TO ALL TEACHERS AND MIDWIVES
by Morgause Fontleve
This morning I awoke to the chill of true Winter. At dawn, I stood out in the garden, observing the vapour of my breath hanging in the air, my skin dry like paper …
I pondered how we have been made and remembered that we have been fashioned by the Universal elements. But alas, we have lost touch with the Seasons and the cycles of Mother Earth and know not when to turn or when to slow down in accordance.
I take a sip of coffee and ponder the four turning points of the year: the two Solstices and the two Equinoxes.
When the year is new, at the Winter Solstice, we are birthed out of our own ideas and commence by taking baby-steps through life.
The Spring Equinox is our adolescence, our spiritual and intellectual trials and conquests, the microcosmic reflection of the Gods.
The Summer Solstice marks our maturation, the full-blown strength of adulthood and the powers that come with it.
The Autumn Equinox is the initiation of renunciation, the crossing of the icy planes of old age and the gateway of death in order to be born again at the Winter Solstice.
Did we get it right this year?
Man dies to his lower self, to that part of his nature, the Monad leaves, but returns so that he can become twice born. We are true Phoenixes reborn from the ashes of our old lives, returned from the flight to our inner worlds and the mystery realms of dense vacuity.
Tempus fugit. We must prepare ourselves daily for every new day is a wonderful and new opportunity, a new door. Maintain open your heart, acknowledge and nurture the Divine at the core of you, learn to love, to forgive, to forgive yourself and show compassion and help. Grow stronger. Evolve. Know when to die to yourself.
As Purucker said, even the Gods are under the sway of the almighty destiny. However, a certain portion of divine activity must of necessity reach and influence the realm of men.
Thus the Supreme is ever present with us - not that the Supreme reaches out to us, seeking our communion: we reach towards the Supreme, it is we that become present. Plotinus
Plotinus also wrote that this is the purport that rules all the Mysteries and that nothing must be divulged to the uninitiated. He warns against the Supreme being made a common story. Only those who had "attained to see" could share in the Mysteries of the Supreme, for to mingle with the Divine, man must carry the Divine impressed upon himself. He is one who has penetrated the inner sanctuary and no longer worships images or things.
Nothing can evolve what is within itself, before that within has been involved into. G de Purucker [1979]
Time and time again it has been witnessed that when the spiritual energies within the world are running low, a portion of the Gods is manifest in our realm. A seed. A son. A daughter. An Avatar. A Wise man or a Wise woman. The influence of divinity makes Its appearance amongst us.
Everything is intrinsically connected and intimately woven within the web of life. All life is one vast quivering organism, which breathes, moves, lives. It is said that true Initiates have the impulse or drive to bring to safety and the Light, those marauded in spiritual darkness. I am certain that in light of this knowledge all those who are worthy will find their way towards the Light.
It happens too that some men and women embody spirituality and divineness. These rare individuals exceed by far the intellect and spiritual power of the average man and woman and their lives are dedicated to the upliftment of their brethren. They may be artists, poets, philosophers, politicians or humanitarians; folk that others often call saints. In these individuals the Monad is ready for unfoldment and evolution towards the Good, yet they choose to serve you and me.
Recently we celebrated the Winter Solstice. The Winter Solstice is the Great Birth when the Initiate brings to birth the God within him. Did we get this right?
The Spring Equinox is the Great Temptation: the initiate’s spiritual adolescence, the manifestation of his inner power and strength.
The Summer Solstice is called the Great Renunciation: the season, in which the Initiate prevails over temptation, renouncing his personal progress, dedicating his life to the service/protection of the world. It’s the season of teaching and the intellectual advancement of our conscience.
The Autumn Equinox is the Great Passing or the season for the investigation of the mystery of death and how through it we can have Life with a capital “L”.
Humans often ask existential questions such as the why of the polarity in Nature and in our way of understanding things? Why do some things get born whilst others are dying? Why is half of existence infused with spiritual energy whilst the other half slumbers in material abjection?
