JESUS : THE LAST GREAT INITIATE - Chapter four

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here is the chapter four of :

 

JESUS : THE LAST GREAT INITIATE

 

Chapter four

 

The Public Life of Jesus _ Popular and Esoteric Instruction _

Miracles _ Apostles _ Women

 

 

Hitherto I have endeavoured to illuminate with its own light that

portion of the life of Jesus which the Gospels have left in

comparative obscurity, or wrapped around with the veil of legend. I

have related by what kind of initiation and development of soul and

thought the great Nazarene attained to the Messianic consciousness.

In a word, I have endeavoured to reconstruct the inner genesis of the

Christ. The rest of my task will be all the easier if this genesis be

once acknowledged. The public life of Jesus has been related in the

Gospels. These narratives contain divergences and contradictions as

well as additions. The legend which overlies or exaggerates certain

mysteries may still be traced here and there, but from the whole

there is set free such a unity of thought and action, so powerful

and original a character, that we invincibly feel ourselves in the

presence of reality and of life. These inimitable stories cannot be

reconstructed; their childlike simplicity and symbolical beauty tell

us more than any amplifications can do. But what is needed nowadays

is the illumination of the role of Jesus by esoteric traditions and

truth, showing the signification and bearing of this double teaching.

 

What were these good tidings of which he was the bearer, this already

famous Essene who had now returned from the shores of the Dead Sea to

this naïve Galilee to preach there the Gospel of the Kingdom ? How

was he to change the face of the world ? The thoughts of the prophets

had just found their realisation in him. Strong in the entire gift of

his very being, he now came to share with men this kingdom of heaven

which he had won in meditation and strife, in torments of pain and

boundless joy. He came to rend asunder the veil which the ancient

religion of Moses had cast over the future beyond the tomb. He came

to say : " Believe, love, act, and let hope be the soul of your deeds.

Beyond this earth there is a world of souls, a more perfect life.

This I know, for I come there from; thither will I lead you. But mere

inspiration for that world will not suffice. To attain you must begin

by realising it here below, first in yourselves, afterwards in

humanity. By what means ? By Love and active Charity " .

 

So the young prophet came to Galilee. He did not say he was the

Messiah, but discussed in the synagogues concerning the laws and the

prophets. He preached on the banks of the lake of Gennesareth, in

fishermen's boat, by the fountains, in the oases of verdure abounding

between Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Korazin. He healed the sick by

laying-on of hands, a mere look r command often by his presence

alone. Multitudes followed him, and already numerous disciples

attached themselves to him. These he recruited from among the

fishermen, tax-collectors, in a word, from the common people. Those

of upright, unsullied nature, possessed of an ardent faith, were the

ones he wanted, and these he irresistibly attracted to himself. He

was guided in his choice by that gift of second sight, which has ever

been the peculiarity of men of action, but especially of religious

initiators. A single look enabled him the fathom the depths of a

soul. He needed no other test, and when he said : " Follow me! " he was

obeyed. A single gesture summoned to his side the timid and

hesitating, to whom he said : " Come unto me, ye that are heavy-laden

and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for

I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your

souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light " . He divined the

innate thoughts of men, who in trouble and confusion recognised the

Master. At times, he recognised in unbelief uprightness of heart.

When Nathaniel said, " Can anything good come out of Nazareth ? " Jesus

replied : " Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile ! " From

his adepts he required neither oaths nor profession of faith; simply

love and belief in himself. He put into practice the common

possession of goods as a principle of fraternity among his own people.

