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Transcriber's Note: The many inconsistently spelt words in this book
(e.g. Samskrit/Sanskrit) have been retained as in the original.
ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY
OR
THE LESSER MYSTERIES.
BY
ANNIE BESANT.
[SECOND EDITION]
The Theosophical Publishing Society.
LONDON AND BENARES.
1905.
In proceeding to the contemplation of the mysteries of knowledge,
we shall adhere to the celebrated and venerable rule of tradition,
commencing from the origin of the universe, setting forth those
points of physical contemplation which are necessary to be
premised, and removing whatever can be an obstacle on the way; so
that the ear may be prepared for the reception of the tradition of
the Gnosis, the ground being cleared of weeds and fitted for the
planting of the vineyard; for there is a conflict before the
conflict, and mysteries before the mysteries.--_S. Clement of
Alexandria._
Let the specimen suffice to those who have ears. For it is not
required to unfold the mystery, but only to indicate what is
sufficient.--_Ibid._
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.--_S. Matthew._
FOREWORD.
The object of this book is to suggest certain lines of thought as to
the deep truths underlying Christianity, truths generally overlooked,
and only too often denied. The generous wish to share with all what is
precious, to spread broadcast priceless truths, to shut out none from
the illumination of true knowledge, has resulted in a zeal without
discretion that has vulgarised Christianity, and has presented its
teachings in a form that often repels the heart and alienates the
intellect. The command to "preach the Gospel to every
creature"[1]--though admittedly of doubtful authenticity--has been
interpreted as forbidding the teaching of the Gnosis to a few, and has
apparently erased the less popular saying of the same Great Teacher:
"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your
pearls before swine."[2]
This spurious sentimentality--which refuses to recognise the obvious
inequalities of intelligence and morality, and thereby reduces the
teaching of the highly developed to the level attainable by the least
evolved, sacrificing the higher to the lower in a way that injures
both--had no place in the virile common sense of the early Christians.
S. Clement of Alexandria says quite bluntly, after alluding to the
Mysteries: "Even now I fear, as it is said, 'to cast the pearls before
swine, lest they tread them underfoot, and turn and rend us.' For it is
difficult to exhibit the really pure and transparent words respecting
the true Light to swinish and untrained hearers."[3]
If true knowledge, the Gnosis, is again to form a part of Christian
teachings, it can only be under the old restrictions, and the idea of
levelling down to the capacities of the least developed must be
definitely surrendered. Only by teaching above the grasp of the little
evolved can the way be opened up for a restoration of arcane knowledge,
and the study of the Lesser Mysteries must precede that of the Greater.
The Greater will never be published through the printing-press; they can
only be given by Teacher to pupil, "from mouth to ear." But the Lesser
Mysteries, the partial unveiling of deep truths, can even now be
restored, and such a volume as the present is intended to outline these,
and to show the _nature_ of the teachings which have to be mastered.
Where only hints are given, quiet meditation on the truths hinted at
will cause their outlines to become visible, and the clearer light
obtained by continued meditation will gradually show them more fully.
For meditation quiets the lower mind, ever engaged in thinking about
external objects, and when the lower mind is tranquil then only can it
be illuminated by the Spirit. Knowledge of spiritual truths must be thus
obtained, from within and not from without, from the divine Spirit whose
temple we are[4] and not from an external Teacher. These things are
"spiritually discerned" by that divine indwelling Spirit, that "mind of
Christ," whereof speaks the Great Apostle,[5] and that inner light is
shed upon the lower mind.
This is the way of the Divine Wisdom, the true THEOSOPHY. It is not, as
some think, a diluted version of Hinduism, or Buddhism, or Taoism, or of
any special religion. It is Esoteric Christianity as truly as it is
Esoteric Buddhism, and belongs equally to all religions, exclusively to
none. This is the source of the suggestions made in this little volume,
for the helping of those who seek the Light--that "true Light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world,"[6] though most have not
yet opened their eyes to it. It does not bring the Light. It only says:
"Behold the Light!" For thus have we heard. It appeals only to the few
who hunger for more than the exoteric teachings give them. For those who
are fully satisfied with the exoteric teachings, it is not intended; for
why should bread be forced on those who are not hungry? For those who
hunger, may it prove bread, and not a stone.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
FOREWORD vii.
