The Theosophical Society,
Theosophy
and Religion
Esoteric Christianity
or
The Lesser Mysteries
By
Annie Besant
First Published 1914
CONTENTS
Forward
CHAPTER
I
The Hidden Side of Religions
II
The Hidden Side of Christianity
III
The Hidden Side of Christianity
IV
The Historical Christ
V
The Mythic Christ
VI
The Mystic Christ
VII
The Atonement
VIII
Resurrection and Ascension
IX
The Trinity
X
Prayer
XI
The Forgiveness of Sins
XII
Sacraments
XIII
Sacraments
(contd.)
XIV
Revelation
Afterword
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" [ S.Mark, xvi, 15] - 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". [S. Matt., vii,6]
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
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 [I. Cor., iii., .
] 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 [Ibid.,
ii., 14, . ] 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", [ S.John, 1,9] 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.
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
It is necessary, therefore, to prove clearly that in the
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" [ Psalms,
xlii,1] 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 re-appear, 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
out-grown 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".[ I Cor., xv,28]
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
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 overarching 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 develop 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 develop 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
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
From lamblichus, 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", [Psellus,
quoted in lamblichus on the Mysteries. T.
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".[G. R. S. Mead. Plotinus,
p. . 3 ] 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.[
lamblichus, p. 364, note on . ]
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 Augőeides,
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". [G. R. S. Mead, Orpheus, pp. 285, .
]
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 lamblichus 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 lamblichus, [ lamblichus, p. 864, note on p. . ] 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.[Ibid., p. 285, et seq. ] 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". [G. B. S.
Mead. Orpheus, p. . ]
The
The
The close identity between the methods and aims pursued in these
various Mysteries and those of Yoga in
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".
[Shvetăshvataropanishat, vi, . ] 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". [Kathopanishat,
iii, . ] 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". [
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". [Kathopanishat, vi., .
] 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".[Mundakopanishat, II, ii, 9
] "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".[Ibid., Ill, i, . ]
Nor were the Hebrews without their secret knowledge and their
Schools of Initiation. The company of prophets at Naioth presided over by
Samuel [I Sam., xix, . ] formed such a School, and the
oral teaching was handed down by them. Similar Schools existed at
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.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES
HAVING seen that the religions of the past claimed with one voice
to have a hidden side, to be custodians of "Mysteries", and that this
claim was endorsed by the seeking of initiation by the greatest men, we must
now ascertain whether Christianity stands outside this circle of religions, and
alone is without a Gnosis, offering to the world only a simple faith and not a
profound knowledge. Were it so, it would indeed be a sad and lamentable fact,
proving Christianity to be intended for a class only, and not for all types of
human beings. But that it is not so, we shall be able to prove beyond the
possibility of rational doubt.
And that proof is the thing which Christendom at this time most
sorely needs, for the very flower of Christendom is perishing for lack of
knowledge. If the esoteric teaching can be re-established and win patient and
earnest students, it will not be long before the occult is also restored.
Disciples of the Lesser Mysteries will become candidates for the Greater, and
with the regaining of knowledge will come again the authority of teaching. And
truly the need is great. For, looking at the world around us, we find that
religion in the West is suffering from the very difficulty that theoretically
we should expect to find. Christianity, having lost its mystic and esoteric
teaching, is losing its hold on a large number of the more highly educated, and
the partial revival during the past few years is co-incident with the
re-introduction of some mystic teaching. It is patent to every student of the
closing forty years of the last century, that crowds of thoughtful and moral
people have slipped away from the churches, because the teachings they received
there outraged their intelligence and shocked their moral sense. It is idle to
pretend that the widespread agnosticism of this period had its root either in
lack of morality or in deliberate crookedness of mind. Everyone who carefully
studies the phenomena presented will admit that men of strong intellect have
been driven out of Christianity by the crudity of the religious ideas set
before them, the contradictions in the authoritative teachings, the views as to
God, man, and the universe that no trained intelligence could possibly admit.
