“I saw as it
were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and they that had gotten the victory over the beast
and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of
glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and
the song of the Lamb, saying: Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God almighty; just
and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Thou only art holy; for all nations shall come
and worship before thee, for thy judgements are made manifest. Amen: blessing and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might, be unto our God for ever and
ever. Amen.”[i]
Beautiful imagery it is in the passages
taken from the Revelation of St John the Divine, edited by our founding bishops as the
Epistle for the tenth Sunday after Trinity and the basis for the wording of the Communio
in the Holy Eucharist. More than mere imagery when we consider the place of the Communio,
just after the administering of Communion and before the Benediction that marks the end of
the service. It touches on the basis of the purpose of celebrating the Holy Eucharist and
is in a way the crowning act, the sublimation of our work. The Communio should then also
be sung with elation and joy. Perhaps a deeper study of the passage preceding it in the
Epistle quoted above might shed more light on the matter:
The sea of glass mingled with fire is a
well-known symbol among the esoterically minded scholar, as it is an image of
manifestation. It is in essence the same image as is referred to as the Star of the Sea
–a title used to explain the more cosmic aspects of the Holy Lady Mary as the
vivified virgin matter– also referred to in the words “the Spirit of God moved
over the face of the waters”. One could say that it refers to the period of activity
of the Divine, of which its physical manifestation is our universe, solar system or earth,
depending from which level one wishes to view it.
In reference to those standing on it, we
again encounter some magnificent symbolism. Firstly the fact that they stand on rather
than in it and that it is “of glass”. The peacefulness implied by the image
probably refers to its subdued state, an image we also find in illustrations of St Michael
leading a tamed dragon in contradistinction to later images where the dragon has been
killed. The killing of our dragons, or our darker sides, doesn’t prevent them from
appearing elsewhere in some modified form like the heads of Hydra. It is only by coming to
terms with them and transforming them –the act of taming- that we effectively deal
with them. “On” also implies “above” in this context, borne out by the
description which follows.
Wordy descriptions, which on face value
could have been reduced to a few words, should immediately attract our attention. A
possible explanation of “…over the beast and over his image and over his mark
and over the number…” could be: The beast is the physical body. One could
also look at similar events described in the bible such as Jesus on an ass as at Palm
Sunday, for example. Just as a colt accompanied the ass, the beast is accompanied by its
image. Many with clairvoyant faculties in the etheric realm have told us that the etheric
body, often also referred to as the etheric double, resembles in shape the physical body
to which it is “attached” – for lack of a better way of putting it. The
beast is then a symbol for the physical body and its image would be the etheric body in
this interpretation.
Similarly we could continue and describe the
mark as the astral body. How would we explain this, however? We might speculate a little:
We often say that we have been touched when an emotional experience moves us. If
you were to touch a pane of glass, or a delicate surface, say beeswax that is still warm,
a mark is left in it. We also say, in a manner of speech, that an important event in our
lives has marked us. These important events are often accompanied by deep emotional
experiences. Perhaps this is the symbolism belonging to the mark.
As regards arithmetic, any one who has ever
struggled with it will attribute numbers to the realm of the rational mind. But a number
is more than something encountered in arithmetic and mathematical problems. Remember that
these scriptures are largely the result of the Jewish way of doing things. The Kabbalists,
who were the esotericists of Judaism, will tell you that every letter in Hebrew has a
value. By considering the value of a word –the arithmetic sum of the values of its
constituent letters- one is also able to say a lot about the word as a whole. Much of the
art of numerology has its basis in the Kabbala. The number in this context seems to imply
a method of description, a form of association, something we could attribute to the
rational mind, sometimes referred to as the lower mental body.
It doesn’t stop here, as the
constituent parts refer to his name. Even today we speak of someone having a good
name, or giving one’s word. The importance of names has to a large extent fallen away
in our Western society, but in days gone by the name someone or something held was
exceedingly important. Not only was Adam given the power to name all the objects around
him in the Genesis story, but also in the Egyptian tradition the importance, more
accurately the power, of names is apparent. In the Egyptian tradition, one who has passed
out of incarnation walks down a long hall lined with pillars on either side. From behind
these pillars, different monsters jump out and besiege the deceased. By being able to name
the monster implies knowledge of it and therefore of its power, and knowledge of its power
makes the monster is powerless against one, causing it to disappear. In the fairy tale of
Rumpelstilskin it is the knowledge of his name that empowers and in psychiatry it is even
said that the naming of the problem is called the Rumpelstilskin effect. In this context
one could say the name is the power, or the essence of the four lower aspects and having
gained victory over the beast, his image, mark and number we have full knowledge of the
name. Not rational knowledge, but inner knowledge – an inner knowing if you
please.
