JESUS : THE LAST GREAT INITIATE - Chapter six

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Dear all,

 

here is the chapter six,

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With Love

nicole

 

JESUS : THE LAST GREAT INITIATE

 

Chapter six : Final Journey to Jerusalem _ The Promise _ The Supper _

Trial of Jesus _ Death and Resurrection

 

" Hosanna to the son of David ! " This was the cry which greeted Jesus

as he entered by the eastern gate of Jerusalem, along streets covered

with branches of palm trees. They who welcomed him with such

enthusiasm were adherents of the Galilean prophet who had assembled

from both without and within the town to greet him with this ovation.

They were welcoming him who was to free Israel, who would soon be

crowned king. Even the twelve apostles still shared this illusion in

spite of all Jesus had said. He alone, the proclaimed Messiah, knew

that he was advancing to his death, and that only afterwards would

even his disciples penetrate the inner sanctuary of his thought.

Resolutely was he offering himself, of his own free will, and fully

conscious of the end. Hence his resignation, his sweet serenity. As

he passed beneath the colossal porch, cut in the gloomy fortress of

Jerusalem, the cry resounded beneath the vault an pursued him like

the voice of destiny, seizing its prey: " Hosanna o the Son of David! " .

 

By this solemn entrance into the city, Jesus publicly declared to the

religious authorities of Jerusalem, that he took upon himself the

role of the Messiah, with all its consequences. The following morning

he appeared in the temple, in the Gentiles' Court, and, advancing

towards the cattle dealers and money changers who by usury and the

deafening jingle of money profaned the precincts of the holy place,

he uttered against them Isaiah's words : " It is written, My house

shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of

thieves " . The dealers fled, carrying off their tables and money bags,

intimidated by the partisans of the prophet who formed a solid

rampart around him, and even more terrified by his imperious gesture

and flashing look. The astonished priests marvelled at this boldness

and manifestation of power. A deputation from the Sanhedrim came

demanding an explanation, with the words : " By insidious question

Jesus, as was his wont, replied by a question no less embarrassing

for his enemies. " Whence was the baptism of John, from heaven or of

men " , had the Pharisees replied : " From heaven " , Jesus would have

said : " Then why did you not believe him ? " Had they said; " From

men " , they would have had to consider the anger of the people who

looked upon John the Baptist as a prophet. Accordingly they

replied : " We cannot tell " . " Neither tell I you " , said Jesus, " by

what authority I do these things " . Once the blow warded off, however,

he assumed the offensive and added : " Verily I say unto you, the

publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you " . Then in

a parable, he compared them to the wicked husbandman, who kills his

master's son as to inherit the vineyard; and he called himself " the

stone which had become the head of the corner, and which should grind

into powder whomsoever it should fall upon " . These acts and words

show that, in making this final journey to Israel's capital, Jesus

wished to cur off all retreat. His enemies had long been in

possession of the two great keys of accusation necessary for his

ruin : his threats against the temple, and the affirmation that he

was the Messiah. These last attacks exasperated his enemies; from

that moment his death, determined upon by the authorities, was only

a matter of time. Since his entrance into Jerusalem, the most

influential members of the Sanhedrim, Scribes and Pharisees,

reconciled in common hatred against Jesus, had come to an

understanding on the death of his " seducer of the people " . They

hesitated only on the matter of seizing him in public, for they

dreaded a rising of the people. On different occasions already,

officials sent against him had returned, won over by his words, or

alarmed at the multitudes of people. Often had the soldiers of the

temple seen him disappear from their midst in mysterious fashion. So

also had the Emperor Domitian, fascinated and struck with blindness

so to speak, by the image ha wished to condemn, seen Apollonius of

Tyana disappear from before the tribunal and from the midst of his

guards ! The struggle between Jesus and the priests thus continued

from day to day with increasing hatred on their side, and on his, an

enthusiastic strength and impetuosity, given him by the certainty he

felt as to the fatal issue. This was his last assault against the

powers of the day; in it he manifested a mighty energy as well as the

masculine force which like a coat of mail clothed that sublime

tenderness of his, which might be called : The Eternal-Feminine of

his soul. This formidable combat ended in terrible maledictions

against these debasers of religion : " Woe unto you Scribes and

Pharisees, who shut up the kingdom of heaven against such as wish to

enter in. Ye fools and blind, who pay tithes and neglect justice,

pity, and fidelity; ye are like unto whited sepulchres which appear

beautiful from without, but are within full of dead men's bones and

all uncleanness. "

 

After having thus branded as religious hypocrisy and false sacerdotal

authority what had for centuries held sway, Jesus considered his

struggles at an end. He left Jerusalem with his disciples and

proceeded to the Mount of Olives. As they ascended, Herod's temple

could be seen in all its majesty, with its terraces and vast

porticoes, its sculpturing of white marble incrusted with jasper and

porphyry, and it's dazzling roof of gold and silver. The disciples,

discourages and under the presentiment of a catastrophe, drew the

master's attention to the splendour of the building he was leaving

for ever. Their words were tinged with melancholy and regret, for, to

the last, they had hoped to take their seats therein as judges of

Israel around the Messiah, the crowned priest-king. Jesus turned,

facing the temple, and said : " See ye not all these things ? Verily I

say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another,

that shall not be thrown down " . He was judging the duration of the

temple of Jeovah by the moral worth of those who ruled therein. He

meant that fanaticism, intolerance, and hatred were not sufficient

arms against the battle-axes and battering rams of the Roman Caesar.

With the insight of the initiate which had become more intense

through that clairvoyance given by the approach of death , he saw the

Judaic pride, the policy of their king, the whole Jewish history,

terminate fatally in this catastrophe. Triumph did not exist there,

it was rather in the prophetic thought, the universal religion, that

invisible temple which he alone at that hour had full consciousness

of. As for the ancient citadel of Zion and the temple of stone, he

already saw the angel of destruction standing, sword in hand, at its

doors.

