Rosicrucian Exercises: A Foundation for Daily Living VI - Hugh McCague: transcript

Greetings, everyone. It's great to be with you once again. Thank you for everything you do by way of learning, growing, and serving. Our presentation today is entitled "Rosicrucian Exercises: A Foundation for Daily Living 6." The studies of the Rosicrucian Order systematically guide us in developing self-mastery and ways to be of service. Part of this process is the crucial practice of the Rosicrucian exercises.

We will do some of these mystical and related exercises in an integrated manner, including meditation, visualization, metaphysical aid, and more. We'll journey through this series of exercises in an educational, enriching, and rejuvenating way, for the experience of the Rosicrucian teachings as the foundation for our daily living assists us in that. I want to share with you some images that will help us go deeper within.

You see before you now quite a remarkable tome. I think many of you will recognize it, also from the Latin title there, Atalanta Fugiens by the traditional Rosicrucian Michael Maier. It's a wonderful work. It dates from 1618, for which you can see the date in the lower part of the frontispiece. And... It's a work that was published in Oppenheim in Germany. It has engravings. It's known as a rare book, and various Rosicrucian archives have it, as well as some university archives and more. The text is in Latin, with some German, and it's about a very beautiful story that has a deep philosophical and mystical meaning about our life in it.

There's the ancient Greek and Roman story of Atalanta, and she's a Greek princess, and she was known to be swift of foot, and hence the title Atalanta Fugiens—Fugiens being, of course, fleeing or running swiftly. It's also a play on words, because we have a musical form that we'll experience shortly, that of the fugue, that's built into this multimedia work. Fuga, meaning, of course, the chase or running away. The music that's in this work has sheet music for, and the lyrics involve three voices: the second following the first, and the third following the second, which ties in with the story of the great race of Atalanta. But we'll see the story of Atalanta in the race with her suitors, one quickly with one suitor, as depicted around here.

In a way, when we do our meditation and mystical exercises, we'll make a great circuit like is done in this book. Let's zoom in a little more so you can experience even further the fineness of this work. You see the title, but we also see Venus over on the right handing a golden apple—there are three golden apples that she's providing to Hippomenes. And as he spoke with Venus about how he could be as swift as Atalanta and win the race with her and earn her hand in marriage, you see, over on the left, is Hercules, as done in ancient times, but also in the Renaissance, with figures like Ficino and the Neoplatonists and others.

But we also see this in the 17th century with the traditional Rosicrucian. The ancient Greek and Roman myth had an inner spiritual meaning and an esoteric meaning, which Michael Maier would take up as well. Similarly, if we continue further with our zooming in, we'll see here Atalanta at the bottom middle, delaying for a moment to pick up the golden apple, while her suitor, Hippomenes, still has the two apples to keep slowing her up; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to keep up with her. It's a very beautiful story; it has a variety of different meanings in it.

One is that it's a story of being unconventional. Atalanta was, in a way, a princess, but she was breaking role models. Sometimes in our spiritual development in life, we need to go beyond social conventions to do what's deeply right within us. There's also the story of a certain degree of temptation that we all have in our life to reach and delay. And from a larger psychological, spiritual, and mystical meaning that Maier definitely had in mind in his work, there was a story of...

of the chase. And we'll find various ways in our life that we're trying to chase understanding of a deeper meaning or things that are of value and maybe not of value. And we have certain delays, like Atalanta reaching for the golden apple. But ultimately, at the end of the race, there's the union between Atalanta and this special suitor. You see in the work where there are 50 emblems, fugues, and epigrams, and they show the great cyclical journey in our life.

They all have to do with alchemical operations that are taught in the Order's teachings, each of them addressed in a transcendental and inner spiritual way in our weekly monographs. And in the exercises we're about to do, we'll give you a taste of that. The Rosicrucians are very practical and want to give you a deep inner experience, and then have that deep foundation for all that we do in our life. In this regard, I want to show you one of the 50 emblems. It's the 27th emblem here. It's a very beautiful one, a very profound one, and a very intriguing one. You'll see a figure before what appears to be a garden, but the door to enter the garden has bolts on it.