 

Jesus thus began to realise, within his small group of followers, the

Kingdom of Heaven he wished to establish on earth. The Sermon of the

Mount offers us an image of this kingdom already formed in germ,

along with a " résumé " of the popular teaching of Jesus. He is seated

on the top of a hill; the future initiates are grouped at his feet;

farther down the slope the eager crowd drinks in the words which fall

from his mouth. What is the doctrine of the new teacher ? Fasting or

maceration or public penance ? No; he says, " Blessed are the poor in

spirit : for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that

mourn: for they shall be comforted " . Then he unrolls in ascending

order the four final beatitudes, the marvellous power of humility, of

sorrow for others, if the inner goodness of the heart and of hunger

and thirst after righteousness…. Then, in a glowing colours he

depicts the active and triumphant virtues, compassion, purity of

heart, militant kindness, and finally martyrdom of righteousness'

sake. " Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God " . Like

the sound of a golden bell, this promise gives his listeners a faint

glimpse of the starry heavens above the Master's head. Then they see

the humble virtues, no longer in the guise of poor emaciated woman in

grey penitent's robes, but transformed into beatitudes, into virgins

of light whose brightness effaces the splendour of the lilies and the

glory of Solomon. With the gentle breath of their palm leaves they

scatter over these thirsting souls the fragrant perfumes of the

heavenly kingdom.

 

The wonder is that this kingdom expands, not in the distant heavens,

but in the hearts of the listeners. They exchange looks of

astonishment with one another; these poor in spirit have, of a

sudden, become so rich. Mightier than Moses, the soul's magician has

struck their hearts, from which rushes up an immortal spring of life.

His teaching to the people may be summed up in the sentence : The

kingdom of heaven is within you !

 

Now that the lays before them the means necessary to attain to this

unheard-of happiness, they are no longer astonished at the

extraordinary things he asks of them: to kill even the desire for

evil, to forgive offences, to love their enemies. So powerful is the

stream of love with which his heart overflows, that he carries them

away along the current. In his presence they find everything easy.

Mighty the novelty, singular the boldness of such teaching. The

Galilean prophet sets the inner life of the soul above all outer

practices, the invisible above the visible, the Kingdom of Heaven

above the benefits of earth. He commands that the choice be made

between God and man. Then, summing up his doctrine, he says, " Love

your neighbour as yourself! " ….. Be ye perfect even as your Father

which is in heaven is perfect! " Thus, in popular form, he afforded a

glimpse of the whole profundity of science and morals. For the

supreme commandment of the initiation is to reproduce divine

perfection in the perfecting of the soul, and the secret of science

lies in the chain of analogy and correspondences, uniting in ever-

enlarging circles the particular to the universal, the finite to the

infinite.

 

If such was the public and purely moral teaching of Jesus, it is

evident that in addition he gave private instruction to his

disciples, parallel, with and explanatory of the former, showing its

inner meaning and penetrating to the very depths of the spiritual

truth he derived from his own experience. As this tradition was

violently crushed by the Church from the second century onwards, the

majority of theologians no longer knew the real bearing of the

Christ's words, with their sometimes double and triple meanings, and

saw none but the primary and literal signification. For those who

deeply studied the doctrine of the mysteries in India, Egypt and

Greece, the esoteric thought of the Christ animated not merely his

slightest word, but every act of his life. Dimly perceptible in the

three Synoptics, it spring s into complete evidence in the Gospel of

John. Here may be stated an instance touching an essential point of

the doctrine:

 

Jesus happens to be passing by Jerusalem. He is not yet preaching in

the temple, though he heals the sick and gives instruction to his

friends. The work of love must prepare he ground into which the

fruitful seed shall fall. Nicodemus, a learned Pharisee, had heard of

the prophet. Filled with curiosity, though unwilling to compromise

himself in the eyes of his sect, he requests with the Galilean a

secret interview, which is granted. The Pharisee calls at his

dwelling by night and says t him: " Rabbi, we know that thou art a

teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou

doest, except God be with him " . Jesus replied: " Verily, verily I say

unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of

God " . Nicodemus asks if it is possible for a man to enter a second

time into the his mother's womb and be born. Jesus

answered : " Verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water

and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God " .

 

Under this evidently symbolical form, Jesus sums up the ancient

doctrine of regeneration already known in the mysteries of Egypt. To

be born again of water and of the Spirit, to be baptized by water and

by fire, mark two degrees of initiation, two stages of the inner and

spiritual development of man. Water here represents truth perceived

intellectually, i.e. in an abstract and general manner. It purifies

the soul and develops its spiritual germ.

