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Esoteric Christianity
The article below is taken from the late reverend Geoffrey
Hodson's book, Hidden Wisdom in the Holy Bible, Volume I and gives a good general
impression of an esoteric approach to Christianity. We can recommend you purchase and read
the entire work, available from Quest Books.
FOUR MAJOR KEYS
All Happens
Within
The foregoing
enunciation of the principal theme of all allegories may now be followed by the statement
and application to man of four of the seven possible main interpretations of the
allegories and symbols of the world.
The First Key is
that some recorded, external, supposedly historical events also occur interiorly. All
happens within every race, nation and individual, each recorded event being descriptive of
a subjective experience of man. This application is essentially twofold, referring both to
the experiences and attainments of races and individuals advancing by the normal, gradual,
evolutionary method, and to individuals who are treading "The way of holiness".
The need for the
veiling in allegory and symbol of magical and occult knowledge is especially great in the
latter of these two applications; for quite early in the approach to and entry upon the
path of swift unfoldment an enhancement of the will power, and of the mental and psychic
faculties, begins to be apparent. Premature awakening and development of these supernormal
faculties, and their employment for purely personal and destructive purposes, could prove
extremely harmful both to those who misuse them and to their fellow men.
The apostle Paul
would seem to have accepted this First Key - the mystical interpretation. For him the
Nativity of Christ, for example, was not only a particular event which occurred at a
certain time in Bethlehem, but is also descriptive of a universal human experience. The
narratives of the Annunciation, the Immaculate Conception and the Nativity of Christ are
so written as to describe allegorically the gradual awakening of Christlike powers of
perception, action and attainment into conscious activity within the Soul of advanced man.
The presence and the activities of the Lord Christ on earth evidently were for Paul but
mirrors of the interior awakening and perfecting of the inherent, redemptive Christ-power
and nature within man - the Logos of the Soul. Thus he wrote: "... I travail in birth
again until Christ be formed in you" and "To whom God would make known what is
the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory."
As the student of
the Bible reads the great narratives with this key in his hand, as it were, he can
consciously share in the recorded experiences. He may ascend the mount with Abraham,
Moses, Elijah and Jesus and, in however slight a measure at first, begin to participate in
their illumination. With the two dejected disciples he may walk the road to Emmaus, and
hear the wise words of their temporarily unknown companion. With them, at the breaking of
the bread, he will then experience that inner light which came when "... their eyes
were opened, and they knew him...." Such, indeed, is part of the intention of the
inspired authors. As one studies the scriptures of the world, therefore, one must read
intuitively, sensitively, with one's mind open and responsive to that vaster consciousness
which so often seems waiting to burst through. Thus the First Key is that some recorded
events also occur interiorly.
People
Personify Human Qualities
The Second Key is
that each of the persons introduced into the stories represents a condition of
consciousness and a quality of character. All the actors are personifications of aspects
of human nature, of attributes, principles, powers, faculties, limitations, weaknesses and
errors of man. When purely human beings are the heroes, the life of a person evolving at
the normal rate is being described. When the hero is semi-divine, however, the accent is
upon the hastened progress of the Spiritual Self in man after it has begun to assume
preponderant power. When the central figure is an Avatar or "descent" of an
aspect of Deity, his experiences narrate those of the Spiritual Self during the last
phases of human evolution to the stature of perfected manhood. Such is the general
purpose, and such the method, of the ancient writers of the world's immortal allegories,
parables and myths.
The Deity or
Father, when introduced into a narrative, generally refers to the Highest Spiritual
Essence in man, the Divine Spark, the Immortal Germ, the Logos of the Soul, the Dweller in
the Innermost, the Monad. This is especially true where the Supreme and Eternal Deity, the
Logos, is brought into the story. A tragic, mind-darkening degradation of the Universal
Self named "I AM THAT I AM," to the level of the deity of a single tribe,
sometimes bloodthirsty, wrathful and jealous, is thought by some authorities to have been
made in the days of the restoration by Ezra of the destroyed books of the Israelites. The
Supreme Emanator, referred to as "God" and "the Spirit of God," is
above all things universal and divine. The limitation of the one uncreate to become the
personal god of a single tribe had led to much confusion and an appalling debasement of
the idea of the Supreme Deity. Whenever the Eternal One is introduced into a narrative, it
is always susceptible of interpretation as a personification of the Monad of man, as also
of the Oversoul of the race.