 

Jesus knew that his hour was nigh, but he did not wish to fall into

the hands of the Sanhedrim, so he withdrew to Bethany. As he had a

predilection for the Mount of Olives, he came there almost daily to

converse with his disciples. From the summit the view was

magnificent. The range of vision embraces the rugged mountains of

Judea and Moab, with their purplish-blue tints, whilst away in the

distance could be caught a glimpse of the Dead Sea, like a leaden-

hued mirror from whose surface rise dense sulphurous mists. At the

foot of the mountain stretched Jerusalem, the Temple, and the citadel

of Zion towering above all other edifices. Even in these days, as

twilight descends on the dark mysterious gorges of Hinnom and

Jehoshaphat, the city of David and of the Christ, protected by the

sons of Ishmahel, rises in imposing majesty above these gloomy

valleys. Its cupolas and minarets reflect the fading light of the

heavens and seem to be ever awaiting the angels of judgment. It was

there Jesus gave the disciples his final instructions regarding the

future of the religion he had come to found, and the destiny of

mankind, thus bequeathing them his promise _ at once terrestrial and

divine _ intimately wedded with his esoteric teaching.

 

Evidently the writers of the synoptic Gospels have handed down to us

the apocalyptic sayings of Jesus amid a confusion which renders them

almost impenetrable. Their meaning only begins to become intelligible

in John's Gospel. If Jesus had really believed in his return on the

clouds, some years after his death, as is admitted according to the

naturalistic interpretation ; or if he had imagined that the end of

the world , and the last judgment of men would take place in this

manner, as orthodox theology believes, he would have been a very

ordinary visionary indeed, instead of the sage initiate, the sublime

seer every word of his teaching and every action of his life proclaim

him to have been. It is evident that here, specially, his words must

be understood in their allegorical signification according to the

transcendent symbolism of the prophets. John's Gospel, the one which

has most fully handed down to us the Master's esoteric teaching,

emphasises this interpretations, so perfectly in accord as it is

with the parabolical genius of Jesus, when he relates the Master's

words : " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear

them now… These things have I spoken unto you in parables, but the

time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in parables, but I

shall show you plainly of the Father " .

 

The solemn promise of Jess to the apostles embraces four objects,

four increasing spheres of planetary and cosmic life : he individual

psychic life; the national life of Israel; the earthly evolution and

end of humanity as well as the divine. Let us take one by one these

four spheres through which radiates the thought of the Christ before

his martyrdom, like the setting sun, filling with its glory the whole

terrestrial atmosphere right to the zenith, before shining on other

worlds.

 

1. The first judgment signifies the ultimate destiny of the soul

after death. This is determined by its own inner nature and the acts

of its life. I have already expounded this doctrine, with reference

to Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. On the Mount of Olives he says

to his disciples : " Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your

hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of

this life, and so that day come upon you unawares " . And again : " Be

ye also ready : for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man

cometh. "

 

2. The destruction of the temple and the end of Israel. " Nation shall

rise against nation… They shall deliver you up to be afflicted…..

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these

things be fulfilled " .

 

3. The terrestrial aim of humanity which is not fixed at some

definite epoch, but must be reached by a graduated series of

successive realisations. This aim is the coming of the social Christ

or the divine man on earth; i.e. the organisation of Truth, Justice,

and Love in human society, and consequently, the pacification of the

nations. Isaiah had already foretold this distant epoch in a splendid

vision beginning with words : " For I know their works and their

thoughts; it shall come that I will gather all nations and tongues;

and they shall come and see my glory. And I will set a sign among

them " Etc… Etc… Jesus completing this prophecy explains to his

disciples what this sign shall be; the complete unveiling of the

mysteries or the coming of the Holy Ghost, whom he also calls the

Comforter or " the Spirit of Truth which shall lead you into all

truth " . The apostles shall have this revelation beforehand, the mass

of humanity in the course of time. But whenever it takes place in an

individual consciousness or among a group of men, it pierces through

and through. " For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth

even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be " .

Thus, when the central and spiritual truth is kindled it illumines

all other truths throughout creation.

 

4; The last Judgment signifies the end of the cosmic evolution of

humanity, or its entrance into a definitely spiritual state. This is

what Persian Esoterism had called the victory of Ormuzd over the

Ahrimanes, or of Spirit over Matter. Hindu Esoterism named it

complete re-absorbtion of matter by Spirit, or the end of a day of

Brahma. After thousands of centuries a period must come when, through

series of births and rebirths, incarnations and regenerations, the

individuals composing a humanity shall have definitely entered the

spiritual state, or been annihilated as conscious souls by evil, i.e.

by their own passions symbolised by the fire of Gehenna and gnashing

teeth. " Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven ….

They shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they

shall gather together his elect from the four winds " . The Son of Man,

a generic term, here signifies humanity in its perfect

representation, i.e. the small number of those who have raised

themselves to the rank of Sons of God. His sign is the Lamb and the

Cross, i.e. Love and Eternal Life. The Cloud is the image of the

Mysteries which have become translucent, as well as of the subtle

matter transfigured by the spirit, of the fluidic substance which is

no longer a dense obscure veil, but a light transparent garment of

the soul, no longer a gross obstacle, but an expression of the truth;

no longer a deceptive appearance but spiritual truth itself, the

inner world instantaneously and directly manifested. The Angels who

gather together the Elect are glorified spirits, who have themselves

sprung from humanity. The Trumpet they sound symbolises the living

word of the spirit, which lays bare the real nature of the soul, and

destroys all lying appearance of matter.

