The Feast
of the Epiphany
Today is Three Kings’ Day, or the
Feast of the Epiphany, which celebrates spiritual discernment or
discrimination. Discrimination is the virtue of Malkuth on the Tree
of Life and of the Neophyte and Zelator grades of several esoteric
orders. As Dion Fortune points
out in her book, Mystical
Meditations on the Collects,
the Wise Men saw a newborn and its mother, just like any other baby,
but they also saw the Christ Child. That is, what would have appeared
common to others was uncommon to them. They saw, and they KNEW,
through the gift of clear vision or illumination. Fortune states,
“Epiphany means the viewing. Let us pray that we may come to the
sacraments with the seeing eyes of the Wise Men, discerning the
spirit that animates them; and not, with the unheeding eyes of the
hurrying servants, seeing nothing but the outer form.” Seeing the
Light, Life, and Love that resides within the sacramental rituals of
Church, Order, or Fraternity is the first step to developing the
clear and awakened mind and, with it, the 'magical worldview' that
allows us to see first the uncommon among the common, and then the
animating spirit everywhere – the Prima Materia of the alchemists.
Herein lies the nature of the Kingdom of God on Earth or, as some
call it, Building the Mandala, or Enlightened World.
On
the Outer or Exoteric Level, the Feast of the Epiphany marks the
historical birth of Jesus and the events surrounding it including the
visitation of the Three Wise Men, the proclamation to the shepherds,
and even the eventual flight into Egypt and the “Massacre of the
Innocents” by King Herod, an event illustrated in the alchemical
writings of Nicholas Flamel. Here we see a child whom three men saw
as the future savior of humanity and whom one saw as a threat to his
power who was willing to murder all the male children of the land
from two years old and younger to keep his temporal throne just a
little longer. Since the Massacre of the Innocents appears only in
the Gospel of Matthew, and its historical veracity is in doubt, it
may refer to Herod's murdering three of his sons and numerous other
misdeeds. Holy Innocents’ Day, or Childermas, falls after
Christmas, usually on December 28th,
but varies according to tradition. Its celebration is connected to
the Feast of the Epiphany. The origin of the Kings is uncertain, as
they “come from the East” which is often attributed to Persia.
However, Armenian legend has Balthazar coming from Arabia, Melchior
from Persia, and Caspar (or Casper or Gaspar) from India.
On
the Religious Mystical Level, or the first of the esoteric levels,
the visitation of the Wise Men is the awakening of wisdom and
sacrifice in each of us. Just as they traveled great distances and
gave gifts of great value to the mother and child, so too must we
cover the deserts of our own inner being, of our own life, to find
that realization of what the scriptures call the Christ Within, that
is, our own personal relationship to both the historical Jesus and
the everliving spiritual force of Christ, the Inner Light, Life, and
Love such a life expresses.
On
the Initiatic Level, or the second of the esoteric levels, the Three
Kings (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar) coming from three directions,
East (Asia), North (Europe), and South (Africa), are the three
aspects of our being that when in harmony, or indistinguishable from
one another as they are a unity, recognize the inner light. This
light is still but young and fragile and must be protected, hence the
'flight to Egypt' or a kind of 'hermetic isolation or retreat' if you
will. These are the Three Essentials of the Philosopher's Stone.
They are the three inner psychic channels, the three primary psychic
centers of head, heart, and solar plexus (as shown in the Three
Mother Letters of the Hebrew alphabet), the Holy Trinity of the
microcosm. The Kings are often depicted as being of Persian origin
hinting at a deeper connection to Oriental mysticism, particularly
astrology, which was inseparable from the other arts of magic. The
Armenian tradition has deep significance in linking the Three Kings
to the later traditions of Prester John and his “Christian Kingdom”
sometimes associated with the Tibetan Buddhist doctrine of Shambhala
and, at very least, the deep interconnection of esoteric and
spiritual traditions along the Silk Road linking Greece (and the rest
of Europe) with China.
On
the Secret or Supreme Level, the Three Kings are our Thought, Word,
and Deed and ultimately the Rosicrucian Trinity of Light, Life, and
Love.
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