Meet me in the Upper Room“Maundy” comes from the Latin term mandatum= commandment - “A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, love one another."
On Maundy Thursday a holy stillness descends. The deep red sun is setting in the west, faced by the silver disc of the rising Paschal Moon in the East. It is the curfew of Passover-tide, when the destroying Angel is out making rounds, as it did long ago in the final plague upon Egypt. Christ Jesus & His disciples have gathered in the Coen-ac-ulum - theUpper Room, which the Essene Brotherhood has placed at their service - situated on the Holy ground of Mount Zion, where a Sun-Sanctuary has existed from times immemorial.
And of course, where there is great light, there is great darkness - a counter-force - & so it was that immediately opposite that Holy place, also on its own traditional spot, stands the house of Caiaphas, the ancestral home of the Order of the Pharisees, where a circle has also gathered. They can scarcely give thought to the coming Feast, for they are actively crafting a plan of hatred & enmity. While the devout are preparing for the feast, these enemies are preparing to give the order – “Seek to arrest Him, but not at the Feast”. Unconsciously they are fulfilling part of the 23rd Psalm: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” The Pascal lamb on the table, & words of John the Baptist ring true once again: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” For thousands of years the Passover lamb was a prophetic custom, & now the fulfillment of the prophecy is at hand. A heavy spiritual foreboding fills the room; separation & tragedy rest in the air. Christ’s deed of sacrifice throws its foreshadow on the consciousness of the disciples who will soon face a heavy test themselves. Starting in that Sacred coenaculum on Mount Zion, all the ancient pre-Christian blood-sacrifices were called to forever cease. For a Divine Cosmic Being has now entered this world, carrying to Earth a seed of heavenly forces - a new moral impulse for the evolution of humanity. The Passover lamb is superseded by the pure image of the sacrificial deed of Divine Love.
For on the table of the Holy Meal, there is bread & wine. And to the astonishment of the disciples, Christ takes up these substances - creating a new covenant - & a new deed is forever imprinted into the world.
These elements are not on the table by accident. They symbolize what was a hidden initiatory rite which has always existed, & now comes to light. While the exoteric blood-sacrifices were carried out in the Temple externally by the people, High Rites were performed in hidden sanctuaries - Esoteric Sun-Mysteries - where bread & wine were always known to be the symbols of the Sun-God.
On the very spot where the Christic circle is now gathered at the Last Supper, the sanctuary of Melchizedek once stood. It was from this Holy place that he took forth bread & wine, carrying them down to the valley of Cedrone to dispense to Abraham. Now bread & wine became more than mortal food - more than occult prophetic symbols. The Divine Sun-Spirit is present in Christ - His soul surrenders itself & streams into the bread & wine. In the twilight of the Upper Room, the bread & wine are enveloped with a shining Sun-aura - they become body & blood of the Sun-Spirit Himself. All the Sun-Mysteries of antiquity were a symbolic prophecy; at this moment, they grow into fulfillment. In the transition from the blood offerings of the past, to the bloodless offering of bread & wine, the whole idea of sacrifice changed. Ancient sacrifices were always material offerings. Now the sacrifice of the soul is founded anew, & there begins the tradition of inner sacrifice - done in freedom. The lunar sacrifices of antiquity are at an end; the solar sacrifice of Christianity comes into being. Christianity, dawns with the Sunset of Maundy Thursday. By performing this significant act, Christ brings about a 4-Fold Wholeness, anticipating the four parts of the central Christian sacrament - And of which we as Anthroposophers must transform further - into the Reverse Cultus – no longer only calling the Spirit down - but rising in Spirt - rising in our soul forces of Thinking, Feeling & Willing to meet the Spiritual world, in our striving to become co-creators with source.
This is the true imagination of the 6-pointed star. We must create the triangle pointing up, to meet the triangle pointing down. This becomes the sacred alchemy of fire & water which we must metamorphose into the Dodecahedron of Love. These New Mysteries of AnthropoSophia can be consciously formed in our imagination as we continue to live into this picture of Holy Week. Before the Meal, Christ follows the custom observed in the Order of the Essenes, washing the feet of each of the disciples, including Judas. A deeply moving picture, vast in its full initiatory significance of the highest service: Christ completely surrendering Himself in loving devotion, upon which His death will soon set the seal - The meal is followed by a discourse. This is recorded by St. John in the wonderful “Farewell Discourses” where we hear 2 of the I am Statements: ‘I am the way, the truth & the life”, & “I am the true Vine’. As well as a prefiguring of the energies of the Holy Spirit. The discourse ends in the High Priestly Prayer (St. John 14-17).
The Washing of the Feet sums up in a ceremonial act the essence of Christ’s teaching: “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another.” The Washing of the Feet is the last of the parables, not just spoken, but fully enacted. It teaches Love & service as the ultimate purpose of the Christ Gospel. The stream of Cosmic Love speaks with the Spirit of Wisdom thru The Christ. This is a precursor to the Wisdom of AnthropoSophia & the unveiling of Isis, which is our task to take up now & in the future. At this stage, in order for Christ’s deed to transpire, the Sacred Round Table breaks up dramatically. St. John’s Gospel tells us: “It was night”. It is a strict regulation of the Passover that after dark no one may leave the protection of the house. If he does so, he meets the Destroying Angel. In spite of this, Judas does go out.
For it was also night within Judas - the adversarial powers possessed him. The soul of Judas could not abide the Mystery of the New Sacrament of Love & service. On the evening before, as the consecrated mood of Mary Magdalene’s anointing unfolded in the house at Bethany, he was already seized with the demon of unrest. In the Upper Room he has met the sacramental substance for the second time. There is no Peace within him, so he cannot receive the blessing of peace thru the ceremony. Instead it has the opposite effect, throwing him into the hands of the the Destroying Angel, who displaces his ego, & possesses him. Ahrimanic spirits make him their pawn. Judas storms over to the house opposite, where Caiaphas & his circle are waiting.
& yet, a golden shimmer mingles with the chilly night for the Christ has enacted this new sacred rite - renewing what was perserved in secret for 2000 years before by Melchizedek, who carried the bread & wine to Abraham - Now this bloodless sacrament is available for all humankind.
The shining aura which people reacted to on Palm Sunday radiating from the Being of Christ has now contracted into much deeper levels - like a banked fire slowing working down into the bones of the human vessel of Jesus of Nazareth. And yet on that Maundy Thursday the world receives a prefiguring of Ascension Thursday, 6 weeks later - When the seed of light, which began to grow in the Upper Room, begins to spread over the whole aura of the Earth - waiting for us to meet it. ~hag, Matthew, John & Emil Bock
You are welcome to listen to the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast on the theme of Holy Thursday. 
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