Forces of Light and Dark - Teachings of Jesus and Eastern Mysticism

"The teachings of Jesus and the way in which he practiced it belonged to the
whole realm of middle Eastern mythology. In which at some point beings fell out
of the pure Light dimension into this plane and took on the role of darkness.
Truth was the realm of Light and followers of Jesus would return to the realm of
Light. Jesus was from the realm of Light and and that the realm of Light
andTruth. The earth was a fallen domain, ultimately to be the place perhaps of a
great war between evil and good forces, the force of Light and the forces of
darkness, and earth was a place that was ultimately just to be dissolved and
judged. And all of those who had become sympathetic with the Truth of Light
would be drawn up into the subtle Light world. And basically that's the mythology
in which Jesus' work appeared and in which the Christian religion appears, in
which all of the Semitic religions basically appear. And in that tradition there is a
distinction, an absolute distinction between the Divine and all beings, all souls.
And souls can be sympathetic with darkness or with Light. And depending on
which you sympathize with, you enjoy or suffer a destiny in the future based
upon the acts of God."
more... (lightanddarkness.html)

Adi Da Samraj (Bubba Free John) - July 30,1975

Esoteric Christianity
"Believe me, a man cannot
even see the kingdom of God
without being born again." 1

By

Norman D. Livergood

About 25-30 C.E. a mystical teacher named Jesus began to tell people about a
spiritual realm in which the person who would be leader must be a servant of all. He
spoke of a definite re-birth into a Higher Consciousness.

Jesus indicated that his message consisted of a public (exoteric) message for all the
people and an advanced (esoteric) teaching reserved for initiates.
 The Esoteric Tradition
Mark 4: "Then when they were
by themselves, his close
followers and the twelve asked
about the parables, and he told
them: 'The secret of the
kingdom of God has been given
to you. But to those who do not
know the secret, everything
remains in parables, so that,
seeing they may see, and not
perceive; and hearing they may
hear, and not understand lest
haply they should turn again,
and it should be forgiven them.'"

"So he taught them his

message with many parables
such as their minds could take
in. He did not speak to them at all without using parables, although in private he
explained everything to his disciples." [Phillips translation]
 Matthew 13: "The man who has
ears to hear should use them"
"At this the disciples
approached him and asked, 'Why
do you talk to them in parables?
"'Because you have been
given the chance to understand
the secrets of the kingdom of
Heaven,' replied Jesus, 'but they
have not. For when a man has
something, more is given to him
till he has plenty. But if he has
nothing even his nothing will be
taken away from him. This is
why I speak to them in these
parables; because they go
through life with their eyes open,
but see nothing, and with their
ears open, but understand
nothing of what they hear."'
[Phillips translation]

1 Corinthians 2:6-15: "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none
of the princes of this world knew.

"We interpret what is spiritual in spiritual language. The unspiritual man

rejects these truths of the Spirit of God; to him they are 'sheer folly,' he cannot
understand them. And the reason is, that they must be read with the spiritual
eye. The spiritual man, again, can read the meaning of everything; and yet no
one can read what he is."

Clement of Alexandria (150-220 C.E.)

"The Lord . . . allowed us to communicate of those divine Mysteries, and of that

holy light, to those who are able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose to
the many what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom He knew
that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according
to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is the case
with God."
 "Many things, I well know, have escaped us, through length of time, that have
dropped away unwritten."

"Even now I fear, as it is said, 'to cast the pearls before swine, lest they tread
them underfoot, and turn and rend us.' For it is difficult to exhibit the really pure
and transparent words respecting the true Light to swinish and untrained
hearers."

Movement Away from the Authentic Teachings of Jesus

After Jesus' death, those who understood the genuine teaching of Jesus
recognized him as one of a long line of savants within the Perennial Tradition 2--such
as Hermes and Plato--who initiated chosen disciples into a mystical rebirth of the
soul into a Higher Consciousness.

Each Perennialist teacher interpreted

the fundamental message about spiritual
regeneration in terms of the needs of the
people during their age. So we have the
Hermetic teachings during the time of
Hermes Trismegistus, the Mystery
teachings (http://www.hermes-
press.com/high_myst.htm) during the
days of Egypt and Greece, Platonism
during the time of Plato, Neo-Platonism
during the time of Plotinus--each an
embodiment of the Perennial Tradition. The
genuine, hidden teachings of Jesus--
Esoteric Christianity--is one of those
embodiments.

