disappeared, until at last no signs of such life remained, other than
the soaring vultures overhead and the occasional serpent and crawling
things under foot. The silence of the waste places was upon the
traveler, brooding heavily over Him and all around the places upon
which He set His foot, descending more heavily upon Him each moment of
His advance.
Then came a momentary break in the frightful scene. He passed through
the last inhabited spot in the approach to the heart of the
Wilderness--the tiny village of Engedi, where were located the ancient
limestone reservoirs of water which supplied the lower regions of the
territory. The few inhabitants of this remote outpost of primitive
civilization gazed in wonder and awe at the lonely figure passing them
with unseeing eyes and with gaze seemingly able to pierce the
forbidding hills which loomed up in the distance hiding lonely
recesses into which the foot of man had never trodden, even the
boldest of the desert people being deterred from a visit thereto by
the weird tales of unholy creatures and unhallowed things, which made
these places the scene of their uncanny meetings and diabolical
orgies.
On, and on, pressed the Master, giving but slight heed to the desolate
scene which now showed naught but gloomy hills, dark canyons, and bare
rocks, relieved only by the occasional bunches of stringy desert grass
and weird forms of cacti bristling with the protective spines which is
their armor against their enemies.
At last the wanderer reached the summit of one of the higher
foot-hills and gazed at the scene spreading itself before Him. And
that scene was one that would have affrighted the heart of an ordinary
man. Behind Him was the country through which He had passed, which
though black and discouraging was as a paradise to the country which
lay ahead of Him. There below and behind Him were the caves and rude
dwellings of the outlaws and fugitives from justice who had sought the
doubtful advantage of security from the laws of man. And far away in
the distance were the scenes of John the Baptist's ministry, where He
could see in imagination the multitude discussing the advent of the
strange Master, who had been vouched for by the Voice, but who had
stolen swiftly away from the scene, and had fled the crowds who would
have gladly worshipped Him as a Master and have obeyed His slightest
command.
Then as the darkness of the succeeding nights fell upon Him, He would
sleep on some wild mountain cliff, on the edge of some mighty
precipice, the sides of which dropped down a thousand feet or more.
But these things disturbed Him not. On and on He pressed at the
appearance of each dawn. Without food He boldly moved forward to the
Heart of the Hills, where the Spirit guided Him to the scene of some
great spiritual struggle which he intuitively knew lay before Him.
The Words of the Voice haunted Him still, though He lacked a full
understanding of them, for He had not yet unfolded the utmost recesses
of His Spiritual Mind. "This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased"--what meant these words? And still, no answer came to that
cry of His soul which sought in vain for a freeing of that riddle.
And still on and on He pressed, until at last He mounted the steep
sides of the barren forbidding mountain of Quarantana, beyond which He
felt that His struggle was to begin. No food was to be found--He must
fight the battle unaided by the material sustenance that ordinary men
find necessary for life and strength. And still He had not received
the answer to the cry of His soul. The rocks beneath His feet--the
blue sky above His head--the lofty peaks of Moab and Gilead in the
distance--gave no answer to the fierce insistent desire for the answer
to the Riddle of the Voice. The answer must come from Within, and from
Himself only. And in the Heart of the Wilderness He must remain,
without food, without shelter, without human companionship, until the
Answer came. And as it was with the Master, so is it with the
follower--all who attain the point of unfoldment at which the Answer
is alone possible, must experience that awful feeling of "aloneness"
and spiritual hunger, and frightful remoteness from all that the world
values, before the Answer comes from Within--from the Holy of Holies
of the Spirit.
* * * * *
To realize the nature of the spiritual struggle that awaited Jesus in
the Wilderness--that struggle that would bring Him face to face with
His own soul, we must understand the Jewish longing and expectation of
the Messiah. The Messianic traditions had taken a strong hold upon the
minds of the Jewish people, and it needed but the spark of a strong
personality to set all Israel into a blaze which would burn fiercely
and destroy the foreign influences which have smothered the national
spirit. The idea of a Messiah springing from the loins of David, and
coming to take His rightful place as the King of the Jews, was
imbedded in the heart of every Jew worthy of the name. Israel was
oppressed by its conquerors, and made subject to a foreign yoke, but
when the Messiah would come to deliver Israel, every Jew would arise
to drive out the foreign invaders and conquerors--the yoke of Rome
would be thrown off, and Israel would once more take its place among
the nations of the earth.
