14

ASCENSION TEMPLE

Ascended Master Retreat of the Month at Luxor, Egypt

April 15th through May 14th, 1959

Shining like a Cosmic Star amidst the effluvia of human creation, there stands, for "all who run to read" the magnificent Temple of the Ascension, guarded and guided by Beloved Serapis Bey and his Ascended Master Friends. On the banks of the Nile River (life-line of Egypt's fertility) this Temple has been visited often by the neophyte and student upon the Spiritual Path who sought more Light and Understanding upon their individual Pathway Home. 

First experience 

After entering the outer court of the unostentatious building, being relieved from the heat of the desert sands, the aspirant enjoys without limit the fertility and beauty of the courtyard, with its brilliant foliage and its glorious bird life. For this short time, he often forgets that he has asked for audience with one of the strictest Members of the Hierarchy, Serapis Bey, from whom no human creation can be withheld. 

Upon being called into Serapis Presence and finding all the known and unknown impurities of his lifestream externalized for his appraisal, some are less enthusiastic about the individual requirements of transmuting the Dweller on their own thresh-holds and eagerly await Serapis command that the human creation be, again, for the time, returned into the unseen but no less unreal realms for future and more gentle disciplines of transmutation. 

The Seven Temples 

Throughout the time when the neophyte is within the Ascension Temple certain disciplines and studies are given to him and thus, he passes from Temple to Temple (seven in all) or he chooses to return to the world of form. As Beloved Serapis himself says, embodiment after embodiment, he looks upon the same familiar faces, and oft-times smiles inwardly at the progress which such an one will make. 

Now, in this Hour of Planetary Crises, when the Earth herself is to make her Ascension in the Light, he greets all who have a heart desire to help in this Cosmic Push toward the Sun of the System, beloved Helios and Vesta themselves. As usual many are called but few are chosen, as Jesus said long ago. The glamour of acceptance into the Ascension Temple is a pull upon the Spirit but, often a pall upon the outer personality. At Luxor, there is no time for "playing" with the Spiritual Law. It is a steady, constant discipline until the neophyte is graduated and God-free. 

Serving and learning 

As in all Ascended Master Retreats, the chela is serving the Earth and her attendant evolutions while learning self mastery. Thus, there is avoided spiritual "gluttony" and actual practice of the Laws so learned give the chelas greater confidence in the use of those very Laws, which will help them in future service. "The reward for service is always more service", below and above!

Let us all now enjoy the Ascension Flame, not fear it, and enter into the Presence of Serapis as a Lord of Love, which, of course, he really is. Here, in the Ascension Temple, looking over the ruins of man-made structures, subject to decay, rejoice that the Temple of Serapis and his Brotherhood can never know such disintegration because the very motive upon which it was built was and is LOVE DIVINE... the greatest cohesive power in the Universe. 

Nirvana renounced 

Let us remember that Serapis Bey, like others of the Spiritual Hierarchy, voluntarily forswore Nirvana in order that there might be sustained on Earth the Ascension Flame, which is the Way back Home for all who have temporarily sunk below the level of personal harmony and sustained peace. 

Let us, looking at the Ascension Flame itself, in the glorious Flame Room wherein it abides, guarded by the Seraphim and their Lord, Serapis Bey, give gratitude today and all during this thirty-day period (April 15 through May 14th, 1959) to that Flame which we, of the Ascended Host, used, and which each one of you will also use in such happiness and joy one day soon, when your course on Earth is run, and you are ready and able to achieve your Ascension in the Light. 

El Morya