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    "num": 8,
    "slug": "07-jesus-the-mission-of-christ",
    "title": "Jesus: The Mission of Christ",
    "of": 9,
    "words": 29227,
    "text": "## Jesus: The Mission of Christ\n\n\nThe Mission of Christ\n\nThink not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: Iam not come to destroy, but to fulfill.\n—Matthew 5:17\n\nThe Light was in the world, and the World was made by it, and the world knew it not.\n—John 1:10\n\nFor as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming\n\nof the Son of Man be.\n—Matthew 24:27\n\n38. The Condition of the World at the Birth of Jesus\nThe world's destiny grew critical; the darkened sky was filled with sinister portents.\n\nDespite the efforts of the initiates in Asia, Africa and Europe, polytheism had ended with the\ncollapse of civilization. This does not exclude the sublime cosmogony of Orpheus, so splendidly\nextolled but already weakened in the time of Homer. One can lay the blame on the difficulty human\nnature has in maintaining itself at a high spiritual level. For the great spirits of antiquity, the gods\nwere merely a poetic expression of the hierarchical forces of nature, a speaking image of its internal\norganism. As symbols of cosmic and animate forces these gods continue to live in the consciousness\nof mankind. In the thinking of the initiates, this diversity of gods or of forces was superseded and\npenetrated by the Supreme God or pure Spirit. The chief goal of the sanctuaries of Memphis, Delphi\nand Eleusis had been to teach this unity of God, along with the moral discipline attached to it. But\nthe disciples of Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato failed in face of the egotism of the politicians, the\nmeanness of the Sophists and the passions of the crowd.\n\nThe social and political disintegration of Greece was the result of her religious, moral and\nintellectual deterioration. Apollo, the solar Word, the manifestation of the supreme God and of the\nsupraterrestrial world through beauty, justice and divination, grows silent. There are no more\noracles, no more inspired men, no more real poets: Minerva, Wisdom and Providence, veils herself\nbefore her people who are changing into satyrs, profaning the Mysteries, insulting the sages and\ngods in the theatre of Bacchus, by means of Aristophanic farces. The Mysteries themselves are\ncorrupted, for sycophants and courtesans are admitted to the festivals of Eleusis. When the soul\nbecomes clouded, religion becomes idolatrous; when thought becomes materialistic, philosophy falls\ninto skepticism. Thus we see Lucian, a poor microbe born from the corpse of paganism, ridiculing\nthe myths after Carneades misunderstood their scientific origin.\n\nSuperstitious in religion, agnostic in philosophy, selfish and divided in politics, drunk with anarchy\nand fatally sworn to tyranny; this is what had become of this divine Greece which transmitted the\nscience of Egypt and the Mysteries of Asia to us in forms of immortal beauty.\n\nIf anyone understood what was lacking in the ancient world, if anyone tried to raise it again by an\neffort of heroism and genius, it was Alexander the Great. This legendary conqueror, like his father,\nPhilip, initiated into the Mysteries of Samothrace, revealed himself much more as the spiritual son of\nOrpheus than the disciple of Aristotle. Doubtless this Achilles of Macedonia who set out with a\nhandful of Greeks, crossing Asia to India, dreamed of a universal empire, but not through the\noppression of peoples or through crushing religion and free science, as did the Caesars. His great\nidea was the reconciliation of Asia and Europe through a synthesis of religions, based upon a\nscientific authority. Thus motivated, he paid homage to the science of Aristotle as well as to Minerva\nof Athens, Jehovah of Jerusalem, Osiris of Egypt and Brahma of the Hindus. As a true initiate he\nrecognized the same Divinity and the same Wisdom beneath all these symbols. This was the broad\nview, the superb divination of this new Dionysus! The sword of Alexander was the last lightning-\nflash of the Greece of Orpheus. It illumined both Orient and Occident. Philip's son died, intoxicated\nby his victory and his dream, leaving the remnants of his empire to rapacious generals. But his\nthought did not die with him. He had founded Alexandria, where Oriental philosophy, Judaism and\nHellenism were ultimately to blend in the crucible of Egyptian esoterism, awaiting the word of the\nResurrection of Christ. As the star-twins of Greece, Apollo and Minerva, faded on the horizon,\nmen saw a threatening sign ascending into the stormy sky: the Roman She-Wolf.\n\nWhat is Rome's origin? The conjuration of a greedy oligarchy in the name of brute force; the\noppression of human intellect, of religion, science and art through deified political power; in other\nwords, the opposite of the truth, according to which a government draws its power only from the\nsupreme principles of science, justice and economy. All Roman history is but the outgrowth of this\n\npact of iniquity by which the Roman senators declared war first on Italy, then on the human race.\nThey chose their symbol well! The brass She-Wolf, raising her wild hair and moving her hyena-head\non the Capitoline, is the reflection of this government, the demon which will possess the Roman soul\nto the very last.\n\nIn Greece, at least, men always respected the sanctuaries of Delphi and Eleusis. In Rome they\nsuppressed science and art from the beginning. The efforts of the sage Numa, an Etruscan initiate,\nfailed before the limitless ambition of the Roman senators. To Rome he brought the Sibylline Books,\ncontaining a part of the science of Hermes. He created arbitrating judges, elected by the people; he\ndistributed lands to the latter; he erected a temple to Good Faith and Janus, a hierogram which means\nuniversality of law; he submitted the right of war to the Fecials. King Numa, whose memory the\npeople did not cease to cherish, and whom they considered to have been inspired by a divine genius,\nseems therefore to be a historical intervention of sacred science in government. King Numa does not\nrepresent Roman genius, but the genius of Etruscan initiation, which followed the same principles as\nthe Schools of Memphis and Delphi.\n\nAfter Numa, the Roman Senate burned the Sibylline Books, destroyed the authority of the flamens,\ndemolished the judicial institutions and returned to a system where religion was merely an\ninstrument of political domination. Rome became the hydra which swallowed up peoples as well as\ntheir gods. Slowly the nations of the earth were subjugated and plundered. The Mamertine Prison\nwas filled with kings from North and South. Wanting no priests other than slaves and charlatans,\nRome assassinates the last guardians of esoteric tradition in Gaul, Egypt, Judea and Persia. She\npretends to worship the gods, but worships only her She-Wolf. And now in a bloody dawn appears\nthe last son of that wolf, epitomizing the genius of Rome: Caesar! Rome has absorbed all peoples;\nCaesar, her incarnation, devours all powers. Caesar not only dreams of being Emperor of Nations;\nuniting the tiara and the diadem in his crown, he has himself named Pontifex Maximus. After the\nBattle of Thapsus he is deified as a hero; after Munda, he is declared a god; finally, his statue is\nplaced in the temple of Quirinus and a school of curates is established, bearing his name: the Julian\npriests. As an example of supreme irony and supreme logic of events, this same Caesar who makes\nhimself god, denies the immortality of the soul in presence of the Senate. Is it possible to say more\nclearly that there is no longer any god except Caesar?\n\nWith the Caesars in control, Rome, heiress of Babylon, lifts her hand over the whole world. --\nMeanwhile, what has become of the Roman State? It has destroyed all collective life outside the\nCapital. Dictatorship by the military is established in Italy, extortions by governors and publicans in\nthe provinces. -- Conquering Rome settles like a vampire upon the corpse of ancient societies.\n\nNow the Roman orgies can parade openly with their bacchanale of vice, their procession of crimes.\nThey begin with the voluptuous meeting of Mark Antony and Cleopatra; they will end with\nMessalina's outbursts and Nero's madness. They begin with a lascivious, public caricature of the\nMysteries; they will end in the Roman Circus, where wild beasts fall upon naked virgins, martyrs of\ntheir faith, to the applause of twenty thousand spectators.\n\nNevertheless, among the peoples conquered by Rome were those who were called the people of\nGod, and whose genius was the opposite of Roman genius. How does it happen that Israel, worn out\nby internal struggle, crushed by three hundred years of slavery, had preserved their faith undaunted?\nWhy did these conquered people rise up in the face of Greek decadence and Roman orgies like a\nprophet, head covered with sackcloth and ashes, eyes flashing in terrible anger? How did they dare\npredict the fall of the masters who had their feet on their neck, and speak of a yet unknown, final\ntriumph, at a time when they too were approaching final ruin? It is because a great idea lived in\nIsrael. This idea had been inculcated by Moses. Under Joshua, the Twelve Tribes had raised a\nmemorial stone with the inscription, \"This is a covenant between us and Jehovah, who is the only\nGod.\"\n\nIn the chapters on Moses we have seen how and why the law-maker of Israel made monotheism the\ncornerstone of his science, of his social law and of a universal religious idea. He had had the genius\nto understand that the future of mankind depended upon the victory of this idea. In order to preserve\nit, he had written a hieroglyphic book, built a golden Ark, raised a people out of the nomadic dust of\nthe desert. Moses caused the fire of heaven to flash, the thunder to roar over these witnesses of the\nspiritual idea. Against them were pitted not only the Moabites, the Philistines, the Amalakites and all\nthe peoples of Palestine, but also the passions and weaknesses of the Jewish people themselves. The\nbook ceased to be understood by the priesthood, the Ark was captured by enemies, and again and\nagain the people almost forgot their mission. Why then, in spite of everything, did they remain\nfaithful? Why did Moses' idea remain engraved in letters of fire upon the brow and heart of Israel?\nTo whom is this singular perseverance due -- this magnificent fidelity in the midst of the vicissitudes\nof a turbulent history filled with catastrophes, the fidelity which gives Israel its unique physiognomy\namong nations? One can answer, To the prophets, and to the institution of prophecy. By oral\ntradition, this dates back to Moses.\n\nThe Hebrews had prophets in all periods of their history, even until the time of their dispersal, but\nthe institution of prophecy appears in an organic form for the first time in the period of Samuel. It\nwas Samuel who founded those brotherhoods of Nebiim, those schools of prophets, in the face of a\nrising royalty and an already degenerate priesthood. He made the schools the strict guardians of\nesoteric tradition and of the universal religious thought of Moses, as opposed to the kings, in whom\nthe political idea and nationalism were to predominate. In effect, in these brotherhoods were\npreserved the remains of Moses' science, the sacred music with its modes and powers, occult therapy\nand, finally, the art of divination which the great prophets handled with great ability and outstanding\nreverence.\n\nDivination existed in the most varied forms among all peoples of ancient times. But in Israel\nprophecy was an unfolding, an elevation, an authority in which monotheism preserved the human\nsoul. Prophecy, represented by the theologians of the earth as direct communication with a personal\nGod, denied by naturalistic philosophy as pure superstition, is in reality but the higher manifestation\nof the universal laws of the spirit. \"The general truths which govern the world,\" says Ewald in his\nfine book on the prophets, \"in other words, the thoughts of God, are unchangeable and unassailable,\nentirely independent of the fluctuations of things, of the will and the actions of men. Man is\noriginally intended to share in them, to understand them and to translate them freely into actions.\nThus he reaches his own real destination. But in order for the Word of the Spirit to penetrate the\nflesh of man, man must first be shaken to his depths by the great upheavals of history. Then eternal\nTruth bursts forth like a stream of light. This is why it is so often said in the Old Testament that\nJehovah is the one living God.' When man hears the divine call, a new life builds up within him; he\nno longer feels alone, but finds himself in communion with God and with all Truth. Now he is\nprepared to move from one truth to another, infinitely. In this new life his thought is identified with\nthe universal Will. He has a clear view of the present and a complete faith in the ultimate victory of\nthe divine idea. The man who experiences this is a prophet, that is, he feels irresistibly compelled to\nshow himself to others as God's representative. His thought becomes vision, and that higher Power\nwhich makes Truth well up in his soul, sometimes by breaking it, constitutes the prophetic element.\nThe prophetic manifestations in history have been the thunderbolts and lightnings of Truth.\"\n\nFrom this stream those giants, Elias, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah drew their strength. In the depth of\ntheir caves or in kings' palaces, they were truly the sentinels of the Lord and, as Elisha says of his\nmaster, Elijah, \"The chariots and horsemen of Israel.\" Often with perfect accuracy they foretell the\ndeath of kings, the fall of kingdoms and the punishments of Israel. Again, they are mistaken.\nAlthough lighted from the sun of divine Truth, in their hands the prophetic torch frequently flickers\nand grows dark at the breath of national passions. But never do they blunder in regard to moral\ntruths, the true mission of Israel, or the ultimate triumph of justice among men. As true initiates they\npreach contempt for external cult, the abolition of bloody sacrifices, purification of the soul and\n\ncharity. Their insight is particularly admirable in what concerns the ultimate victory of monotheism,\nits liberating and peacemaking role for all people.\n\nThe most terrible misfortunes which can strike a nation, including foreign invasion and mass\ndeportation to Babylon, were unable to shake that faith. Listen to Isaiah during Sennacherib's\ninvasion: \"Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: all ye that mourn for\nher, rejoice with her with a great joy. For thus saith the Lord: Behold I shall extend peace to her like\na river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck and shall be borne\nupon her sides, and dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforteth, so shall I comfort\nyou; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. For I know their works and their thoughts; it shall come\nto pass that I will gather all nations and all tongues; and they shall come and shall behold my glory.\"\n\nOnly today, before the tomb of Christ, is this vision beginning to be fulfilled; but who can deny its\nprophetic truth when one considers Israel's role in the history of mankind?\n\nNo less unshakable than this faith in the future glory of Jerusalem, in its moral grandeur and its\nreligious universality, is the faith of the prophets in a Savior or Messiah. All speak about him. Again,\nthe incomparable Isaiah is the one who sees him most clearly, who describes him with most power in\nhis bold language: \"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall\ngrow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and\nunderstanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord....\nBut with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:\nand he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the\nwicked.\" At this vision, the despairing soul of the prophet is calmed, lighting up like a cloudy sky at\nthe tremor of a celestial harp, and all the storms vanish. For now it is truly the picture of the Galilean\nwhich is traced before his inner eye: \"He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root\nout of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness.... He is despised and rejected of men; a man of\nsorrows.... Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken,\nsmitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our\niniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.... He was\noppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a Iamb to the\nslaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.\"\n\nFor eight centuries, above dissensions and national misfortunes, the thundering word of the prophets\ncaused the idea and the image of the Messiah to be present, sometimes as a terrible avenger,\nsometimes as an angel of mercy. Born under Assyrian tyranny, amidst the exile of Babylon,\nunfolded under Persian domination, the Messianic idea continued to grow during the reign of the\nSeleucides and Maccabees. When the Roman domination and the reign of Herod came, the Messiah\nwas living in the consciousness of all. If the great prophets had seen him as a just man and a martyr,\na true son of God, the people -- faithful to the Judaic idea -- imagined him as a David, a Solomon or\na new Maccabeus. But whoever this restorer of Israel's glory was to be, everyone believed in him,\nwaited for him, called upon him. Such is the power of prophetic activity.\n\nThus, just as Roman history ended fatally with Caesar by way of destiny's instinctive path and\ninfernal logic, so Israel's history led freely to Christ by way of the conscious path and the divine\nlogic of Providence, manifested in its visible representatives, the prophets. Evil is fatally condemned\nto contradict itself and to destroy itself because it is false; but the Good, despite all obstacles,\nengenders light and harmony in the succession of the ages because it is the fecundity of Truth. From\nits triumph Rome had only Caesarism; from its decline, Israel gave birth to the Messiah, lending\ntruth to that beautiful saying of a modern poet, \"Out of its own shipwreck, hope creates the thing\ncontemplated.\"\n\nA faint expectancy hung over the peoples of the earth. In the excess of their evils, all humanity had a\nforeboding of a Saviour. For centuries all mythologies had dreamed of a divine child. Temples spoke\nof him mysteriously; astrologers calculated his coming; in their delirium the Sibyls had screamed of\nthe fall of the pagan gods. The initiates had announced that one day the world would be ruled by one\nof their own, by a son of God. The earth waited for a spiritual king who would be understood by\nchildren, by the humble and the poor.\n\nThe great Aeschylus, son of a priest of Eleusis, was almost murdered by the Athenians because\nthrough the mouth of his Prometheus he dared say in the public theatre that the reign of Jupiter-Fate\nwould end. Four centuries later, in the shadow of the throne of Augustus, gentle Virgil announces a\nnew age, and dreams of a marvelous child: \"That last Age, predicted by the Cumaean Sibyl, has\ncome. The great order of centuries past is beginning again; already from the heavenly heights a new\nrace descends. Deign, chaste Lucina, to protect this Child, whose birth is to banish the Age of Iron\nand to restore the Golden Age to the world; already your brother Apollo reigns. .. . See the world in\nbalance, see earth and seas in their immensity, the sky and its deep vault, all nature trembling with\nthe hope of the Age to come.\"\n\nWhere will this child be born? From what divine world will this soul come? By what lightning-flash\nof love will he descend to earth? By what wondrous purity, by what superhuman energy will he\nremember the heaven he has left behind? By what still more tremendous effort will he know how to\narise once more from the depths of earthly consciousness, leading humanity in his train?\n\nNo one would have dared admit it, but everyone awaited him. Herod the Great, Idumean usurper and\nprotégé of Caesar Augustus, was dying in his palace in Jericho after a luxurious and bloody reign,\nwhich had covered Judea with marvelous buildings and human hecatombs. Stricken with a frightful\nmalady, a decomposition of the blood, he was breathing his last, hated by all, eaten by fury and\nremorse, haunted by the specters of his innumerable victims among whom was his innocent wife, --\nthe noble Miriam, descended from the Maccabees, as well as three of his own sons. The seven\nwomen of his harem had fled before the royal phantom which, still living, already smelled of the\nsepulchre. Even his bodyguard had abandoned him. Impassive, watching beside the dying, was his\nsister Salome, his evil genius, the instigator of his blackest crimes. Diadem upon her brow, her breast\nshimmering with precious jewels, haughtily she watched, awaiting the last breath of the king so she\ncould seize the royal power.