Non Mihi Non Tibi Sed Nobis
Esoteric Christianity ~ by Annie Besant
One feels it necessary to expound upon particular phrases within this
book, for it is with these particular phrases that one finds a
resonance with truth... Such is the way with all written texts- we
must harvest the wheat from the chaff before we can make the bread. So
I shall begin with the first half of the book. There is much to digest
here first, so I am splitting the loave into halves.
The following is Part 1- excerpts worthy of discussion from Chapters 1-7
CHAPTER I.
Initiation established a kinship of the soul with the divine Nature.
The subtle hinting in the first chapter alludes to the Mysteries and
the preparation of the initiate. How there must naturally be a kinship
between Divinity and Soul cannot be understated! How might we speak to
the soul? What of those who have yet to build their intellect, or the
faculty of intuition? Thus, the tongue springs forth in a multitude of
traditions calling to humanity, beckoning them to dive into the
spiritual waters.
CHAPTER II.
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.
Indeed! This is still for the most part true, as the followers in
Christianity have lost the true message of the Chrism and of the
Christos. The literalism run rampant has divorced many a soul from
divine embodiment. Brother wars against brother, in thought, word, and
deed. It is only redeemed through the sacrificial art, and the
esoteric understanding related to ones own heart...
For the flower of this seed planted to fruit, the germination therefrom
must involve Gnosis. There is a Way, and the path is presented in
parable.
Esoteric Christianity will reappear in the “Holy Place,” in the
Temple, so that all who are capable of receiving it may follow its
lines of published thought; and secondly, Occult Christianity will
again descend into the Adytum, dwelling behind the Veil which guards
the “Holy of Holies,” into which only the Initiate may enter. Then
again will occult teaching be within the reach of those who qualify
themselves to receive it, according to the ancient rules, those who are
willing in modern days to meet the ancient demands, made on all those
who would fain know the reality and truth of spiritual things.
This is an absolutely profound statement which deserves our utmost
attention. For there *are* ancient rules to follow. What is this
esoteric or occult aspect of Christianity that is being referred to
here? The holy place, the temple, the Adytum, the Holy of Holies?
Also, those seeking, must "qualify themselves" to receive it. How
might one qualify oneself?
"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;”[58] this is
the first Initiation; a later one is that of “the Holy Ghost and fire,”
The brevity of this statement might possibly be firmly understood only
by those who have witnessed such during their respective initiations.
The Holy Ghost and Fire is a most powerful rite, the likes of which
the mortal population can have no comprehension. Indeed this rebirth
welcomes the evolving soul unto the immortal life. Various vestures are
taken on during the lifestreams journey through the realms of the Great
hierarchy/holarchy of Being.
"ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.’
This is stated from an initiate whom many recognized as the messiah.
The main error in the Christian religion is to view the Christ as a
historic figure seperate from the self. This main quote speaks volumes
of the very message which remains unlearned. The very answer to the
previous passage- that of the temple is brought to light. We are the
temple, and the spirit of the Most Holy dwelleth herein! ...for those with ears...
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ
be formed _in you_.”[81] Already he was their spiritual father, having
“begotten you through the gospel.”[82] 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;”
See we not, the undercurrent of this book? See we not, the message?
The truth reveiled of the Son? The second birth born in the soul ~ the
Way of the Begotten?
CHAPTER III.
the whole law is indeed spiritual; but that the spiritual meaning
which the law conveys is not known to all, but to those only on whom
the grace of the Holy Spirit is bestowed in the word of wisdom and
knowledge.
Reiterating yet again that there is a hidden side to Christianity. An
esoteric and spiritual meaning, one that does not become apparent until
Sophia is present. The word made flesh, made by the grace of the
Spirit that resideth within the candidate.
Prior to the New Testament, the books which spoke of the Messiah /
Meshiak (משיח) or "annointed one" alluded to the Law and also to the
nature of the Covenant. Those who believe that the Meshiak came in the
form of a man and then began to spread the Gospels of "Jesus," were
blind to the esoteric meaning behind the Old Testament. In this way,
the Jewish rejected the Christian and rightly so if we are to believe
that this phenomenon belongs only to one man- and so too, are the
Jewish in error if they believe such a one is to come in the future in
the form of merely one Man alone. This is not to say that this historic
figure did not exist, nor that he was not a Self Realized embodiment of
the Higher Monad, as a unique expression fit to offer a dispensation
for the dawn of a new age and a new cycle of humanity's spiritual
evolution. But rather, that this manifestation of the perfection within
lies as a dormant seed in latency nested in the form of every human
being regardless of gender or cultural heritage. When the germination
is to begin is up to the readiness of that which was sown to take root,
to grow, to flower, and to fruit. It is a spiritual germination, born
of spiritual water and fire.