Early Christianity developed in the

crowded, poverty-stricken cities of Asia
Minor, finding its adherents among the
working class and slaves. Throughout the
Roman empire, there was intense social ferment . In the century before Jesus, a
widespread revolt of slaves led by Spartacus conquered most of southern Italy and
threatened the Roman Empire.
 Within a short time, there came into
being a new sacerdotal state-supported
Church 3 which misrepresented Jesus as a
god. Such genuine adepts as Paul, Clement
of Alexandria, Marcion, Valentinus, and
Origen, understood Jesus' true teachings
and did not view him as a deity but as a
mystical teacher. Those who instructed
initiates in the authentic teachings of Jesus
found it necessary to go underground,
because a tyrannous, bureaucratic "church"
was taken over by the Roman Empire and
deformed into a "state religion."

During this period, there developed a

large number of writings which claimed to
be authentic representations of Jesus' life
and teachings. In this morass of confusion,
these varied interpretations of Jesus'
teachings vied for acceptance.

One of the persons who first wrote about

Jesus was a man who had been an enemy of the
church until he experienced a mystical
conversion. Paul saw himself as an apostle (one
sent on a mission), perhaps "the" apostle, of
Jesus. He believed he had actually experienced
Jesus in a mystical encounter during which he
was commissioned to spread the "good news"--
the gospel of Jesus' teaching--presenting a
conception of God as forgiving, loving, and wise.

Paul was aghast when he learned that Peter

and some of the other apostles of Jesus in
Jerusalem and other cities were interpreting
Jesus's message as an extension of Judaism,
using the Hebrew Old Testament as a major scripture.

"Paul is the only one who had any apprehension of the real esoteric significance of the Christ
Myth in its cosmic aspects, while at the same time he was obliged to base his teachings
principally on the exoteric beliefs of his hearers which centred round the personal Jesus."
 William Kingsland. The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom in the Christian Scriptures

Paul insisted that a person could become a Christian without submitting to

circumcision or other Jewish religious laws and practices. Paul defined Christianity as
the experience of re-birth in Jesus, a spiritual awakening of the same nature that he
had gone through. Both Jesus and Paul made it clear that Christianity was decidedly
not an extension of Judaism.

"Christ himself. . .
confirms the Pauline
gospel in general
and in detail. Did he
not break the law
again and again in
his life and through
his teachings? Did
he not declare war
against the teachers
of the law? Did he
not call the sinners, while those teachers desired only righteous men
as their pupils? Did he not declare the greatest prophet of the Old
Testament God, John the Baptist, to be an uninformed man, one who
had taken offense at him? . . .

"When he forbids the placing of a new patch on an old garment and

the pouring of new wine into old wineskins, he thereby strictly forbids
his people in any way to connect his preaching with that of the Old
Testament. . ." 4
 Jesus would not have taught that he was the Messiah
promised in the Jewish scriptures. That concept of an
anointed one, as Jesus pointed out, involved this person
becoming an earthly king, a political ruler. This Christ concept
was exclusively a Jewish idea. But the misguided Christian
autocrats were trying to graft Jesus' teachings onto Judaism,
the creed of one small nation. To carry this out, the church
leaders had adulterated and garbled the original sayings of
Jesus, adding the phrase "in order that it might be fulfilled" to
everything Jesus did, to "prove" that he was the Jewish
Messiah-King.

The New Testament "was made in its present form largely in order that it might conform with the
supposed prophecies in the Jewish Old Testament Scriptures concerning an earthly Messiah, as is
well shown in the numerous statements 'that the Scripture might be fulfilled,' or 'according to the
Scriptures.'"
William Kingsland. The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom
in the Christian Scriptures

The Christ Concept

 If Jesus used the Christ concept in
reference to himself it would have
been in an entirely new, non-Jewish
manner, with different content and
meaning. The koine Greek term
Christos simply means "anointed
one," and Jesus would have
considered himself anointed or
commissioned to communicate a
specific teaching.