Those who stand on the sea of glass are
those who have been taught all that the world of manifestation can teach them – the
adepts as they are also often called. They have gained victory over the existence in the
physical, etheric, astral and mental body, collectively referred to as the personality. To
have gained victory over the personality means they need not again experience in this
state and have therefore broken the wheel of birth and death. In the words of the gradual
in the Requiem: “…or the wheel broken at the cistern…”. They
need not again physically incarnate. The reference to Moses –the great lawmaker of
God- and the Lamb –the great high priest and sacrificer- shows that not only has the
law been understood, but also the sacrifice has been made. In more Eastern terms we could
speak of the Karma that has been fully resolved and the Dharma that has been fulfilled.
(Karma could loosely be described as the law of cause and effect and dharma as the task or
duty to be performed.)
Having the harps of God brings music in the
picture. The harp is a string instrument, and the playing of a note on another instrument
will cause the appropriate string on the harp to vibrate in harmony with it. The harp is a
symbol for the soul as an instrument perfectly tuned by the experience of perfection on
the earthly plane of existence. On these instruments in God’s hand, harmoniously
vibrating under his direction with all the other instruments in the symphony that is his
creation, the divine music is played.
The song itself may also be regarded as a
source of immense inspiration for the positively minded Liberal Catholic. Great and
marvellous are thy works, Lord God almighty. Does this not imply a world that cannot
possibly be bereft of spiritual guidance? Those who are singing the song are not limited
by their personalities -as we are- but are seeing the whole of manifestation in a broader
view. Our world, despite the atrocious conditions we are confronted with on a daily basis,
is not in spiritual need. We create our own environment and it is our attitude to the
events happening to us (seemingly from outside of ourselves) that determines how we
experience them. This does not by any means mean that we should be indifferent or
insensitive to the suffering around us. The further one develops the more sensitive one
gets, the only reason one is able to endure more sensitivity being the inner strength that
has been built up by many incarnations of hard work on the rough stone, which one day will
be a shining jewel. The Christ at his crucifixion “taking the sins of the world upon
his shoulders” is in this context not some act of vicarious atonement to appease a
revenge-filled God. It implies that all the suffering of the world –that of humanity
and the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms for which humanity is responsible[ii]-
is realised, felt and understood. This is caritas or total, understanding
compassion.
Just and true are thy ways, thou King of
saints. All suffering is temporary and serves a purpose, “…that perfect
justice rules the world…” as we say in our Act of Faith. This is more than a
subscription to the laws of Karma – it is an affirmation that the laws of cause and
effect are merely a mechanism for the unfolding of something that transcends the very
worlds in which the causes and their concomitant effects have their interplay. That
something we can only vaguely refer to as life.
Combining this with “Thou only art
holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee” we get the first half
of the Liberal Catholic Act of Faith. Note that we do not say that most of his sons shall
one day reach his feet, but all of them. In the symbolism of the passage under
consideration this is given as all nations. Implicit in this approach is the tenet that every
path is a valid one, one inspired by an uplifting religious culture, another inspired by a
religious culture tainted with fear, and even those who are inspired to believe in nothing
at all. This tenet is a precursor for the concept of the brotherhood of man. Man in this
sense does not refer to the male gender of our species, nor is it limited to the women and
men now in incarnation. Gender only exists on the physical plane and the brotherhood of
man must surely also include all souls, whether in incarnation or not.
For thy judgements are made manifest”
might sound a little ominous. The word judgement leaves a bitter taste for some people.
But, is it being used meaning making judgements (over others)? Or is it about the
operation of the law with which the entire universe exists? That there are laws of nature,
is beyond doubt. If, for but a fraction of a second, the laws of attraction and repulsion
were to cease their functioning, gravity and the balance between all the sidereal bodies
would also cease to exist, causing the whole universe to collapse like a house of cards.
With our physical sciences we have only described a fraction of the effects
–symptoms- of these all-encompassing laws. Thy judgements means in this context,
therefore, these all-encompassing laws – that is the causes, largely as yet unknown
to science as well as the symptoms which science has but partially been able to describe.
That they have become manifest does not mean that they aren’t in operation yet, just
that they are not visible. But, for those who have reached perfection, these laws are
visible, as no secrets are hidden from them.
Finally the words of the Communio: “Amen:
blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might, be unto our
God for ever and ever. Amen.” The sevenfold resultant of our labours is offered
in service of our God, in whom we live and move and have our being. We offer the
development of our immanent divinity to the transcendent divinity of which we are a part.
We too, though we are not yet perfected, may already make this offering. The Holy
Eucharist is not so much a symbol of creation, but a symbol of the creative process. The
whole creative process exists to serve a purpose –else it simply wouldn’t be
there- which purpose we abstractly refer to as the service of God. Our keynote, whilst in
incarnation, is to serve him best by best serving our brother man. And if the concept of
humanity is taken in its widest sense, “brother man” includes the animal, plant
and mineral kingdoms too, as one day they, too, however far they may stray in getting
there, will pass through the human kingdom to reach his feet.
[i]
Revelation 15:2 and 7:12
[ii]
The true meaning of “having dominion” in Genesis 1:26 in this context is
responsibility and knowledge, like a just King would act only in the welfare of his
subjects.
