherin heaven is perfect." Perfection may seem a very longway off; we may realize more acutely as we look uponHim how far we are from living up to our ideals.Nevertheless, it is by striving daily, hourly, that wefinally attain, and every day some little progress can bemade, something can be done, in some way we can letour light shine so that men shall see it as a beacon lightin the darkness of the world. May God help us during

the coming year to attain a greater measure of Christ­likeness than we have ever before attained. May welive such lives that when another year has rolledaround and we again see the candle lights of Christmasand 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 weadd to the lustre of our soul bodies, which are built ofether. It is the Christ ether that now floats this sphereof ours, and let us remember that if we ever want towork for His liberation, we must in sufficient numbersevolve our own soul bodies to the point where theymay float the earth. Thus we may take up His burdenand save Him the pain of physical existence.

IV. The Mystic Midnight Sun

Exoterically the sun has been worshiped as the giverof life from time immemorial, because the multitudewas incapable of looking beyond the material symbol ofa great spiritual truth. But besides those who adoredthe heavenly orb which is seen with the physical eye,there has always been and there is today a small butincreasing minority, a priesthood consecrated byrighteousness rather than by rites, who saw and seethe eternal spiritual verities behind the temporal andevanescent forms which clothe these verities in

changing raiment of ceremonial, according to the timesand the people to whom they were originally given. Forthem the legendary Star of Bethlehem shines each yearas a Mystic Midnight Sun, which enters our planet atthe winter solstice and then commences to radiate fromthe center of our globe, Life, Light, and Love, the threedivine attributes. These rays of spiritual splendor andpower fill our globe with a supernal light that envelopsevery one upon earth from the least to the greatestwithout respect of persons. But all cannot partake ofthis wonderful gift in the same measure; some getmore, some less, and some, alas! seem to have noshare in the great love offering which the Father hasprepared for us in His only begotten Son, because theyhave not yet developed the spiritual magnet, the Christchild 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 mineSave through the Christ in me?

That soundless voice within my heartIs earnest of the pact 'Twixt Christ and me—it does impartTo faith the force of fact.

This is a mystic experience which will not doubt ringtrue to many among our students, for it is as literallytrue as that night follows day and winter followssummer. Unless we have the Christ within ourselves,unless thatwonderful pact of blood brotherhood hasbeen consummated, we can have nopart in the Savior,and so far as we are concerned it would not matterthough the Christmas bells never ring. But when theChrist has been formed in ourselves, when theimmaculate conception has become a reality in our ownhearts, when we have stood there at the birth of theChrist child and offered our gifts, dedicating the lowernature to the service of the Higher Self, then and thenonly the Christmas feast is spread for us from year toyear. And the harder we have toiled in the Master'svineyard the more clearly and distinctly shall we hearthat soundless voice within our hearts issue theinvitation: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and areheavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yokeupon you.....for my yoke is easy and my burden islight." Then we shall hear a new note in the Christmasbells such as we have never heard before, for in all theyears there is no day so glad as the day when theChrist is born anew into the earth, bringing with Himgifts to the children of men—gifts that mean thecontinuance 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 ofspring, no little woodland choristers to gladden ourhearts at the approach of summer; the icy grip ofBoreas would hold the earth fettered and mute forever,making it impossible for us to continue our materialevolution which is so necessary to teach us to use thepower of thought in the proper creative channels.

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The Christmas spirit is thus a living reality to all whohave evolved the Christ within. The average man orwoman feels it only around the holidays, but theillumined mystic sees and feels it months before andmonths after the culminating point on Holy Night. InSeptember there is a change in the earth'satmosphere; a light begins to glow in the heavens; itseems to pervade the whole solar universe; gradually itgrows more intense and seems to envelop our globe;then it penetrates the surface of the planet andgradually concentrates itself in the center of the earthwhere the group spirits of the plants make their homes.On Holy Night it attains its minimum size and maximumbrilliancy. Then it begins to radiate the lightconcentrated, and gives new life to the earth wherewithto carry on the activities of nature during the comingyear.

This is the beginning of the great cosmic drama"From the Cradle to the Cross," which is enactedannually during the winter months.

