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Theosophy House
The Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
Esoteric Christianity
Or The Lesser Mysteries
by
Annie Besant
[SECOND EDITION]
The Theosophical Publishing
Society.
1905.
In proceeding to the contemplation of the
mysteries of knowledge,
we shall adhere to the celebrated and venerable rule of tradition,
commencing from the origin of the universe, setting forth those
points of physical contemplation which are necessary to be
premised, and removing whatever can be an obstacle on the way; so
that the ear may be prepared for the reception of the tradition of
the Gnosis, the ground being cleared of weeds and fitted for the
planting of the vineyard; for there is a conflict before the
conflict, and mysteries before the mysteries.--_S. Clement of
Alexandria._
Let the specimen suffice to those who have ears. For it is not
required to unfold the mystery, but only to indicate what is
sufficient.--_Ibid._
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.--_S. Matthew._
FOREWORD.
The object of this book is to suggest
certain lines of thought as to
the deep truths underlying Christianity,
truths generally overlooked,
and only too often denied. The generous
wish to share with all what is
precious, to spread broadcast priceless
truths, to shut out none from
the illumination of true knowledge, has
resulted in a zeal without
discretion that has vulgarised
Christianity, and has presented its
teachings in a form that often repels the
heart and alienates the
intellect. The command to "preach the
Gospel to every
creature"[1]--though admittedly of
doubtful authenticity--has been
interpreted as forbidding the teaching of
the Gnosis to a few, and has
apparently erased the less popular saying
of the same Great Teacher:
"Give not that which is holy unto the
dogs, neither cast ye your
pearls before swine."[2]
This spurious sentimentality--which refuses
to recognise the obvious
inequalities of intelligence and morality,
and thereby reduces the
teaching of the highly developed to the
level attainable by the least
evolved, sacrificing the higher to the
lower in a way that injures
both--had no place in the virile common
sense of the early Christians.
S. Clement of
Mysteries: "Even now I fear, as it is
said, 'to cast the pearls before
swine, lest they tread them underfoot, and
turn and rend us.' For it is
difficult to exhibit the really pure and
transparent words respecting
the true Light to swinish and untrained
hearers."[3]
If true knowledge, the Gnosis, is again to
form a part of Christian
teachings, it can only be under the old
restrictions, and the idea of
levelling down to the capacities of the
least developed must be
definitely surrendered. Only by teaching
above the grasp of the little
evolved can the way be opened up for a
restoration of arcane knowledge,
and the study of the Lesser Mysteries must
precede that of the Greater.
The Greater will never be published through
the printing-press; they can
only be given by Teacher to pupil,
"from mouth to ear." But the Lesser
Mysteries, the partial unveiling of deep
truths, can even now be
restored, and such a volume as the present
is intended to outline these,
and to show the _nature_ of the teachings
which have to be mastered.
Where only hints are given, quiet
meditation on the truths hinted at
will cause their outlines to become
visible, and the clearer light
obtained by continued meditation will
gradually show them more fully.
For meditation quiets the lower mind, ever
engaged in thinking about
external objects, and when the lower mind
is tranquil then only can it
be illuminated by the Spirit. Knowledge of
spiritual truths must be thus
obtained, from within and not from without,
from the divine Spirit whose
temple we are[4] and not from an external
Teacher. These things are
"spiritually discerned" by that
divine indwelling Spirit, that "mind of
Christ," whereof speaks the Great
Apostle,[5] and that inner light is
shed upon the lower mind.
This is the way of the Divine Wisdom, the
true THEOSOPHY. It is not, as
some think, a diluted version of Hinduism,
or Buddhism, or Taoism, or of
any special religion. It is Esoteric
Christianity as truly as it is
Esoteric Buddhism, and belongs equally to
all religions, exclusively to
none. This is the source of the suggestions
made in this little volume,
for the helping of those who seek the
Light--that "true Light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the
world,"[6] though most have not
yet opened their eyes to it. It does not
bring the Light. It only says:
"Behold the Light!" For thus have
we heard. It appeals only to the few
who hunger for more than the exoteric
teachings give them. For those who
are fully satisfied with the exoteric
teachings, it is not intended; for
why should bread be forced on those who are
not hungry? For those who
hunger, may it prove bread, and not a
stone.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
FOREWORD vii.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road,
Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER I.
THE
HIDDEN SIDE OF RELIGIONS
1
CHAPTER II.
THE
HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY
36
CHAPTER III.
THE
HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY
69
(_concluded_)
CHAPTER IV.
THE
HISTORICAL JESUS
120
CHAPTER V.
THE
MYTHIC CHRIST
145
CHAPTER VI.
THE
MYSTIC CHRIST
170
CHAPTER VII.
THE
ATONEMENT
193
CHAPTER VIII.
RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION 231
CHAPTER IX.
THE
TRINITY
253
CHAPTER X.
PRAYER 276
CHAPTER XI.
THE
FORGIVENESS OF SINS
301
CHAPTER XII.
SACRAMENTS 324
CHAPTER XIII.
SACRAMENTS (_continued_) 346
CHAPTER XIV.
REVELATION 369
AFTERWORD 386
INDEX 388
ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY.
-------
CHAPTER I.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF RELIGIONS.
Many, perhaps most, who see the title of
this book will at once traverse
it, and will deny that there is anything
valuable which can be rightly
described as "Esoteric
Christianity." There is a wide-spread, and withal
a popular, idea that there is no such thing
as an occult teaching in
connection with Christianity, and that
"The Mysteries," whether Lesser
or Greater, were a purely Pagan
institution. The very name of "The
Mysteries of Jesus," so familiar in
the ears of the Christians of the
first centuries, would come with a shock of
surprise on those of their
modern successors, and, if spoken as
denoting a special and definite
institution in the
has actually been made a matter of boast
that Christianity has no
secrets, that whatever it has to say it
says to all, and whatever it has
to teach it teaches to all. Its truths are
supposed to be so simple,
that "a way-faring man, though a fool,
may not err therein," and the
"simple Gospel" has become a
stock phrase.
It is necessary, therefore, to prove
clearly that in the
at least, Christianity was no whit behind
other great religions in
possessing a hidden side, and that it
guarded, as a priceless treasure,
the secrets revealed only to a select few
in its Mysteries. But ere
doing this it will be well to consider the
whole question of this hidden
side of religions, and to see why such a
side must exist if a religion
is to be strong and stable; for thus its
existence in Christianity will
appear as a foregone conclusion, and the
references to it in the
writings of the Christian Fathers will
appear simple and natural instead
of surprising and unintelligible. As a
historical fact, the existence
of this esotericism is demonstrable; but it
may also be shown that
intellectually it is a necessity.
The first question we have to answer is:
What is the object of
religions? They are given to the world by
men wiser than the masses of
the people on whom they are bestowed, and
are intended to quicken human
evolution. In order to do this effectively
they must reach individuals
and influence them. Now all men are not at
the same level of evolution,
but evolution might be figured as a rising
gradient, with men stationed
on it at every point. The most highly
evolved are far above the least
evolved, both in intelligence and
character; the capacity alike to
understand and to act varies at every
stage. It is, therefore, useless
to give to all the same religious teaching;
that which would help the
intellectual man would be entirely
unintelligible to the stupid, while
that which would throw the saint into
ecstasy would leave the criminal
untouched. If, on the other hand, the
teaching be suitable to help the
unintelligent, it is intolerably crude and
jejune to the philosopher,
while that which redeems the criminal is
utterly useless to the saint.
Yet all the types need religion, so that
each may reach upward to a life
higher than that which he is leading, and
no type or grade should be
sacrificed to any other. Religion must be
as graduated as evolution,
else it fails in its object.
Next comes the question: In what way do
religions seek to quicken human
evolution? Religions seek to evolve the
moral and intellectual natures,
and to aid the spiritual nature to unfold
itself. Regarding man as a
complex being, they seek to meet him at
every point of his constitution,
and therefore to bring messages suitable
for each, teachings adequate to
the most diverse human needs. Teachings
must therefore be adapted to
each mind and heart to which they are
addressed. If a religion does not
reach and master the intelligence, if it
does not purify and inspire the
emotions, it has failed in its object, so
far as the person addressed is
concerned.
Not only does it thus direct itself to the
intelligence and the
emotions, but it seeks, as said, to
stimulate the unfoldment of the
spiritual nature. It answers to that inner
impulse which exists in
humanity, and which is ever pushing the
race onwards. For deeply within
the heart of all--often overlaid by
transitory conditions, often
submerged under pressing interests and
anxieties--there exists a
continual seeking after God. "As the
hart panteth after the
water-brooks, so panteth"[7] humanity
after God. The search is sometimes
checked for a space, and the yearning seems
to disappear. Phases recur
in civilisation and in thought, wherein
this cry of the human Spirit for
the divine--seeking its source as water
seeks its level, to borrow a
simile from Giordano Bruno--this yearning
of the human Spirit for that
which is akin to it in the universe, of the
part for the whole, seems to
be stilled, to have vanished; none the less
does that yearning reappear,
and once more the same cry rings out from
the Spirit. Trampled on for a
time, apparently destroyed, though the
tendency may be, it rises again
and again with inextinguishable
persistence, it repeats itself again
and again, no matter how often it is
silenced; and it thus proves itself
to be an inherent tendency in human nature,
an ineradicable constituent
thereof. Those who declare triumphantly,
"Lo! it is dead!" find it
facing them again with undiminished
vitality. Those who build without
allowing for it find their well-constructed
edifices riven as by an
earthquake. Those who hold it to be
outgrown find the wildest
superstitions succeed its denial. So much
is it an integral part of
humanity, that man _will_ have some answer
to his questionings; rather
an answer that is false, than none. If he
cannot find religious truth,
he will take religious error rather than no
religion, and will accept
the crudest and most incongruous ideals
rather than admit that the ideal
is non-existent.
Religion, then, meets this craving, and
taking hold of the constituent
in human nature that gives rise to it,
trains it, strengthens it,
purifies it and guides it towards its
proper ending--the union of the
human Spirit with the divine, so "that
God may be all in all."[8]
The next question which meets us in our
enquiry is: What is the source
of religions? To this question two answers
have been given in modern
times--that of the Comparative Mythologists
and that of the Comparative
Religionists. Both base their answers on a
common basis of admitted
facts. Research has indisputably proved
that the religions of the world
are markedly similar in their main
teachings, in their possession of
Founders who display superhuman powers and
extraordinary moral
elevation, in their ethical precepts, in
their use of means to come into
touch with invisible worlds, and in the
symbols by which they express
their leading beliefs. This similarity,
amounting in many cases to
identity, proves--according to both the
above schools--a common origin.
But on the nature of this common origin the
two schools are at issue.
The Comparative Mythologists contend that
the common origin is the
common ignorance, and that the loftiest
religious doctrines are simply
refined expressions of the crude and
barbarous guesses of savages, of
primitive men, regarding themselves and
their surroundings. Animism,
fetishism, nature-worship, sun-worship--these
are the constituents of
the primeval mud out of which has grown the
splendid lily of religion. A
but lineal descendants of the whirling
medicine-man of the savage. God
is a composite photograph of the
innumerable Gods who are the
personifications of the forces of nature.
And so forth. It is all summed
up in the phrase: Religions are branches
from a common trunk--human
ignorance.
The Comparative Religionists consider, on
the other hand, that all
religions originate from the teachings of
Divine Men, who give out to
the different nations of the world, from
time to time, such parts of the
fundamental verities of religion as the
people are capable of receiving,
teaching ever the same morality,
inculcating the use of similar means,
employing the same significant symbols. The
savage religions--animism
and the rest--are degenerations, the
results of decadence, distorted and
dwarfed descendants of true religious
beliefs. Sun-worship and pure
forms of nature-worship were, in their day,
noble religions, highly
allegorical but full of profound truth and
knowledge. The great
Teachers--it is alleged by Hindus,
Buddhists, and by some Comparative
Religionists, such as Theosophists--form an
enduring Brotherhood of men
who have risen beyond humanity, who appear
at certain periods to
enlighten the world, and who are the
spiritual guardians of the human
race. This view may be summed up in the
phrase: "Religions are branches
from a common trunk--Divine Wisdom."
This Divine Wisdom is spoken of as the
Wisdom, the Gnosis, the
Theosophia, and some, in different ages of
the world, have so desired to
emphasise their belief in this unity of
religions, that they have
preferred the eclectic name of Theosophist
to any narrower designation.
The relative value of the contentions of
these two opposed schools must
be judged by the cogency of the evidence
put forth by each. The
appearance of a degenerate form of a noble
idea may closely resemble
that of a refined product of a coarse idea,
and the only method of
deciding between degeneration and evolution
would be the examination, if
possible, of intermediate and remote
ancestors. The evidence brought
forward by believers in the Wisdom is of
this kind. They allege: that
the Founders of religions, judged by the
records of their teachings,
were far above the level of average
humanity; that the Scriptures of
religions contain moral precepts, sublime
ideals, poetical aspirations,
profound philosophical statements, which
are not even approached in
beauty and elevation by later writings in
the same religions--that is,
that the old is higher than the new,
instead of the new being higher
than the old; that no case can be shown of
the refining and improving
process alleged to be the source of current
religions, whereas many
cases of degeneracy from pure teachings can
be adduced; that even among
savages, if their religions be carefully
studied, many traces of lofty
ideas can be found, ideas which are
obviously above the productive
capacity of the savages themselves.
This last idea has been worked out by Mr.
Andrew Lang, who--judging by
his book on _The Making of
Religion_--should be classed as a Comparative
Religionist rather than as a Comparative
Mythologist. He points to the
existence of a common tradition, which, he
alleges, cannot have been
evolved by the savages for themselves,
being men whose ordinary beliefs
are of the crudest kind and whose minds are
little developed. He shows,
under crude beliefs and degraded views,
lofty traditions of a sublime
character, touching the nature of the
Divine Being and His relations
with men. The deities who are worshipped
are, for the most part, the
veriest devils, but behind, beyond all
these, there is a dim but
glorious over-arching Presence, seldom or
never named, but whispered of
as source of all, as power and love and
goodness, too tender to awaken
terror, too good to require supplication.
Such ideas manifestly cannot
have been conceived by the savages among
whom they are found, and they
remain as eloquent witnesses of the
revelations made by some great
Teacher--dim tradition of whom is generally
also discoverable--who was
a Son of the Wisdom, and imparted some of
its teachings in a long
bye-gone age.
The reason, and, indeed, the justification,
of the view taken by the
Comparative Mythologists is patent. They
found in every direction low
forms of religious belief, existing among
savage tribes. These were seen
to accompany general lack of civilisation.
Regarding civilised men as
evolving from uncivilised, what more
natural than to regard civilised
religion as evolving from uncivilised? It
is the first obvious idea.
Only later and deeper study can show that
the savages of to-day are not
our ancestral types, but are the
degenerated offsprings of great
civilised stocks of the past, and that man
in his infancy was not left
to grow up untrained, but was nursed and
educated by his elders, from
whom he received his first guidance alike
in religion and civilisation.
This view is being substantiated by such
facts as those dwelt on by
Lang, and will presently raise the
question, "Who were these elders, of
whom traditions are everywhere found?"
Still pursuing our enquiry, we come next to
the question: To what people
were religions given? And here we come at
once to the difficulty with
which every Founder of a religion must
deal, that already spoken of as
bearing on the primary object of religion
itself, the quickening of
human evolution, with its corollary that
all grades of evolving humanity
must be considered by Him. Men are at every
stage of evolution, from the
most barbarous to the most developed; men
are found of lofty
intelligence, but also of the most
unevolved mentality; in one place
there is a highly developed and complex
civilisation, in another a crude
and simple polity. Even within any given
civilisation we find the most
varied types--the most ignorant and the
most educated, the most
thoughtful and the most careless, the most
spiritual and the most
brutal; yet each one of these types must be
reached, and each must be
helped in the place where he is. If
evolution be true, this difficulty
is inevitable, and must be faced and
overcome by the divine Teacher,
else will His work be a failure. If man is
evolving as all around him
is evolving, these differences of
development, these varied grades of
intelligence, must be a characteristic of
humanity everywhere, and must
be provided for in each of the religions of
the world.