\n\nThus died the last king of the Jews. At that very moment, the future spiritual king of humanity had\njust been born. Silently, in profound humility and obscurity, the few initiates of Israel prepared for\nhis reign.\n\nNotes for this chapter:\n\n70. How did Jesus become the Messiah? This is the original, most fundamental question in the\nconcept of the Christ, but the problem cannot be solved without intuition and without esoteric\ntradition. It is with this esoteric light, this inner flame of all religions, this central truth of all fertile\nphilosophy, that I have attempted to reconstruct the life of Jesus in broad outline, while taking into\naccount all the previous work of historical criticism which has prepared the way. As far as what\nconcerns the historical and relative value of the Gospels, I have taken the three Synoptics (Matthew,\nMark and Luke) as a basis, and John's Gospel as the arcanum of the esoteric doctrine of Christ, at the\nsame time allowing for the posterior composition and symbolic tendency of this Gospel.\n\nThe four Gospels, which must be compared with each other, are equally authentic, but in different\nways. Matthew and Mark are the valuable Gospels of the letter and fact; the public acts and speeches\n\nare found there. Gentle Luke lets the meaning of the Mysteries be partly seen beneath the poetic veil\nof legend. This is the Gospel of the Soul, of Woman and of Love, John unveils these mysteries. One\nfinds with him the deep foundation of the doctrine, the secret teaching, the meaning of the Promise,\nthe esoteric reserve. Clement of Alexandria, one of the rare Christian bishops who possessed the key\nof universal esoterism, has well called it \"the Gospel of the Spirit.\" John has a profound view of the\ntranscendent truths revealed by the Master and a powerful way of summarizing them. His symbol is\nthe Eagle, whose wings fly through space, and whose flaming eye observes the deepest secrets. (See\nalso Rudolf Steiner's book, Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity, as well as\nhis published lecture cycles on the four Gospels. Emil Bock's Studies in the Gospels and his The\nThree Years also contain useful material.--Ed.)\n\n39. Mary -- Jesus' Early Development\n\nJehoshoua, whom we call Jesus, from his Hellenized name, /esous, was probably born in Nazareth. It\nwas certainly in this out-of-the-way corner of Galilee that his childhood was spent and the first, the\ngreatest of Christian Mysteries was realized: the unfolding of the soul of Christ. Jesus was son of\nMyriam, whom we call Mary, the wife of the carpenter, Joseph. She was a Galilean woman of noble\nbirth, and was related to the Essenes.\n\nLegend has embroidered a tapestry of wonders around the birth of Jesus. If legend harbors many a\nsuperstition, sometimes it also encloses little-known spiritual truths, because the latter are beyond\ncommon perception. One fact seems to stand out in the legendary story of Mary -- that Jesus was a\nchild dedicated to a prophetic mission by the wish of his mother before his birth. The same is\nreported concerning several heroes and prophets of the Old Testament. These sons, dedicated to God\nby their mothers, were called Nazarenes. In this light, it is interesting to read again the stories of\nSamson and of Samuel. An angel announces to Samson's mother that she is about to become\npregnant, that she will give birth to a son, that his hair will not be cut, \"for the child shall be a\nNazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the\nPhilistines.\" Samuel's mother herself asked God for her son. \"Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, was\nsterile .. . And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed . . . give thy handmaid\na male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come\nupon his head . . . Then Elkanah knew his wife . . . Sometime later, after Hannah had conceived, she\nbore a child and named him Samuel because, she said, I have asked him of the Lord.\" According to\nearly Semitic roots, SAM-U-EL means The Inner Splendor of God. The mother, illumined by the\none she was conceiving, considered him \"the ethereal essence of the Lord.\"\n\nThese passages are extremely important because they cause us to penetrate the constant and living\nesoteric tradition of Israel, reaching by this means into the true meaning of the Christian legend.\nElkanah, the husband, is really Samuel's earthly father according to the flesh, but the Lord is his\nheavenly Father according to the Spirit. Here the figurative language of Judaic monotheism conceals\nthe doctrine of the prior existence of the soul. The initiate woman makes an appeal to a higher soul\nin order to receive it into her womb, and to bring a prophet into the world. This doctrine, quite\nconcealed among the Jews and completely absent from their official worship, was a part of the secret\ntradition of the initiates. It appears in the prophets. Jeremiah affirms it in these terms: \"Then the\nword of the Lord came unto me saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; before thou\ntamest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.\" Jesus\nwill say the same thing to the scandalized Pharisees: \"Verily, verily I say unto you: Before Abraham\nwas, I am.\"\n\nHow much of all this can one relate to Mary, the mother of Jesus? It seems that in the early Christian\ncommunities, Jesus was considered a son of Joseph and Mary, since Matthew gives us the\n\ngenealogical tree of Joseph in order to prove that Jesus descends from David. Thus, like a few\nGnostic sects they saw in Jesus a son given by the Lord in the same sense as was Samuel. Later,\nwishing to show Jesus' supernatural origin, legend wove its gold and blue veil: the story of Joseph\nand Mary, the Annunciation and even Mary's infancy in the temple.\n\nIf we try to disengage the esoteric meaning from Jewish tradition and Christian legend, we shall say\nthat providential action, or, more plainly speaking, the influx of the spiritual world which contributes\nto the birth of each man, whoever he may be, is more powerful and more visible at the birth of men\nof genius, whose appearance is in no way explained by the single law of physical atavism. This\ninflux reaches its greatest intensity in the instance of one of those divine prophets, destined to\nchange the face of the world. The soul chosen for a divine mission comes from a divine world; it\ncomes freely, consciously, but in order that it can enter the scene of earthly life, a chosen vessel is\nnecessary. This latter is the call of a mother from among the elite. She is one who by her moral\nbearing, by means of the desire of her soul and the purity of her life, senses, attracts, incarnates in\nher blood and in her flesh the soul of the Redeemer, destined to become a son of God in the eyes of\nmen. This is the profound truth that the ancient idea of the Virgin Mother concealed. Hindu genius\nhad already expressed it in the legend of Krishna. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke rendered it\nwith simplicity and highly admirable poetry.\n\n\"For the soul which comes from heaven, birth is a death,\" Empedocles said, five hundred years\nbefore Christ. However sublime a spirit may be, once buried in flesh it temporarily loses the\nremembrance of its entire past; once taken into the activities of corporeal life, the development of its\nearthly consciousness is subjected to the laws of the world where it is incarnated. It comes under the\npower of the elements. The higher its origin, the greater will be its effort to regain its dormant\npowers, its celestial qualities, and to become aware of its mission.\n\nIntense and sensitive souls need silence and peace in order to blossom. Jesus grew up in the calm of\nGalilee. His first impressions were sweet, austere and calm. His valley birthplace resembled a bit of\nheaven fallen upon the side of the mountain. The town of Nazareth has hardly changed in the course\nof centuries. Its houses, rising in rows beneath the rock, according to the reports of travelers,\nresemble white cubes scattered in a forest of pomegranate trees, fig trees and vineyards, over which\nfly great flocks of doves.\n\nAround this refuge of coolness and green blows the sharp air of the mountains; from the heights is\nseen the open, clear horizon of Galilee. To this impressive landscape add the serious home life of a\ndevout, patriarchal family. The power of Jewish education rested from earliest times in the unity of\nthe Law and of the Faith, as well as in the strong family organization, dominated by national and\nreligious ideals. For the child, the paternal household was a sort of temple. Instead of the frescoed\nlaughing fauns and nymphs which decorated the atria of Greek houses, such as could be seen at\nSephoris and Tiberias, in the Jewish houses one saw only passages from the Law and the prophets,\nwhose severe texts were inscribed over the doors and on the walls in Chaldean letters. But the union\nof the father and mother in the love of their children warmed and illumined the bareness of this\ninterior with a completely spiritual life. In such a home Jesus received his early training; there, from\nthe oral teaching of the father and mother he first learned to understand the Scriptures.\n\nFrom his early years, the long, strange destiny of the people of God unfolded before his eyes in the\nperiodic Festivals which were celebrated in the family by reading, singing and praying. At the Feast\nof Tabernacles, a hut of myrtle and olive branches was raised in the courtyard or on the roof of the\nhouse as a reminder of the time of the nomadic Patriarchs. They lighted the seven-branched\ncandlestick, unrolled the scrolls of papyrus and read the sacred stories. For the child's soul the Lord\nwas present not only in the starry heavens but also in the candlestick which reflected His Glory, in\nthe speech of the father, as well as in the silent love of the mother. Thus the great days of Israel\ncradled the childhood of Jesus -- days of joy and mourning, of triumph and exile, of afflictions\n\nwithout number and of eternal hope. In face of the burning, penetrating questions of the child, the\nfather was silent. But the mother, raising her large eyes with their gaze like that of a Syrian dreamer,\nmeeting the questioning look of her son, would say, \"The word of God lives only in His prophets.\nOne day the Essene sages, the hermits of Mount Carmel and of the Dead Sea will answer you.\"\n\nOne also pictures the child Jesus mixing with his companions and exercising over them that singular\nprestige which precocious intelligence gives, along with his feeling for justice and active sympathy.\nWe follow him to the synagogue where he hears the Scribes and Pharisees debate, where he himself\nis to use his dialectical power. We see him repelled by the dryness of these teachers of the Law who\ntortured the letter to the point of doing away with the Spirit. We also see him observing the pagan\nlife, divining it and compassing it with a glance as he visits wealthy Sephoris, the capital of Galilee,\nhome of Antipas, dominated by its acropolis and guarded by Herod's mercenaries: Gauls, Thracians,\nforeigners from many countries.\n\nPerhaps on one of these trips, so frequent in Jewish families, he visited one of the Phoenician cities,\nveritable human anthills, swarming at the edge of the sea. From afar he would have seen the low,\nthick-columned temples surrounded with dark bushes, from which came the chanting of the\npriestesses of Astarte, accompanied by mournful flutes. Their cry of pleasure, sharp like pain,\nawakened in his astonished heart a long tremor of anguish and pity. Then, with a feeling of\ndeliverance, Mary's son returned to his beloved mountains. He climbed over the hill of Nazareth and\nlooked upon the vast horizon of Galilee and Samaria. He saw Carmel, Gilboa, Tabor, the Sichem\nMountains, ancient witnesses of the patriarchs and prophets. \"The high places\" unfolded in a circle;\nthey stood out against the vastness of the sky like great altars awaiting fire and incense. -- Were they\nwaiting for someone?\n\nYet, however powerful the impressions of the surrounding world on Jesus' soul may have been, they\nall paled before the sovereign truth of his inner world. This truth opened within him like a luminous\nflower emerging from a dark stream. It resembled the increasing clarity which was developing\nwithin him when he was alone, and which he welcomed. Then men and objects, near or far, seemed\ntransparent in their secret essence. He read thoughts and beheld souls. Then, in memory, as though\nthrough a thin veil, divinely beautiful, radiant beings were hovering over him or were assembled in\nthe worship of a blinding Light.\n\nMarvelous visions haunted his sleep or stood between himself and reality through a virtual dividing\nof his consciousness. At the climax of these ecstasies which bore him from region to region in other\nworlds, he sometimes felt drawn by a dazzling Light, then immersed in an incandescent sun. He\nretained an ineffable tenderness and an extraordinary strength from these experiences. He felt\nreconciled with all beings, in harmony with the universe. What then was that mysterious Light which\nburst forth from within himself and carried him off to the most distant spaces, that Light which first\ntouched him from his mother's large eyes and now united him with all souls by secret ties? Was this\nnot the Source of souls and worlds?\n\nHe called it his Heavenly Father.\n\nThis primal feeling of unity with God in the light of love -- this is Jesus' first great revelation. An\ninner voice told him to seal it deep within himself, but it was to illumine his entire life. It gave him\ninvincible certainty. It made him gentle and indomitable. Of his thought it made a diamond shield; of\nhis word, a sword of light.\n\nThis profoundly secret, mystical life was united in the adolescent with complete clarity in regard to\nthe things of external life. Luke describes him for us at the age of twelve, \"growing in strength, in\ngrace and in wisdom.\" Religious consciousness was the innate thing in Jesus -- absolutely\nindependent of the external world. His prophetic and Messianic consciousness could not be\n\nawakened except by a shock from outside, by the life of his time and finally by a special initiation\nand a long inner unfoldment. Traces of this are found in the Gospels and elsewhere.\n\nThe first great crisis came to Jesus on that first journey to Jerusalem with his parents, of which Luke\nhas spoken. That city, the pride of Israel, had become the center of Jewish aspirations. Its\nmisfortunes had only served to excite men's minds. One could say that the more the tombs multiplied\nthere, the more hope was exalted. Under the Seleucides, under the Maccabees, first by Pompey,\nfinally by Herod, Jerusalem had suffered dreadful sieges. Blood had flowed like rivers; the Roman\nlegions had slaughtered the people in the streets; mass crucifixions had polluted the hills with\ninfernal scenes. After so many horrors, after the humiliation of the Roman occupation, after\ndecimating the Sanhedrin and reducing the pontiff to the status of a trembling slave, Herod, as\nthough in irony, had rebuilt the Temple more magnificently than that of Solomon. Nevertheless,\nJerusalem remained the Holy City. Had not Isaiah, Jesus' favorite author, called it \"the bride, before\nwhom all peoples shall kneel?\" He had said, \"Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation; and thy gates\nPraise, and the nations shall come, to the splendor which shall arise over you.\" To see Jerusalem and\nthe Temple of Jehovah was the dream of all Jews, especially since Judea had become a Roman\nprovince. Pilgrims came there from Perea, Galilee, Alexandria and Babylon. On the way, in the\ndesert, under the palms, beside wells, psalms were sung; the travelers longed for the Temple of the\nLord, they looked eagerly for Mount Zion.\n\nA strange feeling of oppression must have come over Jesus' soul when on his first journey he saw\nJerusalem with its impressive walls, sitting upon the mountain like a dark fortress, when he saw the\nRoman amphitheater of Herod beside its gates, the Tower of Antonia overlooking the Temple,\nRoman legionnaires, spear in hand, watching from above. He climbed the steps of the Temple. He\nadmired the splendor of the marble porticoes where the Pharisees paraded in sumptuous garments.\nHe crossed the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of the Women. With the crowd of Israelites he came\nnear the Gate of Nicanor and the balustrade three cubits long, behind which one could see priests in\ntheir robes of purple and deep red, shining with gold and precious stones, officiating before the\nsanctuary, sacrificing goats and bulls and sprinkling the people with the blood while pronouncing a\nbenediction. This did not resemble the temple of his dreams nor the heaven of his heart.\n\nThen he went down into the more populous sections of the city. There he saw beggars pale from\nhunger, anguished faces reflecting the last civil wars, tortures and crucifixions. Leaving by one of\nthe gates of the city, he wandered in those rocky valleys, in those dark ravines where quarries, pools\nand kings' tombs are found, forming a kind of sepulchral belt around Jerusalem. There he saw insane\nmen coming out of caves, uttering blasphemies against the living and the dead. Then, descending by\na broad stairway to the pool of Siloam, as deep as a well, he saw beside the yellowish water, lepers,\nparalytics, the wretched, covered with all kinds of sores. An irresistible impulse forced him to look\ndirectly into their eyes, to drink in all their pain. Some asked him for help, others were wan and\nhopeless; others, stupefied, seemed to suffer no longer. -- But how much time had been required for\nthem to become like this?\n\nThen Jesus asked himself, What good is this Temple, these priests, these hymns, these sacrifices,\nsince they cannot remedy all these sorrows? And suddenly, like a stream swollen by endless tears, he\nfelt the sorrows of these souls, of this city, of these people, of all mankind, flow into his heart. He\nunderstood that no longer could he experience a happiness which he could not share with others.\nThese looks, these despairing stares, were never to leave his memory. That melancholy bride,\nHuman Suffering, walked beside him, saying to him, 1 will never leave you!'\n\nHe went away, filled with sadness and anguish. When once again he saw the luminous peaks of\n\nGalilee, a profound cry came from his heart: Heavenly Father! . . . I want to know! I want to heal! I\nwant to save!'\n\n40. The Essenes -- John the Baptist -- the Temptation\nHe could learn what he wished to know only from the Essenes.\n\nThe Gospels have maintained an absolute silence about Jesus' deeds and travels before his meeting\nwith John the Baptist, when, as they relate, he assumed his ministry. Immediately afterward he\nappears in Galilee with a teaching which has been formulated with the assurance of a prophet and\nthe consciousness of the Messiah. But it is evident that this bold and premeditated beginning was\npreceded by a long development and a virtual initiation. It is no less certain that this initiation must\nhave taken place in the only association which then preserved in Israel the real traditions of the\nprophets, together with their way of living. This cannot be doubted by those who, raising themselves\nabove the superstition of the letter and the mechanical mania for the written document, have the\ncourage to discover the connection between things. This is apparent, not only from inner\nrelationships between the teaching of Jesus and that of the Essenes, but also from the very silence\nChrist and his disciples maintained concerning this sect. Why does one who attacks all the religious\ngroups of his time with unprecedented freedom, never name the Essenes? Why do the Apostles and\nwriters of the Gospels not speak of them? Evidently because they consider the Essenes as their own\ngroup, because they are united with them by the vow of the Mysteries and because the sect was\nlinked with the Christians.\n\nIn Jesus' time the Order of the Essenes constituted the last remnants of those brotherhoods of\nprophets organized by Samuel. The despotism of the masters of Palestine, along with the jealousy of\nan ambitious and servile priesthood had pushed them into retreat and silence. They no longer fought\nas did their predecessors; they were content with preserving tradition. They had two main centers:\none in Egypt beside Lake Maoris, the other in Palestine at Engaddi, beside the Dead Sea. The name\n\"Essenes\" which they had given themselves, came from the Syrian word, Asaya, meaning\nphysicians, in Greek, therapeutes, for their sole avowed ministry, so far as the public was concerned,\nwas that of healing physical and moral maladies. \"They studied very carefully,\" said Josephus,\n\"certain writings on medicine which dealt with the secret properties of plants and minerals.\" Some\npossessed the gift of prophecy like Menahim, who had predicted to Herod that he would reign.\n\"They serve God,\" said Philo, \"with a great piety, not by offering Him victims, but in sanctifying\ntheir spirit. They flee from cities and apply themselves to the arts of peace. There is not one slave\namong them; they are all free and work for one another.