Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2012-09 - AMORC

“...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