 

Jesus, feeling his end near, thus explained to astonished disciples

the lofty perspectives which from bygone times had formed part of the

doctrine of the mysteries, but to which each religious founder has

always given personal form and colour. To engrave these truths on

their minds and facilitate their propagation, he summed them up in

such images as were characterised by extreme boldness and incisive

energy. The revealing image and speaking symbol formed the universal

language of the ancient initiates. Such a language possesses a

communicative virtue, a power of concentration and duration lacking

in the abstract term. In using it, Jesus merely followed the example

of Moses and the prophets. He knew the Idea would not immediately be

understood, but he wished to impress it in letters of flame in the

simple souls of his followers, leaving to succeeding ages the task of

generating the powers contained in his word. Jesus feels himself one

with all the prophets of the earth who had gone before, as he had

done, messengers of Life and of the eternal Word. In this sentiment

of unity and solidarity with immutable truth, he dared address to his

afflicted disciples the proud words : " Heaven and earth shall pass

away, but my word shall not pass away " .

 

These mornings and evenings on the Mount of Olives flew swiftly by.

One day, obedient to an impulse peculiar to his ardent and

impressionable nature, which caused him suddenly to descend from the

most sublime heights to the sufferings of earth, which he felt as his

own, he shed tears over Jerusalem, the holy city and its inhabitants,

whose frightful destiny he foresaw. His own was also approaching with

giant strides. The Sanhedrim had already discussed his fate and

decided on his death. Judas Iscariot had already promised to deliver

his Master into their hands. It was not sordid avarice, but rather

ambition and wounded pride which occasioned this black treachery.

Judas, a type of cold egoism and absolute positivism, incapable of

the faintest idealism, had become a disciple of the Christ merely

from a spirit of worldly speculation. He was relying on the earthly

and immediate triumph of the prophet, and o his own consequent gain.

The Master's profound words : He who wishes to save his life shall

lose it; and he who is willing to lose it, shall save it; had no

meaning for him. Jesus, in his boundless charity, had received him as

one of his disciples, in the hope of changing his nature. When Judas

saw that matters were not proceeding as he wished, that Jesus and his

disciples were compromised, and himself deceived in his hopes, his

deception became converted into a feeling of rage. The wretched

denounced the man, who in his eyes, was only a false Messiah who had

deceived him. The penetrating insight of Jesus told him what was

taking place in the mind of the faithless apostle. He now determined

he would no longer avoid the destiny whose inextricable folds were

daily tightening around him. It was the eve of Easter, so he ordered

his disciples to prepare the meal at a friend's house in the town. He

foresaw it would be his last repast, and accordingly wished to give

it an exceptional solemnity.

 

Now we enter upon the final act of the Messianic drama. In order

thoroughly to understand the spirit and work of Jesus, it has been

necessary to shed an inner light on the first two acts of his life :

His initiation and public career. Subsequently, the inner drama of

his consciousness has been unfolded. The final act of his life, or

the drama of the passion, is the logical consequence of the two

preceding. Since it is known to all, it explains itself, for the

peculiarity of the sublime is that it is at once simple, grand, and

clear.The drama of the passion has powerfully contributed to the

institution of Christianity. It has drawn tears from every human

being possessed of a heart, and converted millions of souls.

Throughout all these scenes the gospels are of incomparable beauty.

Even John descends from his lofty heights, and his circumstantial

account assumes a character of poignant truth such as an eye-witness

alone could give. Every one may live again in himself the divine

drama, no one could recreate it. And yet, in ending my task, I must

concentrate the rays of esoteric tradition on the three essential

events by which the life of the divine Master came to an end : the

Holy Supper, the trial of the Messiah, and the Resurrection. If light

is thrown on these points, it will be reflected backwards on the

whole career of the Christ, and forwards on the succeeding history of

Christianity.

 

The twelve, forming thirteen with the Master, had met in the upper

room of a house in Jerusalem. The unknown friend, Jesus' host, had

covered the floor with a rich carpet In oriental fashion the Master

and his disciples reclined on four large divans in the form of

triclinia arranged around the table. When the pascal lamb, and the

golden chalice lent by the friend, had been brought into the room,

and the vases filled with wine, Jesus, seated between John and Peter,

said : " With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you

before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof,

until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God " . Thereupon their

countenances became overshadowed; silence filled the air. " The

disciple whom Jesus loved " , who alone divined everything, bowed his

head on the Master's breast. As was usual among the Jews at the

Easter meal, not a word was uttered as they ate the bitter herbs and

charoset placed before them. Finally Jesus took bread, and after

giving thanks, he brake it and distributed unto them, saying : " This

is my body which is given for you : this do in remembrance of me " . He

also took the cup, saying : " This cup is the new testament in my

blood, which is shed for you " .

 

Such is the institution of the Supper in all its simplicity. It has a

far wider signification than is generally granted or known, for not

only is the mystical and symbolic act the conclusion and " résumé " of

the entire teaching of the Christ, it is the consecration and

rejuvenation of a very ancient symbol of initiation. Among the

initiates of Egypt and Chaldea, as among the prophets and Essenes,

the fraternal agape marked the first stage of initiation. The

Communion, under the element of bread, the fruit of the sheaf,

signified knowledge of the mysteries of earthly life, as well as a

sharing of terrestrial blessings, and consequently the perfect union

of affiliated brothers. In the higher degree, communion under the

element of the vine, penetrated through and through by the sun,

signified the sharing of heavenly blessings, a participation in

spiritual mysteries and divine science. Jesus, in bequeathing these

symbols to the apostles, enlarged their meaning. Through them he

extends to the whole of mankind fraternity and initiation, formerly

limited to the few. To them he adds the profoundest of mysteries, the

greatest of forces, that of his own sacrifice. This he converts into

the invisible but infrangible chain of love between himself and his

followers. It will give his glorified soul a divine power over their

hearts, as well as over the hearts of all men. This cup of truth

which had come from distant prophetic ages, this golden chalice of

initiation which the old Essenes had offered him in the ecstasy of

his loftiest rapture _ this cup in which he now sees his own blood

reflected _ he now gives over to his well-beloved disciples with the

ineffable tenderness of a last farewell.