Jesus knew full well the fact of this national hope. It had been
installed into His mind from childhood. He had pondered over it often
during the time of His wanderings and sojourn in foreign lands. The
occult legends, however, make no mention of His having ever thought of
Himself as the Messiah until he was about to re-enter His own land
after His years of foreign study and ministry. It is thought that the
idea of His being the long expected Messiah was first suggested by
some of the Essenic teachers, when He rested with them for awhile
before appearing before John the Baptist. It was pointed out to Him
that the marvelous events surrounding His birth indicated that He was
a marked individual destined to play an important part in the history
of the World. Then why was it not reasonable to believe that that role
was to be that of the Messiah come to sit on the throne of His father
David, and destined to bring Israel from her now obscure position to
once more shine as a bright star in the firmament of nations? Why was
it not reasonable that He was to lead the Chosen People to their own?
Jesus began to ponder over these things. He had absolutely no material
ambitions for Himself and all His impulses and inclinations were for
the life of an occult ascetic. But the idea of a redeemed and
regenerated Israel was one calculated to fire the blood of any Jew,
even though the element of personal ambition might be lacking in him.
He had always realized that in some way He was different from other
men, and that some great work lay ahead of Him, but He had never
understood His own nature, nor the work He was to do. And it is not to
be wondered that the talk among the Essenes caused Him to ponder
carefully over the idea expressed by them. And then the wonderful
event of the dove, and the Voice, upon the occasion of His baptism,
seemed almost to verify the idea of the Essenes. Was He indeed the
long-expected Deliverer of Israel? Surely He must find this out--He
must wring the answer from the inmost recesses of His soul. And so, He
sought refuge in the Wilderness, intuitively feeling that there amidst
the solitude and desolation, He would fight His fight and receive His
answer.
He felt that He had come to a most important phase of His life's work,
and the question of "What Am I?" must be settled, once and for
all,--then and there. And so He left behind Him the admiring and
worshipful crowds of John's following, and sought the solitude of the
waste places of the Wilderness, in which He felt He would come face to
face with His own soul, and demand and receive its answer.
* * * * *
And up in the inmost recesses of the Heart of the Wilderness,
Jesus wrestled in spirit with Himself for many days, without
food or nourishment, and without shelter. And the struggle was
terrific--worthy of such a great soul. First the body's insistent
needs were to be fought and mastered. It is related that the climax of
the physical struggle came one day when the Instinctive Mind, which
attends to the physical functions, made a desperate and final demand
upon Him. It cried aloud for bread with all the force of its nature.
It tempted Him with the fact that by His own occult powers He was able
to convert the very stones into bread, and it demanded that He work
the miracle for His own physical needs--a practice deemed most
unworthy by all true occultists and mystics. "Turn this stone into
bread, and eat" cried the voice of the Tempter. But Jesus resisted the
temptation although He knew that by the power of His concentrated
thought He had but first to mentally picture the stone as bread and
then _will_ that it be so materialized. The miraculous power which
afterward turned water into wine, and which was again used to feed the
multitude with the loaves and the fishes, was available to Him at that
moment in order to satisfy the cravings of His body, and to break His
fast.
None but the advanced occultist who has known what it was to be
tempted to use his mysterious powers to satisfy his personal wants,
can appreciate the nature of the struggle through which Jesus passed,
and from which He emerged victorious. And like the occult Master that
He was, He summoned His Inner Forces and beat off the Tempter.
* * * * *
But a still greater temptation than this arose to try Him to the
utmost. He found Himself brought face to face with the idea of
Messiahship, and Kingship of the Jews, of which we spoke. Was He the
Messiah? And if so, what must be His course of life and action? Was He
destined to throw aside the robe and staff of the ascetic, and to don
the royal purple and the sceptre? Was He to forsake the role of the
spiritual guide and teacher, and to become the King and Ruler over the
people of Israel? These were the questions He asked His soul, and for
which He demanded an answer.
And the mystic legends tell us that His Spirit answered by showing Him
two sets of mental pictures, with the assurance that _He could choose
either, at will, and cause it to become realized_.
The first picture showed Him true to His spiritual instincts, and
loyal to His mission, but which rendered Him indeed the "Man of
Sorrows." He saw himself continuing to sow the seeds of Truth, which
would, centuries after, spring up, blossom and bear fruit to nourish
the world, but which would now bring down upon His head the hatred and
persecution of those in power and authority. And He saw each
successive step, each showing the approach of the end, until at last
He saw Himself crowned with thorns and meeting the death of a criminal
on the cross, between two base criminals of the lowest classes of men.
All this He saw and even His brave heart felt a deadly sickness at the
ignominious end of it all--the apparent failure of His earthly
mission. But it is related that some of the mighty intelligences which
dwell upon the higher planes of existence, gathered around Him, and
gave Him words of encouragement and hope and resolve. He found Himself
literally in the midst of the Heavenly Host, and receiving the
inspiration of its presence.
