that must have been aroused in the mystic mind of Jesus at this
horrible sight. How His soul must have been outraged at this
prostitution of the sacred rite! And what would have been His thoughts
had He known that centuries after, a great religion would stand,
bearing His name, the followers of which would be carried away with
this same false idea of sacrificial blood, which would be voiced in
hymns about "A fountain filled with blood, flowing from Immanuel's
veins," and about "sinners plunged beneath that bloody flood losing
all their guilty stains?" Alas, for the prostitution of sacred truths
and teachings. No wonder that a people so saturated with the
abominable ideas of a Deity delighting in this flow of blood should
have afterward put to death the greatest man of their race--a Being
who came to bring them the highest mystic and occult truths. And their
prototypes have survived through the centuries, even unto today,
insisting upon this idea of blood sacrifice and death atonement,
unworthy of any people except the worshipers of some heathen devil-god
in the remote sections of darkest Africa.
Disgusted and outraged by this barbarous sight, Jesus, the boy, stole
away from the side of His parents, and sought the remote chambers and
corridors of the Temple where were to be found the great teachers of
the Law and of the Kaballah, surrounded by their students. Here the
boy sat and listened to the teachings and disputations of the teachers
and exponents of the doctrines. From one group to another He wandered,
and listened, and pondered, and thought. He compared the teachings,
and submitted the various ideas to the touchstone of the truth as He
found it within His own mind. The hours rapidly passed by unnoticed by
the boy, who found Himself amidst such congenial environments for the
first time. The talks with the travelers of the caravans paled into
insignificance when compared with these of the great occult teachers
of Israel. For be it remembered that it was the custom of the great
teachers of that day to so instruct those who were attracted to their
company. And Jerusalem being the centre of the culture and learning of
Israel, the great teachers dwelt there. And so it will be seen that
Jesus now found Himself at the very fountain-head of the Hebrew Secret
Doctrines, and in the actual presence of the great teachers.
On the third day, there began a breaking-up of the vast gathering of
the two million of people who had made the pilgrimage to the Holy
City. Those poorer in purse were the first to leave, after the
obligatory rites of the first two days had been performed. And Joseph
and Mary were among those preparing to retrace their steps to their
distant homes. Their friends and neighbors gathered together, and the
preparations for the return were completed. But at the last moment,
the parents discovered that the boy, Jesus, was missing. They were
alarmed, but friends told them that their boy had been seen in the
company of kinsmen and neighbors traveling along the same road, who
had preceded them but a few hours. Somewhat reassured, the parents
left with their company, hoping that they would overtake the boy
before nightfall. But when they reached the first station on the
caravan route--a village called Beroth--and the night descended upon
them, and the boy failed to appear among the neighbors and kinsmen,
the parents were sorely distressed. They slept but little that night,
and when the first rays of dawn appeared, they parted from the
company, and retraced their way back to Jerusalem, in search of the
boy apparently lost in the great capital amid the hundreds of
thousands of pilgrims.
Every mother and father will enter into the feelings of Joseph and
Mary in their frantic return to the city, and in their subsequent
search for the lost child. They inquired here and there for the boy,
but not a trace of him was found. And night came without a ray of
hope. And the next day was likewise barren of results. And the next
day after. For three days the devoted parents searched high and low
for their beloved child--but no word of encouragement came to them.
The boy had seemingly dropped out of sight in the vast crowds and
winding streets. The parents reproached themselves for their lack of
care and caution. None but a parent can imagine their anguish and
terror.
They visited the many courts of the Temple many times, but no sight or
word of the boy rewarded their search. The bloody altars, the showy
costumes of the priests; the chants; the readings; seemed like mockery
to them. They wished themselves back in their humble village, with
their boy by their side. They prayed and besought Jehovah to grant
their hopes and desire, but no answer came.