We are thus brought face to face with the
position that we cannot have
one and the same religious teaching even
for a single nation, still less
for a single civilisation, or for the whole
world. If there be but one
teaching, a large number of those to whom
it is addressed will entirely
escape its influence. If it be made
suitable for those whose
intelligence is limited, whose morality is
elementary, whose perceptions
are obtuse, so that it may help and train
them, and thus enable them to
evolve, it will be a religion utterly
unsuitable for those men, living
in the same nation, forming part of the
same civilisation, who have keen
and delicate moral perceptions, bright and
subtle intelligence, and
evolving spirituality. But if, on the other
hand, this latter class is
to be helped, if intelligence is to be
given a philosophy that it can
regard as admirable, if delicate moral
perceptions are to be still
further refined, if the dawning spiritual
nature is to be enabled to
develope into the perfect day, then the religion
will be so spiritual,
so intellectual, and so moral, that when it
is preached to the former
class it will not touch their minds or
their hearts, it will be to them
a string of meaningless phrases, incapable
of arousing their latent
intelligence, or of giving them any motive
for conduct which will help
them to grow into a purer morality.
Looking, then, at these facts concerning
religion, considering its
object, its means, its origin, the nature
and varying needs of the
people to whom it is addressed, recognising
the evolution of spiritual,
intellectual, and moral faculties in man,
and the need of each man for
such training as is suitable for the stage
of evolution at which he has
arrived, we are led to the absolute necessity
of a varied and graduated
religious teaching, such as will meet these
different needs and help
each man in his own place.
There is yet another reason why esoteric
teaching is desirable with
respect to a certain class of truths. It is
eminently the fact in
regard to this class that "knowledge
is power." The public promulgation
of a philosophy profoundly intellectual,
sufficient to train an already
highly developed intellect, and to draw the
allegiance of a lofty mind,
cannot injure any. It can be preached
without hesitation, for it does
not attract the ignorant, who turn away
from it as dry, stiff, and
uninteresting. But there are teachings
which deal with the constitution
of nature, explain recondite laws, and
throw light on hidden processes,
the knowledge of which gives control over
natural energies, and enables
its possessor to direct these energies to
certain ends, as a chemist
deals with the production of chemical
compounds. Such knowledge may be
very useful to highly developed men, and
may much increase their power
of serving the race. But if this knowledge
were published to the world,
it might and would be misused, just as the
knowledge of subtle poisons
was misused in the Middle Ages by the
Borgias and by others. It would
pass into the hands of people of strong
intellect, but of unregulated
desires, men moved by separative instincts,
seeking the gain of their
separate selves and careless of the common
good. They would be attracted
by the idea of gaining powers which would raise
them above the general
level, and place ordinary humanity at their
mercy, and would rush to
acquire the knowledge which exalts its
possessors to a superhuman rank.
They would, by its possession, become yet
more selfish and confirmed in
their separateness, their pride would be
nourished and their sense of
aloofness intensified, and thus they would
inevitably be driven along
the road which leads to diabolism, the Left
Hand Path, whose goal is
isolation and not union. And they would not
only themselves suffer in
their inner nature, but they would also
become a menace to Society,
already suffering sufficiently at the hands
of men whose intellect is
more evolved than their conscience. Hence
arises the necessity of
withholding certain teachings from those
who, morally, are as yet
unfitted to receive them; and this
necessity presses on every Teacher
who is able to impart such knowledge. He
desires to give it to those
who will use the powers it confers for the
general good, for quickening
human evolution; but he equally desires to
be no party to giving it to
those who would use it for their own
aggrandisement at the cost of
others.
Nor is this a matter of theory only,
according to the Occult Records,
which give the details of the events
alluded to in Genesis vi. _et seq._
This knowledge was, in those ancient times
and on the continent of
Atlantis, given without any rigid
conditions as to the moral elevation,
purity, and unselfishness of the
candidates. Those who were
intellectually qualified were taught, just
as men are taught ordinary
science in modern days. The publicity now
so imperiously demanded was
then given, with the result that men became
giants in knowledge but also
giants in evil, till the earth groaned under
her oppressors and the cry
of a trampled humanity rang through the
worlds. Then came the
destruction of Atlantis, the whelming of
that vast continent beneath the
waters of the ocean, some particulars of
which are given in the Hebrew
Scriptures in the story of the Noachian
deluge, and in the Hindu
Scriptures of the further East in the story
of Vaivasvata Manu.
Since that experience of the danger of
allowing unpurified hands to
grasp the knowledge which is power, the
great Teachers have imposed
rigid conditions as regards purity,
unselfishness, and self-control on
all candidates for such instruction. They
distinctly refuse to impart
knowledge of this kind to any who will not
consent to a rigid
discipline, intended to eliminate
separateness of feeling and interest.
They measure the moral strength of the
candidate even more than his
intellectual development, for the teaching
itself will develope the
intellect while it puts a strain on the
moral nature. Far better that
the Great Ones should be assailed by the ignorant
for Their supposed
selfishness in withholding knowledge, than
that They should precipitate
the world into another Atlantean
catastrophe.
So much of theory we lay down as bearing on
the necessity of a hidden
side in all religions. When from theory we
turn to facts, we naturally
ask: Has this hidden side existed in the
past, forming a part of the
religions of the world? The answer must be
an immediate and unhesitating
affirmative; every great religion has claimed
to possess a hidden
teaching, and has declared that it is the
repository of theoretical
mystic, and further of practical mystic, or
occult, knowledge. The
mystic explanation of popular teaching was
public, and expounded the
latter as an allegory, giving to crude and
irrational statements and
stories a meaning which the intellect could
accept. Behind this
theoretical mysticism, as it was behind the
popular, there existed
further the practical mysticism, a hidden
spiritual teaching, which was
only imparted under definite conditions,
conditions known and published,
that must be fulfilled by every candidate.
S. Clement of
mentions this division of the Mysteries.
After purification, he says,
"are the Minor Mysteries, which have
some foundation of instruction and
of preliminary preparation for what is to
come after; and the Great
Mysteries, in which nothing remains to be
learned of the universe, but
only to contemplate and comprehend nature
and things."[9]
This position cannot be controverted as
regards the ancient religions.
The Mysteries of Egypt were the glory of
that ancient land, and the
noblest sons of
initiated by Egyptian Teachers of Wisdom.
The Mithraic Mysteries of the
Persians, the Orphic and Bacchic Mysteries
and the later Eleusinian
semi-Mysteries of the Greeks, the Mysteries
of Samothrace,
extremely diluted form of the Eleusinian
Mysteries, their value is most
highly praised by the most eminent men of
Isocrates, Plutarch, and Plato. Especially
were they regarded as useful
with regard to _post-mortem_ existence, as
the Initiated learned that
which ensured his future happiness. Sopater
further alleged that
Initiation established a kinship of the
soul with the divine Nature, and
in the exoteric Hymn to Demeter covert
references are made to the holy
child, Iacchus, and to his death and
resurrection, as dealt with in the
Mysteries.[10]
From Iamblichus, the great theurgist of the
third and fourth centuries
A.D., much may be learned as to the object
of the Mysteries. Theurgy was
magic, "the last part of the
sacerdotal science,"[11] and was practised
in the Greater Mysteries, to evoke the
appearance of superior Beings.
The theory on which these Mysteries were
based may be very briefly thus
stated: There is ONE, prior to all beings,
immovable, abiding in the
solitude of His own unity. From THAT arises
the Supreme God, the
Self-begotten, the Good, the Source of all
things, the Root, the God of
Gods, the First Cause, unfolding Himself
into Light.[12] From Him
springs the Intelligible World, or ideal
universe, the Universal Mind,
the _Nous_ and the incorporeal or
intelligible Gods belong to this.
From this the World-Soul, to which belong
the "divine intellectual forms
which are present with the visible bodies
of the Gods."[13] Then come
various hierarchies of superhuman beings,
Archangels, Archons (Rulers)
or Cosmocratores, Angels, Daimons, &c.
Man is a being of a lower order,
allied to these in his nature, and is
capable of knowing them; this
knowledge was achieved in the Mysteries,
and it led to union with
God.[14] In the Mysteries these doctrines
are expounded, "the
progression from, and the regression of all
things to, the One, and the
entire domination of the One,"[15]
and, further, these different Beings
were evoked, and appeared, sometimes to
teach, sometimes, by Their mere
presence, to elevate and purify. "The
Gods," says Iamblichus, "being
benevolent and propitious, impart their
light to theurgists in unenvying
abundance, calling upwards their souls to
themselves, procuring them a
union with themselves, and accustoming
them, while they are yet in body,
to be separated from bodies, and to be led
round to their eternal and
intelligible principle."[16] For
"the soul having a twofold life, one
being in conjunction with body, but the
other being separate from all
body,"[17] it is most necessary to
learn to separate it from the body,
that thus it may unite itself with the Gods
by its intellectual and
divine part, and learn the genuine
principles of knowledge, and the
truths of the intelligible world.[18]
"The presence of the Gods, indeed,
imparts to us health of body, virtue of
soul, purity of intellect, and,
in one word, elevates everything in us to
its proper nature. It exhibits
that which is not body as body to the eyes
of the soul, through those of
the body."[19] When the Gods appear,
the soul receives "a liberation
from the passions, a transcendent
perfection, and an energy entirely
more excellent, and participates of divine
love and an immense joy."[20]
By this we gain a divine life, and are
rendered in reality divine.[21]
The culminating point of the Mysteries was
when the Initiate became a
God, whether by union with a divine Being
outside himself, or by the
realisation of the divine Self within him.
This was termed ecstasy, and
was a state of what the Indian Yogi would
term high Samadhi, the gross
body being entranced and the freed soul
effecting its own union with the
Great One. This "ecstasy is not a
faculty properly so called, it is a
state of the soul, which transforms it in
such a way that it then
perceives what was previously hidden from
it. The state will not be
permanent until our union with God is
irrevocable; here, in earth life,
ecstasy is but a flash.... Man can cease to
become man, and become God;
but man cannot be God and man at the same
time."[22] Plotinus states
that he had reached this state "but
three times as yet."
So also Proclus taught that the one
salvation of the soul was to return
to her intellectual form, and thus escape
from the "circle of
generation, from abundant wanderings,"
and reach true Being, "to the
uniform and simple energy of the period of
sameness, instead of the
abundantly wandering motion of the period
which is characterised by
difference." This is the life sought
by those initiated by Orpheus into
the Mysteries of Bacchus and Proserpine,
and this is the result of the
practice of the purificatory, or cathartic,
virtues.[23]
These virtues were necessary for the
Greater Mysteries, as they
concerned the purifying of the subtle body,
in which the soul worked
when out of the gross body. The political
or practical virtues belonged
to man's ordinary life, and were required
to some extent before he could
be a candidate even for such a School as is
described below. Then came
the cathartic virtues, by which the subtle
body, that of the emotions
and lower mind, was purified; thirdly the
intellectual, belonging to the
Augoeides, or the light-form of the
intellect; fourthly the
contemplative, or paradigmatic, by which
union with God was realised.
Porphyry writes: "He who energises
according to the practical virtues is
a worthy man; but he who energises
according to the purifying virtues is
an angelic man, or is also a good daimon.
He who energises according to
the intellectual virtues alone is a God;
but he who energises according
to the paradigmatic virtues is the Father
of the Gods."[24]
Much instruction was also given in the
Mysteries by the archangelic and
other hierarchies, and Pythagoras, the
great teacher who was initiated
in
disciples, is said to have possessed such a
knowledge of music that he
could use it for the controlling of men's
wildest passions, and the
illuminating of their minds. Of this,
instances are given by Iamblichus
in his _Life of Pythagoras_. It seems
probable that the title of
Theodidaktos, given to Ammonius Saccas, the
master of Plotinus, referred
less to the sublimity of his teachings than
to this divine instruction
received by him in the Mysteries.
Some of the symbols used are explained by
Iamblichus,[25] who bids
Porphyry remove from his thought the image
of the thing symbolised and
reach its intellectual meaning. Thus
"mire" meant everything that was
bodily and material; the "God sitting
above the lotus" signified that
God transcended both the mire and the
intellect, symbolised by the
lotus, and was established in Himself,
being seated. If "sailing in a
ship," His rule over the world was
pictured. And so on.[26] On this use
of symbols Proclus remarks that "the
Orphic method aimed at revealing
divine things by means of symbols, a method
common to all writers of
divine lore."[27]
The
sixth century B.C., owing to the
persecution of the civil power, but
other communities existed, keeping up the
sacred tradition.[28] Mead
states that Plato intellectualised it, in
order to protect it from an
increasing profanation, and the Eleusinian
rites preserved some of its
forms, having lost its substance. The
Neo-Platonists inherited from
Pythagoras and Plato, and their works
should be studied by those who
would realise something of the grandeur and
the beauty preserved for
the world in the Mysteries.
The
enforced. On this Mead gives many
interesting details,[29] and remarks:
"The authors of antiquity are agreed
that this discipline had succeeded
in producing the highest examples, not only
of the purest chastity and
sentiment, but also a simplicity of
manners, a delicacy, and a taste for
serious pursuits which was unparalleled.
This is admitted even by
Christian writers." The School had
outer disciples, leading the family
and social life, and the above quotation
refers to these. In the inner
School were three degrees--the first of
Hearers, who studied for two
years in silence, doing their best to
master the teachings; the second
degree was of Mathematici, wherein were
taught geometry and music, the
nature of number, form, colour, and sound;
the third degree was of
Physici, who mastered cosmogony and
metaphysics. This led up to the true
Mysteries. Candidates for the School must
be "of an unblemished
reputation and of a contented
disposition."
The close identity between the methods and
aims pursued in these various
Mysteries and those of Yoga in
observer. It is not, however, necessary to
suppose that the nations of
antiquity drew from
Lodge of Central Asia, which sent out its
Initiates to every land. They
all taught the same doctrines, and pursued
the same methods, leading to
the same ends. But there was much
intercommunication between the
Initiates of all nations, and there was a common
language and a common
symbolism. Thus Pythagoras journeyed among
the Indians, and received in
steps. Quite Indian in phrase as well as
thought were the dying words of
Plotinus: "Now I seek to lead back the
Self within me to the
All-self."[30]
Among the Hindus the duty of teaching the
supreme knowledge only to the
worthy was strictly insisted on. "The
deepest mystery of the end of
knowledge ... is not to be declared to one
who is not a son or a pupil,
and who is not tranquil in mind."[31]
So again, after a sketch of Yoga
we read: "Stand up! awake! having
found the Great Ones, listen! The road
is as difficult to tread as the sharp edge
of a razor. Thus say the
wise."[32] The Teacher is needed, for
written teaching alone does not
suffice. The "end of knowledge"
is to know God--not only to believe; to
become one with God--not only to worship
afar off. Man must know the
reality of the divine Existence, and then
know--not only vaguely believe
and hope--that his own innermost Self is
one with God, and that the aim
of life is to realise that unity. Unless
religion can guide a man to
that realisation, it is but "as
sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal."[33]
So also it was asserted that man should
learn to leave the gross body:
"Let a man with firmness separate it
[the soul] from his own body, as a
grass-stalk from its sheath."[34] And
it was written! "In the golden
highest sheath dwells the stainless,
changeless Brahman; It is the
radiant white Light of lights, known to the
knowers of the Self."[35]
"When the seer sees the
golden-coloured Creator, the Lord, the Spirit,
whose womb is Brahman, then, having thrown
away merit and demerit,
stainless, the wise one reaches the highest
union."[36]
Nor were the Hebrews without their secret
knowledge and their Schools of
Initiation. The company of prophets at
Naioth presided over by
Samuel[37] formed such a School, and the
oral teaching was handed down
by them. Similar Schools existed at
Cruden's _Concordance_[39] there is the
following interesting note: "The
Schools or Colleges of the prophets are the
first [schools] of which we
have any account in Scripture; where the
children of the prophets, that
is, their disciples, lived in the exercises
of a retired and austere
life, in study and meditation, and reading
of the law of God.... These
Schools, or Societies, of the prophets were
succeeded by the
Synagogues." The _Kabbala_, which
contains the semi-public teaching, is,
as it now stands, a modern compilation,
part of it being the work of
Rabbi Moses de Leon, who died A.D. 1305. It
consists of five books,
Bahir, Zohar, Sepher Sephiroth, Sepher
Yetzirah, and Asch Metzareth, and
is asserted to have been transmitted orally
from very ancient times--as
antiquity is reckoned historically. Dr.
Wynn Westcott says that "Hebrew
tradition assigns the oldest parts of the
Zohar to a date antecedent to
the building of the second
to have written down some of it in the
first century A.D. The Sepher
Yetzirah is spoken of by Saadjah Gaon, who
died A.D. 940, as "very
ancient."[40] Some portions of the
ancient oral teaching have been
incorporated in the _Kabbala_ as it now
stands, but the true archaic
wisdom of the Hebrews remains in the
guardianship of a few of the true
sons of
Brief as is this outline, it is sufficient
to show the existence of a
hidden side in the religions of the world
outside Christianity, and we
may now examine the question whether
Christianity was an exception to
this universal rule.
-------
CHAPTER II.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY.