One who has not asked this question is not yet awake. His soul is not yet consciously stirring within him but lies contently dormant. Beasts and minerals never question themselves on matters such as duality nor do they ever conceive of not existing. They simply exist within the limitations of their nature, as yet not inquisitive of its inherent divinity and spiritual potential, of Wisdom, Knowledge and Love. They are content with just Being.
Light and Dark are inseparable and eternal paths towards upward progression, towards the Good. This is Lao Tse's "the form of the formless, the image of the imageless", the ever-enduring fleetingness that never passes. This is the differing sameness that one can only perceive with the consistent freedom from passions.
All around us Mother Nature proclaims law and order, regularity, cycles and progress. Order brings about progress. The same impulse sways the Gods, the Silent Watchers and the starry beings to assist those who are less progressed.
Little do we understand the immense Love and Compassion which move the soul of those perfected to help these fellows and in the service of the world. They go unrecognized, unthanked, ever silent, ever compassionate, filled with peace. They press on with their labour of Love never expecting returns or dividends. They are the pillars of Light who endure, on whose faces shines wisdom, love, serenity, humility, gentleness, kindness and generosity. They are the perfect instruments of Will and self-sacrifice. People flock towards them like birds and creatures to the haven of a shady grove. In them and in their proximity they find peace, tranquility, repose and wisdom.
Yes. We die seasonally. The heart of the true Initiate will be tempered to purity in the Underworld and from there he will rise advancing until he becomes a Master.
Some of us teach, bring men and women to light, birthing them to our form of spirituality. Let us remember that Initiation is not an additive, a cosmic fertilizer, to growing or expanding consciousness of a neophyte. The steps of initiation are instead the representation of the quickening of the evolutionary process. It is merely the unfolding of the already-existent inner potential. We are nothing more than midwives who must roll up our sleeves and put aside our egos in order to safely bring these individuals, trustingly put in our hands, to their true unfoldment. Let ego and pride have no part in our labour, for we are but the hands that catch them.
Just like birth, Initiation cannot take place by request or appointment. It happens when things are just right. It is impossible to pass through the initiatory rites unless you are already inwardly prepared to do so. This is true for the spiritual, intellectual and psycho emotional spheres.
Let us ponder a little longer. Disciples are the followers of a discipline. The Great Teachers taught that discipline had to come before the qualification for the Mysteries. Before crossing the doorway to the Sancto Sanctorum, the inner temple, the initiate had to prove himself worthy. Ready!
How can we ever know if we are ready? Or if we're on the right Path?
I believe that our daily lives prepare us for initiation. On the work-bench of life we may show what we are really made of, evoke our will, allow for our character to become stronger, grow … Our teachers, the masters, judge our actions in daily life, how we react to trials and temptations. Life is the Great School; not the Technichon or University, nor the Philosophical Academy. So, the only advice is to always strive to raise your consciousness ever higher.
I once read that we learn that we are an inseparable part of the Boundless and that we must believe and strive towards greatness and sublimity which not even the Gods have attained.
The Great Passing or the Autumn Equinox is the last of the 4 initiations. The Initiate’s Monad must become free as the thought of a freed God [Purucker]; become one with all the different conditions, substance and consciousness. The Initiate dies for the experience itself, for the knowledge, deliberately and through Will he is raised from the dead, resurrecting as a purified, sanctified and glorified man. His return to life makes of him a twice-born and he will now serve in true self-sacrifice.
Don’t be mistaken in thinking that any of this is easy, for all that you have here read goes against the Laws of Life and man’s nature. Initiation is death to the grosser spheres and the conquering of fear, death and its mysteries and the rising to the Ethereal Whole.
Thus may a man in his essence outgrow mere being and become identical with the Transcendent of Being. And when we have fallen back again from that union, we waken the virtue within us until we know ourselves all well ordered once more; once more we are lightened of our burden, through virtue become spiritual, and move through Spiritual Wisdom to the Supreme.
This is the life of gods and of the godlike and blessed among men, liberation from all that is alien here and from pleasure in it, a flight of Alone to Alone. Plotinus
To all Teachers and Midwives, our monadic essence remains unstained, untainted throughout the ages. Truly, it is a God.
Reference:
Inspired by The Four Sacred Seasons by G de Purucker and the works of Plotinus and Lao Tse.
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