Then, on the last day, a strange event occurred. The weary and heart
broken parents wandered once more into the Temple--this time visiting
one of the less frequented courts. They saw a crowd gathered--something
of importance was occurring. Almost instinctively they drew near to the
crowd. And then amidst the unusual silence of the people they heard a
boyish voice raised to a pitch adapted to a large circle of hearers,
and speaking in the tones of authority. It was the voice of the boy,
Jesus!
With eager feet the couple pushed forward, unto the very inner row of
the circle. And there, wonder of wonders, they saw their child in the
centre of the most celebrated teachers and doctors of the Law in all
Israel. With a rapt expression in his eyes, as if He were gazing upon
things not of this world, the boy Jesus was standing in a position and
attitude of authority, and around him were grouped the greatest minds
of the day and land, in respectful attention, while at a further
distance stood the great circle of the common people.
When one remembers the Jewish racial trait of reverence for age, and
the consequent submission of Youth, one will better understand the
unusual spectacle that burst upon the gaze of Joseph and Mary. A mere
boy--a child--daring to even speak boldly in the presence of the aged
teachers was unheard of, and the thought of such a one actually
presuming to dispute, argue and teach, in such an assembly, was like
unto a miracle. And such it was!
The boy spoke with the air and in the tones of a Master. He met the
most subtle arguments and objections of the Elders with the power of
the keenest intellect and spiritual insight. He brushed aside the
sophistries with a contemptuous phrase, and brought back the argument
to the vital point.
The crowd gathered in greater volume, the gray heads and beards grew
more and more respectful. It was evident to all that a Master had
arisen in Israel in the form of a boy of thirteen. The MASTER was
apparent in tone, gesture, and thought. The Mystic had found his first
audience, and his congregation was composed of the leading thinkers
and teachers of the land. The insight of the Magi was verified!
Then in a momentary pause in the argument, the stifled cry of a woman
was heard--the voice of the Mother. The crowd turned impatient,
reproachful glances upon Mary, who had been unable to restrain her
emotion. But the boy, looking sadly but affectionately at his lost
parents, gave her a reassuring glance, which at the same time bade her
remain still until he had finished his discourse. And the parents
obeyed the newly awakened will of their child.
The teaching ended, the boy stepped from his position with the air of
one of the Elders, and rejoined his parents, who passed as rapidly as
possible from the wondering crowd. Then his mother reproached him,
telling him of their distress and wearisome search. The boy listened
calmly and patiently until she had finished. Then he asked, with his
newly acquired air of authority, "Why sought ye me?" And when they
answered him in the customary manner of parents, the boy took on still
a greater air of authority, and in tones that though kindly, were full
of power, he replied, "Knew ye not, that I must be in my Father's
House? I must be about the things of my Father." And the parents,
feeling themselves in the presence of the Mystery that had ever been
about the child, followed Him silently from the Temple grounds.
And here closes the New Testament story of the boy Jesus at the age of
thirteen, which story is not resumed until His appearance at the place
of the preaching of John the Baptist, _over seventeen years later_,
when the boy had reached the age of a man of thirty years. When and
how did he spend those seventeen years? The New Testament is totally
silent on this score. Can anyone who has read the above imagine that
Jesus spent these years as a growing youth and young man, working at
His father's carpenter bench in the village of Nazareth? Would not the
Master, having found his strength and power, have insisted upon
developing the same? Could the Divine Genius once self-recognized be
content to be obscured amid material pursuits? The New Testament is
silent, but the Occult Traditions and Mystic Legends tell us the story
of the missing seventeen years, and these we shall now give to you.
* * * * *
The legends and traditions of the mystic and occult organizations and
brotherhoods tell us that after the occurrence of Jesus and the Elders
in the Temple, and his recovery by his parents, the latter were
approached by members of the secret organization to which the Magi
belonged, who pointed out to the parents the injustice of the plan of
keeping the lad at the carpenter's bench when He had shown evidences
of such a marvelous spiritual development and such a wonderful
intellectual grasp of weighty subjects. It is told that after a long
and serious consideration of the matter the parents finally consented
to the plan advanced by the Magi, and allowed them to take the lad
with them into their own land and retreats that He might there receive
the instructions for which His soul craved, and for which His mind was
fitted.