There are also various symbols throughout the work, and you'll see in the upper right there's a sacred or holy mountain, and towards the left there are buildings, a castle-like figure suggestive of the world—in a way, a demonstration of the exoteric, the outer, and the esoteric, the inner, through the garden area before us and the holy mountain in the upper right. There are some epigrams that go with this that I'll relate to you now. Here are the two pages to show the music. On the left, you see some German translation, with some text above and below, as well as the Latin above and below, and then our music that we'll play shortly. To translate, there are various translations into English of the emblem that's in the upper right. One is as follows: "He who tries to enter the philosophic rose garden without a key is like a person wanting

to walk without feet." You notice the figure that's before the door has no feet. Sometimes it's also translated as "legless." Another translation into English is: "He that endeavors to enter the philosopher's Rosary without a key is like him who would walk without feet." Now, lower down, there's Epigram 27, and one translation into English is: "The garden of the wise overflows with flowers, but ever is the gateway bolted shut. A thing despicable is the only key, without which you stumble legless on. You climb in vain Parnassus' Heights, who now can scarcely keep upright on even ground." Another translation into English is: "Roses in wisdom's garden do abound, while always under locks and bolts are found. Only one key it has of mean esteem, yet without it you swim against the stream.

He that can scarce upon a level stand, in vain attempts Parnassus to ascend." So you see expressed in times from the 17th century certain fundamental things that we face in our own life. And often in mysticism, when we go back to older texts, we have to at times work hard to get the deeper meaning and the cultural context. But so too with our own lives: we'll consider this issue about why are things not easier to grow and master in our lives?

Why do we have these challenges? Why is this happening to assist us in this experience? Let us continue to consider this work, and we'll use it in a way as part of our exercise now. And let us partake of the music, singing what I just translated to you.

We've seen, both in the music, in the text, and in the visual artistry, that Michael Maier, a traditional Rosicrucian, wanted to give us a more holistic or whole experience of the mystical life. In this sense, we see that as we come closer and closer to this gate of the rose garden, you can see below there's the stream from the high holy mountain passing under the feet of the seeker trying to gain entrance as the waters flow into the rose garden.

In a way, this has a lot to do with things that we've seen in other ways throughout our life and through other spiritual traditions. For example, here on the left, I show you in another form something that's being essentially conveyed by the illustration on the right from the 17th century. We see an advertisement for the Rosicrucian Order to interest persons in becoming students. And this is from the January 1974 Rosicrucian Digest. And it speaks of: "Within your grasp: the Infinite," but also, "your intuitive self is a cosmic link." In the same way that Atalanta Fugiens talked about the alchemical operation through those 50 emblems, that we move towards union and deeper understanding in various phases of mysticism that we would pass through...

and there was a key—and the alchemists would call the material that would allow the bolts to be unlocked and the seeker to enter into the rose garden—so too with our weekly lessons in the Rosicrucian Order, we gradually learn that prima materia. We learn to have those cosmic forces that are deep within us, that we'll experience in our continuing education and exercise now. And this intuitive self—we have an experience of the intuition, one of the fundamental unifying faculties that speak within us, that we'll experience in our exercises now. So, to continue with our Rosicrucian exercises...

I invite you to have a careful look at Emblem 27 on the right. Take in the various details of it. For a little while, I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and sense the image on the inner consciousness, the inner screen of your mind, and see how much you remembered. An important part of the lessons is increasing our capacity to be observant.

And then we can use those powers of observation to mentally create, which we'll do as one of our exercises, but also when we need to draw back on things in our memory. Also, in order to transcend the physical world, we first must understand it well. And then we can sustain our movement to the inner... emotional, intellectual, psychic, and overarching spiritual. So take in the foreground, the middle ground with the door, the background with the castle, the figures on the holy mountain, the sacred mountain Parnassus...

all the details, the detailed engraving, the trees, and geometric forms in the garden, the pinnacles threefold on the door top... the clouds. Soon I'll ask you to close your eyes and see if you can then have this image well before you, pictured and sensed.

