Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2012-09 - AMORC
Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2012-09 - AMORC Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2012-09 - AMORC
and he dwells within our heart...“There is a bridge between time and eternity, andthis bridge is atman, the spirit of man. Neither daynor night cross that bridge, nor old age, nor death,nor sorrow. There is a spirit which is pure and whichis beyond old age and death; and beyond hungerand thirst and sorrow. This is atman the spirit inman, all the desires of this spirit are truth. It is thisspirit that we must find and know: man must findhis own soul. He who has found and knows his soulhas found all the worlds, has achieved all his desires.”The visionary ladder upon which the sleeping Jacob sees angels ascendingand descending is a representation of the discovery of the temple within, amajor step forward in one’s personal spiritual evolution and the approachto true self-knowledge.central meaning of initiation.The best known example is that of Jacob’s Ladderrecounted in the Christian Bible (Genesis 28:10-19)which was widely interpreted as a symbol of CosmicHarmony, and famously depicted in an inspiring paintingby William Blake. It is a visionary ladder upon whichthe sleeping Jacob sees angels ascending and descending,a symbol of cosmic harmony. In the account, God says(after describing the land which he gives to Jacob and hisdescendants):We could say that the process is one of returningfrom exile, of rediscovering that which has been lost.The Spiritual JourneyThe quest for the Divine Experience and InnerCommunion has been narrated in many and various talessince the beginning of the attempts by people to articulatetheir inner experiences. It is the Chrétien de Troyes’ HolyGrail, Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, and the stories ofthe Knights of the Round Table. These stories describethe journey to a profound mystical experience. Considerthe tale of Sir Galahad who in his simplicity and humility“...looked into the depths of his own being, entered the Temple“Behold I am with you and will keep you whereveryou go, and will bring you back to this land. AndJacob awoke from his sleep and said: Surely theLord is in this place; and I did not know it, this isnone other than the house of God and this is thegate of heaven.”In veiled language Jacob has discovered the TempleWithin. Access to higher realms is through our owninner gateway. This is a major step forward in one’spersonal spiritual evolution and the approach to trueself-knowledge. This is the meaning of the words: “KnowThyself and thou shalt know the Kingdom of Heaven.” Inthe Chandogya Upanishad, we read:“In the centre of the castle of Brahman, our ownbody, there is a small shrine in the form of a lotusflower, and within can be found a small space. Thelittle space within the heart is as great as this vastuniverse. The heavens and earth are there, and thesun and the moon and the stars and all that now is,and all that is not: for the whole universe is in himof his own heart and communed with God in the Silence, atRediscovering that which has been lost and the journey to a profoundmystical experience is a theme central to works such as Malory’s MorteD’Arthur, The Vision of Piers Ploughman, The Pilgrim’s Progressand Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.6The Rosicrucian Beacon -- September 2012
“...the pineal gland... is a very small organ, aboutthe size of a grain of wheat, and yet it is a most vitalone. It is, shall we say, a transformer of the CosmicConsciousness, of the intelligence of the Cosmic,into rates of vibration, into an energy which isdiscernable by our objective minds. For furtherexplanation, and as an analogy, we may say it islike a little valve that at certain times, dependingupon our thinking and our meditation, and becauseof certain psychic exercises we perform, opens andpermits Cosmic inspirations and Divine Wisdomto pass through and be reduced to a means that thebrain can translate into comprehensible notionsand concepts.We have an inner transformer which acts as the channel of communication.It is called the Pineal Gland. Perhaps we could say this is our personalCosmic Tree, or mystical Ladder of Lights.his own altar.”While there are many poetic works of Faith andSpirituality, for example, The Vision of Piers Ploughman(c.1360), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14 thcentury) and The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), there isanother medieval one in particular that is especiallybeautiful called Pearl, Cleanness and Patience. It uses thedevice of dream and vision, and is the personal record of aspiritual crisis brought about by the loss of something orsomeone very dear. The crisis is resolved by the assurancewhich spiritual revelation and experience brings, and theknowledge that the beauty and innocence of childhood,or something precious to us and which we thought lost,is actually within, and accessing it opens the gates to theKingdom of Heaven.The Pineal GlandFast forward now to the present day, while keeping inmind those archetypal symbols of tree, ladder, stairway,chain and bridge which all describe the process ofcommunicating with higher levels of consciousness. Thereis within the human brain an inner transformer which actsas the channel of communication. It is called the PinealGland. Perhaps we could say this is our personal CosmicTree, or mystical Ladder of Lights. Here is an extractfrom a Rosicrucian Degree monograph written by formerImperator of the Rosicrucian Order, Ralph M Lewis. In ithe provides a very succinct description of the importanceof the pineal gland and its function:“Again, we may say it is like a radio receiver thatreduces high frequency electro-mgnetic waves tosound waves to which our ears respond and whichcan be conveyed to our brain where we can interpretthem. It is a bridge across which the DivineConsciousness passes from the Cosmic to the mortalmind of man.