Directions of the Cosmic Temple: Aquarius – Swan

On the day of the full moon of Aquarius, let us look up at the majestic flight of the Swan, the Firebird, symbol of the soul, in order to learn the art of living as immortal Servers of planetary, solar and cosmic Space. *

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The Swan (Deneb is its main star) traces a beautiful Cross of stars in the northern sky and is defined by the Teaching as “the bird of the soul”; it is associated with the Cross of Christ and in myths with the Chariot of the Sun (pulled by swans or horses, and led by Auriga, the charioteer), as well as with the arts, performed by the Muses, of whom Apollo/Sun is the protector and teacher.

The flight of the Swan is that of the Consciousness on the 4^th buddhic plane, the real Kingdom of the 4^th human Hierarchy, the solar Angels, those immortal animals/souls and wonderful crucifixes in a lion’s body, with bull legs, eagle wings and a human face. [1]

The Swan expresses elegant regality, as well as strength and protection, sacredness, beauty, treasures of the Fixed Cross of the Heavens, the central Cross that leads consciousness from the unreal to Reality:

“… in Aquarius, the consummating sign to Leo, we find Cygnus, the swan, the symbol of the bird of spirit. In The Voice of the Silence we read: “And then thou canst repose between the wings of the great bird. Aye, sweet to rest between the wings of that which is not born, nor dies, but is the Aum throughout eternal ages”… Says the Rig-Veda … The syllable A is considered to be the bird Hamsa’s right wing, U its left, and M its tail [Deneb]… The swan of eternity, flying in time and space, is the symbol of Life itself, the cleansing, purifying living waters of Aquarius”. (The Labours of Hercules – p. 51, 91)

“Besides many definitions of the word Aum let us recollect that: A is Thought — the Basis; U is Light — the Primary Cause; M is Mystery — the Sacred.” (AUM § 132)

The Swan, also called “the Northern Cross”, therefore seems to emanate into Space the sacred Sound of eternal life, and reminds us of that by fully crossing the Milky Way, the more abundant water of life, staging, together with its counterpart – Crux, the Southern Cross – a galactic Golgotha, as wings in relation to the third Cross of the Master – the Crux Christi (Ж) of Orion – sign and guarantee of cosmic resurrection.

The second Cross of the Swan, the good thief, sings:

Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.

The symbol of these 3 cosmic Crosses seems to reveal to the human Monad its story of unceasing transfer, through birth or incarnation (crucifixion – Southern Cross), sublimation (ascent – Swan) and finally liberation (resurrection – Orion), in order to return again to serve, but remaining in flight on increasingly subtle, ethereal, essential planes.

The Swan in myths is sacred to Venus and Apollo, the solar god, and is also the bird of Jupiter together with the Eagle, as veils of the fecundating action of Heaven/Spirit in relation to the Earth/Substance; the Swan is also Orpheus who plays the nearby constellation of the Lyre, “the seven-stringed harp”: “Apollo’s minister who weaves stories of gods that mask wisdom”. [2]

“HAMSA (Sanskrit.) – or Hansa. “Swan or goose”, according to the Orientalists; a mystical bird in Occultism… The sacred mystic name which, when preceded by that of KALA (infinite time), i.e. Kalahansa, is a name of Parabrahm [the universal principle]; meaning the “Bird out of space and time”. Hence Brahmâ (male) is called Hansa Vahana “the Vehicle of Hansa” (the BIRD). We find the same idea in the Zohar, where Ain Suph (the endless and infinite) is said to descend into the universe, for purposes of manifestation, using Adam Kadmon (Humanity) as a chariot or vehicle. (The Theosophical Glossary)

The “summer” isosceles triangle, formed precisely by Deneb/ Swan,Vega/Lyra and Altair/Eagle is the other large celestial triangle easily identifiable to the naked eye, analogous to the “winter” equilateral one formed by Betelgeuse, Procyon and Sirius, both ringed on the fiery river of the Milky Way: the all-pervading Sound of Space on one side, the creative Light of the Cosmic Heart on the other.

Both of these triangles seem to reflect the interaction between Numbers 2-3-1 of the heart, throat and head centres, an interaction also present in our higher Prototype: Sirius, Pleiades and Ursa Major; a triangulation of energies, which in this case is the source of the sovereign gaze (sharp as an eagle’s eye), of the sound of grace given by the supermundane flight, of the art of harmonic creation.