 

Do the apostles see and understand this redeeming, world-embracing

thought ? It shines in the Master's profound though sorrowful glance,

as he turns from the " disciple he loved " to the one about to betray

him. No, they do not yet understand; they seem to breathe with

difficulty, as though under the power of some frightful dream, a kind

of heavy, ruddy vapour floats in the air, and they wonder as to the

source of that strange radiance about the Christ head. When, finally,

Jesus tells them that he is about to spend the night in prayer on the

Mount of Olives, and as he rises, requests them to follow him, they

no longer doubt as to what is about to happen.

 

The night is past; the anguish of Gethsemane at an end. With

terrifying clearness he has seen the infernal circle about to destroy

him grow less and less. In the horror of the situation, and the

dreadful momentary expectation of being seized by his enemies, a

shudder passed through his frame; for a moment his soul shrank before

the tortures that awaited him; drops of bloody sweat stood on his

brow. Then prayer came to his aid….. Confused cries, torches flashing

beneath the gloomy olive-trees, the clash of arms, were so many signs

testifying to the approach of a band of soldiers sent by the

Sanhedrim. Judas, at their head, kisses his Master, so that they may

recognise the prophet. Jesus returns the kiss with a look of

ineffable compassion, and says to him : " Friend, wherefore art thou

come ? " The effect of this gentleness, this brotherly kiss given in

exchange for the basest treason, will be such on that heart _

notwithstanding its hardness _ that, a moment later, Judas, overcome

with horror and remorse, will take his own life. And now, with rude,

cruel hands, the soldiers have seized the Galilean rabbi. After a

brief resistance the terrified disciples have fled. Peter and John

alone remain at hand, and follow the Master to the tribunal. Their

hearts are well-nigh broken as they anxiously await his fate. Jesus

has now regained control over himself; from that moment not a single

protest or complaint will break from his lips.

 

The entire Sanhedrim is hastily assembled, and Jesus is brought into

their presence at midnight, for the court is determined to deal

promptly with the dangerous prophet. Priests and sacrificers, turbans

on their hands and wearing purple, yellow and violet tunics, are

solemnly seated in a semi-circle. In their midst sits Caiaphas, the

chief priest, wearing on his head the " migbâh " ; at each end of the

arc, on two small tribunes sit the clerks, one for acquittal, the

other for condemnation : advocatus Dei; advocatus Diaboli. Jesus, in

his white essenian robe, stands impressive in the centre. Officers of

justice, armed with ropes and thongs, men with bared arms and evil-

looking eyes, stand around. Witnesses for the accusation alone are

present; there is not one for the defence. The high priest, the

supreme magistrate, is the principal accuser; the trial, apparently a

measure of public safety against a crime or religious treason, is in

reality the preventive vengeance of an anxious priesthood which feels

its power in danger.

 

Caiaphas rises and accuses Jesus of being a seducer of the people,

a " mésit " . A few witnesses taken at hazard from the crowd give their

depositions, but only succeed in contradicting one another. Finally,

one of them reports the words of Jesus, " I can destroy the temple,

and build it again in three days " _ words which had been considered

as blasphemous, and which the Nazarene had more than once flung in

the face of the Pharisees under Salomon's porch. Jesus holds his

peace. " Answerest thou nothing? " asks the high priest. Jesus who

knows he will be condemned, and is unwilling to lavish words to no

purpose, still makes no reply. These words, however, even if proved,

would not form sufficient motive for a death penalty. A graver avowal

is needed. To force one, Caiaphas, the cunning Saduccee, addresses

him a question involving his honour, the vital question of his

mission. The greatest skill often consists in going straight to the

root of a matter. " If thou art the Messiah, say so now! " . Jesus at

first replies evasively, thus proving that he is not their dupe. " If

I say it, you will not believe me, but if I ask you the same question

you will give me no answer " . As Caphaias does not succeed in his

artifice, he uses his authority as high priest, and solemnly

says : " I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether

thou be the Christ, the Son of God " . Thus called upon either to

retract or to affirm his mission before the highest representative of

the religion of Israel, Jesus no longer hesitates. He replies

calmly, " Thou hast said. Nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter

shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power, and

coming in the clouds of heaven " . Thus expressing himself in the

prophetic language of Daniel, and of the book of Henoch, Jehoshoua,

the Essene initiate, does not address Caiaphas as an individual. He

knows that the Sadducee agnostic is incapable of understand him, and

accordingly speaks to the sovereign priest of Jeovah, and through him

to all future priests and priesthoods of earth, saying to them :

After my mission, sealed by death, the reign of unexplained religious

Law is at an end, both in principle and in deed. The Mysteries shall

be revealed, and man shall see the divine through the human.

Religions and acts of worship which cannot be demonstrated and

vivified by one another shall be void of authority. This, according

to the esoterism of the prophets and Essenes, is the meaning of the

Son sitting on the right hand of the Father. Thus understood, Jesus'

reply to the high priest of Jerusalem contains the intellectual and

scientific testament of the Christ to the religious authorities of

the earth, just as the institution of the Super contains his

testament of love and initiation to the Apostles and to mankind in

general.

 

In addressing Caiaphas Jesus spoke to the whole world. The Sadducee,

however, who had obtained what he wished, listens to nothing more.

Tearing his vestment of fine linen, he exclaims : " He has blasphemed;

what further need have we of witnesses ? Ye have heard his blasphemy;

what think ye of it ? " A gloomy though ominous murmur arose from the

Sanhedrim " He is guilty of death " . Immediately vile insults and

brutal outrage n the part of those of lower rank gave answer to the

condemnation uttered by their superiors. The guards spit on him and

strike him in the face, as they exclaim : " Prophesy unto us, thou

Christ, who is he that smote thee ? " Beneath this outburst of low and

savage hatred, the pale sublime countenance of the great sufferer

resumes its visionary marble fixity. Some one has said hat there are

statues which weep; there is indeed a tearless grief, victims'

unuttered prayers, full of terror to their assailants whom they

pursue for the remainder of their lives.