CHAPTER I.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF RELIGIONS 1
CHAPTER II.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY 36
CHAPTER III.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY 69
(_concluded_)
CHAPTER IV.
THE HISTORICAL JESUS 120
CHAPTER V.
THE MYTHIC CHRIST 145
CHAPTER VI.
THE MYSTIC CHRIST 170
CHAPTER VII.
THE ATONEMENT 193
CHAPTER VIII.
RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION 231
CHAPTER IX.
THE TRINITY 253
CHAPTER X.
PRAYER 276
CHAPTER XI.
THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS 301
CHAPTER XII.
SACRAMENTS 324
CHAPTER XIII.
SACRAMENTS (_continued_) 346
CHAPTER XIV.
REVELATION 369
AFTERWORD 386
INDEX 388
ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY.
CHAPTER I.
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF RELIGIONS.
Many, perhaps most, who see the title of this book will at once traverse
it, and will deny that there is anything valuable which can be rightly
described as "Esoteric Christianity." There is a wide-spread, and withal
a popular, idea that there is no such thing as an occult teaching in
connection with Christianity, and that "The Mysteries," whether Lesser
or Greater, were a purely Pagan institution. The very name of "The
Mysteries of Jesus," so familiar in the ears of the Christians of the
first centuries, would come with a shock of surprise on those of their
modern successors, and, if spoken as denoting a special and definite
institution in the Early Church, would cause a smile of incredulity. It
has actually been made a matter of boast that Christianity has no
secrets, that whatever it has to say it says to all, and whatever it has
to teach it teaches to all. Its truths are supposed to be so simple,
that "a way-faring man, though a fool, may not err therein," and the
"simple Gospel" has become a stock phrase.
It is necessary, therefore, to prove clearly that in the Early Church,
at least, Christianity was no whit behind other great religions in
possessing a hidden side, and that it guarded, as a priceless treasure,
the secrets revealed only to a select few in its Mysteries. But ere
doing this it will be well to consider the whole question of this hidden
side of religions, and to see why such a side must exist if a religion
is to be strong and stable; for thus its existence in Christianity will
appear as a foregone conclusion, and the references to it in the
writings of the Christian Fathers will appear simple and natural instead
of surprising and unintelligible. As a historical fact, the existence
of this esotericism is demonstrable; but it may also be shown that
intellectually it is a necessity.
The first question we have to answer is: What is the object of
religions? They are given to the world by men wiser than the masses of
the people on whom they are bestowed, and are intended to quicken human
evolution. In order to do this effectively they must reach individuals
and influence them. Now all men are not at the same level of evolution,
but evolution might be figured as a rising gradient, with men stationed
on it at every point. The most highly evolved are far above the least
evolved, both in intelligence and character; the capacity alike to
understand and to act varies at every stage. It is, therefore, useless
to give to all the same religious teaching; that which would help the
intellectual man would be entirely unintelligible to the stupid, while
that which would throw the saint into ecstasy would leave the criminal
untouched. If, on the other hand, the teaching be suitable to help the
unintelligent, it is intolerably crude and jejune to the philosopher,
while that which redeems the criminal is utterly useless to the saint.
Yet all the types need religion, so that each may reach upward to a life
higher than that which he is leading, and no type or grade should be
sacrificed to any other. Religion must be as graduated as evolution,
else it fails in its object.
Next comes the question: In what way do religions seek to quicken human
evolution? Religions seek to evolve the moral and intellectual natures,
and to aid the spiritual nature to unfold itself. Regarding man as a
complex being, they seek to meet him at every point of his constitution,
and therefore to bring messages suitable for each, teachings adequate to
the most diverse human needs. Teachings must therefore be adapted to
each mind and heart to which they are addressed. If a religion does not
reach and master the intelligence, if it does not purify and inspire the
emotions, it has failed in its object, so far as the person addressed is
concerned.
