Second Day of Spring – The Rose Cross and the Royal Secret
Gospel Reading for the Second Day of Spring
“As he was in the temple, Ieshu said to his disciples, I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me, for no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to make him known. As the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son to have life in himself, he has given him the power to pronounce on fate (kharma) because he is also the Son of Man (man). Do not be surprised, then, that the hour has come for all those who are in the region of death; they will hear the voice and go away, in the resurrection of (eternal) life, those who have done evil to you in the resurrection of judgment (kharma). Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever accepts my doctrine believes in him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment (for reincarnation) but has passed from death to life. I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if dead, will live. I am the light that has come into this world, so that no one who believes in me should remain in darkness. I have not come to condemn the world, but to save the world. For God loved the world, even to the point of giving it his only Son. “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The Light has come for a time among you; walk while you have the light, so that the famous may not understand you. He who walks in darkness knows not where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may be sons of light. And Ieshu was walking in the temple, under Solomon's portico. The Jews surrounded him and said to him: "How long will you hold our spirits in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us openly. Jesus answered: I tell you, and you do not believe. However, the works I do according to my Father's command bear witness about Me. If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, and you do not want to believe me, believe the works, so that you may recognize me and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. I and the Father are one.” |
At the spring equinox heat, light, and life, Christ, prevails over cold, darkness, and death. Nature as a whole resurrects and adorns itself with beautiful colors: plants emerge from the earth, buds sprout on branches, hibernating animals awaken. It is at this time of Easter that our Church celebrates ‘The Mysteries of Eternal Life’, liberation from death, and rebirth. This constitutes our holy week of spring.
We celebrated the First Day of Spring on the first Sunday which corresponds with or follows the equinox. We praise the New Sun as it emerges from rest with brilliance. The earth is revived and offers itself to the Sun with flowers and greenery. Our hymns praise the “sacred fire of the earth,” the “torch of the world”, the “Star of the Pleroma” – all references to the Sun. We sing to the “divine sun of justice” who triumphs over the dark and has saved us from the serpent. This recalls Apollo, the sun, who defeats the python. The Orphic hymn to Apollo extols him: “you are the eye that sees all, you bring light to mortals… You make everything bloom…” This First Day of Spring was celebrated on Palm Sunday, when we acknowledge Ieshu as having come to save humanity. We refer to Him as “the gentle aesthete” and offer him a bouquet of flowers. He is praised as the King of Heaven, the King of the Pleroma, the highest of the Pleroma, who descended to earth in a body, placing his ethereal nature under a material garment. |
Christ the Savior, the light of the world, is the principle of heat, life, and light. The Christ principle manifests in two forms: as the physical sun, which at this time prevails over darkness and death; and in human form as saviors. We recognize Ieshu.
On the Second Day of Spring, the wooden cross is honored. From the intersection of the vertical and horizontal, Christ manifests in the form of five flames or the flaming star, blossoming like a flower, a five-petal rose. This is the royal secret, the mystery of the rose-cross. A rose-cross is carried in procession and planted in the middle of the altar with a small column on either side, one surmounted by the sun and the other by the moon. Above hovers a dove. In the Gospel reading for this second day, Ieshu says to his disciples, “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Whoever believes his doctrine will exit the cycle of reincarnation and pass from death to life. Even if dead, they will live. They will have eternal life.
So what was this teaching? The Gospel reading is followed with a prayer:
“O sublime star, O divine flower of the Pleroma, who never abandoned mankind, and who from the earliest times revealed to it your Royal Secret, we beseech you to enlighten us again and to send us the divine Paraclete so that we may understand and comment endlessly on your divine teachings. So, opening our minds and your sublime Word, we tell you today the royal secret you once entrusted to us, to those who loved you: here, my dear friends, is what is true and certain: what is below is like what is above, and what is above is like what is below to work the miracles of one thing. As all things were and came from One, so all things are born from this one thing by adaptation (specification). The sun is its father, the moon is its mother, the wind carries it in its sides, the earth is its nurse.
"This is the generator of everything, the Thelem of the whole universe. Its power remains intact 'tis condensed in the solid. We must therefore know how to separate earth from fire, thick from subtle. It ascends from earth to heaven and descends from heaven to earth, and receives the strength of both higher and lower things. Through him, you open up all the glory of the world, and you will not remain in darkness. It is the force of all force, stronger than all things, fluid and penetrating all solid things. This is how the universe is built. From this, innumerable deductions can be drawn, the key to which you have just been shown. This is why I have been called master and thrice master, for I possess the science of the three worlds.”
In the 1899 Catechism of the Church we find the following passage which explains the shape of the Tau cross:
What is the humblest manifestation of Christ on earth? It is the terrestrial fire, principally that which we draw from vegetation, either from its wood, or its fruit.
When the physical rays of the sun come into contact with a plant, the vibratory movement from the Universal Source is intercepted by the vibratory movement of the plant, and this produces a change with the result of forming other rays and vibratory movements, which ultimately fix carbon from heat and light into a latent state. That heat and carbon manifests itself as fire when other vibratory movements are communicated through the wood. In fact, if we dig out piece in a horizontal piece of wood and in it rapidly turn another piece of wood, we obtain fire in that cavity. That is the Christ manifested. The vertical piece of wood is the Father, the horizontal piece of wood is the Mother and the fire is the Son, or Child. The tool which serves to produce the fire therefore has the form of a reversed T, and the upright T is the symbol of Christ. The Christ therefore has two fathers: 1) the celestial, which is at the origins of all things; and 2) the terrestrial, which is the carpenter who created the T.
