6.
The Rituals

FULL MOON CEREMONY

(C signifies celebrant, Q questioner, L legate, A acolyte, N neophyte, U in unison)

Unannounced preparatory silence

Invocation to the Living Flame

Celebrant

O Flame, we invoke Thee;

Draw low and enfold;

Our souls seek Thee only;

O flow, living gold!

Put blindness behind us;

O guide us to light;

Refine us and bind us;

O find our hearts right!

Draw low and enfold;

O Flame, we invoke Thee;

O flow, living gold;

Our souls seek Thee only!

Our plea is in weakness;

O lead us indeed;

We seek Thee with meekness;

O heed our souls' need!

Our souls seek Thee only;

O flow, living gold;

O Flame, we invoke Thee;

Draw low and enfold!

Embrace and reclaim us;

O raise us, we pray;

Sustain and inflame us;

O blazon our way!

O flow, living gold;

Our souls seek Thee only;

Draw low and enfold;

O Flame, we invoke Thee!

L: Now let us raise our consciousness to the legate level.

Q: How do we raise our consciousness to the legate level?

L: In general by sending it forth as a living flame, when we perform the tasks we have selected for our conscious immortality.

Q: Why should we raise our consciousness to the legate level, at this moment of Sabian assembly?

L: We do so in order that each of us here may be, for this moment, what all of us should hope to be ultimately.

Q: Many of us have yet to reach the legate level.

L: In the group consciousness we all possess, in the fullness of its heightening, what any among us may have achieved along the lines of his own special capacity.

Q: How can we recognize what we have not ourselves achieved?

L: We can recognize the new fullness of our own light within, and in so doing we can clear the self and hold it as a laya center for the total reality here brought to focus.

Q: Will not such an exaltation fade away and be forgotten?

L: Not if we clear the self adequately, by repudiating here and now whatever has brought no welcoming response from some higher value in our daily lives, and in that fashion make this moment an eternal one in our own individual experience.

C: In order that we may recognize the new fullness of our light within, and of the group consciousness in its heightening, let us take encouragement from the message of the Solar Hierarch. And let us pay particular attention to the apportioned strophe in the cycle of our inner sensitiveness.

Message of the Hierarch

Celebrant

(First lunar month) The Assurance

Hear now, O seeker who attends me,

O aspirant, whom I have accepted,

Thus says the Hierarch who established you

And fashioned you from the beginning

And will help you;

Fear not, O seeker who attends me,

My beloved upright one

Whom I have taken for my own!

(Second lunar month) The Outpouring

I will pour out the purest potentiality

On those whose sympathies are quickened

And will give of myself without reservation

To the starved of body and soul;

I will breathe the breath of my eternality

Into the seed-atoms of your being

And embrace in my eternal consummation

Your outgivings of inner fire;

Your works shall spring up

As a fullness of manifestation in plenty,

And be as the shelter of trees

Along every crowded highway of effort!

(Third lunar month) The Dedication

One worker shall say rather superficially,

I am a priest of the Brotherhood;

And another may tell all who will listen,

I am a seeker on the path:

And another may consecrate himself rather ceremoniously

To the work of the Hierarch

And to gain a title take affiliation

With some order of illumination.

Thus says the Hierarch, the initiator of aspirants,

And his superior, the archon of the eternal company,

I am the inception and the completion

And save through me there is no illumination!

(Fourth lunar month) The Witnessing

Who shall proclaim the glory,

Says the Hierarch,

And through him

The archon of the ageless ones.

Publish it and interpret it in my name!

Who else has established the Mysteries

And announced from of old the events to come;

Let any pretenders reveal what is yet to be!

Know no fear and banish apprehension!

Have I not prepared you

And explained to you from ancient times?

Are you not my witnesses?

Is there any path to divinity save through me?

I know no other philosopher's stone!

(Fifth lunar month) The Great Shame

Those who depend on superficial conceptions

Are all of them in confusion,

And the notions in which they delight shall not persist.

They give testimony to outer things

And have no inner knowledge

To spare them the shame of their ignorance.

What man has acknowledged a personality as God

And set up a profitless image for his inspiration?

Behold all his associates shall know shame!

These workers are of men,

Let them counsel with each other

And see that there is no divinity within them;

Let them know the terror of their emptiness

And realize their shame together!