Thus in the early church a number

of factions had arisen, with Peter and
some of the other original apostles
preaching a Judaised, sacerdotal
Christianity requiring no more than
belief, while Paul insisted that Jesus'
teaching was about a spiritual rebirth
such as he had himself experienced.

Both Jesus and Paul taught that

religion is not mere belief in doctrines
but practical knowledge (gnosis, gnosis) of the way to regain one's birthright as a
"Son of God" through a radical transformation process.

"We do not become Christs (Christos) because he was that. We shall never
become it simply by believing that he was that, or that he did all that the Gospels
record; or that he did something for us which washes away our sins and gives us
a short cut to eternal bliss. No. We shall only achieve the same likeness when
'that same mind' (or 'word') which was also in Christ Jesus has been 'brought to
birth' in us also, i.e. when we have realized that we, equally with him, are
essentially divine in our deepest nature; that we are, equally with him, 'sons' of
the same 'Father,' and are thus able to manifest as he did that divinity in our
very humanity."
William Kingsland. The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom
in the Christian Scriptures

The original teaching of Jesus was thus passed on through Paul and those whom
Paul and his immediate companions taught in the many cities they visited.
 "The God that made the world and all
things therein, he, being Lord of heaven
and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands; neither is he served by
men's hands, as though he needed
anything, seeing he himself giveth to all
life, and breath, and all things; and he
made of one every nation of men for to
dwell on all the face of the earth, having
determined their appointed seasons, and
the bounds of their habitation; that they
should seek God, if haply they might feel after him, and find him,
though he is not far from each one of us; for in him we live, and
move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have
said."

Paul Speaking to the men of Athens (Acts 17:24-28)

"The persecution of the Christians was regarded as a social necessity by the

rulers of Rome; the spread of the doctrine nourished dangerous discontents and
provided new and effective channels of organization for the lower classes. Pliny
the Younger, who was governor of Bithynia in the early years of the second
century, wrote to the emperor concerning the troublesome activity of Christians
in forming collegia or gilds, and he told of torturing two maidservants in order to
get information about these associations.

"As Christianity developed, it gained adherents among well-to-do craftsmen and

merchants, especially in the cities of the eastern Mediterranean; economic
interest made it imperative for these classes to oppose the corrupt and
oppressive power of the empire. In joining the Christian movement, they could
restrain its more radical tendencies, and utilize its organized strength as a
defense against imperial restrictions. The disintegration of the imperial system
forced Constantine to abandon Rome and move his capital to Byzantium in order
to control the eastern area of trade. At the same time, he had to adopt
Christianity, as the best means of maintaining his authority over the urban
centers which were the key to the economic existence of the empire.

"The adoption of Christianity as a state religion required a fundamental change in

its class character and ideology. But this was not an easy task. It could not be
 accomplished without a
violent conflict between the
patrician class which ruled
the empire and the majority
who took Christianity
literally as a gospel of
equality and brotherhood.
By the time of Augustine,
the conflict had reached a
stage of crisis, which
threatened to disrupt the
empire."
John Howard Lawson, (1950).
The Hidden Heritage

The Triumph of Pseudo-Christianity

If you watch a TV history of Christianity

or read a Protestant or Roman Catholic
account of the early church, Christianity's
becoming the official religion of the Roman
state during Constantine's reign is
considered a great victory. The only measure
of success for these moderns is whether or
not a tradition triumphed over all its
competitors. Never mind what distorting of
the original message had taken place or
what atrocities the Church committed. If a
particular religion came out on top, it's to be
considered the best.

On the contrary, the formal religion that

became known as the Holy Roman Church was and is nothing but a vast repository
of false teachings and practices. At the present time, orthodox Christianity, in all its
Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant guises, is a horrible deformity of Jesus's
original teachings.
"The Emperor Constantine who,
having become a convert to
Christianity, soon made his new
faith the official religion of the
Roman Empire, which he ruled
from ancient Byzantium, renamed
Constantinople. And so, at about
320 A.D. the Church not only came
to glorious power but was given a
clearly God-sent opportunity to
revenge itself on the descendants
of those who had persecuted it for
almost three hundred years.
Unleashing a reign of terror on
those pagans who stubbornly
refused the new faith, Constantine
and the Church waded deep in blood and apparently enjoyed the
experience, for the lions enjoyed pagans as much as they had
Christians and the crosses now carried different victims."