CHAPTER IV.
We have seen that the Apostles and their successors dealt very
freely with the Old Testament as having an allegorical and mystic sense
far more important than the historical, though by no means negating it,
and that they did not scruple to teach the instructed believer that
some of the stories that were apparently historical were really purely
allegorical. Nowhere, perhaps, is it more necessary to understand this
than when we are studying the story of Jesus, surnamed the Christ, for
when we do not disentangle the intertwisted threads, and see where
symbols have been taken as events, allegories as histories, we lose
most of the instructiveness of the narrative and much of its rarest
beauty.
The Mystic sense is quite important! How might we extrapolate the meaning of allegory to those bereft of this faculty! It takes a considerable amount of effort to disentangle the threads which make up the fabric of religion, especially when they act as the veil to the hidden mystery.
This superhuman purity and devotion fitted the man Jesus, the
disciple, to become the temple of a loftier Power, of a mighty,
indwelling Presence. The time had come for one of those Divine
manifestations which from age to age are made for the helping of
humanity, when a new impulse is needed to quicken the spiritual
evolution of mankind, when a new civilisation is about to dawn.
Intuitively, one finds a portion of this particular string of words as
seeded in the mind of the Author by an Ascended Mahatma. For those of
this caliber are quite privy to such truths having served in such a
manner themselves! It is with our own ability to become purified in
our own devotion and will to serve that we become vessels or
instruments of the Divine. When such Divine presences are known and
felt, there is a loftier power indeed! What spurns this impulse to
quicken the dawning ages? This spiritual influx which ever comes in
waves, ever shaping the landscape of human consciousness and evolutions
throughout the ages?
The man Jesus yielded himself a willing sacrifice, “offered himself
without spot” to the Lord of Love, who took unto Himself that pure form
as tabernacle, and dwelt therein.
This is speaking of the True sacrifice. It has nothing to
do with the carnal nature of humanity, that which glorifies blood lust
and the murdering of the human form upon a wooden cross. The manner in
which the anointing proceeds is through the Will, it is the
supplication of the lesser to the higher, of the ego to the Monad, of
the Human to the Divine, of the individuation to the ONE. The self
dies to the Supreme Self. The level of power which lies dormant or
latent within the human being is hyper-dimensional and manifold. Our
ability to assist with the Divine Plan is very real and is expressed as
the Lord of Love, birthing in the heart through the Arc of the Covenant
in the tabernacle.
Round this glorious Figure gathered the myths which united Him to
the long array of His predecessors, the myths telling in allegory the
story of all such lives, as they symbolise the work of the Logos in the
Kosmos and the higher evolution of the individual human soul.
This is a succint statement- to recognize the work of the Logos and the
pattern in other spiritual traditions, as well as to see the truth
hidden within allegory. It is the layman or those prone to spiritual
sloth who will hear any such stories and be satisfied with the outer
appearance, but it is the mystic who will not be satisfied by the
superficial dross and will seek the greater nourishment. Those that
hunger for wisdom shall be fed, but in eating, true satisfaction only
comes when the seeker is then able to begin feeding others. Thus, ever
a new dispensation must be created, ever a new avatar must be made
manifest.
CHAPTER V.
Why have these legends mingled with the history of Jesus, and
crystallised round Him, as a historical personage ? These are really
the stories not of a particular individual named Jesus but of the
universal Christ; of a Man who symbolised a Divine Being, and who
represented a fundamental truth in nature; a Man who filled a certain
office and held a certain characteristic position towards humanity;
standing towards humanity in a special relationship, renewed age after
age, as generation succeeded generation, as race gave way to race.
Hence He was, as are all such, the "Son of Man", a peculiar and
distinctive title, the title of an office, not of an individual. The
Christ of the Solar Myth was the Christ of the Mysteries, and we find
the secret of the mythic in the mystic Christ.
Ah, the title of a "certain office." Such is the truth with regard to
the name "Jesus." That which is universal will be known by many names.
The finite language describing the infinite, must always permutate.
What is the characteristic position toward humanity? What must be
renewed age after age? It reminds me of the story about Hanock/Enoch =
initiate and Metatron, the Angel of the Law. The outward manifestation
in full expression requires that the Law be fulfilled, such is the
nature of the Divine Plan.
