Esoteric Christian Mysteries

W. J. B. MacLeod Moore 33, Supreme Grand Mas- ter "Ad Vitam" of the Sovereign Priory of Canada, United Orders of the Temple of Malta, says : 'The secrets of the Mystery of Christianity were only communicated to the Initiates, and these Initiates were first made Christians, then advanced in Christianity, and finally raised to a knowledge of all its Aporrheta. There were three degrees or steps in Christianity ,and its religious system was known as the 'Disciplina Ar- cana' the discipline of the secret. There was an eso- teric and exoteric doctrine. The three classes who received the three degrees of the primitive church were the 'Catechumens,' the 'Competentes,' and the 'II- luminati.' In the first degree of Christianity the can- didate was baptized. Baptism introduced the be- liever to the Christian Mystery. The sacred doctrines taught in the several degrees were those of the 'Trinity in Unity/ the 'Incarnation of the Logos or Son of God,' 'the Crucifixion,' 'the Resur- rection,' and the 'Secret of the Liturgy.' Bap- tism initiated the candidate, while a participa- tion in the Lord's Supper, or Eucharist, marked the raising of the candidate to the highest de- gree of Christian light and doctrine. All through the writings of the early Fathers of the Church refer- ence is made to the Christian Mysteries and theit secret doctrines. Initiates were strictly forbidden to paint, cut or carve any reference to them." (History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders, p. 746.)

Before we examine the records to see if this con- tention can be substantiated, let us first note something of the Christian movement. The origin of Christi- anity is involved in great obscurity. Even the period at which Jesus lived is a matter of controversy. The following occult account accords with the Talmud in stating that Jesus lived in the days of King Jannai, who reigned over the Jews 104 to 78 B. C., and is as follows : "The child whose Jewish name has been turned into that of Jesus was born in Palestine, B. C. 105, during the consulate of Publicus Rutilus Rufus and Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. His parents were well-born though poor, and he was educated in a knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. His fervent devotion and a gravity beyond his years led his par- ents to dedicate him to the religious and ascetic life, and, soon after a visit to Jerusalem, in which the ex- traordinary intelligence and eagerness for knowledge of the youth were shown in his seeking of the doctors in the Temple, he was sent to be trained in an Essene community in the southern Judean desert. When he had reached the age of nineteen he went on to the Es- sene Monastery near Mount Serbal, a monastery which was much visited by learned men traveling from Per- sia and India to Egypt, and where a magnificent li- brary of occult works many of them Indian of the Trans-Himalayan regions had been established. From this seat of mystic learning he proceeded later to Egypt. He had been fully instructed in the secret teachings which were the real fount of life among the Essenes, and was initiated in Egypt as a disciple of that one Sublime Lodge from which every great re- ligion has its Founder. For Egypt has remained one of the world centres of the true Mysteries, whereof all semi-public Mysteries are the faint and far-off reflections. The Mysteries spoken of in history as Egyptian, were the shadows of the true things 'in the Mount,' and there the young Hebrew received the solemn consecration which prepared him for the Royal Priesthood he was later to attain." (Esoteric Christi- anity Besant, p. 128 & 129.)

The time having come for the founding of a new religion, a suitable tabernacle was needed for the Great Teacher who was to be sent into the world. Jesus of- fered his body as a willing sacrifice. One called the Christ took possession of Jesus' body at the age of 29, and for two years instructed the heads of the Es- sene communities, and for one year he taught the general public. It is only of the last year's work that some tradition is preserved for us in the Gospel story. He was finally rejected by the Essenes because he car- ried to the outer world some portions of the spiritual wisdom which they regarded as their exclusive possess- ion. The clouds of hatred thickened until finally the body of Jesus paid the penalty for enshrining the Great Teacher. But the Master did not forget his promise to return to his chosen disciples, and for some fifty years he visited them in his spiritual body, and con- tinued his instruction in the secret teaching. This inner instruction constituted the basis of the Christian Mysteries. During this time the disciples lived to- gether in a retired spot on the outskirts of Judea, at- tracting small attention because of the many similar communities. During its embryonic stage the new re- ligion was hidden in the womb of communities, similar to that of the Therapeutes. It was some years before it emerged and began its general propaganda, and it was only when the disciples were fully prepared that they went forth to preach.