_(a)_ THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Having seen that the religions of the past
claimed with one voice to
have a hidden side, to be custodians of
"Mysteries," and that this claim
was endorsed by the seeking of initiation
by the greatest men, we must
now ascertain whether Christianity stands
outside this circle of
religions, and alone is without a Gnosis,
offering to the world only a
simple faith and not a profound knowledge.
Were it so, it would indeed
be a sad and lamentable fact, proving
Christianity to be intended for a
class only, and not for all types of human
beings. But that it is not
so, we shall be able to prove beyond the
possibility of rational doubt.
And that proof is the thing which
Christendom at this time most sorely
needs, for the very flower of Christendom
is perishing for lack of
knowledge. If the esoteric teaching can be
re-established and win
patient and earnest students, it will not
be long before the occult is
also restored. Disciples of the Lesser
Mysteries will become candidates
for the Greater, and with the regaining of
knowledge will come again the
authority of teaching. And truly the need
is great. For, looking at the
world around us, we find that religion in
the West is suffering from the
very difficulty that theoretically we
should expect to find.
Christianity, having lost its mystic and
esoteric teaching, is losing
its hold on a large number of the more
highly educated, and the partial
revival during the past few years is
co-incident with the
re-introduction of some mystic teaching. It
is patent to every student
of the closing forty years of the last
century, that crowds of
thoughtful and moral people have slipped
away from the churches, because
the teachings they received there outraged
their intelligence and
shocked their moral sense. It is idle to
pretend that the wide-spread
agnosticism of this period had its root
either in lack of morality or in
deliberate crookedness of mind. Everyone
who carefully studies the
phenomena presented will admit that men of
strong intellect have been
driven out of Christianity by the crudity
of the religious ideas set
before them, the contradictions in the
authoritative teachings, the
views as to God, man, and the universe that
no trained intelligence
could possibly admit. Nor can it be said
that any kind of moral
degradation lay at the root of the revolt
against the dogmas of the
Church. The rebels were not too bad for
their religion; on the contrary,
it was the religion that was too bad for
them. The rebellion against
popular Christianity was due to the
awakening and the growth of
conscience; it was the conscience that
revolted, as well as the
intelligence, against teachings
dishonouring to God and man alike, that
represented God as a tyrant, and man as
essentially evil, gaining
salvation by slavish submission.
The reason for this revolt lay in the
gradual descent of Christian
teaching into so-called simplicity, so that
the most ignorant might be
able to grasp it. Protestant religionists
asserted loudly that nothing
ought to be preached save that which every
one could grasp, that the
glory of the Gospel lay in its simplicity,
and that the child and the
unlearned ought to be able to understand
and apply it to life. True
enough, if by this it were meant that there
are some religious truths
that all can grasp, and that a religion
fails if it leaves the lowest,
the most ignorant, the most dull, outside
the pale of its elevating
influence. But false, utterly false, if by
this it be meant that
religion has no truths that the ignorant
cannot understand, that it is
so poor and limited a thing that it has
nothing to teach which is above
the thought of the unintelligent or above
the moral purview of the
degraded. False, fatally false, if such be
the meaning; for as that view
spreads, occupying the pulpits and being
sounded in the churches, many
noble men and women, whose hearts are
half-broken as they sever the
links that bind them to their early faith,
withdraw from the churches,
and leave their places to be filled by the hypocritical
and the
ignorant. They pass either into a state of
passive agnosticism, or--if
they be young and enthusiastic--into a
condition of active aggression,
not believing that that can be the highest
which outrages alike
intellect and conscience, and preferring
the honesty of open unbelief to
the drugging of the intellect and the
conscience at the bidding of an
authority in which they recognise nothing
that is divine.
In thus studying the thought of our time we
see that the question of a
hidden teaching in connection with
Christianity becomes of vital
importance. Is Christianity to survive as
_the_ religion of the West? Is
it to live through the centuries of the
future, and to continue to play
a part in moulding the thought of the
evolving western races? If it is
to live, it must regain the knowledge it
has lost, and again have its
mystic and its occult teachings; it must
again stand forth as an
authoritative teacher of spiritual
verities, clothed with the only
authority worth anything, the authority of
knowledge. If these teachings
be regained, their influence will soon be
seen in wider and deeper
views of truth; dogmas, which now seem like
mere shells and fetters,
shall again be seen to be partial
presentments of fundamental realities.
First, Esoteric Christianity will reappear
in the "Holy Place," in the
Temple, so that all who are capable of
receiving it may follow its lines
of published thought; and secondly, Occult
Christianity will again
descend into the Adytum, dwelling behind
the Veil which guards the "Holy
of Holies," into which only the
Initiate may enter. Then again will
occult teaching be within the reach of
those who qualify themselves to
receive it, according to the ancient rules,
those who are willing in
modern days to meet the ancient demands,
made on all those who would
fain know the reality and truth of
spiritual things.
Once again we turn our eyes to history, to
see whether Christianity was
unique among religions in having no inner
teaching, or whether it
resembled all others in possessing this
hidden treasure. Such a question
is a matter of evidence, not of theory, and
must be decided by the
authority of the existing documents and not
by the mere _ipse dixit_ of
modern Christians.
As a matter of fact both the "New
Testament" and the writings of the
early Church make the same declarations as
to the possession by the
Church of such teachings, and we learn from
these the fact of the
existence of Mysteries--called the
Mysteries of Jesus, or the Mystery of
the Kingdom--the conditions imposed on
candidates, something of the
general nature of the teachings given, and
other details. Certain
passages in the "New Testament"
would remain entirely obscure, if it
were not for the light thrown on them by
the definite statements of the
Fathers and Bishops of the Church, but in
that light they became clear
and intelligible.
It would indeed have been strange had it
been otherwise when we consider
the lines of religious thought which
influenced primitive Christianity.
Allied to the Hebrews, the Persians, and
the Greeks, tinged by the older
faiths of India, deeply coloured by Syrian
and Egyptian thought, this
later branch of the great religious stem
could not do other than again
re-affirm the ancient traditions, and place
in the grasp of western
races the full treasure of the ancient
teaching. "The faith once
delivered to the saints" would indeed
have been shorn of its chief value
if, when delivered to the West, the pearl
of esoteric teaching had been
withheld.
The first evidence to be examined is that
of the "New Testament." For
our purpose we may put aside all the vexed
questions of different
readings and different authors, that can
only be decided by scholars.
Critical scholarship has much to say on the
age of MSS., on the
authenticity of documents, and so on. But
we need not concern ourselves
with these. We may accept the canonical
Scriptures, as showing what was
believed in the early Church as to the
teaching of the Christ and of His
immediate followers, and see what they say
as to the existence of a
secret teaching given only to the few.
Having seen the words put into
the mouth of Jesus Himself, and regarded by
the Church as of supreme
authority, we will look at the writings of
the great apostle S. Paul;
then we will consider the statements made
by those who inherited the
apostolic tradition and guided the Church
during the first centuries
A.D. Along this unbroken line of tradition
and written testimony the
proposition that Christianity had a hidden
side can be established. We
shall further find that the Lesser
Mysteries of mystic interpretation
can be traced through the centuries to the
beginning of the 19th
century, and that though there were no
Schools of Mysticism recognised
as preparatory to Initiation, after the
disappearance of the Mysteries,
yet great Mystics, from time to time,
reached the lower stages of
exstasy, by their own sustained efforts,
aided doubtless by invisible
Teachers.
The words of the Master Himself are clear
and definite, and were, as we
shall see, quoted by Origen as referring to
the secret teaching
preserved in the Church. "And when he
was alone, they that were about
Him with the twelve asked of Him the
parable. And He said unto them,
'Unto you it is given to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God, but
unto them that are without, all these
things are done in parables.'" And
later: "With many such parables spake
He the word unto them, as they
were able to hear it. But without a parable
spake He not unto them; and
when they were alone He expounded all
things to His disciples."[41] Mark
the significant words, "when they were
alone," and the phrase, "them
that are without." So also in the
version of S. Matthew: "Jesus sent the
multitude away, and went into the house;
and His disciples came unto
Him." These teachings given "in
the house," the innermost meanings of
His instructions, were alleged to be handed
on from teacher to teacher.
The Gospel gives, it will be noted, the
allegorical mystic explanation,
that which we have called The Lesser
Mysteries, but the deeper meaning
was said to be given only to the Initiates.
Again, Jesus tells even His apostles:
"I have yet many things to say to
you, but ye cannot bear them now."[42]
Some of them were probably said
after His death, when He was seen of His
disciples, "speaking of the
things pertaining to the kingdom of
God."[43] None of these have been
publicly recorded, but who can believe that
they were neglected or
forgotten, and were not handed down as a
priceless possession? There was
a tradition in the Church that He visited
His apostles for a
considerable period after His death, for
the sake of giving them
instruction--a fact that will be referred
to later--and in the famous
Gnostic treatise, the _Pistis Sophia_, we
read: "It came to pass, when
Jesus had risen from the dead, that He
passed eleven years speaking with
His disciples and instructing
them."[44] Then there is the phrase, which
many would fain soften and explain away:
"Give not that which is holy to
the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls
before swine"[45]--a precept which
is of general application indeed, but was
considered by the early
Church to refer to the secret teachings. It
should be remembered that
the words had not the same harshness of
sound in the ancient days as
they have now; for the words
"dogs"--like "the vulgar," "the
profane"--was applied by those within
a certain circle to all who were
outside its pale, whether by a society or
association, or by a
nation--as by the Jews to all Gentiles.[46]
It was sometimes used to
designate those who were outside the circle
of Initiates, and we find it
employed in that sense in the early Church;
those who, not having been
initiated into the Mysteries, were regarded
as being outside "the
kingdom of God," or "the
spiritual Israel," had this name applied to
them.
There were several names, exclusive of the
term "The Mystery," or "The
Mysteries," used to designate the
sacred circle of the Initiates or
connected with Initiation: "The
Kingdom," "The Kingdom of God," "The
Kingdom of Heaven," "The Narrow
Path," "The Strait Gate," "The
Perfect," "The Saved,"
"Life Eternal," "Life," "The Second Birth,"
"A
Little One," "A Little
Child." The meaning is made plain by the use of
these words in early Christian writings,
and in some cases even outside
the Christian pale. Thus the term,
"The Perfect," was used by the
Essenes, who had three orders in their
communities: the Neophytes, the
Brethren, and the Perfect--the latter being
Initiates; and it is
employed generally in that sense in old
writings. "The Little Child" was
the ordinary name for a candidate just
initiated, _i.e._, who had just
taken his "second birth."
When we know this use, many obscure and
otherwise harsh passages become
intelligible. "Then said one unto Him:
Lord, are there few that be
saved? And He said unto them: Strive to
enter in at the strait gate; for
many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in
and shall not be able."[47]
If this be applied in the ordinary
Protestant way to salvation from
everlasting hell-fire, the statement
becomes incredible, shocking. No
Saviour of the world can be supposed to
assert that many will seek to
avoid hell and enter heaven, but will not
be able to do so. But as
applied to the narrow gateway of Initiation
and to salvation from
rebirth, it is perfectly true and natural.
So again: "Enter ye in at the
strait gate; for wide is the gate and broad
is the way that leadeth to
destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat; because strait is
the gate and narrow is the way which
leadeth unto life; and few there be
that find it."[48] The warning which
immediately follows against the
false prophets, the teachers of the dark
Mysteries, is most apposite in
this connection. No student can miss the familiar
ring of these words
used in this same sense in other writings.
The "ancient narrow way" is
familiar to all; the path "difficult
to tread as the sharp edge of a
razor,"[49] already mentioned; the
going "from death to death" of those
who follow the flower-strewn path of
desires, who do not know God; for
those men only become immortal and escape
from the wide mouth of death,
from ever repeated destruction, who have
quitted all desires.[50] The
allusion to death is, of course, to the
repeated births of the soul into
gross material existence, regarded always
as "death" compared to the
"life" of the higher and subtler
worlds.
This "Strait Gate" was the
gateway of Initiation, and through it a
candidate entered "The Kingdom."
And it ever has been, and must be, true
that only a few can enter that gateway,
though myriads--an exceedingly
"great multitude, which no man could
number,"[51] not a few--enter into
the happiness of the heaven-world. So also
spoke another great Teacher,
nearly three thousand years earlier:
"Among thousands of men scarce one
striveth for perfection; of the successful
strivers scarce one knoweth
me in essence."[52] For the Initiates
are few in each generation, the
flower of humanity; but no gloomy sentence
of everlasting woe is
pronounced in this statement on the vast
majority of the human race.
The saved are, as Proclus taught,[53] those
who escape from the circle
of generation, within which humanity is
bound.
In this connection we may recall the story
of the young man who came to
Jesus, and, addressing Him as "Good
Master," asked how he might win
eternal life--the well-recognised
liberation from rebirth by knowledge
of God.[54] His first answer was the
regular exoteric precept: "Keep the
commandments." But when the young man
answered: "All these things have I
kept from my youth up;" then, to that
conscience free from all knowledge
of transgression, came the answer of the
true Teacher: "If thou wilt be
perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and
follow me." "If thou wilt be
perfect," be a member of the Kingdom,
poverty and obedience must be
embraced. And then to His own disciples
Jesus explains that a rich man
can hardly enter the Kingdom of Heaven,
such entrance being more
difficult than for a camel to pass through
the eye of a needle; with men
such entrance could not be, with God all
things were possible.[55] Only
God in man can pass that barrier.
This text has been variously explained
away, it being obviously
impossible to take it in its surface
meaning, that a rich man cannot
enter a post-mortem state of happiness.
Into that state the rich man may
enter as well as the poor, and the
universal practice of Christians
shows that they do not for one moment
believe that riches imperil their
happiness after death. But if the real
meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven
be taken, we have the expression of a
simple and direct fact. For that
knowledge of God which is Eternal Life[56]
cannot be gained till
everything earthly is surrendered, cannot
be learned until everything
has been sacrificed. The man must give up
not only earthly wealth, which
henceforth may only pass through his hands
as steward, but he must give
up his inner wealth as well, so far as he
holds it as his own against
the world; until he is stripped naked he
cannot pass the narrow gateway.
Such has ever been a condition of
Initiation, and "poverty, obedience,
chastity," has been the vow of the
candidate.
The "second birth" is another
well-recognised term for Initiation; even
now in India the higher castes are called
"twice-born," and the ceremony
that makes them twice-born is a ceremony of
Initiation--mere husk truly,
in these modern days, but the "pattern
of things in the heavens."[57]
When Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, He
states that "Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God," and this birth is spoken
of as that "of water and the
Spirit;"[58] this is the first Initiation;
a later one is that of "the Holy Ghost
and fire,"[59] the baptism of the
Initiate in his manhood, as the first is
that of birth, which welcomes
him as "the Little Child"
entering the Kingdom.[60] How thoroughly this
imagery was familiar among the mystic of
the Jews is shown by the
surprise evinced by Jesus when Nicodemus
stumbled over His mystic
phraseology: "Art thou a master of
Israel, and knowest not these
things?"[61]
Another precept of Jesus which remains as
"a hard saying" to his
followers is: "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect."[62] The ordinary
Christian knows that he cannot
possibly obey this command; full of
ordinary human frailties and
weaknesses, how can he become perfect as
God is perfect? Seeing the
impossibility of the achievement set before
him, he quietly puts it
aside, and thinks no more about it. But
seen as the crowning effort of
many lives of steady improvement, as the
triumph of the God within us
over the lower nature, it comes within
calculable distance, and we
recall the words of Porphyry, how the man
who achieves "the paradigmatic
virtues is the Father of the
Gods,"[63] and that in the Mysteries these
virtues were acquired.
S. Paul follows in the footsteps of his
Master, and speaks in exactly
the same sense, but, as might be expected
from his organising work in
the Church, with greater explicitness and
clearness. The student should
read with attention chapters ii. and iii.,
and verse 1 of chapter iv. of
the First Epistle to the Corinthians,
remembering, as he reads, that the
words are addressed to baptised and
communicant members of the Church,
full members from the modern standpoint,
although described as babes and
carnal by the Apostle. They were not
catechumens or neophytes, but men
and women who were in complete possession
of all the privileges and
responsibilities of Church membership,
recognised by the Apostle as
being separate from the world, and expected
not to behave as men of the
world. They were, in fact, in possession of
all that the modern Church
gives to its members. Let us summarise the
Apostle's words:
"I came to you bearing the divine
testimony, not alluring you with human
wisdom but with the power of the Spirit.
Truly 'we speak wisdom among
them that are perfect,' but it is no human
wisdom. 'We speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before
the world' began, and which none even of
the princes of this world know.