\"\n\nThe rules of the Order were strict. In order to enter, a novitiate of one year was required. If one had\ngiven satisfactory proof of temperance, he was admitted to the ablutions but without entering into\nrelationship with the masters of the Order. Two more years of trial were required before one was\nreceived into the Brotherhood. The members swore \"by terrible oaths\" to observe the duties of the\nOrder and to betray none of its secrets. Then only did they take part in the communal meals, which\nwere celebrated with great solemnity, forming the intimate cult of the Essenes. The garments they\nwore at these meals they considered sacred, removing them before returning to work. These fraternal\nlove feasts, the primitive form of the Supper instituted by Jesus, began and ended with prayer.\n\nOn these occasions the original interpretation of the sacred books of Moses and the prophets was\ngiven, but in the explanation of the texts as well as in initiation there were three meanings and three\nstages. All this resembled the organization of the Pythagoreans,\" but it is certain that it also existed\nin about the same form among the ancient prophets, for it is found in all places of initiation. In\naddition, the Essenes taught the basic ideas of the Orphic and Pythagorean doctrine, including that of\nthe pre-existence of the soul, the consequence of and reason for its immortality. \"The soul,\" as\nJosephus reported, \"descending from the most subtle ether and drawn into the body by a certain\n\nnatural charm, lives there as in a prison; freed from the bonds of the body as from a long servitude, it\nflies away with joy.\"\n\nAmong the Essenes the brothers themselves lived in remote places under a community of property\nand in a state of celibacy, tilling the soil and sometimes educating the children of outsiders. As for\nthe married Essenes, they constituted a sort of Third Order, affiliated with and subject to the other.\nSilent gentle and serious, they were seen here and there practising the arts of peace. Weavers,\ncarpenters, vine growers or gardeners, they never were weapons makers or merchants. Spread in\nlittle groups throughout Palestine, in Egypt, even as far as Mount Horeb, they were dedicated to\nmost generous hospitality. Thus we shall see Jesus and his disciples travel from city to city, from\nprovince to province, always certain of finding shelter. \"The Essenes,\" said Josephus, \"were of an\nexemplary morality; they strove to repress all passion and all emotion of anger; they were always\nkind, peaceful and of the highest good faith in their relations. Their word had more weight than an\noath; they considered the oath superfluous in ordinary life. Rather than violate the least religious\nprecept they bore the most cruel tortures with an admirable strength of soul and with a smile on their\nlips.\"\n\nIndifferent to the external pomp of the cult in Jerusalem, repelled by the hardness of the Saducees,\nby the pride of the Pharisees, by the pedantry and dryness of the synagogue, Jesus was drawn to the\nEssenes by a natural affinity.\" Joseph's premature death left Mary's son, now a man, entirely free.\nHis brothers could continue their father's trade and maintain the home. His mother allowed him\nleave in secret for Engaddi. Welcomed as a brother, greeted as one of the elect, he must have rapidly\nacquired an invincible ascendancy over the masters themselves by means of his superior faculties,\nhis ardent charity and that divine element which pervaded all his being. But from them he received\nwhat the Essenes alone could give him: the esoteric tradition of the prophets, and through this, his\nown historical and religious orientation.\n\nHe understood the abyss which separated the official Jewish doctrine from the ancient wisdom of the\ninitiates, the true mother of religions, forever persecuted by Satan, that is, the spirit of Evil, the spirit\nof egotism, hatred and negation joined with absolute political power and priestly imposture. He\nlearned that under the seal of its symbolism, Genesis contained a theogony and a cosmogony as far\nremoved from its literal meaning as the deepest science from the most childish fable. He\ncontemplated the Days of the Elohim, of eternal creation through the emanation of the elements and\nthe formation of the worlds, the origin of souls and their return to God by progressive existences, or\nThe Generations of Adam. He was struck by the greatness of the thought of Moses, who desired to\npave the way for the religious unity of nations by creating the cult of the One God and by\nincarnating this idea in a people.\n\nThey then communicated to him the doctrine of the Divine Word, already taught by Krishna in India,\nby the priests of Osiris in Egypt, by Orpheus and Pythagoras in Greece and known among the\nprophets under the name the Mystery of the Son of Man and of the Son of God. According to this\nteaching, the highest manifestation of God is man, who by virtue of his constitution, his form, his\norgans and his intellect is the image of the Universal Being, possessing His faculties. But, in the\nearthly evolution of mankind, God is dispersed as it were, broken up and mutilated in the\nmultiplicity of men and of human imperfection. He suffers, he seeks himself, nevertheless, he is the\nSon of Man, the perfect Man. The Man symbol, deepest thought of God, remains hidden in the\ninfinite abyss of His desire and His power. However, at certain periods when it is a question of\nsaving humanity from an abyss, of bringing mankind together in order to lift them higher, a chosen\none becomes identified with Divinity, draws It to him through strength, wisdom and love and in turn,\nmanifests It to men. Then the Divine, through the power and the breath of the Spirit, is completely\npresent in him; the Son of Man becomes the Son of God and His living Word. In other ages and\namong other peoples there had already been Sons of God, but since Moses none had been raised in\nIsrael. All the prophets waited for his Messiah. The seers even said that this time he would be called\n\nthe Son of Woman, of celestial Isis, of the divine Light, who is the Bride of God, because in him the\nlight of Love would shine with a brilliance as yet unknown to earth.\n\nThese hidden things which the patriarch of the Essenes unveiled to the young Galilean on the arid\nshores of the Dead Sea in the solitude of Engaddi, seemed both marvelous and familiar to him. With\ngreat emotion he heard the leader of the Order explain these words which are still read today in the\nBook of Enoch: \"From the beginning, the Son of Man was in the Mysteries. The Most High kept him\nin His presence, and manifested him to His elect . . . But the kings will be frightened and will bow\ntheir faces to earth, and fear will seize them when they shall see the Son of Woman sitting on the\nthrone of his glory. Then the Elect will call all the forces of heaven, all the saints from on high, and\nthe power of God. Then the Cherubim, the Seraphim, the Ophanim, all the angels of Power, all the\nangels of the Lord, that is, of the Elect and of the other Power, who serve on earth and above the\nwaters, will lift up their voices.\"\n\nAt these revelations, the words of the prophets, read and meditated upon a hundred times, flamed in\nthe Nazarene's eyes with new, deep and terrible light like flashes of lightning in the night sky. Who\nthen was this Chosen One, and when would he come to Israel?\n\nJesus spent several years with the Essenes. He submitted himself to their discipline, he studied the\nsecrets of nature and practiced esoteric healing with them. He completely blunted his senses in order\nto develop his spirit. Not a single day passed without his meditating on the destinies of mankind and\nin questioning himself. It was a memorable night for the Order of the Essenes and for its new adept\nwhen he received, in deepest secret, the higher initiation at the fourth stage, the one granted only in\nthe special case of a prophetic mission, desired by the brother and approved by the Elders. They met\nin a grotto carved inside a mountain, a vast room containing an altar and seats of stone. The leader of\nthe Order was there with a few Elders. At times two or three Essene women, initiate prophetesses,\nwere admitted to the mysterious ceremony. Bearing torches and palms, they greeted the new initiate,\nwho was clothed in white linen, as \"Bridegroom and King,\" whom they had foretold and whom they\nnow saw for the first time. Then the head of the Order, ordinarily a man of one hundred years\n(Josephus says that the Essenes lived to a very advanced age), presented the golden chalice to him,\nthe symbol of supreme initiation, which held the wine of the Lord' vineyard, symbol of divine\ninspiration. Some said that Moses had drunk from it with the Seventy. Others believed that it dated\nback to Abraham, who received from Melchizedek this same initiation with the elements of bread\nand wine. The Elder presented the cup only to that man in whom he had recognized with certainty\nsigns of a prophetic mission. But nobody could define this mission for him; he had to discover it for\nhimself. For this is the law of the initiates: Nothing from the outside; all from within. Henceforth he\nwas free, the master of his actions, liberated from the Order, himself a hierophant, left to the breath\nof the Spirit, which could cast him into the abyss or bear him to the summits beyond the region of\ntorment and earthly passions.\n\nWhen the Nazarene took the cup after the songs, prayers and sacramental words of the Elder, a faint\nray of dawn, slipping through a crevice in the mountain, gently touched the torches and the long\nwhite garments of the young Essene women. The latter trembled when the light fell upon the pale\nGalilean, for a great sadness appeared upon his beautiful face. Did his wandering gaze rest upon the\nsick of Siloam? Did he already see his path leading into the depths of that ever present suffering?\n\nNow at this time John the Baptist was preaching beside the Jordan. He was not an Essene, but was a\nprophet of the people, a member of the strong race of Judah. Driven into the desert by a fierce piety,\nhe had led the most ascetic life in prayers, fasts and macerations. Over his bare skin, tanned by the\nsun, he wore a garment of camel's skin as a sign of the penance he wished to impose upon himself\nand his people. For he deeply felt the distress of Israel and awaited the deliverance. In line with the\nJudaic idea he imagined that the Messiah would come soon as an avenger and a judge; that, as a new\nMaccabeus, he would organize the people, drive out the Romans, punish the guilty, enter Jerusalem\n\nin triumph and reestablish the kingdom of Israel in peace and justice. John announced to the\nmultitudes the imminent arrival of this Messiah; he added that it was necessary to prepare oneself by\nrepentance of the heart. Borrowing the custom of ablutions from the Essenes, transforming it in his\nown way, he had conceived of baptism in the Jordan as a visible symbol, an external fulfillment of\nthe inner purification he required.\n\nThis new ceremony, this vehement preaching before immense crowds in the desert, which bordered\nthe waters of Jordan between the rugged mountains of Judea and Perea, gripped imaginations, drew\nmultitudes. It recalled the glorious days of the ancient prophets; it gave the people what they did not\nfind in the Temple: the inner appeal, and, after the terrors of repentance, a dim but mighty hope.\nFrom all parts of Palestine they came to hear the saint of the desert, who announced the Messiah.\nLarge groups, drawn by his voice, remained camped for weeks so they could hear him each day.\nThey did not want to go away, for they were waiting for the Messiah to appear. Many asked to take\nup arms under his command, to begin the holy war again.\n\nHerod Antipas and the priests of Jerusalem were becoming troubled by this movement. Besides, the\nsigns of the time were serious. Tiberius, seventy-four years of age, was ending his life surrounded by\nthe debaucheries of Capri; Pontius Pilate re-doubled his violence against the Jews. In Egypt, the\npriests had announced that the Phoenix was about to be reborn from its own ashes.\nInwardly aware that his prophetic calling was increasing, but still groping his way, Jesus also came\nto the desert of Jordan, accompanied by a few Essene brothers, who already were following him as a\nteacher. He wanted to see the Baptist, to hear him and to submit himself to public baptism. He\nwanted to enter upon his tasks by way of an act of humility and reverence for the prophet who dared\nlift his voice against the rulers of the day and to awaken the soul of Israel from its sleep.\n\nHe saw the rude ascetic, shaggy and hairy with his visionary leonine head, standing in a wooden\npulpit under a rustic tabernacle covered with branches and goatskins. Around him, among the sparse\nbushes of the desert, was an immense crowd, a whole encampment: tax collectors, Herod's soldiers,\nSamaritans, Levites from Jerusalem, Idumeans with their herds of sheep. Even Arabs had stopped\nthere with their camels, tents and caravans at \"the voice which cried in the wilderness.\" And that\nthundering voice rolled over the multitude: \"Repent, prepare the way of the Lord; clear his paths!\"\nHe called the Pharisees and Sadducees \"a generation of vipers.\" He added that \"the axe is already at\nthe root of the trees,\" and about the Messiah, he said, \"I baptize you only with water, but he will\nbaptize you with fire!\"\n\nThen toward sunset, Jesus saw these masses of people pressing toward a cove on the banks of the\nJordan, and Herod's mercenaries and brigands bent their rough backs beneath the water which the\nBaptist poured over them. Jesus went nearer. John did not know Jesus; he had heard nothing of him,\nbut he recognized the Essene by his linen robe. He saw him, lost in the crowd, descend into the water\nto the waist, humbly bending himself to receive the baptism. When the neophyte stood up again, the\nfearful eyes of the wild preacher and the gaze of the Galilean met. The man of the desert trembled\nunder this ray of wondrous sweetness, and the words escaped him involuntarily, \"Are you the\nMessiah?\" The mysterious Essene answered nothing, but bowing his thoughtful head and crossing\nhis hands upon his breast, he asked the Baptist for his benediction. John knew that silence was the\nlaw of the Essene novices. Solemnly he raised his two hands; then with his companions the\nNazarene disappeared among the reeds beside the river.\n\nThe Baptist watched him depart with a mixture of doubt, secret joy and profound melancholy. What\nwere his own knowledge and his prophetic hope before the light he had seen in the eyes of the\nUnknown, a light which seemed to light up all his being? If this young, handsome Galilean was the\nMessiah, he had seen the joy of his days! But his own task was finished, his voice was about to be\nsilent. From that day on he began to preach with a deeper and more emotional fervor on the sad\n\ntheme, \"It is necessary that he grow and that I diminish.\" He began to feel the lassitude and sadness\nof old lions who are weary with roaring and lie down in silence, awaiting death. .. .\n\nWas he the Messiah? The Baptist's question also resounded in Jesus' soul. Since the unfolding of his\nconsciousness, he had found God in himself and the certainty of the kingdom of heaven in the\nradiant beauty of his visions. Then human suffering had thrust into his heart its terrible cry of\nanguish. The Essene sages had taught him the secret of religions, the science of the Mysteries; they\nhad shown him the spiritual decay of mankind, its expectation of a Saviour. But how could he find\nthe strength to save mankind from the abyss? -- Here the direct call of John the Baptist fell into the\nsilence of his meditation like the lightning of Sinai. -- Was he the Messiah?\n\nJesus could answer this question only by withdrawing into the deepest part of his being. Hence that\nretreat, that fast of forty days, which Matthew sums up in the form of a symbolic legend. In reality,\nin Jesus' life The Temptation represents that great crisis, that sovereign vision of Truth which all\nprophets and all religious initiates must experience before beginning their work.\n\nAbove Engaddi where the Essenes cultivated sesame and grapes, a steep path led to a grotto opening\nin the face of the mountain. It was entered between two Doric columns carved in the rock, similar to\nthose of the retreat of the Apostles in the Valley of Jehosaphat. There one remained suspended over\nthe deep abyss as though in an eagle's nest. At the end of a gorge below, one could see vineyards and\nhuman dwellings; in the distance was the Dead Sea, motionless and grey, while further away rose the\ndesolate Mountains of Moab. The Essenes had obtained this retreat for their members who wished to\nsubmit themselves to the trial of solitude. Here were found several scrolls of the prophets,\nstrengthening aromatics, dry figs and a little stream of water, the only food of the ascetic in\nmeditation. Here Jesus came.\n\nFirst he reviewed in his mind all of mankind's past. He weighed the gravity of the present moment.\nRome was dominant, and with her what the Persian Magi had called the reign of Ahriman, and the\nprophets, the reign of Satan, the sign of the Beast, the apotheosis of evil. Darkness was coming over\nhumanity, the somber soul of the earth. From Moses the people of Israel had received the royal and\npriestly mission of representing the male religion of the Father, the pure Spirit, and of teaching it to\nthe other nations, thus bringing about its triumph. Had Israel's kings and priests fulfilled this\nmission? The prophets who alone had had an awareness of it, answered with a single voice, No!\nIsrael was dying in the grip of Rome. Was it necessary for the hundredth time to risk such an\nuprising as the Pharisees still wished, a restoration of the temporal royalty of Israel by force? Should\nhe declare himself the son of David, crying out with Isaiah, \"I will crush the people in my anger, and\nI will make them drunk in my indignation, and I shall overturn their power on the earth?\" Should he\nbe a new Maccabeus and have himself named pontiff-king? Jesus could attempt this. He had seen the\ncrowds ready to rise up at the voice of John the Baptist, and the strength which he felt within himself\nwas even greater still! But did might make right? Would the sword put an end to the reign of the\nsword? Would that not be merely providing new recruits for the powers of darkness, lurking in the\nshadows, waiting for their prey?\n\nWas it not necessary rather to make accessible to all, that Truth which until then had remained the\nprivilege of a few sanctuaries and rare initiates, to open hearts to it, while waiting for it to enter the\nunderstanding through inner revelation and wisdom? In other words, should he, not preach the\nkingdom of heaven to the simple, to substitute for the reign of law that of grace, thus thoroughly\ntransforming mankind while regenerating human souls?\n\nBut whose would be the victory? Satan's or God's? Would it be that of the spirit of evil who reigns\n\nwith the tremendous powers of earth, or of the divine Spirit who reigns in the invisible, heavenly\nregions and sleeps in the heart of men like a spark within the people? What would be the future of\n\nthe prophet who would dare to tear the veil from the Temple, to show the emptiness of the sanctuary,\nto brave both Herod and Caesar?\n\nNevertheless, it was necessary! The inner voice did not say to him as to Isaiah, \"Take a great roll and\nwrite in it with a pen of man!\" The voice of the Lord cried to him, \"Rise up, and speak!\" It was a\nquestion of finding the living word, the faith which moves mountains, the strength which breaks\ndown strongholds.\n\nJesus began to pray with fervor. Then, an anxiety, an increasing disturbance overcame him. He had\nthe feeling of losing the marvelous felicity which previously had been his, and of sinking into a dark\nabyss. A black cloud, filled with shadows of all kinds, enveloped him. He distinguished the faces of\nhis brothers, of his Essene teachers, of his mother. The shadows spoke to him, one after the other:\n\"Fool who desires the impossible! -- You do not know what is in store for you! Give it up!\" The\ninvincible inner voice answered, \"I must!\" Thus he fought for a series of days and nights, sometimes\nstanding, sometimes kneeling, sometimes prostrate on the ground. And deeper became the abyss into\nwhich he descended, thicker became the cloud around him. He had the sensation of approaching\nsomething terrible and indescribable.\n\nAt last he entered the state of clear ecstasy to which he was accustomed, in which the deepest part of\nthe consciousness awakens, enters into communication with the living Spirit of things, projecting the\nimages of the past and future upon the diaphanous fabric of a dream. He closes his eyes; the external\nworld disappears. The seer contemplates Truth by the light which floods his being, making of his\nintelligence a glowing furnace.