Not only does it thus direct itself to the intelligence and the
emotions, but it seeks, as said, to stimulate the unfoldment of the
spiritual nature. It answers to that inner impulse which exists in
humanity, and which is ever pushing the race onwards. For deeply within
the heart of all--often overlaid by transitory conditions, often
submerged under pressing interests and anxieties--there exists a
continual seeking after God. "As the hart panteth after the
water-brooks, so panteth"[7] humanity after God. The search is sometimes
checked for a space, and the yearning seems to disappear. Phases recur
in civilisation and in thought, wherein this cry of the human Spirit for
the divine--seeking its source as water seeks its level, to borrow a
simile from Giordano Bruno--this yearning of the human Spirit for that
which is akin to it in the universe, of the part for the whole, seems to
be stilled, to have vanished; none the less does that yearning reappear,
and once more the same cry rings out from the Spirit. Trampled on for a
time, apparently destroyed, though the tendency may be, it rises again
and again with inextinguishable persistence, it repeats itself again
and again, no matter how often it is silenced; and it thus proves itself
to be an inherent tendency in human nature, an ineradicable constituent
thereof. Those who declare triumphantly, "Lo! it is dead!" find it
facing them again with undiminished vitality. Those who build without
allowing for it find their well-constructed edifices riven as by an
earthquake. Those who hold it to be outgrown find the wildest
superstitions succeed its denial. So much is it an integral part of
humanity, that man _will_ have some answer to his questionings; rather
an answer that is false, than none. If he cannot find religious truth,
he will take religious error rather than no religion, and will accept
the crudest and most incongruous ideals rather than admit that the ideal
is non-existent.
Religion, then, meets this craving, and taking hold of the constituent
in human nature that gives rise to it, trains it, strengthens it,
purifies it and guides it towards its proper ending--the union of the
human Spirit with the divine, so "that God may be all in all."[8]
The next question which meets us in our enquiry is: What is the source
of religions? To this question two answers have been given in modern
times--that of the Comparative Mythologists and that of the Comparative
Religionists. Both base their answers on a common basis of admitted
facts. Research has indisputably proved that the religions of the world
are markedly similar in their main teachings, in their possession of
Founders who display superhuman powers and extraordinary moral
elevation, in their ethical precepts, in their use of means to come into
touch with invisible worlds, and in the symbols by which they express
their leading beliefs. This similarity, amounting in many cases to
identity, proves--according to both the above schools--a common origin.
But on the nature of this common origin the two schools are at issue.
The Comparative Mythologists contend that the common origin is the
common ignorance, and that the loftiest religious doctrines are simply
refined expressions of the crude and barbarous guesses of savages, of
primitive men, regarding themselves and their surroundings. Animism,
fetishism, nature-worship, sun-worship--these are the constituents of
the primeval mud out of which has grown the splendid lily of religion. A
Krishna, a Buddha, a Lao-tze, a Jesus, are the highly civilised
but lineal descendants of the whirling medicine-man of the savage. God
is a composite photograph of the innumerable Gods who are the
personifications of the forces of nature. And so forth. It is all summed
up in the phrase: Religions are branches from a common trunk--human
ignorance.
The Comparative Religionists consider, on the other hand, that all
religions originate from the teachings of Divine Men, who give out to
the different nations of the world, from time to time, such parts of the
fundamental verities of religion as the people are capable of receiving,
teaching ever the same morality, inculcating the use of similar means,
employing the same significant symbols. The savage religions--animism
and the rest--are degenerations, the results of decadence, distorted and
dwarfed descendants of true religious beliefs. Sun-worship and pure
forms of nature-worship were, in their day, noble religions, highly
allegorical but full of profound truth and knowledge. The great
Teachers--it is alleged by Hindus, Buddhists, and by some Comparative
Religionists, such as Theosophists--form an enduring Brotherhood of men
who have risen beyond humanity, who appear at certain periods to
enlighten the world, and who are the spiritual guardians of the human
race. This view may be summed up in the phrase: "Religions are branches
from a common trunk--Divine Wisdom."
This Divine Wisdom is spoken of as the Wisdom, the Gnosis, the
Theosophia, and some, in different ages of the world, have so desired to
emphasise their belief in this unity of religions, that they have
preferred the eclectic name of Theosophist to any narrower designation.