On the Second Day of Spring, the wooden cross is honored. From the intersection of the vertical and horizontal, Christ manifests in the form of five flames or the flaming star, blossoming like a flower, a five-petal rose. This is the royal secret, the mystery of the rose-cross. A rose-cross is carried in procession and planted in the middle of the altar with a small column on either side, one surmounted by the sun and the other by the moon. Above hovers a dove. In the Gospel reading for this second day, Ieshu says to his disciples, “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Whoever believes his doctrine will exit the cycle of reincarnation and pass from death to life. Even if dead, they will live. They will have eternal life.
So what was this teaching? The Gospel reading is followed with a prayer:
“O sublime star, O divine flower of the Pleroma, who never abandoned mankind, and who from the earliest times revealed to it your Royal Secret, we beseech you to enlighten us again and to send us the divine Paraclete so that we may understand and comment endlessly on your divine teachings. So, opening our minds and your sublime Word, we tell you today the royal secret you once entrusted to us, to those who loved you: here, my dear friends, is what is true and certain: what is below is like what is above, and what is above is like what is below to work the miracles of one thing. As all things were and came from One, so all things are born from this one thing by adaptation (specification). The sun is its father, the moon is its mother, the wind carries it in its sides, the earth is its nurse.
"This is the generator of everything, the Thelem of the whole universe. Its power remains intact 'tis condensed in the solid. We must therefore know how to separate earth from fire, thick from subtle. It ascends from earth to heaven and descends from heaven to earth, and receives the strength of both higher and lower things. Through him, you open up all the glory of the world, and you will not remain in darkness. It is the force of all force, stronger than all things, fluid and penetrating all solid things. This is how the universe is built. From this, innumerable deductions can be drawn, the key to which you have just been shown. This is why I have been called master and thrice master, for I possess the science of the three worlds.”
In the 1899 Catechism of the Church we find the following passage which explains the shape of the Tau cross:
What is the humblest manifestation of Christ on earth? It is the terrestrial fire, principally that which we draw from vegetation, either from its wood, or its fruit.
When the physical rays of the sun come into contact with a plant, the vibratory movement from the Universal Source is intercepted by the vibratory movement of the plant, and this produces a change with the result of forming other rays and vibratory movements, which ultimately fix carbon from heat and light into a latent state. That heat and carbon manifests itself as fire when other vibratory movements are communicated through the wood. In fact, if we dig out piece in a horizontal piece of wood and in it rapidly turn another piece of wood, we obtain fire in that cavity. That is the Christ manifested. The vertical piece of wood is the Father, the horizontal piece of wood is the Mother and the fire is the Son, or Child. The tool which serves to produce the fire therefore has the form of a reversed T, and the upright T is the symbol of Christ. The Christ therefore has two fathers: 1) the celestial, which is at the origins of all things; and 2) the terrestrial, which is the carpenter who created the T.
O cross, our only hope
For you, under your star, with 5 flames
An icy black air
blew over our bodies and our souls
O holy cross, in your wood,
Christ annihilated himself
from thee comes life, O cross,
over all shines your supreme mystery
Sweet object of our faith, O you, a blazing star.
We see kings before thee
bowing their suppliant majesty.
Wonderful wood of the cross,
Rameau, girded with royal purple,
holy tree, prince of woods, no tree in nobility equals thee.
The heavenly birds can be seen
among the thorny branch,
the feather of its branch,
forms the silken green leaf.
From your wood, criss-crossed,
rises a dazzling flower,
before the blazing chalice spreads a beneficent light.
It is this divine sparrowhawk,
who bears within you the seed of light
you more beautiful than the olive tree,
child of mother earth
You live between the sun
and the moon, emblem of the ancestors,
of the unparalleled child-king,
still unknown to so many
O cross, mysterious bed
where God himself gives birth to the righteous.
Chain where the stone Christ
learns in August knowledge.
O Cross of Christ, king of kings,
Flag, coat-of-arms and warm Victory
O Holy and sublime cross.
Honor, blessing and glory.
So that your blazing star may light up the human race forever, O Christ, we pray you...
Christe Eleison
That your fragrant rose may forever embalm mankind, O Christ, we pray thee
Christe Eleison
For you, under your star, with 5 flames
An icy black air
blew over our bodies and our souls
O holy cross, in your wood,
Christ annihilated himself
from thee comes life, O cross,
over all shines your supreme mystery
Sweet object of our faith, O you, a blazing star.
We see kings before thee
bowing their suppliant majesty.
Wonderful wood of the cross,
Rameau, girded with royal purple,
holy tree, prince of woods, no tree in nobility equals thee.
The heavenly birds can be seen
among the thorny branch,
the feather of its branch,
forms the silken green leaf.
From your wood, criss-crossed,
rises a dazzling flower,
before the blazing chalice spreads a beneficent light.
It is this divine sparrowhawk,
who bears within you the seed of light
you more beautiful than the olive tree,
child of mother earth
You live between the sun
and the moon, emblem of the ancestors,
of the unparalleled child-king,
still unknown to so many
O cross, mysterious bed
where God himself gives birth to the righteous.
Chain where the stone Christ
learns in August knowledge.
O Cross of Christ, king of kings,
Flag, coat-of-arms and warm Victory
O Holy and sublime cross.
Honor, blessing and glory.
So that your blazing star may light up the human race forever, O Christ, we pray you...
Christe Eleison
That your fragrant rose may forever embalm mankind, O Christ, we pray thee
Christe Eleison