After Jesus' death he completed his human evolution and became a Perfect Master. The Christ then sur- rendered to Jesus the care of the Christian Church, and He became the Hierophant in the Christian Mys- teries. He was the inspiration that kept alive the Gnosis in the Church until the mass of ignorant self- ishness became too great for its continuance. But he has sought thoroughout the centuries, and is seeking to-day, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear Wisdom. (For full exposition see "Esoteric Christianity," Besant, Ch. IV.)

This is the occult teaching, which is fully corrobor- ated by the doctrine of the early Gnostics. They held that those whom Christ originally instructed in the higher doctrines, brought about his condemnation for blasphemy by the Orthodox Jewish authorities, be- cause they considered that his too open teaching was a divulgence of the Mysteries. They also held, as can be seen by consulting the Pistis Sophia, written by Valentinus, that after Jesus' death he continued his instruction of the disciples. For eleven years he taught them so far as "the regions of the first statues only and up to the regions of the first mystery, the mystery within the veil." Notwithstanding, there were omissions of many points which as yet they were unable to comprehend, the instruction was so wonderful that they thought that all had been revealed, the gnosis of all gnoses. In the twelfth year, having received the robe of glory, he says to his disciples "Lo, I have put on My vesture, and all power hath been given Me by the First Mystery. Yet a little while and I will tell you the mystery of the pleroma and the pleroma of the pleroma; I will conceal nothing from you from this hour, but in perfectness will I perfect you in the whole pleroma, and all perfection, and every mystery ; which things, indeed, are the perfection, of all perfections, the pleroma of all pleroma, and the gno- sis of all gnoses, which are in My vesture. I will tell you all mysteries from the exterior of the exteriors, to the interior of the interiors." This the Master did and instructed them in the Mystery of the First Mys- tery and the Mystery of the Ineffable. Then follows instruction on the nature of the preaching by the dis- ciples when the Master has entered the Light, and the condition upon which the Mysteries shall be given to others. He then teaches them regarding the postmor- tem state of the sinner, the righteous uninitiated, and the righteous initiated, etc. This secret teaching con- stituted the Mysteries of Jesus.

The public and private teaching of Jesus naturally resulted in two traditions. The mystic tradition repre- sents the inner teaching, and the Ebionite represents the public teaching. It was against the original fol- lowers of the public tradition that Paul contended in his efforts to universalize Christianity. The PetroPauline controversy was a struggle between the exter- nal and mystic sides of the new movement. The Ebionites undoubtedly preserved the original and true tradition regarding the birth and nature of Jesus, for they held that Jesus was a. man born as other men, the natural son of Joseph and Mary. That the tradi- tion of the Ebionites or Nazaraens differed widely from the historicized dogmas of later times, may be seen, even to-day, from the Codex Nasarseus of the Mandaites, the descendants of the Nazaraeans who dwell in the marshes of Southern Babylonia. We must not confuse the early form of Ebionitism with the later forms which were of a Gnostic nature the outer communities being finally influenced by the inner Jew- ish tradition.

Paul himself was a mystic, in touch with the inner communities, and he saw that Christianity was de- signed to be the religion of the new race about to be born. It is evident that Paul was not acquainted with the later accounts of the canonical Gospels, for he does not teach the historical Jesua but the Mystic Christ. The canonical accounts were probably compiled in the last quarter of the first century or in the first part of the second, that is, they reached their present form at that time. The synoptics were based upon a sketch of an ideal life, written by one of the Apos- tles of the inner communities, and intended for gen- eral circulation. Round this nucleus, later compilers, bishops of the outer churches, wove much other mat- ter which was selected from a mass of legend and tra- dition. Orthodoxy or General Christianity traces its origin to these documents.

We are now ready to examine the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, and see if we can find any trace or reference to an inner occult teaching. Upon reading an account of Jesus' teaching we find him constantly making use of certain terms which are usually employed to designate an inner circle of In- itiation.