The Saturn
Presentation of this planet and its moons, including ring and creatures
- Chapter 42 -
The innermost spiritual religion of the Saturnites. The significance of the number seven. Sunday celebration. The baptism or blessing of a newborn child. The temple meal. The sermon of the elder supported by spiritual visualization. The wisdom of the Saturnites.
The religion of the Saturnites has very little external ceremonial pomp and circumstance; instead, it is more internal and spiritual.
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The ceremonial part, as you know, consists of a well-ordered and living temple, in which prayers of thanksgiving and supplication are offered to the Great Spirit regarding allimportant matters.
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The holy number for the Saturnites is 7, and every number which is divisible by 7, such as 14, 21 and so on are all holy numbers. That is why a period of 7 days, in other words the 7th day, is celebrated as a holiday.
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The observance of this holiday forms the second ceremonial part; on this day all religious ceremony pertaining to the holiday takes place.
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The first kind of ceremony is already known to you. The ceremony of the holiday consists therein that before sunrise all members of the family go to the temple; all the men walk in front while all the women follow behind. In the temple, the men stand on the right side while the women stand on the left. When they have all gathered in the temple, the elder leads the congregation in prayer until the sun rises, offering praise to the Great Spirit and thanking Him for all the blessings they have received. These prayers are always prayed with the deepest emotions in their hearts.
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When the sun rises, everybody leaves the temple and enjoys the view of the coming day and the extremely beautiful panorama of this celestial body. When the sun is very high on the horizon, they return to the temple and thank the Great Spirit for the return of the day.
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And when a woman has given birth, the newborn child is brought to the edge of the inner sanctum. There the elder places his hands upon the child and speaks the following words over the newborn baby:
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"You came into this world as a weak guest, bound in all your powers in accordance with the will of the Great Spirit, who is holy beyond all holiness and has power over all might, who has control over all power, and who is exceedingly faithful and steadfast in each of His words and in all of His promises; only He is the perfect and most highest Lord over all things which fill this earth and the entire infinite firmament. Therefore it is His will, as He is holy and holy beyond all holiness. That is how you should live on this earth until the end, completely in accordance with the will of the One through whom you entered into this world, and then as a man (or in the case of a girl as a faithful wife) leave this world in all the truthful dignity and magnificence of the most consummate virtue!
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That is why I bless you here in the inner sanctum in the name of the Great Spirit, who created and blessed you, your parents and me. Grow up in this blessing and multiply these blessings within you by strictly following the most holy and highest of wills! This shall occur at all times, now and eternally!
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As small as you are now, remain always that small before the Great Spirit, before us, your fathers and brothers and before your own self. And this has to be at all times in this life and the life beyond! Amen!"
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After these words have been spoken by the elder, he insufflates the child, then the elder lets the parents bless their child and take it home. On such a holiday the parents are not obligated to return to the temple; instead they can remain at home and care for their child that has now been blessed. But if they prefer, they can remain in the temple.
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Should there be no newly born child, then instead of the child's blessing the people will immediately begin with their morning meal in the temple. The Saturnites take their morning food, as well as the midday and evening food, into the temple right away early in the morning. It does not require any further explanation that they give a prayer of thanks to the Great Spirit before and after their meals.
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After the morning meal, the elder ascends to the pulpit and addresses the moderately large family community, which in the mountains does not often exceed one hundred people: It is different in the lowlands, where such a family often counts several thousands.
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What does the elder talk about in the temple? He is never short of subject matter. In this instance, as on all other occasions, a spirit stands by his side at all times and conveys to him what is to be said.
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Usually these kinds of lectures concern the wonderful guidance of the Great Spirit, how He placed the human race from the dawn of history on this celestial body, and how the Great Spirit has led them to the present times in accordance with His wisest and holiest of all wills. On this occasion the elder often tells a story of times of yore. At times the elder explains the structure of their world, and sometimes the structure of the ring or the moons. At other times he might tell them about one of the different constellations, and he shows his listeners the guidance of the Great Spirit on those celestial bodies, and on these occasions he might occasionally mention earth.
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But as soon as the elder mentions the earth, all listeners fall immediately on their countenances - not because they are in awe of this planet, but because they hear about the infinite love of the Great Spirit, and how the inhabitants of this earth address and call Him Father, which, for the Saturnites, is something indescribably holy, so that they always fall into a shudder of humility, especially when the elder reminds them of the ingratitude of the inhabitants of this planet.
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On other occasions he gives them information regarding the spiritual world and life in the heavens.
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After each of these lectures, especially when the subject matter has been the structure of their world, the ring, the moons and other planetary constellations, the elder transposes his listeners, sometimes many and sometimes just a few, into an internal visualization wherein they can view all of this as if they were physically present.
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That is why the Saturnites, especially those who live in the mountains, are exceedingly wise and are enriched with considerable knowledge. The greatest scholars on earth would soon realize how insignificant their knowledge is if they were to enter into a scientific discussion with the least knowledgeable human on Saturn.
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They not only know their own celestial body in the minutest detail, in as far as it is necessary and beneficial, but they also know other celestial bodies better than you on earth know the islands in your oceans. The Saturnites not only know the history of their own planet well, but they know the history of several other worlds.
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No language is foreign to them. That is why they understand the spirits, no matter from which celestial body they come (since every spirit takes into the beyond, to a greater or lesser degree, the characteristics of the language of the world where he walked in the body). It is this understanding of languages that the spirits of your earth do not possess until they are completely born again in the spirit and are made suitable for heaven.
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It happens often that the spirits of earth meet with the spirits of Saturn after their physical death, especially when they have this longing. The spirits from Saturn understand the spirits from earth immediately. However, that is not the case the other way around, especially when they are immature spirits from earth. Also, the spirits from earth do not see the spirits from Saturn unless they want to be seen by them. The reason for this superiority lies within the great and true inner wisdom of the Saturnian spirits.
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Those are the fruits of the instructions and teachings of the preacher in the temple after the morning meal.