It is true that the New Testament does not corroborate these occult
legends, but it is likewise true that it says nothing to the contrary.
It is silent regarding this important period of between seventeen and
eighteen years. It is to be remembered that when He appeared upon the
scene of John's ministration, the latter did not recognize Him,
whereas had Jesus remained about His home, John, his cousin, would
have been acquainted with his features and personal appearance.
The occult teachings inform us that the seventeen or eighteen years of
Jesus' life regarding which the Gospels are silent, were filled with
travels in far and distant lands, where the youth and young man was
instructed in the occult lore and wisdom of the different schools. It
is taught that He was taken into India, and Egypt, and Persia, and
other far regions, living for several years at each important center,
and being initiated into the various brotherhoods, orders, and bodies
having their headquarters there. Some of the Egyptians' orders have
traditions of a young Master who sojourned among them, and such is
likewise the case in Persia and in India. Even among the lamasaries
hidden in Thibet and in the Himalayan Mountains are to be found
legends and stories regarding the marvelous young Master who once
visited there and absorbed their wisdom and secret knowledge.
More than this, there are traditions among the Brahmans, Buddhists and
Zoroastrians, telling of a strange young teacher who appeared among
them, who taught marvelous truths and who aroused great opposition
among the priests of the various religions of India and Persia, owing
to his preaching against priestcraft and formalism, and also by his
bitter opposition to all forms of caste distinctions and restrictions.
And this, too, is in accord with the occult legends which teach that
from about the age of twenty-one until the age of nearly thirty years
Jesus pursued a ministry among the people of India and Persia and
neighboring countries, returning at last to his native land where He
conducted a ministry extending over the last three years of His life.
The occult legends inform us that He aroused great interest among the
people of each land visited by Him, and that He also aroused the most
bitter opposition among the priests, for He always opposed formalism
and priestcraft, and sought to lead the people back to the Spirit of
the Truth, and away from the ceremonies and forms which have always
served to dim and becloud the Light of the Spirit. He taught always
the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. He sought to bring
the great Occult Truths down to the comprehension of the masses of
people who had lost the Spirit of the Truth in their observance of
outward forms and pretentious ceremonies.
It is related that in India He brought down upon His head the wrath of
the Brahmin upholders of the caste distinctions, that curse of India.
He dwelt in the huts of the Sudras, the lowest of all of the Hindu
castes, and was therefore regarded as a pariah by the higher classes.
Everywhere He was regarded as a firebrand and a disturber of
established social order by the priests and high-caste people. He was
an agitator, a rebel, a religious renegade, a socialist, a dangerous
man, an "undesirable citizen," to those in authority in those lands.
But the seeds of His wisdom were sown right and left, and in the Hindu
religions of today, and in the teachings of other Oriental countries,
may be found traces of Truth, the resemblance of which to the recorded
teachings of Jesus, show that they came from the same source, and have
sorely disturbed the Christian missionaries that have since visited
these lands.
And so, slowly and patiently, Jesus wended his way homeward toward
Israel, where He was to complete His ministry by three years' work
among His own race, and where He was to again raise up against Himself
the opposition of the priests and the upper classes which would
finally result in His death. He was a rebel against the established
order of things, and He met the fate reserved for those who live ahead
of their time.
And, as from the first days of His ministry to His last, so it is
today, the real teachings of the Man of Sorrows reach more readily the
heart of the plain people, while they are reviled and combatted by
those in ecclesiastical and temporal authority, even though these
people claim allegiance to Him and wear His livery. He was ever the
friend of the poor and oppressed, and hated by those in authority.
And so, you see the Occult teachings show Jesus to have been a
world-wide teacher, instead of a mere Jewish prophet. The world was
his audience, and all races His hearers.
