The day is a cycle, and sunrise and sunset are times when the veil between the inner and outer worlds thins; something from within touches the heart and all Nature responds. The birds respond with their morning and evening song, the plants with the opening and closing of their flowers and other forms of life in other ways. . . .
The four sacred seasons of the year are repeated in the four quarters of the day, and every rising of the sun brings with it a renewed life -- indeed, a new Spring for the cycle of that day.
In Spring, the sunrise of the year, songbirds begin to arrive from the South. Soon flowers appear, and there is a stir of new life everywhere.
In ancient times, man knew the inner meaning of Nature, knew himself to be one with Nature, and lived in harmony with the Great Mother. -- Allan Stover, Nature's Magic
When melting snow reveals the barren scene once hidden by its pristine purity, we eagerly anticipate the coming of a new spring while slowly conveying King Winter to his grave. A fragile magic is inseparable from this season filled to the brim with "new" immigrants. Buds burst open, and all the trees welcome the coming waves of life. Flowers, returning from unseen places, resume their annual posts and take their share in the surrounding happiness. Is it the returning home of so many friends in the lower kingdoms that makes us rejoice? Surely it cannot be merely the lengthening daylight or increase in temperature, as many scientists would have us believe. No, there is something in the air we cannot account for. Perhaps we can learn something relevant from a wise adept who met with Katherine Tingley. Speaking of beginning the day, he told her that each person
". . . should find something in the silence and sunlight of the first hours which should link itself with his own higher nature and bring forth the blossom and the fruit. He should free himself in the morning in the sweetness of the sunlight, beginning the day as gently as though he were waking a little child from its slumbers, bringing forward the truer and nobler side of himself -- I do not mean working it out in words and language, but in thought approaching the richness and fullness of the spirit and letting the god within blossom into each moment as it rises. Then, reaching out for the most difficult duty that one knows to be one's duty and overcoming it, he will learn the secret of being on guard, and in a little while have thrown away unawares all the burdens that obstructed him. Many have been working hard and conscientiously to get rid of these burdens: there is no need to spend a moment on them. It is but to put aside the doubts and misgivings, to enter the chambers of the soul, to bask in the sunlight and strength that are there.
"The first three hours of the day," he continued, "are the great opportunity. He who does not rise with the sun loses an immense amount of power. He who rises before the sun, and by daybreak has finished with the duties of this plane and what may be necessary for the care of the body and is ready to step out with the sunrise and work with the sun, he has the cooperation of a force he little knows of -- the vibrant blue light behind the sun.'' -- The Gods Await, pp. 127-8
What is this blue light behind the sun that is so full of noble force, that will help us fulfil our duties with pleasure, prevent us from being worn down before our time, and support all living souls in the various kingdoms of nature? It's hard to say, but modern communication techniques may provide a clue. The intense rivalry in this field has pushed our reach into outer space, but the latest invention for transferring messages over long distances has its platform closer to home: we can communicate now by way of meteorites! No need for expensive satellites. Digital messages sent into the sky are bounced back to earth by the trail of small cosmic particles that burn up in the sky by the millions each day (www.meteorcomm.com/technology.htm). In the instant that a meteorite passes through our atmosphere, a digital signal uses it to jump ahead, like a man crossing a river on chunks of ice. The funny thing is that this technique works best in the early morning. As the day grows older, its effectiveness gradually diminishes.
There is something peculiar about meteoric dust -- the planetary, interplanetary, and interstellar particles that drift through space. It forms a veil or shield around the earth, as another adept remarked:
High above our earth's surface the air is impregnated and space filled with magnetic, or meteoric dust, which does not even belong to our solar system. Science having luckily discovered, that, as our earth with all the other planets is carried along through space, it receives a greater proportion of that dust matter on its northern than on its southern hemisphere, knows that to this are due the preponderating number of the continents in the former hemisphere, and the greater abundance of snow and moisture. Millions of such meteors and even of the finest particles reach us yearly and daily and all our temple knives are made of this "heavenly" iron,* which reaches us without having undergone any change -- the magnetism of the earth keeping them in cohesion. Gaseous matter is continually added to our atmosphere from the never ceasing fall of meteoric strongly magnetic matter, . . . -- The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, pp. 161-2
* Tibetan bells and bowls containing this metal are still available. As one Internet supplier reports: "they were first used in the earlier shamanic Bon religion of Tibet, and predate the arrival of Buddhism in that country by perhaps a thousand years. . . . Tibetan Bells are highly regarded for their enchanting sound effects, and those with the best tonalities were produced from a seven-metal alloy composed of gold, silver, nickel, copper, zinc, antimony and a particular meteoric iron, found on the high Tibetan Plateau. Because it fell from the heavens, this `sky metal' was associated with the sacred Dorje, or thunderbolt of the gods (vajra in Sanskrit) and was held in high esteem by traditional Tibetan metallurgists."
