JUPITER


Is the dwelling place of God anywhere but in the earth and sea, the air and sky', and virtue? Why seek we further for deities? Whatever you see, whatever you touch, that is Jupiter.

LUCAN

 One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the colossal statue of Jupiter by Phidias rose to celebrate the celestial realm. His creative potency exulted in the generous expression of the sculptor's hands, though they produced only the palest reflection of his demiurgic rulership. For, muted was his voice in stone compared to the roaring vastitudes of his uttered word. Diminished and circumscribed was his kingly visage in the far-flung presence of the universe, his cosmic face. His effigy, though awesome to the eyes of the ancients, was like a grain of salt extruded from a depthless sea, to crystallize for a moment in the sun before dissolving in the solution of its source. His noble image took shape out of the dust of celestial substance, mirroring in anthropic form the emergence of the great planet which bears his name.

 Planets shape their lives, crystallizing as they swirl forth from their hidden source. Some are like gods in formation, mysterious and shrouded, whilst others are small and dense, like the earth. But only one vies with the sun itself in grandeur and size. Only one commands the heavens like a universal sky god, ruling over the inner and outer globes as a surrogate of the solar orb. Like the colossal statue named for it, the planet Jupiter surpasses all others of its kind. This is only fitting, for the supreme throne of heaven could not be thought to reside in any lesser mansion, nor could celestial rulership be conducted from a dais less dazzling. From the earliest dawn of human history, men and women have approached the majesty of the god and his planet as supplicants bowed in prayer, seeking grace which only the king of the gods could bestow. The very mantras and chants they intoned were believed to be given through his grace. The word of worship on their lips was his Word, and their obeisance before him was complete and central to their grasp of reality. He was always the Alfader, the All-encompassing One made manifest, whose remote orb in the heavens shone more brightly than any others and seemed less dim than Venus only because of the latter's proximity to our globe.

 His abode is far more distant, lying beyond the belt of asteroids in the glacial fields of outer space. Those who approach his throne do so only by travelling immense distances and submitting themselves to a vastitude so great as to eclipse utterly their egotistic sense of independent origin. One may imagine oneself in a powerful spacecraft flying out through darkness for months and drawing gradually closer to an orb so enormous and of such brilliance that it would absorb the darkness all around it and become the whole of one's vista. As the craft drew closer and entered the powerful fields and radiations of Jupiter, one would be overwhelmed by what would seem a great wall of gleaming, gaseous bands set with swirling jewels of opal and ruby hue. Riffles and eddies of azure and golden clouds would flute their way through the folds of this regal vesture, which seems to be crown and robe and sceptre all at once. One would be utterly overpowered in this presence. There would be nothing other than it to contemplate, and even its satellites, which are as large as Mercury or our moon, would seem like tiny ball-bearings rolling between its looming immensity and one's infinitesimally small spacecraft. Be one astronaut or seeker of God, there is little doubt that the initial encounter would envelop one's consciousness and permanently alter one's sense of place in the cosmos, as well as one's sense of selfhood.

 Jupiter has come to signify the supreme virtues of judgement and volition. As supreme ruler, he embodies cosmic law and divine justice, marked by the four pillars of space, the four corners of the square and the four elements. Bounded space and Pythagorean limit belong to him, as also the power of organization and intellectual direction to establish order. He is the wise benefactor of the cosmos whose influence upon humanity is harmonizing and conducive to realignment with the source. Meru is the name of his throne which, though associated with his planet, is also linked with the heavenly pole or pole-star, the door leading from the invisible to the visible world. The Greeks of Alexandria appended the title Ammon to his name, calling him Jupiter-Ammon or Amen, which means 'concealed or hidden'. The priests of Egyptian Thebes declared that he contained the mysterious power which created and sustained the universe, and hence joined his name to that of Ra, the supreme solar god. But they also called his planet Heru-ap-sheta, 'the revealer of hidden and secret things', an aspect of his arcane nature which relates to the Vedic function of Brihaspati, who protected and concealed the sacred Word while also being involved in its authoritative pronouncement.