(Sixth lunar month) The Adoration of Self

The aspirant on the path of the artisan

Who seeks development and power within himself

Undergoes discipline to develop his faculties

And subjects his development to the world and passion

And mortifies his spirit with repression of impulse

And builds his God out of his own strength

By the force of his will for development;

But he is empty within

And his purpose weakens;

He refuses all normal experience

And his efforts lose their effectiveness.

(Seventh lunar month) The Surrender to the World

The aspirant on the path of the artist

Who seeks development in the world

Measures the ideal he would establish

By the limitation of external conditions.

He accepts the world as he has experienced it;

He adapts his God to the notions he has nurtured;

He reduces his ideal to the circumference

Of his own self-satisfactions;

He shapes his ideal to the man of transient appetite

According to the beauty developed in his lusts,

That it may be for worship

Within the limits of himself.

(Eighth lunar month) The Great Futility

This aspirant goes forth to destroy

That which does not conform to his conceptions;

He rebuilds into his own ideas

Some one of the philosophies about him;

He translates his ideas into performance

That circumstances may strengthen his prejudices;

Then it shall be for him to make himself comfortable

And he takes of his resources

And feels he has every approval for his desires

And he makes a convenience of his conceptions

And claims every reward from the world around him;

Yea, he makes for himself a divine image

And prostrates himself before it

And uses the same materials in self-gratification

And fattens his own vanity;

He makes obeisance to his own conceptions and says,

Illuminate me, for you are my initiator!

(Ninth lunar month) The Bitter Lesson

Men know not and do not consider

Since self-centeredness has perverted their vision

And made certain they will not see truth unworthily,

And shrunken their hearts

That they may not know values without experience.

No man calls to mind, or has the understanding to say,

I have taken my God for sensual satisfaction,

I have taken my divine inheritance and debased it.

Shall I make the residue of my effort my God,

Shall I worship what my desire has left unwanted?

Such a one feeds on ashes;

A self-deceived aspiration has turned him aside;

He cannot illuminate his own soul and claim,

There is no delusion in my seeking!

(Tenth lunar month) The Exhortation

Remember these things, O seeker,

And you, O aspirant who attends me!

I have fashioned you and you are attending me;

O aspirant, you will not be forgotten by me;

I have isolated your errors of performance

And swept them away in their superficiality;

I have dissolved your inadequacies

In their unimportance;

Return to me;

I have freed you from all idle obligation!

(Eleventh lunar month) The Indwelling

Sing O higher planes,

Sing of the eternal liberation the Hierarch has brought!

Speak the word and give your testimony,

All you realms of lower manifestation!

Break forth into melody,

Every peak of self-fulfillment in experience!

Sing O plane of senseborn separations

And every quickened ego thereon!

The Hierarch has granted initiation

To the seeker who attends him,

And will incarnate

In the aspirant who dedicates himself to significance.

(Twelfth lunar month) The Fulfillment

Thus says the Hierarch who frees you from idle obligation

And has fashioned you from the beginning,

I am the Hierarch

Who reveals every aspect of manifestation;

Who interprets the cycles of the heavens

And shows the earth as a fulfillment of its promise,

Yea, the fulfillment of all things out of themselves;

Who makes as nothing the notions of opportunists

And confounds those who believe they have all answers;

Who asks a proof in works from all who claim great wisdom

And demonstrates the foolishness of idle knowledge.

(Thirteenth lunar month) The Eternal Promise

I am the Hierarch who fulfills the promise

Of those who speak for me;

Who carries out the works

Envisioned in my name;

Who says of the invisible fellowship,

Participation shall be conscious,

And of the centers of illumination within you,

They shall be brought to the full of their powers,

And of your errors of performance,

They shall be built more happily into your experience;

Who says to the subconscious and its frustrations,

Be gone, and I will dry up the roots of your fear;

Who says of the initiate under the Solar Mysteries,

He shall be my watchman for you;

And who again assures the invisible fellowship,

It shall be brought to the full of its effectiveness;

And who assures the temple of the Brotherhood,

Its foundations shall be laid for all who seek the way.