CHAPTER VII.
Every son of man may become such a manifested Son of God, such a
Saviour of the world. In each such Son is ‘God manifest in the
flesh,’[236] the atonement that aids all mankind, the living power that
makes all things new. Only one thing is needed to bring that power into
manifested activity in any individual soul; the soul must open the door
and let Him in.
This is a profound and wise message, one that needs to be reiterated
again and again to those who for some strange reason, cling to the
belief that the Son of God is elsewhere, is outside, is other. Again
and again and again I say unto my brethren, I am in you and you are in
me! The atonement, or reconciliation between God and Human is won by a
very sacred action, born of a righteous desire and Will to be of
service. Know Thyself and take dominion.
There must be an opening from below as well as an outpouring from
above, the receptiveness of the lower nature as well as the willingness
of the higher to give.
One can view this particular passage from the standpoint of the
reciprocal nature of the divine and humankind. It is rather like the
physical sciences when a certain set of parameters must take place for
there to be lightning. That which necessitates the spiritual Ark is
absolutely governed by receptivity of the vessel.
...this lesson is that the true centre of divine Life lies within
and not without. The Self has its centre within each human soul–truly
is “the centre everywhere,” for Christ is _in_ all, and God in
Christ–and no embodied life, nothing “out of the Eternal”
The lesson points to a fulcrum, the seeker must look within. If God is
all there is, was, and ever shall be, and we are within God and God
ordained us to life, and created all that exists, are we not in the
eternal, of the eteral, by the eternal? That which makes up our finite
forms is the eternal. The essence of being is shared with all~ One in
all and all in One.
"When one enters the path, he lays his heart upon the cross; when
the cross and the heart have become one, then hath he reached the goal"
So, after reflection upon these 7 chapters, what might one conclude as
to how one might enter the Path? What might the goal be? What might we
reach?
book, for it is with these particular phrases that one finds a
resonance with truth... Such is the way with all written texts- we
must harvest the wheat from the chaff before we can make the bread. So
I shall begin with the first half of the book. There is much to digest
here first, so I am splitting the loave into halves.
The following is Part 1- excerpts worthy of discussion from Chapters 1-7
CHAPTER I.
Initiation established a kinship of the soul with the divine Nature.
The subtle hinting in the first chapter alludes to the Mysteries and
the preparation of the initiate. How there must naturally be a kinship
between Divinity and Soul cannot be understated! How might we speak to
the soul? What of those who have yet to build their intellect, or the
faculty of intuition? Thus, the tongue springs forth in a multitude of
traditions calling to humanity, beckoning them to dive into the
spiritual waters.
CHAPTER II.
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.
Indeed! This is still for the most part true, as the followers in
Christianity have lost the true message of the Chrism and of the
Christos. The literalism run rampant has divorced many a soul from
divine embodiment. Brother wars against brother, in thought, word, and
deed. It is only redeemed through the sacrificial art, and the
esoteric understanding related to ones own heart...
For the flower of this seed planted to fruit, the germination therefrom
must involve Gnosis. There is a Way, and the path is presented in
parable.
Esoteric Christianity will reappear in the “Holy Place,” in the
Temple, so that all who are capable of receiving it may follow its
lines of published thought; and secondly, Occult Christianity will
again descend into the Adytum, dwelling behind the Veil which guards
the “Holy of Holies,” into which only the Initiate may enter. Then
again will occult teaching be within the reach of those who qualify
themselves to receive it, according to the ancient rules, those who are
willing in modern days to meet the ancient demands, made on all those
who would fain know the reality and truth of spiritual things.
This is an absolutely profound statement which deserves our utmost
attention. For there *are* ancient rules to follow. What is this
esoteric or occult aspect of Christianity that is being referred to
here? The holy place, the temple, the Adytum, the Holy of Holies?
Also, those seeking, must "qualify themselves" to receive it. How
might one qualify oneself?
"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;”[58] this is
the first Initiation; a later one is that of “the Holy Ghost and fire,”
The brevity of this statement might possibly be firmly understood only
by those who have witnessed such during their respective initiations.
The Holy Ghost and Fire is a most powerful rite, the likes of which
the mortal population can have no comprehension. Indeed this rebirth
welcomes the evolving soul unto the immortal life. Various vestures are
taken on during the lifestreams journey through the realms of the Great
hierarchy/holarchy of Being.
"ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.’