 Brihaspati is the ruler and spiritual guru of the gods, who are transmitters of the creative forces of the cosmos. When his wife Tara (signifying a seeker initiated into Gupta Vidya) leaves him for Soma, who has the initiatory power to make a new person of the reborn postulant, Brihaspati is revealed to be the upholder of the letter and form of scriptural sanction instead of its intuitive realization in the immortal souls of ardent aspirants. Brihaspati thus represents the exoteric or ritualistic form of worship which one finds in all popular or folk religions. But the Rig Veda also alludes to him as Brahmanaspati, "the deity in whom the action of the worshipped upon the gods is personified". This suggests that the magnetic action upon the gods by the material object of worship evokes a grace which is released through Brahmanaspati, the object of worship being, ultimately, none other than himself. In this way, he is the indispensable agent (hotri) for the descent of grace through ritual worship and religious ceremonies. But though these may degenerate in time into mechanical observances maintained by hereditary priestcraft to preserve a profitable and vicarious interaction between man and God, the Word made flesh can continue to transmit the vital germ of the potent sound of primeval hierophants. Magic may linger in mystery temples wherein sacred mantras were uttered in days of old by Initiates who knew the language of the gods, whom they invoked in the 'tongue' of their respective element with sounds, numbers and figures. Such sacred mantras are the talismanic keys opening the door between mortals and immortals. They are the immemorial gift of Jupiter to the meditative and magnanimous mind and must not be confused with the exoteric ritual of orthodox and self-perpetuating élites.

 Jupiter is the Orphic Demiurgos whose creative will releases in the constellation of Sagittarius the generative powers of the nine Prajapatis who cooperate in the architectonic construction of the cosmos. These nine form with Jupiter a decad, which unfolds as three successive triads — initial, creative and manifesting — each bringing forth the descending emanations of the Divine Mind which expands, radiates and ultimately illuminates the mental vestures of gods, monads and atoms. Thus, Jupiter is the androgynous Logos, the pater omnipotens aether, the omnipresent deific essence of the imponderable akasha. When contained in manifestation he becomes Jupiter Mundus, the deus mundus, or one mundane god who incorporates all others into himself and is variously known as Adonai, Jehovah, Zeus, Odin, Pan-Jupiter, Brihaspati and by many other names. He is that power which creates the specific terrestrial symbol, and the physical and material fabric of the latter, "which proves the Energy manifesting through it as extrinsic ". Embodying the whole and ruling over it, the very nature of his embodiment, his order and his organization suggests a necessary limitation which cannot be ascribed to the inexhaustible Divine Source.

 As the invisible Logos, with its seven hierarchies (represented or personified each by its chief angel or rector), form one POWER, the inner and the invisible; so, in the world of Forms, the Sun and the seven chief Planets constitute the visible and active potency; the latter 'Hierarchy' being, so to speak, the visible and objective Logos of the invisible and (except in the lowest grades) ever-subjective angels.

The Secret Doctrine

 The descent of the active potency is dramatically conveyed in the story of Leda, who, when suddenly pursued by Zeus, assumed the form of a swan. This form is associated with the commencement of Time's cycles and is productive of the fabled egg mentioned in many ancient tales, ultimately signifying the World Egg. Not to be frustrated in his fervour, Zeus gained his mate in the guise of the Divine Swan, thus ensuring the formation of the egg and the birth of Castor and Pollux, night and day incarnate. In fathering the World Egg and the Egg-born, Zeus or Jupiter represents the immutable cyclic law of evolution which inexorably determines human progress. He overbroods karma and arrests the downward tendency of each Root Race after attaining the zenith of its glory. With the egg-born Third Race, humanity began to determine its own destiny within the framework of cosmic law. Each human race, developing through a series of collective causes and shared effects, weaves its own greatness and eventual decline. The spiritual truths which each keeps alive are protected, concealed and preserved by Jupiter, whose beneficence thwarts the forces that would corrupt them. He does this by unleashing tremendous cataclysms, such as those which resulted in the submersion of Atlantis, when all the gods under his leadership abandoned the earth, whose meridian then became parallel with the ecliptic of the sun.

 The celestial order commanded by Jupiter may be seen as the reflection of the cosmic ideation (chit) of Vishnu Narayana. The primordial utterance of the Word on descending levels provides the basis and inspiration for all sacred mantras, sovereign laws and sacrificial ceremonies. The Supreme Energy marshalled through his majestic rulership has its origin in the supernal realm of Non-being, in the Divine Darkness of parabrahm. Out of this mysterious Unknown pulsates the pristine ray of the First Logos, followed by the akashic resonance of the Second Logos, from which the formation of the cosmic egg surrounding mahat, the Third Logos, is made possible. This ordered progression lays the basis for the invisible cosmos emerging from chaos. Subsequently, a more material expression of chaos is emanated through the descent of the Kumaras, and this is construed in mythic terms as the War in Heaven. Out of this war re-emerges order in a concretized form, but it is an order inversus which, from the human standpoint, must be seen as a mere shadow play of the celestial order.

