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Return to article | Return to SatyaCenter home page A Christmas Story by Curtis Lang We want to wish all of our friends in the Satya Center community a Blessed Season of Light. May you & your loved ones receive the many Blessings pouring out upon the Earth at this time of year. May the Blessings of the Holy of Holies comfort you & your families, may the star of Peace reborn enter all of our hearts. The stage was set for the deification of state power. After his death, Augustus, called the Son of a God, would be worshipped as a Divinity in his own right. The Roman Senate declared the military dictator of the world’s mightiest empire a heroic deity, then named him a God incarnate, establishing his own priestly hierarchy, combining church and state officially in one person. Under Augustus, Rome and the provinces had become, in essence, a police state. The military presence throughout the Empire spread the Roman language and Roman culture throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. This triumph of raw Roman power solidified the rule of predators in the Italian state that birthed the victorious Imperial legions. The institutions and internalized signs of oppression included: wars waged for profit and glory, hereditary aristocracy, institutionalized slavery, widespread greed, unbridled hedonism, casual cruelty and the exaltation of decadence. A master of politics, Augustus spread the wealth of Empire widely. He displaced poor farmers from their lands and gave that land to his legions as a reward for their faithful service. Augustus rigged elections to favor his personally selected candidates, chosen for “merit” and loyalty rather than bloodline. He placed Imperial colonies in the hands of pliant surrogates who would further Roman interests. Augustus built the foundations for a long-lasting Empire by creating entire new privileged classes at home and abroad. These predatory Roman elites were naturally loyal to the Emperor who enriched and elevated them, and together the Emperor and these newly privileged social classes profited from the sweat and blood and taxes of the peoples of the Empire around the world. Rome stood for religious superstition, authoritarian, militaristic rule by a fractured elite engaged in continuous infighting, materialistic, egoistic philosophy and spiritual agnosticism. All this was in stark counterpoint to the mystical, prophetic philosophy and highly spiritually charged worldview of the tiny nation of Israel, whose people had been oppressed for long generations. Israel had endured the yoke of Babylon, the lash of Egypt and now the double oppression of Imperial rule and an ossified priesthood, jealous of its privileges and beholden to the Roman governor charged with extracting maximum value for the Empire. During this time of global turmoil and conflict, there was a widespread awareness, subliminal for the most part, that the world had reached a turning point of the ages. In Greece, Aeschylus, fashioner of ritual dramas elucidating the ancient mysteries and son of a priest of Eleusis, had risked the wrath of the mob for putting a speech into the mouth of his Titanic hero Prometheus declaring the imminent end of the reign of Jupiter. In Rome, the visionary prophet Virgil, in a poem ostensibly part of a cycle of works dedicated to the glory of the coming of the great God-man Augustus, declared, “The last great age, foretold by sacred rhymes, renews its finished course, Saturnian times roll round again, and the mighty years begun from their first orb in radiant circles run, the base degenerate iron offspring ends, a golden progeny from Heaven descends – Oh! Chaste Lucia! Speed the mother’s pains, and haste the glorious birth, thy own Apollo reigns!” St. Augustine, and other Christian scholars, would later interpret Virgil’s words as a prophecy of the coming of Christ.
photo by Jane Sherry In Israel, the coming of the avatar of a new spiritual dispensation had become an integral part of the people’s consciousness. Isaiah had long prophesied that “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the sprit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge. . .For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form or comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. . .He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” The New AgeIn this super-charged atmosphere of spiritual excitation, expectations among the global community of spiritual Teachers were high that a new Avatar would appear, heralding the onset of a New Age. Scholars, priests, shamans, astrologers, yogis, Magi and mandarins alike searched the sky, the waters, the flickering flames and even entrails scattered upon the earth, in a quest for a map to the quintessential spiritual drama about to unfold -- but where and when? These were the questions the Wise Ones sought to answer. When they arrived in Judaea they enquired, asking “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to adore him.” (Matthew, 2)
Herod asked the assembled chief priests and sages of Judaea where Christ, this Messiah, was to be born. They replied that Micah the prophet had foretold the birth of the great captain of the Jewish people in the town of Bethlehem. Herod therefore sent the visitors from the East, the Magi, to Bethlehem, requesting that they report back to him about the miracle child, so he could also go to adore him. The Magi followed the path of the star, which went before them, to a place where the Eastern initiates discovered some shepherds worshiping a newborn babe laying in a manger, son of a Divine Mother whose birthing had been written in the sky and in the history of the Jewish prophets. These powerful magicians received Divine wisdom in their sleep, counseling them not to return to Herod and they went back by another way to their own country. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and warned the Holy Family to seek shelter in Egypt until further notice. According to Matthew, Israel’s Roman King Herod, stained with the blood of priests, family and common folk alike, triggered an unholy massacre of newborn babes in and around the tiny town of Bethlehem in an effort to kill the coming Messiah in his crib and thus forestall the initiation of the New Age of sacrificial love, fervent devotion, and active compassion. The effort of the retrograde spiritual forces represented by Herod failed in their intent, and the holy child would grow up to represent the exact antithesis of Imperial rule – a humble initiate schooled as a carpenter, who was also reported by students of the mysteries to have been tutored in the initiatic teachings of the Essenes, a King of Kings who brought forgiveness and healing to the outcasts of society, the workers, the seekers and the suffering through his transcendent love and self-sacrifice. Through his death and Resurrection, Jesus fulfilled his mission as Avatar of the Piscean Age, demonstrating the immortality of the Soul. Christ reunited his Divine energy with the energy of his Divine Mother by unifying his risen etheric body with the etheric body of the planet Earth, thus making his Word and his Love available through the power of direct spiritual perception to every human being to inhabit our beautiful blue-green world. Following his miraculous Resurrection, this avatar of Divine Love directly transmitted the power of the Holy Spirit to his apostles at the feast of Pentecost. The apostles traveled throughout the world, bringing the good news, healing and consoling the afflicted. This Holy Spirit represents the supernal fire that is known to initiates in the mystery schools of both East and West by many names – kundalini, prana, chi, Reiki, shakti and universal life force energy. Today the etheric body of the risen Christ transmits the Holy Spirit to disciples, and to all individuals who seek to know Him. One need not be a member of a particular church, a follower of a particular religion, a renunciate, or even a pure soul, unstained by sin, to obtain the grace of Jesus Christ.
