THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS AT CHRISTMAS TIME
From the book: The Mystery of the Christos
by Corinne Helene
“The modern world is turning each year with renewed reverence and understanding to the revivification of the feasts and ceremonials belonging to the early Christians. The Feast of Advent has perhaps never since the time of its inauguration in the first century been so emphasized as of recent years.
It is in harmony with cosmic law that Advent occurs when the Hierarchy of Sagittarius is sending its radiations upon earth, since these foster high idealism and a strengthening of spiritual aspirations. The colorful lights seen everywhere and the joyous music heard on every side combine on this outer plane to reflect and re-echo the sublime beauty, the intense activity and the glory of color and music which flood the inner worlds. It is then that the Angels come closer to Earth than at any other time of the year.
During this interval the earnest aspirant devotes as much time as possible to purifying and preparing himself by means of fasting and prayer to come more completely into attunement with the Feast of Christmas. This preparatory work actually began with the Autumn Equinox when the regency of earth was taken over by the Archangel Michael who presides over the processes of purification and regeneration for all of Earth’s progeny. From the time of the Autumn Equinox until the Winter Solstice, Michael and his ministering Hosts are engaged in cleansing the desire and mental envelopes of the Earth. If it were not for such cleansing activities carried out by great celestial Beings, the murky psychic atmosphere generated by man’s evil thoughts, emotions and deeds would become so dense that humanity would be hopelessly submerged in it, and cut off from the vivifying forces of the spirit. That cannot be, for it is the supreme redemptive work of the Christ to do battle with the forces of evil and darkness, symbolically portrayed in Michael’s slaying of the dragon, Michael being next to Christ in the hierarchy of Light. The conquest of light over darkness takes place each year when the sun passes through Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius. The Mystic Christian understands this, and he knows how to attune himself to the influences of Michael and his ministering hosts. He is thus aided tremendously in his own personal conquest of darkness by the never failing light that is in him.
'At the time of the Winter Solstice, Michael’s work for the year having been accomplished, he returns the Regency of the earth over to Gabriel, the Archangel of tenderness and love. Gabriel is the glorious Being who typifies this spirit of motherhood, for he is the angelic Guardian of mothers and children. The vast array of nature Angels work under his guidance during this season.
Beginning with the time of the Autumn Equinox, the golden radiation of the Christ, which is then being poured upon Earth, gradually penetrates its atmospheric layers and then the earth globe itself, until at the winter solstice it has entered into its very heart. Then the great miracle of nature occurs.
There is a white magic, a breathless hush and a tender reverence permeating the atmosphere on Holy Night as the nature Angels, together with loftier celestial Beings, combine their forces and reverse the cosmic currents. For the past six months they had been moving on the descending arc; for the next six months, culminating at the Summer Solstice, they will move upward on the ascending arc. The mighty surge of this cosmic power propels all life upward; and the same rising tide of spiritual force lifts the spinal spirit fire in the body of man. So, in those who have made sufficient preparation this fire may be lifted to the head and effect a state of true illumination.
This cosmic process is accomplished through the power of musical harmony and rhythm. It is an action of the Creative Word, which Saint John declares to have been from the beginning and by which all created things came into being.
The musical keynote of this planet is attuned to the song of Angels: “Glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.” It is the harmonious, rhythmic enunciations of this planetary Word, resounding again and again through all the earth, that accomplishes the miracle of Holy Night.
The vast celestial forces that play between heaven and earth in this blessed season sound forth with an unsurpassable beauty. Some faint echoing of this celestial harmony was captured by Franz Schubert and transcribed for human hearing in the exquisite strains of his Ave Maria. This composition may be regarded in a way as the musical keynote of the Christmas season. Its music carries a tremendous spiritual power, particularly during this time of the year when it re-echoes, as it were, the celestial rhythms brought down from cosmic spaces.
At this enchanted time there occurs a threefold birth: first, the cosmic birth of the Christ spirit after the manner previously indicated, quickening all nature into new life; second, the historical birth of great World Teachers who choose this time to Incarnate, as did the Master Jesus who became the bearer of the Christ light, Teacher of Angels and men; and third, the metaphysical birth of the Christ within the disciple in a state of illumination.
The Disciple now understands why heretofore there was no room in the inn and why the Christ must be born in a manger where beasts feed. He knows now that the supreme work of his life has been to open the door of the inn, to make room for the Christ, and to transform the manger into a cradle of light. He knows that this cradle is the third ventricle of the head where it is surrounded by the radiant forces of the awakened pituitary and pineal glands, symbolically figured in Mary and Joseph respectively. Becoming illumined, he is a Christed one, and the glory of his new birth is hailed by the multitudes of Angels on high.
All three births are accompanied by the jubilant chorusing of celestial Beings, who proclaim these several transforming events to the musical keynote of the Christian dispensation: “Glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.”
On December 21st, the planetary keynote changes from Sagittarius to Capricorn. The key of Sagittarius is divine ecstasy, expressed in the joyous fellowship and in the riot of bright colors and tunefulness of Advent season. The keynote of Capricorn is divine consummation. The earth is submerged in the white light of consecration as the planetary life currents are reversed and the cosmic Christ force turns upward with the Sun. These forces increase from December 21st until they reach their maximum on midnight of the 24th; but they do not decline all at once. The powerful solstitial radiations of spiritual force envelops the earth until the 12th night thereafter, an interval held sacred by the early Christians and destined for revival today.
The song of the Angels when the Sun moves southward is set to minors. At midnight of December 24th, Holy Night, their chorusing changes to majors as they chant joyously the musical keynote of the earth: “Glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace goodwill toward men.”” (Pages 39-43)
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LINK to MUSIC - Handel’s Glory to God in the Highest by the Tabernacle Choir
WINTER SOLSTICE TO CHRISTMAS NIGHT TO CHRIST-MASS DAY IS ALL ONE MOVEMENT OF THE BIRTHING HOUR OF CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS — SOLAR, PLANETARY and INDIVIDUAL — THENCE EXPANDING INTO A SPIRAL MOVEMENT OF TWELVE DAYS BECOMES A COSMIC VIBRATIONAL OBSERVANCE.