Then this picture--and the Host of Invisible Helpers--faded away, and
the second picture began to appear before the vision of the lonely
dweller of the Wilderness. He saw the picture of Himself descending
the mountain, and announcing Himself as the Messiah--the King of the
Jews--who had come to lead His Chosen People to victory and
deliverance. He saw Himself acclaimed as the Promised One of Israel,
and the multitude flocking to His banners. He saw Himself at the head
of a great conquering army, marching toward Jerusalem. He saw Himself
making use of His highly developed occult powers to read the minds of
the enemy and thus know their every movement and intention, and the
means to overcome them. He saw Himself miraculously arming and feeding
His hosts of battle. He saw Himself smiting the enemy with His occult
powers and forces. He saw the yoke of Rome being cast off, and its
phalanxes fleeing across the borders in terror and disgraceful defeat.
He saw Himself mounting the throne of David, His forefather. He saw
Himself instituting a reign of the highest type, which would make of
Israel the leading nation of the world. He saw Israel's sphere of
influence extending in all directions, until Persia, Egypt, Greece and
even the once-feared Rome, become tributary nations. He saw Himself in
the triumphant chariot on some great feast day of victory, with Caesar
himself tied to the tail of His chariot--a slave to Israel's King. He
saw His royal court outrivaling that of Solomon, and becoming the
center of the world. He saw Jerusalem as the capital of the world, and
He, Jesus of Nazareth, son of David the King, as its Ruler, its hero,
its demi-god. The very apotheosis of human success showed in the
picture of Himself and His Beloved Israel in the picture.
And then the Temple was seen to be the Center of the Religious thought
of the World. The Religion of the Jews, as modified by His own
advanced views, would be the religion of all men. And he would be the
favored mouthpiece of the God of Israel. All the dreams of the Hebrew
Fathers would be realized in Him, the Messiah of the New Israel whose
capital would be Jerusalem, the Queen of the World.
And all this by simply the exercise of his occult powers under the
direction of HIS WILL. It is related that accompanying this second
picture and attracted by its mighty power, came all the great
thought-waves of the world which had been thought by men of all times
who thought and acted out the Dreams of Power. These clouds settled
down upon Him like a heavy fog, and their vibrations were almost
overpowering. And also came the hosts of the disembodied souls of
those who while living had sought or gained power. And each strove to
beat into His brain the Desire of Power. Never in the history of man
have the Powers of Darkness so gathered together for attack upon the
mind of a mortal man. Would it have been any wonder had even such a
man as Jesus succumbed?
But He did not succumb. Rallying His Inner Force to His rescue He beat
back the attacking horde, and by an effort of His Will, He swept both
picture and tempters away into oblivion, crying indignantly "Thou
darest to tempt even me, thy Lord and Master. Get thee behind me thou
Fiends of Darkness"!
And so the Temptation of the Wilderness failed, and Jesus received His
answer from His soul, and He descended the mountains, back to the
haunts of men--back to the scene of His three years' labors and
suffering, and back to His Death. And He knew full well all that
awaited Him there, for had He not seen the First Picture?
Jesus had chosen His career.
* * * * *
The Master descended from the mountains and forsook the Wilderness for
the place in which John and his followers were gathered. Resting for a
time, and refreshing Himself with food and drink, He gathered together
His energies for His great work.
The followers of John gathered around Him, filled with the idea that
He was the Messiah come to lead them to victory and triumph. But He
disappointed them by His calm, simple manner, and His disavowal of
royal claims. "What seek ye of me?" he asked them, and many, abashed,
left His circle and returned to the crowd. But a few humble souls
remained and around these few gathered a few more, until at last a
little band of faithful students was formed--the first band of
Christian disciples. This band was composed almost entirely of
fishermen and men of similar humble occupations. There was an absence
of people of rank or social position. His people were of the "plain
people" which have furnished the recruits for every great religion.
And after a time, Jesus moved away from the place, followed by His
band of disciples, which drew new members from each place of
gathering. Some stayed but for a short time, while others replaced the
faint hearted ones of little faith. But the band steadily grew, until
it began to attract the attention of the authorities and the public.
Jesus constantly disclaimed being the Messiah, but the report that
such indeed He was, began to spread and the authorities began that
system of spying and watching which followed His footsteps for three
years, and which finally resulted in His death on the Cross. And this
suspicion was encouraged by the Jewish priesthood which began to hate
the young teacher whose opposition to their tyranny and formalism was
quite marked.