In the parable,
the bosom of Abraham into which Lazarus, "a certain beggar," was carried by the
angels, refers to the state of consciousness in which the human Monad perpetually abides
and to which the Spiritual Soul or Immortal Ego eventually attains. Those following the
initiatory path seek to hasten this realization, in waking brain-consciousness, first of
their divine, immortal nature, and thereafter of their unbroken unity with the Supreme
Lord of all. The full recognition of man's unity with God, of the oneness of man-spirit
with God-spirit, is the ultimate goal of all who seek the strait gate and enter upon the
narrow way. In Hinduism this state is called moksha or liberation; in Buddhism, nirvana or
conscious absorption; and in Christianity, salvation, ascension, Christhood, and being
"carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." The symbol of the disciple John
leaning on the bosom of Jesus is susceptible of a similar interpretation. Thus Abraham, as
also many other people in the Bible, personates both a principle of man and a state of
consciousness.
In this method of
Biblical study the characters - divine, semidivine, patriarchal and human - are regarded
as personifications of principles and powers of nature as the macrocosm and of man as the
microcosm. This reading is supported by Paul, who writes: "all these things happened
unto them for ensamples" and "it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one
by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman ... which things are an allegory ...". It is
not unreasonable to assume that such a theory may also be true of many other portions of
the Bible. One may even go further than this and assert that the practice of studying the
scriptures of the world in their literal meaning, and as records of actual historical
events alone, can lead to serious confusion of mind.
Three other errors
in modern Christianity urgently need to be corrected, I submit. These are: the degradation
already mentioned, of the concept of the Divine Emanator of the universe to the level of a
tribal god; reliance upon an external (instead of an interior) redemptive power; and the
erection of a theological edifice founded upon incredible dogmas concerning this last
error, the author of Proverbs would seem to have expressed a view similar to that which
forms the basis of this work, namely that many of the scriptural passages upon which
certain dogmas are founded were actually conceived and written as allegories or parables.
These difficulties
are all avoided, and profound inspiration consistent with reason is gained by the
recognition of a mystical intent and meaning underlying many portions of the scriptures
and mythologies of ancient peoples. Thus the humility, the devotion and the selfless love
of Mary, the Mother of Jesus; the human frailty and the inherent sainthood of a Magdalene
and a Peter; the "busyness" of Martha and the far more valuable, spiritual,
contemplative aspects of human nature and modes of human life displayed by her sister,
Mary - all these attributes form part of the character of every individual, the conditions
of life drawing out now one and now another.
The twelve
disciples of Jesus personify them in a twelvefold classification as microcosmic
manifestations of the attributes of the zodiacal signs. Discipleship, or nearness to the
divine teacher, indicates that the evolution of the disciple had reached an advanced
stage. Ultimately, all attributes will be fully developed as powers of heart and mind and
spirit. Only as the twelve zodiacal qualities in man are "discipled" - or
disciplined and refined - is he able to respond to his own inner spiritual will and to
comprehend pure wisdom, both of which are personified by the Master. The Christ-Presence
and power, whether asleep, awakening or being "born", or fully grown to
"the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ'', must, however, be added to
all human attributes in order to complete by means of personification the full description
of man. The interaction between these various aspects of human nature, the effects they
produce upon one another, the waxing or waning of one or more of them at different times
and in different lives, and the gradual, triumphant emergence and predominance of the
royal Spiritual Self, the immortal King within, the hero of every saga - all this is
allegorically portrayed by the initiated authors of the scriptures of the world. The
marriages in which many of these exploits culminate may be interpreted as symbolic
references to the unification of the consciousness of the outer and the inner Self. In
mystical literature they are therefore referred to as "heavenly marriages." Thus
the narratives themselves describe the experiences - particularly the tests, ordeals,
defeats and victories - of one person, who is man himself. Successful exploits describe
interior achievements, while partial and complete failures, defeats and surrenders are
allegories of temporary victories of the purely human over the divine in man - conquests
of matter over spirit. In the main, the manifold experiences of the immortal Self of man
in its journey toward perfection are narrated as the adventures of numbers of persons in
anyone story. The twelve labours of Hercules, each susceptible of association with one of
the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the voyage of the Argonauts, the journeys and experiences
of the Israelites, the lives of the Lord Shri Krishna and of the Lord Christ, among many
others, are all descriptive in the symbolic manner of the journey of the Soul and the
psychological, intellectual and spiritual experiences passed through on that journey. Thus
the Second Key is that each of the dramatis personae represents a condition of
consciousness and a quality of character.
