Secret Teachings of All Ages: Mystic Christianity
It is by no means improbable that Jesus Himself originally propounded as
allegories the cosmic activities which were later con fused with His own life.
That the Χριστός, Christos, represents the solar power reverenced by every
nation of antiquity cannot be controverted. If Jesus revealed the nature and
purpose of this solar power under the name and personality of Christos,
thereby giving to this abstract power the attributes of a god-man, He but
followed a precedent set by all previous World-Teachers. This god-man, thus
endowed with all the qualities of Deity, signifies the latent divinity in every
man. Mortal man achieves deification only through at-one-ment with this
divine Self. Union with the immortal Self constitutes immortality, and he who
finds his true Self is therefore "saved." This Christos, or divine man in man, is
man's real hope of salvation--the living Mediator between abstract Deity and
mortal humankind. As Atys, Adonis, Bacchus, and Orpheus in all likelihood
were originally illumined men who later were confused with the symbolic
personages whom they created as personifications of this divine power, so
Jesus has been confused with the Christos, or god-man, whose wonders He
preached. Since the Christos was the god-man imprisoned in every creature,
it was the first duty of the initiate to liberate, or "resurrect, " this Eternal
One within himself. He who attained reunion with his Christos was
consequently termed a Christian, or Christened, man.
One of the most profound doctrines of the pagan philosophers concerned the
Universal Savior-God who lifted the souls of regenerated men to heaven
through His own nature. This concept was unquestionably the inspiration for
the words attributed to Jesus: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father but by me." In an effort to make a single person out
of Jesus and His Christos, Christian writers have patched together a doctrine
which must be resolved back into its original constituents if the true meaning
of Christianity is to be rediscovered. In the Gospel narratives the Christos
represents the perfect man who, having passed through the various stages
of the "World Mystery" symbolized by the thirty-three years, ascends to the
heaven sphere where he is reunited with his Eternal Father. The story of
Jesus as now preserved is--like the Masonic story of Hiram Abiff--part of a
secret initiatory ritualism belonging to the early Christian and pagan Mysteries.
During the centuries just prior to the Christian Era, the secrets of the pagan
Mysteries had gradually fallen into the hands of the profane. To the student
of comparative religion it is evident that these secrets, gathered by a small
group of faithful philosophers and mystics, were reclothed in new symbolical
garments and thus preserved for several centuries under the name of Mystic
Christianity. It is generally supposed that the Essenes were the custodians of
this knowledge and also the initiators and educators of Jesus. If so, Jesus
was undoubtedly initiated in the same temple of Melchizedek where
Pythagoras had studied six centuries before.
This guy doesn't dissapoint.