Last week we looked at the significance of the Summer Solstice, the Full Moon which took place then, and the northern hemisphere festival of Midsummer (St John's Tide), on June 24th.
The entire season traditionally lasted for one month, although celebrations were not held continuously because of the need to bring in the harvest. Fruits, vegetables, and the first grain harvest are all ripening now, and the predominant feeling at this time is one of gratitude.
From the middle of July until the beginning of September the harvest will be gathered in and eventually celebrated in ancient church rituals, which have a pagan origin.
In earlier times, if the weather had been bad and the harvest a poor one, the tribe's king might be sacrificed and his blood used to moisten the earth, in a grisly foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Such rituals show that even from prehistoric times men and women understood that the Earth was a living being, ruled by powers they did not understand but which might well need propitiation. The tribe could plant, could sow, could weed and nurture, but ultimately the results were not within their control.
Today, we in the Work - and many other Good Householders all over the world - know that there is one God, one Spirit, the most Holy Sun Absolute, who created all that exists. We also know that there are Beings of unimaginably high existence, far above all that we can see, Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim, who guide the conditions for growth on all planets and help the evolution of the universe.
And the Work teaches that sacrifice is indeed necessary for evolution to continue, and for Nature to be able to work as she should. We make this sacrifice voluntarily - by Conscious Labour and Intentional Suffering - or involuntarily, when large numbers of people are killed in disasters or wars around the world. Nature demands a certain substance that is produced only by the Sacred Rascooarno, and if we do not work on ourselves and make this substance of our free will it must be taken from humanity involuntarily.
So our early forebears, who dimly apprehended that sacrifice was necessary in order for the natural world to continue to bear fruit and support the population, were actually not far off the mark.
Today, we are beginning to reclaim the idea of Earth - Gaia - as a sacred, living Being. More and more people are working to cleanse, support and nourish the planet, but at the same time, unless there are more conscious people working on themselves to produce the very fine substances needed by Nature, these efforts will not eliminate the need for large numbers of human "sacrifices".
It is more urgent than ever that we should make these sacrifices voluntarily, psychologically, to avert even greater disasters.
And by doing so we ensure the continuation of life, with all its possibilities for evolution, especially for those of us three-brained beings who understand why we are here and who embrace our duties with joy and gratitude.
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FYI: In accordance with the needs of my Essence, and that of my husband, we are moving next week to live close to the sea and close to our families.
This blog will therefore take a month's break, while we are in the process of moving house. There has been much Second Force surrounding this move, but the Solstice and the Full Moon brought about a miraculous breakthrough and we are now finalizing all the arrangements.
It is really important for everyone that - as far as we are able - we live in surroundings that nourish our Essence. It's not always possible to choose exactly where we live, but in our own case, now that we are both retired, we are free to fulfill a long-held dream: to return to the seaside and to spend much more time with family.
See you in a month!
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