This is the message of Christmas in 2009. Speak to Jesus directly. Speak from your heart, the place where Jesus resides. Be not afraid. Ask for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Speak to Mary, the Divine Mother, who is the loving Dove incarnate, and the bridge to the inborn wisdom of the natural world, encoded with Christ consciousness. Seek to know Immanence, the Christ within, through prayer, meditation and contemplation of the sacred forms in Nature. For Christ consciousness resides in the cycles of the natural world, and the Holy Spirit is the force that animates the Universe. When we go even further along the spiritual path, when we work to subordinate our egoistic consciousness to the Higher Self, through meditation, purification of our physical, emotional and mental bodies, and through selfless service to others, we empower ourselves to walk the path of Spirit. When we walk this path, we are partaking of communion with the risen Christ, and we become part of the mystical body of Christ. “For I am the vine and you are the branches,” Christ told his disciples. As we look back upon the 2000 year Piscean Age today, we recognize that we are once again at a turning of the Ages. We inhabit a world once again ruled by a dominating, exploitative Imperial military power, a world in the thrall of materialist philosophies and ego-driven cravings for power, wealth and sensual pleasure. During this Dark Age, parallel to the paradoxical time of Christ’s birth, when Imperial glory, initiatic renewal and immense human and spiritual suffering co-incided throughout the world, we are each called upon to connect personally with the Holy Spirit through our own personal efforts. We are each called upon to communicate the Divine Word as it is transmitted through us by that ubiquitous, loving, and divinely wise Spirit – for the healing of all nations and peoples, that we may further the Divine plan to bring about a New Age of peace and co-operation. We are called upon to live our lives as though Christ were walking before us, to walk in the footsteps of Christ. Let us meditate this Christmas season upon this responsibility, for this is the true meaning of Christmas. The Divine MotherUnfortunately, in the consumer culture of the modern day reincarnation of the Atlantean and Roman Empires, here in 21st century America, we often feel disconnected from the true Spirit of Christmas, from Christ consciousness. We often suffer from the illusion of being trapped in the concerns of the egoistic mind, the grasping materialistic mass consciousness of mainstream consumer culture. There is a simple way to reconnect with the Christ within us, and to true Christmas Spirit. That is through connecting to the Divine Mother. We can connect with Mary through a contemplation of the spiritual powers inherent in nature, and through Mary we will connect with the Holy Spirit, for Mary is the incarnation of that Holy Spirit, and the embodiment of that Spirit’s loving wisdom.
Steiner suggests that the Luciferic, materialistic, logical modern world has lost touch with Christ consciousness, that modern, rationalistic man has died to Christ, and that we can only hope to regain a true connection to the mystery of Christ’s birth and death through the mediation of Mary, of the New Isis, the Divine Sophia. For the Divine Mother has been killed by the rational materialism of the Age of Reason and we must now work to resurrect the Spirit of the Divine Mother in order to give birth to the Christ consciousness within us. May you participate in the resurrection of the Divine Mother within your own soul during this sacred season. May you unite your consciousness with the Christ consciousness, may your heart be filled with the Divine love of Christ, and may your will be united with the Divine will. May all you do be united with the Divine plan of love and light, working for the liberation of all sentient beings in time and space. Blessed Be. Word and Breathby Kathleen Raine Photo by Jane Sherry Word that blazes out the trumpet of the sun, Word traced in water of lakes, and light on water, Word inscribed on stone, mountain range upon range of stone, Grammar of fivefold rose and sixfold lily, Instinctive wisdom of fish and lion and ram, Hieroglyph in whose exact precision is defined Statement of mystery, how shall we name
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The mystery school initiates of Egypt, Gaul, Greece, and Persia were powerless in the face of the ubiquitous Roman legions, led by standard-bearers wearing wolf-skins over their elegant armour, carrying banners bearing the image of the Roman she-wolf as they spread fire and iron across Europe and Asia and the Middle East.
Herod, King of Judaea, was an authoritarian ruler in the Roman mold. Herod had murdered his own wife, executed three sons for conspiracy, murdered the Jewish High Priest Aristobolus III, and for good measure executed forty-five members of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of the Jewish people. 
“And I say to you,” Jesus told his disciples (Luke, 11), “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. And which of you, if he ask of his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask for an egg, will he reach him a scorpion? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?”