L: In essence then the Solar message, as pertinent to the present cycle of our lunar sensitiveness, is that we should

(First month)	Live by every promise of our calling.
(Second month)	Press ahead while many ways are open.
(Third month)	Make our works the proof of our faith.
(Fourth month)	Testify to the wonders we have known.
(Fifth month)	Build on more than superficialities.
(Sixth month)	Know that self alone is powerless.
(Seventh month)	Rise above all shallowness of seeking.
(Eighth month)	Conquer every trace of willfulness.
(Ninth month)	Guard ourselves from self-deception.
(Tenth month)	Listen for our call to higher service.
(Eleventh month)	Dramatize the magic of our quickening.
(Twelfth month)	Realize foundations of eternal scope.
(Thirteenth month)	Demonstrate our depth of inspiration.

Q: Are we not challenging ourselves far beyond our strength?

L: Of ourselves our strength is nothing.

C: Our strength is in the Four Manifestations of Solar initiation. These are dramatized in the eternal skies by (1) the pathway through Aries, or the experience of aspiration and the capture of man's heart from the beginning of his pilgrimage, by (2) the pathway through Taurus, or the experience of service and the continual replenishing of self through its own unrestrained expenditure, by (3) the pathway through Gemini, or the experience of fellowship and the endless fulfillment of self in the invisible presence of the Great Ones, and by (4) the pathway through Cancer, or the experience of signatures and the outer sustainment of self in an ever-vital fruition of its efforts.

L: Let us enter the silence of a deep and immortal realization, for three minutes of unvoiced self-inventory and an experience of the power that comes from spiritual self-examination.

Three-minute silence

Statement of Realization and Thanks

Celebrant

U: (Repeating, immediately)

(First month)

Truly we must live by every promise of our calling.
We thank thee for thy challenge to our faith in thee.

We thank thee for thy endless trust in us.
We thank thee for the love in which we rest assured.

(Second month)

Truly we must press ahead while all the ways are open.
We thank thee for the wealth of resource at our hand.

We thank thee for the chance to spread our works afar.
We thank thee for the richness of these days.

(Third month)

Truly we must make our works the tribute to our faith.
We thank thee for protecting us from foolish pride. We thank

thee for demanding deeds when words might serve.
We thank thee for requiring endless sacrifice.

(Fourth month)

Truly we must testify to all the wonders we have known.
We thank thee for the ways of service now revealed. We thank

thee for the stress of soul that strengthens us. We thank
thee for the chance to prove our worth.

(Fifth month)

Truly we must turn away from superficial values.
We thank thee for the light to see false reasoning. We thank

thee for these standards of eternal truth. We thank thee for
our growing competence of judgment.

(Sixth month)

Truly we must know that of ourselves we have no power.
We thank thee for the demonstration of thy presence in our

work. We thank thee for thy blessing on our aspiration.
We thank thee for thy humbling discipline.

(Seventh month)

Truly we must rise above all shallowness of seeking.
We thank thee for protecting us from ways of mere delusion.

We thank thee for the eyes to see immortal values.
We thank thee for our deepening awareness.

(Eighth month)

Truly we must conquer every trace of willfulness.
We thank thee for thy scorn when we resort to childish ways.

We thank thee for the call to choose the truer course.
We thank thee for the sharing of thy wisdom.

(Ninth month)

Truly we must guard ourselves from self-deception.
We thank thee for reviving all our early aspiration. We thank

thee for expanding every hope of its achievement.
We thank thee for the fresh perspective offered us.

(Tenth month)

Truly we must listen for our call to higher service.
We thank thee for the emphasis on tasks to be performed.

We thank thee for directing all attention to the goal. We thank
thee for remembering our deeper dedication.

(Eleventh month)

Truly we must dramatize the magic of our quickening.
We thank thee for thy presence as we hasten to our tasks.

We thank thee for removing all distractions on the way.
We thank thee for exalting all our efforts.

(Twelfth month)

Truly we must realize foundations of eternal scope.
We thank thee for the vision that transcends all pride of

knowledge. We thank thee for the wisdom born of self.
We thank thee for immortal understanding.

(Thirteenth month)

Truly we must demonstrate our depths of inspiration.
We thank thee for a training that has justified itself. We thank

thee for the testing that has dramatized our task. We thank
thee for initiation free of compromise.

A: Now let us raise our consciousness to the acolyte level.

Q: How do we raise our consciousness to the acolyte level?

A: By endowing our realization of ourselves with a new significance in the light of our mystery names.

