As seekers of greater spiritual realisation, we are seeking union with an inner form of perfection known to Rosicrucians as the Master Within, a template of perfection which already exists, fully formed, within every human being.

The Taoists, those sages of traditional China, loved saying over and over again that those whose occupation was nearest to the Truth were the farmers. Each of us, in one sense at least, is a gardener, a mystical gardener, cultivating and nurturing our sense of a spiritual presence in all things.

This is not a play on words but a very profound truth. The development of that better part of ourselves is truly a close analogy to the art of the gardener.

First of all, the ground must be prepared. This is analogous to the willingness of people to learn and be amenable to instruction.

Secondly, the seed must be suitable for the soil in which it is placed. In other words, the seed that enters the soil and sprouts, represents those people who are karmically ready to understand, rather than those who are doomed to fail even before germination begins.

Of great importance is to remember that nothing good or of lasting value is ever achieved without patience and perseverance. This is a central tenet of all true paths of spiritual unfoldment, and those who feel they are not advancing fast enough, are like novice gardeners who, having sown their seeds, grow impatient after only a few days when they see no signs of shoots appearing.

It would be well for such people to heed the old Latin saying, ‘festina lente’…, make haste slowly.

When the right inner soil has been chosen, and right inner seeds of spiritual achievement have been planted, the only fail-safe way of delivering experience and understanding of genuine quality, is to use in moderation, a ‘fertiliser’ of just the right grade and composition.

The fertiliser of your life is to nurture your inner seedlings of wisdom and experience with deliberate acts of good thoughts, good words and good deeds, little by little, a bit every day. In this way you will neither burn your inner plants nor destroy the soil in which they grow.

You will in other words, absorb and assimilate increasingly complex and profound mystical principles of living, not only with your mind, but with your whole being. The living, spiritual awareness you seek, will germinate inside you at a time of its own choosing, just as a carefully chosen seed will sprout only when it is ready, only in its own good time. To go any faster would be to risk spoiling everything and a plant that grows too fast, is spindly and lacks strength.

If you are seeking a fast route to spiritual attainment, remember that the price for entering such a path is great hardship and suffering.

Accomplishment can of course eventually come even to the impatient, but at what an extravagant price!

Certainly not a price worth paying. Our lives can be led comfortably, happily and peacefully, if we will but allow nature to germinate and grow our inner seeds of spiritual realisation at the pace nature meant them to; no faster, no slower.

There is seldom anything to be gained by forcing the pace of your inner development; nor for that matter, delaying it. There is such a thing as intellectual attainment of course, and it is not hard to gain; but we must never confuse this with true psychic and spiritual development.

For these demand real inner labour, long and exacting personal labour over many years of tests and trials. Being a member of a group of spiritual aspirants will not by itself open the portals of wisdom very wide, for that requires hard, private inner labour, independent of what others around us may be doing.

Returning to our analogy of an inner garden, we see that every seed conforms wholly to the inviolable laws of nature, and it does not attempt to deviate from those laws even in the slightest bit. There is always a best time for seeds to germinate, a best time for seedlings to pierce the soil and face the sun, a best time for plants to reach maturity, a best time for them to flower, and a best time for the flowers to drop their seeds.

As seekers of greater spiritual realisation, we are seeking union with an inner form of perfection known to Rosicrucians as the Master Within, a template of perfection which already exists, fully formed, within every human being.

The great accomplishment is learning how to attract that spiritual perfection out into the open, into the small and great events of our ordinary, daily lives.

It is only through this all-powerful inner guidance that we can be led onto a path of genuine spiritual attainment. And only through our association with this inner master can we hope eventually to come to a right relationship with the universal force that guides our lives and grants us a view, ever so faint, of God.

Adaptation of “The Mystic Gardner” by Affectator from the Rosicrucian Heritage of March 2016