Sophia - Rite 8. Libra and Kwan Yin

Priestess: (Invocation) Eternal Goddess Kwan Yin, Universal Mother of Mercy, come to our hearts! As Boddhisattva Thou didst leave Thy seat among the stars and descend upon our earth, there to bless all those imprisoned in our dream world which we weave from time and space. Thou Who art always with those who pray to Thee, help us now in our dire necessity, for our dreams are turning to nightmares of holocaust.

Oracle: To pray is to receive immediate response. Every true thought and desire creates its own manifestation. Smile, and you give birth to happiness in some time and some place. Your sympathy reaches a sorrowful heart locked in the prison of this earth or other spheres. You artists, dreamers, mystics, who feel useless before the onset of planetary destruction, as yet have no idea of your own powers! It shall be from the Divine Feminine, Yin, that the Yang Dragon of violence shall be brought into harmony! And this will be done not through opposing war with psychic battle; not with the use of occult force against violence; rather shall you conquer by winning over your enemies through understanding, beauty and love.

Your innate powers, children of the Muses, lie in the influence of the arts, through your compassion for all beings, and through your laughter! For the forces of evil work through fear: and the greatest fear is of Death. But you shall be so gifted that you shall not see dead bodies: but rather living souls rising therefrom! You shall not see devastated cities, but eternal lands of ever-living beauty. No threats of foreign conquest nor of holocaust shall disturb the steadfast soul. For the mystic, enjoying the knowledge of Eternal Reality, Nirvana, shall bring bliss into manifestation even into the earthly sphere of Maya, illusion. Thus shall the changing scenes of the mortal world be transformed into a Divine Mystery showing forth symbols of a greater encompassing Reality! Every tree, every rock shall then be understood as a symbol of its own soul living forever beyond time and space.

Every time you send forth healing for all, or for one animal or plant, you change the world around you for good. You shall see more brilliant colours, hear clearer sounds around you. It is through bringing vision of a more lovely world into your physical surroundings that transmutation is accomplished. For who may change a shadow with skillful hands? A shadow may only be altered by moving the object which causes it. So it is with bringing peace and harmony to this planet. Those who stay still and meditate shall halt armies! Artists painting pictures shall create their visions in living forms. Composers shall bring harmony: men and women will dance to the music of the spheres. Do not send negative thoughts even against negative forces. Thus you only double evil. Rather send forth emotions, thoughts and visions of beauty, wisdom and harmony. So shall you bring these qualities into earthly manifestation.

On an orange draped altar let there be 7 green candles, in centre a pair of scales. Northwest on left pan, a red rose. Southeast on right pan, a white feather. Also a vessel of water, burning incense, yin-yang symbol, and star map of Libra. 3 Priestesses and Priests, Northeast, Southeast and Northwest. Priestesses wear gold circlets with 7-pointed star and violet robes; Priests wear orange headdresses and yellow robes. Women Companions in violet, men in yellow. 3 Companions - at North, East and Southwest.

1st Priest: Companions on the quest for Truth and Justice, know that in many ancient lands the constellation of Libra, when in the House of the Autumnal Equinox, was revered as portraying Justice, through the equal balancing of day and night, summer and winter. In Egypt, the Goddess Maat was depicted presiding over the weighing of the Heart on the Scales of Justice. The Heart was balanced in the Northern pan against Her Ostrich Feather of Truth, whose every frond responds to the Breath of Spirit.

1st Priestess: (places her finger on center of scales and offers incense) I offer incense to Thee, Maat, Goddess of Truth! We pray to Thee with the words used by Thy devotees in Ancient Egypt. This prayer was recited by the departed soul in the Judgement Hall of the God Osiris, as the Heart was weighed against the Feather of Goodness and Truth. (stands by feather)

2nd Priestess: (places finger by red rose, Northwest) My heart, my Mother, my Heart, my Mother! My heart whereby I came into being! May naught stand up to oppose me at the Judgement; may there be no opposition to me in the presence of the sovereign Princes; may there be no parting of Thee from me in the presence of Him that keepeth the Balance. Thou art my Ka, the Dweller in my body, the God Khnemu Who knitteth and strengtheth my limbs. Mayest Thou come forth into the place of happiness whither we go! May the Shenit, Who form the conditions of the lives of men, not make my name to be of ill repute! Let it be satisfactory unto us, and let the listening be satisfactory unto us, and let there be joy of heart unto us at the weighing of words! Let not that which is false be uttered against me before the great God, the Lord of Amentet. Verily how great shalt thou be when thou riseth in triumph!

1st Priest: (offers incense, centre) I offer incense to Thee, Thoth, God of Wisdom, Sacred Ibis, Husband to Maat. Thy wing is upon the east side of the Ladder of the Deities. Homage to Thee, O Divine Thoth of the Ladder, whereby Osiris came forth into heaven, when He had made use of His magical power upon Ra, O Thou God of those whose Ka-souls ascend into Heaven! The Eye of the Goddess Uatchat is both black and white, both of the Sun and the Moon. The God Thoth hath brought the Uatchat Eye, and He hath made it to rest after it departed after the storm. So Thou, Thoth, guardeth the Eye of Wisdom from the unruly passions of men!