 

A new birth by the Spirit, or baptism by (heavenly) fire, signifies

the assimilation of the truth by the will in such a way that it may

become the blood and life, the very soul of every action. From this

results the complete victory of spirit over matter, the absolute

mastery of the spiritualised soul over the body transformed into a

docile instrument; a mastery which awakens its dormant faculties,

opens its inner sense, and gives it an intuitive insight into truth,

and a direct action of soul on soul. This state is equivalent to the

heavenly one which Jesus Christ called the Kingdom of God. Baptism by

water, or intellectual initiation, is accordingly the first step in

rebirth; baptism by the spirit is total rebirth, a transformation of

the soul by the fire of intelligence and will, and consequently, to a

certain extent, of the elements of the body _ in a word, a radical

regeneration. From this come the exceptional powers it gives to man.

 

This is the earthly signification which might briefly be called the

esoteric doctrine concerning the constitution of man. According to

this doctrine, man is threefold : body, soul, and spirit. He has an

immortal and indivisible part, the spirit; a perishable and divisible

part, the body.

 

The soul which unites the two shares in the nature of both. Living

organism as it is, it possesses an ethereal and fluidic body, similar

to the material body, which, but for this invisible double, would

have neither life, movement or unity. According as man obeys the

suggestions of the spirit or the impulses of the body, according as

he attaches himself to the one or the other, the fluidic body becomes

etherealised or dulled; unifies or becomes disaggregated.

Accordingly, it happens that, after physical death, the majority of

men have to submit to a second death of the soul, which consists in

their being cleansed from the impure elements of the astral body,

sometimes even in undergoing slow decomposition; whilst the

completely regenerated man, having formed on this earth his spiritual

body, possesses his heaven in himself and enters the region to which

his affinity attracts him…..

 

Now water, in ancient esoterism, symbolises fluidic matter which is

infinitely transformable, as fire symbolises the one spirit. In

speaking of rebirth by water and spirit, the Christ makes allusion to

that double transformation of his spiritual body and his fluidic

envelope, which awaits man after death, and without which he cannot

enter the Kingdom of lofty souls and purified spirits. For " that

which is born of the flesh (i.e. chained down and perishable), and

that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (i.e. free and immortal).

Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind

bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but

canst not tell whence it cometh and wither it goeth : so is every one

that is born of the Spirit " .

 

Thus spoke Jesus to Nicomedus in the silence of the night at

Jerusalem. A small lamp, placed between the two, daily lights their

vague, uncertain forms. But the eyes of the Galilean Master shine

with mysterious brilliancy through the darkness. How could one help

believing in the soul, when looking into those eyes, now gently

beaming, now flashing forth the glory of heaven ? The learned

Pharisee has seen his knowledge of Scripture texts crumble away, but

then he obtains a glimpse of a new world. He has seen a divine light

in the face of the prophet, whose long auburn hair is falling over

his shoulders. He has felt the powerful warmth emanating from his

being draw him to the Master. He has seen small white flames like a

magnetic halo appear and disappear around his brow and temples. And

then he imagined he felt the breath of the Spirit pass over his

heart. Moved to his inmost soul, Nicodemus returned secretly in the

silence of the night to his home. He will continue to live among th

Pharisees, but in the secrecy of his heart he will remain faithful to

Jesus.

 

Let us note one more important point in this teaching. According to

the materialistic doctrine, the soul is an ephemeral and accidental

resultant of doctrine it is something abstract, without any

conceivable bond with the body; in the esoteric doctrine _ the only

rational one _ the physical body is a product of the incessant work

of the soul, which acts upon it by the similar organism of the astral

body, just as the visible universe is only the dynamics of the

infinite Spirit. This is the reason Jesus gives this doctrine to

Nicodemus as explanation of the miracles he works. It may indeed

serve as a key to he occult healing art, practised by him and by a

small number of adepts and saints before as well as after Christ.

Ordinary medicine combats the evils of the body by acting on the

latter. The adept or saint being a centre of spiritual and fluidic

force, acts directly on the soul of the patient, and his astral on

his physical body. It is the same in all magnetic cures; Jesus

operates in large doses by powerful and concentrated projections. He

gives the Scribes and Pharisees his power of healing bodies as a

proof of his power to pardon and heal the soul, his higher object.

