The symbolic meaning of the legend -- of the myth -- is that there is a period when the soul of the earnest seeker is seeking; which means that it has not yet found the object it is seeking after. In the lifetime of Jesus Christ the beauty of the Master's wonderful personality and the great intoxication of His presence and the constant outpouring of the Message that He had to give was so much for his disciples that it was beyond what may be called a joy or a happiness or something which is explainable, and all the blessing that they received and experienced during His presence was covered by the Master's personality. And the time of realization of that which they had constantly gained came in their lives after that great change when the external person of the Master ascended and the capacity of realization became open.

But after the resurrection, when they had sufficient time to recover from the feeling that had overtaken their hearts, the seeming separation from their beloved Lord prepared them, so to speak, in time and opened the doors of the heart, giving capacity for that illumination which was constantly pouring out from the Spirit of Guidance, the Alpha and Omega, Who always was and is and will be.

The symbolic interpretation of the tongues of flame rising from their foreheads is the light of the Message, the rays of the Christ-spirit in the form of thoughts, which were expressed in words. There is a stage in the life of the seer when the tongue of flame becomes not only an interpretation of the reality but a reality, his own experience. The head is the center of knowledge and when the center opens, the light, which was covered, becomes manifest, not only in idea, but even in form.

And the phenomenon that was shown the next day, when the apostles spoke all different languages, can be rightly interpreted in this sense, that every soul hears its own language. For every soul has its own word, as every soul has its peculiar illusion. And it is therefore that one person cannot understand another person in this world, and it becomes more than a miracle when one friend, perhaps one person in the world, can understand one fully. Which means, in this world the language of each one is not understood by another, and if someone understands a little one feels at-one-ment with that one.

It was the illumination of the Christ-spirit which brought exaltation in their lives, so that they began to see in every soul the Master and they became at one with every soul, inspired by sympathy and love of Christ. And they understood the souls as they saw them, and so they spoke with souls whose language was never understood. Plainly speaking, they heard the cry of every soul and they answered every soul's cry.

The Message means the answer to the cry of every soul. Every great prophet or teacher had in his life many followers attracted to his personality, to his kindness and love; but those who became as the instrument of his Message, whose hearts became as a flute for the Master to play his music, have always been some chosen few, as the twelve apostles of Christ.