Donovan Joyce. The Jesus Scroll

 Whereas the people Jesus befriended
were the poor and outcast of society, the
bureaucratized "church" began to direct its
attentions to the wealthy and politically
powerful. Already by the end of the first
century C.E., Christians in Rome included
members of the Emperor's household.

As Paul, Clement, Marcion, Valentinus,

and Origen made clear, the essence of
Jesus's teaching was the esoteric initiation
of a select number into the mysteries of the
"new being." Within a hundred years
Jesus's original teachings had been
perverted into an ecclesiastical power
system: the "triumph" of pseudo-
Christianity.

"Christianity, which had been the

religion of a community of equal brothers, without hierarchy or
bureaucracy, became 'the Church,' the reflected image of the absolute
monarchy of the Roman Empire."

Erich Fromm. "The Dogma of Christ

The counterfeit interpretation of Jesus' teachings became the official, orthodox

dogma and the congregations (those called together) became a monolithic "church,"
a sacerdotal monstrosity supported by the corrupt Roman emperor Constantine.

Constantine had adopted Christianity merely to provide support for his conquest
and rule, so he was furious that there were squabbling factions within his adopted
faith.
The Nicene Heresy and the Canon
 So, in 325 C.E. three hundred and twelve bishops
were ordered by Emperor Constantine to work out a creed
that would put a stop to theological bickering. The
emperor himself, dressed in a purple gown and with a
silver diadem, opened the council. The Council of Nicea
made it clear that Christianity was to be clearly
distinguished from the pagan Platonic heresy. All
Christians were henceforth required to believe that Jesus
Christ was of the same substance as God (in other words,
a god) and only Christ could bring about humankind's
salvation through a person's belief in his sacrifice for their
sins.

As the doctrinal orthodoxy decreed by such Councils as Nicea became the official
ideology of the Romanized church, the genuine teachers of Jesus' original message
of transformation found it necessary to go underground. This hidden tradition is what
we now call Esoteric Christianity.

"Catholicism has long been hostile to the notion of any spiritual power or
illumination apart from what is conferred by its own rites. The official view is that
the sacraments are both necessary and sufficient for salvation; any talk of higher
truths or initiatic knowledge, however circumspect or deferential to Catholic
doctrine, is considered subversive. The church tends to regard the esoteric inner
circle not as a deeper dimension of the external church but as an inimical fifth
column."
Richard Smoley, Inner Christianity
 Even though the Holy Roman Church
dictated what dogmas were official, there was
still the difficulty of a large number of writings
about Jesus which painted very different
pictures of him. As the Roman Empire took
over the outer, distorted husks of Jesus'
teachings and turned the church into a
tyranny, it selected only those writings which
would support its autocratic power.

In the fourth century C.E., the Roman

Catholic Church decreed which books would
constitute the Official Scriptures--the Canon.
At that point, the books outside the Official
Scriptures were known as non-canonical
scriptures.

Clement of Alexandria, Marcion, Valentinus,

Origen, and other genuine followers of Jesus'
teaching created their own "Gospels," the good news 5 about Jesus, selecting
writings which they felt were central to the original teachings of their master. They
included material which was not in the orthodox New Testament (as the official
scripture came to be called).

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a large number 6 of non-

canonical Christian writings were discovered in the Middle East. Many of these
writings come from the non-orthodox tradition of Christianity, especially from the
Gnostic strain. If we are to understand the esoteric tradition in Christianity, it is
essential that we take into consideration these extra-canonical sources.

"The Lord did everything in a mystery. . . He said, 'I came to

make the things below like the things above, 7 and the things
outside like those inside. I came to unite them.'"

The Gospel of Philip (Nag Hammadi Library)

Many parts of the New Testament are dogmas added by later sectarians to support
their personal prejudices. For example, many references to Jesus' actions as
fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies were added by persons trying to prove
that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah-King. As we examine the New Testament
discerningly we discover elements which do not ring true, certain supposed
"miracles" and mythological events that cast Jesus in an unfavorable light.

It is our responsibility to determine what is genuine and what is counterfeit in the

early Christian writings, just as we must discriminate in regard to all teachings.
Some of the New Testament and other early writings constitute a record of spiritual
experiences which are reproducible in our lives. This is especially true of the central
teaching of all these writings: rebirth into a higher consciousness.