The physical cure thus becomes the counter proof of a moral cure,

which permits of his saying to the man made whole, " Rise and walk! "

The science of today tries to explain the phenomenon which the

ancients and middle ages called " possession " as a simple nervous

disorder. The explanation is insufficient. Psychologists who attempt

to penetrate more deeply into the mystery of the soul see therein a

duplication of consciousness, an irruption of its latent part. This

question touches that of the different planes of the human

consciousness, which acts now on the one now on the other, the

changing play being studied in different somnambulistic conditions.

It also touches the sensitive world. In any case, it is certain Jesus

had the faculty of restoring equilibrium in troubled bodies, and

restoring souls to their purest consciousness. " Veritable magic " ,

said Plotinus, " is love, with hate its contrary " . It is by love and

hate that magicians act, through their philtres and enchantments " .

Love in its highest consciousness and supreme power constituted the

magic of the Christ.

 

Numerous disciples took part in his inner teaching. Still, in order

to give lasting power to the new religion, there was needed an active

group of chosen ones who should become the pillars of the spiritual

temple he wished to erect over against the other : hence the

institution of the apostles. These he did not chose from among the

Essenes, as he needed men whose natures were vigorous and fresh to

implant his religion in the very heart of the people. Two groups of

brothers, Simon, Peter and Andrew, the sons of Jonas, on the one

hand, James and John, the sons of Zebede, on the other, all four

fishermen by occupation and belonging to respectable families, formed

the first apostles. At the beginning of his career Jesus appears to

them at Capernaum, by the lake of Gennesareth, where they were

engaged in their daily occupation. He takes up his abode with them

and converts the whole family. Peter and John stand out as prominent

figures among the twelve….. Peter straightforward and narrow-minded,

easily influenced by either hope or discouragement, but at the same

time a man of action, capable, by reason of his energetic character

and absolute faith, of leading the others….. John, of a deep hidden

nature, enthusiastic to such a degree that Jesus called him " the son

of thunder " , his ardent soul always concentrated on itself, by

disposition melancholy, and given to reverie, though subject to

formidable outburst and apocalyptic visions. His tenderness of soul,

spite of all this, was such as the rest never suspected and only the

Master knew. John alone, silent and contemplative, will understand

the inmost thought of the Christ. He will be the Evangelist of love

and divine intelligence, the esoteric apostle " par excellence " .

 

Persuaded by his words, convinced by his acts, dominated by his

mighty intelligence, and encircled in his magnetic radiance, the

apostles followed the Master from town to town. Preaching to the

populace alternated with secret instruction as he gradually opened

out to them his thoughts. All the same, he still maintained profound

silence concerning himself, his own future. He had told them that the

kingdom of heaven was at hand, that the Messiah would soon come. The

apostles were already whispering to one another, " It is he ! " and

repeating it to others. But Jesus, with gentle dignity, simply called

himself " The Son of Man " , an expression the esoteric signification of

which they did not yet understand, though, in his mouth, it seemed to

mean " Messenger of suffering humanity " . For he added, " The foxes have

their holes, but the Son of Man hath no where to lay his head " . It

was only in accordance with the popular Jewish idea that the apostles

had hitherto considered the Messiah, their simple hopes conceived of

the kingdom of heaven as being a political government, of which Jesus

would be the crowned king and they ministers. To combat this idea and

radically transform it, revealing to the apostles the true Messiah,

the spiritual royalty; to communicate to them this sublime truth he

called the Father, this supreme force he called the Spirit,

mysteriously uniting all souls with the invisible; to show them by

his word, life, and death, a true Son of God; to leave them

conviction that they and all men were his brothers and could rejoin

him if they wished; and finally to leave them, only after opening to

their longing eyes the whole immensity of heaven _ this was the

mighty work Jesus had begun upon his apostles. " Will they believe of

not ? " is the question of the drama being played between them and

himself. Another question far more poignant and terrible is being

asked in the depths of his own consciousness. To this we shall soon

give our attention.