Stories
Dramatize Phases of Human Evolution
The Third Key is
that each story is thus regarded as a graphic description of the experiences of the human
soul as it passes through the various phases of its evolutionary journey to the Promised
Land, or cosmic consciousness - the goal and summit of human attainment. Inspired
allegories are always distinguishable from mere novels and biographies by several
characteristics, such as the intrusion of the supernatural and the inclusion in the story
of angelic and divine beings, and even of Deity itself. When these are found the existence
of a hidden revelation may always be suspected. The reader possessed of the keys may then
penetrate the veil of symbolism and find that hidden wisdom which it had concealed.
In this third
method of interpretation each story may be studied from at least two points of view. The
first of these refers to normal evolutionary experience and natural mental and emotional
states, while the second point of view reveals the sacred allegories as more especially
descriptive of the experiences of those who enter in at the strait gate and pursue the
narrow way.
In the parable of
the sower the different conditions of the ground - as the Christ explained privately to
his disciples represent various evolutionary phases and states of spiritual receptiveness
of the race and the individual, from complete unresponsiveness (rocky ground) to full
perception and ratification (fertile ground). In the parable of the ten virgins, the
foolish ones may be regarded as those who are not as yet sufficiently evolved to be able
to respond to impulses descending from the higher Self (the bridegroom), and therefore not
really to be blamed. The wise virgins, on the other hand, may be interpreted as
personifying all those in whom the Spiritual Self has attained to a considerable degree of
evolutionary unfoldment and the outer, physical nature is sufficiently developed to be
aware of this fact and to give expression, in the conduct of daily life, to the higher
idealism and the fruits of spiritual experiences. This is followed by the progressive
illumination of the mind-brain by the Ego (betrothal), leading to the fusion of the
immortal and mortal natures (marriage).
The incidents of
the marriage feast of Cana may thus be taken to refer to this interior union achieved by
those who have awakened the power of the Christ-presence within them, allegorically
indicated by the presence of the Master. The all-essential blending of personality and
Ego, the "heavenly marriage" or merging of the human individuality with the One
Divine Self and Life of the universe as a whole, "the mystic identity," has been
attained. The presence of the Christ in this story, as in all in which he appears,
including those which describe the miracles, indicates that spiritual wisdom, spiritual
intuitiveness and a Christlike love and compassion are already well developed and active
throughout the personal nature. Under such conditions the "water", symbol of the
desire aspects of the emotions, automatically becomes transmuted into the "wine"
of spiritual wisdom. This is not a miracle, but a natural process which occurs when a
steadfast aspirant finds and treads the narrow way. The grape and the vine also symbolize
knowledge, wisdom and comprehension of the spirit of things. As fermentation gives a
certain "strength" to wine, so the action of the intellect upon accumulated
esoteric knowledge turns it into pure wisdom, implicit insight and deeply penetrative
intuitiveness. Thus the Third Key is that many scriptural stories allegorically describe
phases of man's evolutionary journey and their accompanying experiences.
The Symbolism
of Language
The Fourth Key is
that some physical objects, as also certain words, have each their own special symbolic
meaning. The sacred language of the initiates of the mystery schools of old is indeed
formed of hierograms and symbols rather than of words alone, their meaning being ever
constant, as constant- also is the doctrine which this language everywhere reveals. Words
are thus used as keys with which to unlock the inner meanings of scripture and mythology.