He planted His seeds of Truth in the bosom of many religions instead
of but one, and these seeds are beginning to bear their best fruit
even now at this late day, when the truth of the Fatherhood of God and
the Brotherhood of Man is beginning to be felt by all nations alike,
and is growing strong enough to break down the old which have divided
brother from brother, and creed from creed. Christianity--true
Christianity--is not a mere creed, but a great human and divine Truth
that will rise above all petty distinctions of race and creed and will
at last shine on all men alike, gathering them into one fold of
Universal Brotherhood.
May the Great Day be hastened!
* * * * *
And so we leave Jesus, wending his way slowly homeward toward Judea,
the land of His father and the place of His birth. Dropping a word
here--planting a seed there--onward He pursued His way. Visiting this
mystic brotherhood, and resting a while in another occult retreat, He
slowly retraced the journey of His youth. But while His outward
journey was that of a student traveling forth to complete His
education, He returned as a Master and Teacher, bearing and sowing the
seeds of a great Truth, which was to grow and bring forth great fruit,
and which, in time, would spread over all the world in its primitive
purity, notwithstanding its betrayal and corruption at the hands of
those in whose keeping He left it when he passed away from the scene
of His labors.
Jesus came as a World Prophet, not as a mere Jewish holy-man, and
still less as a Hebrew Messiah destined to sit upon the throne of His
father David. And He left His mark upon all of the great peoples of
earth by His journey among them. Throughout Persia are found many
traditions of Issa, the young Master who appeared in that land
centuries ago, and who taught the Fatherhood of God and the
Brotherhood of Man. Among the Hindus are found strange traditions of
Jesoph or Josa, a young ascetic, who passed through the Hind long
since, denouncing the established laws of caste, and consorting with
the common people, who, as in Israel, "heard him gladly." Even in
China are found similar tales of the young religious firebrand,
preaching ever the Brotherhood of Man--ever known as the Friend of the
Poor. On and on He went, sowing the seeds of human freedom and the
casting off of the yoke of ecclesiastical tyranny and formalism, which
seeds are springing unto growth even at this late day. Yea, the Spirit
of His real teachings are even now bearing fruit in the hearts of men,
and though nearly two thousand years have passed by the "soul" of His
social teachings still "goes marching on" round and round the world.
THE FOURTH LESSON.
THE BEGINNING OF THE MINISTRY.
When Jesus reached his native land, after the years of travel in
India, Persia and Egypt, he is believed by the occultists to have
spent at least one year among the various lodges and retreats of the
Essenes. By reference to the first lesson of this series you will see
who and what was this great mystic organization--the Essenic
Brotherhood. While resting and studying in their retreats His
attention was diverted to the work of Johannen--John the Baptist--and
He saw there an opening wedge for the great work that He felt called
upon to do among His own people. Dreams of converting His own
race--the Jews--to His conception of Truth and Life, crept over Him,
and he determined to make this work His great life task.
The feeling of race is hard to overcome and eradicate, and Jesus felt
that, after all, here He was at last, at home, among His own people,
and the ties of blood and race reasserted themselves. He put aside His
previous thoughts of a world-wandering life, and decided to plant the
standard of the Truth in Israel, so that from the capital of the
Chosen People the Light of the Spirit might shine forth to all the
world. It was Jesus the man--Jesus the Jew--that made this choice.
From the broader, higher point of view He had no race; no country; no
people;--but His man nature was too strong, and in yielding to it he
sowed the seeds for His final undoing.
Had he merely passed through Judea as a traveling missionary, as had
done many others before Him, he would have escaped the punishment of
the government. Although He would have aroused the hatred and
opposition of the priests, He would have not laid Himself open to the
charge of wishing to become the King of the Jews, or the Jewish
Messiah, come to resume the throne of David, His forefather. But it
avails us nought to indulge in speculations of this kind, for who
knows what part Destiny or Fate plays in the Great Universal plan--who
knows where Free-Will terminates and Destiny moves the pieces on the
board, that the Great Game of Universal Life be played according to
the plan?