"The real Gnosis. . . is a mystical knowledge and experience transcending

that appearance of things which the ordinary individual accepts as the only
'reality.'"
William Kingsland. The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom
in the Christian Scriptures

Jesus' teachings concerning the

necessity of spiritual rebirth
unmistakably parallel the Hermetic
and Platonic writings--as well as other
embodiments of the Perennial
Tradition such as alchemy and
Sufism. Plato saw philosophy (the
search for wisdom) as the actual
achievement of a higher state of
consciousness, gained through self-
discipline and mystical contemplation.
According to Plato, philosophia is the
actual practice of learning to leave
the body and live in the soul, the
spiritual body.

Many of the genuine followers of

Jesus' teachings, such as Clement of
Alexandria, Marcion, Valentinus, and
Origen, were profoundly influenced by Plato's mystical concepts. It would be correct
to say that they were as much Platonists as Christians.

When the Christian faith became a secularized, sacerdotal autocracy supporting

the depraved Roman emperor Constantine, the hierarchy of priests and potentates of
the Church found it necessary to concoct a system of dogmas which would separate
Christian theology from Platonism. Thus the councils of Nicea and others and the
resulting doctrinal monstrosities.
 Metanoia and Re-birth

As we examine the New Testament and relevant extra-canonical writings, it

becomes clear that Jesus' original teaching declared that man was a son of God and
could realize his divine sonship through a special initiation into an experience of
spiritual re-birth. This teaching was unmistakably within the Perennial Tradition. 8

The good news (gospel) which Jesus proclaimed was that humans were in
essence one with God and could realize this divine unity through an esoteric
initiation procedure--after a complete change in their ways of thinking and acting.

The word used to describe this revolutionary transformation in humans was

metanoia, which the Roman Catholic translators mangled into the Latin-based word
"repent." 9 It's impossible to comprehend what this extraordinary concept of
metanoia includes in its meaning unless we examine its original Greek connotations.
It involves a person ceasing to cling to
her ordinary life; old ideas and feelings
lose all value for her. The whole course
of her experience takes on a new
meaning and leads in a totally
different direction. She DIES
completely to her old way of being and
becomes--literally--a new person as
she experiences re-birth.

The esoteric re-birth experience

could produce the right effect upon the
neophyte's soul only if she had
previously changed her lower world of
experience and consciousness. If she
were to be inducted into the Life of the
Spirit where she would behold a
Higher World, this required a prior
total, radical transformation in her way
of thinking, feeling, acting--being in
general.

For most people, the empirical

world of shoes and ships and sealing wax is the only one; any idea of a higher world
is simply a fantasy. Such musings are “mere” thoughts and ideas. They have no
reality. We can't touch them or hear or see them. They're not "real."

"Now of the process of re-birth there is and always has been a definite and
exact science, the knowledge of which has been the property of the smallest of
minorities and, for adequate reasons, has not been suffered to be promulgated
to the multitude, although individuals who earnestly sought for it never failed in
discovering it. The Mystery-schools of antiquity, at least before the days of their
degeneracy, possessed and administered it; it was the raison d'etre of their
existence, as was well known to the public of the time, any member of whom,
prepared to abandon secular life and
apply himself to the higher vocation,
could seek admission therein. The
Christianity of the first two centuries
took over the doctrine and the
science, confirmed and expanded as
they became by the advent of Christ,
but eventually lost them and put in
their place the ecclesiastical
machinery and dogmatic theology
which have ruled throughout the
subsequent centuries of European
history, with the result that popular
Christianity has for long known nothing of them. With the enjoinder of the
assured necessity for regeneration proclaimed by the Master of their faith it and
its theologians and pastors are well familiar. But can it be said that 'Ye must be
born again' means for them more than a vague, mysterious, metaphoric counsel
of perfection capable of being satisfied by living the ordinary natural life as far as
possible in accordance with the standard of conduct indicated in the Gospels? Are
the words accorded more than a value for ethical purposes, to the total neglect
of the possibility of their literal practical fulfilment?"
M. A. Atwood, Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy

Somehow another idea has to come to us, a message by a person who knows of
a Higher World. She explains that a totally different relationship to reality is possible-
-if one changes his entire way of thinking and acting. A person who clings at all costs
to the ordinary conception of reality can't grasp such ideas; he won't even be
interested in hearing about them. In regard to such people, Perennialist teachers
such as Jesus explain that they have ears to hear but will not hear and eyes to see
but will not see. So initiation into the re-birth experience is not provided to them
because it would be wasted, ignored, or misused.

