2nd 3rd or 4th
Michaelmas
Revelation 12: 1-17
And a momentous image was
unveiled in the world of spirit: a woman, clothed with the radiant power of the
sun, the moon under her feet, her head adorned with the crown of the twelve
stars of heaven. And she is with child and cries out in the labor and pain of
giving birth.
And at the same time a second image was revealed in
the heavens: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. On its
head it has seven crowns and its tail is sweeping a third of all the stars in
heaven and dashing them onto the earth. And the dragon is standing before the
woman about to give birth, so that when she bears the child he can eat it up.
And she bore a child, a son ”who would shepherd all nations with a rod of iron.”
And the woman’s child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman
fled into the wilderness where she has a place that God keeps ready there, so
that they can take care of her for days numbering one thousand two hundred
sixty.
And a war flared up in the spirit world. Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought in the midst of
his own angels, but he was not strong enough, and there was no longer
any place for them in heaven. Down came the dragon, the giant, the serpent, the
evil one called both Satan and the devil, deceiver of all the world. Onto the
earth he came hurtling down, and all his angels with him.
And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying:
Now can begin the working which proceeds from our God—
The power to heal the world,
The power to transform all being,
The power to draw everything into godly being.
Arisen is the spirit leadership of his Christ.
Overthrown is the accuser of our brothers,
He who accused them night and day before the countenance of God.
They have overcome him through the blood and the sacrificial power of
the Lamb
And by the divine Word to which they bore witness.
They did not love their own lives too dearly, and they did not fear
death.
Therefore, rejoice you heavens
And all who lodge therein!
But woe to the earth and the sea:
For the Adversary has come down to you,
And he seethes with measureless fury,
For he knows that his time is short.
And when the dragon recognized that he had been
cast onto the earth, he began to persecute the woman who had borne the son.
Then the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly
into the desert to her appointed place, where she is to be nourished for a
cycle of time, for cycles of time, and for half a cycle of time, far from the
face of the serpent.
And the serpent opened his mouth and spewed out a
river of water after the
woman so she would be swept off her feet by the
river. But then the earth came to the woman’s assistance; it opened its mouth
and swallowed the river which the dragon spewed from his mouth. And the dragon
burned with fury against the woman. He stormed away to make war on the rest of
the woman’s seed, people who keep to the divine world aims and who are united
with the destiny and witnessing of Jesus. As I saw this I was standing on the
sandy shore of the sea.
3rd Michaelmas
October 14, 2012
Revelation 12: 1-17
We see the mighty image of the radiant Cosmic Woman, clothed
in sun, moon, and stars, laboring to give birth. And we see the red, many-
headed dragon, waiting to devour her child.
This Cosmic Woman is an image of the soul of a special
cosmic community. She is the soul of a community formed of all communities that
are laboring to give birth to the Christ. She is the soul of all assemblies of
people that stream the sunlight and warmth of love and wisdom. She is the soul
of groups of people that know how to master and properly use the creative,
generative moon forces. She is the soul of those bodies of people star-crowned
with the work of healing and ordering destinies.
The dragon, however, is her counter-image. It is the image
of angry, greedy, consuming passion; it is the image of a pernicious,
calculating intellect that monetizes everything and everyone; it is a force
that introduces a ruinous chaos into destinies.
Our earthly Christian communities are made up of individuals
whom, through their bearing, Christ can wrest from the dragon, from the 'death
of matter’. Such individuals can belong not only to an earthly community, but
also to the supersensible one, which is made up of all those who are aware of
the healing power of Christ within themselves. And in community, this healing
force of the Christ within is potentized beyond what any individual can
manifest. Together we can resist the dragon. Together we can help heal and
order destinies. Together, we can strengthen the soul of the Cosmic Woman who
is giving birth to the Christ for all of humanity.
www.thechristiancommunity.org
www.thechristiancommunity.org