 

All was not yet over, however. The Sanhedrim may pronounce the death

penalty, the secular power and the consent of the Roman authorities

are needed to put it into execution. The interview with Pilate,

related in detail by John, is no less remarkable than that with

Caiaphas. This strange dialogue between the Christ and the Roman

governor, to which the violence of the Jewish priests, and the cries

of a fanatical populace, play the part of an ancient tragedy chorus,

gives the conviction of a mighty dramatic truth, for it lays bare the

souls of the different characters, and shows the clash of the three

powers in play : Roman Caesarism, bigoted Judaism, and the universal

religion of the Spirit represented by the Christ. Pilate, totally

indifferent to the religious quarrel, but greatly troubled over the

matter, for he is afraid the death of Jesus will occasion a rising of

the people, questions him with a certain amount of precaution, and

offers him a means of escape, in the hope that he will take advantage

of it. " Art thou the King of the Jews ? " Jesus answered : " My kingdom

is not of this world " . Pilate asked : " Then thou art a king ? " Jesus

again replied : " To this end was I born, and for this cause came I

into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth " . Pilate no

more understands this affirmation of the spiritual royalty of Jesus

than Caiaphas understood his religious testament. " What is truth ? "

he remarks, with a shrug of the shoulders. The sceptical Roman

knight's question reveals the state of mind in which the heathen

world then was, as it does that of all society in a state of

decadence. All the same, as he did not see in the accused Jesus

anything other than a harmless dreamer, he added : " I find no fault

in him " , and proposes to the Jews that he should liberate him. The

populace, however, instigated by the priests, cries aloud : " Release

unto us Barabbas ! " Then Pilate, who detests the Jews, gives himself

the ironical pleasure of causing their pretended king to the beaten

with rods. He thinks this will satisfy the fanatics, but they only

become the more furious, and madly exclaim : " Crucify him ! " .

 

In spite of this outburst of popular passion, Pilate still resists.

He is tired of being cruel. Throughout his life he has seen so much

bloodshed, punished with death so many rebels, and heard so many

groans and curses without his equanimity being troubled in the

slightest. But the mute, stoic suffering of the Galilean prophet

beneath the purple cloak and crown of thorns has sent a hitherto

unknown thrill through his very being. In a strange fugitive vision

he utters the words, with no idea of their import : " Ecce Homo !

Behold the Man! " The stern hardhearted Roman is almost overcome with

emotion; he is on the point of pronouncing a sentence of acquittal.

The priests of the Sanhedrim, with eyes intently fixed on him, see

his emotion, and are filled with terror in consequences; they feel

that their prey is escaping them. Raftily they deliberate among

themselves. After a few moments they raise their right hands, and,

turning aside their heads with horrified gesture, exclaim in one

voice : " He has made himself the Son of God! " .

 

 

When Pilate heard that saying, says John, his fear increased. Fear of

what ? What meaning had this for the unbelieving Roman, who heartily

despised both the Jews and their religion, and believed in none other

than Caesar, and the political religion of Rome ? ……. There is a

serious reason for this. Although different meanings were given to

it, the expression " Son of God " was tolerably well known in ancient

esoterism, and Pilate, although sceptical, was not altogether free

from superstition. At Rome, in the Minor Mysteries of Mithras, in

which Roman knights became initiated, he had heard that s Son of God

was a kind of interpreter of divinity. To whatever nation or

religion he belonged, an attempt on his life was a great crime.

Pilate had little faith in these Persian reveries, but the name

troubled him nevertheless, and increased his embarrassment. Seeing

this, the Jews fling at the proconsul the final accusation : " If thou

settest free this man, thou art no friend of Caesar's; whosoever

maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar…… We have no king but

Caesar " . Irresistible argument; denying God is of little import, but

conspiring against Caesar is the crime of crimes. Pilate is obliged

to give way and pronounce sentence of condemnation. Thus, at the end

of his public career Jesus finds himself face to face with the master

of the world, against whom he _ an occult opponent _ has fought

indirectly all his life. The shadow of Caesar sends him to the

cross ! Profound is the logic of events; the Jews have delivered him

up to judgment, but it is the Roman spectre which stretches out his

hand to kill. The body indeed is destroyed, but it is he, the

glorified Christ, whose martyrdom will for ever deprive Caesar of the

aureole ha has usurped, the divine apotheosis, this infernal

blasphemy of absolute power.

 

Pilate, after washing his hands of the blood of the innocent Jesus,

now utters the terrible words : Condemno, ibis in crucem; and the

impatient mob hurries away in the direction of the Golgotha.

 

Following them we find ourselves on the barren heights overlooking

Jerusalem, and bearing the name of Gilgal, Golgotha, or place of

skulls; a sinister desert covered with human bones, for centuries the

scene of horrible punishments. Not a tree can be seen, the ground

seems to bristle with gibbets. It is here that Alexander Janneus had

come with his whole harem to witness the execution of hundreds of

prisoners; here that Varus had crucified two thousand rebels, and now

the gentle Messiah, whose coming had been foretold by the prophets,

was on this same spot to undergo the terrible death penalty, invented

by the atrocious genius of the Phoenicians, and adopted by the

implacable law of Rome. The cohort of the legionaries has formed a

mighty circle on the top of the hill; they drive away with their

lances the few followers who remained faithful to the condemned

Christ. These are Galilean women, mute with despair, who fling

themselves on the ground before the cross. The final hour has come;

the defender of the poor, the feeble and the oppressed, must finish

his task in that state of abject martyrdom reserved for slaves and

robbers. The prophet, consecrated by the Essenes, must allow himself

to be nailed on the cross he had accepted in the vision of Engaddi;

the Son of God must drink of the chalice which had appeared to him in

the Transfiguration, and must descend into the depths of hell and of

all earthly horror…. He has refused the traditional drink prepared by

the pious women of Jerusalem, and which is intended to deaden the

sufferings of the crucified victims. In fullest consciousness will he

suffer the agony of death. Bound to the cruel gibbet, as the stern

hard-hearted soldiers, with mighty hammer-blows drive the nails into

those feet, the object of such passionate reverence, and through

those hands never raised except in blessing, a dull mist of horrible

pain closes his eyes and chokes his throat. Still, amid such

convulsions of pain and infernal anguish, the Saviour pleads for his

executioners : " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do " .