 Jupiter rules on all these levels of emergent order as the surrogate of the sun, whom Pythagoras called his guardian. At the highest and most ethereal level, he acts on behalf of the hidden Spiritual Sun and, descending, he acts on behalf of its masks, until in the physical world he appears to rule as a delegate of the visible solar orb. For even on the purely physical plane there is a special relationship between Jupiter and the sun. Calculations of the thermal history of the planet show that when it was formed, Jupiter was ten times bigger than it now is, and its central temperature was fifty thousand degrees Kelvin (as opposed to its present temperature of thirty thousand degrees Kelvin). Its initial brightness was one percent of that of the sun, yet now (although it is by far the most brilliant sphere in our system apart from the sun) it is only one-billionth as bright. Such a remarkable history has stimulated observers to surmise that Jupiter may have originally been an unequal partner in a binary star system rather than merely a product of the sun.

 In the last century, Mahatma K.H., responding to enquiries about the satellites of Jupiter, which are two hundred and eighty-eight times more dense than their primary, wrote that "the centrifugal theory of Western birth is unable to cover all the ground". Other questions also not adequately treated by it are why Jupiter, having an equatorial rotation speed twenty-seven times that of the earth's and being one-fifth as dense as the earth, should be compressed seventeen times more than the earth at its poles. Modern science straddles these various facts, hypothesizing along the lines of a binary assumption while keeping alive more conventional explanations. Some have thought that the origin of the giant planet may indeed be like that of a star. In the nebula from which the sun condensed, there may have been a second region wherein the density was sufficient for matter to collapse under its own gravitation. Owing to its low mass (relative to that of the sun), the internal temperature of this newly forming body never became hot enough to start nuclear fusion, leaving the mass to condense and then cool. An alternative hypothesis poses the possibility that a high-density iron core initially formed itself and then captured part of the nebula from which the sun was formed. The problem with this latter hypothesis lies in the fact that if Jupiter does possess an iron core, it is likely to be very small, but both hypotheses serve to explain the similarity that exists between the composition of Jupiter and the sun.

 If one attempts to consider the solar system as a whole, one notices that the sun is overwhelmingly larger than the planets surrounding it. In terms of the distribution of planetary mass within the system, the inner planets and their satellites comprise only one-half of one percent, a ratio which places the earth and her immediate neighbours in the ranks of near insignificance from the standpoint of size. The remaining ninety-nine and one-half percent of the planetary mass lies beyond Mars and is bound up in the giants whose orbits trace the outer regions of our solar microcosm. Looking at the entire system, one can say that dynamically the solar system is composed of two main bodies, the sun and Jupiter. This comes more sharply into focus when one considers that Jupiter's mass is twice that of all the other planets put together, and though it has only one-thousandth the mass of the sun, it is truly a centre unto itself.

 Though massive, the density of Jupiter is very low. It is thought that, deep inside, the planet must be composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, the only elements that could account for such a low density, given the planetary temperatures and pressures. Many believe that the hydrogen is largely in a liquid molecular form underlaid by liquid metallic hydrogen closer to a small iron silicate core. Others postulate a helium-rich core surrounded by a dense layer abounding in metallic hydrogen. Whichever hypothesis may be closer to the truth, they both would have to accommodate the outstanding fact that Jupiter possesses a powerful internal source of energy equal to the absorption of solar energy. In fact, Jupiter radiates twice as much energy as it absorbs from the sun, and its atmosphere is driven by this rather than by solar energy. It also has a magnetic field which is intrinsic and very powerful. This field (which is eight times more powerful than the earth's) floats on top of Jupiter's cloud deck and becomes very distorted further out because of a huge belt of plasma made up of hydrogen ions and electrons which surrounds and co-rotates with the planet. This creates a magnetosphere in the shape of a huge disc, which is countered by the solar winds on the sun-side of the planet, but elongates in an enormous magnetotail on the other side which stretches as far as Saturn (that is, as far from Jupiter as Jupiter is from the sun). As the magnetic axis of this field is ten percent off from the planet's rotation axis, it flops up and down like a broad-brimmed summer hat in a rippling wind and casts off electrons and ions which fall through space, reaching the atmosphere of our earth.