Nor can it be said that any kind of moral degradation lay at the root of the
revolt against the dogmas of the Church. The rebels were not too bad for their
religion; on the contrary, it was the religion that was too bad for them. The
rebellion against popular Christianity was due to the awakening and the growth
of conscience; it was the conscience that revolted, as well as the
intelligence, against teachings dishonouring to God and man alike, that
represented God as a tyrant, and man as essentially evil, gaining salvation by
slavish submission.
The reason for this revolt lay in the gradual descent of
Christian teaching into so-called simplicity, so that the most ignorant might
be able to grasp it. Protestant religionists asserted loudly that nothing ought
to be preached save that which every one could grasp, that the glory of the
Gospel lay in its simplicity, and that the child and the unlearned ought to be
able to understand and apply it to life. True enough, if by this it were meant
that there are some religious truths that all can grasp, and that a religion
fails if it leaves the lowest, the most ignorant, the most dull, outside the
pale of its elevating influence. But false, utterly false, if by this it be
meant that religion has no truths that the ignorant cannot understand, that it
is so poor and limited a thing that it has nothing to teach which is above the
thought of the unintelligent or above the moral purview of the degraded. False,
fatally false, if such be the meaning; for as that view spreads, occupying the
pulpits and being sounded in the churches, many noble men and women, whose
hearts are half-broken as they sever the links that bind them to their early
faith, withdraw from the churches, and leave their places to be filled by the
hypocritical and the ignorant. They pass either into a state of passive
agnosticism, or - if they be young and enthusiastic - into a condition of
active aggression, not believing that that can be the highest which outrages
alike intellect and conscience, and preferring the honesty of open unbelief to
the drugging of the intellect and the conscience at the bidding of an authority
in which they recognise nothing that is divine.
In thus studying the thought of our time we see that the question
of a hidden teaching in connection with Christianity becomes of vital
importance. Is Christianity to survive as the religion of the West? Is it to
live through the centuries of the future, and to continue to play a part in
moulding the thought of the evolving western races? If it is to live, it must
regain the knowledge it has lost, and again have its mystic and its occult
teachings; it must again stand forth as an authoritative teacher of spiritual
verities, clothed with the only authority worth anything, the authority of
knowledge. If these teachings be regained, their influence will soon be seen in
wider and deeper views of truth; dogmas, which now seem like mere shells and
fetters, shall again be seen to be partial presentments of fundamental
realities. First, Esoteric Christianity will reappear in the "
Once again we turn our eyes to history, to see whether
Christianity was unique among religions in having no inner teaching, or whether
it resembled all others in possessing this hidden treasure. Such a question is
a matter of evidence, not of theory, and must be decided by the authority of the
existing documents and not by the mere ipse dixit of modern Christians.
As a matter of fact both the "New Testament" and the
writings of the early Church make the same declarations as to the possession by
the Church of such teachings, and we learn from these the fact of the existence
of Mysteries - called the Mysteries of Jesus, or the Mystery of the Kingdom -
the conditions imposed on candidates, something of the general nature of the teachings
given, and other details. Certain passages in the "New Testament"
would remain entirely obscure, if it were not for the light thrown on them by
the definite statements of the Fathers and Bishops of the Church, but in that
light they became clear and intelligible.
It would indeed have been strange had it been otherwise when we
consider the lines of religious thought which influenced primitive
Christianity. Allied to the Hebrews, the Persians, and the Greeks, tinged by
the older faiths of India, deeply coloured by Syrian and Egyptian thought, this
later branch of the great religious stem could not do other than again
re-affirm the ancient traditions, and place in the grasp of western races the
full treasure of the ancient teaching. "The faith once delivered to the
saints" would indeed have been shorn of its chief value if, when delivered
to the West, the pearl of esoteric teaching had been withheld.