\n\nThunder rolls; the foundations of the mountain tremble. A whirlwind from the depths carries the seer\naway to the top of the Temple of Jerusalem. Rooftops and minarets shine below him like a forest of\ngold and silver. Hymns arise from the Holy of Holies. Clouds of incense ascend from all the altars,\nwhirling around Jesus' feet. People in festival robes fill the porticoes; beautiful women sing hymns\nof ardent devotion for him. Trumpets sound, and a hundred thousand voices cry, \"Glory to the\nMessiah! -- To the King of Israel!\" \"You will be that king if you will worship me,\" says a voice from\nbelow. \"Who are you?\" asks Jesus.\n\nAgain the wind carries him away through space to the summit of a mountain. At his feet are the\nkingdoms of earth, spread out in their golden light. \"I am the king of spirits and the prince of earth,\"\nsays the voice from below.\n\n\"I know who you are,\" cries Jesus. \"Your forms are innumerable; your name is Satan! Appear in\nyour earthly form!\" The form of a crowned monarch appears, sitting upon a cloud. A dim aureole\nsurrounds his imperial head. The dark figure is outlined against a blood-red cloud; his face is pale,\nhis gaze is like steel. He says, \"I am Caesar. Only bow, and I will give you these kingdoms.\" Jesus\nsays to him, \"Get behind me tempter! It is written, You shall worship only the Lord your God.\" At\nonce the vision fades.\n\nFinding himself alone in the cave of Engaddi, Jesus asks, \"By what sign shall I conquer the powers\nof the earth?\" \"By the sign of the Son of Man,\" answers a voice from above. \"Show me this sign,\"\nsays Jesus ...\n\nA shining constellation appeared upon the horizon. It consisted of four stars in the form of a cross.\nThe Galilean recognized the sign of the ancient initiations, familiar to Egypt and preserved by the\nEssenes. In the dawn of the world, the sons of Japhet had worshipped it as the sign of earthly and\nheavenly Fire, the sign of Life with all its joys, of Love with all its marvels. Later the Egyptian\ninitiates had seen in it the symbol of the great Mystery, the Trinity dominated by Unity, the image of\nsacrifice of the Ineffable Being Who is broken in order to reveal Himself in the cosmos. Symbol of\n\nlife, death and resurrection, it covered innumerable tombs and temples ... The splendid cross grew\nlarger, coming nearer as though drawn by the heart of the seer. The four living stars flamed into suns\nof power and glory. \"This is the magic sign of Life and Immortality,\" said the heavenly voice. \"Men\nonce possessed it, but they lost it. Do you wish to give it back to them?\" \"I do,\" answered Jesus.\n\"Then look! This is your destiny!\"\n\nAbruptly the four stars were extinguished. Night fell. A subterranean rumbling shook the heights,\nand from the bottom of the Dead Sea came a dark mountain, surmounted by a black cross. A dying\nman was nailed upon it. A demon-ridden people swarmed over the mountain, shouting with an\ninfernal mockery, \"If you are the Messiah, save yourself!\" The seer opened his eyes wide, then he\nfell backward, dripping with a cold sweat. For this crucified man was himself . . . He understood. In\norder to conquer, it was necessary to become identified with this frightful double, evoked by himself\nand placed before him like a sinister interrogation. Suspended in uncertainty as in the emptiness of\ninfinite space, Jesus felt the tortures of the crucified one, the insults of men and the deep silence of\nheaven, all at the same time. \"You can accept or reject it,\" said the angelic voice.\n\nThe vision trembled, and the phantom cross with its tortured victim began to dim, when suddenly\nJesus saw near him the sick people of the pool of Siloam, and behind them came a whole host of\ndespairing souls, murmuring with lifted hands, \"Without you we are lost! Save us, you who know\nhow to love!\" Then the Galilean slowly arose, and opening his arms with fullest love, cried out,\n\"Give me the cross! -- And let the world be saved!\"\n\nImmediately Jesus felt a great tearing in all his limbs, and he uttered a terrible cry... At the same\ntime, the black mountain crumbled, the cross was swallowed up; a soft light, a divine happiness,\nflooded the seer, and in the azure heights a triumphant voice was heard saying, \"Satan is no longer\nmaster! Death is conquered! Glory to the Son of Man! Glory to the Son of God!\"\n\nWhen Jesus awakened from this vision, nothing around him had changed. The rising sun gilded the\nwalls of the grotto of Engaddi, a warm dew like tears of angelic love moistened his aching feet and\nfloating mists arose from the Dead Sea. But he was no longer the same. A definitive event had taken\nplace in the unfathomable abyss of his consciousness. He had solved the riddle of his life; he had\nwon the peace, and great certainty had entered into him. A new and radiant consciousness had come\nforth it the breaking of his earthly being, which he had trodden under his feet and thrown into the\nabyss. He knew that he had become the Messiah by an irrevocable act of his will.\n\nShortly afterward he descended to the village of the Essenes. There he learned that John the Baptist\nhad just been seized by Antipas and was imprisoned in the citadel of Makerous. Far from becoming\nfrightened at this event, he saw in it a sign that the time was ripe, that now it was necessary for him\nto act. Therefore he announced to the Essenes that he was about to preach in Galilee \"the Gospel of\nthe Kingdom of Heaven.\" This meant that he was about to place the great Mysteries within the reach\nof the simple, to interpret for them the teaching of the initiates. Such courage had not been seen since\nthe time that Sakya Muni, the last Buddha, moved by tremendous pity, had preached on the banks of\nthe Ganges. The same sublime compassion for humanity moved Jesus. But to this he added an inner\nlight, a power of love, a greatness of faith and a strength of action which were his alone. From the\nabyss of death, which he had fathomed and had tasted in advance, he brought to his brothers hope\nand life.\n\nNotes for this chapter:\n\n71. Points in common between the Essenes and Pythagoreans: Prayer at sunrise; linen clothing;\nfraternal love-feasts; novitiate of one year; three stages of initiation; organization of the Order and\n\ncommunity of property arranged by trustees; law of silence; oath of the Mysteries; division of\nteaching into three parts: 1) science of universal principles or theogony, which Philo calls Logic; 2)\nPhysics or cosmogony; 3) morality, that is, everything that deals with man, the science to which the\nTherapeuts would be dedicated. (See also Rudolf Steiner's lecture cycle on the Gospel of Matthew\nand Bock's The Three Years-Ed.)\n\n72. Points in common between the teaching of the Essenes and that of Jesus: Love of one's neighbor\nas a first duty; prohibition of an oath in attesting to truth as a witness; hatred of the lie; humility;\ninstitution of the Supper borrowed from the love-feasts, but with an entirely new meaning, that of\nSacrifice.\n\n73. Book of Enoch, Chapters 48 and 61. This passage proves that the doctrine of the Word and the\nTrinity found in John's Gospel existed in Israel long before the time of Jesus, and came from the\ndepths of esoteric prophecy. In the apocryphal Book of Enoch, The Lord of Spirits represents the\nFather; The Elect, the Son, the Chosen One; The Other Force, the Holy Spirit.\n\n41. Jesus' Public Life -- His Esoteric Teaching -- The Miracles\n\nI have tried to illumine with its own light that part of Jesus' I life which the Gospels have left in\nobscurity or hidden beneath the veil of legend. I have told by what initiation, by what development\nof soul and spirit the great Nazarene arrived at the Messianic consciousness. In other words, I have\ntried to reconstruct the inner genesis of the Christ. Once this genesis is recognized, the rest of my\ntask will be easier.\n\nJesus' public life has been related by the Gospels. In these accounts are divergences, contradictions\nand additions. Legend, concealing or exaggerating certain Mysteries, still reappears here and there,\nbut from the totality appears such a unity of thought and action, a character so powerful and so\nunique that invincibly we feel ourselves in the presence of reality, of life. There is no question of\nreconstructing those inimitable accounts which, in their childish simplicity or their symbolic beauty\ntell more than all commentaries. But today it is important to clarify Jesus' connection with esoteric\ntraditions and truths, to show the meaning and transcendent significance of his dual teaching.\n\nOf what great news was he the bearer, -- the already famous Essene who came from the shores of the\nDead Sea to his Galilean homeland, there to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom? How was he to\nchange the face of the world? The thinking of the prophets had reached a climax in him. Richly\nendowed in his being, he came to share with men this Kingdom of Heaven which he had conquered\nin his meditations and his struggles, in his infinite pain and boundless joy. He came to tear away the\nveil that the ancient religion of Moses had cast over the after-life. He came to say: \"Believe, love,\nact, and may hope be the soul of your actions. Beyond this earth is a world of souls, a more perfect\nlife. I know it; I come from there; and I will lead you to it. But it is not enough to aspire to it. In\norder to reach it, one must begin by bringing it about here below, first within yourselves, then in\nmankind. With what? -- With love, with active charity.\"\n\nThe young prophet came to Galilee. He did not say that he was the Messiah, but he discussed the\nLaw and prophets in the synagogues. He preached on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in fishermen's\nboats, beside the green oases which abounded near Capernaum, Bethsaida and Korazim. He healed\nthe sick by the laying on of hands, with a look, or a command, and often by his presence alone.\nCrowds followed him; already many disciples were attached to him. He recruited them from among\nthe men of the people: fishermen, tax collectors. For he wanted upright, unspoiled natures, ardent\nand believing, and he irresistibly won them over.\n\nIn his choice of men he was led by that gift of spiritual insight which in all epochs has been the\nspecial possession of men of action, but especially of religious initiators. A look sufficed for him to\nfathom a soul. He needed no other test, and when he said, \"Follow me,\" they followed him. With a\ngesture he called to him the shy, the hesitant, saying, \"Come to me, all you who are heavy laden, I\nwill give you rest. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.\" He discerned the most secret thoughts\nof men who, troubled and disturbed, recognized their Master. Sometimes in a man's apparent\nunbelief he recognized uprightness. Nathaniel having asked, \"Can anything good come out of\nNazareth?\" Jesus replied, \"There is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile!\" He required neither\noath nor profession of faith from his disciples, but only that they love him and that they believe in\nhim. He put the community of property into practice, not as an absolute rule, but as a principle of\nbrotherhood among his own.\n\nIn his little group Jesus thus was beginning to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven that he wished to\nestablish on earth. The Sermon on the Mount offers us a picture of that Kingdom already formed in\nembryo, with a resume of Jesus' public teachings. The Master is sitting on the top of the hill; the\nfuture initiates are gathered at his feet; down below, the assembled people avidly receive the words\nwhich fall from his mouth. What is the new doctor announcing? Fast? Mortification? Public\npenance? No. He says, \"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! Blessed\nare they that mourn, far they shall be comforted.\" Then in ascending order he unfolds the four\nsorrowful virtues: the marvelous power of humility, compassion for others, inner goodness of heart,\nhunger and thirst for righteousness. Then the active, triumphant virtues appear in radiance: mercy,\npurity of heart, loving-kindness and, finally, martyrdom for righteousness. \"Blessed are the pure in\nheart, for they shall see God!\" Like the sound of a golden bell, before the inner eye of the hearers\nthis saying reveals a part of heaven, radiant with stars above the head of the Master. They see the\nhumble virtues, no longer like poor, thin women in the grey robes of penitents, but transformed into\nbeatitudes, into virgins of light, whose radiance dims the splendor of the lilies and the glory of\nSolomon himself. The gentle motion of their palm branches spreads the perfume of the heavenly\nkingdom over these transformed hearts.\n\nThe wonder is that this kingdom does not unfold itself in the distant expanses of heaven, but within\nthose who are listening to this teaching. The latter exchange astonished glances. These poor in spirit\nhave suddenly become so rich! More powerful than Moses, the magician of the soul has struck their\nhearts; an immortal stream gushes forth. His popular teaching is contained in the words, \"The\nKingdom of Heaven is within you!\" Now that he explains to them the means necessary for attaining\nthis unknown happiness, they are no longer surprised at the extraordinary things he asks of them: to\nroot out even the desire for evil, to forgive trespasses, to love one's enemies. So powerful is the river\nof love which overflows from his heart that he draws them to himself.\n\nIn his presence, everything seems easy to them. They are struck by the great newness and\nextraordinary boldness of his teaching. The Galilean prophet places the inner life of the soul above\nall external piety, the invisible above the visible, the Kingdom of Heaven above all earthly\npossessions. He orders them to choose between God and Mammon. Finally, in summing up his\nteaching, he says, \"Love your neighbor as yourself, and be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is\nperfect.\"\n\nThus he set forth all the depth of morality and science in popular form. For the supreme goal of\ninitiation is to reproduce divine perfection in the perfection of the soul, and the secret of knowledge\nresides in the chain of similarities and relationships which link ever more closely the specific to the\nuniversal; the finite to the infinite.\n\nSince this was the public and purely Moral teaching of Jesus, it is clear that along with it he gave his\n\ndisciples a secret teaching which explained the first, revealing its inner meaning, penetrating to the\ndepths of the spiritual truths which he had gained from the esoteric tradition of the Essenes and from\n\nhis own experience. Since this esoteric tradition was violently stifled by the Church after the second\ncentury, the majority of theologians no longer knew the true significance of Christ's words, with\ntheir sometimes double and triple meanings, and saw in them only the basic or literal meaning. For\nthose who have penetrated deeply into the teaching of the Mysteries of India, Egypt and Greece, the\nesoteric thought of Christ animates not only his least important words, but all his deeds as well.\nAlready visible in the three synoptic Gospels, it stands out clearly in the Gospel of John. The\nfollowing example relates to a basic point of his teaching:\n\nJesus is on the way to Jerusalem. He is not yet preaching in the Temple, but he heals the sick and\nteaches among his friends. His work of love must prepare the ground where good seed will fall.\nNicodemus, the educated Pharisee, had heard of the new prophet. Filled with curiosity, but not\nwishing to jeopardize his position with his friends, he requests a secret interview with the Galilean,\nwhich Jesus grants. Nicodemus arrives at Jesus' home at night, and says to him, \"Master! We know\nthat you are a wise man come from God; for no one could work these miracles that you work if God\nis not with him.\" Jesus answers, \"In very truth I say to you that if a man is not born again, he cannot\nsee the kingdom of God.\" Nicodemus asks if it is possible for a man to return to his mother's womb\nand be born a second time. Jesus replies, \"Indeed, I tell you that if a man is not born of water and of\nthe spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.\"\n\nIn this evidently symbolic form, Jesus sums up the ancient doctrine of regeneration, already known\nin the Mysteries of Egypt. To be born again with fire and spirit, and to be baptized with water and\nfire, marks two degrees of initiation, two stages of internal and spiritual development in man. Here\nwater represents truth perceived by the intellect, that is, in a general, abstract manner. It purifies the\nsoul and develops its spiritual seed.\n\nRebirth in the spirit, or baptism by heavenly fire, means the assimilation of this truth by the will so\nthat it becomes blood and life, the soul of all actions. The result is a complete victory of spirit over\nmatter, the absolute mastery of the spiritualized soul over the body, now transformed into a docile\ninstrument, a mastery which awakens the soul's sleeping faculties, opens its inner significance, gives\nit an intuitive view of truth and of the direct effect of one soul upon another. This condition is\nequivalent to that heavenly state which Christ called the Kingdom of God. The baptism with water,\nor intellectual initiation, therefore, is a beginning of rebirth; the baptism with the spirit is a total\nrebirth, a transformation of the soul by the fire of intelligence and will, and, subsequently, in a\ncertain measure, of the elements of the body. In a word, it is a radical regeneration, hence the\nexceptional powers it gives to man.\n\nThis is the earthly meaning of the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. It has a second\nmeaning, which can be called the esoteric doctrine of the constitution of man. According to this\nteaching, man is threefold, consisting of body, soul and spirit. He has an immortal and indivisible\npart, the spirit; a perishable and divisible part, the body. The soul which links them, shares in the\nnature of each. As a living organism, it possesses an etheric fluidic body, similar to the material body\nwhich, without this invisible double, would have neither life, movement nor unity. Depending upon\nwhether man obeys the promptings of the spirit or the excitations of the body, whether by choice he\nattaches himself to the one or the other, the fluidic body etherealizes or densifies, unifies or\ndisintegrates. Therefore after physical death the majority of men must undergo a second death, that\nof the soul, which consists in ridding themselves of the impure elements of their astral body,\nsometimes even in experiencing its slow decomposition, while the completely regenerated man,\nhaving formed his spiritual body here upon earth, possesses his heaven within himself entering that\nregion into which his affinity draws him. -- And water, in ancient esoterism, symbolized infinitely\ntransformable, fluidic matter, as fire symbolized the one Spirit. In speaking of rebirth by water and\nspirit, Christ refers to the double transformation of his spiritual being and his fluidic sheath which\nawaits man after his death, and without which he cannot enter the kingdom of glorified souls and\npure spirits. \"What is born of flesh is flesh (i.e., bound and perishable) and what is born of the spirit\n\nis spirit (1.e., free and immortal). The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its breath, but you\ndo not know where it comes from nor where it goes. So it is with every man who is born of the\nspirit.\"\n\nThus speaks Jesus before Nicodemus in the night-silence of Jerusalem. A small lamp, placed\nbetween them, barely lights the faces of the two men, and is faintly reflected on the ceiling of the\nhigh room. But in the darkness the eyes of the Galilean teacher shine with a mysterious glow. How\ncan one not believe in the soul when one looks into those eyes, sometimes gentle, sometimes\nflashing fire? The Pharisee teacher has seen his wisdom of the letter crumble, but dimly he sees a\nnew world. He has seen the light of the spirit in the eyes of the prophet, whose long, blond hair falls\nupon his shoulders. He has been attracted by the powerful warmth emanating from his being. He has\nseen three tiny white flames appear and disappear like a magnetic aureole around Jesus' head. Then\nhe thinks he feels the breath of the Spirit pass over his heart. Deeply impressed, the silent\nNicodemus steals away to his home in the dark night. He will continue to live among the Pharisees,\nbut in his secret heart he will remain faithful to Jesus.\n\nLet us note a major point of this teaching. According to materialistic concepts the soul is an\nephemeral and accidental result of the forces of the body. In the usual spiritual teaching the soul is\nregarded as an abstract thing, without any conceivable link with the body. In esoteric doctrine, the\nonly rational point of view in this matter, the physical body is a product of the incessant activity of\nthe soul, acting upon the physical through the organism of the astral body, just as the visible universe\nis but a result of the activity of the infinite Spirit. This is why Jesus gives this doctrine to Nicodemus\nas the explanation of the miracles he works. It can serve as the key to the spiritual healing practiced\nby him and by a small number of adepts and saints before as well as after his earthly activity.