This is stated from an initiate whom many recognized as the messiah.
The main error in the Christian religion is to view the Christ as a
historic figure seperate from the self. This main quote speaks volumes
of the very message which remains unlearned. The very answer to the
previous passage- that of the temple is brought to light. We are the
temple, and the spirit of the Most Holy dwelleth herein! ...for those with ears...
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ
be formed _in you_.”[81] Already he was their spiritual father, having
“begotten you through the gospel.”[82] 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;”
See we not, the undercurrent of this book? See we not, the message?
The truth reveiled of the Son? The second birth born in the soul ~ the
Way of the Begotten?
CHAPTER III.
the whole law is indeed spiritual; but that the spiritual meaning
which the law conveys is not known to all, but to those only on whom
the grace of the Holy Spirit is bestowed in the word of wisdom and
knowledge.
Reiterating yet again that there is a hidden side to Christianity. An
esoteric and spiritual meaning, one that does not become apparent until
Sophia is present. The word made flesh, made by the grace of the
Spirit that resideth within the candidate.
Prior to the New Testament, the books which spoke of the Messiah /
Meshiak (משיח) or "annointed one" alluded to the Law and also to the
nature of the Covenant. Those who believe that the Meshiak came in the
form of a man and then began to spread the Gospels of "Jesus," were
blind to the esoteric meaning behind the Old Testament. In this way,
the Jewish rejected the Christian and rightly so if we are to believe
that this phenomenon belongs only to one man- and so too, are the
Jewish in error if they believe such a one is to come in the future in
the form of merely one Man alone. This is not to say that this historic
figure did not exist, nor that he was not a Self Realized embodiment of
the Higher Monad, as a unique expression fit to offer a dispensation
for the dawn of a new age and a new cycle of humanity's spiritual
evolution. But rather, that this manifestation of the perfection within
lies as a dormant seed in latency nested in the form of every human
being regardless of gender or cultural heritage. When the germination
is to begin is up to the readiness of that which was sown to take root,
to grow, to flower, and to fruit. It is a spiritual germination, born
of spiritual water and fire.
CHAPTER IV.
We have seen that the Apostles and their successors dealt very
freely with the Old Testament as having an allegorical and mystic sense
far more important than the historical, though by no means negating it,
and that they did not scruple to teach the instructed believer that
some of the stories that were apparently historical were really purely
allegorical. Nowhere, perhaps, is it more necessary to understand this
than when we are studying the story of Jesus, surnamed the Christ, for
when we do not disentangle the intertwisted threads, and see where
symbols have been taken as events, allegories as histories, we lose
most of the instructiveness of the narrative and much of its rarest
beauty.
The Mystic sense is quite important! How might we extrapolate the meaning of allegory to those bereft of this faculty! It takes a considerable amount of effort to disentangle the threads which make up the fabric of religion, especially when they act as the veil to the hidden mystery.
This superhuman purity and devotion fitted the man Jesus, the
disciple, to become the temple of a loftier Power, of a mighty,
indwelling Presence. The time had come for one of those Divine
manifestations which from age to age are made for the helping of
humanity, when a new impulse is needed to quicken the spiritual
evolution of mankind, when a new civilisation is about to dawn.
Intuitively, one finds a portion of this particular string of words as
seeded in the mind of the Author by an Ascended Mahatma. For those of
this caliber are quite privy to such truths having served in such a
manner themselves! It is with our own ability to become purified in
our own devotion and will to serve that we become vessels or
instruments of the Divine. When such Divine presences are known and
felt, there is a loftier power indeed! What spurns this impulse to
quicken the dawning ages? This spiritual influx which ever comes in
waves, ever shaping the landscape of human consciousness and evolutions
throughout the ages?
The man Jesus yielded himself a willing sacrifice, “offered himself
without spot” to the Lord of Love, who took unto Himself that pure form
as tabernacle, and dwelt therein.
This is speaking of the True sacrifice. It has nothing to
do with the carnal nature of humanity, that which glorifies blood lust
and the murdering of the human form upon a wooden cross. The manner in
which the anointing proceeds is through the Will, it is the
supplication of the lesser to the higher, of the ego to the Monad, of
the Human to the Divine, of the individuation to the ONE. The self
dies to the Supreme Self. The level of power which lies dormant or
latent within the human being is hyper-dimensional and manifold. Our
ability to assist with the Divine Plan is very real and is expressed as
the Lord of Love, birthing in the heart through the Arc of the Covenant
in the tabernacle.