2nd Priest: Truth is; beyond the sun and the moon, and good and evil, and all the altercations of the mind. Justice, however, not only reveals the Truth, but also sees that the Law is maintained on earth.

2nd Priestess: (stands by feather. She offers incense, Southeast) I offer incense to Thee, the Goddess of Justice, Astraea! Starry Goddess, Thou didst depart from the race of men during the Iron Age. Thou didst once dwell on earth and met men face to face, nor ever disdained in olden time the tribes of men and women, but mingling with them took Thy seat, immortal though Thou art. Thou, men called Justice. Thou, assembling the elders, it might be in the marketplace or in the wide-wayed streets, uttered Thy voice, ever urging on them judgements kinder to the people. Nor yet in that age had men knowledge of hateful strife, nor carping contention, nor din of battle, but a simple life they lived. Far from them was the cruel sea and not yet from afar did ships bring their livelihood, but rather the oxen and the plough; and Thou, Justice itself and Queen of the peoples, Giver of things just, abundantly supplied their every need!

3rd Priestess: Even so long as the earth still nurtured the Golden Race, Thou hadst Thy dwelling on earth. In the Silver Age wast Thou still upon the earth. But when Thou hadst filled the great heights with gathering crowds, then wouldst Thou rebuke their evil ways, and declare that never more at their prayer wouldst Thou reveal Thy face to men! And Thou didst utter these words: "Behold what manner of race the fathers of the Golden Age left behind them! Far meaner than themselves! But ye will breed a viler progeny! Verily wars and cruel bloodshed shall be unto men and grievous woe shall be laid upon them." And the Race of Bronze were born who were the first to forge the Sword and the first to eat of the flesh of the ploughing ox. Then verily didst Thou, Justice, loathe that race of men and fly heavenward, and took up Thy abode in the stars.

1st Priestess: Let us sing a loftier strain! Now is come the last age of the song of Cumae, the Prophetic Sybil; the great line of the centuries begins anew! Now the Virgin Astraea returns, the Age of Saturn returns; a new generation descends from Heaven on high. Only do Thou, pure Lucina, smile on the birth of Children from Heaven under Whom the Iron Brood shall cease, and a Golden Race spring up throughout the world!

2nd Priest: (Southeast) I offer incense to Thee, the Titan Saturn. I speak the words of the Sage, and lay it upon your hearts - how the Gods and mortal men sprang from one source! First of all the deathless Deities made a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos, when He was reigning in Heaven. And in this Age of Saturn they lived like Gods without sorrow of heart, and remote and free from toil and grief; miserable age rested not on them; they made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all evils. And they had all good things; for the fruitful earth unforced bore them fruit abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, rich in flocks and beloved of the Blessed Deities. Know that the Deities also sent pure Spirits to dwell on the earth, who are kindly, delivering from harm and Guardians of mortal men. They still roam everywhere over the earth, clothed in Mist, and keep watch on judgements and cruel deeds and they are givers of good.

2nd Priest: The mist parts, and we may know Deities and Guardians once more! The Divine Virgin Astraea is seen shining brightly by many who have the innocence of children. And those who bring forth Thy new age, O Saturn, will give straight judgements to strangers and the men of the land and go not aside from what is just. Their cities will flourish, and the people prosper in them. Peace, the nurse of children, will be abroad in all lands, and all-seeing Zeus never will decree cruel war against them. Neither famine nor disaster will haunt men who do true justice; but light-heartedly they shall tend the fields which are all in their care.

3rd Priest: The earth shall bear them victual in plenty, and on the mountains the oaks shall bear acorns. with bees in their midst. Woolly sheep shall be laden with fleeces; the women shall bear fine children like unto their parents. They shall flourish continually with good things, for the grain-giving earth will bear them fruit. But for those who practice violence and cruel deeds, far-seeing Zeus, the son of Cronos, ordains a punishment, famine and plague; and evil men shall perish and their women bear no children, and the Son of Cronos shall destroy their wide armies and make an end of their ships! For the deathless Gods are near among men and mark all those who oppress their fellows, and reck not the anger of the Gods.

1st Priest: For upon the bounteous earth Zeus hath thrice ten thousand Spirits, Watcher of mortal men, and these keep watch on judgements and deeds of wrong. For these Watchers roam all over the earth, clothed in mist. And the Virgin Astraea is honoured and reverenced among the Gods who dwell on Olympus, and whenever anyone hurts Her, who is Divine Justice, with lying slander, the people pay for the mad folly of their rulers. Keep watch and make straight your judgements!

1st Priest: The scales of Justice show forth the unbalance of our evil Iron Age. Cold logic ignores intuition, and a demand for power bereft of charity leads to annihilating wars. Greed brings the poisoning of the earth, and we are helpless before calamities brought on by ourselves. We who mean well yet do ill! Who may save us even at this eleventh hour, before the Cosmic Clock strikes our Doom?