The things of that wisdom are beyond men's
thinking, 'but God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit ... the
deep things of God,' 'which
the Holy Ghost teacheth.'[64] These are
spiritual things, to be
discerned only by the spiritual man, in
whom is the mind of Christ. 'And
I, brethren, could not speak unto you as
unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.... Ye
were not able to bear it,
neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet
carnal.' 'As a wise
master-builder[65] I have laid the
foundation,' and 'ye are the temple
of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you.' 'Let a man so account
of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and
stewards of the Mysteries of
God.'"
Can any one read this passage--and all that
has been done in the summary
is to bring out the salient points--without
recognising the fact that
the Apostle possessed a divine wisdom given
in the Mysteries, that his
Corinthian followers were not yet able to
receive? And note the
recurring technical terms: the
"wisdom," the "wisdom of God in a
mystery," the "hidden
wisdom," known only to the "spiritual" man, spoken
of only among the "perfect,"
wisdom from which the non-"spiritual," the
"babes in Christ," the
"carnal," were excluded, known to the "wise
master-builder," the "steward of
the Mysteries of God."
Again and again he refers to these Mysteries.
Writing to the Ephesian
Christians he says that "by
revelation," by the unveiling, had been
"made known unto me the Mystery,"
and hence his "knowledge in the
Mystery of Christ"; all might know of
the "fellowship of the
Mystery."[66] Of this Mystery, he
repeated to the Colossians, he was
"made a minister," "the
Mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest to
His saints"; not to the world,
nor even to Christians, but only to the
Holy Ones. To them was unveiled
"the glory of this Mystery"; and
what was it? "Christ _in you_"--a
significant phrase, which we shall see, in
a moment, belonged to the
life of the Initiate; thus ultimately must
every man learn the wisdom,
and become "perfect in Christ
Jesus."[67] These Colossians he bids pray
"that God would open to us a door of
utterance, to speak the mystery of
Christ,"[68] a passage to which S.
Clement refers as one in which the
apostle "clearly reveals that
knowledge belongs not to all."[69] So
also he writes to his loved Timothy,
bidding him select his deacons from
those who hold "the Mystery of the
faith in a pure conscience," that
great "Mystery of Godliness,"
that he had learned,[70] knowledge of
which was necessary for the teachers of the
Church.
Now S. Timothy holds an important position,
as representing the next
generation of Christian teachers. He was a
pupil of S. Paul, and was
appointed by him to guide and rule a
portion of the Church. He had been,
we learn, initiated into the Mysteries by
S. Paul himself, and reference
is made to this, the technical phrases once
more serving as a clue.
"This charge I commit unto thee, son
Timothy, according to the
prophecies which went before on
thee,"[71] the solemn benediction of the
Initiator, who admitted the candidate; but
not alone was the Initiator
present: "Neglect not the gift that is
in thee, which was given thee by
prophecy, by the laying on of the hands of
the Presbytery,"[72] of the
Elder Brothers. And he reminds him to lay
hold of that "eternal life,
whereunto thou art also called, and hast
professed a good profession
before many witnesses"[73]--the vow of
the new Initiate, pledged in the
presence of the Elder Brothers, and of the
assembly of Initiates. The
knowledge then given was the sacred charge
of which S. Paul cries out so
forcibly: "O Timothy, keep that which
is committed to thy
trust"[74]--not the knowledge commonly
possessed by Christians, as to
which no special obligation lay upon S.
Timothy, but the sacred deposit
committed to his trust as an Initiate, and
essential to the welfare of
the Church. S. Paul later recurs again to
this, laying stress on the
supreme importance of the matter in a way
that would be exaggerated had
the knowledge been the common property of
Christian men: "Hold fast the
form of sound words which thou hast heard
of me.... That good thing
which was committed unto thee, keep by the
Holy Ghost which dwelleth in
us"[75]--as serious an adjuration as
human lips could frame. Further,
it was his duty to provide for the due
transmission of this sacred
deposit, that it might be handed on to the
future, and the Church might
never be left without teachers: "The
things that thou hast heard of me
among many witnesses"--the sacred oral
teachings given in the assembly
of Initiates, who bore witness to the
accuracy of the transmission--"the
same commit thou to faithful men, who shall
be able to teach others
also."[76]
The knowledge--or, if the phrase be
preferred, the supposition--that the
Church possessed these hidden teachings
throws a flood of light on the
scattered remarks made by S. Paul about
himself, and when they are
gathered together, we have an outline of
the evolution of the Initiate.
S. Paul asserts that though he was already
among the perfect, the
initiated--for he says: "Let us,
therefore, as many as be perfect, be
thus minded"--he had not yet
"attained," was indeed not yet wholly
"perfect," for he had not yet won
Christ, he had not yet reached the
"high calling of God in Christ,"
"the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings, being
made conformable unto His
death;" and he was striving, he says,
"if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the
dead."[77] For this was the Initiation that
liberated, that made the Initiate the
Perfect Master, the Risen Christ,
freeing Him finally from the
"dead," from the humanity within the circle
of generation, from the bonds that fettered
the soul to gross matter.
Here again we have a number of technical
terms, and even the surface
reader should realise that the
"resurrection of the dead" here spoken of
cannot be the ordinary resurrection of the
modern Christian, supposed to
be inevitable for all men, and therefore
obviously not requiring any
special struggle on the part of any one to
attain to it. In fact the
very word "attain" would be out
of place in referring to a universal and
inevitable human experience. S. Paul could
not avoid _that_
resurrection, according to the modern
Christian view. What then was the
resurrection to attain which he was making
such strenuous efforts? Once
more the only answer comes from the
Mysteries. In them the Initiate
approaching the Initiation that liberated
from the cycle of rebirth, the
circle of generation, was called "the
suffering Christ;" he shared the
sufferings of the Saviour of the world, was
crucified mystically, "made
conformable to His death," and then
attained the resurrection, the
fellowship of the glorified Christ, and,
after, that death had over him
no power.[78] This was "the
prize" towards which the great Apostle was
pressing, and he urged "as many as be
perfect," _not the ordinary
believer_, thus also to strive. Let them
not be content with what they
had gained, but still press onwards.
This resemblance of the Initiate to the
Christ is, indeed, the very
groundwork of the Greater Mysteries, as we
shall see more in detail when
we study "The Mystical Christ."
The Initiate was no longer to look on
Christ as outside himself: "Though we
have known Christ after the
flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no
more."[79]
The ordinary believer had "put on
Christ;" "as many of you as have been
baptised into Christ have put on
Christ."[80] Then they were the "babes
in Christ" to whom reference has
already been made, and Christ was the
Saviour to whom they looked for help,
knowing Him "after the flesh." But
when they had conquered the lower nature
and were no longer "carnal,"
then they were to enter on a higher path,
and were themselves to become
Christ. This which he himself had already
reached, was the longing of
the Apostle for his followers: "My
little children, of whom I travail in
birth again until Christ be formed _in
you_."[81] Already he was their
spiritual father, having "begotten you
through the gospel."[82] But now
"again" he was as a parent, as
their mother to bring them to the second
birth. Then the infant Christ, the Holy
Child, was born in the soul,
"the hidden man of the
heart;"[83] the Initiate thus became that
"Little Child"; henceforth he was
to live out in his own person the life
of the Christ, until he became the
"perfect man," growing "unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ."[84] Then he, as S. Paul
was doing, filled up the sufferings of Christ
in his own flesh,[85] and
always bore "about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus,"[86] so that
he could truly say: "I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me."[87] Thus was the Apostle himself
suffering; thus he describes himself. And
when the struggle is over, how
different is the calm tone of triumph from
the strained effort of the
earlier years: "I am now ready to be
offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith; henceforth
there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness."[88] This was
the crown given to "him that
overcometh," of whom it is said by the
ascended Christ: "I will make him
a pillar in the temple of my God; and he
shall go no more out."[89] For
after the "Resurrection" the
Initiate has become the Perfect Man, the
Master, and He goes out no more from the
Temple, but from it serves and
guides the worlds.
It may be well to point out, ere closing
this chapter, that S. Paul
himself sanctions the use of the
theoretical mystic teaching in
explaining the historical events recorded
in the Scriptures. The history
therein written is not regarded by him as a
mere record of facts, which
occurred on the physical plane. A true
mystic, he saw in the physical
events the shadows of the universal truths
ever unfolding in higher and
inner worlds, and knew that the events
selected for preservation in
occult writings were such as were typical,
the explanation of which
would subserve human instruction. Thus he
takes the story of Abraham,
Sarai, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac, and
saying, "which things are an
allegory," he proceeds to give the
mystical interpretation.[90]
Referring to the escape of the Israelites
from Egypt, he speaks of the
Red Sea as a baptism, of the manna and the
water as spiritual meat and
spiritual drink, of the rock from which the
water flowed as Christ.[91]
He sees the great mystery of the union of
Christ and His Church in the
human relation of husband and wife, and
speaks of Christians as the
flesh and the bones of the body of
Christ.[92] The writer of the Epistle
to the Hebrews allegorises the whole Jewish
system of worship. In the
Temple he sees a pattern of the heavenly
Temple, in the High Priest he
sees Christ, in the sacrifices the offering
of the spotless Son; the
priests of the Temple are but "the
example and shadow of heavenly
things," of the heavenly priesthood
serving in "the true tabernacle." A
most elaborate allegory is thus worked out
in chapters iii.-x., and the
writer alleges that the Holy Ghost thus
signified the deeper meaning;
all was "a figure for the time."
In this view of the sacred writings, it is
not alleged that the events
recorded did not take place, but only that
their physical happening was
a matter of minor importance. And such
explanation is the unveiling of
the Lesser Mysteries, the mystic teaching
which is permitted to be given
to the world. It is not, as many think, a
mere play of the imagination,
but is the outcome of a true intuition,
seeing the patterns in the
heavens, and not only the shadows cast by
them on the screen of earthly
time.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER III.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF
CHRISTIANITY(_concluded_).
(_(b)_) THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH.
While it may be that some would be willing
to admit the possession by
the Apostles and their immediate successors
of a deeper knowledge of
spiritual things than was current among the
masses of the believers
around them, few will probably be willing
to take the next step, and,
leaving that charmed circle, accept as the
depository of their sacred
learning the Mysteries of the Early Church.
Yet we have S. Paul
providing for the transmission of the
unwritten teaching, himself
initiating S. Timothy, and instructing S.
Timothy to initiate others in
his turn, who should again hand it on to
yet others. We thus see the
provision of four successive generations of
teachers, spoken of in the
Scriptures themselves, and these would far
more than overlap the writers
of the Early Church, who bear witness to
the existence of the Mysteries.
For among these are pupils of the Apostles
themselves, though the most
definite statements belong to those removed
from the Apostles by one
intermediate teacher. Now, as soon as we
begin to study the writings of
the Early Church, we are met by the facts
that there are allusions which
are only intelligible by the existence of
the Mysteries, and then
statements that the Mysteries are existing.
This might, of course, have
been expected, seeing the point at which
the New Testament leaves the
matter, but it is satisfactory to find the
facts answer to the
expectation.
The first witnesses are those called the
Apostolic Fathers, the
disciples of the Apostles; but very little
of their writings, and that
disputed, remains. Not being written
controversially, the statements are
not as categorical as those of the later
writers. Their letters are for
the encouragement of the believers.
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, and
fellow-disciple with Ignatius of S.
John,[93] expresses a hope that his
correspondents are "well versed in the
sacred Scriptures and that
nothing is hid from you; but to me this
privilege is not yet
granted"[94]--writing, apparently,
before reaching full Initiation.
Barnabas speaks of communicating "some
portion of what I have myself
received,"[95] and after expounding the
Law mystically, declares that
"we then, rightly understanding His
commandments, explain them as the
Lord intended."[96] Ignatius, Bishop
of Antioch, a disciple of S.
John,[97] speaks of himself as "not
yet perfect in Jesus Christ. For I
now begin to be a disciple, and I speak to
you as my
fellow-disciples,"[98] and he speaks
of them as "initiated into the
mysteries of the Gospel with Paul, the
holy, the martyred."[99] Again
he says: "Might I not write to you
things more full of mystery? But I
fear to do so, lest I should inflict injury
on you who are but babes.
Pardon me in this respect, lest, as not
being able to receive their
weighty import, ye should be strangled by
them. For even I, though I am
bound [for Christ] and am able to
understand heavenly things, the
angelic orders, and the different sorts of
angels and hosts, the
distinction between powers and dominions,
and the diversities between
thrones and authorities, the mightiness of
the aeons, and the
pre-eminence of the cherubim and seraphim,
the sublimity of the Spirit,
the kingdom of the Lord, and above all the
incomparable majesty of
Almighty God--though I am acquainted with
these things, yet am I not
therefore by any means perfect, nor am I
such a disciple as Paul or
Peter."[100] This passage is
interesting, as indicating that the
organisation of the celestial hierarchies
was one of the subjects in
which instruction was given in the
Mysteries. Again he speaks of the
High Priest, the Hierophant, "to whom
the holy of holies has been
committed, and who alone has been entrusted
with the secrets of
God."[101]
We come next to S. Clement of Alexandria
and his pupil Origen, the two
writers of the second and third centuries
who tell us most about the
Mysteries in the Early Church; though the
general atmosphere is full of
mystic allusions, these two are clear and
categorical in their
statements that the Mysteries were a
recognised institution.
Now S. Clement was a disciple of Pantaenus,
and he speaks of him and of
two others, said to be probably Tatian and
Theodotus, as "preserving the
tradition of the blessed doctrine derived
directly from the holy
Apostles, Peter, James, John, and
Paul,"[102] his link with the Apostles
themselves consisting thus of only one
intermediary. He was the head of
the Catechetical School of Alexandria in
A.D. 189, and died about A.D.
220. Origen, born about A.D. 185, was his
pupil, and he is, perhaps,
the most learned of the Fathers, and a man
of the rarest moral beauty.
These are the witnesses from whom we receive
the most important
testimony as to the existence of definite
Mysteries in the Early Church.
The _Stromata_, or Miscellanies, of S.
Clement are our source of
information about the Mysteries in his
time. He himself speaks of these
writings as a "miscellany of Gnostic
notes, according to the true
philosophy,"[103] and also describes
them as memoranda of the teachings
he had himself received from Pantaenus. The
passage is instructive: "The
Lord ... allowed us to communicate of those
divine Mysteries, and of
that holy light, to those who are able to
receive them. He did not
certainly disclose to the many what did not
belong to the many; but to
the few to whom He knew that they belonged,
who were capable of
receiving and being moulded according to
them. But secret things are
entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is
the case with God. And if
one say[104] that it is written, 'There is
nothing secret which shall
not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not
be disclosed,' let him also
hear from us, that to him who hears
secretly, even what is secret shall
be manifested. This is what was predicted
by this oracle. And to him who
is able secretly to observe what is
delivered to him, that which is
veiled shall be disclosed as truth; and
what is hidden to the many shall
appear manifest to the few.... The
Mysteries are delivered mystically,
that what is spoken may be in the mouth of
the speaker; rather not in
his voice, but in his understanding.... The
writing of these memoranda
of mine, I well know, is weak when compared
with that spirit, full of
grace, which I was privileged to hear. But
it will be an image to recall
the archetype to him who was struck with
the Thyrsus." The Thyrsus, we
may here interject, was the wand borne by
Initiates, and candidates were
touched with it during the ceremony of
Initiation. It had a mystic
significance, symbolising the spinal cord
and the pineal gland in the
Lesser Mysteries, and a Rod, known to
Occultists, in the Greater. To
say, therefore, "to him who was struck
with the Thyrsus" was exactly the
same as to say, "to him who was
initiated in the Mysteries." Clement
proceeds: "We profess not to explain
secret things sufficiently--far
from it--but only to recall them to memory,
whether we have forgot
aught, or whether for the purpose of not
forgetting. Many things, I well
know, have escaped us, through length of
time, that have dropped away
unwritten.... There are then some things of
which we have no
recollection; for the power that was in the
blessed men was great." A
frequent experience of those taught by the
Great Ones, for Their
presence stimulates and renders active
powers which are normally latent,
and which the pupil, unassisted, cannot
evoke. "There are also some
things which remained unnoted long, which
have now escaped; and others
which are effaced, having faded away in the
mind itself, since such a
task is not easy to those not experienced;
these I revive in my
commentaries. Some things I purposely omit,
in the exercise of a wise
selection, afraid to write what I guarded
against speaking; not
grudging--for that were wrong--but fearing
for my readers, lest they
should stumble by taking them in a wrong
sense; and, as the proverb
says, we should be found 'reaching a sword
to a child.' For it is
impossible that what has been written
should not escape [become known],
although remaining unpublished by me. But
being always revolved, using
the one only voice, that of writing, they
answer nothing to him that
makes enquiries beyond what is written; for
they require of necessity
the aid of some one, either of him who
wrote, or of some one else who
has walked in his footsteps. Some things my
treatise will hint; on some
it will linger; some it will merely
mention. It will try to speak
imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and to
demonstrate silently."[105]
This passage, if it stood alone, would
suffice to establish the
existence of a secret teaching in the Early
Church. But it stands by no
means alone. In Chapter xii. of this same
Book I., headed, "The
Mysteries of the Faith not to be divulged
to all," Clement declares
that, since others than the wise may see
his work, "it is requisite,
therefore, to hide in a Mystery the wisdom
spoken, which the Son of God
taught." Purified tongue of the
speaker, purified ears of the hearer,
these were necessary. "Such were the
impediments in the way of my
writing. And even now I fear, as it is
said, 'to cast the pearls before
swine, lest they tread them under foot and
turn and rend us.' For it is
difficult to exhibit the really pure and
transparent words respecting
the true light, to swinish and untrained
hearers. For scarcely could
anything which they could hear be more
ludicrous than these to the
multitude; nor any subjects on the other
hand more admirable or more
inspiring to those of noble nature. But the
wise do not utter with their
mouth what they reason in council. 'But
what ye hear in the ear,' said
the Lord, 'proclaim upon the houses';
bidding them receive the secret
traditions of the true knowledge, and
expound them aloft and
conspicuously; and as we have heard in the
ear, so to deliver them to
whom it is requisite; but not enjoining us
to communicate to all without
distinction, what is said to them in
parables. But there is only a
delineation in the memoranda, which have
the truth sown sparse and
broadcast, that it may escape the notice of
those who pick up seeds like
jackdaws; but when they find a good
husbandman, each one of them will
germinate and will produce corn."
