things reach perfection.
The heavenly table is spread, the holy breezes perfume the East and the
West, the teachings of God conquer the world, men become educated,
praiseworthy results are produced, universal progress appears in the world
of humanity, and the divine bounties surround all things. The Sun of
Reality rises from the horizon of the Kingdom with the greatest power and
heat. When it reaches the meridian, it will begin to decline and descend,
and the spiritual summer will be followed by autumn, when growth and
development are arrested. Breezes change into blighting winds, and the
unwholesome season dissipates the beauty and freshness of the gardens,
plains and bowers--that is to say, attraction and goodwill do not remain,
divine qualities are changed, the radiance of hearts is dimmed, the
spirituality of souls is altered, virtues are replaced by vices, and
holiness and purity disappear. Only the name of the Religion of God
remains, and the exoteric forms of the divine teachings. The foundations
of the Religion of God are destroyed and annihilated, and nothing but
forms and customs exist. Divisions appear, firmness is changed into
instability, and spirits become dead; hearts languish, souls become inert,
and winter arrives--that is to say, the coldness of ignorance envelops the
world, and the darkness of human error prevails. After this come
indifference, disobedience, inconsiderateness, indolence, baseness, animal
instincts and the coldness and insensibility of stones. It is like the
season of winter when the terrestrial globe, deprived of the effect of the
heat of the sun, becomes desolate and dreary. When the world of
intelligence and thought has reached to this state, there remain only
continual death and perpetual nonexistence.

When the season of winter has had its effect, again the spiritual
springtime returns, and a new cycle appears. Spiritual breezes blow, the
luminous dawn gleams, the divine clouds give rain, the rays of the Sun of
Reality shine forth, the contingent world attains unto a new life and is
clad in a wonderful garment. All the signs and the gifts of the past
springtime reappear, with perhaps even greater splendor in this new
season.

The spiritual cycles of the Sun of Reality are like the cycles of the
material sun: they are always revolving and being renewed. The Sun of
Reality, like the material sun, has numerous rising and dawning places:
one day it rises from the zodiacal sign of Ca