Q: Many of us have yet to experience the higher self-ordering of which a mystery name should be the symbol.

A: In the group consciousness we all rehearse, at any moment of heightening, what anyone among us may be trying to achieve through his own special capacities.

Q: Is it for the sake of this rehearsal that we wish to raise our consciousness to the acolyte level?

A: Yes, that each for this moment may be the acolyte of some exalted aspiration represented among us, and thus experience some one or more facets of his own higher potential.

Q: How can anyone become the acolyte of any exalted aspiration for just the fleeting half hour of a Full Moon ceremony?

A: By the complete and personal assimilation through the heightened group consciousness of everything from which any enduring worth has been gained by any among us, and by thus strengthening the self as a laya center for the practical values of everyday living.

Q: In what way does this complete and personal but yet vicarious assimilation of these practical values of everyday living make anyone the acolyte of exalted aspiration?

A: By establishing a real foundation for his very literal achievement in the three great necessities and the one great privilege that each worker under the Solar Mysteries must further for all mankind.

Statement of Sabian Expectation

Celebrant

We affirm (1) the necessity of health as the means for a maximum self-expression. We acknowledge this physical well-being to be the result of a complete and wholly individual conformity to the root potentials of personal existence. The manifestation of health we identify through an enduring love for all parts of the divine creation. We affirm (2) the necessity of prosperity as a means for a maximum self-consummation. We acknowledge this social well-being to be the result of a complete and wholly individual conformity to the root potentials of society at large. The manifestation of prosperity we identify through a boundless wealth accepted and administered in stewardship for all life. We affirm (3) the necessity of happiness as a means for a maximum self-exaltation. We acknowledge this spiritual well-being to be the result of a complete and wholly individual conformity to the root potentials of the universe itself. The manifestation of happiness we identify through an inner peace or a continuousness of participation in the divine intimacy. We affirm (4) that health, prosperity and happiness are the birthright of every man, and that a spiritual discipline may expect some practical and everyday evidence of physical, social and spiritual well-being in the private and public relationships of every aspirant taking the path to Solar initiation. Moreover we affirm (5) the privilege of understanding as a means for a maximum self-transcendence. We acknowledge this transcendental well-being to be the result of a complete and wholly individual conformity to the creative potentiality of the laya centers and of the control through them of all consciousness at core. The manifestation of understanding we identify as the illimitable and unquenchable hope in which all soul is one.

A: Thus health, prosperity, happiness and understanding become the outer signs of the laya center we each must establish for himself.

Q: Is not the establishment of this far beyond our strength?

A: Of ourselves our strength is nothing.

C: Our strength is in the Four Healings of Solar initiation. These are dramatized in the eternal skies by (1) the pathway through Leo, or the perfection of body that enthrones man as king of the world, by (2) the pathway through Virgo, or the perfection of objective and subjective skills that permits the character of man to develop to its fullest, by (3) the pathway through Libra, or the perfection of personality that facilitates the broadest possible sharing of human experience, and by (4)the pathway through Scorpio, or the perfection of insight that brings the spirit of man to its ultimate unity with the All.

A: Let us enter into the silence of a deep and immortal realization, for two minutes of service as acolytes in behalf of those for whom it is our privilege to ask healing and of experience of the power that comes from spiritual dedication.

Two-minute silence

Statement of Realization and Thanks

Celebrant

U: (Repeating, immediately)

(First month)

Truly we must recognize the nature of our task.
We thank thee for the call to serve thee so completely.

We thank thee for thy help in overcoming human weakness.
We thank thee for the character we build afresh.

(Second month)

Truly we must grasp the opportunity now brought to us.
We thank thee for the service we may render in thy name.

We thank thee for the plenitude we have to bring to all.
We thank thee for the vision we may share.

(Third month)

Truly we must bring ourselves to deeper realization.
We thank thee for rejecting all our empty claims. We thank

thee for inspiring us through every depth of self. We thank
thee for directing us to worthy ends.

(Fourth month)

Truly we must strive to merit our acceptance.
We thank thee for the privilege of living our own promise.

We thank thee for encouragement at every point of need.
We thank thee for our days of endless growth.

(Fifth month)

Truly we must search our souls for worthless notions.
We thank thee for the shame that checks our foolishness.