Clement might have added that to
"proclaim upon the houses" was to
proclaim or expound in the assembly of the
Perfect, the Initiated, and
by no means to shout aloud to the man in
the street.
Again he says that those who are
"still blind and dumb, not having
understanding, or the undazzled and keen
vision of the contemplative
soul ... must stand outside of the divine
choir.... Wherefore, in
accordance with the method of concealment,
the truly sacred Word, truly
divine and most necessary for us, deposited
in the shrine of truth, was
by the Egyptians indicated by what were
called among them _adyta_, and
by the Hebrews by the veil. Only the
consecrated ... were allowed access
to them. For Plato also thought it not
lawful for 'the impure to touch
the pure.' Thence the prophecies and
oracles are spoken in enigmas, and
the Mysteries are not exhibited
incontinently to all and sundry, but
only after certain purifications and
previous instructions."[106] He
then descants at great length on Symbols,
expounding Pythagorean,
Hebrew, Egyptian,[107] and then remarks
that the ignorant and unlearned
man fails in understanding them. "But
the Gnostic apprehends. Now then
it is not wished that all things should be
exposed indiscriminately to
all and sundry, or the benefits of wisdom
communicated to those who have
not even in a dream been purified in soul
(for it is not allowed to hand
to every chance comer what has been
procured with such laborious
efforts); nor are the Mysteries of the Word
to be expounded to the
profane." The Pythagoreans and Plato,
Zeno, and Aristotle had exoteric
and esoteric teachings. The philosophers
established the Mysteries, for
"was it not more beneficial for the
holy and blessed contemplation of
realities to be concealed?"[108] The
Apostles also approved of "veiling
the Mysteries of the Faith," "for
there is an instruction to the
perfect," alluded to in Colossians i.
9-11 and 25-27. "So that, on the
one hand, then, there are the Mysteries
which were hid till the time of
the Apostles, and were delivered by them as
they received from the Lord,
and, concealed in the Old Testament, were
manifested to the saints. And,
on the other hand, there is 'the riches of
the glory of the mystery in
the Gentiles,' which is faith and hope in
Christ; which in another place
he has called the 'foundation.'" He quotes
S. Paul to show that this
"knowledge belongs not to all,"
and says, referring to Heb. v. and vi.,
that "there were certainly among the
Hebrews, some things delivered
unwritten;" and then refers to S.
Barnabas, who speaks of God, "who has
put into our hearts wisdom and the
understanding of His secrets," and
says that "it is but for few to
comprehend these things," as showing a
"trace of Gnostic tradition."
"Wherefore instruction, which reveals
hidden things, is called illumination, as
it is the teacher only who
uncovers the lid of the ark."[109]
Further referring to S. Paul, he
comments on his remark to the Romans that
he will "come in the fulness
of the blessing of Christ,"[110] and
says that he thus designates "the
spiritual gift and the Gnostic
interpretation, while being present he
desires to impart to them present as 'the
fulness of Christ, according
to the revelation of the Mystery sealed in
the ages of eternity, but now
manifested by the prophetic Scriptures'[111]....
But only to a few of
them is shown what those things are which
are contained in the Mystery.
Rightly, then, Plato, in the epistles,
treating of God, says: 'We must
speak in enigmas; that should the tablet
come by any mischance on its
leaves either by sea or land, he who reads
may remain ignorant.'"[112]
After much examination of Greek writers,
and an investigation into
philosophy, S. Clement declares that the
Gnosis "imparted and revealed
by the Son of God, is wisdom.... And the
Gnosis itself is that which has
descended by transmission to a few, having
been imparted unwritten by
the Apostles."[113] A very long
exposition of the life of the Gnostic,
the Initiate, is given, and S. Clement
concludes it by saying: "Let the
specimen suffice to those who have ears.
For it is not required to
unfold the mystery, but only to indicate
what is sufficient for those
who are partakers in knowledge to bring it
to mind."[114]
Regarding Scripture as consisting of
allegories and symbols, and as
hiding the sense in order to stimulate
enquiry and to preserve the
ignorant from danger.[115] S. Clement
naturally confined the higher
instruction to the learned. "Our
Gnostic will be deeply learned,"[116]
he says. "Now the Gnostic must be
erudite."[117] Those who had acquired
readiness by previous training could master
the deeper knowledge, for
though "a man can be a believer
without learning, so also we assert that
it is impossible for a man without learning
to comprehend the things
which are declared in the faith."[118]
"Some who think themselves
naturally gifted, do not wish to touch
either philosophy or logic; nay
more, they do not wish to learn natural
science. They demand bare faith
alone.... So also I call him truly learned
who brings everything to bear
on the truth--so that, from geometry, and
music, and grammar, and
philosophy itself, culling what is useful,
he guards the faith against
assault.... How necessary is it for him who
desires to be partaker of
the power of God, to treat of intellectual
subjects by
philosophising."[119] "The
Gnostic avails himself of branches of
learning as auxiliary preparatory
exercises."[120] So far was S.
Clement from thinking that the teaching of
Christianity should be
measured by the ignorance of the unlearned.
"He who is conversant with
all kinds of wisdom will be pre-eminently a
Gnostic."[121] Thus while he
welcomed the ignorant and the sinner, and
found in the Gospel what was
suited to their needs, he considered that
only the learned and the pure
were fit candidates for the Mysteries.
"The Apostle, in
contradistinction to Gnostic perfection,
calls the common faith _the
foundation_, and sometimes
_milk_,"[122] but on that foundation the
edifice of the Gnosis was to be raised, and
the food of men was to
succeed that of babes. There is nothing of
harshness nor of contempt in
the distinction he draws, but only a calm
and wise recognition of the
facts.
Even the well-prepared candidate, the
learned and trained pupil, could
only hope to advance step by step in the
profound truths unveiled in the
Mysteries. This appears clearly in his
comments on the vision of
Hermas, in which he also throws out some
hints on methods of reading
occult works. "Did not the Power also,
that appeared to Hermas in the
Vision, in the form of the Church, give for
transcription the book which
she wished to be made known to the elect?
And this, he says, he
transcribed to the letter, without finding
how to complete the
syllables. And this signified that the
Scripture is clear to all, when
taken according to base reading; and that
this is the faith which
occupies the place of the rudiments.
Wherefore also the figurative
expression is employed, 'reading according
to the letter,' while we
understand that the gnostic unfolding of
Scriptures, when faith has
already reached an advanced state, is
likened to reading according to
the syllables.... Now that the Saviour has
taught the Apostles the
unwritten rendering of the written
(scriptures) has been handed down
also to us, inscribed by the power of God
on hearts new, according to
the renovation of the book. Thus those of
highest repute among the
Greeks dedicate the fruit of the
pomegranate to Hermes, who they say is
speech, on account of its interpretation.
For speech conceals much....
That it is therefore not only to those who
read simply that the
acquisition of the truth is so difficult,
but that not even to those
whose prerogative the knowledge of the
truth is, is the contemplation of
it vouchsafed all at once, the history of
Moses teaches; until
accustomed to gaze, as the Hebrews on the
glory of Moses, and the
prophets of Israel on the visions of
angels, so we also become able to
look the splendours of truth in the
face."[123]
Yet more references might be given, but
these should suffice to
establish the fact that S. Clement knew of,
had been initiated into, and
wrote for the benefit of those who had also
been initiated into, the
Mysteries in the Church.
The next witness is his pupil Origen, that
most shining light of
learning, courage, sanctity, devotion,
meekness, and zeal, whose works
remain as mines of gold wherein the student
may dig for the treasures of
wisdom.
In his famous controversy with Celsus
attacks were made on Christianity
which drew out a defence of the Christian
position in which frequent
references were made to the secret
teachings.[124]
Celsus had alleged, as a matter of attack,
that Christianity was a
secret system, and Origen traverses this by
saying that while certain
doctrines were secret, many others were
public, and that this system of
exoteric and esoteric teachings, adopted in
Christianity, was also in
general use among philosophers. The reader
should note, in the following
passage, the distinction drawn between the
resurrection of Jesus,
regarded in a historical light, and the
"mystery of the resurrection."
"Moreover, since he [Celsus]
frequently calls the Christian doctrine a
secret system [of belief], we must confute
him on this point also, since
almost the entire world is better acquainted
with what Christians preach
than with the favourite opinions of
philosophers. For who is ignorant
of the statement that Jesus was born of a
virgin, and that He was
crucified, and that His resurrection is an
article of faith among many,
and that a general judgment is announced to
come, in which the wicked
are to be punished according to their
deserts, and the righteous to be
duly rewarded? And yet the Mystery of the
resurrection, not being
understood, is made a subject of ridicule
among unbelievers. In these
circumstances, to speak of the Christian
doctrine as a _secret_ system,
is altogether absurd. But that there should
be certain doctrines, not
made known to the multitude, which are
[revealed] after the exoteric
ones have been taught, is not a peculiarity
of Christianity alone, but
also of philosophic systems, in which
certain truths are exoteric and
others esoteric. Some of the hearers of
Pythagoras were content with his
_ipse dixit_; while others were taught in
secret those doctrines which
were not deemed fit to be communicated to
profane and insufficiently
prepared ears. Moreover, all the Mysteries
that are celebrated
everywhere throughout Greece and barbarous
countries, although held in
secret, have no discredit thrown upon them,
so that it is in vain he
endeavours to calumniate the secret
doctrines of Christianity, seeing
that he does not correctly understand its
nature."[125]
It is impossible to deny that, in this
important passage, Origen
distinctly places the Christian Mysteries
in the same category as those
of the Pagan world, and claims that what is
not regarded as a discredit
to other religions should not form a
subject of attack when found in
Christianity.
Still writing against Celsus, he declares
that the secret teachings of
Jesus were preserved in the Church, and
refers specifically to the
explanations that He gave to His disciples
of His parables, in answering
Celsus' comparison of "the inner
Mysteries of the Church of God" with
the Egyptian worship of animals. "I
have not yet spoken of the
observance of all that is written in the
Gospels, each one of which
contains much doctrine difficult to be
understood, not merely by the
multitude, but even by certain of the more
intelligent, including a
very profound explanation of the parables
which Jesus delivered to
'those without,' while reserving the
exhibition of their full meaning
for those who had passed beyond the stage
of exoteric teaching, and who
came to Him privately in the house. And
when he comes to understand it,
he will admire the reason why some are said
to be 'without,' and others
'in the house.'"[126]
And he refers guardedly to the
"mountain" which Jesus ascended, from
which he came down again to help
"those who were unable to follow Him
whither His disciples went." The
allusion is to "the Mountain of
Initiation," a well-known mystical
phrase, as Moses also made the
Tabernacle after the pattern "showed
thee in the mount."[127] Origen
refers to it again later, saying that Jesus
showed himself to be very
different in his real appearance when on
the "Mountain," from what those
saw who could not "follow Him on
high."[128]
So also, in his commentary on the Gospel of
Matthew, Chap, xv., dealing
with the episode of the Syro-Phoenician
woman, Origen remarks: "And
perhaps, also, of the words of Jesus there
are some loaves which it is
possible to give to the more rational, as
to children, only; and others
as it were crumbs from the great house and
table of the well-born, which
may be used by some souls like dogs."
Celsus complaining that sinners were
brought into the Church, Origen
answers that the Church had medicine for
those that were sick, but also
the study and the knowledge of divine
things for those who were in
health. Sinners were taught not to sin, and
only when it was seen that
progress had been made, and men were
"purified by the Word," "then and
not before do we invite them to
participation in our Mysteries. For we
speak wisdom among them that are
perfect."[129] Sinners came to be
healed: "For there are in the divinity
of the Word some helps towards
the cure of those who are sick.... Others,
again, which to the pure in
soul and body exhibit the 'revelation of
the Mystery, which was kept
secret since the world began, but now is
made manifest by the Scriptures
of the prophets,' and 'by the appearing of
our Lord Jesus Christ,' which
'appearing' is manifested to each one of
those who are perfect, and
which enlightens the reason in the true
knowledge of things."[130] Such
appearances of divine Beings took place, we
have seen, in the Pagan
Mysteries, and those of the Church had
equally glorious visitants. "God
the Word," he says, "was sent as
a physician to sinners, but as a
Teacher of Divine Mysteries to those who
are already pure, and who sin
no more."[131] "Wisdom will not
enter into the soul of a base man, nor
dwell in a body that is involved in
sin;" hence these higher teachings
are given only to those who are
"athletes in piety and in every virtue."
Christians did not admit the impure to this
knowledge, but said:
"Whoever has clean hands, and,
therefore, lifts up holy hands to God ...
let him come to us ... whoever is pure not
only from all defilement,
but from what are regarded as lesser
transgressions, let him be boldly
initiated in the Mysteries of Jesus, which
properly are made known only
to the holy and the pure." Hence also,
ere the ceremony of Initiation
began, he who acts as Initiator, according
to the precepts of Jesus, the
Hierophant, made the significant
proclamation "to those who have been
purified in heart: He, whose soul has, for
a long time, been conscious
of no evil, especially since he yielded
himself to the healing of the
Word, let such a one hear the doctrines
which were spoken in private by
Jesus to His genuine disciples." This
was the opening of the "initiating
those who were already purified into the
sacred Mysteries."[132] Such
only might learn the realities of the
unseen worlds, and might enter
into the sacred precincts where, as of old,
angels were the teachers,
and where knowledge was given by sight and
not only by words. It is
impossible not to be struck with the
different tone of these Christians
from that of their modern successors. With
them perfect purity of life,
the practice of virtue, the fulfilling of
the divine Law in every detail
of outer conduct, the perfection of
righteousness, were--as with the
Pagans--only the beginning of the way
instead of the end. Nowadays
religion is considered to have gloriously
accomplished its object when
it has made the Saint; then, it was to the
Saints that it devoted its
highest energies, and, taking the pure in
heart, it led them to the
Beatific Vision.
The same fact of secret teaching comes out
again, when Origen is
discussing the arguments of Celsus as to
the wisdom of retaining
ancestral customs, based on the belief that
"the various quarters of the
earth were from the beginning allotted to
different superintending
Spirits, and were thus distributed among
certain governing Powers, and
in this way the administration of the world
is carried on."[133]
Origen having animadverted on the
deductions of Celsus, proceeds: "But
as we think it likely that some of those
who are accustomed to deeper
investigation will fall in with this
treatise, let us venture to lay
down some considerations of a profounder
kind, conveying a mystical and
secret view respecting the original
distribution of the various quarters
of the earth among different superintending
Spirits."[134] He says that
Celsus has misunderstood the deeper reasons
relating to the arrangement
of terrestrial affairs, some of which are
even touched upon in Grecian
history. Then he quotes Deut. xxxii. 8-9:
"When the Most High divided
the nations, when he dispersed the sons of Adam,
He set the bounds of
the people according to the number of the
Angels of God; and the Lord's
portion was his people Jacob, and Israel
the cord of his inheritance."