 Within this powerful field circles a ring of fine rocky particles and at least sixteen satellites. Jupiter captures comets and asteroids into temporary satellite orbits lasting sometimes months or years, but there are some satellites which seem to be long-term members of the retinue. Four of them were discovered by Galileo in 1610 and were given the mythically appropriate names of Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, all objects of the ardour of Zeus. Inside their orbits is another moon, Amalthea, and outside them are two groups of satellites, the outer having a retrograde direction of revolution and some of them having a black appearance. Each of Jupiter's satellites are remarkably different from the others. The carboniferous soil and ice, which was the main primordial material formed in the outer regions of the solar system, predominate on the surface of some moons, giving them a dark colour. In others it may have sunk when heated, leaving a bright watery lava on the surface, or the presence of sulphur may have given some a yellow cast. It is interesting to ponder the thoughts which might have inspired Galileo to name the four he discovered as he did. Io and Europa were both associated with Zeus, one in the form of a cow doomed to wander, the other in the form of a maid abducted by Zeus in the guise of a bull. As the cow (Vach) symbolizes the passive, generative power of Nature and the bull the active force that fecundates her, the mythical names suggest significant occult possibilities concerning the relationship between Jupiter and its satellites.

Is not the only ruler of the Gods
A complete tyrant, violent to all,
Respecting none? First, being himself a God,
He burneth to enjoy a mortal maid,
And then torments her with these wanderings.

Prometheus Bound                AESCHYLUS

 Jupiter's internally driven, rapidly rotating atmosphere is far more stable than a more slowly rotating one driven by the sun, like that of the earth. Owing to this stability, large-scale changes in structure take much longer on the giant planet than on our globe. For one thing, the day and night sides of Jupiter have the same temperature. Its energy is carried to the night side by rotation much faster than it is lost from the atmosphere. Heat coming from the surface sets up convection currents and enters the atmosphere, where it rises in bright latitudinal zones and subsides in alternating darker belts. In addition to molecular hydrogen and helium, these zones and belts are comprised of small particles of frozen ammonia, methane and possibly hydrogen sulphide in the lower layers. The tops of the bright zones extend out twenty kilometers higher than the ruddy-coloured belts, creating a furrowed effect. The surface of Jupiter is completely covered with these cloudy zones and bands which whirl rapidly at varying rates. Those at the equator move faster than those at higher and lower latitudes, whilst the internal rate of movement is different from both. As it does not have a solid surface which can be seen, Jupiter's visible features are always changing. The only permanent feature which has been observed over a period of time is a gigantic crimson area known as the Great Red Spot, which drifts at twenty-two degrees south latitude, sometimes ahead of and sometimes behind the zones and belts of the higher and lower latitudes.

 Remarkably, the Great Red Spot does not seem to be fixed to a solid surface. Its rotation period is not constant as it wanders over a wide range of longitude, covering more than three revolutions in the last century. This movement is in both an easterly and a westerly direction at a median rate of about one meter per second with respect to the cloud formations making up the zones and belts. Nor does the size of the Great Red Spot remain the same. In the early 1880s it was extremely large, measuring thirty-eight thousand, five hundred kilometers long and thirteen thousand, eight hundred kilometers wide, a surface area equal to that of the earth. In 1878 it began to wax and become really prominent when it developed from a pink oval to a brick-red area. But in 1882 this started to fade. Since then, from time to time it has actually become almost invisible, though it could be located by its characteristic hollow, which has been recorded in drawings dating back to 1664. The spot revived for a while in 1939 and was very prominent from 1962 to 1965. But in 1966 it began to fade, becoming extremely weak until the latter part of 1968, when it suddenly began to regain its former prominence.

 The temperature within the Great Red Spot is lower than its surroundings and there seems to be less gas above it. It also extends eight kilometers above the surrounding cloud tops, the material rising in the centre of it and moving outward to descend at the edge in a counter-clockwise motion. As it looks and behaves like a giant whirlpool, the most popular explanation of the Great Red Spot is that it is the vortex of a long-lived cyclone, a speculative hypothesis which is unsupported by further evidence. The observation of small dark objects which have been carried around within the Great Red Spot for a week or two, before being either ejected into the surrounding clouds or swallowed up, is indeed suggestive. They swirl around for a week or two like pieces of wood in a maelstrom and then disappear. In January of 1966 a small dark spot was observed as it moved along the edge of the South Temperate Belt. It approached the Great Red Spot on its southern side, circulated around it one and one-half times within nine days, and disappeared. During 1967 four similar spots appeared (two of them from the South Equatorial Belt on the north side of the Great Red Spot), which circled part way around the spot for a period of twelve days before disappearing. It is fascinating to speculate on the nature of these tiny dark bodies. From some descriptions they seem to originate within the Great Red Spot, from others they seem to come from outside it. Perhaps they represent two completely different types of objects.

