Bases for a New World Religion: solar Liturgy

In the text The Distant Goals seven lines of thought are mentioned, on which the new World Religion could be based; they are described in the article Second Year of the Sixth Septennium and the third of these statements reads:

“Because of the natural requirement of such universality [of the New world Religion] (spontaneous, not obtained through conquest), the rite, the liturgy and the cult will be openly solar. They will follow the movements of the Sun, seen as the best and living symbol of the central spiritual Entity. All the peoples recognize it as the most perfect sign of the divine Light, all nature proclaims it. The pulsation of its energy also reveals It as the supreme Officiant for the System which It rules from the center. It follows that the new religion will be progressive, avoiding locking itself into a static model. It will be able to plan its own development and general ascent”.
The future that awaits us, therefore, rests on the recognition of the solar splendour as image, Model and Reality of the fire that burns in the Heart of Life, on the recognition of the Principle that rhythmically and solemnly guides every thought and action of Humanity and the solar System as a whole.
“Just as the sun is the heart of the system, the human heart is the sun of the organism. There are many sun-hearts, and the Universe represents a system of hearts; that is why the cult of Light is the cult of the heart. To understand this abstractly means to leave the heart out in the cold; but as soon as the Light of the sun-heart comes alive, the need for the magnet’s warmth will make it shine forth like a true sun. (…) The Teaching about the Heart is as bright as the sun, and the warmth of the heart speeds as swiftly as a sunbeam. Everyone has felt astonishment at how a ray of the rising sun can instantly insulate everything from the cold. The heart can do the very same thing!”.  (1)
“Like grand flowers of light, all the planets worship the Sun, to whom they pay an adoration expressed in many different but interconnecting ways. The combination of all these rituals fosters and expresses solar communion. (…) The solar System does not shatter its communion, as it is easy to see. This reveals that the Goal it pursues is the UNIVERSAL SOLAR SYSTEM, governed by the central spiritual Sun, immersed in infinite, adoring Space”. (2)

From the very beginning of human history, the Sun has been seen by men as the purest and most obvious image of divine Light, symbol of Life and Love as well as the Centre that illuminates and vivifies its Field. The Sun, moreover, has always been regarded as the burning “heart” of its system, not least because of the Sun’s powerful analogy with the heart, the physical organ that keeps all living beings alive, and with the I, the “heart” of the conscious, thinking individual.
Throughout human history there have been innumerable solar deities and equally countless cults linked to the worship of the solar star, on which, among other things, most human calendars are based in recognition of the importance of the cyclical rhythm that the Sun imparts to everything.
But however varied these traditions, cults and theories may appear to us, what they all have in common is an awareness of the need for a visible and “operative” centre, itself a veil of a vibrant invisible and “subtle” centre, which, by its intrinsic qualities, can infuse life (called from time to time light, heat, celestial order, divine law, logos, cycle of life…) into all the beings that, scattered throughout space, are nourished by its rhythmic breath.
A centre that could also symbolically embody the highest principles that man was gradually discovering within himself and which he called Good, creative Intelligence, Love, One.
In particular, Plato, in the Republic, compares and contrasts the image of the Sun with the Idea of Good: just as the Sun not only gives the capacity to see things but is also the cause of their generation, growth and nourishment, so the Good, which of the Sun is the “Father”, causes the knowability of things and is their essence, being, as a supreme Principle, “superior to being and essence in dignity and power”.
“And this is he whom I call the child of the good [the sun], whom the good begat in his own likeness, to be in the visible world, in relation to sight and the things of sight, what the good is in the intellectual world in relation to mind and the things of mind.” (3)
Christianity, too, has used the solar symbolism to match it, sometimes explicitly and sometimes covertly, with the figure of the triumphant Christ who is seen as the “unconquered Sun”, who through resurrection is reborn from the darkness of death to lead every man to the Father’s Home.