But some people do want to hear about such ideas;

there is a kind of divine discontent in them. They want to
understand their lives in a more comprehensive way. And
they're capable of making the radical transformation in their
being which is required for this strange new experience of
death to the old life and re-birth to a new one. Their whole
awareness of reality makes a complete shift.

"The Truth is yourself, but not your mere bodily

self,
Your real self is higher than 'you' and 'me.'
This visible 'you' which you fancy to be yourself
Is limited in place, the real 'you' is not limited.
Why, O pearl, linger you trembling in your shell?
Esteem not yourself mere sugar-cane, but real sugar.
This outward 'you' is foreign to your real 'you;'
Cling to your real self, quit this dual self."

Rumi, The Mathnavi

Initiation Into the Higher Mysteries

The writings of such early Christian teachers as Paul, Clement of Alexandria, Origen,
and Valentinus, provide unquestionable proof that there was an esoteric strain in
Jesus' teachings. Further, they show that only certain persons were judged to be
eligible for initiation into the Higher Mysteries--what Paul called resurrection into the
body of Christ.

The division of Christian teachings into exoteric--public--and esoteric--secret--

was understood by genuine Christian teachers to be the same as in other religious
and philosophic systems. This is made particularly clear in Origen's book Origen
Against Celsus.

"That there should be certain doctrines, not made known to the

multitude, which are [revealed] after the exoteric ones have been
taught, is not a peculiarity of Christianity alone, but also of philosophic
systems, in which certain truths are exoteric and others esoteric.
Some of the hearers of Pythagoras were content with his ipse dixit;
while others were taught in secret those doctrines which were not
deemed fit to be communicated to profane and insufficiently prepared
ears. Moreover, all the Mysteries that are celebrated everywhere
throughout Greece and barbarous countries, although held in secret,
have no discredit thrown upon them, so that it is in vain he [Celsus]
endeavours to calumniate the secret doctrines of Christianity, seeing
that he does not correctly understand its nature."

The esoteric teachings given by Jesus to selected initiates were not written down,
but were taught orally to those deemed worthy to receive them, to aspirants who
formed small communities which remained in touch with the central body.

The exoteric (public) teachings were considered to be effective and applicable to

ordinary members of the Christian faith. The rank of initiate was achieved only by
those who not only lived an exemplary life but also studied all branches of human
knowledge. The initiate was to be a philosopher--a seeker of wisdom--in Plato's
terms.

"Some who think themselves naturally gifted, do not wish to touch

either philosophy or logic; nay more, they do not wish to learn natural
science. They demand bare faith alone. . . So also I call him truly
learned who brings everything to bear on the truth — so that, from
geometry, and music, and grammar, and philosophy itself, culling what
is useful, he guards the faith against assault. How necessary is it for
him who desires to be partaker of the power of God, to treat of
intellectual subjects by philosophising."

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata

 The initiate must be
tested to see if his
interest in the Higher
World is genuine or not. It
is possible for a person,
hearing these ideas, to
allow himself to be flung
into a sense of emptiness,
of nothingness. This is
why the teachings are
reserved only for those
capable of the rigors of
the spiritual life.
Otherwise they would be
deprived of what gives
them happiness, makes them feel secure, without receiving anything in exchange.

This is why it is absolutely essential that a person change his entire way of
thinking and acting prior to being initiated into the deeper mysteries of death and re-
birth. The attitude with which we approach a teaching determines completely what
we receive and understand.