Cosmically the sun is born on the longest and darkestnight of the year when Virgo, the Celestial Virgin,stands upon the eastern horizon at midnight to bringforth the immaculate child. During the months nextfollowing, the sun passes through the violent sign ofCapricorn where, mythically, all the powers of darknessare concentrated in a frantic endeavor to kill the Light­bearer, a phase of the solar drama which is mysticallypresented in the story of King Herod and the flight intoEgypt to escape death.

When the sun enters the sign Aquarius, the water­man, in February, we have the time of rain and storms;and as the baptism mystically consecrates the Savior tohis work of service, so also the floods of moisture thatdescend upon the earth soften and mellow it so that itmay yield the fruits whereby the lives of those whodwell here are preserved.

Then comes the sun's passage through the signPisces, the fishes. At this time the stores of thepreceding year have been almost consumed and man'sfood is scarce. Therefore we have the long fast of Lentwhich mystically represents for the aspirant the same

ideal as that cosmically shown by the sun. There is atthis time the carne­vale, the farewell to the flesh, foreveryone who aspires to the higher life must at sometime bid farewell to the lower nature with all its desiresand prepare himself for the passover which is thennear.

In April, when the sun crosses the celestial equatorand enters the sign Aries, the Lamb, the cross standsas a mystic symbol of the fact that the candidate to thehigher life must learn to lay down the mortal coil andbegin 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 thenorthern heavens, he must learn that his place is withthe Father and that ultimately he is to ascend to thatexalted place. Furthermore, as the sun does not stay inthat high degree of declination but cyclically descendsagain toward the autumn equinox and winter solstice tocomplete the circle again and again for the benefit ofhumanity, so also everyone who aspires to become aCosmic Character, a savior of mankind, must beprepared to offer himself as a sacrifice again and againfor his fellow men.

This is the great destiny that is before every one ofus; each one is a Christ­in­the­making, if he will be, for

as Christ said to His disciples: "He that believeth onme, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater."Moreover, according to the maxim, "Man's necessity isGod's opportunity," there never was so great anopportunity to imitate the Christ, to do the work thatHe did, as there is today when the whole continent ofEurope is in the throes of a world­war and the grandestof all Christmas carols, "On earth peace, good willtoward men," seems to be further than ever from itsrealization. We have the power within ourselves tohasten the day of peace, by talking, thinking, and livingpeace, for the concerted action of thousands of peopledoes carry an impression to the Race Spirit when it isthere directed, especially when the Moon is in Cancer,Scorpio, or Pisces, which are the three great psychicsigns best suited to esoteric work of this nature. Let ususe the two and one­half days during which the moonis in each of these signs for the purpose of meditationupon peace—peace on earth and among men good will.But in so doing let us be sure that we do not take sidesfor or against any of the battling nations; let usremember at all times that everyone of their membersis our brother. One is entitled to our love as much asanother. Let us hold the thought that what we want isto see universal brotherhood lived upon earth, namely,peace on earth and among men good will regardless ofwhether 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 maycome upon earth; everlasting peace, and good willamong all men, irrespective of all differences of race,creed, color, or religion. In the measure that wesucceed in voicing with our hearts, not with our lipsonly, this impersonal prayer for peace, shall we furtherthe Kingdom of Christ, for remember that eventuallythat is where we are all bound for,—the Kingdom of theHeavens where the Christ is "King of kings and Lord oflords."

V. The Mission of Christ and the Festival of theFairies

Whenever we are confronted by one of nature'smysteries which we are at a loss to explain, we simplyadd a new name to our vocabulary which we then usein learned juggling to hide our ignorance of the subject.Such are the ampere which we use to measure thevolume of the electric current, the volt which we sayindicates the strength of the current, and the ohmwhich we use to show what resistance a givenconductor offers to the passage of the current. Thus bymuch study of words and figures, the master minds ofthe electrical science attempt to persuade themselves

and others that they have fathomed the mysteries ofthe elusive force which plays such an important part inthe world's work; but when all is said and they are in aconfidential mood, they admit that the brightest lightsof electrical science know but very little more than theschoolboy who is just beginning to experiment with hiscells and batteries.