This is the wording of the Septuagint, not
that of the English
authorised version, but it is very
suggestive of the title the "Lord"
being regarded as that of the Ruling Angel
of the Jews only, and not of
the "Most High," _i.e._ God. This
view has disappeared, from ignorance,
and hence the impropriety of many of the
statements referring to the
"Lord," when they are transferred
to the "Most High," _e.g._ Judges i.
19.
Origen then relates the history of the
Tower of Babel, and continues:
"But on these subjects much, and that
of a mystical kind, might be said;
in keeping with which is the following: 'It
is good to keep close the
secret of a king,' Tobit xii. 7, in order
that the doctrine of the
entrance of souls into bodies (not,
however, that of the transmigration
from one body into another) may not be
thrown before the common
understanding, nor what is holy given to
the dogs, nor pearls be cast
before swine. For such a procedure would be
impious, being equivalent to
a betrayal of the mysterious declarations
of God's wisdom.... It is
sufficient, however, to represent in the
style of a historic narrative
what is intended to convey a secret meaning
in the garb of history, that
those who have the capacity may work out
for themselves all that relates
to the subject."[135] He then expounds
more fully the Tower of Babel
story, and writes: "Now, in the next
place, if any one has the capacity
let him understand that in what assumes the
form of history, and which
contains some things that are literally
true, while yet it conveys a
deeper meaning...."[136]
After endeavouring to show that the "Lord"
was more powerful than the
other superintending Spirits of the
different quarters of the earth, and
that he sent his people forth to be
punished by living under the
dominion of the other powers, and
afterwards reclaimed them with all of
the less favoured nations who could be
drawn in, Origen concludes by
saying: "As we have previously
observed, these remarks are to be
understood as being made by us with a
concealed meaning, by way of
pointing out the mistakes of those who
assert ..."[137] as did Celsus.
After remarking that "the object of
Christianity is that we should
become wise,"[138] Origen proceeds:
"If you come to the books written
after the time of Jesus, you will find that
those multitudes of
believers who hear the parables are, as it
were, 'without,' and worthy
only of exoteric doctrines, while the
disciples learn in private the
explanation of the parables. For,
privately, to His own disciples did
Jesus open up all things, esteeming above
the multitudes those who
desired to know His wisdom. And He promises
to those who believe on Him
to send them wise men and scribes.... And
Paul also in the catalogue of
'Charismata' bestowed by God, placed first
'the Word of wisdom,' and
second, as being inferior to it, 'the word
of knowledge,' but third, and
lower down, 'faith.' And because he
regarded 'the Word' as higher than
miraculous powers, he for that reason
places 'workings of miracles' and
'gifts of healings' in a lower place than
gifts of the Word."[139]
The Gospel truly helped the ignorant,
"but it is no hindrance to the
knowledge of God, but an assistance, to
have been educated, and to have
studied the best opinions, and to be
wise."[140] As for the
unintelligent, "I endeavour to improve
such also to the best of my
ability, although I would not desire to
build up the Christian community
out of such materials. For I seek in
preference those who are more
clever and acute, because they are able to
comprehend the meaning of the
hard sayings."[141] Here we have
plainly stated the ancient Christian
idea, entirely at one with the
considerations submitted in Chapter I. of
this book. There is room for the ignorant
in Christianity, but it is not
intended _only_ for them, and has deep
teachings for the "clever and
acute."
It is for these that he takes much pains to
show that the Jewish and
Christian Scriptures have hidden meanings,
veiled under stories the
outer meaning of which repels them as
absurd, alluding to the serpent
and the tree of life, and "the other
statements which follow, which
might of themselves lead a candid reader to
see that all these things
had, not inappropriately, an allegorical
meaning."[142] Many chapters
are devoted to these allegorical and
mystical meanings, hidden beneath
the words of the Old and New Testaments,
and he alleges that Moses, like
the Egyptians, gave histories with
concealed meanings.[143] "He who
deals candidly with histories"--this
is Origen's general canon of
interpretation--"and would wish to
keep himself also from being imposed
on by them, will exercise his judgment as
to what statements he will
give his assent to, and what he will accept
figuratively, seeking to
discover the meaning of the authors of such
inventions, and from what
statements he will withhold his beliefs, as
having been written for the
gratification of certain individuals. And
we have said this by way of
anticipation respecting the whole history
related in the Gospels
concerning Jesus."[144] A great part
of his Fourth Book is taken up with
illustrations of the mystical explanations
of the Scripture stories, and
anyone who wishes to pursue the subject can
read through it.
In the _De Principiis_, Origen gives it as
the received teaching of the
Church "that the Scriptures were
written by the Spirit of God, and have
a meaning, not only such as is apparent at
first sight, but also
another, which escapes the notice of most.
For those [words] which are
written are the forms of certain Mysteries,
and the images of divine
things. Respecting which there is one
opinion throughout the whole
Church, that the whole law is indeed
spiritual; but that the spiritual
meaning which the law conveys is not known
to all, but to those only on
whom the grace of the Holy Spirit is
bestowed in the word of wisdom and
knowledge."[145] Those who remember
what has already been quoted will
see in the "Word of wisdom" and
"the word of knowledge" the two typical
mystical instructions, the spiritual and
the intellectual.
In the Fourth Book of _De Principiis_,
Origen explains at length his
views on the interpretation of Scripture.
It has a "body," which is the
"common and historical sense"; a
"soul," a figurative meaning to be
discovered by the exercise of the
intellect; and a "spirit," an inner
and divine sense, to be known only by those
who have "the mind of
Christ." He considers that incongruous
and impossible things are
introduced into the history to arouse an
intelligent reader, and compel
him to search for a deeper explanation,
while simple people would read
on without appreciating the difficulties.[146]
Cardinal Newman, in his _Arians of the
Fourth Century_, has some
interesting remarks on the _Disciplina
Arcani_, but, with the
deeply-rooted ingrained scepticism of the
nineteenth century, he cannot
believe to the full in the "riches of
the glory of the Mystery," or
probably never for a moment conceived the
possibility of the existence
of such splendid realities. Yet he was a
believer in Jesus, and the
words of the promise of Jesus were clear
and definite: "I will not leave
you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a
little while, and the world
seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I
live, ye shall live also. At
that day ye shall know that I am in my
Father, and ye in me, and I in
you."[147] The promise was amply
redeemed, for He came to them and
taught them in His Mysteries; therein they
saw Him, though the world saw
Him no more, and they knew the Christ as in
them, and their life as
Christ's.
Cardinal Newman recognises a secret
tradition, handed down from the
Apostles, but he considers that it
consisted of Christian doctrines,
later divulged, forgetting that those who
were told that they were not
yet fit to receive it were not heathen, nor
even catechumens under
instruction, but full communicating members
of the Christian Church.
Thus he states that this secret tradition
was later "authoritatively
divulged and perpetuated in the form of
symbols," and was embodied "in
the creeds of the early
Councils."[148] But as the doctrines in the
creeds are to be found clearly stated in
the Gospels and Epistles, this
position is wholly untenable, all these
having been already divulged to
the world at large; and in all of them the
members of the Church were
certainly thoroughly instructed. The
repeated statements as to secrecy
become meaningless if thus explained. The
Cardinal, however, says that
whatever "has not been thus
authenticated, whether it was prophetical
information or comment on the past
dispensations, is, from the
circumstances of the case, lost to the
Church."[149] That is very
probably, in fact certainly, true, so far
as the Church is concerned,
but it is none the less recoverable.
Commenting on Irenaeus, who in his work
_Against Heresies_ lays much
stress on the existence of an Apostolic
Tradition in the Church, the
Cardinal writes: "He then proceeds to
speak of the clearness and cogency
of the traditions preserved in the Church,
as containing that true
wisdom of the perfect, of which S. Paul
speaks, and to which the
Gnostics pretended. And, indeed, without
formal proofs of the existence
and the authority in primitive times of an
Apostolic Tradition, it is
plain that there must have been such a
tradition, granting that the
Apostles conversed, and their friends had
memories, like other men. It
is quite inconceivable that they should not
have been led to arrange
the series of revealed doctrines more
systematically than they record
them in Scripture, as soon as their
converts became exposed to the
attacks and misrepresentations of heretics;
unless they were forbidden
to do so, a supposition which cannot be
maintained. Their statements
thus occasioned would be preserved as a
matter of course; together with
those other secret but less important
truths, to which S. Paul seems to
allude, and which the early writers more or
less acknowledge, whether
concerning the types of the Jewish Church,
or the prospective fortunes
of the Christian. And such recollections of
apostolical teaching would
evidently be binding on the faith of those
who were instructed in them;
unless it can be supposed that, though
coming from inspired teachers,
they were not of divine origin."[150]
In a part of the section dealing
with the allegorising method, he writes in
reference to the sacrifice of
Isaac, &c., as "typical of the New
Testament revelation": "In
corroboration of this remark, let it be
observed, that there seems to
have been[151] in the Church a traditionary
explanation of these
historical types, derived from the
Apostles, but kept among the secret
doctrines, as being dangerous to the
majority of hearers; and certainly
S. Paul, in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
affords us an instance of such a
tradition, both as existing and as secret
(even though it be shown to be
of Jewish origin), when, first checking
himself and questioning his
brethren's faith, he communicates, not
without hesitation, the
evangelical scope of the account of
Melchisedec, as introduced into the
book of Genesis."[152]
The social and political convulsions that
accompanied its dying now
began to torture the vast frame of the
Roman Empire, and even the
Christians were caught up in the whirlpool
of selfish warring interests.
We still find scattered references to
special knowledge imparted to the
leaders and teachers of the Church,
knowledge of the heavenly
hierarchies, instructions given by angels,
and so on. But the lack of
suitable pupils caused the Mysteries to be
withdrawn as an institution
publicly known to exist, and teaching was
given more and more secretly
to those rarer and rarer souls, who by
learning, purity, and devotion
showed themselves capable of receiving it.
No longer were schools to be
found wherein the preliminary teachings
were given, and with the
disappearance of these the "door was shut."
Two streams may nevertheless be tracked
through Christendom, streams
which had as their source the vanished
Mysteries. One was the stream of
mystic learning, flowing from the Wisdom,
the Gnosis, imparted in the
Mysteries; the other was the stream of
mystic contemplation, equally
part of the Gnosis, leading to the exstasy,
to spiritual vision. This
latter, however, divorced from knowledge,
rarely attained the true
exstasis, and tended either to run riot in
the lower regions of the
invisible worlds, or to lose itself amid a
variegated crowd of subtle
superphysical forms, visible as objective
appearances to the inner
vision--prematurely forced by fastings,
vigils, and strained
attention--but mostly born of the thoughts
and emotions of the seer.
Even when the forms observed were not
externalised thoughts, they were
seen through a distorting atmosphere of
preconceived ideas and beliefs,
and were thus rendered largely unreliable.
None the less, some of the
visions were verily of heavenly things, and
Jesus truly appeared from
time to time to His devoted lovers, and
angels would sometimes brighten
with their presence the cell of monk and
nun, the solitude of rapt
devotee and patient seeker after God. To
deny the possibility of such
experiences would be to strike at the very
root of that "which has been
most surely believed" in all
religions, and is known to all
Occultists--the intercommunication between
Spirits veiled in flesh and
those clad in subtler vestures, the
touching of mind with mind across
the barriers of matter, the unfolding of
the Divinity in man, the sure
knowledge of a life beyond the gates of
death.
Glancing down the centuries we find no time
in which Christendom was
left wholly devoid of mysteries. "It
was probably about the end of the
5th century, just as ancient philosophy was
dying out in the Schools of
Athens, that the speculative philosophy of
neo-Platonism made a definite
lodgment in Christian thought through the
literary forgeries of the
Pseudo-Dionysius. The doctrines of
Christianity were by that time so
firmly established that the Church could
look upon a symbolical or
mystical interpretation of them without
anxiety. The author of the
_Theologica Mystica_ and the other works
ascribed to the Areopagite
proceeds, therefore, to develop the
doctrines of Proclus with very
little modification into a system of
esoteric Christianity. God is the
nameless and supra-essential One, elevated
above goodness itself. Hence
'negative theology,' which ascends from the
creature to God by dropping
one after another every determinate
predicate, leads us nearest to the
truth. The return to God is the
consummation of all things and the goal
indicated by Christian teaching. The same
doctrines were preached with
more of churchly fervour by Maximus the
Confessor (580-622). Maximus
represents almost the last speculative
activity of the Greek Church, but
the influence of the Pseudo-Dionysian
writing was transmitted to the
West in the ninth century by Erigena, in
whose speculative spirit both
the scholasticism and the mysticism of the
Middle Ages have their rise.
Erigena translated Dionysius into Latin
along with the commentaries of
Maximus, and his system is essentially
based upon theirs. The negative
theology is adopted, and God is stated to
be predicateless Being, above
all categories, and therefore not
improperly called Nothing [_query_,
No-Thing]. Out of this Nothing or
incomprehensible essence the world of
ideas or primordial causes is eternally
created. This is the Word or Son
of God, in whom all things exist, so far as
they have substantial
existence. All existence is a theophany,
and as God is the beginning of
all things, so also is He the end. Erigena
teaches the restitution of
all things under the form of the Dionysian
_adunatio_ or _deificatio_.
These are the permanent outlines of what
may be called the philosophy
of mysticism in Christian times, and it is
remarkable with how little
variation they are repeated from age to
age."[153]
In the eleventh century Bernard of
Clairvaux (A.D. 1091-1153) and Hugo
of S. Victor carry on the mystic tradition,
with Richard of S. Victor in
the following century, and S. Bonaventura
the Seraphic Doctor, and the
great S. Thomas Aquinas (A.D. 1227-1274) in
the thirteenth. Thomas
Aquinas dominates the Europe of the Middle
Ages, by his force of
character no less than by his learning and
piety. He asserts
"Revelation" as one source of
knowledge, Scripture and tradition being
the two channels in which it runs, and the
influence, seen in his
writings, of the Pseudo-Dionysius links him
to the Neo-Platonists. The
second source is Reason, and here the
channels are the Platonic
philosophy and the methods of
Aristotle--the latter an alliance that did
Christianity no good, for Aristotle became
an obstacle to the advance of
the higher thought, as was made manifest in
the struggles of Giordano
Bruno, the Pythagorean. Thomas Aquinas was
canonised in A.D. 1323, and
the great Dominican remains as a type of
the union of theology and
philosophy--the aim of his life. These
belong to the great Church of
western Europe, vindicating her claim to be
regarded as the transmitter
of the holy torch of mystic learning.
Around her there also sprang up
many sects, deemed heretical, yet
containing true traditions of the
sacred secret learning, the Cathari and
many others, persecuted by a
Church jealous of her authority, and
fearing lest the holy pearls should
pass into profane custody. In this century
also S. Elizabeth of Hungary
shines out with sweetness and purity, while
Eckhart (A.D. 1260-1329)
proves himself a worthy inheritor of the
Alexandrian Schools. Eckhart
taught that "The Godhead is the
absolute Essence (Wesen), unknowable not
only by man but also by Itself; It is
darkness and absolute
indeterminateness, _Nicht_ in contrast to
_Icht_, or definite and
knowable existence. Yet It is the
potentiality of all things, and Its
nature is, in a triadic process, to come to
consciousness of Itself as
the triune God. Creation is not a temporal
act, but an eternal
necessity, of the divine nature. I am as
necessary to God, Eckhart is
fond of saying, as God is necessary to me.
In my knowledge and love God
knows and loves Himself."[154]
Eckhart is followed, in the fourteenth
century, by John Tauler, and
Nicolas of Basel, "the Friend of God
in the Oberland." From these sprang
up the Society of the Friends of God, true
mystics and followers of the
old tradition. Mead remarks that Thomas
Aquinas, Tauler, and Eckhart
followed the Pseudo-Dionysius, who followed
Plotinus, Iamblichus, and
Proclus, who in turn followed Plato and
Pythagoras.[155] So linked
together are the followers of the Wisdom in
all ages. It was probably a
"Friend" who was the author of
_Die Deutsche Theologie_, a book of
mystical devotion, which had the curious
fortune of being approved by
Staupitz, the Vicar-General of the
Augustinian Order, who recommended it
to Luther, and by Luther himself, who
published it A.D. 1516, as a book
which should rank immediately after the
_Bible_ and the writings of S.
Augustine of Hippo. Another
"Friend" was Ruysbroeck, to whose influence
with Groot was due the founding of the
Brethren of the Common Lot or
Common Life--a Society that must remain
ever memorable, as it numbered
among its members that prince of mystics,
Thomas a Kempis (A.D.
1380-1471), the author of the immortal
_Imitation of Christ_.