The first evidence to be examined is that of the "New
Testament". For our purpose we may put aside all the vexed questions of
different readings and different authors, that can
only be decided by scholars. Critical scholarship has much to say on the age of
MSS., on the authenticity of documents, and so on. But we need not concern
ourselves with these. We may accept the canonical Scriptures, as showing what
was believed in the early Church as to the teaching of the Christ and of His
immediate followers, and see what they say as to the existence of a secret
teaching given only to the few. Having seen the words put into the mouth of
Jesus Himself, and regarded by the Church as of supreme authority, we will look
at the writings of the great apostle S. Paul; then we will consider the
statements made by those who inherited the apostolic tradition and guided the
Church during the first centuries A.D. Along this unbroken line of tradition
and written testimony the proposition that Christianity had a hidden side can
be established. We shall further find that the Lesser Mysteries of mystic
interpretation can be traced through the centuries to the beginning of the 19th
century, and that though there were no Schools of Mysticism recognised as
preparatory to Initiation, after the disappearance of the Mysteries, yet great
Mystics, from time to time, reached the lower stages of ecstasy, by their own
sustained efforts, aided doubtless by invisible Teachers.
The words of the Master Himself are clear and definite, and were,
as we shall see, quoted by Origen as referring to the secret teaching preserved
in the Church. "And when he was alone, they that were about Him with the
twelve asked of Him the parable. And He said unto them, 'Unto you it is given
to know the mystery of the
Again, Jesus tells even His apostles: "I have yet many
things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now". [S. John, xvi, 12 ] Some of them were probably said after His death, when
He was seen of His disciples, "speaking of the things pertaining to the
There were several names, exclusive of the term "The
Mystery", or "The Mysteries", used to designate the sacred
circle of the Initiates or connected with Initiation: "The Kingdom",
"The Kingdom of God", "The Kingdom of Heaven", "The
Narrow Path", "The Strait Gate", "The Perfect",
"The Saved", "Life Eternal", "Life", "The
Second Birth", "A Little One", "A Little Child". The
meaning is made plain by the use of these words in early Christian writings,
and in some cases even outside the Christian pale. Thus the term, "The
Perfect", was used by the Essenes, who had three orders in their
communities: the Neophytes, the Brethren, and the Perfect - the latter being
Initiates; and it is employed generally in that sense in old writings.
"The Little Child" was the ordinary name for a candidate just
initiated, i.e., who had just taken his "second birth".
When we know this use, many obscure and otherwise harsh passages become
intelligible "Then said one unto Him: Lord, are there few that be saved?
And He said unto them: Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say
unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able". [S. Luke, xiii, 23, . ] If this be applied in the ordinary Protestant way to
salvation from everlasting hell-fire, the statement becomes incredible,
shocking. No Saviour of the world can be supposed to assert that many will seek
to avoid hell and enter heaven, but will not be able to do so. But as applied
to the narrow gateway of Initiation and to salvation from rebirth, it is
perfectly true and natural. So again: "Enter ye in at the strait gate; for
wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way
which leadeth unto life; and few there be that find it".[
S. Matt., vii, 13,14] The warning which immediately follows against the false
prophets, the teachers of the dark Mysteries, is most apposite in this
connection. No student can miss the familiar ring of these words used in this
same sense in other writings. The "ancient narrow way" is familiar to
all; the path "difficult to tread as the sharp edge of a razor",[Kathopanishat II, iv, 10, ..] already mentioned; the going
"from death to death" of those who follow the flower-strewn path of
desires, who do not know God; for those men only become immortal and escape
from the wide mouth of death, from ever repeated destruction, who have quitted
all desires.[ Brhadăranyakopanishat IV, iv, . ] The allusion to death is, of
course, to the repeated births of the soul into gross material existence,
regarded always as ''death" compared to the "life" of the higher
and subtler worlds.