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Similarly in the other sciences, anatomists cannotdistinguish the canine from the human embryo for along time, and while the physiologist talks learnedlyabout metabolism, he cannot escape the admission thatthe laboratory tests whereby he endeavors to imitateour digestive processes must be and are widelydifferent from the transmutations undergone in thechemical laboratory of the body by the nourishment wetake. This is not said to disparage or belittle hewonderful achievements of science but to emphasizethe fact that there are factors behind all manifestationsof nature—intelligences of varying degrees ofconsciousness, builders and destroyers, who performimportant parts in the economy of nature—and untilthese agencies are recognized and their work studied,we can never have an adequate conception of the waythe nature forces work, which we call heat, electricity,

gravity, chemical action, etc. To those who havecultivated the spiritual sight, it is evident that the so­called dead spend part of their time in learning to buildbodies under the guidance of certain spiritualhierarchies. They are the agents in the metabolic andanabolic processes; they are the unseen factors inassimilation, and it is therefore literally true that weshould be unable to live save for the important aid fromthose we call dead.

To grasp the idea of how these agencies work andtheir relation to us, we may recall an illustration used inthe Cosmo: Suppose that a mechanic is at work makinga table, and a dog, which is an evolving spirit belongingto another life wave, sits watching him. It then sees theprocess of cutting the boards; gradually the table isformed from the material, and at last it is finished. Butthough the dog has watched the man work, it has noclear conception of how this has been done nor of theultimate use of the table. Suppose further that the dogwere gifted with only a limited vision, hence unable toperceive the workman and his tools; then it would haveseen the boards gradually falling apart in certainplaces, then joined and assembled in another manneruntil the table took shape and was finished. It wouldsee the process of formation and the finished productbut would have no conception of the fact that the active

agency of a workman was necessary to transform thelumber to a table. If it could speak, it might explain theorigin of the table as Topsy did her own by saying thatit "just growed."

Our relation to the nature forces is similar to? that ofthe dog to the invisible workman, and we also are aptto explain nature's mysteries as Topsy did. Welearnedly tell the child how heat from the sunevaporates the water of the rivers and oceans, causingit to ascend to the cooler regions of the air where itcondenses to clouds which finally become so saturatedwith moisture that they gravitate towards the earth asrain to replenish the rivers and oceans and be againevaporated. It is all perfectly simple, a nice automaticperpetual motion process. But is that all? Are there nota number of holes in this theory? We know that thereare, though we can not digress too far from our subjectto discuss them. One thing is lacking to fully explain it,namely, the semi­intelligent action of the sylphs wholift the finely divided vaporized particles of waterprepared by the undines, from the surface of the seaand carry them as high as they may before partialcondensation takes place and clouds are formed. Theseparticles of water they keep until forced by the undinesto release them. When we say it storms, battles arebeing fought on the surface of the sea and in the air,

sometimes with the aid of salamanders to light thelightning torch of separated hydrogen and oxygen andsend its awe­inspiring shaft crashing zig­zag throughthe inky darkness, followed by ponderous peals ofthunder that reverberate in the clearing atmosphere,while the undines triumphantly hurl the rescuedraindrops to earth that they may be again restored tounion with their mother element.

The little gnomes are needed to build the plants andthe flowers. It is their work to tint them with theinnumerable shades of color which delight our eyes.They also cut the crystals in all the minerals and makethe priceless gems that gleam from golden diadems.Without them there would be no iron for our machinerynor gold wherewith to pay for it. They are everywhereand the proverbial bee is not busier. To the bee,however, is given credit for the work it does, while thelittle nature spirits that play such an immenselyimportant part in the world's work are unknown save toa few so­called dreamers or fools.

At the summer solstice the physical activities ofnature are at this apex or zenith, therefore"Midsummer Night" is the great festival of the fairieswho 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 whichis their tool in shaping the flowers into the astonishingvariety of delicate shapes called for by their archetypesand tinting them in unnumbered hues which are theartist's delight and despair.