We must therefore turn with renewed awareness towards the Centre, towards that focal point that gathers and concentrates the tension of our fervent commitment, towards that Heart-Sun that shows the path towards the One, the summit of all Religion.
Every man possesses within himself an organ, the heart, which connects him to the solar Heart and through which he can attune, wherever he is, to the rhythmic pulsation that innervates the systemic space and the entire universe: “The heart accomodates within itself the entire Heaven, with all its liturgy of planets, stars, galaxies. It hosts the rites of the atom, the solar fire, the monadic sparks. It resonates with all the music of Space. It is the universal Church”. (4)

The celebration of the future world Religion will take this consonance into account and will allow Humanity to build the bridge between Heaven and Earth in an increasingly wise way, erecting, as far as it is entitled, that Temple of planetary awareness which will also be a beacon for the other inhabitants of the solar System: “The Earth lives in a rigorously ritualistic way, but men do not pay attention to it and do not respect its cosmic liturgies. They interpret them, at best, as mere mechanical results. It is an absurd and blasphemous attitude which must be eradicated. Ritual abode means Temple. (…) The common Home is a Temple, a Monastery, a Laboratory, a Countryside, an Ocean, a solar System. Only one Rite is celebrated according to many different liturgies”. (5)

And it is through the rhythmic and solemn pulsation of the solar heart that “the discontinuous is connected with the continuous, which otherwise would be unable to communicate”. (6)
“The Fiery Sun is invisible, likewise invisible are great heavenly bodies. It should be explained in schools how insignificantly small is our field of vision. Only thus is it possible to convince humanity that while it is divine in its heart essence, in the body it is subject to all limitations. Only thus will children realize what they must be concerned about. They are very perplexed at that which is manifested in the chest and continually beats.” (7)

Thus the textures of space can be known and traversed; thus it is possible, in harmonious ascent towards the One, to cross the dichotomies between finite and Infinite and between becoming and being; thus, finally, we can turn to Heaven, the source of Communion, and “endlessly deepen our consciousness”. (8)
This same attitude will allow Religion (and its rites, its liturgies and its cults) not to close itself in a rigid and sterile repetition of the evidence of astronomical mechanisms, but to remain open and flexible and to welcome, day by day, the variable solar light in all its qualities that do not require improvisation or useless repetition, setting up in the hearts the joyful recognition of the common advance towards the One.
“Thus the bars of solar polyphony follow one another, majestic and solemn”. (9)

An advance that can only be conducted with the heartfelt solemnity that is required by the celebration of the Sun’s vibrant rising, its dazzling culmination, its soft setting and its silent, intimate nocturnal splendour: “Increase solemnity ten times over. Increase solemnity just as believers increase the number of their prayer lamps. When we march forward on the path of ascent, entrust your hands to Ours. Hasten to the Summit of the Heart. (…) Intensify your energy for the glory of the Lord, solemnly and courageously!” (10)

Solemnity, without which every solar ritual would appear as nothing more than an empty flailing of limbs and emotions, will be the best bulwark, and the perfect armour, leading to victory over superficiality and hollowness, demanding responsibility and vertical alignment with the depths of the Heavens; it will be the step, rhythmic and light, leading to the supreme heights.
Heights that are called Mysteries, unveiled in accordance with the solar cycles and, once apprehended by human consciousness, formulated into a religion capable of elevating the human spirit to the understanding of another spark of the eternal Fire: “The Mysteries periodically update themselves, taking on the attributes of the culture and civilisation they promote. Their essence is immutable, they are instead flexible in the forms of their ritual”. (11)

As the fire of the Mysteries draws nearer, commensurate with the beat of the evolutionary cycle, the torches that will light up the world of the future are lit, at first as dim flames, then ever more vigorously and consciously: ideals taking shape, flags of beauty and harmony, pulses of communion and unity, arabesques of collaboration, understanding and brotherhood.
And it will be the tension towards the Heavens and the passionate commitment of every man that will tear the veil of glamour that hides the mighty solar ritual from the eyes of the many, finally showing it in all its truth as a bridge between Humanity and the far-off Worlds.
And thus will rise the common and earnest prayer of solar recognition from the heart of Humanity towards the crystal-clear celestial brightness:
“Heaven is my model. I copy it in me point by point, from light to light”. (12)

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1. Agni Yoga Series, Heart § 62
2. E. Savoini, Book of Rituals ’92
3. Plato, Republic, 508 b
4. Savoini, Calendar ’98, unpublished paper
5. Ibidem
6. Primo Vertice, The light of the two stars (available only in Italian)
7. Agni Yoga Series, Fiery World II § 238
8. Savoini, Lecture notes of the 3^rd Septennium. Geometry Lesson, unpublished paper, 2003
9. Savoini, Lecture notes of the 3^rd Septennium. Partition of Unit, unpublished paper, 2002
10. Agni Yoga Series, Heart § 492
11. Savoini, Lecture notes of the 3^rd Septennium. The Mysteries, unpublished paper, 2001
12. E. Savoini, Book of Rituals ’92