Daily Meditation: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Life - everywhere in the universe; the same succession of phases

12/21/2010

For a seed to produce a tree, there are four necessary conditions: it must be placed in soil, watered, allowed to have air and provided with warmth and light from the sun. So, the four elements are present here: earth, water, air and fire. As the roots burrow down into the soil, a small stem comes up to form a trunk, and this trunk splits into branches, which grow buds. When the buds burst open, leaves and flowers appear, and the flowers produce fruit. Finally, with the seeds from the fruit, we come full circle. Everything in the universe, in its own way, goes through the same phases - roots, stem, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit, seeds - and this sequence of phases is what we call life. Depending on the created beings in question and which realms or planes they appear in, some processes are longer, others shorter. The remarkable thing about trees, particularly fruit trees, is that these processes are invariably repeated year after year, the four seasons being the four stages of the process. To emphasize the importance of these stages, the initiatic tradition placed each one under the influence of an archangel: Raphael rules spring, Uriel summer, Michael autumn and Gabriel winter.