“This then is the Third Eye. It gives us vision of theCosmic, a perception of God, and an insight intothose Divine realms, far removed from the physical.It is the true eye of the soul.”In this first part we have travelled together fromthe development of the Outer Temple to that of theInner Sacred Space. Accessing the Divine experience at apersonal level is only possible when one enters this sacredspace. The Temple is the starting point, the stepping stone,the springboard for the ascent of consciousness. And so,physically entering the Temple is the symbolic equivalentof entering the silence within ourselves to ascend to higherlevels of consciousness and to commune with our higherself and the God of our Heart. In part two we will explorethe Temple of Man further through pictorial symbolismand metaphysical concepts.Sources1. For this first part of the article I am indebted to James Haughey,‘The Altar of God’ in the Rosicrucian Digest, October 1974, pp.8-10, 34.2. I would like to acknowledge that the whole presentation wasparticularly unified in concept by my reading of the works ofRalph Maxwell Lewis, Imperator of the Rosicrucian Order,AMORC (1939-1987), and also the work of Rosicrucianswho wrote in the Rosicrucian Forum and Digest over theyears.The Rosicrucian Beacon -- September 20127
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and he dwells within our heart...“There is a bridge between time and eternity, andthis bridge is atman, the spirit of man. Neither daynor night cross that bridge, nor old age, nor death,nor sorrow. There is a spirit which is pure and whichis beyond old age and death; and beyond hungerand thirst and sorrow. This is atman the spirit inman, all the desires of this spirit are truth. It is thisspirit that we must find and know: man must findhis own soul. He who has found and knows his soulhas found all the worlds, has achieved all his desires.”The visionary ladder upon which the sleeping Jacob sees angels ascendingand descending is a representation of the discovery of the temple within, amajor step forward in one’s personal spiritual evolution and the approachto true self-knowledge.central meaning of initiation.The best known example is that of Jacob’s Ladderrecounted in the Christian Bible (Genesis 28:10-19)which was widely interpreted as a symbol of CosmicHarmony, and famously depicted in an inspiring paintingby William Blake. It is a visionary ladder upon whichthe sleeping Jacob sees angels ascending and descending,a symbol of cosmic harmony. In the account, God says(after describing the land which he gives to Jacob and hisdescendants):We could say that the process is one of returningfrom exile, of rediscovering that which has been lost.The Spiritual JourneyThe quest for the Divine Experience and InnerCommunion has been narrated in many and various talessince the beginning of the attempts by people to articulatetheir inner experiences. It is the Chrétien de Troyes’ HolyGrail, Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, and the stories ofthe Knights of the Round Table. These stories describethe journey to a profound mystical experience. Considerthe tale of Sir Galahad who in his simplicity and humility“...looked into the depths of his own being, entered the Temple“Behold I am with you and will keep you whereveryou go, and will bring you back to this land. AndJacob awoke from his sleep and said: Surely theLord is in this place; and I did not know it, this isnone other than the house of God and this is thegate of heaven.”In veiled language Jacob has discovered the TempleWithin. Access to higher realms is through our owninner gateway. This is a major step forward in one’spersonal spiritual evolution and the approach to trueself-knowledge. This is the meaning of the words: “KnowThyself and thou shalt know the Kingdom of Heaven.” Inthe Chandogya Upanishad, we read:“In the centre of the castle of Brahman, our ownbody, there is a small shrine in the form of a lotusflower, and within can be found a small space. Thelittle space within the heart is as great as this vastuniverse. The heavens and earth are there, and thesun and the moon and the stars and all that now is,and all that is not: for the whole universe is in himof his own heart and communed with God in the Silence, atRediscovering that which has been lost and the journey to a profoundmystical experience is a theme central to works such as Malory’s MorteD’Arthur, The Vision of Piers Ploughman, The Pilgrim’s Progressand Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.6The <strong>Rosicrucian</strong> <strong>Beacon</strong> -- September <strong>2012</strong>
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