"Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down"

With this well-known song, Paul Simon describes his total readiness to sacrifice himself for his beloved. `When you're weary, feelin' small... I'm on your side, Oh, when times get rough and friends just can't be found... when darkness comes and pain is all around, like a bridge over troubled waters, I will lay me down.' Then he encourages his beloved: `Sail on children, sail on by. Your time has come to shine, all their dreams are on their way. See how they shine, Oh when you need a friend, I'm sailing right behind.'

This text describes the total devotion of a lover to his beloved and tells of someone who wants to give himself totally away and be a bridge over all possible turmoil in order ultimately to merge in a unifying relationship.
Like with many matters, this theme is also a shadow of a task which humanity once received: to love, to help and to stimulate each other to further development, to build a bridge over all turmoil.
The seeker who more and more listens to the call from his innermost depth will unceasingly strive to transfer the accent of his life from the ego to the Soul. He builds a bridge to the Soul by his pure mode of life. Through this bridge, the Soul that is freeing itself creates a new personality that can accept its task in Creation. Through this contact, through this link or bridge, the pure Light power from the realm of the living Soul can flow into the pilgrims prepared for it, who in turn spread this Light in the darkness of earthly life. No energy is wasted in the realm of the living Soul and the transmuted Light will certainly reach its goal by the shortest path.
Another shadow of reality: Imagine someone who wants to relax physically. He stretches out on the ground, for example, entrusts himself to it completely. He trusts that he is lying safely and that the ground will carry him. Trust already creates a degree of relaxation. From his tense being, this person creates a state of temporary relaxation through visualisation and empathy. At the same time, he tries to bring his thinking to some degree of rest. All cares are pushed aside for a while. Naturally, this process creates some relief in his tense being, but it is only fiction that this means true change, for as soon as he stands with both legs on the ground again, everything is as it was before.

Nucleus of eternal development

How different it is for the pilgrim on the Path to Life! He also entrusts himself to the ground on which he stands, but this is his inner ground, his deeply founded basis of life. He entrusts himself completely to the Christ principle in his heart. For this reason, the Rosicrucians refer to it as the Rose ofthe Heart, the nucleus of eternal development. The surrender to this principle is the self-surrender of which the Gnostic Rosicrucians speak. That is true, positive relaxation, and hence not an unresisting or spineless attitude, but a completely conscious trust in the bridge which leads to the Kingdom not of this world. The entry to it is hidden as a principle in the human heart.
A bridge is a means to reach a goal. To reach something, something else has always to be bridged, for example a valley, a chasm or a wild river. A bridge has to be built, and hence there must also be a building plan. But above all, the unassailable longing to reach the goal and the will to carry out the work have to be present.
We can state that someone who wants to go the path to perfection has to be a true bridge builder in order to make progress and must use his present situation as a starting point. Whoever sets out in this way and submits to the guidance of the Soul, discovers that the Path to Life has already opened up - as a wide arc that spans from horizon to horizon. It is the Arc of Promise that reflects all visible and invisible colours. Those colours correspond to the sounds of the unspeakable Name that emanates from the Fount of Creation.

Without this path no direct knowledge.

That path is the bridge that unlocks the fourth dimension to the pilgrim. This dimension can only be experienced by someone who has brought his whole being to the corresponding high vibration by a pure, unselfish mode of life and a complete readiness to serve the divine Love that will lead him to his goal.
The bridge to eternal life develops and takes shape to the extent that heart and head are cleansed of egoistic interests, to the extent that room has been made for the inflow of pure forces from the realm of the living Soul. Without this bridge, ancient wisdom explains, without this link, we cannot receive first-hand knowledge. Through this bridge, an intelligent, resonant instrument develops in the human being striving for inner liberation in addition to the ordinary emotional reactions.
Eastern symbolism tells of a Bridge of Sighs that leads humanity to the `vale of tears, pain, selfishness and loneliness'. But this descending bridge, the story goes, is then replaced by the radiating rainbow, the Arc of Promise, which is built by the sons of humanity who are seeking the pure Light. The rainbow symbolises the seven rays that emanate from the Seven-Spirit.
These sons of humanity cross the bridge in the Divine Light and bring that Light down to the human world in order to propagate the new kingdom of the Soul in this way. And all Souls that long for this Light and were perhaps still separated then unite. They join each other and in that way form the one all-encompassing Soul. For in the realm of the living Soul, there is no separation.
It is the same here and now. All human beings in whom the consciousness of the eternal Soul can develop, form together an unbreakable unity, the Antahkarana. Then we can no longer speak of my bridge or my link, but then there is only one tight group, which builds and maintains unceasingly. The distinguishing mark of this work is rest and positive relaxation which has nothing in common with a negative and expectant or resigning attitude and has certainly nothing in common with indifference or inertia.
The distress in the world is great, and the community of living Souls stimulates all who are capable of it to co-operate at the high level of the living Soul so that they can form a Light shaft, a bridge over which the Gnosis, the living knowledge of God, can flow to seeking humanity. Then the renewing energies can be transferred over this bridge, which is built by the self-surrender and self-sacrifice of many.
Just as the lover sacrifices himself and lets his body become a bridge over which the unity with his beloved can be achieved, in the same way the pilgrim sacrifices his personality in pure service to the Light. He places his life under the guidance of the Soul. The Soul will lead him or her like a friend and enable him to serve his fellow creatures. This service is directed to kindling the flame, which is present in everyone as a spark, into a bright fire in order to increase the glory of the one great life in which we can find the meaning of our existence again. Whoever entrusts himself to the inner ground of existence, can help build and maintain the bridge of Light over which many will achieve higher life.

Pentagram 2002.