FROM:
Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1973), pp. 183 – 185
6. The Church of Light
The Church of Light is a body whose main focus is astrology. This ancient art has always been a substantial part of the occult tradition, although it has generally been an adjunct intellectual sport or tool of the wise whose major concern is expansion of consciousness. Yet it is not unrelated, for its symbols can also be taken as symbols of the Return. Its study can be a means of attaining tranquillity and balance of consciousness, as well as a means of utilizing the powers of the psyche or cosmos in the quest. In the case of the Church of Light, the astrological part of the alternative reality tradition has been made the key to the whole although it teaches other related aspects of it, such as Tarot, and affirms its basic impersonal monism and soul-body dualism.
The founder was Elbert Benjamine (1882-1951), who wrote under the name C. C. Zain. In the last years of the nineteenth century he devoted himself to occult studies, developing his psychic abilities, and in the year 1900, he said he contacted an arcane order called The Brotherhood of Light. This order, it is said, separated itself from the Egyptian priesthood in 2440 B.C. From then on it survived as the custodian of the Religion of the Stars. The Greek philosophers Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, and others were initiated into it, and it has preserved learning even in the darkest times. In some periods its membership has for the most part been on the “Inner Plane,” but it has also had its representatives, if not its highest leadership, in the physical world. Benjamine studied for nine years under its tutelage, and then in 1909 took a mysterious journey during which he was inducted as a member of a council of three which manages its affairs in this world. He was also given instructions to prepare a course of study, a complete system of occult learning, so that the Religion of the Stars could be made more available in the coming Aquarian Age. In 1915 Benjamine came to Los Angeles where he began teaching and working on the instruction, which was finally completed in 1934. The instruction is comprised of 210 lessons, published in twenty-two substantial books.
The replication of the magus archetype in this life story is evident, and is borne out by the descriptions of his character in the group's literature. He was a man of warm, emotional kindness, yet “few people ever saw him as he really was”; he had to protect himself against those who wished to attract his attention for selfish reasons; his method of teaching could be enigmatic, for he would not solve people’s problems for them; and he had sometimes to work on a cosmic scale. In 1932, the Church of Light was founded. At times it suffered adversity, although recently, owing to the general upsurge of interest in astrology, it has prospered mightily. In addition to the Church in Los Angeles, it has contact persons and in some cases study groups in many cities around the world.
The Church of Light’s official statements of principles tend not to mention astrology, but to talk of the evolution of the soul, from man to angel or spirit. In a manner reminiscent of A. J. Davis, reincarnation is denied, but it is held that the soul passes through higher and higher levels in the transmundane cosmos. The compatibility of the teachings with science, and the fact they are not to be received just upon authority, is stressed. Spokesmen seem particularly avid to repudiate orthodoxy. Yet it is clear that members are most interested in the Church’s astrological teachings. Its bookstore sells largely astrological books, its symbolism is primarily astrological, and at least half of Benjamine’s twenty-two lesson books treat astrology. It seems that it is the keystone of his occult system, as the Aquarian Age concept is of its timing.
This is explained as being because the law of correspondences, which is central to Neoplatonism and the alternate reality tradition, provides the main dynamic for the soul’s evolution and the laws which govern it. Everything in human life has its correspondence to a Zodiacal sign or planet. The stars provide a language by which life can be read. The Tarot, which occupy second place in the Church of Light’s symbolism, is another way of saying the same things. Understanding astrology can enable one to employ “mental alchemy,” to turn negative influences in one’s life to good by mentally strengthening the power of its opposite. If there is too much Mars, Venus is the answer. Astrology provides a sense of the total cosmic and psychic environment in which man can learn to gain this sort of power and to grow. The stars are man’s funda-mental Bible, or Word of God, for instruction and encouragement.
The Church of Light has fifty degrees of initiation, culminating in the Soul Degree in which one must demonstrate there has been specific realization of higher states of consciousness. The work of the fiftieth degree is imparted secretly to a member when he is ready.
The major exoteric work of the Church of Light is the classes, mostly general instruction in astrology open to the public. Religious services are held only once a month, at three on a Sunday afternoon. They are quite simple. There is an opening and closing ritual of saying the “Church of Light Mantram” with arms upraised, a statement of principles, two or three talks, and a healing meditation. Members are also supposed to do the Mantram daily at noon. The membership is mostly middle-aged, and consists predominantly of women of middle-class background. As many as half are widows, divorced, or single. All, even the young people, seem very conventional in dress and manner. The Church makes it known that they encourage only serious students, those interested in spiritual development, not just fortune-telling or fads.
Reading Selection: The Church of Light
The following few paragraphs are from the lesson series written by C. C. Zain, and reflect his sober tone and continuing efforts to build bridges between the ancient science of astrology and the modern world.
The Stellarian religion is called The Religion of the Stars because astrology affords the best possible road-map for guidance to the most effective and highest type of life. It not only gives the most reliable instructions as to what he should do to live his religion, but it also instructs him how best he can do the things which his religion indicates he should do.
If astrology and other inner-plane conditions are so important in religion, and if knowledge of them when applied will increase the individual’s success, happiness, spirituality and freedom from illness 100%, why do so many academic intellects refuse to consider or investigate them?
With time, distance and gravitation on the inner plane having properties so radically different than they have on earth, should we expect inner-plane weather to operate according to the same laws weather operates on earth? Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity carried to its logical conclusion indicates that inner-plane weather affects the individual, not merely according to his inner constitution, but through certain time-space relationships. These time-space relationships that indicate the inner-plane weather affecting the individual are measured by progressed aspects.
Just how the inner-plane weather affects an individual, however, is not dependent upon any theory. For even as time, distance and gravitation properties on the inner plane have been determined experimentally by university scientists, so have the properties of inner-plane weather, and how it works to affect individuals, groups, cities, nations and world affairs been determined experimentally through statistical studies carried out in the process of astrological research.
C. C. Zain (Elbert Benjamine), Astrology is Religion’s Road Map (Los Angeles: The Church of Light, 1949), pp. 229-31.