The relative value of the contentions of these two opposed schools must
be judged by the cogency of the evidence put forth by each. The
appearance of a degenerate form of a noble idea may closely resemble
that of a refined product of a coarse idea, and the only method of
deciding between degeneration and evolution would be the examination, if
possible, of intermediate and remote ancestors. The evidence brought
forward by believers in the Wisdom is of this kind. They allege: that
the Founders of religions, judged by the records of their teachings,
were far above the level of average humanity; that the Scriptures of
religions contain moral precepts, sublime ideals, poetical aspirations,
profound philosophical statements, which are not even approached in
beauty and elevation by later writings in the same religions--that is,
that the old is higher than the new, instead of the new being higher
than the old; that no case can be shown of the refining and improving
process alleged to be the source of current religions, whereas many
cases of degeneracy from pure teachings can be adduced; that even among
savages, if their religions be carefully studied, many traces of lofty
ideas can be found, ideas which are obviously above the productive
capacity of the savages themselves.
This last idea has been worked out by Mr. Andrew Lang, who--judging by
his book on _The Making of Religion_--should be classed as a Comparative
Religionist rather than as a Comparative Mythologist. He points to the
existence of a common tradition, which, he alleges, cannot have been
evolved by the savages for themselves, being men whose ordinary beliefs
are of the crudest kind and whose minds are little developed. He shows,
under crude beliefs and degraded views, lofty traditions of a sublime
character, touching the nature of the Divine Being and His relations
with men. The deities who are worshipped are, for the most part, the
veriest devils, but behind, beyond all these, there is a dim but
glorious over-arching Presence, seldom or never named, but whispered of
as source of all, as power and love and goodness, too tender to awaken
terror, too good to require supplication. Such ideas manifestly cannot
have been conceived by the savages among whom they are found, and they
remain as eloquent witnesses of the revelations made by some great
Teacher--dim tradition of whom is generally also discoverable--who was
a Son of the Wisdom, and imparted some of its teachings in a long
bye-gone age.
The reason, and, indeed, the justification, of the view taken by the
Comparative Mythologists is patent. They found in every direction low
forms of religious belief, existing among savage tribes. These were seen
to accompany general lack of civilisation. Regarding civilised men as
evolving from uncivilised, what more natural than to regard civilised
religion as evolving from uncivilised? It is the first obvious idea.
Only later and deeper study can show that the savages of to-day are not
our ancestral types, but are the degenerated offsprings of great
civilised stocks of the past, and that man in his infancy was not left
to grow up untrained, but was nursed and educated by his elders, from
whom he received his first guidance alike in religion and civilisation.
This view is being substantiated by such facts as those dwelt on by
Lang, and will presently raise the question, "Who were these elders, of
whom traditions are everywhere found?"
Still pursuing our enquiry, we come next to the question: To what people
were religions given? And here we come at once to the difficulty with
which every Founder of a religion must deal, that already spoken of as
bearing on the primary object of religion itself, the quickening of
human evolution, with its corollary that all grades of evolving humanity
must be considered by Him. Men are at every stage of evolution, from the
most barbarous to the most developed; men are found of lofty
intelligence, but also of the most unevolved mentality; in one place
there is a highly developed and complex civilisation, in another a crude
and simple polity. Even within any given civilisation we find the most
varied types--the most ignorant and the most educated, the most
thoughtful and the most careless, the most spiritual and the most
brutal; yet each one of these types must be reached, and each must be
helped in the place where he is. If evolution be true, this difficulty
is inevitable, and must be faced and overcome by the divine Teacher,
else will His work be a failure. If man is evolving as all around him
is evolving, these differences of development, these varied grades of
intelligence, must be a characteristic of humanity everywhere, and must
be provided for in each of the religions of the world.
We are thus brought face to face with the position that we cannot have
one and the same religious teaching even for a single nation, still less
for a single civilisation, or for the whole world. If there be but one
teaching, a large number of those to whom it is addressed will entirely
escape its influence. If it be made suitable for those whose
intelligence is limited, whose morality is elementary, whose perceptions
are obtuse, so that it may help and train them, and thus enable them to
evolve, it will be a religion utterly unsuitable for those men, living
in the same nation, forming part of the same civilisation, who have keen
and delicate moral perceptions, bright and subtle intelligence, and
evolving spirituality. But if, on the other hand, this latter class is
to be helped, if intelligence is to be given a philosophy that it can
regard as admirable, if delicate moral perceptions are to be still
further refined, if the dawning spiritual nature is to be enabled to
develope into the perfect day, then the religion will be so spiritual,
so intellectual, and so moral, that when it is preached to the former
class it will not touch their minds or their hearts, it will be to them
a string of meaningless phrases, incapable of arousing their latent
intelligence, or of giving them any motive for conduct which will help
them to grow into a purer morality.