I'll count to three, and on three, close your eyes, please. One, two, three. Summon before the screen of your consciousness Emblem 27 of Atalanta Fugiens.

Soon, on the count of three, I'll invite you to open your eyes again, and then look at the image and sense how much you're able to fill in. One, two, three. This is a very simple exercise, but it can be a very profound one in developing our faculties of recollection and our deeper inner spiritual needs—outer impressions to clothe them so our inner mind will know them well. And these are all part of the mastery of life. So, at this time, having taken in this image and the Rosicrucian advertisement of a later century, the 20th century, I invite you to close your eyes now, and we'll continue our Rosicrucian exercises.

Enjoy the gentle rhythm of the breath—what Rosicrucians refer to as neutral breathing, neither holding the inhalation nor holding the exhalation. I invite you to breathe deeper than usual...

to a degree comfortable and slower than usual. Feel your lungs filling with what the Rosicrucians refer to as the vital life force. It's one of the special constituents of the air, along with oxygen and nitrogen—a very subtle element to help sustain our lives and help animate us. If you can be close to an open window where you can get fresh air coming in, feel free to arrange that.

I also invite you to breathe so that you extend your exhalation longer than your inhalation. With each such extended exhalation longer than inhalation, you'll feel the relaxation response and a building, cumulative effect. In a way, these are acts of alchemy, working with the vital life force in its own way as a wondrous elixir for our edification, invigoration, and enlightenment.

And when we extend the exhalation, there's automatically the relaxation response. The great vagus nerve that works with the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems is stimulated. These are matters we learn in our weekly lessons in the Rosicrucian Order and AMORC, as part of our exercises—these individual exercises that can be applied in our daily living when we need to grow in calmness and relaxation.

We know how to do it through this exercise and more that we're about to do. If you continue to breathe in this fashion, you may wish to make a habit in your life, or a way that makes your whole life a meditation. In this way, we increase the air, have the key, the prima materia, the access to the infinite forces within us, the contact with our deep intuitive self, which has access to all knowledge, all wisdom, and all love.

As we continue, I invite you to turn even further inward, letting go of the cares of the day. And we can use the following exercise as we continue to flow, in a sense, through the different pages of Atalanta Fugiens. Then Atalanta and her suitor in the great chase—we'll follow in our own exercises of the chase. I invite you now, as you continue to breathe in the fashion I've described that is comfortable for you, to picture yourself in a circle around you, or sense a circle around you...

about three feet out. And as you draw that circle around you, sense that you're moving further inward, leaving even the physical behind. Now draw another circle... about a foot and a half in radius around you...

leaving behind the mental and the emotional. Now draw another circle around you with a radius... of nine inches... leaving this psychic world behind.

And now focus on the very center of this circle, and commune with the spiritual—the mystical union. In this manner, we've entered the philosopher's rose garden to commune with our intuitive self... and feel the forces...

the healing powers that are infinite within us, rising. Soon we will conclude this exercise and continue others. To conclude this exercise...

Sensing the well-being... Feel the healing forces within you radiating out, dissolving the circles, and reaching out to all those in need, radiating out with our aura, expanding as we undertake this spiritual operation. Having charged yourself within those circles, radiate the forces out from the philosopher's garden into the world for its realization and healing.

For as each one of us rises up the holy mountain and enters the rose garden, we help draw all others to it. To sanctify this work and to continue, I invite you now to intone three times with me one of the sacred vowel sounds of the Rosicrucians—one of the lessons.

We'll intone three times the vowel sound OM. A wonderful, peace-producing, stilling, centering, and unifying sound. So I invite you now to inhale with me, and we'll intone OM for the second time. Inhale.

OM. And for the third time, inhale. OM. I will take a brief break, and I invite you to look at all of the posts for you, the resources in the chat. If they're not there already, you'll get them as a PDF you may wish to download.

With your eyes open, feel the invigorating thrill of healing. And once you've got the resources— if you so wish them—I invite you to turn your eyes inward again, continuing this breathing that we've been doing, extending the exhalation, enjoying the enrichment and the enormity of it.

