When we reach the mid-to-late Autumn season in the Earth's journey around the Sun, we can't avoid seeing the increase in darkness that occurs now.
Psychologically and spiritually, this increase affects us at unconscious levels. Every Northern Hemisphere culture has rituals to mark this enormously important change, when we clear out the old and prepare to receive the new in every centre.
We don't know exactly how and when all these rituals developed. Some are very practical, and must have been handed down by early groups of hunter-gatherers, who needed to know the changes occurring now in order to prepare for winter. There would be a lack of fresh meat and vegetation, and a consequent need to kill and preserve whatever was available now to see the families over the winter shortages.
But, more urgently today, this season affects us mentally and emotionally, too, and brings with it spiritual implications. From the earliest times when homo sapiens began to create art and ritual, conscious beings have taught the need for special festivals, and have created rituals that would bring out the inner meanings of these times.
Right now, the increasing darkness unconsciously reminds us f the inevitability of death. To those of us in later years, the fact of our own death becomes very real as we enter the seventh and eighth decades of our lives, and in late Autumn we see our own existence reflected in the changes occurring in Nature at this time.
Gurdjieff taught - as do all major religions - that we should constantly bear in mind our own death, and that it could happen at any time. We don't even know whether we'll live to see the next hour, let alone the next day, or month, or year. We could stand up from our computer and keel over with a heart attack or a stroke.
This realization is not far-fetched or alarmist; the great mythological researcher and Work teacher Joseph Campbell met his own death in just such a way. He stood up from his desk after writing the last line of his final book, and was felled with a massive stroke. He suffered no pain, and it was in every respect an honourable, much-to-be-desired death, a suitable end to a life given to spreading Knowledge and Understanding.
In the Western hemisphere, to mark the change in the year, we have "Halloween", a time when the veil between the worlds of life and death was thought to be lifted, and spirits of the dead could roam throughout the material world.
Special prayers are said for the dead throughout the month of November, in every Catholic church, to remind us of the transience of life and the need to ponder the afterlife.
In England, we also celebrate "Bonfire Night", which ostensibly marks the occasion of the discovery of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, but as Mrs Pogson pointed out, it must be a ritual far older than a mere four hundred years. She suggested the etymology of the word "Bonfire" was actually "bone fire", when human and animal remains were cremated.
It's traditional to burn a "guy" on the bonfire, a replica of a human being complete with mask and clothing. A deeper and older tradition, which we have always celebrated in the Nicoll line of Work, encourages us to create our own masks, embodying a particular set of I's from which we wish to be free. In the ritual of mask-burning, often accompanied by fireworks, we celebrate freedom from the old habits and attitudes, and welcome the new possibility in which we wish to live, that of coming under fewer laws, of being reborn.
We need rituals, because they present the Higher Emotional Centre with an unforgettable picture of what is desired, what is to be sought. As we know, this centre does not think in words, but is visual, which is why such rituals and traditions affect us so deeply. Simply thinking about these matters is not sufficient. Practical, visible rituals must be carried out so that we are imbued with their meaning at every level. This is not magic, but a reflection of our psychological reality and a seeking of new beginnings.
In all the Christian and Jewish cultures with which I'm familiar, rituals with this underlying import exist, and encourage followers to cast off the old and outworn in their spiritual lives in order to welcome a new possibility.
Immediately after this time of cleansing, we enter the month of November, when Christians are exhorted to think of the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.
Again, the importance of keeping our own death constantly before us is paramount.
We are going to die, that is certain. After death, what will remain of us? The Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, although they have different ideas of what life after death will be like, all assert that it exists and that our physical death is not the end of our existence. Afterwards we will continue in a different form, receiving the appropriate reward or punishment for what we've done (or failed to do) on Earth.
The Work puts it a little differently. We are told that our Essence is immortal, but if it has learned nothing, if it has not developed, then there is no place for it to continue to evolve. We have to bring with us after death something that we have learned, something that we have achieved, if we are to continue our individual existence. This is the price exacted by the Sun in order for us to have the chance of evolution during our time on Earth.
We know that Jesus Christ is the leader of Conscious Humanity, and we are told that we will be judged by Him after our death, but this is not to be thought of as some sort of magistrate's court in the sky, when we will be fined or imprisoned for our misdemeanors!
On the contrary, if we have developed at all then we will be assigned to the place and the situation most appropriate for our next stage of existence. We might call this Purgatory, which is best conceived of as a school for self-perfecting, a place, or rather a state, where we will see exactly what we are like, what we have done, and what we need to do so that we may evolve further. It may be a time of great remorse, of suffering for our shortcomings, but it will be a cleansing, a preparation that is entirely necessary for us, and so we will not resent it but welcome it.
If we have not developed, however, the spark of Essence within us will be assigned to the melting pot from which new individuals are born, and the Personality and False Personality will perish. It must be so. In the Gospels, the Parable of the Talents puts this reality very clearly.
That is why this time of year is a very important stage in our annual pilgrimage around the Sun. We are given it so that we may turn within, assess where we are and what we need to do next, and then prepare ourselves for the new life that may be born within us at Christmas.
It's time to ask ourselves what we wish to become, what we would desire to take with us into our existence after death - and to cast off the old while we still have the time to do so.
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