 The nature of the Great Red Spot continues to be a mystery. At one time astronomers thought it was some sort of solid island floating in a dense atmosphere. Now it is recognized that a solid substance could not have a sufficiently low density to float in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. More recently it has been suggested that the spot may be the top of a column of fluid caused perhaps by a local feature of the magnetic field or by the internal convection motions. Or it may be that, after all, it is the vortex of a cyclone, which can be expected to have a very long life because of the extremely slow rate at which major changes in the circulation of Jupiter's atmosphere take place. But if one tries to look at this extraordinary feature from the point of view of ancient myths, one is led to consider the possibility that the Great Red Spot has to do with immensely powerful procreative impulsions which have been paralleled by its waxing and waning over the centuries. These impulsions can be seen as engendered within a body which is basically androgynous but which, nonetheless, is strongly affected by the ionosphere of Io and the perturbations caused by Europa and Ganymede in its inner magnetosphere. The great storms of radio emissions from Jupiter take place in bursts which tend to occur when Io (and to a lesser extent Europa) is in certain positions in her orbit. The radiation released in these bursts streams through space, fecundating it and the other planets of the solar system, just as the mythical Jupiter ceaselessly does.

 One can perceive a correspondence between the Great Red Spot and this process, finding in it a fusion of linga and yoni which acts as a vivifying agent in some sort of parthenogenesis, whereby the subtle layers of Jupiter are impregnated and rendered capable of discharging their seed into the cosmos. The role of Io and the other satellites could be viewed as the presence of a passive (female) agent, providing elements in differing combinations and determining the flow of Jupiter's vivifying emissions. Or perhaps the spot is an umbilicus through which the seeds of Jovian power pass from generation to generation, circling in to be transmitted out again. Perhaps this is what is represented, even on the physical plane, by the tiny dark spots that appear and disappear in and around the swirling vortex. Voyager I and II gave us spectacular pictures and insights into many of Jupiter's mysteries. The spacecraft Galileo, which is to be launched in October 1989, should drop a probe into the giant planet's atmosphere in late 1995 and may well provide evidence relevant to these correspondences.

 There are, however, even more mysterious phenomena which impinge upon the occult interpretation of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot. Mahatma K.H. once observed that, though the relative distance between planets is fairly constant, our entire solar system is shifting its position in space. This shift, which is relative to stars and other suns, seems imperceptible to us, but in the future Jupiter and certain other planets which now conceal millions of stars from our view will suddenly "let us have a peep at a few of the Raja-Suns they are now hiding". He went on to explain that behind Jupiter there is a 'king-star' that no mortal eye has seen during this Fourth Round. The Raja-Star is a world thousands of times larger than Jupiter, even though, if we could see it, it would appear as a tiny dimensionless point. It is composed of metallic substances which are expanding and transforming themselves into aeriform fluids, which was the state of our earth and its six sister globes before the First Round. Referring to the great Jovian storms, Mahatma K.H. pointed out that "the violent disturbance of its [Jupiter's] atmosphere, and even its red spot that so intrigues science lately, are due (1) to that shifting [of the whole system] and (2) to the influence of that Raja-Star".

 As all systems are revolving in the universe, so also relative motions and factors of distance would indeed make certain bodies visible or invisible at different times. If the Raja-Star influences the activity of Jupiter and we can associate this activity with a mighty hidden creative power related to the Word, the occult position of Jupiter relative to our sun needs to be further scrutinized. In order to do this, let us approach the subject through the journey of the human soul as it comes into the rulership represented by Jupiter. Overcoming trishna or craving in the battlefield associated with Mars, the immortal soul comes into the region of a necessary rulership over the lower nature (elements), which is an embodiment of cosmic justice and law. This releases the forces of Jupiter acting in Sagittarius and brings to light the hidden truths of religion, philosophy and science as well as concerning the latent psychic powers of humanity. When individuals come under the direct influence of Jupiter, the immortal soul passes into Sagittarius, where it gathers up the fruits of its past and submits them to the 'synthetic influence' of the ruler of this sign. Sagittarius represents the ninth stage of the soul's odyssey. It is opposite Gemini and, like that earlier phase, marks a germinal point in soul evolution. The ego has assimilated all the experiences of the outer world and now begins to derive from namarupa, the lower vesture, the seeds of a permanent astral for the pilgrimage ahead.