Looking, then, at these facts concerning religion, considering its
object, its means, its origin, the nature and varying needs of the
people to whom it is addressed, recognising the evolution of spiritual,
intellectual, and moral faculties in man, and the need of each man for
such training as is suitable for the stage of evolution at which he has
arrived, we are led to the absolute necessity of a varied and graduated
religious teaching, such as will meet these different needs and help
each man in his own place.
There is yet another reason why esoteric teaching is desirable with
respect to a certain class of truths. It is eminently the fact in
regard to this class that "knowledge is power." The public promulgation
of a philosophy profoundly intellectual, sufficient to train an already
highly developed intellect, and to draw the allegiance of a lofty mind,
cannot injure any. It can be preached without hesitation, for it does
not attract the ignorant, who turn away from it as dry, stiff, and
uninteresting. But there are teachings which deal with the constitution
of nature, explain recondite laws, and throw light on hidden processes,
the knowledge of which gives control over natural energies, and enables
its possessor to direct these energies to certain ends, as a chemist
deals with the production of chemical compounds. Such knowledge may be
very useful to highly developed men, and may much increase their power
of serving the race. But if this knowledge were published to the world,
it might and would be misused, just as the knowledge of subtle poisons
was misused in the Middle Ages by the Borgias and by others. It would
pass into the hands of people of strong intellect, but of unregulated
desires, men moved by separative instincts, seeking the gain of their
separate selves and careless of the common good. They would be attracted
by the idea of gaining powers which would raise them above the general
level, and place ordinary humanity at their mercy, and would rush to
acquire the knowledge which exalts its possessors to a superhuman rank.
They would, by its possession, become yet more selfish and confirmed in
their separateness, their pride would be nourished and their sense of
aloofness intensified, and thus they would inevitably be driven along
the road which leads to diabolism, the Left Hand Path, whose goal is
isolation and not union. And they would not only themselves suffer in
their inner nature, but they would also become a menace to Society,
already suffering sufficiently at the hands of men whose intellect is
more evolved than their conscience. Hence arises the necessity of
withholding certain teachings from those who, morally, are as yet
unfitted to receive them; and this necessity presses on every Teacher
who is able to impart such knowledge. He desires to give it to those
who will use the powers it confers for the general good, for quickening
human evolution; but he equally desires to be no party to giving it to
those who would use it for their own aggrandisement at the cost of
others.
Nor is this a matter of theory only, according to the Occult Records,
which give the details of the events alluded to in Genesis vi. _et seq._
This knowledge was, in those ancient times and on the continent of
Atlantis, given without any rigid conditions as to the moral elevation,
purity, and unselfishness of the candidates. Those who were
intellectually qualified were taught, just as men are taught ordinary
science in modern days. The publicity now so imperiously demanded was
then given, with the result that men became giants in knowledge but also
giants in evil, till the earth groaned under her oppressors and the cry
of a trampled humanity rang through the worlds. Then came the
destruction of Atlantis, the whelming of that vast continent beneath the
waters of the ocean, some particulars of which are given in the Hebrew
Scriptures in the story of the Noachian deluge, and in the Hindu
Scriptures of the further East in the story of Vaivasvata Manu.
Since that experience of the danger of allowing unpurified hands to
grasp the knowledge which is power, the great Teachers have imposed
rigid conditions as regards purity, unselfishness, and self-control on
all candidates for such instruction. They distinctly refuse to impart
knowledge of this kind to any who will not consent to a rigid
discipline, intended to eliminate separateness of feeling and interest.
They measure the moral strength of the candidate even more than his
intellectual development, for the teaching itself will develope the
intellect while it puts a strain on the moral nature. Far better that
the Great Ones should be assailed by the ignorant for Their supposed
selfishness in withholding knowledge, than that They should precipitate
the world into another Atlantean catastrophe.
