ride and groom only; and sometimes of the officiating priest; but
more generally the entire company has shared in this custom. Wine
drinking thus symbolizes eternal youth and virility, which can be
enjoyed only by those who have attained to the complete life--the
divine or spiritual sex-union.

This symbolism is obvious when we take into our consciousness the
truth that only complementaries have the power to act and react,
without change, or loss. Equilibrium is maintained by a perfect
balance of two forces; if one force be ever so small a fraction less
than the other, perfect balance is lacking.

Another marriage custom in general use among the ancients was the
donning of a crown on the wedding day. This custom formerly included
the bridegroom as well as the bride, but later was confined to the
bride alone, as was also the custom of wearing a veil. At early Greek
marriages crowns made of gold or silver were placed upon the heads of
both bride and groom; tapers were lighted; and rings exchanged.

We have a similar custom today in all fashionable church weddings. We
have the lighted tapers, signifying the quenchless fires of love; and
the circlet which symbolizes eternity.

The crown symbolizes the truth that a truly spiritual union bestows
the crown of immortality; the power of Godhood in the Kingdom of Love;
which supersedes all earthly kingdoms in splendor. This is a literal
truth, although it cannot be understood in its full significance until
we are _fit for the kingdom_.

The veil which the bride lifts at the completion of the ceremony
symbolizes the truth that when we shall have attained to the spiritual
marriage, the veil that separates the interior from the exterior life,
shall be lifted; it is so thin that the illusion, of which the wedding
veil is made, rightly symbolizes this apparent separation of the
physical life from the spiritual. When the veil is lifted, we shall
know our completement in the bliss of perfect union; and when we have
found that other half of our being, which is the underlying urge of
our every thought and act, we shall find the veil lifted. The entire
panorama of the universe becomes an open book. There is no "visible"
and "invisible;" it is all One, with our own bi-une sex nature for the
pivotal center.

So simple and so obvious are all these symbols of the natural man that
we are astounded, when we have found the key, that we did not sooner
penetrate their meaning. "She will have