 

Now the cup is being drained to its dregs; the death-agony lasts from

noon to sunset. Moral is added to physical torture, which it

surpasses in malignity. The initiate has abdicated his powers, the

Son of God is about to suffer eclipse; only the man of sorrow

remains. For a few hours he will lose his heaven, to measure and

fathom the depths of the abyss of human suffering. There stands the

cross with its victim, and the superscription _ the proconsul's final

shaft of irony _ " This is the King of Jews ! " As though a mist of

anguish, the crucified one sees the holy city Jerusalem he wished to

glorify now hurling anathemas against him. Where are his disciples ?

They have disappeared in all directions. He hears nothing but the

insults of the members of the Sanhedrim, who, imagining that the

prophet is no longer to be feared, exult with joy at his death

struggles. " He saved others " , they say; " himself he cannot save ! "

Through such perverse blasphemies Jesus sees, in terrifying prophetic

vision, all the crimes that unjust potentates and fanatical priests

are to commit in his name. With his own sign will they pronounce

maledictions, and with his own cross will they crucify. It is not the

gloomy silence of the heavens veiled against him, but rather the

light, lost to humanity which tears from him the despairing

wail : " Father, why hast thou forsaken me ? " Then, in one final

burst, there springs forth from his soul the cry, " It is finished " .

 

Sublime Nazarene, divine Son of Man, even now is the victory thine.

Doubtless thy soul has once again found, in light more dazzling than

before, the heaven of Engaddi and Mount Tabor ! Down through the ages

hast thou seen thy word fleeting victorious, and no other glory hast

thou desired than the uplifted hands and eyes of those thou hast

healed and comforted…… Even now a shudder of dread comes over thy

torturers, as they listen to thy final words so full of meaning but

which they do not understand. The Roman soldiers have turned to gaze

at the strange radiance thy spirit has left on the tranquil

countenance of this corpse, whilst thy slayers look at one another in

wonder and say : " Could this have been a God ? " .

 

Is the drama really finished ? Is the silent though formidable strife

now at an end, the struggle between divine Love and Death which has

united with the reigning powers of earth to overwhelm him, at last

closed ? Where is the victor ? Does triumph remain with those self

satisfied priests as they descend from Calvary well pleased with

their deed, for they have seen the prophet breathe his last, or with

this pale crucified Christ, already livid in death ? For these

faithful, weeping women, whom the Roman legionaries have permitted to

approach the foot of the cross, as well as for the terror-stricken

disciples who have taken refuge in the grotto of Jehoshapat, all is

indeed at an end. The Messiah, who was to be enthroned at Jerusalem,

has died an infamous death on the cross. The Master has disappeared,

and with him hope, the Gospel, the Kingdom of Heaven itself. A gloomy

silence of deep despair hangs over the small community. Even Peter

and John are overwhelmed with grief. Darkness is all around; not a

single ray illumines their souls. And yet, just as, in the Eleusinian

mysteries, profound darkness is followed by a dazzling light, so, in

the Gospels, this deep despair is succeeded by a sudden miraculous

joy which bursts forth like a beam of light at sunrise, and the

joyful cry resounds throughout Judea : " He is risen again ! "

 

Mary Magdalene, wandering near the tomb in the excess of her grief,

was the first to see the Master, and to recognise him by his voice as

he uttered her name, Mary ! Overcome with joy, she threw herself at

his feet. Again she saw Jesus look at her, and wave his hand as

though to prevent her touching him; then the apparition suddenly

vanished, leaving around the Magdalene an atmosphere of warmth and

the delight of a real presence. Afterwards, the holy women met the

Lord, who said to them : " Go ad tell my brethren to proceed to

Galilee, there they shall see me " . That same evening, as the eleven

were met in private, they saw Jesus enter the room. He took a seat in

their midst, and gently reproached them for their unbelief. Then he

said: " Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every

creature " . They listened to him as in a dream, for they seemed to

have completely forgotten his death, and were persuaded that the

Master would not again leave them. However, just as they were about

to speak, they saw him disappear from the midst like a vanishing

light. The echo of his voice still vibrated in their ears. The

apostles, amazed, sought the spot where he had been; there still

lingered a vague light, which quickly disappeared. According to

Mathew and Mark, Jesus appeared once more on a mountain to five

hundred of the brethren assembled by the apostles. He also showed

himself again to the eleven, after which the apparition ceased.

Faith, however, had been created, the first impulse given, and

Christianity was a living force. The apostles, filled with the sacred

fire, went about healing the sick and preaching their Master's

gospel. Three years afterwards, a young Pharisee, named Saul,

animated by violent hatred against the new religion, whose defenders

he persecuted with all the vigour of youth, journeyed to Damascus,

accompanied by several companions. On the way he saw himself suddenly

enveloped in so dazzling a flame of fire, that he fell to the earth.

Trembling, he exclaimed : " Who art thou ? " A voice replied : " I am

Jesus whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the

pricks " . Saul's terrified companions raised him to his feet. They had

heard the voice though they had seen nothing. The young man, blinded

by the flash, recovered his sight only three days afterwards.