How does this information apply to the promised magic of the blue light of early morning? In the early morning the short wavelength light stirs up this meteoric veil, so that the relatively high-energy radiation of the ultraviolet and invisible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum brings in the day. Looking at the earth traveling through the plane of the solar system, it becomes clear that we are showered with highly energetic cosmic particles or vital effluvia in the early morning. At that time we find ourselves on the "bow" of spaceship Earth or, as others would have it, in the front seat of our mighty Chariot. Our planet moves with the dazzling speed of more than 124,000 kilometers per hour around the sun, and in that way generates a generous aura of meteoric matter.
Contrariwise, at dusk when the Earth has rotated 180 degrees since breakfast, the observer finds himself on the stern of this mighty ship. He is then on the lee-side and moves around in cosmic matter the earth has already passed through. Put another way, at daybreak we shower in a "high pressure" bow wave of immaculate cosmic matter not yet stained with the activity of all living things on earth, and also receive beneficial influences from the sun. This "fresh air" by evening has become somewhat agitated or polluted. Perhaps this is one basis for ancient sayings which connect the East with life and the West with death.
But there is even more to it. If we look at the solar system in relation to the Milky Way, we notice that our entire system is tilted 62# to the disk of the galaxy. We circumnavigate the center of the Milky Way at an incredible speed of 867,000 kilometers per hour, so that in about 226 million years we circle the galactic center. Because of the tilt of the solar system, the northern hemisphere constantly faces the direction of the solar system's motion. This could be of significance for the amount of meteoric dust received by the earth, and particularly by the northern hemisphere, a matter with far-reaching effects, according to H. P. Blavatsky's teachers:
Earth's magnetic attraction of meteoric dust, and the direct influence of the latter upon the sudden changes of temperature especially in the matter of heat and cold, is not a settled question to the present day, I believe. It was doubted whether the fact of our earth passing through a region of space in which there are more or less of meteoric masses has any bearing upon the height of our atmosphere being increased or decreased, or even upon the state of weather. But we think we could easily prove it; and since they accept the fact that the relative distribution and proportion of land and water on our globe may be due to the great accumulation upon it of meteoric dust; snow -- especially in our northern regions -- being full of meteoric iron and magnetic particles; and deposits of the latter being found even at the bottom of seas and oceans, I wonder how Science has not hitherto understood that every atmospheric change and disturbance was due to the combined magnetism of the two great masses between which our atmosphere is compressed! I call this meteoric dust a "mass" for it is really one. . . . I was under the impression that science was aware that the glacial periods as well as those periods when temperature is "like that of the carboniferous age" -- are due to the decrease and increase or rather to the expansion of our atmosphere, which expansion is itself due to the same meteoric presence? At any rate, we all know, that the heat that the earth receives by radiation from the sun is at the utmost one third if not less of the amount received by her directly from the meteors. -- The Mahatma Letters, pp. 161-2
Meteoric matter, then, seems to influence the entire planet as well as ourselves. The many sayings of peoples around the globe implying that there is much to be gained by rising early now acquire an added dimension. Pondering all these strange findings, it seems natural that the morning be dedicated to serious matters, introspection, and impersonal love. The early morning air is vibrating with spirituality and we more easily find ourselves in higher states of mind. As the day grows older and we are gradually submerged in vitiated portions of the earth's atmosphere, noble new initiatives face greater opposition. In the evening we arrive at a part of the day when we are shielded from the sun and its benign forces. Perhaps that is one reason human beings choose the evenings especially to amuse themselves, even when work during the day is not an issue, for instance during holidays.
Apollonius of Tyana, the great adept of the first century AD, was well aware of the influence of different times of the day and lived accordingly. As his disciple and biographer Damis reports:
wherever he went, he always held to a certain regular division of the day. At sun-rise he practised certain religious exercises alone, the nature of which he communicated only to those who had passed through the discipline of a ``four years''' (five years') silence. He then conversed with the temple priests or the heads of the community . . . Not however that he neglected the people; it was his invariable custom to teach them, but always after mid-day; for those who lived the inner life, he said, should on day's dawning enter the presence of the Gods, then spend the time till mid-day in giving and receiving instruction in holy things, and not till afternoon devote themselves to human affairs. That is to say, the morning was devoted by Apollonius to the divine science, and the afternoon to instruction in ethics and practical life. After the day's work he bathed in cold water, as did so many of the mystics of the time in those lands, notably the Essenes and Therapeuts. -- Apollonius of Tyana, The Philosopher-Reformer of the First Century A.D., G. R. S. Mead, pp. 70-2
For many urban dwellers rising at or before sunrise is a challenge in itself, especially for those who enjoy long summer days at high latitudes where it is almost impossible to rise before the sun. Nevertheless, the earliest part of the day is the calmest, most refreshing and spiritual part of it, and we should take that boon whenever we have the chance. So celebrate the day, and start with sunrise!
(From Sunrise magazine, February/March 2002; copyright © 2001 Theosophical University Press)