And we'll apply the instructions of the booklet Liber 777. So, this giving of resources, I will guide you now in them. It's a wonderful booklet that is the fruit of cosmic attunement or the experience of cosmic consciousness. We'll make a great journey to the center of the cosmos, the place of our personal Celestial Sanctum—like unto the unbolting of the door and entering the rose garden of the philosophers, where all knowledge, all wisdom, and all love is known, and akin to rising up the holy mountain, the sacred mountain, such as Mount Parnassus, place of the Muses, place of Apollo, and beings of light and other inspiring

figures that mirror our inner spiritual nature. So, having turned your eyes inward, I invite you now to use all your psychic faculties and imaginative capacity to sense yourself rising up from the room where you're situated or where you are— up over your home, your office, or other building seen below you, your neighborhood, in your town or your village or city or geographic area. As we rise up higher and higher, proceeding faster and faster, enjoy the invigorating ascent. Feel the enrichment as we draw on this inner intuitive self to rise up higher and higher—our inner self, the Divine within.

We'll apply the law of correspondence: as we rise higher and higher up over our province or state and our great nation or country, we'll have an equal mirroring action, going deeper and deeper within ourselves. As we rise up now over our continent, even our hemisphere, the Temple of the Earth—you see the beautiful blue jewel of the Earth—let us rise up, going faster and faster, and at the same time going deeper and deeper in cosmic attunement within. Rise up and see the heavens, the stars, and the nebulae—the great system and order, the harmony of the spheres, which is the model for all music and arts on Earth. As we continue to rise higher and higher, faster and faster, enjoying the exhilaration of the ascent, we come to the high point of the cosmos, the very

center of the cosmos, which the great cosmic axis has as its midpoint and revolves around. And let us picture there, or sense there, mentally create there, our personal sacred space. There's the sanctum, and maybe the philosopher's rose garden where we've unbolted the doors and entered into it, and maybe an inspiring temple on Earth, or maybe simply the inspiring sight of the temple of the cosmos, the temple of the Divine all about us, or maybe an inspiring sacred place back on Earth—a high point on a mountain, or by a riverside or a lakeshore, or a sacred grove. Fill in the sights and sounds, the different elements of the experience, like the great tome Atalanta Fugiens. Make your mental creation real and vital.

This is where our power of observation will come in to help us. You may wish to sense other seekers on this conference call with us—Grand Lodges and Grand Lodge officers of the Rosicrucian Order, including the Imperator, Chief Executive Officer—a sacred convocation and ritual. There may be inspiring works of art or stained glass depicting Rosicrucian laws and principles, or the incense rising up, symbolizing the law of transmutation and transformation from the finite to the infinite.

When you've completed your mental creation, I'll invite you to release it deep into the subconscious and then into the Cosmic Mind. So when you're ready to release, I invite you to say, "If it pleases the Cosmic, it is done. So mote it be." Now release your visualization, assured that cosmic law will fulfill it, and dwell in silence now with me at the heights of the Celestial Sanctum, the center of your being, and the presence of our true guiding nature, the Divine within.

If you find your mind wandering, just lovingly and gently bring it back to the discipline of the breath—the great incoming and outgoing— at the center of your being, the center of the cosmos, and the Celestial Sanctum. Now let us continue with further exercises in this one large,

integrated exercise as we pass through the various pages of Atalanta Fugiens in parallel. While we've been meditating, you may be feeling the tingling of the vital life force. It's a very enriching tingling. In taking in the deep breaths that we've been doing, there's a vital and alchemical operation going on—a very healing, tonic effect for us. To intensify it, I invite you to continue with your deep breaths at the heights of the Celestial Sanctum, breathing slowly, but clasp your hands together over near the area of your belly button, for the solar plexus— just over the area where the solar plexus really is. A great nexus of nerves it is.

I invite you to do what Rosicrucians refer to as positive breathing. While you hold your hands together over your solar plexus, I invite you to breathe in and hold your breath. Don't breathe out until you feel the need to. In this way, we'll charge the Holy Temple, the body, and particularly the great nexus of nerves of the solar plexus.