Converted to the faith of the Christ, he became Paul, the apostle of

the Gentiles. On this one point is the whole world agreed, that but

for Saul's conversion Christianity, confined as it was to Judea,

would never have conquered the Western world.

 

Such are the facts as related in the New Testament. Whatever efforts

be made to reduce their results to a minimum, and whatever be the

religious or philosophical idea attached to them, they cannot be

regarded as legends, pure and simple, and refused the value of

authentic testimony on all essential points. For eighteen centuries

the waves of doubt and denial have assailed the rock of this

testimony; for a hundred years the weapons of criticism have been

directed against it. Breaches have been effected in places, but its

position remains steadfast. What is there behind the visions of the

apostles ? Elementary theologians, interpreters of the letter, and

agnostic savants may dispute for ever; they will never convert one

another, and their reasonings will be in vain, so long as Theosophy,

the science of the Spirit, has not enlarged their conceptions, and a

superior experimental psychology, the art of laying bare the soul,

left their eyes unopened. Bu from the standpoint of the conscientious

historian, i.e. the authenticity of these facts as psychical

actualities, there is one point on which doubt is impossible : that

the apostles had these apparitions, and that it was impossible to

shake their faith in the resurrection of the Christ. If John's

account be rejected on the ground of its definite compilation about a

hundred years after the death of Jesus, and also Luke's account of

the Christ's appearance to the disciples at Emmaus regarded as a mere

poetical amplification, there still remain the simple and positive

affirmations of Matthew and Mark, which lie at the very root of the

Christian tradition and religion. And even ore solid and indisputable

is the testimony of Paul. Wishing to explain to the Corinthians the

reason of his faith and the basis of the gospel he preaches, he

enumerates in order six successive appearances of Jesus : those to

Peter, to the eleven, to the five hundred, " most of whom " , he

says, " are still living " ; to James, to the assembled apostles, and

finally, his own vision on the way to Damascus. These facts were

communicated to Paul by Peter himself, and by James, three years

after the death of Jesus, just after Paul's conversion, at the time

of his first journey to Jerusalem. Accordingly he received them from

eye-witnesses. Finally, the most indisputable of all these visions is

by no means the least extraordinary; I refer to that of Paul himself.

He continually alludes to it in his Epistles as being the source of

his faith. Given the former psychological condition of Paul and the

nature of the vision, we see it is from without, not from within. Of

an unexpected and terrifying character, it completely changes his

whole being. Like a baptism of fire, it descends upon him, clothes

him in a new and impenetrable armour, and establishes him in he sight

of the whole world as the invincible champion of the Christ.

 

Paul's testimony accordingly possesses a double authority, in so far

as it confirms his own vision and corroborates those of the others.

Whoever might feel inclined to doubt the sincerity of such

affirmations would be obliged to reject en masse all historical

testimony, and to renounce the writing of history. Note, too, that if

critical history is incompatible with an exact weighing and well-

thought-out selection of all documents, philosophical history would

also be impossible, if greatness of effects could not be referred

back to greatness of causes. It would be possible with Celsus,

Strauss, and M; Renan to refuse all objective value to the

resurrection, and consider it as a phenomenon resulting from pure

hallucination. If so, one is obliged to found the greatest religious

revolution of humanity on an aberration of the senses and a mere

delusion of the mind. There can be no denying that the faith in the

resurrection is the basis of historical Christianity. But for this

confirmation of Jesus' teaching by a dazzling fact, his religion

would not even have had a beginning.

 

This event effected a complete revolution in the souls of the

apostles. In consequence of it their whole mental attitude, from

being Judaic, became Christian. The Christ is living in glory, he has

spoken to them. The heavens have opened; the life beyond has entered

into the life within, the dawn of immortality has touched them and

kindled their souls with a fire which nothing can extinguish.

 

Above Israel's tottering earthly kingdom, they have caught a glimpse

of the world-wide heavenly kingdom in all is glory. Hence their

eagerness for the strife, their joy in martyrdom. Jesus' resurrection

gives birth to this mighty impulse and hope which carries the gospel

to all nations and the good tidings to the utmost limits of earth.

For the success of Christianity two things were necessary, as Fabre

d'Olivet has said : that Jesus should be willing to die, and that he

should have the power to rise again.

 

To form a rational idea of the fact of the resurrection, and

understand its religious and philosophical bearing, one must consider

only the phenomenon of the successive appearances, and, from the very

outset, remove from one's mind the absurd idea of the resurrection of

the body, one of the greatest stumbling-blocks of Christian dogma,

which in this particular as in many others, has remained at quite a

childish and rudimentary stage. The disappearance of Jesus' body can

be explained by natural causes, and it is worthy of note that the

bodies of several great adepts have disappeared quite as mysteriously

and without leaving the slightest trace. It has never been discovered

what became of the bodies of Moses, Pythagoras, and Apollonius of

Tyana. Possibly the brothers, known or unknown, who kept watch over

them, destroyed by fire their master's body, to prevent pollution at

the hands of enemies. In any case, it is only when regarded from the

esoteric point of view that the scientific aspect and spiritual

grandeur of the resurrection really appear.

