Beloved Members of the Esoteric Hierarchy:
In connection with your present studies on Plane One, in the Ordo Summum Bonum, it will be necessary that you conduct an inspirational Sanctum ritual. This ritual and ceremony is to ever keep you conscious of the esoteric principles of Plane One. Like all time-honored esoteric rituals, it is intended to quicken the inner consciousness to satisfy self through feeling, just as ideas stimulate and satisfy the intellect. A conscientious performance of this ritual will produce ecstatic sensations and the feeling of exaltation. The full meaning of the phraseology used in the following ritual will not become apparent to you until you have advanced further on Plane One.
The following ritual, like previous ones, must of course be conducted in privacy. It must also be conducted prior to reading or studying any monographs of Plane One or performing any exercises or experiments which may accompany them. In other words, you will hold your Sanctum convocation as heretofore at a certain time regularly each week. That period, as previously , is to be your Lodge Night at home. This ritual must precede whatever else you do during that Sanctum convocation. During those weeks when you have Self-Guidance instructions instead of another monograph, you will likewise prepare your Sanctum as herein instructed, and conduct this devotional ritual before proceeding further.
Sanctum Preparation
A. Your altar, as usual, may consist of a small shelf or a small table, with a Sanctum scarf placed upon it, if you have one. This altar may be either in one corner of the room or in a closet, whichever you use as your Sanctum.
B. On this altar must be a mirror. The mirror must just be large enough so that when you are seated before the altar your head and part of your shoulders may be seen in it. The mirror may be quite an ordinary one, approximately 35cm (14 in.) high and 25cm (10 in.) wide. The mirror should be located at the back of the altar. It can either stand upon it or hang upon the wall.
C. You will likewise need a small incense burner and incense. The incense burner is to be placed in the front center of your altar. Sufficient incense should be ignited in it just before you begin the ritual, so as to cause just a slight wisp of smoke to rise upward. Avoid burning a large amount of incense, causing billows of smoke and discomfort to yourself. You will need to experiment each time to determine just the exact amount.
D. You will use a single Sanctum candlestick, or any one candlestick, with a white candle 25cm (10 in.) in height. The top of the candle should be not higher than the top of the mirror. In fact, it should be at least 5cm (2 in.) below it. This candle is to be lighted before you begin your ritual. Further, and this is important, you must so place the lighted candle to the right on your altar, that its reflection is not seen in the mirror.
To summarize, here are the essential material requirements in conducting this Opening and Closing ritual for Plane One:
1.--Altar, with or without Sanctum scarf.
2.--Mirror, approximately 35cm (14 in.) high by 25cm (10 in.) wide.
3.--Incense burner and incense.
4.--A single candlestick.
5.--25cm (10 in.) white candle.
The arrangement of the above should, as nearly as possible, follow this diagram.
You should have, besides the candlelight in your Sanctum, just sufficient light to read by. Under no circumstances have a bright light in the room during the ritual. If the single candlelight is sufficient by which to read the ritual, then use that only. At the conclusion of the ritual, you may use any light so shaded as just to illuminate your monograph and make comfortable reading. Let the rest of the room during your Sanctum convocation sink into non-disturbing and quiet shadows.
Ritual for Plane One
Proceed after your Sanctum has been prepared as explained above.
You will be referred to in this ritual as Postulant, because by means of this ritual you are entreating further enlightenment and unfoldment of the consciousness of self.
POSTULANT, be seated before your altar and mirror, holding this ritual in your lap, and then read aloud, but softly: "May the fragrance of this incense, which soars heavenward, serve to remind me of the eternal, Divine bond existing between self and the Cosmic Being, and by which my consciousness may ever be raised. "
Now pause and take a slight inhalation of the incense through your nostrils, and then slowly exhale and continue to read softly: "Vibrant Cosmic Being, Thou art here, there, and everywhere.
Now softly intone the vowel RA three times, and then say: "As my voice is ubiquitous in this sacred place, so likewise, Cosmic Being, Thou art unlimited, having neither a Northern, Southern, Western, nor Eastern direction.
"All things are possessed within You, and from You they continually spring forth. Cosmic Being, Thou art self-sufficient, for Thou art both creator and consumer. Within You things have no estimate, for nothing is without place, nothing diminishes, nothing is older or younger, lesser or greater than another.
"Cosmic Being, Thou art ever changing, but Thy complexities are nameless. Neither air, fire, water, earth, nor life exists by the distinctions by which mortals know them, yet they are eternally contained in Thine essence.
"Cosmic Being, Thou art octaves of motion, each within and yet beyond the other. From out of their ceaseless and infinite embraces life was born.
"O Cosmic Being, Life then became as a light, and that which wedded with it became as a mirror."
POSTULANT, slowly move the lighted candle to a place in front of the center of the mirror, about seven inches from it, and then read softly: "As the candle illuminates the mirror, so life illuminates that substance of Cosmic Being in which it is contained. As all objects within the path of this candlelight have their images reflected in this mirror, so likewise all manifestations of Cosmic Being within the sensitivity of life are imaged in the mirror of its substance. This mirror of life in which Thou, Cosmic Being, art imaged, is consciousness!
"Though all objects be removed from the path of the rays of this candlelight, yet will its own image remain distinct within the depths of the mirror. Unto man and the human consciousness does this precept alike apply. Be all of the objects of the world removed from the light of life, yet so long as such light remains unobscured, its image, the self, will be reflected in the mirror of our consciousness."
POSTULANT, push lighted candle slowly within two inches of mirror, then read softly: "The closer the candlelight to the mirror, the more brilliant becomes its own reflection. Likewise, the more the light of life is caused to cast its rays upon its own substance, the greater the consciousness of self and the more vivid the realities of our existence."
POSTULANT, now push the lighted candle to its original place, to the right of the mirror and then read softly: "When the candlelight parts company with the mirror, the objects in its realm fade into obscurity. So, too, upon that great transition or death, when the Light of Life is divorced from that substance with which it has been temporarily wed, then the self we perceived in the mirror of our consciousness vanishes into Cosmic Being, with the liberated elements upon which it depended.
"So Mote it be."
Sit in meditation for three minutes before proceeding with your Sanctum convocation.
Now proceed with any studies you may have, for the balance of your Sanctum convocation. Add sufficient light for the purpose.
Allow the candle to continue burning on your altar, until the conclusion of your Sanctum convocation.
Whenever you conclude a convocation, use the following closing ritual:
POSTULANT, stand before your altar; make the Sign of the Cross, as you have been instructed in the ROSICRUCIAN MANUAL and in the early Degrees, then slowly and impressively read softly:
Heaven above, heaven beneath;
Stars above, stars beneath;
All that is above, is also beneath;
In this understanding does happiness dwell.
So Mote it be!
POSTULANT, now extinguish your candle with a snuffer, or with your moistened fingers.