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Vessel of Light
December 20, 2020
“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within....”
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
To be a Spiritualist is to become aware of Natural Law, because the principles of Spiritualism are based on natural laws of the universe - both physical laws and spiritual laws. Physical laws include the law of gravity and the law of motion/inertia (an object at rest will remain at rest; an object in motion continues in motion); spiritual laws include the law of attraction (things of a like vibration are drawn to one another) and the law of cause and effect (every action has an appropriate reaction).
To be Spiritualist, then, is to become aware of one’s connection to the earth, and of one’s relationship with the Universe. This can stretch one's thinking. For example, one may assert that the physical earth - the material world called the “real” world - is really “the dream.” And that the spiritual realm is the “real” real world - the essence, the life force that occasionally inhabits the physical, the consciousness that exists within and without the physical world.
In the physical world today (December 20, 2020), we are experiencing a change of seasons from autumn to winter, and a celebration of light. The United States was founded in the spiritual tradition of Christianity, and within that frame of reference, this time of year is a celebration of the birth of Jesus. The timing of this celebration has its roots in the spiritual tradition of Paganism, which celebrated the return of the earth to a state of light and life following the winter solstice.
Celebrating the return to light and life
The Winter Solstice occurs during the shortest day (or the longest night) of the year. The word solstice derives from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still). On Winter Solstice, the path of the sun across the sky ceases to decline and the length of daylight reaches its minimum for three days, during which time the sun's path remains in the same place on the horizon. Then the sun's path begins its ascent in the sky and days grow longer.
Thus the interpretation by many cultures (and specifically Paganism) is of a sun reborn and a return to light. And during the period in which this celebration of light began, it really was a celebration of life continuing.
Think of a time during some Winter when the lights and heat went out in your home…. When it came back on what did you feel? Relief, for the return of warmth and light. And then more relief because you could return to life-as-you-had-come-to-know-it. Is it any wonder, then, that the Christians would celebrate the birth of the Christ at this time of light and life returning to the earth?
Esoteric teachings or, down the rabbit hole we go....
Christianity is a patriarchal religion that focuses on the masculine qualities of the divine, while Paganism is more of a matriarchal religion focusing on the divine feminine. With the birth of the Christ, our two primary characters are Jesus and Mary.
The energies of Jesus and Mary are very much alike, from 1) a Spiritual perspective; 2) a Spiritualist perspective, with the Law of Attraction; and 3) a Theosophical perspective, with the Seven Rays.
You may have heard of the modern Theosophical Movement, which was founded on the heels of Spiritualism, in 1875, by Helena Blavatsky. Simply put, the Seven Rays are seven distinct qualities of universal energy. You might think of them as energy patterns that contain and reflect the primary differentiations of the divine. (You’re already familiar with the first three rays, called the Major Rays of Aspect, which in Christianity correspond to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit).
- First Ray of Will or Power (Father).
- Second Ray of Love-Wisdom (Son).
- Third Ray of Active Intelligence (Holy Spirit).
- Fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict.
- Fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge.
- Sixth Ray of Idealism and Devotion.
- Seventh Ray of Organization, Ceremonial Order, and Ritual.
Which ray(s) are associated with Jesus and Mary? Primarily the Sixth Ray, the Ray of Idealism and Devotion. In fact, the ascended master Jesus holds the position of “master of the Sixth Ray.”
You’re also already familiar with the Sixth Ray, because the energies of the rays operate in cycles within the universe that correspond to astrological ages, such as the Piscean Age and the Aquarian Age. Sound familiar?
Each of these ages is an era of approximately 2000 years during which a specific ray energy comes into manifestation, producing through its influence the succession of civilizations and cultures that mark and measure the evolution of the races. The Piscean Age, which began roughly around the time of the birth of the Master Jesus/Jesus Christ, was conditioned by Sixth Ray energy, the energy of Idealism and Devotion.
In the Aquarian Age, the Seventh Ray of Organization, Ceremonial Order, and Magic will predominate. And while the Age of Aquarius is thought to have begun around 2000 A.D., we don’t move from one age to another overnight - it is thought to take roughly 500 years for that shift to take place. Therefore, for the past 200-plus years we have been living with both of these energies.
Allow me to describe the differences between the energies of the outgoing Sixth Ray and the incoming Seventh Ray as described in Introduction to the Seven Rays by Kurt Abraham (in each of the following I will refer to the energy of the Sixth Ray before that of the Seventh Ray).
- Separative versus unifying.
- Authoritarian versus cooperative.
- Religious versus religious-political-artistic-economic-sociological.
- Pronounced individualism versus group spirit.
- Patriotism versus internationalism.
- Abstract versus concrete.
- Mystical versus practical.
- Fostering the vision versus materializing the vision.
- Desiring pure spirit versus relating spirit and matter.
Let’s expand on that last comparison: desiring pure spirit versus relating spirit and matter. In the Theosophical book, Esoteric Psychology, channeled by Alice Baily, “The work of the Ray of Ceremonial Order is to ‘ground’ or make physically visible the results of bringing spirit and matter together. Its function is to clothe spirit with matter producing form.” And in her book, Destiny of Nations, “The task of the new age worker is to bring these two apparent opposites together, to demonstrate that spirit and matter are not antagonistic to each other and that throughout the universe there is only spiritual substance, working on and producing the other tangible forms.”
Full circle or, back to the celebration of light and life
So, we’re coming full circle now. Do you see how this celebration of light and life in which we are currently immersed fits into the higher plan? Bringing spirit into matter, through the birth of the Son, and through the rebirth of the sun - it sounds a lot like the birth of Jesus and birth of the Christ Light.
Now let’s turn our focus to Mary, for within the symbolism of this celebration of light, we are the mother goddess. Every one of us, male and female alike, is both divinely masculine and divinely feminine, and a common lesson we are here to learn is to balance those qualities.
For this moment, we are all going to get in touch with the sacred feminine in the form of the mother goddess. We are each of us giving birth, bringing the light within us - the light that is our spirit - into matter, into this physical world, giving the light a form. It might be helpful to imagine ourselves as vessels of light, or chalices of liquid light.
And what do chalices of liquid light “do?” Do they create light, do they manipulate light, do they use light? No. They receive light, they hold light, and they are moved to let light flow out of them. Most of these “activities” are actually “passivities,” in the most divinely feminine sense. We don’t need to “do” so much as allow things to be done; we don’t need to make things happen so much as accept what is happening.
And during this celebration of light that is the Winter Solstice, the wobble of the earth has just shifted on its axis, and the sun has stood still in the sky. And as vessels of light - as chalices of liquid light - we are about to be tilted on our own axes, so that the light can pour forth from us. There is nothing to do; simply be aware.
“And if tonight my soul may find her peace in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,And in the morning wake like a new-opened flower Then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created."
~ D.H. Lawrence