HEINDEL The Cosmic Christ

Hildegarde von Bingen  - Cosmic Wheel

THE COSMIC CHRIST

By

Max Heindel

Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn. The cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain, Unless within thyself it be set up again. —

Angelus Silesius

The popular song of today in which everybody joins with enthusiasm but which is forgotten tomorrow, the play that goes over the stage for perhaps a hundred nights in succession to be relegated to dusty shelves forever after, and all other things which are evanescent, show by that very fact that they have no intrinsic worth. The blaze of a shooting star may illumine the heavens for a moment, but though the others are paler and attract less attention, their light cheers the traveler night after night through the ages. Only the songs that are of the music of which we never tire have a real value in life. So it is also with recurring cosmic cycles marked by the feasts of the year. As they come again and again, they teach us the same old lessons from a new point of view.

The life impulse from the Cosmic Christ which entered the Earth last fall came to Mystic birth at Christmas, performed its wonderful magic of fecundation during the months between autumn and spring time, and liberated itself from the cross of matter to ascend again to the throne of the Father, at Easter leaves the Earth clothed in the verdant glory of spring and ready for the physical activities of the summer season. As it is above, so also below. The processes which take place upon a larger scale in the Earth are reproduced also in man. During the months from September to March we are more thoroughly impregnated with the spiritual vibrations which predominate in winter than we can be under the more material conditions prevailing in summer. There comes to us in the fall a new impulse toward the higher life; it culminates on Holy Night and works its magic in our natures according to the way in which we have embraced our opportunities. According to our diligence or dilatoriousness in the past season, progression will be accelerated or retarded in the next, for there is no truer word than that which teaches us that we are just what we have made ourselves. The service we rendered or failed to render determines whether a new opportunity for greater service will give us added impulse heavenward; and it cannot be said too often that it is useless to expect liberation from the cross of matter until we have used our opportunities here and thus earned a larger sphere of usefulness. The “nails” which bound the Christ to the cross of Calvary will fetter you and me until the dynamic impulse of love flows out from us in waves and rhythmic swells—like the tide of love which yearly enters the Earth and imbues it with renewed life.

You know the analogy between man—who enters his vehicles in the daytime, lives in them and works through them, and at night is a free spirit, free from the fetters of the dense body—and the Christ Spirit dwelling in our Earth a part of the year. We all know what a fetter and what a prison this body is, how we are hampered by disease and suffering, for there is not one of us who is always in perfect health so that he or she never feels a pang of pain, at least not one who is on the higher path. It is similar with the Cosmic Christ, who turns His attention toward our little Earth, focusing His consciousness in this planet in order that we may have life. He has to enliven this dead mass (which we have crystallized out of the Sun) annually; and it is a fetter, a clog, and a prison to Him. Therefore, it is right and proper that we should rejoice when He comes at Christmas time each year and is born anew into our world to help us leaven this dead lump wherewith which we have encumbered ourselves. Our hearts at that time should turn to Him in gratitude for the sacrifice He makes for our sakes during the winter months, permeating this planet with His life to awaken it from its wintry sleep, in which it would remain were He not thus born into it to enliven it.

During the winter months He suffers agonies of torture, “groaning, travailing and waiting for the day of liberation”, which comes at the time we speak of in the orthodox churches as the passion week. But we realize that according to the mystic teachings, this week is just the culmination or crest wave of His suffering and that He is then rising out of His prison; that when the Sun crosses the equator, He hangs upon the cross, and cries “Consummatum est!”—”It has been accomplished!” That is to say, His work for that day has been accomplished. It is not a cry of agony, but a cry of triumph, a shout of joy that the hour of liberation has come and that once more He can soar away a little while, free from the fettering clod of our planet.

The point to which I would like to call your attention is that we should rejoice with Him in the great, glorious, triumphal hour, the hour of liberation when He exclaims, “It has been accomplished.” Let us attune our hearts to this great Cosmic event; let us rejoice with the Christ, our Savior, that the term of His annual sacrifice has once more been completed; and let us feel thankful from the very bottom of our hearts that He is now about to be freed from the Earth’s fetters; that the life wherewith He has now imbued our planet is sufficient to carry through the time till next Christmas.

Nature is the symbolic expression of God. Therefore if we would know God we must study nature, always remembering that there is a purpose behind every manifestation; that life is a school and through learning its many lessons humanity is slowly evolving from a divine spark to Godhood. Had we learned life’s lessons as they were given to us there would have been no necessity for the great sacrifice which was made and is annually being made by the Christ Spirit, who is the embodiment of love. Through selfishness, disobedience to laws and evil practices we were fast crystallizing not only our own bodies, but also the Earth on which we lived, to such a degree that as means for evolution both were fast becoming unusable. When nothing else could save us from the results of our own wrongdoing the compassionate Christ offered Himself and His great love power to break up the crystallized condition of man’s bodies and the Earth. For three years He taught mankind by word, precept and example. When He was crucified on Golgotha His great sacrifice for humanity had only just begun. Each year since that time on the twenty-first of September when the Sun passes from the zodiacal sign Virgo into the sign Libra, the Christ Spirit returning to our Earth touches its atmosphere. He starts on this downward journey about the twenty-first of June at the summer solstice, when the Sun enters Cancer. He reaches the center of our Earth at midnight, December the twenty-fourth.

There He remains for three days and then He starts to withdraw. This withdrawal is completed at Easter. From Easter until the summer solstice He is passing through the higher worlds and reaches the World of Divine Spirit, the throne of the Father, on June twenty- first. During July and August, while the Sun is in Cancer and Leo, He is rebuilding His Life Spirit vehicle which He is again to bring to the world and with it rejuvenate the Earth and the life kingdoms evolving in and on it. From Christmas until Easter He gives of Himself without stint or measure, endowing with life, not only the sleeping seeds but everything about, on and within the Earth.

Without this yearly infusion of Divine life and energy all living things on our Earth would soon perish and all orderly progress would be frustrated so far as our present lines of development are concerned. It is this germinal activity of the Father’s life brought to us by the Christ and fully delivered by Easter time that starts a renewed growth and augmented activity in plant, animal and man at this particular season of the year. The Christ does not leave the Earth at Easter until He has given of Himself to the utmost. It is then that the infusion of His life, together with the more nearly vertical rays of the Sun, causes the seeds to grow, the trees to bloom and the birds, directed by their Group Spirits, to mate and build their nests. Mankind is then strengthened and imbued with the necessary energy and courage to meet, profit from and grow by encounters with the varied and perplexing problems of life.

For those who have chosen to work knowingly and intelligently with Cosmic Law, Easter has a great significance. To them it means the annual liberation of the Christ Spirit from the cramping confines of the Earth and His joyful ascent into His true home world, there to remain for a season resting in the bosom of the Father. And if their eyes are truly open they behold angelic hosts waiting, ready to accompany Him on His heavenward journey; if their ears are attuned to heavenly sounds they hear celestial choirs chanting His praise in glad hosannas to the risen Lord.

To the enlightened ones Easter brings a keen realization of the fact that all humanity are pilgrims on the Earth, that the real home of the spirit is in the heaven realm and that to reach that realm all should endeavor to learn the lessons in life’s school as quickly as possible so that they may be able to look for the dawn of a day that will permanently release them from the bondage of the Earth. Then like the liberated Christ they will come to a realization of that glorious immortality which is the reward of the perfected Spirit. To the illuminated ones Easter symbolizes the dawning of a glad day when all mankind, as well as the Christ, will be permanently freed from the cramping confines of materiality and will ascend to heavenly realms to become pillars of strength in the Father’s house, from which they shall no more go out.