1st Priestess: It is taught by the Sages of the East that all Nature is balanced between two forces, Black and White, Yin and Yang. Those of the West who have conquered the physical world are dominated by Yang. Eastern Sages who meditated while their lands were invaded, were influenced by Yin. Women who have been ruled by men during this Iron Age have been passive through Yin. Yet we have mistaken this force as only bringing meekness and submission. In reality it is Yin which rules the Inner Sphere of Divine Intuition. It brings the qualities of compassion and wisdom.

1st Priest: That Yin may balance the domination of Yang at the end of this Age of Iron, may the Goddess Kwan Yin be invoked!

1st Priestess: (offers incense by rose at Northwest) I offer incense to the Goddess of Mercy, Kwan Yin. Thou who doth hear the cry of the world, come to us! Thou art the Great Mother, the Loving Sophia, Bringer of children, the Divine Voice of the soul. It is Thy melodious voice that calls the soul to penitence. When Thou didst see that humanity was living in poverty and hardship and was near to starvation, Thou wast moved to pity. Thou didst go secretly into the rice fields and squeezed Thy breasts so that Thy milk flowed into the ears of the rice plants.

2nd Priestess: The Goddess Kwan Yin, as Boddhisvattva, aided the Monk Tripitaka, Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy to bring the Mahayana scriptures to China. In verity these figures represent humanity: the Monk being the Spirit; Monkey, the restless intellect; Sandy the simple worker and Pigsy with his muck rake, the body! To help Monkey, Kwan Yin arose from Her Lotus Seat, left Her Faery cave, and riding on a beam of magic Light, crossed the Southern Sea and reached the river of Eagle Grief. Here she found Monkey uttering ferocious curses. Monkey at once sprang into the air and shouted at her . . . 'You've played a fine trick on me. Why did you give me a cap that I can't get off, and whenever a spell is uttered I have frightful pains in the head? 'O Monkey,' said Kwan Yin, laughing, 'if it were not controlled in some such way as this, there would be no doing anything with, you!' Through such control over his brain and through the practice of humility, Monkey attained Buddhahood along with the Monk. Let us, like Monkey, accept the control of the Goddess of the Lotus.

2nd Priestess places water on the brow of Companions.

1st Priest: (Northwest) We venerate the Boddhisatva Avalokitesvara, He Who as a mortal man attained Buddhahood, and then surrendered Nirvana in order to aid all beings in need of salvation. Yet in that surrender He gained Nirvana on earth, for Nirvana is nothing to the ignorant, and all-pervading to those with loving hearts.

1st Priest: That perfect balance be maintained, may the Three Guardians of the Constellation of Libra be honoured!

1st Companion: (North) I hail the Guardians of Zuben-el-Chamali, the Northern Star of Libra. Divine Goddess Beltis, of the Emerald Star, Who doth put down the mighty and lifteth up the poor and rejected, bestow on us Thy mercy!

2nd Companion: (East) I hail the Guardians of Muli-izi, the Eastern Star of Libra. Bright God Laterak, Star-Fire, give us courage and strong will to maintain Justice!

3rd Companion: (Southwest) I hail the Guardians of Zubenhakrabi, the white star that holds the balance of the scales. May Green Star and Red Star, Love and Truth, day and night, sun and moon, male and female, be brought into harmony with the Music of the Spheres.

2nd Priestess: Companions let us dance the encircling movement of the Yin Yang forces, bringing them into harmony!

Music; works by Pouleng, DeBussy and Mahler are suitable. Companions start with 2 separate circles of men and women. They move into spirals and end in one circle, man alternating with woman, hands held together to form a star.

2nd Priest: The words 'Kwan Yin' mean 'One who Watches' and 'the Yin Power'. Let us make the Melodious sound of the Divine Name.

Companions sing the name of Kwan Yin starting very softly at different tempos and notes, women high, men low. As the sound becomes louder a symphony of harmony is attained and the sound dies away. Ice-cold power may be felt in head and hot power in heart. These should be circulated up spine and through the whole body. Rose and pale green aurae may be seen.

1st Priestess: (shows star map of Libra) Companions, let us contemplate the constellation of Libra, which we see as a triangle. On the Left stands the Serpent Holder, Ophiuchus, the Healer, holding the twisting serpent whose bite brings ecstasy. Above the point of the triangle shines Bootes, the Ox-Herd, Son of the Bear Goddess Callisto of the Northern sky. The Scorpion's claws are at the left point of the triangle, and on the right is the Virgin with Her wheat sheaf. Libra brings the Scorpion and the Virgin into harmony, yet it was in the House of Libra that Pluto bore Persephone from Virgo, Her Mother. For Libra stands between the fruitful harvest of our lives and the rebirth of initiation in the House of Scorpio. It is in the House of Libra that we are judged in the Judgement Hall of Osiris. Here Astraea holds the scales. Yin Yang is in harmony in this house between Light and Darkness. Let us contemplate the Mystery of Libra and Kwan Yin.