Your magic gifts

The sun rises in the east. A sunrise is the promise of new opportunities. If the ‘great nostalgia’ was like a fog full of unborn forms, then the rise of the inner sun is the beginning of a completely new development. The newborn soul begins to grow. It allows itself to be guided by a star, the star of Bethlehem, the five-pointed star, also known as the pentagram.

All through the ages the pentagram has been the lofty symbol of the reborn man, the new man. It is also the symbol of the universe and its eternal genesis in which God’s Plan comes to manifestation. The pentagram is also the five-pointed star of Bethlehem which shines above the cave of birth after the light birth, thus showing the way to the Magi.

In the Bible the earthly birth of Jesus in Bethlehem is described in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, which both recount the story of a group of people who saw a light and therefore set out to worship the newborn one.

With Luke it was the shepherds who received a message from an angel that caused ‘the glory of the Lord’ to shine around them, while Matthew relates a story about the Wise Men or Magi from the East, the region of the dawn, who set out on their journey because they had seen a special star appear.

In The Aquarian Gospel not only is the story of the shepherds mentioned but also that of the Magi, to make it clear that inner Christianity, the path of the inner light birth, is a path for everyone: for shepherds and wise men. That is, for the illiterate and for scholars, for the poor and for the rich, for people nearby and for people far away. But above all it signifies that it is a twofold way in which the inner and the outer man proceed together.

But this simple story of the wise men from the East tells us even much more. The first six verses of chapter 60 of the Old Testament Book of Isaiah read:

Arise! Shine! Your light has come;
 the Lord’s glory has shone upon you.
Though darkness covers the earth
 and gloom the nations,
 the Lord will shine upon you;
 God’s glory will appear over you.
Nations will come to your light
 and kings to your dawning radiance.
Lift up your eyes and look all around:
 they are all gathered; they have come to you.
Your sons will come from far away,
 and your daughters on caregivers’ hips.
Then you will see and be radiant;
 your heart will tremble and open wide,
 because the sea’s abundance will be turned over to you;
 the nations’ wealth will come to you.
Countless camels will cover your land,
 young camels from Midian and Ephah.
They will all come from Sheba,
 carrying gold and frankincense, …

Light, darkness, kings, frankincense and gold: these elements are also included in the story of the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew.

The magic priests come from the East, from beyond the Euphrates (literally ‘the land of great fertility’), from across the river. Coming from ‘across the river’ or  from ‘across the sea’ is a veiled reference to ‘coming from another plane of existence’. Once the light birth has taken place, and the star is shining above the cave of birth, three spiritual forces begin to flow in.
And one took gold, the symbol of nobility; another myrrh, the symbol of dominion and of power; frankincense the other took, the symbol of the wisdom of the sage.

Isaiah reads:
the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

According to the legends, the names of the Magi were Melchior, Balthazar and Kaspar.
Melchior is presented as an old white man from Europe who offers gold; Balthazar as a black African from Ethiopia who gives myrrh, and Kaspar as a beardless young man from Asia offering frankincense.

What function do the three wise men serve anyway? Are they kings? Are they priests? Or are they perhaps magicians? In the teachings of inner Christianity, the characters in the Gospels are to be considered aspects of ourselves. We are much more than we usually realize, and we are also much richer than we usually think. Melchior, Balthazar and Kaspar are aspects of ourselves.

Melchior means ‘king of his city’ and symbolizes the king in us – the principle in ourselves that directs our lives.
Balthazar means ‘God protects’ and symbolizes the priest in us – the principle in ourselves that maintains a living connection between the domain of the personality and the domain of the soul.
Kaspar means ‘treasurer’ and symbolizes the magician in us – the principle in ourselves that builds and realizes.

The king, the priest and the magician correspond respectively to the head, the heart and the hands. And their attributes are knowledge, love and deed. Within the nature-born human being there are three inner personalities focused exclusively on the domain of the personality. As soon as they place themselves in the service of the new soul, then however, knowledge, love and deed will be manifested from a different dimension, a different domain. Then they will be transformed into gold, myrrh and frankincense.

Head, heart and hands, as they are now led by the new soul, are the magic gifts that are brought to us. They provide the human being on the path everything needed to work from the fervent desire that each path in life may be light, that every deed may be crowned with goodness and that all that lives may thrive through our intermediary.

That is the royal art of building, the Ars Magica, the art of Magic. It is: to build the new temple of the soul (Jesus), based on purified life orientation (Mary) and purified thought (Joseph). If that process is taking place within you, then your individual path will be of great significance for the world and humanity. Then in you the prophecy of Isaiah becomes reality:

Arise! Shine! Your light has come;
 the Lord’s glory has shone upon you.
Though darkness covers the earth
 and gloom the nations,
 the Lord will shine upon you;
 God’s glory will appear over you.
Nations will come to your light
 and kings to your dawning radiance.