In the fifteenth century the more purely
intellectual side of mysticism
comes out more strongly than the
exstatic--so dominant in these
societies of the fourteenth--and we have
Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa, with
Giordano Bruno, the martyred knight-errant
of philosophy, and
Paracelsus, the much slandered scientist,
who drew his knowledge
directly from the original eastern
fountain, instead of through Greek
channels.
The sixteenth century saw the birth of
Jacob Boehme (A.D. 1575-1624), the
"inspired cobbler," an Initiate
in obscuration truly, sorely persecuted
by unenlightened men; and then too came S.
Teresa, the much-oppressed
and suffering Spanish mystic; and S. John
of the Cross, a burning flame
of intense devotion; and S. Francois de
Sales. Wise was Rome in
canonising these, wiser than the
Reformation that persecuted Boehme, but
the spirit of the Reformation was ever
intensely anti-mystical, and
wherever its breath hath passed the fair
flowers of mysticism have
withered as under the sirocco.
Rome, however, who, though she canonised
Teresa dead, had sorely harried
her while living--did ill with Mme. de
Guyon (A.D. 1648-1717), a true
mystic, and with Miguel de Molinos
(1627-1696), worthy to sit near S.
John of the Cross, who carried on in the
seventeenth century the high
devotion of the mystic, turned into a
peculiarly passive form--the
Quietist.
In this same century arose the school of
Platonists in Cambridge, of
whom Henry More (A.D. 1614-1687) may serve
as salient example; also
Thomas Vaughan, and Robert Fludd the
Rosicrucian; and there is formed
also the Philadelphian Society, and we see
William Law (A.D. 1686-1761)
active in the eighteenth century, and
overlapping S. Martin (A.D.
1743-1803), whose writings have fascinated
so many nineteenth century
students.[156]
Nor should we omit Christian Rosenkreutz
(d. A.D. 1484), whose mystic
Society of the Rosy Cross, appearing in
1614, held true knowledge, and
whose spirit was reborn in the "Comte
de S. Germain," the mysterious
figure that appears and disappears through
the gloom, lit by lurid
flashes, of the closing eighteenth century.
Mystics too were some of the
Quakers, the much-persecuted sect of
Friends, seeking the illumination
of the Inner Light, and listening ever for
the Inner Voice. And many
another mystic was there, "of whom the
world was not worthy," like the
wholly delightful and wise Mother Juliana
of Norwich, of the fourteenth
century, jewels of Christendom, too little
known, but justifying
Christianity to the world.
Yet, as we salute reverently these Children
of the Light, scattered over
the centuries, we are forced to recognise
in them the absence of that
union of acute intellect and high devotion
which were welded together by
the training of the Mysteries, and while we
marvel that they soared so
high, we cannot but wish that their rare gifts
had been developed under
that magnificent _disciplina arcani_.
Alphonse Louis Constant, better known under
his pseudonym, Eliphas Levi,
has put rather well the loss of the
Mysteries, and the need for their
re-institution. "A great misfortune
befell Christianity. The betrayal of
the Mysteries by the false Gnostics--for
the Gnostics, that is, _those
who know_, were the Initiates of primitive
Christianity--caused the
Gnosis to be rejected, and alienated the
Church from the supreme truths
of the Kabbala, which contain all the
secrets of transcendental
theology.... Let the most absolute science,
let the highest reason,
become once more the patrimony of the
leaders of the people; let the
sacerdotal art and the royal art take the
double sceptre of antique
initiations, and the social world will once
more issue from its chaos.
Burn the holy images no longer; demolish
the temples no more; temples
and images are necessary for men; but drive
the hirelings from the house
of prayer; let the blind be no longer
leaders of the blind, reconstruct
the hierarchy of intelligence and holiness,
and recognise only those who
know as the teachers of those who
believe."[157]
Will the Churches of to-day again take up
the mystic teaching, the
Lesser Mysteries, and so prepare their
children for the re-establishment
of the Greater Mysteries, again drawing
down the Angels as Teachers, and
having as Hierophant the Divine Master,
Jesus? On the answer to that
question depends the future of Christianity.
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER IV.
THE HISTORICAL CHRIST.
We have already spoken, in the first
chapter, on the identities existing
in all the religions of the world, and we
have seen that out of a study
of these identities in beliefs, symbolisms,
rites, ceremonies,
histories, and commemorative festivals, has
arisen a modern school which
relates the whole of these to a common
source in human ignorance, and in
a primitive explanation of natural
phenomena. From these identities have
been drawn weapons for the stabbing of each
religion in turn, and the
most effective attacks on Christianity and
on the historical existence
of its Founder have been armed from this
source. On entering now on the
study of the life of the Christ, of the
rites of Christianity, its
sacraments, its doctrines, it would be
fatal to ignore the facts
marshalled by Comparative Mythologists.
Rightly understood, they may be
made serviceable instead of mischievous. We
have seen that the Apostles
and their successors dealt very freely with
the Old Testament as having
an allegorical and mystic sense far more
important than the historical,
though by no means negating it, and that
they did not scruple to teach
the instructed believer that some of the
stories that were apparently
historical were really purely allegorical.
Nowhere, perhaps, is it more
necessary to understand this than when we
are studying the story of
Jesus, surnamed the Christ, for when we do
not disentangle the
intertwisted threads, and see where symbols
have been taken as events,
allegories as histories, we lose most of
the instructiveness of the
narrative and much of its rarest beauty. We
cannot too much insist on
the fact that Christianity gains, it does
not lose, when knowledge is
added to faith and virtue, according to the
apostolic injunction.[158]
Men fear that Christianity will be weakened
when reason studies it, and
that it is "dangerous" to admit
that events thought to be historical
have the deeper significance of the
mythical or mystical meaning. It is,
on the contrary, strengthened, and the
student finds, with joy, that the
pearl of great price shines with a purer,
clearer lustre when the
coating of ignorance is removed and its
many colours are seen.
There are two schools of thought at the
present time, bitterly opposed
to each other, who dispute over the story
of the great Hebrew Teacher.
According to one school there is nothing at
all in the accounts of His
life save myths and legends--myths and
legends that were given as
explanations of certain natural phenomena,
survivals of a pictorial way
of teaching certain facts of nature, of
impressing on the minds of the
uneducated certain grand classifications of
natural events that were
important in themselves, and that lent
themselves to moral instruction.
Those who endorse this view form a
well-defined school to which belong
many men of high education and strong
intelligence, and round them
gather crowds of the less instructed, who
emphasise with crude
vehemence the more destructive elements in
their pronouncements. This
school is opposed by that of the believers
in orthodox Christianity, who
declare that the whole story of Jesus is
history, unadulterated by
legend or myth. They maintain that this
history is nothing more than the
history of the life of a man born some
nineteen centuries ago in
Palestine, who passed through all the
experiences set down in the
Gospels, and they deny that the story has
any significance beyond that
of a divine and human life. These two
schools stand in direct
antagonism, one asserting that everything
is legend, the other declaring
that everything is history. Between them
lie many phases of opinion
generally labelled
"freethinking," which regard the life-story as partly
legendary and partly historical, but offer
no definite and rational
method of interpretation, no adequate
explanation of the complex whole.
And we also find, within the limits of the
Christian Church, a large and
ever-increasing number of faithful and
devout Christians of refined
intelligence, men and women who are earnest
in their faith and
religious in their aspirations, but who see
in the Gospel story more
than the history of a single divine Man.
They allege--defending their
position from the received Scriptures--that
the story of the Christ has
a deeper and more significant meaning than
lies on the surface; while
they maintain the historical character of
Jesus, they at the same time
declare that THE CHRIST is more than the
man Jesus, and has a mystical
meaning. In support of this contention they
point to such phrases as
that used by S. Paul: "My little
children, of whom I travail in birth
again again until Christ be formed in
you";[159] here S. Paul obviously
cannot refer to a historical Jesus, but to
some forthputting from the
human soul which is to him the shaping of
Christ therein. Again the same
teacher declares that though he had known
Christ after the flesh yet
from henceforth he would know him thus no
more;[160] obviously implying
that while he recognised the Christ of the
flesh--Jesus--there was a
higher view to which he had attained which
threw into the shade the
historical Christ. This is the view which
many are seeking in our own
days, and--faced by the facts of
Comparative Religion, puzzled by the
contradictions of the Gospels, confused by
problems they cannot solve so
long as they are tied down to the mere
surface meanings of their
Scripture--they cry despairingly that the
letter killeth while the
spirit giveth life, and seek to trace some
deep and wide significance in
a story which is as old as the religions of
the world, and has always
served as the very centre and life of every
religion in which it has
reappeared. These struggling thinkers, too
unrelated and indefinite to
be spoken of as forming a school, seem to
stretch out a hand on one side
to those who think that all is legend,
asking them to accept a
historical basis; on the other side they
say to their fellow Christians
that there is a growing danger lest, in
clinging to a literal and unique
meaning, which cannot be defended before
the increasing knowledge of the
day, the spiritual meaning should be entirely
lost. There is a danger of
losing "the story of the Christ,"
with that thought of the Christ which
has been the support and inspiration of
millions of noble lives in East
and West, though the Christ be called by
other names and worshipped
under other forms; a danger lest the pearl
of great price should escape
from our hold, and man be left the poorer
for evermore.
What is needed, in order that this danger
may be averted, is to
disentangle the different threads in the
story of the Christ, and to lay
them side by side--the thread of history,
the thread of legend, the
thread of mysticism. These have been
intertwined into a single strand,
to the great loss of the thoughtful, and in
disentangling them we shall
find that the story becomes more, not less,
valuable as knowledge is
added to it, and that here, as in all that
is basically of the truth,
the brighter the light thrown upon it the
greater the beauty that is
revealed.
We will study first the historical Christ;
secondly, the mythic Christ;
thirdly, the mystic Christ. And we shall
find that elements drawn from
all these make up the Jesus Christ of the
Churches. They all enter into
the composition of the grandiose and
pathetic Figure which dominates the
thoughts and the emotions of Christendom,
the Man of Sorrows, the
Saviour, the Lover and Lord of Men.
THE HISTORICAL CHRIST, OR JESUS THE HEALER
AND TEACHER.
The thread of the life-story of Jesus is
one which may be disentangled
from those with which it is intertwined
without any great difficulty. We
may fairly here aid our study by reference
to those records of the past
which experts can reverify for themselves,
and from which certain
details regarding the Hebrew Teacher have
been given to the world by H.
P. Blavatsky and by others who are experts
in occult investigation. Now
in the minds of many there is apt to arise
a challenge when this word
"expert" is used in connection
with occultism. Yet it only means a
person who by special study, by special
training, has accumulated a
special kind of knowledge, and has
developed powers that enable him to
give an opinion founded on his own
individual knowledge of the subject
with which he is dealing. Just as we speak
of Huxley as an expert in
biology, as we speak of a Senior Wrangler
as an expert in mathematics,
or of Lyell as an expert in geology, so we
may fairly call a man an
expert in occultism who has first mastered
intellectually certain
fundamental theories of the constitution of
man and the universe, and
secondly has developed within himself the
powers that are latent in
everyone--and are capable of being
developed by those who give
themselves to appropriate
studies--capacities which enable him to
examine for himself the more obscure
processes of nature. As a man may
be born with a mathematical faculty, and by
training that faculty year
after year may immensely increase his
mathematical capacity, so may a
man be born with certain faculties within
him, faculties belonging to
the Soul, which he can develop by training
and by discipline. When,
having developed those faculties, he
applies them to the study of the
invisible world, such a man becomes an
expert in Occult Science, and
such a man can at his will reverify the
records to which I have
referred. Such reverification is as much
out of the reach of the
ordinary person as a mathematical book
written in the symbols of the
higher mathematics is out of the reach of
those who are untrained in
mathematical science. There is nothing
exclusive in the knowledge save
as every science is exclusive; those who
are born with a faculty, and
train the faculty, can master its
appropriate science, while those who
start in life without any faculty, or those
who do not develop it if
they have it, must be content to remain in
ignorance. These are the
rules everywhere of the obtaining of
knowledge, in Occultism as in every
other science.
The occult records partly endorse the story
told in the Gospels, and
partly do not endorse it; they show us the
life, and thus enable us to
disentangle it from the myths which are
intertwined therewith.
The child whose Jewish name has been turned
into that of Jesus was born
in Palestine B.C. 105, during the consulate
of Publius Rutilius Rufus
and Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. His parents
were well-born though poor, and
he was educated in a knowledge of the
Hebrew Scriptures. His fervent
devotion and a gravity beyond his years led
his parents to dedicate him
to the religious and ascetic life, and soon
after a visit to Jerusalem,
in which the extraordinary intelligence and
eagerness for knowledge of
the youth were shown in his seeking of the
doctors in the Temple, he was
sent to be trained in an Essene community
in the southern Judaean desert.
When he had reached the age of nineteen he
went on to the Essene
monastery near Mount Serbal, a monastery
which was much visited by
learned men travelling from Persia and
India to Egypt, and where a
magnificent library of occult works--many
of them Indian of the
Trans-Himalayan regions--had been
established. From this seat of mystic
learning he proceeded later to Egypt. He
had been fully instructed in
the secret teachings which were the real
fount of life among the
Essenes, and was initiated in Egypt as a
disciple of that one sublime
Lodge from which every great religion has
its Founder. For Egypt has
remained one of the world-centres of the
true Mysteries, whereof all
semi-public Mysteries are the faint and
far-off reflections. The
Mysteries spoken of in history as Egyptian
were the shadows of the true
things "in the Mount," and there
the young Hebrew received the solemn
consecration which prepared him for the
Royal Priesthood he was later to
attain. So superhumanly pure and so full of
devotion was he, that in his
gracious manhood he stood out pre-eminently
from the severe and somewhat
fanatical ascetics among whom he had been
trained, shedding on the stern
Jews around him the fragrance of a gentle
and tender wisdom, as a
rose-tree strangely planted in a desert
would shed its sweetness on the
barrenness around. The fair and stately
grace of his white purity was
round him as a radiant moonlit halo, and
his words, though few, were
ever sweet and loving, winning even the
most harsh to a temporary
gentleness, and the most rigid to a passing
softness. Thus he lived
through nine-and-twenty years of mortal
life, growing from grace to
grace.
This superhuman purity and devotion fitted
the man Jesus, the disciple,
to become the temple of a loftier Power, of
a mighty, indwelling
Presence. The time had come for one of
those Divine manifestations which
from age to age are made for the helping of
humanity, when a new impulse
is needed to quicken the spiritual
evolution of mankind, when a new
civilisation is about to dawn. The world of
the West was then in the
womb of time, ready for the birth, and the
Teutonic sub-race was to
catch the sceptre of empire falling from
the failing hands of Rome. Ere
it started on its journey a World-Saviour
must appear, to stand in
blessing beside the cradle of the infant
Hercules.
A mighty "Son of God" was to take
flesh upon earth, a supreme Teacher,
"full of grace and truth"--[161]
One in whom the Divine Wisdom abode in
fullest measure, who was verily "the
Word" incarnate, Light and Life in
outpouring richness, a very Fountain of the
Waters of Life. Lord of
Compassion and of Wisdom--such was His
name--and from His dwelling in
the Secret Places He came forth into the
world of men.
For Him was needed an earthly tabernacle, a
human form, the body of a
man, and who so fit to yield his body in
glad and willing service to One
before whom Angels and men bow down in
lowliest reverence, as this
Hebrew of the Hebrews, this purest and
noblest of "the Perfect," whose
spotless body and stainless mind offered
the best that humanity could
bring? The man Jesus yielded himself a
willing sacrifice, "offered
himself without spot" to the Lord of
Love, who took unto Himself that
pure form as tabernacle, and dwelt therein
for three years of mortal
life.
This epoch is marked in the traditions
embodied in the Gospels as that
of the Baptism of Jesus, when the Spirit
was seen "descending from
heaven like a dove, and it abode upon
Him,"[162] and a celestial voice
proclaimed Him as the beloved Son, to whom
men should give ear. Truly
was He the beloved Son in whom the Father
was well-pleased,[163] and
from that time forward "Jesus began to
preach,"[164] and was that
wondrous mystery, "God manifest in the
flesh"[165]--not unique in that
He was God, for: "Is it not written in
your law, I said, Ye are Gods? If
he called them Gods, unto whom the word of
God came, and the scripture
cannot be broken; say ye of Him, whom the
Father hath sanctified and
sent into the world, Thou blasphemest;
because I said, I am the Son of
God?"[166] Truly all men are Gods, in
respect to the Spirit within them,
but not in all is the Godhead manifested,
as in that well-beloved Son of
the Most High.
