Spiritual knowledge can be embraced by groups of people or individuals and those who work to acquire, teach, disseminate and safeguard the precious information are entitled to be honored as torchbearers of the light.
Astrology was the first science and over time, as new astrological data was discovered, its knowledge-base gradually grew and expanded.
Since its beginnings many civilizations – the Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans and Arabs – have made major contributions to astrology’s knowledge.
The Brotherhood of Light also acquired astrological knowledge which it presents as the Hermetic system of astrology.
As a practical – self-development – system of astrology it differs somewhat to the more popular event-based astrology.
During the Age of Pisces many astrological assumptions were accepted on blind belief without being carefully assessed and tested.
And during this mystical Age the ancient teachings regarding life after physical death were acquired by seers and mediums who may or may not have acquired and documented authentic information.
Whatever, the astrologer or seer who acquired spiritual truths and who carried the torch of astrological knowledge along the path of time was a torchbearer of the light.
And every now and then the light shone brightly.
Akhenaten
History records the birth of a child in about 1388 BC.
At this time Amenism, with its magical rites, its many gods, its complicated rituals, and its host of corrupt priests, was Egypt’s official religion.
On the death of his father, king Amenhotep III, his older brother became king and remained in the orthodox faith.
Then when Amenhotep was 19 or 20 his brother died and he became king.
It was at this time that he contacted the spiritual source of the Brotherhood of Light teachings.
He perceived that the orthodox religion of Amen kept the minds of the people confused as to reality, steeped in fear, servile to the priests and shut from the true spiritual knowledge.
When he became one of the Brethren of Light Amenhotep determined to spread the gospel of the Religion of the Stars to his people.
Aten means light and to indicate to his subjects that he was a Brother of the Light, he called himself Akhenaten, meaning ‘living in the light’.
He eradicated the worship of the numerous gods and elementals and taught his people that there was a single, supreme, all pervading spiritual Deity, symbolized by Aten, or Light.
Archaeological references state that Akhenaten reigned from 1353 to 1336 BC and during his 17 year reign he had the satisfaction of building up a superior culture, and of observing his people devoted to the religion of Light – The Religion of the Stars.
This was the only time in history that the Religion of the Stars was adopted by a nation as a whole.
Akhenaton was a brother of the light.
Ptolemy and other torchbearers
Claudius Ptolemy was a Roman mathematician and geographer who was born about 90 AD.
He lived in Egypt and worked at the Library in Alexandria.
There he wrote a treatise on the ancient principles of horoscopic astrology.
His book, Tetrabiblos, summarized and logically sequenced the astrological knowledge of the ancients.
Ptolemy was a torchbearer of the light.
Iamblichus (245-325AD), a Syrian Neoplatonist, was an initiate of the Brotherhood of Light.
And Paracelsus (1493-1541), a Swiss German physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer and occultist, was a torchbearer of the spiritual light.
He conducted an iconoclastic rebellion against the conservative medical orthodoxy of his day and introduced bold, new ideas in medicine and healing.
More recent torchbearers
Emma Hardinge Britten (1823-1899) was a famous medium at the height of the spiritualist movement in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
She translated and edited two books – Art Magic and Ghost Land – and introduced the Brotherhood of Light’s teachings on astral life after physical death to America.
She published Art Magic in 1876.
Her books, which present information acquired by an unknown medium, were the outstanding expositions of Brotherhood of Light teachings at the time.
Emma was a torchbearer of the light.
And so was Max Théon (1848-1927).
Theon was associated with the Brotherhood of Light in Europe.
He was a medium, psychic healer and teacher of exalted principles which he acquired psychically from discarnate members of the Brotherhood of Light.
In 1884 he inspired the establishment of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor in Britain which was formed to teach and disseminate the light of spiritual knowledge.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