\nOrdinary medicine fights the ills of the body by acting upon the body. The adept or saint, as a center\nof spiritual and fluidic power, acts directly upon the soul of the sick, and, by his astral body, on his\nphysical body. It is the same in all hypnotic cures. Jesus works with the powers which exist in all\nmen, but he functions with strong doses through powerful and concentrated projections. He gives the\nScribes and Pharisees his power of healing men's bodies as a proof of his power to forgive or heal\ntheir souls, which is his higher purpose.\n\nThus physical healing becomes the counter proof of moral healing, which permits him to say to the\ncompletely restored man, \"Stand up and walk!\" Modern science seeks to explain the phenomenon\nwhich the ancients and men of the Middle Ages called \"possession by devils,\" as a simple nervous\ndisturbance. But this is an insufficient explanation. Psychologists who seek to penetrate further into\nthe mystery of the soul, see in it an intensification of consciousness, an eruption of its latent part.\nThis question is related to the various levels of human consciousness, which sometimes acts on one\nlevel, sometimes on another. This activity can be observed in the various somnambulistic states. It\nalso relates to the supra-sensitive world. Hence it is certain that Jesus had the ability to reestablish\nbalance in troubled bodies and to restore souls to their proper state. \"Real magic,\" said Plotinus \"is\nlove, with hate as its opposite. By love and hate magicians act through their philters and charms.\"\nLove, in its highest manifestation and supreme power, was the \"magic\" of the Christ.\n\nMany disciples shared in his intimate teaching, but to make the new religion permanent, a group of\nactive chosen ones was needed. They would become the pillars of the spiritual temple he wished to\nerect. Hence the institution of the Apostles. He did not choose them from among the Essenes\nbecause he needed vigorous, free natures and because he wanted to implant his religion in the heart\nof the people. Two groups of brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew, sons of Jonas on the one hand and\nJohn and James, sons of Zebedee, on the other, all four fishermen by calling, and of respectable\nfamilies -- formed the nucleus of the Apostles. At the beginning of his activity Jesus comes to their\nhome at Capernaum on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, where they did their fishing. He dwells\namong them, teaches and converts the entire family.\n\nPeter and John stand out as the two principal figures among the twelve. Peter is the upright of heart,\nsimple, naive and limited, as quick to hope as to discouragement, but a man of action, capable of\nleading others because of his energetic character and absolute faith. John is the withdrawn, intense\nnature, filled with such bubbling enthusiasm that Jesus calls him \"the son of thunder.\" John is the\nintuitive one with the burning soul, almost always turned inward, is generally dreamy and sad, with\ntempestuous outbursts, apocalyptic furies, but also with depths of tenderness which others are not\ncapable of detecting and which only the Master has seen. John alone, the silent, contemplative one,\nwill understand the Master's thought. He will be the Evangelist of Love and divine Intelligence, the\nesoteric Apostle par excellence.\n\nPersuaded by Jesus' speech, convinced by his works, directed by his great intelligence and\nsurrounded by his magnetic radiance, the Apostles followed the Master from village to village. The\npopular preaching alternated with the intimate teachings. Slowly he unfolded his thought to them.\nNevertheless he still kept a profound silence about himself, his role and his future. He had told them\nthat the Kingdom of Heaven was near, that the Messiah would come. Already the Apostles\nwhispered among themselves, \"It is he!\" And they repeated this to others. But with gentle gravity, he\nsimply called himself, \"The Son of Man,\" an expression whose esoteric import they did not yet\nunderstand, but which in his mouth seemed to mean, \"The messenger to suffering humanity.\" For he\nadded, \"Wolves have their caves, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.\"\n\nThe Apostles saw the Messiah only in terms of the popular Jewish idea, and naively they conceived\nthe Kingdom of Heaven as a political government of which Jesus would be crowned king and they\nwould be the ministers. To combat this idea, to transform it utterly, to reveal to these Apostles the\ntrue Messiah, the spiritual royalty, to communicate to them this sublime truth he called \"the Father,\"\nthis supreme power which he called \"Spirit,\" the mysterious force which joins all souls to the\nInvisible, through his word, his life and his death to show them a true son of God, to leave them the\nconviction that they and all men were brothers and could rejoin him if they wished, to leave them\nonly after having revealed to them all the vastness of Heaven -- this is the prodigious task of Jesus\nfor his Apostles. Will they believe, or will they not believe? This is the question of the drama which\nunfolds between them and him. There is, however, a more poignant and terrible drama which takes\nplace in the depths of his own being. We shall speak of it later.\n\nAt this time a wave of joy submerges the tragic thought in Christ's consciousness. The storm has not\nyet blown over the Lake of Tiberias. Now is the Galilean springtime of the Gospel; it is the dawn of\nthe Kingdom of God; it is the mystical marriage of the initiate with his spiritual family. The latter\ntravels with him as the procession follows the groom in the parable. The believing followers press\nclose after the beloved Master, on the shores of the blue lake enclosed in its mountains as in a golden\ncup. They follow him from the cool banks of Capernaum to the orange groves of Bethsaida, to the\nmountains of Chorazim, where clusters of palms overlook the entire Sea of Gennesaret.\n\nWomen have a special place among Jesus' followers. Mothers or sisters of the disciples, timid\nvirgins or repentant sinners surround him in every place. Attentive, faithful, ardent, they perfume his\nsteps with their eternal sadness and hope, like a trail of love. He does not need to prove to them that\nhe is the Messiah. Just looking at him is enough. The strange happiness emanating from his\npresence, mixed with the note of a divine and inexpressible suffering resounding in the depth of his\nbeing, persuades them that he is the Son of God. Long ago Jesus had stifled the cry of the flesh\nwithin himself; he had subdued the power of the senses during his stay with the Essenes. In this way\nhe had attained the dominion over souls and the divine power to forgive -- that privilege of the\nangels. He said of the sinning woman who, enveloped in a sea of dishevelled hair, crawled at his\nfeet, while she lavishly spread balm over them, \"She will be forgiven much because she has loved\nmuch!\" This sublime saying contains a complete redemption, for whoever pardons, frees.\n\nChrist is the restorer and liberator of women, whatever Saint Paul and the Church Fathers may have\nsaid. In lowering woman to the role of man's servant, these writers have falsified the thinking of the\nMaster. In Vedic times she had been glorified; Buddha deified her. Christ elevates her by restoring\nher mission of love and divination. The woman initiate represents the soul in mankind, Aisha, as\nMoses called it, that is, the power of Intuition, the loving and seeing faculty. The turbulent Mary\nMagdalene, whose seven demons Jesus had driven out according to the Biblical account, became his\nmost ardent disciple. It was she, according to Saint John, who first saw the divine teacher, the\nspiritual Christ, risen from his tomb. Legend has insisted in seeing in this ardent and believing\nwoman Jesus' greatest worshipper, the initiate of the heart, and legend is not mistaken, for her story\nrepresents the entire regeneration of woman as desired by the Christ.\n\nIt was at the farm at Bethany, with Mary, Martha and the Magdalene that Jesus liked to rest from the\nlabors of his mission and to prepare himself for the supreme tasks. There he freely gave his most\ngentle consolations and in loving conversations he spoke of the divine Mysteries he did not yet dare\nconfide to his disciples. Sometimes at the hour when the gold of the sunset faded among the olive\nbranches, when twilight slipped between their delicate foliage, Jesus became thoughtful. A shadow\nfell over his illumined face. He thought of the hardships of his work, the wavering faith of the\nApostles, the powerful enemies in the world. The Temple, Jerusalem, mankind, with its crimes and\ningratitude, rolled over him like a living mountain.\n\nWould his arms, raised toward Heaven, be strong enough to reduce this mountain to dust, or would\nhe be crushed beneath its enormous weight? Then he spoke vaguely of a terrible trial which awaited\nhim, and of his imminent death.\n\nStruck by the solemnity of his voice, the women did not dare to question him. However\nunchangeable the serenity of Jesus might be, they understood that his soul was as though closed in\nthe coffin of an unspeakable sadness, which separated him from the joys of earth. They sensed the\ndestiny of the prophet; they felt his unshakable resolution. Why did these dark clouds arise in the\nvicinity of Jerusalem? Why this burning wind of fever and death, passing over their hearts as over\nthe blighted hills of Judea with their violet, cadaverous hues? One evening ... a star of mystery... a\ntear shone in Jesus' eyes. The three women trembled and their silent tears flowed in the peace of\nBethany. They were weeping for him; he was weeping for all mankind.\n\n42. Conflict With the Pharisees -- The Transfiguration\n\nThe Galilean springtime lasted for two years. During this time, at the words of the Christ the radiant\nlilies of the angels appeared to blossom in the perfumed air and the dawn of the Kingdom of Heaven\nshone over the attentive crowds. But soon the sky darkened, sinister lightning flashed; everywhere\nwere omens of catastrophe. The storm finally broke over the little spiritual family like one of the\ntempests which sweep the Lake of Gennesaret, swallowing up the frail boats of the fishermen in its\nfury. If the disciples were dismayed, Jesus was not at all surprised, for he was expecting this. It was\nimpossible for his preaching and growing popularity not to stir the religious leaders of the Jews. It\nwas also impossible for the conflict between them and him to be other than a decisive one. More\nimportant still, light could come forth only from this encounter.\n\nIn Jesus' time the Pharisees formed a compact body of six thousand men. Their name Perishin meant\n\"the separated\" or \"distinguished ones.\" With an exalted, often heroic but narrow, proud patriotism,\nthey represented the cause of national restoration; its existence dated only from the Maccabees.\nAlong with written tradition the Pharisees accepted oral tradition as well. They believed in angels, a\nlife after death and the resurrection, but they drowned these glimpses of esoterism which had come\nto them from Persia, in the darkness of grossly materialistic interpretation. Strict observers of the\n\nLaw, but entirely opposed to the spirit of the prophets who put religion in the form of a love of God\nand men, their piety consisted of rituals and ceremonies, fasts and public penance. On the high Holy\nDays they were seen walking through the streets, faces covered with soot, praying aloud with a\ncontrite air and distributing alms ostentatiously. In addition, they lived in luxury and eagerly sought\nfor offices and power. They were also the leaders of the democratic party, holding the people in the\npalm of their hands.\n\nThe Sadducees, on the other hand, represented the priestly and aristocratic party. They were\ncomposed of families which claimed membership in the priesthood by hereditary right from the time\nof David. Conservative to the extreme, they rejected oral tradition, accepting only the letter of the\nLaw and denying the existence of the soul and of a future life. They ridiculed the practices of the\nPharisees as well as their extravagant beliefs. For them religion consisted only in sacerdotal\nceremonies. They controlled the pontificate under the Seleucides, agreeing perfectly with the pagans,\neven becoming imbued with Greek Sophistry and refined Epicureanism. Under the Maccabees the\nPharisees had been evicted from the pontificate, but under Herod and the Romans they had regained\ntheir positions. The Sadducees were hard and tenacious men. As priests they were fond of good\nliving, believing only in their superiority while holding but one fixed purpose: to keep the power\nthey held by inheritance.\n\nWhat could Jesus see in this religion -- Jesus the seer of Engaddi, who sought in the social order the\nimage of divine order where justice reigns over life, science over justice, love and wisdom over all\nthree? In the Temple, in the place of supreme knowledge and initiation, he found materialistic and\nagnostic ignorance using religion as a source of power; in other words, priestly imposture. In the\nschools and synagogues, instead of the bread of life and the dew of Heaven falling into human\nhearts, he found a vested morality covered by a formalist devotion; in other words, hypocrisy. Far\nabove them, sitting on a cloud of glory was the all-powerful Caesar, the apotheosis of evil, the\ndeification of matter. Caesar, the sole god of the world at that time, was the only possible master of\nthe Sadducees and Pharisees, whether they wanted him or not. Like the prophets, borrowing an idea\nfrom Persian esoterism, was Jesus wrong in naming this reign the rule of Satan, of Ahriman, that is,\nthe dominion of matter over spirit, for which he wished to substitute the rule of spirit over matter?\nLike all great reformers he did not attack men, who with some exceptions could be excellent, but he\nfought the doctrines and institutions which shape the majority of mankind. It was necessary for Jesus\nto challenge, to declare war against the ruling powers of his time.\n\nThe struggle took place in the synagogues of Galilee, continuing under the porticoes of the Temple\nin Jerusalem, where Jesus made long visits, preaching and combatting his adversaries. In this, and in\nhis entire career, Jesus acted with that mixture of prudence and boldness, of meditative reserve and\nimpetuous action which characterized his marvelously balanced nature. He did not take the offensive\nagainst his adversaries; he waited for their attack in order to repel it. And he had not long to wait, for\nfrom the prophet's beginnings the Pharisees had become jealous of his healing activities and his\npopularity. Soon in him they detected their most dangerous enemy. Then they approached him with\nthat mocking urbanity, with sharp ill-will, veiled by that hypocritical gentleness which they\ncustomarily employed.\n\nAs wise teachers, as men of importance and authority, the Pharisees asked Jesus the reason for his\ndealings with tax collectors and men of low life. Why, also, did his disciples dare to glean wheat on\nthe Sabbath? Why did he tolerate many serious violations against their regulations? Jesus answered\nthem with gentleness and broadmindedness, with tenderness and forebearance. He used words of\nlove. He spoke to them of the love of God which rejoices more at a repentant sinner than at a few\nrighteous men. He told them the parable of the lost sheep and of the prodigal son. Embarrassed, they\nwere silent. But, having come together again, they returned to the charge, reproaching him for\nhealing the sick on the Sabbath. \"Hypocrites,\" retorted Jesus, with a flash of indignation in his eyes,\n\"do you not take the chain from the neck of your cattle to lead them to the drinking-trough on the\n\nSabbath? May not Abraham's daughter be freed from the chains of Satan on that day?\" Not knowing\nwhat to reply, the Pharisees accused him of driving out demons in Beelzebub's name. Jesus replied\nthat the devil does not drive himself out, and he added that sin against the Son of Man will be\npardoned, but not sin against the Holy Spirit, by which he meant that he thought little of the insults\ndirected toward his being, but to deny the Good and the True when it was declared was intellectual\nperversity, supreme vice and irremediable evil.\n\nThis was a declaration of war. They called him a blasphemer. He answered, \"Hypocrites!\" They\ncalled him an imp of Beelzebub. He called them \"A generation of vipers.\" From this moment on, the\nbattle grew more and more vehement, more and more serious. Jesus displayed a terse, incisive logic.\nHis words flayed like a lash and pierced like an arrow. He had altered his tactics. Instead of\ndefending himself, he took the offensive and answered accusations with still stronger accusations,\nhaving no pity for vice and hypocrisy. \"Why do you transgress the law of God because of your\ntradition? God commanded, \"Honor your father and mother', you dispense with honoring your\nparents if money flows into the Temple! You follow Isaiah only with your lips; you are heartless\nbigots!\"\n\nJesus never lost his self-control, but he became more excited, more vigorous in the struggle. As they\ncontinued to attack him, he took a higher stand as the Messiah. He began to threaten the Temple, to\npredict calamities which would overtake Israel, to appeal to the pagans, to say that the Lord would\nsend other workers into His vineyard. At this the Pharisees of Jerusalem became deeply worried.\n\nSeeing that they could neither shut his mouth, nor answer effectively, they changed their tactics.\nThey planned to lure him into a trap. Therefore they sent deputations whose purpose was to make\nhim utter heresy, which in turn would permit the Sanhedrin to seize him as a blasphemer in the name\nof the Law of Moses, or to have him condemned as a revolutionary by the Roman Governor. Hence\nthe insidious question about the adulterous woman and about Caesar's penny. Always seeing through\nhis enemies' schemes, Jesus disarmed them with his answers, which were those of a profound\npsychologist and skillful strategist.\n\nObserving that these tactics failed, the Pharisees tried to intimidate him by harassing him at every\nstep. Now the majority of the people, stirred up by the Pharisees, were turning away from Jesus,\nsince it was clear that he would not restore the external kingdom of Israel. Everywhere, even in the\nsmallest villages he met cunning and suspicious faces, spies who were watching him, treacherous\nemissaries sent to discourage him. Some came and said to him, \"Get out of here, for Herod Antipas\nwants to kill you!\" He answered proudly, \"Tell that fox that a prophet does not die outside of\nJerusalem!\" Nevertheless, he had to cross the Sea of Tiberias several times, taking refuge on its\neastern shore in order to escape these snares. No longer was he safe anywhere.\n\nWhile these events were taking place, the murder of John the Baptist occurred. By order of Herod\nAntipas, he was beheaded in the Citadel of Makerous. It is said that when Hannibal saw the head of\nhis brother Hasdrubel who had been killed by the Romans, he cried out: \"Now I know the fate of\nCarthage!\" In the death of his forerunner, Jesus could know his own destiny. He had no illusions\nabout it from the time of his vision of Engaddi; he had begun his work by fully accepting his end in\nadvance. Nevertheless this news, brought by the sorrowful disciples of the preacher in the desert,\nstruck Jesus as a presentiment of his own death. He exclaimed, \"They did not recognize him, but\nthey have treated him as they wished. Thus shall the Son of Man suffer at their hands!\"\n\nThe Twelve were troubled, for Jesus hesitated on his path. He did not wish to let himself be\ncaptured, but rather to surrender himself willingly, once his work was finished, and to die as a\nprophet at the hour he himself would choose. Already followed by his enemies for a year,\naccustomed to escaping them by circuitous travels, disheartened with the people, whose coldness he\nsensed after the days of their enthusiasm, Jesus decided once more to flee with his friends.\n\nArriving at the top of a mountain with the Twelve, he turned around to look for the last time at his\nbeloved lake, on whose shores he had wished to cause the dawn of the Kingdom of Heaven to\nappear. His eyes rested upon those towns lying at the edge of the water or built in terraces on the\nmountainsides, partly hidden in their green oases and shining in the golden sunset -- all these\nbeloved places where he had sown the Word of Life, he was now abandoning! A foretaste of the\nfuture came over him. With a prophetic gaze he saw the country transformed into a desert under the\navenging hand of Ishmael, and without anger, but filled with bitterness and sorrow, the words fell\nfrom his lips, \"Woe to you, Capernaum! Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!\" Then\nturning toward the pagan world, accompanied by the Apostles, he took the road which goes up the\nvalley of the Jordan from Gadara to Cesarea Philippi.\n\nSad and long was the route of the fugitive band across the great plains of reeds and the marshy land\nof the upper Jordan, under the burning sun of Syria. They spent the night among herdsmen or with\nthe Essenes who had settled in little communities in this desolate country. The sorrowful, anxious\ndisciples lowered their heads; the sad and silent Master was lost in meditation. He was reflecting\nupon the impossibility of convincing people of the truth of his doctrine by preaching, of the dreadful\nschemes of his adversaries. The final struggle was imminent; he had arrived at an impasse. How was\nhe to come out of it? Moreover, his thought dwelt with infinite concern upon his scattered spiritual\nfamily, and especially on the twelve Apostles who, faithful and confident, had left all -- family,\ntrade, fortune -- to follow him, and who, nevertheless, were about to be heartbroken and\ndisappointed in their great hope of the triumphant Messiah. Could he leave them alone? Had the\ntruth sufficiently entered into them? Would they believe in him and in his teaching, in spite of all?\nDid they know who he really was? Under the influence of this last question, he asked them, \"Whom\ndo men say that I, the Son of Man, am?\" And they answered, \"Some say that you are John the\nBaptist; others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.\" \"And you, whom do you say that I am?\" Then\nSimon Peter answered, \"You are the Christ, the Son of the living. God!\"\n\nIn Hindu, Egyptian and Greek initiation the term Son of God meant a consciousness identified with\ndivine Truth, and a will capable of manifesting it. According to the prophets, this Messiah was to be\nthe Son of Man, that is, the Elect of Earth and the Son of God, that is, the Messenger of Heaven, and,\nas such, having in himself the Father or Spirit, Who rules over the universe through him.\n\nAt this affirmation of the Apostles' faith, Jesus experienced tremendous joy. He knew that his\ndisciples had understood. He would live in them, and the link between Heaven and earth would be\nreestablished. Jesus said to Peter, \"You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonas, for flesh and blood did not\nreveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.\" By this answer Jesus informs Peter that he\nconsiders him an initiate in the same sense as himself. Peter has attained this through his inner,\nprofound vision of Truth. This is the real, the only revelation; this is the stone upon which Christ\nwishes to build his church, \"against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.\" Jesus relies on the\nApostle Peter only so long as he has this understanding. An instant later, when he has become the\nnatural man again -- fearful and limited -- Jesus treats him differently.\n\nWhen Jesus announced to his disciples that he was going to be put to death in Jerusalem, Peter began\nto protest, \"God forbid, Lord, that this should happen to you!\" But Jesus, as if he saw in this\nmovement of sympathy a temptation of the flesh which was trying to shake his great decision, turned\naround sharply to the Apostle, saying, \"Get behind me, Satan! You are an offense, because you\ncannot understand the things of God, but only those which are of men!\" And the firm gesture of the\nMaster seemed to say, \"Forward, across the desert!\"\n\nFrightened by his solemn voice, by his severe look, the Apostles bent their heads in silence,\nresuming their way over the stony hills of Gaulonitide. This flight, by which Jesus led his disciples\noutside Israel, resembled a march toward the riddle of his Messianic destiny, the final solution of\nwhich he was seeking.\n\nThey came to the gates of Caesarea. The city which had turned pagan since the time of Antiochus\nthe Great, was sheltered in a green oasis near the Jordan, at the foot of the snowy crests of Mount\nHermon. It had an amphitheater, and it shone with luxurious palaces and Greek temples. Jesus\npassed through Caesarea and went to the place where the Jordan arises as a bubbling clear stream\nfrom a cavern in the mountain, like life bursting from the deep womb of eternal nature.\n\nA little temple, dedicated to Pan, was there, and in a grotto near the river stood many columns,\nmarble nymphs and pagan divinities. The Jews were horrified at these signs of an idolatrous cult, but\nJesus looked at them without anger, and with an indulgent smile. He recognized in them the\nimperfect effigies of that divine beauty whose radiant archetype he bore in his soul. He had not come\nto curse paganism, but to transform it; he had not come to pronounce an anathema against earth and\nits mysterious powers, but to reveal Heaven to it. His heart was large enough, his doctrine broad\nenough to embrace all peoples, and to say to all cults, \"Lift up your heads, and recognize that you all\nhave the same Father!\"\n\nNevertheless, there he was on the extreme boundary of Israel, hunted like a wild beast, pressed upon,\nstifled between two worlds, each of which rejected him. Before him was the pagan world which did\nnot yet understand him, in which his word was powerless; behind him was the Jewish world, which\nstoned its prophets and stopped its ears in order not to hear its Messiah. There the Pharisees and\nSadducees awaited their prey. What superhuman courage, what extraordinary deed was necessary to\nbreak all these obstacles, in order to pass beyond pagan idolatry and Jewish hardness to the very\nheart of this suffering humanity which he loved with all his being, and to make it hear his word of\nresurrection?\n\nThen with a sudden turn his thought again followed down the course of the Jordan, the sacred river\nof Israel; it moved from the temple of Pan to the Temple of Jerusalem; it measured the entire\ndistance which separated ancient paganism from the universal thought of the prophets. Finally, like\nan eagle returning to its nest, it passed from the distress of Caesarea to the vision of Engaddi! And\nagain he saw surge forth from the Dead Sea that terrible phantom of the cross! . . . Had the hour of\nthe great sacrifice come? Like all men, Jesus had two consciousnesses within him. The earthly one\ngently comforted him with illusions, saying to him, \"Who knows? Perhaps I shall avoid fate!\" The\nother, the divine consciousness, firmly said, \"The way to victory passes through the gate of\nsuffering.\" But was it necessary to obey the latter after all?\n\nIn every great moment of his life, we see Jesus withdrawing to the mountain to pray. Did not the\nVedic sage say, \"Prayer sustains heaven and earth and rules the gods?\" Jesus knew this power of\npowers. Usually he did not allow any companion to share the times when he descended into the\narcanum of his consciousness. However, on one occasion he led Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,\nJohn and James, to a high mountain in order to spend the night there. Tradition has it that the place\nwas Mount Tabor. There that mysterious scene which the Gospels describe under the name The\nTransfiguration took place between the Master and his three most initiated disciples.\n\nAccording to Matthew, the Apostles saw the luminous, diaphanous form of the Master appearing, in\nthe transparent shadows of an oriental night, his face shining like the sun, his garments radiant as\nlight. Then two forms, which they took for those of Moses and Elias appeared beside him.\nTrembling they came out of their strange prostration, which seemed to them like both a deep sleep\nand an intense waking state. Beside them they saw the Master, who touched them in order to awaken\nthem completely. The transfigured Christ was never erased from their memory.\n\nBut what had Jesus himself seen, what had he experienced during that night which preceded the\ndecisive deed of his prophetic career? He passed through a gradual disappearance of earthly things\nunder the fire of prayer and an ascension from sphere to sphere on wings of ecstasy. Slowly it\nseemed to him that through his deep consciousness he was returning into a previous existence, which\n\nwas entirely spiritual and divine. Far from him were the suns, worlds, earths, whirlwinds of painful\nincarnations, while in a homogeneous atmosphere was a fluid substance, an intelligent Light.\n\nIn this radiance legions of heavenly beings formed a moving canopy, a firmament of ethereal bodies,\nwhite as snow, from which emanated gentle rays of light. On the shining cloud where he himself was\nstanding, six men in priestly clothing and of powerful stature are lifting a gleaming Chalice in their\nunited hands. They are the six Messiahs who already have appeared on earth; the seventh is he\nhimself, and this Cup signifies the Sacrifice which he must experience by becoming incarnate on\nearth in his turn. Beneath the cloud the thunder rolls, a black abyss opens, the circle of generations,\nthe gulf of life and death, the earthly hell appear before him. With a supplicating gesture the Sons of\nGod elevate the Cup. Heaven waits motionless ...\n\nWith a gesture of acceptance Jesus spreads his arms in the form of a cross, as though he embraces\nthe world. Then the Sons of God kneel, faces to the ground; angels with long wings and lowered\neyes carry the shining Chalice upward into the vault of Light. Hosanna! rings out from heaven to\nheaven, melodious and ineffable . . . But without even hearing it, he plunges into the abyss ...\n\nThis is what once took place in the world of Archetypes, in the Bosom of the Father, where the\nMysteries of eternal Love are celebrated, and where the movements of the stars pass in waves of\nliving Light. This is what Jesus had sworn to fulfill; this is why he was born, this is why he had\nstruggled upon earth. And now the mighty promise gripped him again at the end of his work,\nthrough the fullness of his spiritual consciousness, by means of which he had entered into the\nrevelation of a divine ecstasy.\n\nImpressive vow, dread Chalice! Nevertheless, it was necessary to drink from it. After the rapture of\necstasy, he awakened in the depths of the abyss, at the brink of martyrdom. There could be no\nfurther doubt; the time had come. Heaven had spoken, earth cried aloud for help.\n\nThen, slowly retracing his steps, Jesus again went down to the valley of the Jordan and took the road\nto Jerusalem.\n\n43. Last Journey to Jerusalem -- Last Supper -- Death and Resurrection\n\n\"Hosanna to the son of David!\" This cry rang out at Jesus' entrance through the East Gate into\nJerusalem; branches of palms were strewn before his steps. Those who welcomed him with so much\nenthusiasm, hastening from all parts of the city for this ovation, were followers of the Galilean\nprophet. They greeted the liberator of Israel, who would soon be crowned king. The twelve Apostles\nwho accompanied him still shared this illusion, despite Jesus' express denials. He alone, the\nproclaimed Messiah, knew that he was walking toward torture, that even his disciples would not\npenetrate the sanctuary of his thought until after his death. He was offering himself resolutely, with\nperfect consciousness and a free will. Hence his resignation, his gentle serenity. As he passed\nbeneath the great portal carved in the dark fortress of Jerusalem, the clamor became intensified,\npursuing him like the voice of Fate seizing its prey, \"Hosanna to the son of David!\"\n\nWith this solemn entry into Jerusalem Jesus publicly declared to the religious authorities among the\nJews that he was assuming the role of Messiah, with all its consequences. The next day he appeared\nin the Temple, in the court of the Gentiles, and, going to the merchants and the money-changers\nwhose usury and handling of coin profaned the sanctity of the holy place, he spoke these words from\nIsaiah, \"It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, and you make it a den of thieves!\" The\nmerchants flee, carrying with them their tables and money sacks, intimidated by the prophet's\n\npartisans who surround him like a solid rampart, but still more by his fiery gaze and commanding\ngesture. The priests are astounded at his boldness and are terrified at his power.\n\nA deputation from the Sanhedrin comes to him, demanding an explanation, \"By what authority do\nyou do these things?\" At this cunning question, according to his custom Jesus answered with a no\nless difficult question for his adversaries, \"The baptism of John, whence came it, from heaven or\nmen?\" If the Pharisees had answered, \"It comes from heaven,\" Jesus would have said to them, \"Then\nwhy did you not believe it?\" If they had said, \"It comes from men,\" they would have had cause to\nfear the people who considered John the Baptist a prophet. Therefore they answered, \"We do not\nknow.\" Jesus said, \"Then neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.\"\n\nBut now, having warded off the attack, he took the offensive and added, \"Indeed I tell you that the\ntax collectors and prostitutes will precede you into the kingdom of God!\" Then in a parable he\ncompared them to the evil husbandman who kills the master's son in order to steal the inheritance of\nthe vineyard, and he called himself \"the cornerstone which will crush you.\"\n\nBy these deeds and by these sayings it can be seen that on this last journey into the capital of Israel,\nJesus had ended his retreating. For a long time the authorities had held the two major points of\naccusation necessary to destroy him: his threats against the Temple and his affirmation that he was\nthe Messiah. And now his latest attacks exasperated his enemies. From this moment his death,\nalready decided upon by the rulers, was only a matter of time. From the moment of his arrival, the\nmost influential members of the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees and Pharisees, having become reconciled\nin their hatred for Jesus, agreed among themselves to have \"the seducer of the people\" die. However\nthey hesitated to seize him in public, because they feared a revolt of the people. Several times\npreviously, soldiers whom they had sent to capture him had returned, converted by his sayings or\nfrightened by his throngs of followers. Several times the Temple guards had seen him disappear out\nof their midst in an incomprehensible manner. In this same way the Emperor Domitian, fascinated,\nhypnotized by the Magus whom he wished to condemn, saw Apollonius of Tyana disappear from\nbefore his throne, surrounded by his guards!\n\nThus the struggle between Jesus and the priests continued from day to day with an increasing hatred\non their part, and on his, with a vigor, impetuosity and intensity resulting from his certainty of the\nfatal outcome. It was Jesus' last attack against the powers of his time. He displayed tremendous\nenergy and all that masculine force like armor covering his sublime tenderness, which can be called\nthe Eternal Feminine of his soul. This great combat ended in terrible anathemas against the debasers\nof religion: \"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, who close the Kingdom of Heaven against those\nwho wish to enter! You are fools and blind men, who pay the tithe but neglect justice, mercy and\nfidelity! You are like whitewashed tombs which appear lovely on the outside but inside are full of\ndead men's bones and all kinds of offal!\"\n\nHaving thus branded religious hypocrisy and false priestly authority for centuries yet to come, Jesus\nconsidered his struggle ended. He left Jerusalem followed by his disciples, taking the road to the\nMount of Olives. From its heights one looked down upon Herod's Temple in all its majesty, with its\nterraces and vast porticoes, its white marble finish inlaid with jasper and porphyry, its shining roof,\noverlaid with gold and silver. The disciples, discouraged and sensing a catastrophe, asked him to\nlook at the splendor of the building, and there was a nuance of melancholy and regret in their tone.\nFor they had hoped until the last moment to sit in that Temple like judges of Israel, grouped around\nthe Messiah, crowned pontiff-king.\n\nJesus surveyed the Temple and said, \"Do you see all that? Not one stone will remain upon another.\"\nHe calculated the duration of the Temple of Jehovah by the moral worth of those who were attacking\nhim. He understood that fanaticism, intolerance and hatred were not sufficient weapons against the\nbattering-rams and battle-axes of the Roman Caesar. With his insight of an initiate becoming more\n\npenetrating through that spiritual perception which the approach of death gives, he saw the Judaic\npride, the politics of the kings, all Jewish history ending in catastrophe. Victory was not there; it was\nin the thinking of the prophets, in that universal religion, in that invisible Temple of which he alone\nhad full awareness at that hour. As for the ancient Citadel of Zion and the Temple of stone, he\nalready saw the Angel of Destruction standing at its gates, torch in hand.\n\nJesus knew that his hour was near, but since he did not wish to let himself be captured by the\nSanhedrin, he withdrew to Bethany. Because he had a preference for the Mount of Olives, he went\nthere almost every day to converse with his disciples. From this height there is a magnificent view,\nwhich includes the rugged mountains of Judea and Moab with their bluish and purple hues; in the\ndistance is seen a bit of the Dead Sea, like a mirror of lead from which sulphurous vapors escape.\nJerusalem spreads out at the foot of the mountain, dominated by the Temple and the Citadel of Zion.\nEven today when dusk descends into the gloomy gorges of Hinnom and Jehosaphat, the City of\nDavid and of the Christ, protected by the sons of Ishmael, rises in imposing majesty from these\ndreary valleys. Its cupolas and minarets retain the fading light of the sky, and seem always to be\nawaiting the Angels of Judgment. There Jesus gave his disciples his final instructions concerning the\nfuture of the religion he had come to establish, and regarding the future destinies of humanity. Thus\nhe willed to them his earthly and divine promise, closely linked with his esoteric teaching.\n\nIt is evident that the compilers of the Synoptic Gospels have transmitted to us the apocalyptic\ndiscourses of Jesus only in a confused form, which makes them almost incomprehensible. Their\nmeaning only begins to become intelligible in the Gospel of John. If Jesus had really believed in his\nreturn on the clouds a few years after his death, as naturalist exegesis believes, or yet if he imagined\nthat the end of the world and the final judgment of men would take place in the form conceived by\northodox theology, he would have been merely a very mediocre visionary instead of the initiate sage,\nthe sublime seer, as is proved by each word of his teaching, each deed of his life. It is evident that\nhere, more than elsewhere, his words must be understood in the allegorical sense, according to the\ntranscendent symbolism of the prophets. John's Gospel, of the four Gospels the one which has best\ntransmitted to us the Master's esoteric teaching, imposes on us this interpretation when it reports the\nwords of the Master: \"I have yet many things to say to you, but they are beyond your understanding .\n. . I have told you these things in allegories, but the time comes when I shall no longer speak to you\nin allegories, but I shall speak to you openly of my Father.\"\n\nJesus' solemn promise to the Apostles points to four objects, four growing spheres: planetary and\ncosmic life; individual soul life; the national life of Israel; the whole human evolution. Let us\nconsider each of these four objects of the promise, these four spheres where Christ's thought radiates\nbefore his martyrdom like a setting sun, filling all the earthly atmosphere with its glory, even to its\nzenith, before illumining other worlds.\n\n1. The First Judgment means the ultimate destiny of the soul after death. It is determined by the\nsoul's inner nature and by the acts of its life on earth. I have explained this above with reference to\nJesus' conversation with Nicodemus. On the Mount of Olives, speaking on this subject, he says to his\nApostles, \"Watch that your hearts do not become heavy with cares and pleasures of this life so that\nthis day takes you by surprise.\" Again he said, \"Be ready, for the Son of Man will come at a time\nyou know not!\"\n\n2. The Destruction of the Temple and the End of Israel. \"Nation shall rise against nation ... You will\nbe given up to the authorities to be tortured . . . Indeed I say to you that this generation shall not pass\naway until all these things happen!\"\n\n3. The Earthly End of Mankind, which is not fixed at a definite age, but which must be attained by a\n\nseries of progressive and successive accomplishments. This goal is the coming of the social Christ,\nof the divine man on earth; that is, the organization of Truth, Justice and Love in human society, and\n\nsubsequently the pacification of the peoples. Isaiah already had foretold this distant age in a\nmagnificent vision which begins with the words: \"Seeing their works and their thoughts, I come to\ngather all nations and all tongues together; they shall come and see my glory, and I shall put my sign\nupon them ...