These keys, when turned seven times, will reveal seven layers of sacred wisdom. This fact
is allegorically referred to on many occasions. The fiery furnace for example had to be
heated "seven times more than it was wont to be heated" before the three men -
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - were joined by a fourth who appeared "like the Son
of God". Similarly, the walls of Jericho were circumambulated on the seventh day
seven times before they fell down. This Fourth Key receives fuller consideration in the
first chapter of Part I.
The idea thus
emerges that in order to discover the sacred wisdom of the Christian and other scriptures
we must divest ourselves of the idea that they were conceived and written entirely as
chronologically and historically accurate accounts of actual events.
The Gospel
narrative, for example, in its initiatory interpretation, describes the progress of an
advanced and elevated Soul through the final ascending phases of evolution until the
highest, the Ascension, is attained. To be fully appreciated the great drama must be
transferred from the material to the psychological, intellectual and spiritual realms and
levels of human experience. An interpretation of the Gospel narrative from this point of
view is suggested in Part Five of this volume.
The disciples,
then, are personifications of the noblest attributes of man. Though still imperfect, they
are becoming increasingly spiritualized, or brought into the presence of their Master, who
personates the dweller in the innermost, the God-self of man. The disciples are not yet
equal to the Christ, being younger in evolution and in consequence still under the
delusion of self-separateness. This is shown by their question as to who will be greatest
in the kingdom of heaven. They are still tainted by grosser material attributes, hence the
symbolical washing of their feet by their Master. A traitor still lurks in their midst,
who must be self-revealed and self-slain before the great Ascension can occur. The Master
admonishes, rebukes and warns them, indicating the spiritualizing activity of the divine
presence within.
By the exercise of
theurgic powers many of the recorded and miscalled - miracles could have been performed by
an Adept, or even by an initiate of lesser degree. In possible mystical interpretations
they also illustrate the processes of arousing into activity the faculty of responsiveness
to spiritual vision (restoring sight), and to the still, small voice within (restoring
hearing), the free exercise of the intellect liberated from rigid orthodoxy (curing those
paralyzed) and awakening to full spiritual awareness and knowledge (raising from the
dead). This method of interpretation will be employed in those later volumes of this work
in which the New Testament miracles of the Lord Christ are considered.
The Gospel story,
and indeed all the inspired portions of the Bible, are addressed less to the reasoning
mind, which they frequently affront, than to the intuition, which can perceive in them
references to the evolution of the spiritual Soul of man. The processes of the development
and active use of latent deific powers are portrayed in world scriptures by means of
symbols and dramatic allegories. This mystical view, it may be repeated, does not totally
deny the presence of history. The kernel of tradition within the stories can still be a
record of real events, however much the illumined authors may have lifted them out of time
and space by the use of the sacred language.
Incongruities
as Clues to Deeper Meanings
The student of the
allegorical language is nearly always given a clue - one, moreover, which at first sight
might seem to be rather strange. This clue consists of an additional veil, cover or blind
which tends to increase confusion and so to repel those who regard as purely literal those
portions of scripture in which potentially dangerous, because power-bestowing, knowledge
is both revealed and concealed. Those who seek the hidden wisdom should guard carefully
against this repulsion, whether it is aroused
by statements
which are incongruous, incredible or impossible, or by stories which offend logic and
one's sense of justice, decency and morality. Unfortunately many people are turned away
from the scriptures, and even from religion itself, by the discovery of these
characteristics. The study and exposition of the sacred language are therefore of great
importance.