The band one day came to a small village in Galilee, and Jesus began
His usual meetings and teaching. Near where they gathered was a house
at which preparations were being made for a wedding feast. The wedding
ceremony has always been an important occasion among the Jews. The
most elaborate preparations consistent with the size of the purse of
the girl's parents are indulged in. Relatives from far and near gather
to the feast. Jesus happened to be a distant kinsman of the bride, and
according to custom He was bidden to the feast.
The guests began to gather, each depositing his sandals in the outer
court, and entering the guest chamber barefooted, after carefully
bathing his feet and ankles after the custom still prevailing in
Oriental countries. Jesus was accompanied by a few of His faithful
followers. His mother, and His several brothers were also among the
blood-relations present at the feast.
His appearance caused much interest and comment among the other
guests. To some He was simply a traveling religious teacher, not
uncommon in that land, to others He was an inspired prophet, bringing
a wonderful Message to the Jewish people, as He had to the Persians,
Egyptians and Hindus; to others he was more than this, and whispers of
"He is the Messiah"; "The King of Israel," etc., began to circulate
among those present, causing interest, uneasiness or disgust,
according to the views of the hearers. But whenever He moved, He
attracted attention by His manner, attitude and expression. All felt
that here indeed was an Individual. Strange stories of His wanderings
in strange lands added additional interest to His presence.
A feeling that something unusual was about to happen began to creep
over the crowd, as is the case often preceding such events. Mary, His
mother, watched her son with longing eyes, for she saw that some
strange change had come over Him, that was beyond her comprehension.
Toward the end of the feast, it began to be whispered around among the
near relatives that the supply of wine was about exhausted, the
attendance having been much greater than had been expected. This, to a
Jewish family, was akin to a family disgrace, and anxious looks began
to be exchanged among the members of the immediate family.
Tradition has it that Jesus was besought for aid by His mother and
other female kinswoman. Just what they expected Him to do is not
clear, but it is probable that they unconsciously recognized His
greatness, and accorded Him the place of the natural Head of the
Family, as being the most prominent member. At any rate, they asked
His aid. What arguments they used, or what reasons they urged, we do
not know, but whatever they were, they succeeded in winning Him to
their side, and gaining from Him a promise of aid and assistance. But
not until after He had remonstrated that these things were of no
concern of His--that His powers were not to be trifled away in this
manner. But His love for His mother, and His desire to reward her
devotion and faith in Him, prevailed over the natural disinclination
of the mystic to be a "wonder worker" and to exhibit his occult powers
to grace a wedding-feast. He had long since learned the necessary but
comparatively simple occult feat from His old Masters in far off
India, that land of wonder-working. He knew that even the humbler
Yogis of that land would smile at the working of such a simple
miracle. And so the matter seemed to Him to be of but slight moment,
and not as a prostitution of some of the higher occult powers. And
feeling thus, He yielded to their requests for aid.
Then moving toward the court in which were stored a number of great
jars of water, he fixed a keen, burning glance upon them, one by one,
passing His hand rapidly over them, in a quick succession, He made the
Mental Image that precedes all such manifestations of occult power,
and then manifesting His power by using His Will in the manner known
to all advanced occultists, He rapidly materialized the elements of
the wine in the water, within the jars, and lo! the "miracle" had been
wrought.
A wave of excitement passed over the crowded house. The guests flocked
around the jars to taste of the wine that had been produced by occult
power. The priests frowned their displeasure, and the authorities
sneered and whispered "charlatan"; "fraud"; "shameful imposture"; and
other expressions that always follow an occurrence of this kind.
Jesus turned away, in grief and sorrow. Among the Hindus such a simple
occult occurrence would have caused but little comment, while here
among His own people it was considered to be a wonderful miracle by
some, while others regarded it as a trick of a traveling conjurer and
charlatan.
What manner of people were these to whom He had decided to deliver the
Message of Life? And, sighing deeply, He passed from the house, and
returned to His camp.
THE FIFTH LESSON.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORK.
There is but an imperfect record in the Gospels of the first year of
Jesus' ministry among the Jews. Theologians have spoken of it as the
"Year of Obscurity," but the Occult traditions speak of it as a most
important year of His ministry, for in it He laid firm foundations for
His future work.
He travelled all over the country, establishing little circles of
disciples and centres of interest. In cities, towns, villages and
hamlets, He left behind Him little bands of faithful students who kept
alive the flame of Truth, which steadily kindled the lamps of others
who were attracted by the light. Always among the humblest He labored,
seemingly impressed with the idea that the work must be begun on the
lowest rounds of society's ladder. But after a while a few of the more
pretentious people began to attend the meetings, often brought there
by curiosity. They came to smile and be amused, but many were
impressed and remained to pray. The leaven had been well mixed in the
loaf of Jewish society and it was beginning to work.