\"\n\nCompleting this prophecy, Jesus explains to his disciples that this sign will be the complete\nunveiling of the Mysteries, of the coming of the Holy Spirit which he also calls the Comforter, \"the\nSpirit of Truth which shall lead you into all truth.\" \"And I shall pray my Father, who will give you\nanother Comforter so that it may remain eternally with you, that you may know the Spirit of Truth\nwhich the world cannot receive because it does not see it at all; but you know it because it remains\nwith you and because it will be in you.\" The Apostles will have this revelation in advance; mankind\nwill experience it later in the course of the ages. But each time that it enters into a consciousness or a\ngroup of human beings, it strikes through from top to bottom. \"For as the lightning comes out of the\neast and shines even in the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.\" Thus, when the central,\nspiritual Truth lights up, it illumines all truths and all worlds.\n\n4. The Last Judgment means the end of the cosmic evolution of humanity or its entry into a\ndefinitive spiritual condition. This is what Persian esoterism called the victory of Ormuzd over\nAhriman, or of the Spirit over matter. Hindu esotericism called it the complete reabsorption of\nmatter by the Spirit, or the end of a Day of Brahma. After thousands and millions of centuries a time\nmust come when, having gone through series of births and rebirths, of incarnations and\nregenerations, the individuals who compose humanity will have definitively entered the spiritual\nstate, or have been annihilated as conscious souls by evil, that is, by their own passions which the\nfire of Gehenna and the gnashing of teeth symbolize. \"Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear\nin the sky. The Son of Man will come on a cloud. He will send his Angels with a great sound of the\ntrumpet, and he will gather together his chosen from the four winds.\" The Son of Man, a generic\nterm, here means mankind in its perfect representatives, that is, the small number of those who have\nraised themselves to the rank of Sons of God. His Sign is the Lamb and the Cross, that is, Love and\nEternal Life. The Cloud is the image of the Mysteries become translucent, as well as of subtle matter\ntransfigured by the Spirit, of fluidic substance which is no longer a dense, obscure veil, but a light\ntransparent garment of the soul; no longer a gross fetter but an expression of truth; no longer a\ndeceiving appearance, but spiritual Truth itself, the inner world instantaneously and directly\nmanifested. The Angels who gather the chosen are the glorified spirits who themselves have come\nfrom mankind. The Trumpet which they sound symbolizes the living Word of the Spirit, which\nreveals souls as they are and destroys all deceitful appearances of matter.\n\nIn this way, sensing that he was nearing his death, Jesus opened to the astonished Apostles those\ngreat perspectives which from most ancient times had been a part of the doctrine of the Mysteries,\nand to which each religious founder has always given a personal form and color. To engrave these\ntruths upon their minds, to facilitate their propagation he summed them up in images of extreme\nboldness and incisive energy. The revelatory picture, the speaking symbol was the universal\nlanguage of the ancient initiates. Such a symbol possesses a communicative power, a power of\nconcentration and duration which is lacking in the abstract term. In using it, Jesus simply followed\nthe example of Moses and the prophets. He knew that his ideas would not be understood at once, but\nhe wanted to imprint them in letters of fire in the simple souls of his friends, leaving to later\ncenturies the task of generating the powers contained in his speech.\n\nJesus felt at one with all the prophets of earth who had gone before him and who like himself were\nmessengers of Life and of the eternal Word. In this feeling of oneness and firmness in changeless\nTruth, before these limitless horizons of heavenly radiance which are seen only from the zenith of\nFirst Causes, he dared speak the proud words to his sorrowing disciples: \"Heaven and earth will pass\naway, but my words shall not pass away!\"\n\nThus the mornings and evenings slipped by on the Mount of Olives. One day, in one of those\ngestures of sympathy so native to his ardent and impressionable nature, which made him return\nabruptly from the most sublime heights to earth's sufferings, which he felt as his own, he shed tears\nover Jerusalem, over the Holy City, and over his people whose terrible destiny he sensed.\n\nMeanwhile, his own destiny was approaching with giant steps. Already the Sanhedrin had\ndeliberated over his fate and had decided upon his death; already Judas Iscariot had promised to\nsurrender his Master. This sinister betrayal was not the fruit of sordid greed but of ambition and\nwounded vanity. Judas, an individual of cold egotism and absolute positivism, incapable of the least\nidealism, had become a disciple of Christ only because of worldly speculation. He counted on the\nimmediate earthly triumph of the prophet, and on the benefit which would come to him from it. He\nhad understood nothing of that profound saying of the Master, \"Those who would like to gain their\nlife shall lose it, and those who will lose it will gain it.\"\n\nIn his boundless charity Jesus had admitted Judas to the circle of his friends in the hope of changing\nJudas' nature. When the latter saw that things were turning out badly, that Jesus was lost, his\ndisciples threatened and himself disappointed in all his hopes, his deception turned to rage. The\nwretched man denounced the one who in his eyes was only a false Messiah, and by whom he\nconsidered himself deceived.\n\nWith his penetrating insight, Jesus understood what was taking place within the unfaithful Apostle.\nHe resolved to avoid destiny no longer, for he felt its net tightening around him with each passing\nday. It was the eve of Passover. He ordered his disciples to prepare the meal in the city at a friend's\nhouse. He sensed that this would be his last meal, hence he wanted to give it unusual solemnity.\n\nWe have reached the final act of the Messianic drama. In order to grasp the soul and work of Jesus at\ntheir source it was necessary to describe from within the first two acts of his life, to show his\ninitiation and his public career. The inner drama of his consciousness paralleled the latter. The last\nact of his life, the drama of the Passion, was the logical consequence of all that had gone before.\nSince it is known to all, it is self-explanatory, for the nature of the sublime is to be simple, broad and\nclear.\n\nThe drama of the Passion has contributed powerfully to establishing Christianity. It has drawn tears\nfrom all men who have hearts, and has converted millions of souls. In describing all these scenes the\nGospels manifest an incomparable beauty. John himself descends from his spiritual heights, and his\ncircumstantial account bears the poignant truth of an eye-witness. Each one can relive in himself the\ndivine drama, but no one can recreate it. Nevertheless, in order to complete my task, I must focus the\nrays of esoteric tradition upon the three principal events by which the life of the divine Master\nended: The Holy Supper, the Trial of the Messiah and the Resurrection. If light is shed upon these\nthree it will illuminate all of the Christ's previous career and will cast its radiance over the entire\nhistory of Christianity following the Resurrection.\n\nThe Twelve, forming thirteen with the Master, had assembled in the upper room of a house in\nJerusalem. The unknown friend, Jesus' host, had decorated the room with a rich carpet. According to\nthe oriental custom, the disciples and Master reclined three by three on four large divans in the form\nof a triclinia arranged around the table. When the Passover Lamb had been brought, the cups filled\nwith wine, along with the precious golden chalice, loaned by the unknown friend, Jesus, placed\nbetween John and Peter, says, \"I have ardently desired to eat this Passover with you, for I say to you\nthat I shall eat no more of it until it is accomplished in the Kingdom of Heaven.\" After these words,\nfaces grew sad, the air became heavy. \"The disciple whom Jesus loved,\" and who alone guessed\neverything, inclined his head in silence toward the Master's heart. According to the custom of the\nJews at the Passover meal, they ate the bitter herbs, the haroseth, without speaking. Then Jesus took\nthe bread and, having given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, \"This is my body which\n\nis given for you; this do in remembrance of me.\" In the same way he gave them the cup after supper,\nsaying to them, \"This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.\"\n\nSuch is the institution of the Supper in all its simplicity. It has a much deeper content than is\ngenerally known or described. Not only is this symbolic and mystical act the conclusion and\nsummary of all of Christ's teachings, but it is also the consecration and rejuvenation of a very ancient\nsymbol of initiation. Among the initiates of Egypt and Chaldea, as well as among the prophets and\nEssenes, the fraternal agape marked the first step of initiation. Communion in the form of sharing of\nthe bread, the fruit of the wheat, signified knowledge of the Mysteries of earthly life as well as a\npartaking of the goods of earth and finally a perfect union of the intimately associated brothers. On\nthe higher level, communion in the sharing of wine, the blood of the vine penetrated by the sun,\nmeant a partaking of heavenly goods, the sharing in spiritual Mysteries and divine science. In giving\nthese symbols to the Apostles, Jesus amplified them. For through them, he extends fraternity and\ninitiation, once limited to the few, to all mankind. To these symbols he adds the deepest of\nMysteries, the greatest of forces: his Deed of Sacrifice, making of it a chain of invisible but\ninviolable love between himself and his own. This will give his glorified soul a divine power over\ntheir hearts and over the hearts of all men. The cup of Truth coming from the depths of prophetic\nages, that golden chalice of initiation which the Essene had offered him in the rapture of his ecstasy\nas The Son of God -- that cup in which he now sees his own blood glow, that cup he now extends to\nhis beloved disciples with the ineffable tenderness of a last farewell.\n\nDo the Apostles understand this? Do they recognize this redemptive thought which embraces the\nworlds? It shines in the deep, painful look of the Master as he looks from the Beloved Disciple to the\none who is about to betray him. No, they do not yet understand. They sigh painfully, as though in a\nbad dream; a heavy red vapor seems to float in the air and they ask each other whence comes that\nstrange radiance around the head of the Christ. When at last Jesus declares that he will spend the\nnight in prayer in the garden on the Mount of Olives and rises, saying, \"Let us go there! \" -- they do\nnot doubt what will follow. .\n\nJesus has experienced the anguish of Gethsemane. With frightening clarity he has seen the infernal\ncircle about, him growing steadily tighter. In face of the terror of this situation, in the dreadful\nwaiting, knowing he is about to be seized by his enemies, he trembles; for an instant his soul shrinks\nbefore the tortures awaiting him; a sweat of blood forms itself in drops upon his forehead. Then\nprayer strengthens him.\n\nNow come sounds of confused voices, lights of torches under the dark olive trees, the clash of arms.\nIt is the soldiers sent by the Sanhedrin. Judas who leads them, kisses his Master so they may\nrecognize the prophet. Jesus returns his kiss with ineffable pity, saying, \"My friend, what do you\nwant here?\" The effect of this gentleness, of this fraternal kiss, given in exchange for the darkest\nbetrayal, will make such an impression on this hard soul that shortly afterward, seized with remorse\nand horror at his deed, Judas will commit suicide.\n\nWith rough hands the soldiers have seized the Galilean Rabbi. After a brief resistance the frightened\ndisciples flee like a handful of seed scattered by the wind. Only John and Peter remain nearby in\norder to follow the Master to the tribunal. Their hearts are broken, their souls intent upon his destiny,\nbut Jesus has regained his calm. From this moment on, not a word of protest or complaint will come\nfrom his mouth.\n\nThe Sanhedrin has assembled hastily for a plenary session. Jesus is led there in the middle of the\nnight, for the tribunal wishes to put a quick end to this dangerous prophet. The sacrificers, the priests\nin deep red, yellow and purple tunics with turbans on their heads, are solemnly seated in a\nsemicircle. In their midst on a more elevated seat, sits Caiaphas the high priest, wearing the migbah.\nAt each end of the semicircle on two small platforms stand the two recorders, one for acquittal, the\n\nother for condemnation, advocatus Dei, advocatus Diaboli. Dressed in his white Essene robe, Jesus\nis standing impassively in the center. Surrounding him, bare-armed, fists on hips and with evil\nexpressions, are officers of justice, armed with thongs and ropes. Only witnesses for the prosecution\nare present, none for the defense. The high priest as supreme judge is the main accuser; the so-called\ntrial is a measure of public safety against the crime of religious treason. In reality however, it is the\npreventive vengeance of a worried priesthood which feels its power threatened.\n\nCaiaphas rises and accuses Jesus of being a seducer of the people, a mesit. A few witnesses taken at\nrandom from the crowd, make their deposition, but they contradict one another. Finally, one of them\nreports the saying, considered blasphemous, which the Nazarene more than once had thrown in the\nfaces of the Pharisees in the porch of Solomon, \"I can destroy the Temple and raise it again in three\ndays.\" Jesus is silent. \"You do not answer,\" says the high priest. Knowing that he will be\ncondemned, not wishing to waste his words, Jesus remains silent. But this saying, even if it were\nproven, would not justify capital punishment. A more serious confession is needed. In order to draw\none from the accused, Caiaphas, the clever Sadducee, asks him a question of honor, the vital\nquestion of his mission. Caiaphas well knows that the greatest cleverness often consists in going\ndirectly to the essential point. \"If you are the Messiah, tell us so!\"\n\nAt first Jesus answers evasively, showing clearly that he is not fooled by the strategy: \"If I tell you,\nyou will not believe me; but if I ask you, you will not answer me.\" Having failed in his role of\nexamining magistrate, Caiaphas exercises his prerogative as high priest, beginning again with\nsolemnity, \"I command you, by the living God, to tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God!\"\nThus challenged, summoned to retract or to affirm his mission before the highest representative of\nthe religion of Israel, Jesus hesitates no longer. He calmly answers, \"You have said it; but I tell you\nthat from now on you will see the Son of God sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on\nclouds from heaven.\" By thus expressing himself in the prophetic language of Daniel and the Book\nof Enoch, the Essene initiate Jehoshoua is not speaking to Caiaphas as an individual. He knows that\nthe agnostic Sadducee is incapable of understanding him. He addresses all future pontiffs, all the\npriesthoods of the earth, saying, \"After my mission, sealed with my death, the reign of religious law\nwithout explanation is ended in principle and in fact. The Mysteries will be revealed, and through the\nhuman, man will see the Divine. Religions and cults which do not fertilize one another, will be\nwithout authority.\" According to the esoterism of the prophets and Essenes this is the meaning of\n\"the Son sitting at the right hand of the Father.\" Thus understood, Jesus' answer to the high priest of\nJerusalem contains the intellectual and scientific testament of the Christ to the religious authorities of\nthe earth, just as the institution of the Supper contains his testament of love and initiation to the\nApostles and to all humanity.\n\nOver and beyond Caiaphas, Jesus has spoken to the world, but the Sadducee, who has obtained what\nhe wanted, no longer listens to him. Tearing his fine linen robe he cries out, \"He has blasphemed!\nWhat need have we of witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy! What do you think?\" A\nunanimous, ominous murmur arises from the Sanhedrin, \"He has merited death!\" Immediately vile\ninsults and brutal behavior by inferiors answer the condemnation from above. The soldiers spit on\nhim, strike him in the face, shouting, \"Prophet! -- Guess who struck you!\" Under this outpouring of\nfierce hatred, the sublime, pale face of the great sufferer again assumes its calm, visionary fixedness.\nIt has been said that there are statues which weep. There are also sorrows without tears, and the\nsilent prayers of victims which terrify executioners and pursue them for the rest of their lives.\n\nBut all is not finished. The Sanhedrin can pronounce the death penalty, but in order to carry it out,\nthe secular power and approval of the Roman authority are necessary. The interview with Pilate,\nreported in detail by John, is no less remarkable than the one with Caiaphas. This strange dialogue\nbetween Christ and the Roman Governor, in which the violent interjections of the Jewish priests and\nthe cries of a fanatic mob play the role of the chorus in an ancient tragedy, has the persuasiveness of\n\ngreat dramatic truth, for it reveals the soul of a people, and shows the struggle among three powers:\nRoman Caesarism, strict Judaism and the universal religion of the Spirit, represented by the Christ.\n\nPilate is entirely indifferent to this religious quarrel, but is very much annoyed with the affair\nbecause he fears that Jesus' death will stir up a revolution among the people. Therefore he questions\nJesus with care, extending to him a means of escape, hoping he will take advantage of it. \"Are you\nthe king of the Jews?\" \"My kingdom is not of this world.\" \"Then are you a king?\" \"Yes, I was born\nfor that, and I came into the world to bear witness to the Truth.\" Pilate no more understands this\naffirmation of Jesus' spiritual royalty than Caiaphas understood his religious testament. \"What is\nTruth?\" asks Pilate, shrugging his shoulders. And this answer of the cavalier Roman skeptic reveals\nthe attitude of pagan society of that time and of all society in decadence. Nevertheless, seeing in the\naccused only an innocent dreamer, Pilate says, \"I find no fault in him.\" And he proposes to the Jews\nthat he release him, but the mob, prompted by the priests, shouts, \"Release Barrabas to us!\" Then\nPilate, who detests the Jews, gives himself the ironic pleasure of having their so-called king flogged.\nHe believes this will be sufficient for these fanatics, but they become all the more furious, screaming\nin rage, \"Crucify him!\"\n\nDespite this manifestation of mob passion, Pilate still resists. He is weary of being cruel. Through\nhis entire life he has seen so much blood flow, he has sent so many rebels to be tortured, he has\nheard so many groans and curses without being disturbed in the least. But the silent, stoic suffering\nof this Galilean prophet under the scarlet cloak and crown of thorns arouses a strange fear in him. In\na curious, fleeting inner vision, without measuring their significance, he utters the words, \"Ecce\nhomo! Behold Man!\"\n\nThe stern Roman is almost moved; he is about to pronounce the acquittal. But the priests of the\nSanhedrin, watching him with eager eyes, have seen this emotion and are frightened by it; they feel\ntheir prey escaping them. Craftily they confer among themselves. Then, in a single voice they cry\nout, extending their right hands and averting their heads in a gesture of hypocritical horror: \"He has\nmade himself the Son of God!\"\n\nJohn reports that when Pilate heard these words, \"he became even more afraid.\" Afraid of what?\nWhat could this expression do to the unbelieving Roman, who with all his heart hated the Jews and\ntheir religion, and believed only in the political religion of Rome and of Caesar? Nevertheless, there\nwas a real cause for this fear.\n\nAlthough it has been given different meanings, the name Son of God was quite widely used in\nancient esoterism, and Pilate, though a skeptic, had his share of superstition. At Rome, in all the\nlesser Mysteries of Mithras, into which the Roman officers had themselves initiated, he had heard it\nsaid that a Son of God was a kind of interpreter of divinity, and that whatever his nation or his\nreligion, to make an attempt on his life was a great crime. Pilate hardly believed these Persian\ndreamings, but the saying disturbed him nevertheless, and increased his distress.