The Good Shepherd walks within. He is not a distant figure, but the quiet authority of awakened imagination; your own capacity to see, to know, to shape the unseen. He gathers the scattered flock of thought and feeling and leads them home, not through force, but through vision.
Each sheep is a state you inhabit. A mood. A belief. A story repeated so often it begins to graze in the fields of your daily life. Some are lost. Some are afraid. Still, the Shepherd knows them. He calls them back to self-awareness; and in being seen, they are transformed.
This week, the (5) Hierophant speaks as the Good Shepherd, a symbol of the sacred pattern within, the inner teacher who reminds you that divine order is not imposed from without, but revealed from within. His wisdom is not taught, but remembered. He speaks in the stillness where your truest thoughts arise.
Under the sidereal Sun in Aries, fire stirs in the roots of being. It is the spark of creation, the flame out of which a voice says “I am.” It urges action, but deeper than that, it urges awareness. To lead, you must first imagine the path. The Good Shepherd does just that. He envisions the pasture, the peace, the wholeness; and because He sees it, the sheep begin to move.
Here lies the mystery: though the world seems to shape our thoughts, it is the mind that shapes the world. To be known by the Shepherd is to know yourself as the one who sees and chooses. Who gathers stray thoughts with care. Who walks ahead quietly forming what already is, in faith.
The Collect
Almighty God, who has given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an ensample of godly life: Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his most inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour urselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer
Old Testament Reading
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
Isaiah 40: 11
New Testament Reading
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
John 10: 14
Liturgical Affirmation
Canet tuba, et mortui resurgent incorrupti.
Adorate Dominum in decore sancto.
The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again incorruptible. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
