Our Dear Unknown Friend gives us the first fundamental principle of the Hermetic Path:
โLearn at first concentration without effort; transform work into play; make every yoke that you have accepted easy and every burden that you carry light!โ
Here is another side to consider of the โpelagian heresyโ. It is not that works have no place in salvation, the Church has always taught that they have their place, much to the dismay of the protestant revolutionaries, but that work must be transformed into play. To transform work into play is not to negate the work; the necessity, the purpose of the work and the means by which it is achieved, yet the state of consciousness is one of child-like awe, wonder and joy. Have you ever watched as a child makes play out of the very tasks we wearingly toil with daily? They play โkitchensโ and dress ups to go to work to do what dad does. They do what we do, but with the spirit of play. This is opposed to the consciousness of the โexiled manโ of Genesis:
โโฆcursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.โ
And this is why salvation cannot be attained through work; because any inclination toward a transcendent joy cannot be but by the grace of God.
Rudolph Steiner writing on Vladimir Solovyov and the importance he places on the resurrection of Christ says this:
โIf we look at the world, we see therein only evil, wickedness, degeneration, senselessness. If Christ had not risen, the world would be meaningless, therefore Christ has risen! Note this sentence well, for it is a cardinal saying of one of the greatest thinkers of Eastern Europe: โIf Christ had not risen the world would be senseless, therefore Christ has risen.โ Soloviev has said: โThere may be people who think it illogical when I say, if Christ had not risen the world would be senseless; therefore, Christ has risen โ but this is far better logic than any you can adduce against me.โ
If Christ is not risen then the world would be senseless, that is, the sense of the transcendent, of the eternal; it would be devoid of meaning; and joy is the by-product of meaning. The joy of the child is the joy of a world flooded with meaning and mystery.
What else can we make of all this? They err who say there is a Hermeticism apart from Christ and His victory on Calvary. Hermeticism is only made possible because of Christ crucified on Calvary Hill.
Calvary would always be the very centre of all things whether the mob called for the death of Christ or Barabas. If it had been Barabas there would be only death and nothing else. A world without the incarnation, death and resurrection of the God-man finds its meaning only in death, which is to say it has no meaning, it is nihilistic.
The joy of the Christian is in his hope, and his hope is only possible because his life is eschatological. That is, centred on the last thing, which is verily the first and everlasting thing.
Christ on the cross draws all creation unto Himself. The centre of the cross is the fulcrum point of all things and there we find the gateway to heaven, there we find all things fulfilled; the end of the world. The side-wound of the Master open to reveal His Sacred Heart which is the very life of the Holy Trinity.
Here all things find there purpose; all things concentrated to a single point. Danteโs โpuntoโ. And just as in the Commedia, it is โlove that moves the sun and other stars.โ Love, which never commits violence against another, but whispers its serenade song into the wind. The difference between authority and power that Our Dear Unknown Friend will go on to mention.
Here is โconcentration without effort, work made as playโ, and so every yoke may be easy and every burden light, even if they be the very cross of Calvary. Not that the God-man did not suffer. Our Dear Unknown Friend goes on to say later that the Christic Revelation is not devoid of tears, in fact it grants the gift of tears.
J.R.R Tolkien speaks often and his works resound with that bitter-sweetness peculiar to the Christian life. Just as a child at play will suffer tears yet they will not cease playing, that is, until they grow up and the dryness of the world also has dried up their tears. And unless the wellspring of life break through their aged and arid heart like the bursting of a dam, they shall never truly weep.
And so it is this that is the mystery of Christian joy and the key to the spiritual life and the Hermetic Path, ringing true with the words of G.K Chesterton:
โIt might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden, heaven is a playground โฆ to be so good that one can treat everything as a joke โ that may be perhaps the real end and final holiday of human souls.โ
And of course the Master Himself states plainly: โโฆ unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.โ (St. Matthew 18:3)