So much of theory we lay down as bearing on the necessity of a hidden
side in all religions. When from theory we turn to facts, we naturally
ask: Has this hidden side existed in the past, forming a part of the
religions of the world? The answer must be an immediate and unhesitating
affirmative; every great religion has claimed to possess a hidden
teaching, and has declared that it is the repository of theoretical
mystic, and further of practical mystic, or occult, knowledge. The
mystic explanation of popular teaching was public, and expounded the
latter as an allegory, giving to crude and irrational statements and
stories a meaning which the intellect could accept. Behind this
theoretical mysticism, as it was behind the popular, there existed
further the practical mysticism, a hidden spiritual teaching, which was
only imparted under definite conditions, conditions known and published,
that must be fulfilled by every candidate. S. Clement of Alexandria
mentions this division of the Mysteries. After purification, he says,
"are the Minor Mysteries, which have some foundation of instruction and
of preliminary preparation for what is to come after; and the Great
Mysteries, in which nothing remains to be learned of the universe, but
only to contemplate and comprehend nature and things."[9]
This position cannot be controverted as regards the ancient religions.
The Mysteries of Egypt were the glory of that ancient land, and the
noblest sons of Greece, such as Plato, went to Sais and to Thebes to be
initiated by Egyptian Teachers of Wisdom. The Mithraic Mysteries of the
Persians, the Orphic and Bacchic Mysteries and the later Eleusinian
semi-Mysteries of the Greeks, the Mysteries of Samothrace, Scythia,
Chaldea, are familiar in name, at least, as household words. Even in the
extremely diluted form of the Eleusinian Mysteries, their value is most
highly praised by the most eminent men of Greece, as Pindar, Sophocles,
Isocrates, Plutarch, and Plato. Especially were they regarded as useful
with regard to _post-mortem_ existence, as the Initiated learned that
which ensured his future happiness. Sopater further alleged that
Initiation established a kinship of the soul with the divine Nature, and
in the exoteric Hymn to Demeter covert references are made to the holy
child, Iacchus, and to his death and resurrection, as dealt with in the
Mysteries.[10]
From Iamblichus, the great theurgist of the third and fourth centuries
A.D., much may be learned as to the object of the Mysteries. Theurgy was
magic, "the last part of the sacerdotal science,"[11] and was practised
in the Greater Mysteries, to evoke the appearance of superior Beings.
The theory on which these Mysteries were based may be very briefly thus
stated: There is ONE, prior to all beings, immovable, abiding in the
solitude of His own unity. From THAT arises the Supreme God, the
Self-begotten, the Good, the Source of all things, the Root, the God of
Gods, the First Cause, unfolding Himself into Light.[12] From Him
springs the Intelligible World, or ideal universe, the Universal Mind,
the _Nous_ and the incorporeal or intelligible Gods belong to this.
From this the World-Soul, to which belong the "divine intellectual forms
which are present with the visible bodies of the Gods."[13] Then come
various hierarchies of superhuman beings, Archangels, Archons (Rulers)
or Cosmocratores, Angels, Daimons, &c. Man is a being of a lower order,
allied to these in his nature, and is capable of knowing them; this
knowledge was achieved in the Mysteries, and it led to union with
God.[14] In the Mysteries these doctrines are expounded, "the
progression from, and the regression of all things to, the One, and the
entire domination of the One,"[15] and, further, these different Beings
were evoked, and appeared, sometimes to teach, sometimes, by Their mere
presence, to elevate and purify. "The Gods," says Iamblichus, "being
benevolent and propitious, impart their light to theurgists in unenvying
abundance, calling upwards their souls to themselves, procuring them a
union with themselves, and accustoming them, while they are yet in body,
to be separated from bodies, and to be led round to their eternal and
intelligible principle."[16] For "the soul having a twofold life, one
being in conjunction with body, but the other being separate from all
body,"[17] it is most necessary to learn to separate it from the body,
that thus it may unite itself with the Gods by its intellectual and
divine part, and learn the genuine principles of knowledge, and the
truths of the intelligible world.[18] "The presence of the Gods, indeed,
imparts to us health of body, virtue of soul, purity of intellect, and,
in one word, elevates everything in us to its proper nature. It exhibits
that which is not body as body to the eyes of the soul, through those of
the body."[19] When the Gods appear, the soul receives "a liberation
from the passions, a transcendent perfection, and an energy entirely
more excellent, and participates of divine love and an immense joy."[20]
By this we gain a divine life, and are rendered in reality divine.[21]
The culminating point of the Mysteries was when the Initiate became a
God, whether by union with a divine Being outside himself, or by the
realisation of the divine Self within him. This was termed ecstasy, and
was a state of what the Indian Yogi would term high Samadhi, the gross
body being entranced and the freed soul effecting its own union with the
Great One. This "ecstasy is not a faculty properly so called, it is a
state of the soul, which transforms it in such a way that it then
perceives what was previously hidden from it. The state will not be
permanent until our union with God is irrevocable; here, in earth life,
ecstasy is but a flash.... Man can cease to become man, and become God;
but man cannot be God and man at the same time."[22] Plotinus states
that he had reached this state "but three times as yet."