 

By Egyptians as by Persians, of the religion of Zoroaster, both

before and after Jesus, by Israelites and by Christians of the first

and second centuries, the resurrection has been interpreted in two

ways, the one material and absurd, the other spiritual and

theosophical. The first is the popular idea, finally adopted by the

Church after the repression of Gnosticism; the second is the profound

idea of the initiates. According to the first view, the resurrection

signifies the return to life of the material body; in a word, the

reconstitution of the decomposed or dispersed corpse, so it was

imagined, was destined to take place at the coming of the Messiah, or

at the Last Judgment. It is useless to insist on the gross

materialism and absurdity of this conception. To the initiate the

resurrection has a far different meaning. It refers to the doctrine

of the ternary constitution of an. It signifies the purification and

regeneration of the sidereal, ethereal, and fluidic body, which is

the very organism of the soul. This purification may take place

commencing from the present life, through the inner work of the soul,

and a certain method of existence; although, for the generality of

mankid, it finds accomplishment only after death, and then for those

only who, in one way or another, have aspired towards justice and

truth. In the other world hypocrisy is impossible. There souls appear

as they are in reality, they fatally manifest themselves under the

form and colour of their essence; dark and hideous if they are evil;

radiant and beautiful if they are good. Such is the doctrine given by

Paul in the Epistle to the Corinthians, where he formally

says : " There is an animal body and there is a spiritual body " . Jesus

states this symbolically but with greater profundity for those who

can read between the lines in the secret conversation with Nicodemus.

Now, the more a soul is spiritualised, the farther will it be from

the earthly atmosphere; the farther away the cosmic region which

attracts it by the law of affinity, the more difficult its

manifestation to men.

 

Accordingly, superior souls seldom manifest themselves to man, except

in a state of ecstasy or profound slumber. Then, the physical eyes

being closed, the soul, half detached from the body, itself sees the

souls at times. Nevertheless, it sometimes happens that a mighty

prophet, a veritable son of God, manifests himself to this own in the

waking state of consciousness, the better to persuade them by a

striking appeal to sense and imagination. In such instances the

disincarnated soul succeeds in momentarily giving its spiritual body

a visible, sometimes even a tangible appearance, by means of the

special dynamics exercised by spirit over matter, through the

intermediary of the electrical forces of the atmosphere and the

magnetic forces of living bodies.

 

Apparently this is what happened in the case of Jesus. The

appearances related in the New Testament may be placed in one or the

other, alternately, of these two categories _ spiritual vision and

sense apparition. What is certain is that they possessed for the

apostles the character of supreme reality. They would rather have

doubted the existence of heaven and earth than their living communion

with the resurrected Christ; for these soul-stirring appearances

formed the brightest events in their lives, the profoundest truth of

which they were conscious. There is nothing supernatural in them

though there is an unknown element in Nature, its occult continuation

into the Infinite, the flashes of the invisible on the confines of

the visible. In our present corporeal state we can scarcely believe

or even conceive of the reality of the impalpable; in the spiritual

state, it is matter which will appear to us the unreal and non-

existent. In the Spirit is found the synthesis of soul and matter,

two phases of the one substance. Reverting to eternal principles and

final causes, it is the innate laws of intelligence which explain the

dynamics of nature, as it is the study of the soul, by experimental

psychology which explains the laws of life.

 

Consequently the resurrection, esoterically understood as I have just

pointed out, was at once the necessary conclusion f the life of Jesus

and the indispensable preface to the historical evolution of

Christianity, _ necessary conclusion, for Jesus had on several

occasions announced it to his disciples. The power of appearing to

them in triumphant glory after his death was due to the purity and

innate force of his soul, increased a hundred fold by the grandeur of

the effort and of the accomplished work.

 

Regarded from without, and from an earthly point of view, the

Messianic drama ends on the cross. Though sublime in itself, there is

yet lacking the fulfilment of the promise. Regarded from within, from

the inmost consciousness of the Christ, and from the heavenly point

of view, the drama contains three acts, whose summits are marked by

the temptation, the Transfiguration, and the Resurrection. These

three phases represent in other terms, the Initiation of the Christ,

the total Revelation, and the Crowning of the work. They correspond

to what the apostles and the Christian initiates of the first

centuries called the Mysteries of the Father, of the Son, and of the

Holy Ghost.

 

A necessary crowning, as I have said, of the life of the Christ, and

an indispensable preface to the historical evolution of Christianity.

The ship, built on the beach, needed to be launched on the ocean. The

resurrection was, in addition, as a flood of light thrown on the

whole esoteric life of Jesus. We have no occasion for astonishment at

finding that the early Christians were, so to speak, dazzled and

blinded by the wonderful event, that they often gave a literal

interpretation to the Master's teaching, and mistook the meaning of

his words. But in these days, now that the human spirit has traversed

ages, religions, and sciences, we can divine what a Saint Paul, a

Saint John, what Jesus himself understood by the mysteries of the

Father and of the Spirit. We see that they contained the very highest

and truest elements of the psychical science and theosophic intuition

of the East. We also see the power of renewed expansion given by the

Christ to the ancient eternal truth by the grandeur of his love and

the energy of his will.

 

Finally, we see the metaphysical and practical side of Christianity,

the cause of its power and vitality.

 

The old theosophists of Asia were acquainted with transcendent truth.

The Brahmans even found the key to the past and future life by

formulating the organic law of reincarnation and the alteration of

lives. In entering the life beyond, however, and contemplating

Eternity, they forgot terrestrial realisation, individual and social

life. Greece, at first initiated into the same truths under more

veiled and anthropomorphic forms, became attached by its very genius

to the natural terrestrial life. This enabled it to reveal the

immortal laws of Beauty, and to formulate the principles of the

sciences of observation. From this point of view, its conception of

the life beyond gradually diminished and darkened. Jesus, in his

breadth and universality, embraces both sides of life. In the Lords

Prayer, which sums up his teaching, he says : " Thy kingdom come on

earth as in heaven " . Now the kingdom of the divine on earth signifies

the fulfilment of the moral and social law in all its richness, in

all the glory of the Beautiful, the Good, and the True. Thus the

magic of his doctrine, his _ in a sense _ unlimited power of

development, dwell in the unity of his moral and metaphysical

aspects, his ardent faith in the life eternal, and the necessity he

felt of beginning it in the world by a life of action and love. The

Christ says to the soul, cast down by earthly trouble : " Rise; heaven

is thy fatherland; still in order to believe this and to attain

thereto, prove it here below by deeds of love " .