While among the Essenes, as we have said, Jesus first heard of John,
and determined to use the ministry of the latter as an opening wedge
for His own great work. He communicated to the Essenic Fathers His
determination to travel to John's field of work later on, and the
Fathers sent word of this to John. The legends have it that John did
not know who was coming, being merely informed that a great Master
from foreign parts would join him later on, and that he, John, should
prepare the people for his coming.
And John followed these instructions from his superiors in the Essenic
Brotherhood to the letter, as you will see by reference to our first
lesson, and to the New Testament. He preached repentance;
righteousness; the Essenic rite of Baptism; and above all the Coming
of the Master. He bade his hearers repent--"repent ye! for the Kingdom
of Heaven is at hand"!--"repent ye! for the Master cometh!" cried he
in forceful tones.
And when his people gathered around him and asked whether he, John,
were not indeed the Master, he answered them, saying, "Nay, I am not
He whom thou seekest. After me there cometh one whose sandals I am not
worthy to unloose. I baptize thee with water, but He shall baptize
thee with the Fire of the Spirit that is within Him!" It was ever and
always this exhortation toward fitness for the coming of the Master.
John was a true Mystic, who sank his personality in the Work he was
called on to do, and who was proud to be but the Forerunner of the
Master, of whose coming he had been informed by the Brotherhood.
And, as we have told you in the first lesson, one day there came
before him, a young man, of a dignified, calm appearance, gazing upon
him with the expressive eyes of the true Mystic. The stranger asked to
be baptized, but John, having perceived the occult rank of the
stranger by means of the signs and symbols of the Brotherhood,
rebelled at the Master receiving baptism at the hands of himself, one
far below the occult rank of the stranger. But Jesus, the stranger,
said to John, "Suffer it to be," and stepped into the water to receive
the mystic rite again, as a token to the people that He had come as
one of them.
And then occurred that strange event, with which you are familiar,
when a dove descended as if from Heaven and rested over the head of
the stranger, and a soft voice, even as the sighing of the wind
through the trees, was heard, whispering, "This is my beloved son, in
whom I am well pleased." And then the stranger, evidently awed by the
strange message from the Beyond, passed away from the multitude, and
bent his way toward the wilderness, as if in need of a retreat in
which he could meditate over the events of the day, and regarding the
work which He could now dimly see stretching its way before Him.
The average student of the New Testament passes over the event of
Jesus in the Wilderness, with little or no emotion, regarding it as a
mere incident in His early career. Not so with the mystic or
occultist, who knows, from the teachings of his order, that in the
Wilderness Jesus was subjected to a severe occult test, designed to
develop His power, and test His endurance. In fact, as every advanced
member of any of the great occult orders knows, the occult degree
known as "The Ordeal of the Wilderness" is based upon this mystic
experience of Jesus, and is intended to symbolize the tests to which
He was subjected. Let us consider this event so fraught with meaning
and importance to all true occultists.
The Wilderness toward which Jesus diverted His steps, lay afar off
from the river in which the rites of Baptism had been performed.
Leaving behind him the fertile banks, and acres, of cultivated land,
He approached the terrible Wilderness which even the natives of that
part of the country regarded with superstitious horror. It was one of
the weirdest and dreariest spots in even that weird and dreary portion
of the country. The Jews called it "The Abode of Horror"; "The
Desolate Place of Terror"; "The Appalling Region"; and other names
suggestive of the superstitious dread which it inspired in their
hearts. The Mystery of the Desert Places hung heavy over this place,
and none but the stoutest hearts ventured within its precincts. Though
akin to the desert, the place abounded in dreary and forbidding hills,
crags, ridges and canyons. Those of our readers who have ever traveled
across the American continent and have seen some of the desolate
places of the American Desert, and who have read of the terrors of
Death Valley, or the Alkali Lands, may form an idea of the nature of
this Wilderness toward which the Master was traveling.
All normal vegetation gradually disappeared as He pressed further and
further into this terrible place, until naught remained but the
scraggy vegetation peculiar to these waste places--those forms of
plant life that in their struggle for existence had managed to survive
under such adverse conditions as to give the naturalist the impression
that the very laws of natural plant life have been defied and
overcome.