So also Proclus taught that the one salvation of the soul was to return
to her intellectual form, and thus escape from the "circle of
generation, from abundant wanderings," and reach true Being, "to the
uniform and simple energy of the period of sameness, instead of the
abundantly wandering motion of the period which is characterised by
difference." This is the life sought by those initiated by Orpheus into
the Mysteries of Bacchus and Proserpine, and this is the result of the
practice of the purificatory, or cathartic, virtues.[23]
These virtues were necessary for the Greater Mysteries, as they
concerned the purifying of the subtle body, in which the soul worked
when out of the gross body. The political or practical virtues belonged
to man's ordinary life, and were required to some extent before he could
be a candidate even for such a School as is described below. Then came
the cathartic virtues, by which the subtle body, that of the emotions
and lower mind, was purified; thirdly the intellectual, belonging to the
Augoeides, or the light-form of the intellect; fourthly the
contemplative, or paradigmatic, by which union with God was realised.
Porphyry writes: "He who energises according to the practical virtues is
a worthy man; but he who energises according to the purifying virtues is
an angelic man, or is also a good daimon. He who energises according to
the intellectual virtues alone is a God; but he who energises according
to the paradigmatic virtues is the Father of the Gods."[24]
Much instruction was also given in the Mysteries by the archangelic and
other hierarchies, and Pythagoras, the great teacher who was initiated
in India, and who gave "the knowledge of things that are" to his pledged
disciples, is said to have possessed such a knowledge of music that he
could use it for the controlling of men's wildest passions, and the
illuminating of their minds. Of this, instances are given by Iamblichus
in his _Life of Pythagoras_. It seems probable that the title of
Theodidaktos, given to Ammonius Saccas, the master of Plotinus, referred
less to the sublimity of his teachings than to this divine instruction
received by him in the Mysteries.
Some of the symbols used are explained by Iamblichus,[25] who bids
Porphyry remove from his thought the image of the thing symbolised and
reach its intellectual meaning. Thus "mire" meant everything that was
bodily and material; the "God sitting above the lotus" signified that
God transcended both the mire and the intellect, symbolised by the
lotus, and was established in Himself, being seated. If "sailing in a
ship," His rule over the world was pictured. And so on.[26] On this use
of symbols Proclus remarks that "the Orphic method aimed at revealing
divine things by means of symbols, a method common to all writers of
divine lore."[27]
The Pythagorean School in Magna Graecia was closed at the end of the
sixth century B.C., owing to the persecution of the civil power, but
other communities existed, keeping up the sacred tradition.[28] Mead
states that Plato intellectualised it, in order to protect it from an
increasing profanation, and the Eleusinian rites preserved some of its
forms, having lost its substance. The Neo-Platonists inherited from
Pythagoras and Plato, and their works should be studied by those who
would realise something of the grandeur and the beauty preserved for
the world in the Mysteries.