We thank thee for thy patience when we falter on the way.
We thank thee for thy presence in our hearts.

(Sixth month)

Truly we must shape our lives more worthily.
We thank thee for the chance to plumb to greater depth of self.

We thank thee for rejecting all our senseless claims.
We thank thee for the resolution of our pride.

(Seventh month)

Truly we must meet the world in more creative fashion.
We thank thee for the insights of a better way. We thank thee

for the urge to break our bonds of blindness. We thank thee
for thy answer to our every aspiration.

(Eighth month)

Truly we must face ourselves with very deep concern.
We thank thee for the chance to stop all waste of self.

We thank thee for thy light in every darkness of our making.
We thank thee for thy presence at our hand.

(Ninth month)

Truly we must understand the burden we should share.
We thank thee for reminding us of duties long neglected.

We thank thee for revealing this distortion of our faith.
We thank thee for our new horizons now.

(Tenth month)

Truly we must quicken every loyal instinct of our being.
We thank thee for appealing to our inner sense of right.

We thank thee for reminding us that we have pledged ourselves.
We thank thee for reordering our vision.

(Eleventh month)

Truly we must prove our readiness for service.
We thank thee for discouraging all lesser enterprise. We thank

thee for sustaining true perspective. We thank thee for
assuring us of thy descent within our hearts.

(Twelfth month)

Truly we must realize our source in true beginnings.
We thank thee for thy lessons in reliance from within.

We thank thee for our freedom from all transient fads of faith.
We thank thee for experience at core.

(Thirteenth month)

Truly we must pour our lives into eternal service.
We thank thee for the depths of search demanded of us.

We thank thee for the rigors of the seeking.
We thank thee for revealing all the greater work ahead.

N: Now let us raise our consciousness to the neophyte level.

Q: How do we raise our consciousness to the neophyte level?

N: By channeling it anew in the aspiration that first led each of us to dedicate himself to service under the Solar Mysteries.

Q: Why should we raise our consciousness to the neophyte level?

N: That each of us may know for a moment the full magic of the philosopher's stone that he has been asked to refine for himself.

Q: How can we know we actually are refining a philosopher's stone in our own personal lives?

N: By our increasing disinterest in things that are of no value, and our continuing eagerness to center the self within itself as a laya center for the invisible fellowship.

Q: Can each different seeker create a laya center for the invisible fellowship as a whole?

N: It is that very individuality of it that constitutes it the philosopher's stone, and gives it the power to touch all things in a unifying magic.

Q: But if this personal laya center is born of its own individual aspiration, is it not caught up in all the limitations and narrowed perspective of the separated personality?

N: Foundations are foundations, however necessary a deepening and a broadening may be from time to time, and we facilitate a Solar initiation as we give the least of personality our full respect and indeed acknowledge the fundamental integrity of everything that exists.

Statement of Sabian Objective

Celebrant

Our objective is the restoration of the Solar Mysteries. By Solar we signify the proving from within, and by Mysteries the Eternal Wisdom, and in making our statement of objective we show forth our acceptance of the integrity of man and of his world respectively. The proving from within demands an uncompromising respect for personality, or for each person's right to determine his own self-justification, and in consequence we avoid all gratuitous distinctions among people as well as all public recognition of spiritual merit. The Eternal Wisdom represents an absolute philosophy, and by absolute we do not mean that everything is referred to some supposed unchanging primary but rather that the totality of existence is brought to order in a complete series of graduated and comprehensible steps. These we recognize as stages in an unceasing division of labor. Thus man's most exalted concepts are linked at every point with the knowledge he gains in the course of his everyday affairs, and all enduring insights come to center ultimately in that individual realization through which they can be verified and shared. The Solar Mysteries are restored as the whole span of history on the one hand, and the illimitable spread of human experience on the other, are brought to conscious focus in an effective here and now.

N: As we prove everything from within, and pay every due to the practical world in which we find ourselves, we develop the wisdom that brings all being into an immortal unity of our own creation.

Q: Is this not a responsibility far beyond our strength?

N: Of ourselves our strength is nothing.

C: Our strength is in the Four Landmarks of Solar initiation. These are dramatized in the eternal skies by (1) the pathway through Sagittarius, or the respect for personality that should characterize all our contact with our fellows:

N: Now let us stand, and shake hands to the right and to the left in simple fellowship of the spirit.

