Rays from the Rose Cross Magazine

Western Wisdom Bible Study

The Ascension

   And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

   And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.

   And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them; and carried up into heaven.

   And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:

   And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.

--Luke 24:49-53

   The final culmination of the path of the Christian Mystic as portrayed in the experiences of Christ Jesus comes in the sublime event of the Ascension. At this time the mighty Archangel, the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, clothed in the dazzling radiance of a superlative spiritual body and accompanied by joyous celestial hosts, ascends into His own home world, the World of Life Spirit and on to the very throne of God, the Father. There he is revivified for His return to the Earth, where He will again give of His very life substance, for the liberating of mankind from the toils of materialism.

   "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world," said Christ Jesus, and to the Christian Mystic there comes an unutterable joy in contemplating this comforting assurance. He is, indeed, as the indwelling Planetary Spirit of our Earth, radiating His life and love to our dark world and its inhabitants, with us"always." Every year since the Great Sacrifice on Golgotha, the Christ Spirit has made the journey from the Earth to the higher realms, and back again. At the time of the summer solstice in June He begins His downward journey, reaching the atmosphere of the Earth at the time of the autumnal equinox in September. By the 24th of December He has reached the center of our planet, where He remains for three days. Then commences the withdrawal, which is completed at Easter. From that time our Savior passes through the higher worlds, reaching the World of Divine Spirit again on the 21st of June.

   As it is above, so it is below. The processes which take place upon a larger scale in the Earth are reproduced also in man. We are thus assured that every human being will at some time attain to the stage of consciousness where he can leave his physical vehicles consciously, step out from his cross of matter, and ascend into the higher spiritual realms in his soul body. This is the inspiring message held out by the Western Wisdom School of the Rosicrucians.

   Throughout the steps of initiation, be they of the mystic or of the occultist, there runs the high refrain of "life eternal." "There is no death," joyously sings the poet, and this blessed thought, ringing with the golden note of truth, sounds for the spiritual aspirant an eternal inspiration toward ever higher steps on the spiral path to God. The Spirit, which is man, is indeed immortal and can never die. In him exists that God-given power to unfold into infinitely larger states of spiritual consciousness, accompanied by the realization of that glorious immortality which is the reward of the perfected Spirit.

   Some time in the future will dawn aglad day when "all mankind. . . will ascend to heavenly realms to become pillars of strength in the Father's house, from whence they shall no more go out."

--Rays from the Rose Cross Magazine, July, 1977, page 314.

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