The Pythagorean School itself may serve as a type of the discipline
enforced. On this Mead gives many interesting details,[29] and remarks:
"The authors of antiquity are agreed that this discipline had succeeded
in producing the highest examples, not only of the purest chastity and
sentiment, but also a simplicity of manners, a delicacy, and a taste for
serious pursuits which was unparalleled. This is admitted even by
Christian writers." The School had outer disciples, leading the family
and social life, and the above quotation refers to these. In the inner
School were three degrees--the first of Hearers, who studied for two
years in silence, doing their best to master the teachings; the second
degree was of Mathematici, wherein were taught geometry and music, the
nature of number, form, colour, and sound; the third degree was of
Physici, who mastered cosmogony and metaphysics. This led up to the true
Mysteries. Candidates for the School must be "of an unblemished
reputation and of a contented disposition."
The close identity between the methods and aims pursued in these various
Mysteries and those of Yoga in India is patent to the most superficial
observer. It is not, however, necessary to suppose that the nations of
antiquity drew from India; all alike drew from the one source, the Grand
Lodge of Central Asia, which sent out its Initiates to every land. They
all taught the same doctrines, and pursued the same methods, leading to
the same ends. But there was much intercommunication between the
Initiates of all nations, and there was a common language and a common
symbolism. Thus Pythagoras journeyed among the Indians, and received in
India a high Initiation, and Apollonius of Tyana later followed in his
steps. Quite Indian in phrase as well as thought were the dying words of
Plotinus: "Now I seek to lead back the Self within me to the
All-self."[30]
Among the Hindus the duty of teaching the supreme knowledge only to the
worthy was strictly insisted on. "The deepest mystery of the end of
knowledge ... is not to be declared to one who is not a son or a pupil,
and who is not tranquil in mind."[31] So again, after a sketch of Yoga
we read: "Stand up! awake! having found the Great Ones, listen! The road
is as difficult to tread as the sharp edge of a razor. Thus say the
wise."[32] The Teacher is needed, for written teaching alone does not
suffice. The "end of knowledge" is to know God--not only to believe; to
become one with God--not only to worship afar off. Man must know the
reality of the divine Existence, and then know--not only vaguely believe
and hope--that his own innermost Self is one with God, and that the aim
of life is to realise that unity. Unless religion can guide a man to
that realisation, it is but "as sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal."[33]
So also it was asserted that man should learn to leave the gross body:
"Let a man with firmness separate it [the soul] from his own body, as a
grass-stalk from its sheath."[34] And it was written! "In the golden
highest sheath dwells the stainless, changeless Brahman; It is the
radiant white Light of lights, known to the knowers of the Self."[35]
"When the seer sees the golden-coloured Creator, the Lord, the Spirit,
whose womb is Brahman, then, having thrown away merit and demerit,
stainless, the wise one reaches the highest union."[36]
Nor were the Hebrews without their secret knowledge and their Schools of
Initiation. The company of prophets at Naioth presided over by
Samuel[37] formed such a School, and the oral teaching was handed down
by them. Similar Schools existed at Bethel and Jericho,[38] and in
Cruden's _Concordance_[39] there is the following interesting note: "The
Schools or Colleges of the prophets are the first [schools] of which we
have any account in Scripture; where the children of the prophets, that
is, their disciples, lived in the exercises of a retired and austere
life, in study and meditation, and reading of the law of God.... These
Schools, or Societies, of the prophets were succeeded by the
Synagogues." The _Kabbala_, which contains the semi-public teaching, is,
as it now stands, a modern compilation, part of it being the work of
Rabbi Moses de Leon, who died A.D. 1305. It consists of five books,
Bahir, Zohar, Sepher Sephiroth, Sepher Yetzirah, and Asch Metzareth, and
is asserted to have been transmitted orally from very ancient times--as
antiquity is reckoned historically. Dr. Wynn Westcott says that "Hebrew
tradition assigns the oldest parts of the Zohar to a date antecedent to
the building of the second Temple;" and Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai is said
to have written down some of it in the first century A.D. The Sepher
Yetzirah is spoken of by Saadjah Gaon, who died A.D. 940, as "very
ancient."[40] Some portions of the ancient oral teaching have been
incorporated in the _Kabbala_ as it now stands, but the true archaic
wisdom of the Hebrews remains in the guardianship of a few of the true
sons of Israel.
Brief as is this outline, it is sufficient to show the existence of a
hidden side in the religions of the world outside Christianity, and we
may now examine the question whether Christianity was an exception to
this universal rule.