On this greatest of all nights of the glad summerseason they flock from fen and forest, from glen anddale, to the Festival of the Fairies. They really bake andbrew their etheric foods and afterwards dance inecstasies of joy—the joy of having brought forth andserved their important purpose in the economy ofnature.

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It is an axiom of science that nature tolerates nothingthat is useless; parasites and drones are anabomination; the organ that has become superfluousatrophies, so does the limb or eye that is no longerused. Nature has work to do and requires work of allwho would justify their existence and continue as partof 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 solutionto many of nature's multifarious mysteries, as alreadyexplained.

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 NorthernHemisphere, but the wave of spiritual light and lifewhich will be the basis of next year's growth andprogress is now at its greatest height and power. OnChristmas night at the winter solstice when the celestialsign of the Immaculate Virgin stands upon the easternhorizon at midnight, the sun of the new year is born tosave humanity from the cold and the famine whichwould ensue were its beneficent light withheld. At thattime the Christ Spirit is born into the earth andcommences to leaven and fertilize the millions of seedswhich the fairies build and water that we may havephysical food. But "man shall not live by bread along."Important as is the work of the fairies, it fades intoinsignificance compared with the mission of Christ, whobrings to us each year the spiritual food needed toadvance us upon the path of progress, that we mayattain perfection in love with all which that implies.

It is the advent of this wonderful love light that wesymbolize by the lighted lamps on the altar and theringing of the Christmas bells which each yearannounce the glad tidings of the Savior's birth, for tothe spiritual sense, light and sound are inseparable; thelight is colored and the sound is modified according to

vibratory pitch. The Christmas light that shines onearth is golden, inducing the feelings of altruism, joy,and peace which not even the great war could entirelyobliterate.

The war is past, and as we always value that mostwhich we have missed, it is to be hoped that allmankind will unite this Christmas in the songs of songs"On Earth Peace, Good Will toward Men."

VI. The Newborn Christ

It has often been said in our literature that thesacrifice of Christ was not an event which took place onGolgotha, and was accomplished in a few hours onceand for all time, but that the mystic births and deathsof the redeemer are continuous cosmic occurrences.We may therefore conclude that this sacrifice isnecessary for our physical and spiritual evolution duringthe present phase of our development. As the annualbirth of the Christ Child is now approaching, it presentsagain a never old, ever new theme for meditation fromwhich we may profit by pondering it with a prayer thatit may create in our hearts a new light to guide us uponthe path of regeneration.

The apostle gave us a wonderful definition of Deitywhen he said that "God is Light," and therefore "light"

has been used to illustrate the nature of the Divine inthe Rosicrucian teachings, especially the mystery of theTrinity in Unity. It is clearly taught in the HolyScriptures of all times that God is one and indivisible.At the same time we find that as the one white light isrefracted into three primary colors, red, yellow, andblue, so God appears in a threefold role duringmanifestation by the exercise of the three divinefunctions of creation, preservation, and dissolution.

When He exercises the attribute of creation, Godappears as Jehovah, the Holy Spirit; He is then Lord oflaw and generation and projects the solar fertilityindirectly through the lunar satellites of all planetswhere it is necessary to furnish bodies for the evolvingbeings.

When He exercises the attribute of preservation forthe purpose of sustaining the bodies generated byJehovah under the laws of nature, God appears as theRedeemer, Christ, and radiate the principles of love andregeneration directly into any planet where thecreatures of Jehovah require this help to extricatethemselves from the meshes of mortality and egoism inorder 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 experienceand soul growth garnered by us during the day ofmanifestation. This Universal Solvent, the ray of theFather, then emanates from the invisible Spiritual Sun.

These divine processes of creation and birth,preservation and life, and dissolution, death, and returnto the Author of our being we see everywhere about us,and we recognize the fact that they are activities of theTriune God in manifestation. But have we ever realizedthat in the spiritual world there are no definite events,no static conditions; that the beginning and the end ofall adventures of all ages are present in the eternal"here" and "now"? From the bosom of the Father thereis an everlasting outwelling of the seed of things andevents which enters the realm of "time" and "space."There it gradually crystallizes and becomes inert,necessitating dissolution that there may be room forother things and other events.