This "Strait Gate" was the gateway of Initiation, and
through it a candidate entered "The Kingdom". And it ever has been,
and must be, true that only a few can enter that gateway, though myriads - an
exceedingly "great multitude, which no man could number", [Rev., vii,
9 ] not a few - enter into the happiness of the
heaven-world. So also spoke another great Teacher, nearly three thousand years
earlier: "Among thousands of men scarce one striveth for perfection; of
the successful strivers scarce one knoweth me in essence". [ Bhagavad Gita, vii, .] For the Initiates are few in each
generation, the flower of humanity; but no gloomy sentence of everlasting woe
is pronounced in this statement on the vast majority of the human race. The
saved are, as Proclus taught,[Ante, p. . ] hose who
escape from the circle of generation, within which humanity is bound.
In this connection we may recall the story of the young man who
came to Jesus, and, addressing Him as "Good Master", asked how he
might win eternal life - the well-recognised liberation from rebirth by
knowledge of God.[It must be remembered that the Jews
believed that all imperfect souls returned to live again on earth] His first
answer was the regular exoteric precept: "Keep the commandments". But
when the young man answered: "All these things have I kept from my youth
up"; then, to that conscience free from all knowledge of transgression,
came the answer of the true Teacher: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven;
and come and follow me". "If thou wilt be perfect", be a member
of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience must be embraced. And then to His own
disciples Jesus explains that a rich man can hardly enter the
The "second birth" is another well-recognised term for
Initiation; even now in India the higher castes are called
"twice-born", and the ceremony that makes them twice-born is a
ceremony of Initiation - mere husk truly, in these modern days, but the
"pattern of things in the heavens".[Heb., ix, 23] When Jesus is speaking
to Nicodemus, He states that "Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God", and this birth is spoken of as that "of water
and the Spirit", [S. John, iii, 3, 5 ] this is the first Initiation; a
later one is that of "the Holy Ghost and fire",[S. Matt., iii, . ]
the baptism of the Initiate in his manhood, as the first is that of birth,
which welcomes him as "the Little Child" entering the Kingdom.[Ibid.,
xviii, . ] How thoroughly this imagery was familiar among the mystics of the
Jews is shown by the surprise evinced by Jesus when Nicodemus stumbled over His
mystic phraseology: "Art thou a master of
Another precept of Jesus which remains as "a hard
saying" to his followers is: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect". [S. Matt., v, .
] The ordinary Christian knows that he cannot possibly obey this command; full
of ordinary human frailties and weaknesses, how can he become perfect as God is
perfect? Seeing the impossibility of the achievement set before him, he quietly
puts it aside, and thinks no more about it. But seen as the crowning effort of
many lives of steady improvement, as the triumph of the God within us over the
lower nature, it comes within calculable distance, and we recall the words of
Porphyry, how the man who achieves " the paradigmatic virtues is the
Father of the Gods",[Ante, p. .] and that in the
Mysteries these virtues were acquired.
S. Paul follows in the footsteps of his Master, and speaks in
exactly the same sense, but, as might be expected from his organising work in
the Church, with greater explicitness and clearness. The student should read
with attention chapters ii. and
iii. and verse 1 of chapter iv. of the First Epistle
to the Corinthians, remembering, as he reads, that the words are addressed to
baptised and communicant members of the Church, full members from the modern
standpoint, although described as babes and carnal by the Apostle. They were
not catechumens or neophytes, but men and women who were in complete possession
of all the privileges and responsibilities of Church membership, recognised by
the Apostle as being separate from the world, and expected not to behave as men
of the world. They were, in fact, in possession of all that the modern Church
gives to its members. Let us summarise the Apostle's words:
"I came to you bearing the divine testimony, not alluring
you with human wisdom but with the power of the Spirit. Truly ' we speak wisdom
among them that are perfect but it is no human wisdom. ' We
speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God
ordained before the world' began, and which none even of the princes of this
world know. The things of that wisdom are beyond men's thinking, 'but God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit . . the deep things of God'. 'which the
Holy Ghost teacheth'.[Note how this chimes in with the promise of Jeans in S.