When you need to breathe out again, release. And then clasp your hands again over the solar plexus and take another deep breath and hold it. And do so again when you are ready: clasp your hands over the solar plexus, take a deep breath in, and hold it.

Now I invite you to continue holding your hands clasped over your solar plexus and close the circuit further by placing your feet together, and just experience the flow of the tingling, the flow of the vital life force through the Holy Temple of the body. If there's any place where you're feeling a degree of pain or discomfort or need of healing, you may wish to sense the vital life force, the enriching tingling, moving to that part of the body and being intensified there.

In that way, we'll direct our grasp for the infinite forces spoken of by that older advertisement. But if you wish, you may wish to have your hands clasped and feet together to keep closing the circuit, keeping more of the vital life force within rather than radiating so much in the aura.

In this fashion, we can also use the aura to heal while we come in contact with, like, the Philosopher's Stone. This is all part of the Great Work of Atalanta Fugiens with its 50 emblems—the alchemical process through the different stages of our study in our home sanctum Rosicrucian exercises through the... in other words, the Rosicrucian Order. And...

for this time, we've done a visualization of mental creation in our personal Celestial Sanctum while we dwell at that height. And at the highest point of consciousness, I invite you to undertake another mental creation or visualization with me. If there's something in your life you're trying to bring into fruition that you've worked on and are having some challenges with, or you need some guidance as to where to look next, or are wondering about what are the stages to bring it into fruition—if it's something that's not only of value to yourself, but of value to others, and this meets the criteria of your inner guardian, your conscience—let's mentally create it now. Fill in your different impressions of it, what it would be experienced like—a

blessing for yourself and others, the sense of joy and well-being it will bring to yourself and those you contact, and maybe for greater health, so that you can then set a greater example to others. It may be for an interview you're going for for a new job, or maybe a challenging discussion you need to have with another person, but you know in your conscience you must do it. Whatever it is, mentally create it now.

Fill in all the impressions it has; sense the great well-being aforementioned. Gradually build it up. Use your memory and earlier powers of observation. Fill it in. Make it real. Make it vital. And soon we'll release this mental creation or visualization, this consciousness, into the Cosmic Mind, and then we'll dwell in silence. So let us release it now: "If it pleases the Cosmic, it is done. Cosmic love fulfills. So mote it be." And let us continue to dwell in silence, assured it will be conveyed to us deep within through

our day and in coming days how to fulfill the visualization, the mental creation. Let us enjoy the dynamic silence. Deeply sense, beneath the outer mind—the objective mind— the great, harmonious, and orchestrated actions that are taking place deep within us at the heights of the Celestial Sanctum.

Feel all there is to feel. Feel all that flows— the respiratory system breathing, the circulatory system and cardiovascular system, the movement of the blood charged with the vital life force, the great electromagnetic energy traveling along the nervous system.

With the practice of meditation comes increased sensitivity—to sense causes and effects, to know what to do and how to do it through the noble thoughts rising up during meditation and in the wake of meditation, from the depths of our being and our true nature, and our guide in life: the Divine within, the inner self, the intuitive self.

We continue our exercises and the spiritual operations of the work and the divine attunement, which is known as worship among Rosicrucians— worship being that deep contact with the Divine within, that deep... as part of our self that is linked to all and is all. I invite you to join me...

this session with the Council of Solace— partaking in the Silent Council with me now. Radiate love and well-being from the depths of our being to all those who petition the Grand Lodge of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, and the Council of Solace for guidance and healing. And let us radiate from the depths of our being, our hearts and minds, love and well-being to all those who petition affiliate bodies or the Grand Lodge of the Rosicrucian Order for guidance and healing. And let us radiate love and well-being to all those you know who are in need of guidance and healing. And finally, let us radiate love and well-being to all sentient beings throughout the cosmos who are in need of guidance and healing.

Let this great flow go out from you like a great floodlight filling the universe. And in doing so, we increasingly sense what Rosicrucians refer to as the Cosmic, which is the Universal Intelligence back of the cosmos and all the natural and spiritual laws at work that we are applying now in the sending of metaphysical aid, doing what the Rosicrucians refer to as absent healing or remote healing.