Some
Incredibilities and Their Elucidation
An apparent
digression is here made briefly to examine certain incongruities in the Bible and to
suggest possible resolutions of the problems which they admittedly present. Certain
admittedly difficult Biblical passages are:
 | (a) Three days and nights of creation pass
before the sun is created. Here universal creative epochs of activity and quiesence rather
than the alternations of day and night on a single planet are implied. |
| (b) Deity enjoins massacre and
extermination.2 Enemies of the soul are personified by enemies of Israel. |
| (c) Noah collects pairs of every living
creature from all parts of the earth - arctic, temperate and tropical- and keeps them
alive in the ark for forty days. According to a universal principle, also operative
throughout physical nature, the seeds of all living things are preserved from one period
of activity or creative epoch to its successor. The fruits of each human rebirth are, for
example, preserved between successive lives, the ark being the symbol of the conserving
vehicle - cosmic or human. |
| (d) The sins of the fathers shall be
visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. In the succession of
reincarnations each human life is as the "father" of those which follow, they
being referred to as its children. Character developments are transferred and sowing and
reaping occur from life to life under the law of cause and effect or, in Sanskrit, karma. |
| (e) Jericho is brought down by the sound of
trumpets, horns and shouting. The Logos doctrine of the formation and the dissolution of
universes by occult potencies of sound - the "Voice of God" - and their use in
chanting to break down limitations of consciousness (walls) and to purify its vehicles,
are all implied. |
| (f) Joshua makes the sun and moon stand
still to prolong the day. By the practice of contemplation the divine Will in man, his
source of spiritual power and light (symbolically, the sun), is brought to its maximum
power (the midst of the heavens) over the mortal man, enabling him to overcome the enemies
of the soul (Gibeonites) and attain serenity. |
| (g) The defeat of Samson by cutting off his
hair, and his destruction of the temple by leaning his weight on the pillars. Hair is the
symbol of the effective relationships between the Spiritual Soul and the mind-brain. When
this is severed the power and the guidance of the inner Self are lost to the outer man,
who becomes a slave to matter and the senses (Delilah). cf. Nazarenes, an ancient monastic
group in Palestine, one of whose customs was to permit the hair to grow long. When man
attains to equilibrium between the pairs of opposites (the pillars), limitations (the
temple) upon consciousness are dissipated and undesired qualities (the Philistines) are
destroyed. |
| (h) Elijah goes to heaven in a chariot of
fire. The sublimation of the fiery, creative force in man enables him to ascend the
spiritual states of consciousness (heaven). |
| (i) Jonah enters the belly of a great fish
and remains unharmed for three days and three nights. At initiation the candidate is
withdrawn from his body (the ship), enters the underworld (the sea), and is then elevated
into full spiritual awareness (the fish) or attains to Christ-consciousness. After the
passage of sufficient time (generally three days and three nights), he returns to his body
(is delivered to dry land). |
| (j) Tribute money is found inside a
particular fish. All the necessities (the tribute money) for spiritual, intellectual, and
even physical living are to be found in the divine aspects of human nature (the fish). Man
should learn to draw upon the Christ-power within him. |
| (k) A fig tree is withered for not bearing
fruit in early spring. Unless a man gives freely of the fruits of his life, they will
wither away and be lost. The text may be regarded as the enunciation of a law as well as
the description of an act. A fuller interpretation of this incident appears in Part 1,
Chapter III of this volume and also in Volume II, Part 1, Chapter 11 of this work. |
| (l) Lazarus is raised after being dead for
four days. Death symbolizes total spiritual unawareness. Miraculous restoration to life
implies its recovery by virtue of the action of the interior divine power and presence
(the Christ). The period of death refers to the time during which the body of the
candidate is unconscious (figurative death) while initiation is being conferred. In the
Ancient Mysteries being dead metaphorically described the condition of the uninitiated,
while being resurrected was to pass through the sacred rite or to be "raised." |
| (m) The flesh of Christ is meat and the
blood of Christ is drink, their consumption being essential to life. Our Lord insists that
the partaking of his flesh and blood is essential to salvation. The "flesh" of a
divine Being is a symbol for spiritual truth and law. Eating such flesh implies
intellectual absorption, full comprehension of eternal verities. Blood symbolizes the
ever-outpoured divine Life by which the universe and man are spiritually sustained.
Drinking such blood implies conscious absorption in the one life of the universe and the
realization of unity with its Source. |
| (n) The events of the night before the
Crucifixion are too numerous for all of them to have occurred in one night. Among them
are:
The Last Supper.
The agony in the Garden.
The betrayal by Judas.
The appearance before Caiaphas and the questioning.
The appearance before the Sanhedrin and the questioning.