 

For at this hour a wave of joy overwhelmed the tragic thought in the

consciousness of the Christ. The tempest has not yet burst over the

lake of Tiberias. It is the Galilean springtime of the Gospel, the

dawn of the kingdom of God, the mystic union of the initiate with his

spiritual family, which follows and travels with him as the

procession of handmaidens follows the bridegroom in the parable. The

believing crowd hurries along in the footsteps of the beloved Master

on the banks of the azure lake enclosed in the glorious hills as in a

golden bowl. They go from the fragrant banks of Capernaum to

Bethsaida's orange groves and the mountainous Chorazim, where the

lake of Gennesareth is bordered by shady palms. In this procession

the woman have a place apart. The Master is everywhere surrounded by

the mothers or sisters of his disciples, by timid virgins, or

repentant Magdalenes. Attentive and faithful, impelled by passionate

love, they scatter along his path eternal blossoms of sadness and

hope. They at any rate need no proof that he is the Messiah : a

single look into his face is sufficient for them. The wonderful

felicity emanating from his aura, added to the note of divine

unexpressed suffering they instinctively feel, persuades them that he

is the Son of God. Jesus had early stifled in himself the cry of the

flesh, during his stay among the Essenes he had tamed the might of

his senses. This had given him an empire over souls and the divine

power of pardon, a true angelic bliss. He says to the sinning woman

now, with dishevelled hair, kneeling at the Master's feet, over which

she pours the precious ointment : " Much shall be forgiven her, for

she has loved much ! " . Sublime thought, containing an entire

redemption, for pardon sets free.

 

The Christ is the liberator and restorer of woman, in spite of St.

Paul and the Fathers of the Church who, by lowering woman to the role

of man's servant, have wrongly interpreted the Master's thought. She

had been glorified in Vedic times; Bouddhah had mistrusted her; the

Christ has raised her by restoring her mission of love and

divination. The initiate woman represents the soul of Humanity;

Aisha, as Moses had named it, i.e. the power of Intuition; the loving

and seeing Faculty. The impetuous Mary Magdalene, out of whom,

according to the biblical expression, Jesus had driven seven devils,

became the most ardent of his disciples. She it was who first, St.

John tells us, saw the divine Master, the spiritual Christ risen from

the tomb. Legend has been obstinately bent on seeing in the

passionate believing woman the greatest worshipper of Jesus, the

heart initiate, and legend has not been mistaken, for her history

represents the whole regeneration of woman as desired by the Christ.

 

It was in the farm of Bethany, near Martha, Mary and Mary Magdalene,

that Jesus loved to rest from the labours of his mission, and prepare

himself for supreme tests. There he lavished his tenderest words of

comfort, and in sweet discourse spoke of the divine mysteries he

dared not yet confide to his disciples. At times, as the sun was

setting in the golden horizon of the west, half-hidden in the

branches of the olive-groves, Jesus would become pensive, and a veil

would overshadow his illumined countenance. He thought of the

difficulties of his work, of the uncertain faith of the apostles , of

the hostile powers of the world. The temple, Jerusalem, humanity

itself, with its crime and ingratitude, seemed to overwhelm him

beneath a living mountain.

 

Would his arms upraised to heaven be strong enough to grind this

mountain to powder, or would he himself be crushed beneath its mighty

bulk ? Then he spoke vaguely of a terrible trial which awaited him,

and also of his coming end. Awed by his solemn tones, the women dared

not question him. However unchangeable the Master's serenity of soul

might be, they understood that it was as though wrapped about with

the shroud of an indescribable sadness, separating him from the joys

of earth. They had a presentiment of the prophet's destiny, they felt

his invincible power of resolution. What was the meaning of those

gloomy clouds which arose from the direction of Jerusalem ? Wherefore

this burning wind of fever and death, passing over their hearts as

over the blighted hills of Judea, with their violet cadaverous hues ?

One evening _ a star of mystery _ a tear shone in Jesus eyes. A

shudder passed through the frames of the women, their tears also

flowed in silence. They were lamenting over him; he was lamenting

over all mankind !