"Let a divine being approach you! It may be nothing or everything. Nothing,

if you meet it in the frame of mind in which you confront everyday things.
Everything, if you are prepared and attuned to it. What it is in itself is a matter
which does not concern you; the point is whether it leaves you as you were or
makes a different man of you. But this depends solely on you. You must have
been prepared by the education and development of the most intimate forces of
your personality so that what the divine is able to evoke may be kindled and
released in you. What is brought to you depends upon the reception you prepare
for it."
Rudolph Steiner, Christianity as Mystical Fact

By definition, what occurs in the initiation process is known only by those who
have experienced it and must remain hidden to all others. In an essay such as this
we can discuss only the general features of this initiation procedure; the actual
process takes place exclusively with a teacher and a thoroughly tested initiate.
 "The secrecy surrounding the science has been due to the mental and
moral unpreparedness for it on the part of those content to live the
normal life of the world. Save under glyph and figure, cryptic
memorials and allegories, the details of the experimental process of
regeneration could never be made public, nor can they now. . . And
why? Because, apart from the privacy inevitably attaching to
sacrosanctities, it involves perils personal and general; it lays open
the most secret recesses and properties of the human organism,
stripping bare the quivering roots of the physical and psychic life; it
leads into contact with magnetic forces of terrific potency from the
knowledge and effects of which we are at present providentially
sheltered and safeguarded by the grossness of our sense-bodies and
the limitations those impose upon us until such time as we become
fitted to function in independence of them."

M. A. Atwood, Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy

The rite of initiation within Esoteric Christianity consisted in a definite procedure involving
informing the aspirant of certain "mysteries" and inducing in him a higher state of consciousness.

Origen speaks of this procedure as "initiating those who were already purified into the sacred
Mysteries."

"To those who have been purified in heart: He, whose soul has, for a
long time, been conscious of no evil, especially since he yielded
himself to the healing of the Word, let such a one hear the doctrines
which were spoken in private by Jesus to His genuine disciples."
 Only a small minority of adepts possess
operational knowledge of the science of spiritual
regeneration.10 In the initiation process, a
knowledgeable, skilled operator psychically
induces a heightened state of consciousness in
the aspirant. The initiate's higher consciousness
is activated so that it can function in a
necessarily quickened manner. The aspirant is
placed in the psychic condition of a person at
the moment of death, his consciousness
withdrawn from externals, restricted to and
focused upon his mind's internal content, which
he is directed to explore and contemplate.
The Spiritual Baptism

From several extraordinary sources, it

appears that Jesus practiced a secret spiritual
"baptism" with specially chosen aspirants. In
the Gospel of Mark (chapter 14) we come upon
a strange passage describing what happened in the garden of Gethsemene as Jesus
was praying and then arrested by the Jewish scribes and elders.

"Then all the disciples deserted Jesus and made their escape. There
happened to be a young man among Jesus' followers who wore
nothing but a linen shroud about his body. They seized him, but he left
the shroud in their hands and took to his heels stark naked."
 In trying to make sense of this strange
statement, we must go to the researches
of a biblical scholar named Morton Smith.
In 1958 Smith, then a graduate student in
Theology at Columbia University, was
invited to catalogue the manuscript
holdings in the library of the Mar Saba
monastery, located twelve miles south of
Jerusalem. Smith discovered a copy of a
letter written by Clement of Alexandria. In
the letter Clement mentions not the
familiar canonical Gospel of Mark, but a
different, secret gospel that Mark had
written in Alexandria. Clement said that
after Peter's death, Mark had brought his
original gospel to Alexandria and had
written a "more spiritual gospel for the use
of those who were being perfected."
Clement says this text was kept by the Alexandrian church for use only in the
initiation into "the great mysteries" as it would "lead the hearers into the innermost
sanctuary of that truth hidden."

Morton Smith spent a decade examining this Secret Gospel of Mark and finally came to this
conclusion concerning the special rite of psychic immersion into a new realm of being:

"Jesus could admit his followers to the kingdom of God, and he could
do it in some special way, so that they were not there merely by
anticipation, nor by virtue of belief and obedience, nor by some other
figure of speech, but were really, actually, in."

Morton Smith, The Secret Gospel

Clement quotes from the Secret Gospel of Mark the tale of a young man who, like Lazarus,
was raised from the dead by Jesus and who later came to Jesus "wearing a linen shroud over his
naked body." Clement quotes the Secret Gospel of Mark as stating that Jesus spent the whole
night teaching the young man "the mystery of the kingdom of God."
 What we have, then, is a clear indication that Jesus--and his authentic followers--
practiced a baptismal initiation rite in which they "immersed" aspirants into a new
realm (kingdom) of Higher Consciousness. Through initiation, neophytes came into
contact with an inner awareness of a Higher World--their Real Self.