Let the flow continue from the depths of your being. Let it go out in turn, this being just like we rose up to the heights of the Celestial Sanctum—and with great rapidity, feel the exhilaration of the flow out from you like a great interior sun illuminating the cosmos and all sentient beings in need.

At a certain point, I think you'll find the radiations of love and well-being require no conscious effort. Then, just let the Divine within take over by surrendering to it. And in that great radiation is an application of the law of service and the law of humility. At a certain point, I think you'll find the radiation will speed up even more, and you'll know you're reaching those in need.

We'll formally conclude this period of sending metaphysical aid, but be assured that it'll continue from the depths of our being as a way of life and as part of our mission in life, and as part of the work of the philosopher's rose garden in the unbolting and the great key to its entrance.

We'll continue our Rosicrucian exercises with metaphysical aid. I invite you to stay with me. Cosmic law fulfills. If it pleases the Cosmic, it is done. So mote it be. And let us continue to dwell in silence—the law of silence, the cosmic attunement at the heights of the Celestial Sanctum, in the inner laboratory of the Master Within, that is, the inner self.

The Rosicrucians use the word "mastery" in the sense of living in harmony with, and having the knowledge and wisdom of application to manifest that which needs to manifest and transmute that which needs to be transmuted in service for the well-being of all. As we experience this firsthand now—the vibrations of the vital life force intensified, an increased sense of attunement of the consciousness of the Cosmic— I invite you now to undertake a further spiritual exercise with me. It relates to an exercise that was given by Dr. Lonnie Edwards and also by Jacob Boehme.

It can be described as the great winding of the heart. I invite you now to center all your consciousness around your physical and physiological heart, your emotional heart, your psychic heart, and your spiritual heart.

Sense a beautiful, white-colored dot or other enriching color for you just outside of the heart, rotating around the heart in a counterclockwise direction. Let it go one revolution around, and then, on the second revolution, come in a little closer to the heart, encircling all the forms of the heart, including the spiritual heart. And on that second revolution, start forming a spiral as you move closer and closer into the heart in a counterclockwise direction.

Go around the heart seven times, going in closer and closer each time as we spiral inward to the very center of the heart. Upon completion of the seventh revolution—you may wish to count the revolutions as you make them— be subtle as we attune with the Cosmic.

Sense your mind as one with the Cosmic Mind, being the Cosmic Mind. Experience as the Cosmic Mind experiences. Assume the Cosmic Mind now. Soon we'll begin our descent from the heights of the Celestial Sanctum. If you wish to stay longer in your personal Celestial Sanctum meditation, feel free to do so.

At this time, if you're ready to make the descent from the heights of the Celestial Sanctum to include the great passage of the alchemical process in Atalanta Fugiens and spoken of in that advertisement in the Rosicrucian Digest, I invite you now to invoke the Law of Gratitude with me: thankful for this opportunity to serve our birthright, to undergo application of law, cosmic attunement, be fully ourselves, be fully whole, and express our thanks to all those who have taught us well, sacrificed well on our behalf, and loved us well.

Now enriched and ennobled, let us begin our descent, moving with great rapidity back through the cosmos. As the myriad stars and stellar phenomena, galaxies, are seen in the distance—the great Milky Way galaxy, and in the arm where we dwell—we plunge into it and pass the myriad stars and the great beauty and harmony of the spheres. I see in the distance our solar system, the great fireball, the Sun, and the jewel of the Temple of the Earth. We come back to the hemisphere we left off, the continent, the great country or nation, province or state,

our local geographic area or village or town or city, and our neighborhood. Now, back where we left off, seated or lying down or situated, I invite you to say with me the following prayer and invocation: "May the God of my heart sanctify this attunement of the Celestial Sanctum. So mote it be." And when you're ready, I invite you to open your eyes, remade, regenerated, reintegrated, re-energized, and rested, all the more ready for the Great Work, the path of self-mastery.

Thank you so much for all that you're doing— and loving, and serving, and learning.