At the centre of the triangle of Sound are the constellations of the Fox and the Arrow (Sagitta), the extreme ‘speed’ or mobility of energy directed towards the target. In myths the Arrow shot by Hercules kills the eagle that tortures Prometheus, the one hurled by Apollo takes revenge on the Cyclops for the death of his son Asclepius, and the one shot by Eros makes Zeus fall in love: it is therefore a vector of liberation, retribution, inspiration.

This supermundane asterism stands out between the Dragon/Bears and the zodiac Signs of the high solar Sky (Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius): the Swan and the Eagle are the winged creatures (bodies of the buddhic and atmic levels) that fly around the high dome of the Temple of Orion, with Sirius-Sun as altar, that Centre of the Heart with its inherent, most high central lantern, where it ascends becoming the Heart in the Lotus of the Great Cosmic Man.

Celebrating the Swan at the full moon of Aquarius, Sign of the water of life, lifts up to the eternity of cosmic Cycles, to the Great Service of cosmic Reality.

I am the flight of the Soul, out of time and space!

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* In this liturgical and solemn year, the seventh of the fifth seven-year period, we intend to celebrate the Full Moons as dates or directions of connection with the supreme stellar sources, rulers of our local universe, our cosmic Abode, the Entity in which “we live, move and have our being”.
To nourish this inner, rhythmic and powerful rite, we present at each ‘celestial appointment’ some extracts from the text The Order of Orion, “an astrosophical investigation of the solar and cosmic essence of humanity” (only available in Italian at the moment), to trace the possible infinite paths between the Moon and the One.

[1] “… Thus the Eagle (associated with St. John) represents cosmic Spirit or Ether, the all-piercing Eye of the Seer; the Bull of St. Luke, the waters of Life, the all-generating element and cosmic strength; the Lion of St. Mark, fierce energy, undaunted courage and cosmic fire; while the human Head or the Angel, which stands near St. Matthew is the synthesis of all three combined in the higher Intellect of man, and in cosmic Spirituality. All these symbols are Egyptian, Chaldean, and Indian. The Eagle, Bull and Lion-headed gods are plentiful, and all represented the same idea, whether in the Egyptian, Chaldean, Indian or Jewish religions, but beginning with the Astral body they went no higher than the cosmic Spirit or the Higher Manas — Atma-Buddhi, or Absolute Spirit and Spiritual Soul its vehicle, being incapable of being symbolised by concrete images”. (H. P. Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary – Four Animals)

[2] The ritual use of Orphic poetry prepared “the ecstasy of the Mysteries through sacred plays”, thus revealing its relationship with both Apollo and Dionysus, “whose initiation rite is identical to that of Osiris”: dying to the conventional and already known for the sacred flight or expression of the Music of the Spheres by the Soul.

Orpheus is the son of the muse of poetry Calliope and is the Egyptian Thot and the Jewish Enoch, the inventor of the Arts, of Sciences, of Writing or literature, of Music and Astronomy, “the first who systematised the motion of planets”, associated by Hyginus and Plato precisely to the Swan, adjacent to the Lyre.

It is here supposed that the constellation of Lyra is a secondary solar System of 3^rd Ray of the Great cosmic Man: “the seven-stringed harp” of Orpheus, which Hermes/Mercury built from a tortoise shell in honour of the Pleiades (3^rd primary solar System; one of the Pleiades, Maia, was the mother of Mercury) and which “man learns to play in order to make music out of his own life”, thus harmonizing within himself the seven branches of the divine creative Ray; “the Heptachord of Apollo, the lyre of the radiant God, in each of whose strings the Spirit, the Soul and the astral body of the Cosmos dwell”, the Seven Rays.

The main star of Lyra is the very bright Vega, the fifth by magnitude of our Sky and the future terrestrial North Star in 12,000 years, from the Arabic al nasr al waqi which means “eagle of the desert”, as the Arabs imagined seeing in the constellation an eagle with a lyre in its talons.
With respect to the North Star, Vega is opposite Sirius on the same celestial meridian, indicating an important alignment for our Earth with the bodies of such Logoi (see post).