Ritual of the hand clasp

C: By (2) the pathway through Capricorn, or the respect for the community and nation that should characterize our fellowship in every performance of our civic duties:

N: Now let us, with a right hand on the heart and facing towards the capital of the country in which we hold citizenship, silently affirm our allegiance to the immortal values in human society.

Ritual of civic loyalty

C: By (3) the pathway through Aquarius, or the respect for the group consciousness that should characterize all our allegiances and activities in the fellowship of the Solar Mysteries:

N: Now let each of us in turn inscribe his name in the archives of the Solar Mysteries, as this heightened moment of spiritual rehearsal provides an agency for the total recommital to the eternal vision.

Ritual of inscription

C: And by (4) the pathway through Pisces, or the respect for the invisible and immortal fellowship in which we strive to live and move and have our being.

N: Now let us clasp our hands behind our backs, in token of our fidelity to everything everywhere that ever has contributed to our own ongoing and that in this moment and always may help us forward and upward.

C: What is your report on your faithfulness?

U: All is well.

N: Now let us be seated and enter into the silence of a deep and immortal realization, for one minute of an unvoiced direction of self and an experience that comes from spiritual perspective.

One-minute silence

Statement of Realization and Thanks

Celebrant

U: (Repeating, immediately)

(First month)

Truly we must dedicate our lives to deeper purpose.
We thank thee for reminding us of things that we can do.

We thank thee for assuring us of thy sustaining help.
We thank thee for removing all our fears.

(Second month)

Truly we must quicken to the needs of those about us.
We thank thee for revealing what the higher life may be.

We thank thee for accepting us as seekers on the path.
We thank thee for demanding this totality of giving.

(Third month)

Truly we must look beyond the empty show of life.
We thank thee for the more enduring goals revealed to us.

We thank thee for thy guidance as we dedicate ourselves.
We thank thee for the quickening we gain.

(Fourth month)

Truly we must quicken to a soul-reviving fervor.
We thank thee for demanding deeper purpose in our effort.

We thank thee for reminding us that we must live for
others. We thank thee for expanding our ideals.

(Fifth month)

Truly we must learn to recognize the higher path.
We thank thee for requiring a worthiness of goal. We thank

thee for disclosing sham and mere pretension. We thank
thee for directing us to truth in every facet.

(Sixth month)

Truly we must gain perspective in our quest.
We thank thee for reordering our efforts on the path. We thank

thee for denying our pretense to special fitness. We thank
thee for encouraging our self-examination.

(Seventh month)

Truly we must find real channels for our seeking.
We thank thee for rebuking our acceptance of vain notions.

We thank thee for thy warning when we tend to go astray.
We thank thee for thy insight in our effort.

(Eighth month)

Truly we must ask for guidance in our overeager seeking.
We thank thee for thy patience in our rush to reach the goal.

We thank thee for thy vision of an endless poise. We thank
thee for thy revelation of the better path.

(Ninth month)

Truly we must see how superficial we have been.
We thank thee for revealing all the madness of our course.

We thank thee for persuading us to change our ways. We thank
thee for restoring worthy points of view.

(Tenth month)

Truly we must recognize our deeper obligations.
We thank thee for encouraging a greater self-enlistment.

We thank thee for demanding that we put ourselves to work.
We thank thee for revealing talents long unused.

(Eleventh month)

Truly we must understand the imminent indwelling.
We thank thee for the drama of eternal incarnation. We thank

thee for our part to play in its performance. We thank thee
for the living magic of its message.

(Twelfth month)

Truly we must learn to hold to all our reassurance.
We thank thee for protecting us from passing foolishness.

We thank thee for thy discipline in thinking clearly. We thank
thee for these insights of eternal life.

(Thirteenth month)

Truly we must show appreciation of our high estate.
We thank thee for rejecting all our lesser gifts of self.

We thank thee for our lessons in discrimination. We thank thee for accepting our sincerity at root.

Chaldean Dismissal

Celebrant

We charge the solvent of Saturn

With the deepening of your understanding;

To Jupiter we entrust the giving-forth

That permits your inner growth;

In Mars we place a trust

To keep you active in the world;

From Venus we demand for you

The essence of experience;

And of Mercury we command a revelation

Through the word that admits to the Brotherhood!