Ritual Practices throughout the Year
The Western Mystery Traditions have always held that study and knowledge of the cycles of the manifest Universe, experienced on earth through nature and in the stars through the celestial bodies, is highly beneficial to the spiritual aspirant. The Qabalists related the seven planets of the ancients to the Spheres on the Tree of Life, and esoteric initiates continued this associative tradition through the Sacred Tarot. The seven ancient planets included the sun and the moon.
These two planets most directly affect the earth, causing the shifts from light to dark, warm to cold, and from creation to decay and death. Thus, the ancient sages taught that all of the mysteries of God/dess are hidden in manifest nature. In the east, nature is called Prikriti, the substance that forms the maya, or illusion of manifest reality. In the western teachings this same substance is called the root matter or astral light, that permeates and underlies all seeming physicality. Nature thus provides a guide or map for the aspirant that allows him/her to align more closely with the energies of the Creator, and see the mysteries of being more clearly. (more…)