There is no escape from this cosmic law; it applies toeverything in the realm of "time" and "space," theChrist­ray included. As the lake which empties itselfinto the ocean is replenished when the water that left ithas been evaporated, and returns to its as rain to flowagain ceaselessly toward the sea, so the Spirit of Loveis eternally born of the Father, day by day, hour by

hour, endlessly flowing into the solar universe toredeem us from the world of matter which enmeshesus in its death grip. Wave upon wave is thus impelledoutward from the sun to all the planets giving arhythmic urge to the evolving creatures there.

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And so it is in the very truest and most literal sense aNew­Born Christ that we hail at each approaching Yule­feast, and Christmas is the most vital annual event forall humanity, whether we realize it or not. It is notmerely a commemoration of the birth of our belovedElder Brother, Jesus, but the advent of the rejuvenatinglove­life of our Heavenly Father, sent by Him to redeemthe world from the wintry death grip. Without this newinfusion of divine life and energy we must soon perishphysically, and our orderly progress would be frustratedso far as our present lines of development areconcerned. This is a point we should endeavor tothoroughly realize in order that we may learn toappreciate Christmas as keenly as we should; and wemay learn a lesson in this respect, as in many others,from our children or from reminiscences of our ownchildhood. How keen were our anticipations of theapproaching feast! How eagerly we waited for the hourwhen we should receive the gifts which we knew would

be forthcoming from Santa Claus, the mysteriousuniversal benefactor who brought the toys of thecoming year! How should we have felt had our parentsgiven us the dismembered dolls and drums of yester­year? It would surely have been felt as anoverwhelming misfortune and would have left a deepsense of broken trust which even time would havefound it difficult to heal; yet it would be as nothingcompared with the cosmic calamity that would befallmankind if our Heavenly Father should fail to providethe new­born Christ for our Cosmic Christmas Gift. TheChrist of last year cannot save us from physical famineany more than last year's rain can drench the soil againand swell the millions of seeds that slumber in theearth and await the germinal activities of the Father'slife to begin their growth; the Christ of last year cannotkindle anew in our hearts the spiritual aspirations whichurge us onward in the quest any more than lastsummer's heat can warm us now. The Christ of lastyear gave us His love and His life to the last breathwithout stint or measure; when He was born into theearth last Christmas, He endued with life the sleepingseeds which have grown and gratefully filled ourgranaries with the bread of physical life; he lavishedthe love given Him by the Father upon us, and when Hehad wholly spent His life, He died at Easter­tide to rise

again to the Father as the river, by evaporation, risesto the sky.

But endlessly wells the divine love; as a father pitieshis children, so doth our Heavenly Father pity us, forHe knows our physical and spiritual frailty anddependence. Therefore we are now confidently awaitingthe mystic birth of the Christ of another year laden withnew life and love sent by the Father to succor us fromthe physical and spiritual famine which would ensuewere it not for the annual love­offering.

Younger souls usually find it difficult to disabuse theirminds of the personality of God, of Christ, and of theHoly Spirit, and some can only love Jesus, the man.They forget Christ, the Great Spirit, who ushered in anew era in which the nations established under theregime of Jehovah will be broken to pieces that thesublime structure of Universal Brotherhood may bebuilt upon their ruins. In time all the world will realizethat "God" is spirit to be worshiped in "spirit and intruth." It is well to love Jesus and to imitate him; weknow of no nobler ideal and none more worthy. Could anobler one have been found, Jesus would not havebeen chosen as a vehicle of that Great One, the Christ,in whom dwelt the Godhead. We shall there­fore dowell to follow "in His steps." At the same time we shall

exalt God in our own consciousness by taking the wordof the Bible that He is spirit, and that we cannot makeany likeness which will portray Him for he is likenothing in heaven or on earth. We can see the physicalvehicles of Jehovah circling as satellites around thevarious planets; we can also see the sun, which is thevisible 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 ahigher octave of the photosphere of the sun, a ring ofviolet blue luminosity behind the sun. But we do notneed to see; we can feel His love, and that feeling isnever so great as at Christmas time when He is givingus the greatest of all gifts, the Christ of the new year.

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