 The Promethean fire of Fohat is reflected in Sagittarius as a mighty weapon for the rending of the walls that surround the separative self. The Word can now be intoned not merely to proliferate outer worlds, as in the past, but even more to pierce the membrane surrounding inner worlds, to penetrate the wall of Leda's egg and enter into the etheric realm of the radiant cosmic egg. In this way, one may see the Great Red Spot as an aperture opening onto an ethereal world. One opens a hidden doorway and, gazing up, sees great clouds rising above the Himalayas and realizes that they are the true Himalayas. One observes the ever-shifting atmosphere of Jupiter and its travelling Red Spot and becomes aware that form and substance are merely the elements of change hiding deeper quintessential realities. Rulership does not have to do with robes, though the emperor without them may find it difficult to rule in the material world. Rulership has to do with true authority over those who act as moral agents. As soon as one grasps this fact, one can readily see that the rulership of Jupiter does not require power or force, but rather the steady emission of akashic currents bearing forth Divine Law through the agencies of all in alignment with it.

 Just as there is a correlation between the Word and impregnation at all levels, so too there is a correlation between the cosmic egg and the ovum fertilized on the physical plane. Drawing away from the physical aspects of procreation and even the mythic exploits of a creative god, one can move into the supernal realm of the sacred Word, into the fecund region of the egg which is indeed consubstantial with one's germinating permanent astral. In seeking this mystical initiation, the soul slips through the door of the Great Red Spot and enters into the presence of a truly regal Jupiter, whose auric light is a pristine reflection of the Spiritual Sun. And what is the role of the Raja-Star in this initiation? Will it then reveal its radiance? Will it cast our physical sun in shadow? Perhaps the mystic blue of the cosmic egg will suggest the answer, for the auric light of the hidden Jupiter encompasses an ethereal realm and yet reflects the divine light of daiviprakriti which lies beyond. Our physical sun is the fiery mask of the hidden sun. In our system it is the glorious facade of an infinite noumenal source of spiritual life. Similarly, the Raja-Star is the resplendent mask of the Hidden Sun, a mask so much larger and more brilliant than our own sun that its sphere of influence must be far greater than that belonging to our solar orb. The demiurgic quality of rulership is pinpointed in Jupiter, suggesting that the Raja-Star acts as an ancient focal point for the exercise of divine sovereignty over the cosmos. Standing behind Jupiter yet invisible to earthlings, this massive star must act as a channel through which unheard utterances and vibrations resonate in space and, vivifying its representative in our solar system, are transmitted in Jovian storms to all the other planets.

 The supreme virtues of wise judgement and benevolent will belonging to Jupiter can stimulate the higher, expansive mind of human beings and illuminate the lesser mental vesture even now, in the dawning Aquarian Age presided over by Punarvasu (Pollux). It is not necessary to wait the immensity of time required before our shifting system reveals the Raja-Star in order to gaze upon its light. Just as it beams upon the material Jupiter and influences its impact upon our solar system, so too the higher intellect of men and women can become suffused with ineffable light streaming from ovoid systems far greater and more ethereal than can be imagined by the finite mind. This pristine light will transmit itself to the lesser vestures, not in explosive bursts necessitated by the imbalances in the outer world of the male and female forces operating in Nature, but in harmonious currents blessing every level of being. This divine harmony is a sublime reflection of the sacred Word manifest as universal law. It is accompanied sometimes with words that heal and teach, sometimes with the deepest silence that can soothe and save. It is the balancing intonation of the most beneficent mantras and it is the mystic peace of unspoken wisdom. It is revealed to the regenerate soul ready for supreme initiation, yet concealed from those who persist in seeing only Jupiter's outer robes.

 To the enlightened individual who comes to know that power and force are but the lowest outer garbs of divine will, the secret and sovereign wisdom of Jupiter may be intimated. The scattered knowledge garnered through myriad incarnations will be sifted and synthesized to produce an unadorned and essential realization of Self, enabling one to perceive the true nature of the cosmos within its egg. For the egg of Jupiter outlines the perimeter of that Self in its grandest and most unconditioned expression in the manifest world. Relative to the world, it is ceaselessly expansive, ceaselessly compassionate and creative of harmony. Relative to man-made law and mundane concepts of justice, it is the supreme spiritual authority capable of embracing all relationships, all events and situations and resolving them in a greater symmetry.

Not to rise in glory
Or exercise power
Do I approach thy throne.

Not with practised word
Or prayer for salvation
Do I strive to touch thy robe.

But with heart wide open,
Eyes undimmed by form,
I make obeisance to the invisible
Garment of Divine Law
Manifested in thy grace.