Round this glorious Figure gathered the myths which united Him to
the long array of His predecessors, the myths telling in allegory the
story of all such lives, as they symbolise the work of the Logos in the
Kosmos and the higher evolution of the individual human soul.
This is a succint statement- to recognize the work of the Logos and the
pattern in other spiritual traditions, as well as to see the truth
hidden within allegory. It is the layman or those prone to spiritual
sloth who will hear any such stories and be satisfied with the outer
appearance, but it is the mystic who will not be satisfied by the
superficial dross and will seek the greater nourishment. Those that
hunger for wisdom shall be fed, but in eating, true satisfaction only
comes when the seeker is then able to begin feeding others. Thus, ever
a new dispensation must be created, ever a new avatar must be made
manifest.
CHAPTER V.
Why have these legends mingled with the history of Jesus, and
crystallised round Him, as a historical personage ? These are really
the stories not of a particular individual named Jesus but of the
universal Christ; of a Man who symbolised a Divine Being, and who
represented a fundamental truth in nature; a Man who filled a certain
office and held a certain characteristic position towards humanity;
standing towards humanity in a special relationship, renewed age after
age, as generation succeeded generation, as race gave way to race.
Hence He was, as are all such, the "Son of Man", a peculiar and
distinctive title, the title of an office, not of an individual. The
Christ of the Solar Myth was the Christ of the Mysteries, and we find
the secret of the mythic in the mystic Christ.
Ah, the title of a "certain office." Such is the truth with regard to
the name "Jesus." That which is universal will be known by many names.
The finite language describing the infinite, must always permutate.
What is the characteristic position toward humanity? What must be
renewed age after age? It reminds me of the story about Hanock/Enoch =
initiate and Metatron, the Angel of the Law. The outward manifestation
in full expression requires that the Law be fulfilled, such is the
nature of the Divine Plan.
CHAPTER VII.
Every son of man may become such a manifested Son of God, such a
Saviour of the world. In each such Son is ‘God manifest in the
flesh,’[236] the atonement that aids all mankind, the living power that
makes all things new. Only one thing is needed to bring that power into
manifested activity in any individual soul; the soul must open the door
and let Him in.
This is a profound and wise message, one that needs to be reiterated
again and again to those who for some strange reason, cling to the
belief that the Son of God is elsewhere, is outside, is other. Again
and again and again I say unto my brethren, I am in you and you are in
me! The atonement, or reconciliation between God and Human is won by a
very sacred action, born of a righteous desire and Will to be of
service. Know Thyself and take dominion.
There must be an opening from below as well as an outpouring from
above, the receptiveness of the lower nature as well as the willingness
of the higher to give.
One can view this particular passage from the standpoint of the
reciprocal nature of the divine and humankind. It is rather like the
physical sciences when a certain set of parameters must take place for
there to be lightning. That which necessitates the spiritual Ark is
absolutely governed by receptivity of the vessel.
...this lesson is that the true centre of divine Life lies within
and not without. The Self has its centre within each human soul–truly
is “the centre everywhere,” for Christ is _in_ all, and God in
Christ–and no embodied life, nothing “out of the Eternal”
The lesson points to a fulcrum, the seeker must look within. If God is
all there is, was, and ever shall be, and we are within God and God
ordained us to life, and created all that exists, are we not in the
eternal, of the eteral, by the eternal? That which makes up our finite
forms is the eternal. The essence of being is shared with all~ One in
all and all in One.
"When one enters the path, he lays his heart upon the cross; when
the cross and the heart have become one, then hath he reached the goal"
So, after reflection upon these 7 chapters, what might one conclude as
to how one might enter the Path? What might the goal be? What might we
reach?
Comment
-
Comment by Sophia2013 on November 10, 2010 at 1:54pm -
I'm sorry. I don't know what happened to the first part of my comment. I'd meant to preface the quotation with the opinion that we all are seekers to the answers of the questions you've asked. I also mentioned that I thought only about 99% of those who consider themselves "Christian" understand the aspects that Annie Besant has brought forth. And, this quotation from "The Brothers Karamazov" was a recent ephiphany for me in pondering what these requirements are.
Is there ONLY one path? Must we behave as if we ARE ONE....responsible for all? That is an onerous task.
-
Comment by Sophia2013 on November 10, 2010 at 1:50pm
-
"The Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoevsky :
"There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all. Whereas by shifting your own laziness and powerlessness onto others, you will end by sharing in Satan’s pride and murmuring against God."
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