The appearance before Pilate and the questioning in the Hall of
Judgment. (Courts to try malefactors did not sit in the middle of the night.)
The visit to Herod, told of by St. Luke.
The return to Pilate.
Pilate's speeches and the washing of his hands recorded by St. Matthew
only.
The scourging, mocking and arraying of Jesus in purple robes.
The long and painful journey to Golgotha, followed by the nailing to the
Cross.
The difficulty disappears if the whole experience is also regarded as being descriptive of
changes of consciousness as the threshold of perfection is approached! |
While
interpretations of these and a great many other incongruous statements in the Bible will
be offered in their due place in later volumes, fuller explanations of two or three of the
more perplexing texts may, perhaps, usefully be added here.
With regard to
(a), applying the Fourth Key - that some physical objects, as also certain words, have
each their own special symbolic meaning - the days and nights of creation refer to
alternations of creative activity or "day", and quiesence or "night".
These are later referred to in the text of this book by their Sanskrit names of Manvantara
and Pralaya respectively.
With reference to
(f), Joshua personifies the initiate who has brought his monadic will, symbolized by the
sun, to its position of maximum power (the midst of the heavens or zenith). In
consequence, he prevents the oncoming of night (mental darkness) and maintains his
personal nature (the battlefield of Gibeon) in that condition of prolonged illumination
(day) which insures victory in the battle between spirit (the Israelites) and matter
(their enemies) in him. This wonderful allegory has been more fully considered in Part 1,
Chapter V. Even from this brief interpretation, however, the element of impossibility may
be regarded as both a hint or clue and an indication of a profound occult idea for which
the reader is encouraged to search.
With regard to
(m), quite clearly our Lord was not exhorting mankind to consume human flesh and blood
when he said: "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I
will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As
the living Father bath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me." The words "flesh", "blood", "eateth"
and drinketh" are not used in the usual sense. They are symbolical, metaphorical, and
are so used in order to convey a hidden undermeaning.
What, then, do
those four words - "flesh", "blood", "eateth" and
"drinketh" mean? The flesh of Christ may be interpreted as divine truths,
spiritual laws, or that in which he is clothed, by which he is covered and through which
he as Logos is made manifest. The time comes - and is hastened as "The way of
holiness" is entered upon - when the human intellect absorbs divine knowledge,
becomes illumined and inspired by the interior discovery and revelation of spiritual
truths. This experience in consciousness is symbolized as eating the flesh of Christ.
Bread is also used to describe this knowledge of divine laws, processes and purposes.
Eating consecrated bread is an allegory for the reception, absorption and application to
life of that knowledge, gnosis, sophia, esoteric wisdom. Bread is also a symbol of the
cyclic regeneration of life after each return to the seed state.
The blood of
Christ is the ever-outpoured divine life by which the Universe is sustained and without
which it could not live. The life-force does, indeed, perform a function for the universe
and all it contains which closely resembles the life-sustaining office which human blood
performs for the physical body. Normally man is unaware either of the outpouring and
omnipresence of this divine life, or of the fact that it is the spiritually sustaining
life within him.
At a certain stage
of the evolution of the human intellect this fact is intuitively perceived. Such
realization by the aspirant can be hastened by means of certain spiritual practices,
meditation and prayer, and by the aid of his Master the hierophant and other officiants in
the sacred initiatory rites of the temples of the Greater Mysteries. Ultimately full
knowledge may be gained of the outpouring of the Christ-life into the universe and man,
and also of man's identity with that life and its divine Source. This attainment is
described symbolically as drinking Christ's blood.
Our Lord may be
assumed to have been referring to a state of consciousness of unity with the cosmic Christ
and his outpoured life rather than to an act of physical nutrition.
Once this
symbolical eating and drinking, this spiritual agape, has occurred, then the process can
be initiated in others who in their turn, starving for truth, can be fed in vast
multitudes. As the incident of feeding the five thousand allegorically tells, in this
ministration there is not, neither can there be, any loss. On the contrary, there is more
of spiritual wisdom, knowledge and upwelling spiritual vitality afterward than before. |