John, xvi, 12 - 14: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you
into all truth . . . He will show you things to come . . . He shall receive of
mine and shall show it unto you". ] These are spiritual things, to be
discerned only by the spiritual man, in whom is the
mind of Christ. ' And I, brethren, could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. .
. Ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For
ye are yet carnal'. As a wise master-builder [Another technical name in
the Mysteries.] I have laid the foundation' and 'ye are the
Can any one read this passage - and all that has been done in the
summary is to bring out the salient points - without recognising the fact that
the Apostle possessed a divine wisdom given in the Mysteries, that his
Corinthian followers were not yet able to receive? And note the recurring
technical terms: the "wisdom", the "wisdom of God in a
mystery", the "hidden wisdom", known only to the
"spiritual" man; spoken of only among the "perfect", wisdom
from which the non-"spiritual", the "babes in Christ", the
"carnal", were excluded, known to the "wise master
builder", the "steward of the Mysteries of God".
Again and again he refers to these Mysteries. Writing to the
Ephesian Christians he says that "by revelation", by the unveiling,
had been "made known unto me the Mystery", and hence his
"knowledge in the Mystery of Christ"; all might know of the
"fellowship of the Mystery". [ Eph., iii, 3,
4, .] Of this Mystery, he repeated to the Colossians, he was "made a
minister", "the Mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest to His saints"; not to the world,
nor even to Christians, but only to the Holy Ones. To them was unveiled " the glory of this Mystery"; and what was it? "Christ
in you" - a significant phrase, which we shall see, in a moment, belonged
to the life of the Initiate; thus ultimately must every man learn the wisdom,
and become "perfect in Christ Jesus". [
Now S. Timothy holds an important position, as representing the
next generation of Christian teachers. He was a pupil of S. Paul, and was
appointed by him to guide and rule a portion of the Church. He had been, we
learn, initiated into the Mysteries by S. Paul himself, and reference is made
to this, the technical phrases once more serving as a clue. "This charge I
commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on
thee", [I.Tim.,i,. ] the solemn benediction of
the Initiator, who admitted the candidate; but not alone was the Initiator
present: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by
prophecy, by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery",[Ibid., iv,. ]
of the Elder Brothers. And he reminds him to lay hold of that "eternal
life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession
before many witnesses" [ Ibid., vi,.] - the vow
of the new Initiate pledged in the presence of the Elder Brothers, and of the
assembly of Initiates. The knowledge then given was the sacred charge of which
S. Paul cries out so forcibly: "0 Timothy, keep that which is committed to
thy trust" [Ibid., 20] - not the knowledge commonly possessed by
Christians, as to which no special obligation lay upon S. Timothy, but the
sacred deposit committed to his trust as an Initiate, and essential to the
welfare of the Church. S. Paul later recurs again to this, laying stress on the
supreme importance of the matter in a way that would be exaggerated had the
knowledge been the common property of Christian men: "Hold fast the form
of sound words which thou hast heard of me .... That good thing which was
committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us" [II.