To that manifested Presence the name of
"the Christ" may rightly be
given, and it was He who lived and moved in
the form of the man Jesus
over the hills and plains of Palestine,
teaching, healing diseases, and
gathering round Him as disciples a few of
the more advanced souls. The
rare charm of His royal love, outpouring from
Him as rays from a sun,
drew round Him the suffering, the weary,
and the oppressed, and the
subtly tender magic of His gentle wisdom
purified, ennobled, and
sweetened the lives that came into contact
with His own. By parable and
luminous imagery He taught the uninstructed
crowds who pressed around
Him, and, using the powers of the free
Spirit, He healed many a disease
by word or touch, reinforcing the magnetic
energies belonging to His
pure body with the compelling force of His
inner life. Rejected by His
Essene brethren among whom He first
laboured--whose arguments against
His purposed life of loving labour are
summarised in the story of the
temptation--because he carried to the
people the spiritual wisdom that
they regarded as their proudest and most secret
treasure, and because
His all-embracing love drew within its
circle the outcast and the
degraded--ever loving in the lowest as in
the highest the Divine
Self--He saw gathering round Him all too
quickly the dark clouds of
hatred and suspicion. The teachers and
rulers of His nation soon came to
eye Him with jealousy and anger; His
spirituality was a constant
reproach to their materialism, His power a
constant, though silent,
exposure of their weakness. Three years had
scarcely passed since His
baptism when the gathering storm outbroke,
and the human body of Jesus
paid the penalty for enshrining the
glorious Presence of a Teacher more
than man.
The little band of chosen disciples whom He
had selected as repositories
of His teachings were thus deprived of
their Master's physical presence
ere they had assimilated His instructions,
but they were souls of high
and advanced type, ready to learn the
Wisdom, and fit to hand it on to
lesser men. Most receptive of all was that
"disciple whom Jesus loved,"
young, eager, and fervid, profoundly
devoted to his Master, and sharing
His spirit of all-embracing love. He
represented, through the century
that followed the physical departure of the
Christ, the spirit of mystic
devotion that sought the exstasis, the
vision of and the union with the
Divine, while the later great Apostle, S.
Paul, represented the wisdom
side of the Mysteries.
The Master did not forget His promise to
come to them after the world
had lost sight of Him,[167] and for
something over fifty years He
visited them in His subtle spiritual body,
continuing the teachings He
had begun while with them, and training
them in a knowledge of occult
truths. They lived together, for the most
part, in a retired spot on the
outskirts of Judaea, attracting no
attention among the many apparently
similar communities of the time, studying
the profound truths He taught
them and acquiring "the gifts of the
Spirit."
These inner instructions, commenced during
His physical life among them
and carried on after He had left the body,
formed the basis of the
"Mysteries of Jesus," which we
have seen in early Church History, and
gave the inner life which was the nucleus
round which gathered the
heterogeneous materials which formed
ecclesiastical Christianity.
In the remarkable fragment called the
_Pistis Sophia_, we have a
document of the greatest interest bearing
on the hidden teaching,
written by the famous Valentinus. In this
it is said that during the
eleven years immediately after His death Jesus
instructed His disciples
so far as "the regions of the first
statutes only, and up to the regions
of the first mystery, the mystery within
the veil."[168] They had not so
far learned the distribution of the angelic
orders, of part whereof
Ignatius speaks.[169] Then Jesus, being
"in the Mount" with His
disciples, and having received His mystic
Vesture, the knowledge of all
the regions and the Words of Power which
unlocked them, taught His
disciples further, promising: "I will
perfect you in every perfection,
from the mysteries of the interior to the
mysteries of the exterior: I
will fill you with the Spirit, so that ye
shall be called spiritual,
perfect in all perfections."[170] And
He taught them of Sophia, the
Wisdom, and of her fall into matter in her
attempt to rise unto the
Highest, and of her cries to the Light in
which she had trusted, and of
the sending of Jesus to redeem her from
chaos, and of her crowning with
His light, and leading forth from bondage.
And He told them further of
the highest Mystery the ineffable, the
simplest and clearest of all,
though the highest, to be known by him
alone who utterly renounced the
world;[171] by that knowledge men became
Christs for such "men are
myself, and I am these men," for
Christ is that highest Mystery.[172]
Knowing that, men are "transformed
into pure light and are brought into
the light."[173] And He performed for
them the great ceremony of
Initiation, the baptism "which leadeth
to the region of truth and into
the region of light," and bade them
celebrate it for others who were
worthy: "But hide ye this mystery,
give it not unto every man, but unto
him [only] who shall do all things which I
have said unto you in my
commandments."[174]
Thereafter, being fully instructed, the
apostles went forth to preach,
ever aided by their Master.
Moreover these same disciples and their
earliest colleagues wrote down
from memory all the public sayings and
parables of the Master that they
had heard, and collected with great
eagerness any reports they could
find, writing down these also, and
circulating them all among those who
gradually attached themselves to their
small community. Various
collections were made, any member writing
down what he himself
remembered, and adding selections from the
accounts of others. The inner
teachings, given by the Christ to His
chosen ones, were not written
down, but were taught orally to those
deemed worthy to receive them, to
students who formed small communities for
leading a retired life, and
remained in touch with the central body.
The historical Christ, then, is a glorious
Being belonging to the great
spiritual hierarchy that guides the
spiritual evolution of humanity, who
used for some three years the human body of
the disciple Jesus; who
spent the last of these three years in
public teaching throughout Judaea
and Samaria; who was a healer of diseases
and performed other remarkable
occult works; who gathered round Him a
small band of disciples whom He
instructed in the deeper truths of the spiritual
life; who drew men to
Him by the singular love and tenderness and
the rich wisdom that
breathed from His Person; and who was
finally put to death for
blasphemy, for teaching the inherent
Divinity of Himself and of all men.
He came to give a new impulse of spiritual
life to the world; to
re-issue the inner teachings affecting
spiritual life; to mark out again
the narrow ancient way; to proclaim the
existence of the "Kingdom of
Heaven," of the Initiation which
admits to that knowledge of God which
is eternal life; and to admit a few to that
Kingdom who should be able
to teach others. Round this glorious Figure
gathered the myths which
united Him to the long array of His
predecessors, the myths telling in
allegory the story of all such lives, as
they symbolise the work of the
Logos in the Kosmos and the higher
evolution of the individual human
soul.
But it must not be supposed that the work
of the Christ for His
followers was over after He had established
the Mysteries, or was
confined to rare appearances therein. That
Mighty One who had used the
body of Jesus as His vehicle, and whose
guardian care extends over the
whole spiritual evolution of the fifth race
of humanity, gave into the
strong hands of the holy disciple who had
surrendered to Him his body
the care of the infant Church. Perfecting
his human evolution, Jesus
became one of the Masters of Wisdom, and
took Christianity under His
special charge, ever seeking to guide it to
the right lines, to protect,
to guard and nourish it. He was the
Hierophant in the Christian
Mysteries, the direct Teacher of the
Initiates. His the inspiration that
kept alight the Gnosis in the Church, until
the superincumbent mass of
ignorance became so great that even His
breath could not fan the flame
sufficiently to prevent its extinguishment.
His the patient labour which
strengthened soul after soul to endure
through the darkness, and cherish
within itself the spark of mystic longing,
the thirst to find the Hidden
God. His the steady inpouring of truth into
every brain ready to
receive it, so that hand stretched out to
hand across the centuries and
passed on the torch of knowledge, which
thus was never extinguished. His
the Form which stood beside the rack and in
the flames of the burning
pile, cheering His confessors and His
martyrs, soothing the anguish of
their pains, and filling their hearts with
His peace. His the impulse
which spoke in the thunder of Savonarola,
which guided the calm wisdom
of Erasmus, which inspired the deep ethics
of the God-intoxicated
Spinoza. His the energy which impelled
Roger Bacon, Galileo, and
Paracelsus in their searchings into nature.
His the beauty that allured
Fra Angelica and Raphael and Leonardo da
Vinci, that inspired the genius
of Michelangelo, that shone before the eyes
of Murillo, and that gave
the power that raised the marvels of the
world, the Duomo of Milan, the
San Marco of Venice, the Cathedral of
Florence. His the melody that
breathed in the masses of Mozart, the
sonatas of Beethoven, the
oratorios of Handel, the fugues of Bach,
the austere splendour of
Brahms. His the Presence that cheered the
solitary mystics, the hunted
occultists, the patient seekers after
truth. By persuasion and by
menace, by the eloquence of a S. Francis
and by the gibes of a Voltaire,
by the sweet submission of a Thomas a
Kempis, and the rough virility of
a Luther, He sought to instruct and awaken,
to win into holiness or to
scourge from evil. Through the long
centuries He has striven and
laboured, and, with all the mighty burden
of the Churches to carry, He
has never left uncared for or unsolaced one
human heart that cried to
Him for help. And now He is striving to
turn to the benefit of
Christendom part of the great flood of the
Wisdom poured out for the
refreshing of the world, and He is seeking
through the Churches for some
who have ears to hear the Wisdom, and who
will answer to His appeal for
messengers to carry it to His flock:
"Here am I; send me."
-------Cardiff Theosophical
Society in Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-DL
CHAPTER V.
THE MYTHIC CHRIST.
We have already seen the use that is made
of Comparative Mythology
against Religion, and some of its most
destructive attacks have been
levelled against the Christ. His birth of a
Virgin at "Christmas," the
slaughter of the Innocents, His
wonder-working and His teachings, His
crucifixion, resurrection, and
ascension--all these events in the story
of His life are pointed to in the stories of
other lives, and His
historical existence is challenged on the
strength of these identities.
So far as the wonder-working and the
teachings are concerned, we may
briefly dismiss these first with the
acknowledgment that most great
Teachers have wrought works which, on the
physical plane, appear as
miracles in the sight of their
contemporaries, but are known by
occultists to be done by the exercise of
powers possessed by all
Initiates above a certain grade. The
teachings He gave may also be
acknowledged to be non-original; but where
the student of Comparative
Mythology thinks that he has proved that
none is divinely inspired, when
he shows that similar moral teachings fell
from the lips of Manu, from
the lips of the Buddha, from the lips of
Jesus, the occultist says that
certainly Jesus must have repeated the
teachings of His predecessors,
since He was a messenger from the same
Lodge. The profound verities
touching the divine and the human Spirit
were as much truths twenty
thousand years before Jesus was born in
Palestine as after He was born;
and to say that the world was left without
such teaching, and that man
was left in moral darkness from his
beginnings to twenty centuries ago,
is to say that there was a humanity without
a Teacher, children without
a Father, human souls crying for light into
a darkness that gave them no
answer--a conception as blasphemous of God
as it is desperate for man, a
conception contradicted by the appearance
of every Sage, by the mighty
literature, by the noble lives, in the
thousands of ages ere the Christ
came forth.
Recognising then in Jesus the great Master
of the West, the leading
Messenger of the Lodge to the western
world, we must face the difficulty
which has made havoc of this belief in the
minds of many: Why are the
festivals that commemorate events in the
life of Jesus found in
pre-Christian religions, and in them
commemorate identical events in the
lives of other Teachers?
Comparative Mythology, which has drawn
public attention to this question
in modern times, may be said to be about a
century old, dating from the
appearance of Dulaure's _Histoire Abregee
de differens Cultes_, of
Dupuis' _Origine de tous les Cultes_, of
Moor's _Hindu Pantheon_, and of
Godfrey Higgins' _Anacalypsis_. These works
were followed by a shoal of
others, growing more scientific and rigid
in their collection and
comparison of facts, until it has become
impossible for any educated
person to even challenge the identities and
similarities existing in
every direction. Christians are not to be
found, in these days, who are
prepared to contend that Christian symbols,
rites, and ceremonies are
unique--except, indeed, among the ignorant.
There we still behold
simplicity of belief hand-in-hand with
ignorance of facts; but outside
this class we do not find even the most
devout Christians alleging that
Christianity has not very much in common
with faiths older than itself.
But it is well known that in the first
centuries "after Christ" these
likenesses were on all hands admitted, and
that modern Comparative
Mythology is only repeating with great
precision that which was
universally recognised in the Early Church.
Justin Martyr, for instance,
crowds his pages with references to the
religions of his time, and if a
modern assailant of Christianity would cite
a number of cases in which
Christian teachings are identical with
those of elder religions, he can
find no better guides than the apologists
of the second century. They
quote Pagan teachings, stories, and
symbols, pleading that the very
identity of the Christian with these should
prevent the off-hand
rejection of the latter as in themselves
incredible. A curious reason
is, indeed, given for this identity, one
that will scarcely find many
adherents in modern days. Says Justin
Martyr: "Those who hand down the
myths which the poets have made adduce no
proof to the youths who learn
them; and we proceed to demonstrate that
they have been uttered by the
influence of the wicked demons, to deceive
and lead astray the human
race. For having heard it proclaimed
through the prophets that the
Christ was to come, and that the ungodly
among men were to be punished
by fire, they put forward many to be called
sons of Jupiter, under the
impression that they would be able to
produce in men the idea that the
things which were said with regard to
Christ were mere marvellous tales,
like the things which were said by the
poets." "And the devils, indeed,
having heard this washing published by the
prophet, instigated those who
enter their temples, and are about to
approach them with libations and
burnt offerings, also to sprinkle
themselves; and they cause them also
to wash themselves entirely as they
depart." "Which [the Lord's Supper]
the wicked devils have imitated in the
mysteries of Mithras, commanding
the same thing to be done."[175]
"For I myself, when I discovered the
wicked disguise which the evil spirits had
thrown around the divine
doctrines of the Christians, to turn aside
others from joining them,
laughed."[176]
These identities were thus regarded as the
work of devils, copies of the
Christian originals, largely circulated in
the pre-Christian world with
the object of prejudicing the reception of
the truth when it came. There
is a certain difficulty in accepting the
earlier statements as copies
and the later as originals, but without
disputing with Justin Martyr
whether the copies preceded the original or
the original the copies, we
may be content to accept his testimony as
to the existence of these
identities between the faith flourishing in
the Roman empire of his
time and the new religion he was engaged in
defending.
Tertullian speaks equally plainly, stating
the objection made in his
days also to Christianity, that "the
nations who are strangers to all
understanding of spiritual powers, ascribe
to their idols the imbuing of
waters with the self-same efficacy."
"So they do," he answers quite
frankly, "but these cheat themselves
with waters that are widowed. For
washing is the channel through which they
are initiated into some sacred
rites of some notorious Isis or Mithra; and
the Gods themselves they
honour by washings.... At the Apollinarian
and Eleusinian games they
are baptised; and they presume that the
effect of their doing that is
the regeneration and the remission of the
penalties due to their
perjuries. Which fact, being acknowledged,
we recognise here also the
zeal of the devil rivalling the things of
God, while we find him too
practising baptism in his subjects."[177]
To solve the difficulty of these identities
we must study the Mythic
Christ, the Christ of the solar myths or
legends, these myths being the
pictorial forms in which certain profound
truths were given to the
world.
Now a "myth" is by no means what
most people imagine it to be--a mere
fanciful story erected on a basis of fact,
or even altogether apart from
fact. A myth is far truer than a history,
for a history only gives a
story of the shadows, whereas a myth gives
a story of the substances
that cast the shadows. As above so below;
and _first_ above and _then_
below. There are certain great principles
according to which our system
is built; there are certain laws by which
these principles are worked
out in detail; there are certain Beings who
embody the principles and
whose activities are the laws; there are
hosts of inferior beings who
act as vehicles for these activities, as
agents, as instruments; there
are the Egos of men intermingled with all
these, performing their share
of the great kosmic drama. These
multifarious workers in the invisible
worlds cast their shadows on physical
matter, and these shadows are
"things"--the bodies, the
objects, that make up the physical universe.
These shadows give but a poor idea of the
objects that cast them, just
as what we call shadows down here give but
a poor idea of the objects
that cast them; they are mere outlines,
with blank darkness in lieu of
details, and have only length and breadth,
no depth.
History is an account, very imperfect and
often distorted, of the dance
of these shadows in the shadow-world of
physical matter. Anyone who has
seen a clever Shadow-Play, and has compared
what goes on behind the
screen on which the shadows are cast with
the movements of the shadows
on the screen, may have a vivid idea of the
illusory nature of the
shadow-actions, and may draw therefrom
several not misleading
analogies.[178]
Myth is an account of the movements of
those who cast the shadows; and
the language in which the account is given
is what is called the
language of symbols. Just as here we have
words which stand for
things--as the word "table" is a
symbol for a recognised article of a
certain kind--so do symbols stand for
objects on higher planes. They are
a pictorial alphabet, used by all myth-writers,
and each has its
recognised meaning. A symbol is used to
signify a certain object just as
words are used down here to distinguish one
thing from another, and so a
knowledge of symbols is necessary for the
reading of a myth. For the