The images which arose in the spiritual life of their soul became increasingly real
to them. They began to understand that what their senses see, hear, and touch is of
a lower, impermanent order of reality. They knew they couldn't prove what they felt;
they could only tell others about what they had experienced. They realized that in
recounting their experiences to others they were like a person speaking of
perceptions of a world to which most others are blind.

Think of how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.

You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate.
There are wheatfields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.
At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight
the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding."
You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up
in the dark with eyes closed.

.................................Listen to the answer.

There is no "other world,"

I only know what I've experienced.
You must be hallucinating."

Jalaluddin Rumi
 It is only after experiencing entry into the search
for the unitive state that one can begin to discern the
authentic parts of the New Testament and other
genuine spiritual literature. It makes it possible to
discriminate between what is real and what is
concocted. Only that which speaks to a dying to self
and re-birth to a Higher Consciousness is understood
to be genuine.

The person initiated begins to experience a force

kindled within him, his true spirit. A new being has
entered him and become active in his life. Forces
slumbering within are awakened; he begins to experience inspiration from a Higher
Source and feels the necessity to act in such a manner that he can share in the life
of others. Spiritual transformation--re-birth--has occured, bringing about a change in
that part of him that is open to "intuition," the voice of "the teacher within."

The Perennial Tradition is alive and well in all its embodiments--Esoteric

Christianity as well as others. The esoteric teachings and practices which were used
by Jesus and his authentic followers are still being practiced today--but by
contemporary Perennialist teachers in ways which are not easily recognized by those
"who have eyes to see but do not see."

"Seek annihilation and adore change of state.

You have already seen hundreds of resurrections
Occur every moment from your origin till now;
One from the inorganic state to the vegetive state,
From the vegetive state to the animal state of trial;
Thence again to rationality and good discernment;
Again you will rise from this world of sense and form."

Rumi

Notes

1 John 3:3, J. B. Phillips translation

2See Chapter 13 (http://www.hermes-press.com/Perennial_Tradition/PTch13.htm) in
The Perennial Tradition, "Jesus As a Perennialist

Teacher."

3 The word translated as "church" in the New Testament is

ekklesia, meaning an assembly called together

(from the Greek ekkalein: to call forth).

4 Adolf von Harnack, Marcion: the Gospel of the Alien God, p. 22

5The koine Greek term for gospel is euangelion, the proclaiming of good tidings.
Koine (common) Greek is the language in which most of the early Christian materials
were written. In some parts of this article I am using my own translation from the
koine Greek original.

6 Horace H. Bradley lists 538 writings that refer to early Christianity in his book
Fragments of the New Testament.
A treasury of Gnostic scrolls was unearthed in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. These
documents had been concealed in the late fourth century, most likely by someone
who felt (reasonably enough) that unless concealed the texts would be destroyed by
heresy-hunting true believers. The best-known text from the Nag Hammadi treasure
trove was the Gospel of Thomas. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in Palestine
two years later and have been the target for squabbling among biblical scholars ever
since.

7 "'The mystical beliefs' of the secret societies were, and indeed are, based on the
Hermetic maxim 'As above - so below' which teaches that the natural world is a
material reflection of the spiritual. It forms the esoteric basis for the Ancient
Egyptian Mysteries, Gnosticism, Esoteric Christianity, the Cabbala, the Hermetic
tradition, alchemy and societies such as the Templars, Freemasons and
Rosicrucians."
Michael Howard, Occult Conspiracy

8See Chapter 1 (http://www.hermes-press.com/Perennial_Tradition/PTch1.htm) in

The Perennial Tradition, "The Perennial Tradition"

9 The Latin-based word "repent" means: to feel remorse, contrition, or self-reproach

for what one has done or failed to do. It's clear why such a word would be used in an
autocratic system such as the Roman Catholic Church where penitents (as members
are called) are forced to repent by confessing their sins to a priest. The priest thus
becomes a necessary mediator between God and the Christian penitent.

10 See Chapter 21 (http://www.hermes-press.com/Perennial_Tradition/PTch21.htm)

in The Perennial Tradition, "Regeneration Into a Higher Consciousness"

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