Tim., i, 13,.] - as serious
an adjuration as human lips could frame. Further, it was his duty to provide
for the due transmission of this sacred deposit, that it might be handed on to
the future, and the Church might never be left without teachers: "The
things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses" - the sacred oral
teachings given in the assembly of Initiates, who bore witness to the accuracy
of the transmission - " the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be
able to teach others also". [Ibid, ii, . ]
The knowledge - or, if the phrase be preferred, the supposition -
that the Church possessed these hidden teachings throws a flood of light on the
scattered remarks made by S. Paul about himself, and when they are gathered
together, we have an outline of the evolution of the Initiate. S. Paul asserts
that though he was already among the perfect, the Initiated - for he says:
"Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded" - he had
not yet "attained", was indeed not yet wholly "perfect",
for he had not yet won Christ, he had not yet reached the "high calling of
God in Christ", "the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of
His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death"; and he was
striving, he says, "if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead". [Phil,, iii, 8, 10-12,14, . ] For
this was the Initiation that liberated, that made the Initiate the Perfect
Master, the Risen Christ, freeing Him finally from the "dead", from
the humanity within the circle of generation, from the bonds that fettered the
soul to gross matter. Here again we have a number of technical terms, and even
the surface reader should realise that the "resurrection of the dead"
here spoken of cannot be the ordinary resurrection of the modern Christian,
supposed to be inevitable for all men, and therefore obviously not requiring
any special struggle on the part of any one to attain to it. In fact the very
word "attain" would be out of place in referring to a universal and
inevitable human experience. S. Paul could not avoid that resurrection,
according to the modern Christian view. What then was the resurrection to
attain which he was making such strenuous efforts? Once more the only answer
comes from the Mysteries. In them the Initiate approaching the Initiation that
liberated from the cycle of rebirth, the circle of generation, was called
"the suffering Christ", he shared the sufferings of the Saviour of
the world, was crucified mystically, "made conformable to His death,"
and then attained the resurrection, the fellowship of the glorified Christ,
and, after, that death had over him no power.[Rev., i,
. "I am He that liveth, and was dead and behold, I am alive for evermore.
Amen." ] This was "the prize" towards
which the great Apostle was pressing, and he urged "as many as be
perfect", not the ordinary believer, thus also to strive. Let them not be
content with what they had gained, but still press onwards.
This resemblance of the Initiate to the Christ is, indeed, the very
groundwork of the Greater Mysteries, as we shall see more in detail when we
study "The Mystical Christ". The Initiate was no longer to look on
Christ as outside himself: "Though we have known Christ after the flesh,
yet now henceforth know we Him no more".[II.
Cor., v, 16 ]
The ordinary believer had "put on Christ", as many of
you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. "
[ Gal.,iii,.] Then they were the "babes in Christ" to whom
reference has already been made, and Christ was the Saviour to whom they looked
for help, knowing Him "after the flesh". But when they had conquered
the lower nature and were no longer "carnal",
then they were to enter on a higher path, and were themselves to become Christ.
This which he himself had already reached, was the longing of the Apostle for
his followers: " My little children, of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." [Gal., iv, . ] Already he was their spiritual father, having
"begotten you through the gospel". [I Cor., iv,. ]
But now "again" he was as a parent, as their mother
to bring them to the second birth. Then the infant Christ, the Holy
Child, was born in the soul, "the hidden man of the heart" [ I.S.Pet., iii,.] the Initiate thus became that
"Little Child"; henceforth he was to live out in his own person the
life of the Christ, until he became the "perfect man", growing
"unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ".[Eph.,
iv,.] Then he, as S. Paul was doing, filled up the sufferings of Christ in his
own flesh,[
It may be well to point out, ere closing this chapter, that S.
Paul himself sanctions the use of the theoretical mystic teaching in explaining
the historical events recorded in the Scriptures. The history therein written
is not regarded by him as a mere record of facts, which occurred on the
physical plane. A true mystic, he saw in the physical events the shadows of the
universal truths ever unfolding in higher and inner worlds, and knew that the
events selected for preservation in occult writings were such as were typical,
the explanation of which would subserve human instruction. Thus he takes the
story of Abraham, Sarai, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac, and saying, "which
things are an allegory", he proceeds to give the mystical
interpretation.[Gal., iv, 22-31 ] Referring to the escape of the Israelites
from Egypt, he speaks of the Bed Sea as a baptism, of the manna and the water
as spiritual meat and spiritual drink, of the rock from which the water flowed
as Christ.[I. Cor., x, 1-4] He sees the great mystery of the union of Christ
and His Church in the human relation of husband and wife, and speaks of
Christians as the flesh and the bones of the body of Christ.[Eph., v, 23-.] The
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews allegorises the whole Jewish system of
worship. In the