\n\nObserving him carefully, the priests now throw at the Proconsul the supreme accusation: \"If you free\nthis man, you are not the friend of Caesar; for whoever makes himself king, declares himself against\nCaesar... we have no other king than Caesar!\" This argument is irresistible. To deny God is very\nlittle; to kill is nothing, but to conspire against Caesar is indeed the crime of crimes! Pilate is forced\nto pronounce the condemnation upon Jesus. Thus at the end of his public career Jesus finds himself\nagain facing the master of the world whom he has fought indirectly as a secret adversary throughout\nhis entire life. The shadow of Caesar sends him to the cross. Thus the profound logic of things: the\nJews captured him, but it is the Roman specter that kills him, merely by extending its hand. Rome\nkills the body, but it is he, the Christ glorified, who by his martyrdom will forever take away from\nCaesar the usurped crown, the divine apotheosis, the infernal blasphemy of absolute power.\n\nHaving washed his hands of the blood of the innocent, Pilate utters the terrible words, Condemnor\nibis in crucem. -- Already the impatient crowd is pressing toward Golgotha. .. .\n\nWe stand on the barren height, the ground strewn with human bones, overlooking Jerusalem. This\nplace is called Gilgal, Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, a sinister spot, for centuries dedicated to\nhorrible punishments. The mountain is without trees: only gallows grow here. It is here that a Jewish\nking, Alexander Janneus and his harem had attended the execution of hundreds of prisoners; here\nVarus had had two thousand rebels crucified; here the gentle Messiah, foretold by the prophets, was\nto undergo the frightful punishment invented by the atrocious genius of the Phoenicians and adopted\nby the implacable law of Rome.\n\nThe cohort of legionaries has formed a large circle at the top of the hill; with their spears the soldiers\nscatter the last of the faithful who have followed the condemned one hither. These are the Galilean\nwomen; silent, in complete despair, they throw themselves down, their faces to the earth. For Jesus\nthe supreme hour has come. The defender of the poor, the weak and oppressed must complete his\nwork in that condition of abject martyrdom reserved for slaves and thieves. The prophet, consecrated\nby the Essenes, must let himself be nailed to the cross he had accepted in the vision of Engaddi; the\nSon of God must drink of the Chalice partly seen in the Transfiguration; he must descend to the\ndepths of hell and of earthly horror.\n\nJesus has refused the traditional drink prepared by the devout women of Jerusalem, intended to dull\nthe senses of the condemned. In full consciousness he will suffer these agonies. While he is being\nbound to the infamous gibbet, as rough soldiers with heavy hammer blows sink the nails into those\nfeet adored by the oppressed, into those hands which know only how to bless, a black cloud of heart-\nrending suffering closes his eyes, stops his throat. But from the depth of these convulsions of\ninfernal suffering, the consciousness of the still living Saviour has but one word for his tormentors:\n\"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!\"\n\nThe bottom of the Chalice now appears; the hours of agony last from noon to sunset. The moral\ntorture increases, and is even greater than the physical torture. The initiate has surrendered his\npowers, the Son of God is about to be eclipsed; only a suffering man remains. For a few hours he\nwill lose his view of Heaven, in order to experience the abyss of human suffering. The cross stands\nthere with its victim and its inscription, a last touch of irony by the Proconsul, \"This is the king of\nthe Jews!\"\nNow the crucified one sees Jerusalem through a cloud of anguish, the Holy City he wished to\nglorify, and which had hurled anathemas at him. Where are his disciples? They have disappeared. He\nhears only the insults of the members of the Sanhedrin, who, thinking that the prophet is no longer to\nbe feared, glory in his agony. \"He saved others,\" they exult, \"and cannot save himself!\" Beyond\nthese blasphemies, beyond this perversity, in a terrifying vision of the future, Jesus sees all the\ncrimes which unjust rulers, and fanatical priests will commit in his name. They will use his Sign in\norder to curse! They will crucify with his cross! It is not the dark silence of the heavens veiled from\nhis sight, but the light lost for humanity, which wrings from him the cry of despair, \"My Father, why\nhave you forsaken me?\" Then the consciousness of the Messiah, the will of his entire life, springs\nforth again in a final ray of light, and from his soul comes the cry, \"Everything is accomplished!\"\n\nO Sublime Nazarene, O divine Son of Man, already you are no longer here! With but a single\nmovement of your wings, in radiant light, your soul has again found your Heaven of Engaddi, your\nSky of Mount Tabor! You have seen your Word soaring victorious through all the ages, and you\nhave desired no other glory than the uplifted hands and eyes of those you have healed and\ncomforted.... But your last cry, misunderstood by your torturers, caused a tremor to pass over them.\nAstonished, your executioners, the Roman soldiers beholding the strange radiance left by your spirit\nupon the calm face of this corpse, look at one another and ask, \"Could he have been a god?\"\n\nIs the drama really finished? Is the severe though silent struggle between divine Love and death,\nwhich beat upon him with help of the ruling powers of earth, ended? Where is the conqueror? Are\nthe victors these priests descending from Calvary, satisfied with themselves, pleased with their deed\nsince they have seen the prophet die, or is the pale, crucified one the victor after all? For these\nfaithful women whom the Roman legionaries have allowed to come near, and who sob at the foot of\nthe cross, for the terrified disciples, who took refuge in a grotto in the Valley of Jehosaphat, all is\nfinished. The Messiah who was to sit on the throne of Jerusalem has perished miserably under the\ninfamous punishment of the cross. The Master has disappeared, and with him hope, the Gospel, the\nKingdom of Heaven have vanished. A mournful silence, a deep despair hangs heavily over the little\ncommunity. Even Peter and John are dismayed. Around them all is dark; not a ray of light shines in\ntheir soul. Nevertheless, just as a blinding light followed the intense darkness in the Mysteries of\nEleusis, so in the Gospels, this deep despair is followed by a sudden, instantaneous, overwhelming\njoy. It radiates, it bursts forth like the light of sunrise, and the joyful cry is carried into all Judea: \"He\nis risen!\"\n\nFirst it was Mary Magdalene, wandering near the tomb in the throes of her grief, who saw the\nMaster, recognizing him by his voice as he called her by her name, \"Mary!\" Overcome with joy, she\nthrew herself at his feet. She saw Jesus look at her, make a gesture as if to forbid her to touch him,\nand then the appearance vanished suddenly, leaving the Magdalene surrounded by the warmth and\ncomfort of a real presence. Then the Holy Women met the Lord, and heard him say, \"Go and tell my\nbrothers to go to Galilee, and that they will see me there.\"\n\nThe same evening the Eleven had assembled and the doors were closed. Then they saw Jesus enter,\ntake his place in the midst of them and gently reproach them for their unbelief. Afterward he directed\nthem, \"Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every human creature!\" It was strange that as\nthey were listening to him, all of them were as though in a dream; they had completely forgotten his\ndeath; they thought him alive, and were convinced that the Master would leave them no more. But\njust as they were about to speak, they had seen him disappear like a vanishing light. The echo of his\nvoice still rang in their ears. The astonished Apostles went to the place where he had been; a dim\nlight floated there. Suddenly it went out.\n\nAccording to Matthew and Mark, Jesus reappeared soon afterward on a mountain before five\nhundred of the brethren who had been called together by the Apostles. He appeared once more to the\nEleven. Then the appearances ceased. But the Faith had been created, the Impetus was given,\nChristianity was alive. The Apostles, filled with the sacred fire, healed the sick and preached the\nGospel of their Master.\n\nThree years afterward, a young Pharisee by the name of Saul, violently hating the new religion and\npersecuting the Christians with all the vigor of youth, was traveling to Damascus with several\ncompanions. On the way, he was suddenly surrounded by a light so blinding that he fell to the\nground. Trembling from head to foot, he cried out, \"Who are you?\" And he heard a voice say to him,\n\"I am Jesus, whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks!\" His companions, as\nfrightened as he, lifted him up again. They had heard the voice without seeing anything. Blinded by\nthe light, the young man recovered his sight only after three days... .\n\nHe became converted to the faith of Christ, and is known as Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles. It is\nuniversally agreed that without this conversion, Christianity would have remained confined to Judea\nand would never have conquered the West.\n\nThese facts are reported by the New Testament. However one may minimize them and whatever\nreligious idea or philosophy one may attach to them, it is impossible to regard them as legend or to\ndeny that they are authentic in all essentials. For eighteen centuries the waves of doubt and negation\nhave attacked the rock of this testimony; for the last hundred years, criticism has beaten upon it with\n\nall its instruments and weapons. The attack may have succeeded at certain points, but the basic tenets\nhave remained firm.\n\nWhat is behind the visions of the Apostles? -- From the point of view of the conscientious historian,\nthat is, from the authenticity of these facts as spiritual facts, there is no doubt that the Apostles saw\nthese appearances and that their faith in the Resurrection of Christ was unshakeable. If one rejects\nthe account of John because it is said to have been compiled nearly one hundred years after Jesus'\ndeath, and considers that of Luke in regard to the appearance at Emmaus as mere poetry, then there\nremain the simple, positive affirmations of Mark and Matthew, which are the very root of tradition\nand Christian religion. However, there yet remains something more solid and even more undeniable:\nthe testimony of Paul.\n\nIn attempting to explain to the Corinthians the reason for his faith and the basis of the Gospel which\nhe preaches, he enumerates in order the six successive appearances of the Risen Christ: to Peter, to\nthe Eleven, to the five hundred, \"the majority of whom,\" he says, \"are still living,\" to James, to the\nassembled Apostles, and finally, his own vision on the road to Damascus. Now these facts were\ncommunicated to Paul by Peter and by James three years after Jesus' death, and shortly after Paul's\nconversion on the occasion of his first journey to Jerusalem. Of all these visions, the most\nunquestionable is not the least extraordinary. I refer to the experience of Paul himself. In his Epistles\nhe constantly returns to it as the source of his faith. Considering Paul's previous psychological\ncondition and the nature of his vision, the latter came to him from the outside, not from within; it is\nentirely unexpected and electrifying; it changes his entire being. Like a baptism of fire, it penetrates\nhim from head to foot, arrays him in an impenetrable armor, making him the invincible knight of\nChrist in the eyes of the world.\n\nThus the testimony of Paul has a double authority, in that it affirms his own vision and corroborates\nthose of others. If one wishes to doubt the sincerity of such affirmations, it would be necessary to\nreject all historical evidence. With Celsus, Strauss and Renan, one can refuse objective value to the\nResurrection, considering it a phenomenon resulting from pure hallucination. But in this case one is\nforced to attribute the greatest religious revolution of mankind to an aberration of the senses and to a\ndelusion of the mind! Now there is no denying that faith in the Resurrection is the basis of historical\nChristianity. Without this confirmation of the teaching of Jesus by a radiant Deed, his religion would\nnot even have begun.\n\nThis Deed brought about a radical change in the Apostles' souls. From being Judaic, their whole\nmental outlook became Christian. For the glorious Christ is living, he spoke to them, Heaven\nopened, the Beyond entered the earth below, the aurora of immortality touched their foreheads,\nembracing their souls in a fire which never can be extinguished. Above the crumbling earthly\nkingdom of Israel they have seen the heavenly universal Kingdom in all its splendor. Hence their\neagerness for battle, their joy in martyrdom. From Christ's Resurrection comes that overwhelming\nimpulse, that boundless hope which carries the Gospel to all peoples, and eventually to the uttermost\nparts of the earth. In order for Christianity to succeed, two things were indispensable, as Fabre\nd Olivet said: that Jesus was willing to die, and that he had the power to rise again.\n\nIn order to grasp the fact of the Resurrection and to understand its religious and philosophical\nsignificance, it is necessary to consider only the successive appearances of the Risen Christ, putting\naside the idea of the bodily resurrection, one of the greatest stumbling blocks of Christian dogma\nwhich, on this point is completely elementary and childish. The disappearance of Jesus' physical\nbody can be explained by natural causes, and it is to be noted that the corpses of several great adepts\nhave disappeared without a trace in as completely mysterious a manner. Among others the corpses of\nMoses, of Pythagoras and of Apollonius of Tyana disappeared without anyone having been able to\ndiscover what became of them. It is possible that the brothers destroyed the Master's remains with\nfire in order to remove them from the profanations of his enemies. Be that as it may, however, the\n\nscientific aspect and the spiritual grandeur of the Resurrection appear only if one understands the\nlatter in the esoteric sense.\n\nAmong the Egyptians, the Persians of the Mazdan religion of Zoroaster before as well as after the\ntime of Jesus, in Israel and among the Christians of the first two centuries, the Resurrection has been\nunderstood in two ways: the one materialistic, the other spiritual. The first is the popular concept\nfinally adopted by the Church after the repression of Gnosticism; the second is the profound idea of\nthe initiates. In the first sense, Resurrection means the return to life of the material body, in a word,\nthe reconstruction of the decomposed or scattered corpse, which one imagined must occur at the\ncoming of the Messiah or at the Last Judgment. It is hardly necessary to point out the gross\nmaterialism and absurdity of this idea.\n\nFor the initiate, Resurrection has a very different meaning. It is linked with the doctrine of the\nthreefold constitution of man. It means the purification and regeneration of the sidereal, ethereal and\nfluidic body, which is the very organ of the soul and, to some extent, the vessel of the spirit. This\npurification can begin in this life through the inner work of the soul and a certain way of existence,\nbut for the majority of men it is fulfilled only after death, and then only for those who in one way or\nanother have aspired to righteousness and truth. In the other world, hypocrisy is impossible. There,\nsouls appear as they are in reality; they manifest themselves in the form and color of their essence:\ndark and ugly if they are evil, radiant and beautiful if they are good. This doctrine is expounded by\nPaul in the Epistle to the Corinthians. He says, \"There is a natural body and a spiritual body.\" Jesus\nspeaks of it symbolically, but with more depth, in the secret conversation with Nicodemus. Now the\nmore spiritual a soul is, the further it will be from earthly atmosphere, the higher the cosmic region\nwhich attracts it by the law of affinity, the more difficult its manifestation to men.\n\nAs a result, higher souls hardly manifest themselves to men at all except during a condition of deep\nsleep or ecstasy. Then, the physical eyes being closed, the soul, half detached from the body,\nsometimes sees souls. Nevertheless it does occur that a very great prophet, a true Son of God appears\nto his brothers in the waking state in order to convince them by appealing to their senses and\nimagination. In a similar sense, the excarnated soul succeeds momentarily in giving its spiritual body\na visible, even a tangible appearance by means of a specific dynamic which spirit exercises over\nmatter.\n\nApparently this is what happened in the case of Jesus. The appearances reported in the New\nTestament belong to either of these categories: spiritual vision or perceptible appearance. It is certain\nthat for the Apostles they were supremely real. The Eleven would rather have doubted the existence\nof the sky and earth than their living communion with the Risen Christ, for these visions of their\nLord were the most radiant thing in their lives, the most profound experiences of which they were\nconscious.\n\nThe Resurrection, understood in its esoteric sense, was both the necessary conclusion to Jesus' life\nand the indispensable preface to the historical evolution of Christianity. The conclusion was indeed\nnecessary, for Jesus had announced it many times to his disciples. That he was able to appear to\nthem in triumphant splendor after his death was due to the purity, the innate power of his soul\nmultiplied a hundred times by the grandeur of his effort and his fulfilled mission.\n\nViewed exoterically and from the purely earthly point of view, the Messianic drama ends on the\ncross. Sublime in itself perhaps, nevertheless this lacks the fulfillment of the promise. Seen\nesoterically, from the depths of Jesus' consciousness and from the heavenly point of view, there are\nthree high points in the divine Drama: the Temptation, the Transfiguration and the Resurrection.\nThese three represent the Initiation of Christ, the Total Revelation and the Crowning of the Work.\nThey correspond to what the Apostles and Christian initiates of the first centuries called The\nMysteries of the Son, of the Father and of the Holy Spirit.\n\nThis is the necessary crowning, as I have said, of the life of Christ, and the indispensable preface to\nthe historical evolution of Christianity. The boat built on the beach needed to be launched upon the\nocean. The Resurrection was a great light thrown upon the entire esoteric background of Jesus. It is\ntherefore not surprising that the first Christians were so overwhelmed and blinded by this\nextraordinary event that they often took the Master's teaching literally, misunderstanding the\nmeaning of his words. But today, now that the human spirit has traveled through ages, religions and\nsciences, we surmise what a Saint Paul, a Saint John, what Jesus himself meant by the Mysteries of\nthe Father and of the Spirit. We recognize that they contain the highest and truest that the science of\nthe spirit has known. We also see the power of the new amplification the Christ gave to ancient,\neternal Truth by the greatness of his love and the strength of his will. Finally, we perceive both the\nmetaphysical and practical side of Christianity, the essence of its power and vitality.\n\nThe Brahmins of old found the key to the past and future life by formulating the organic law of\nreincarnation and the alternation of lives. But because they plunged themselves into the Beyond and\ninto the contemplation of Eternity, they forgot earthly fulfillment: the tasks of individual and social\nlife. Greece, originally initiated into the same truths under veiled and more anthropomorphic forms,\nby its own genius attached itself to the natural, earthly life. This enabled Greece to reveal the\nimmortal laws of the Beautiful by example, and to formulate the principles of the sciences by\nobservation. But, meanwhile, its concept of the Beyond narrowed and gradually darkened. By his\nbroadness and universality, Jesus embraces the two sides of life.\n\nIn the Lord's Prayer, summing up his teaching, Jesus says, \"Thy kingdom come, on earth as in\nheaven.\" And this divine reign on earth means the fulfillment of the moral and social law in all its\nrichness, in all the radiance of the Beautiful, the Good and the True. Thus the magic of his teaching\nand his power of development -- in a certain sense unlimited -- reside in the unity of his ethics and\nhis metaphysics, in his ardent faith in eternal life and in his need to begin the latter here on earth by\nhis Deed and his active Love. To the soul overburdened with all the heaviness of earth, the Christ\nsays, \"Arise, for your home is in Heaven! -- But in order to believe in Heaven and in order to reach\nHeaven, prove Heaven here on earth in your work and in your love!\"",
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