JESUS : THE LAST GREAT INITIATE - Chapter Three

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JESUS : THE LAST INITIATE

 

Chapter 3 The Essenes _ John the Baptist _ The Temptation

 

What he wished to know he could learn from none other that Essenes.

 

The Gospels have maintained perfect silence as to the deeds of Jesus,

previous to his meeting with John the Baptist, through whom,

according to them, he in some way took possession of his ministry.

Immediately afterwards he makes his appearance in Galilee with a

clearly defined doctrine, the assurance of a prophet, and the

consciousness of the Messiah. But evidently this bold and

premeditated début was preceded by the long development of a

veritable initiation. No less certain is it that this initiation must

have taken place in the sole association in Israel, which, at the

time, preserved the real traditions of the prophets and adopted their

mode of living. There can be no doubt of this among those who, rising

above the superstition of literal interpretation, have the courage to

discover how things are linked together by their spirit. This arises

not merely from the intimate relations seen to exist between the

doctrine of Jesus and that of the Essenes, but even from the very

silence kept by the Christ and his disciples concerning this sect.

Why does he who attacks with unparalleled courage all the religious

sects of his day, never mention the Essenes? And why do neither the

apostles nor evangelists speak of them ? Evidently because they

considered the Essenes as belonging to themselves, as being linked

with them by the oath of the mysteries, and linked to the sect of the

Christians.

 

The order of the Essenes constituted in the tie of Jesus the final

remnant of those brotherhoods of prophets organised by Samuel. The

despotism of the rulers of Palestine, the jealousy of an ambitious

and servile priesthood, had forced them to take refuge in silence and

solitude. They no longer struggled as did their predecessors, but

contented themselves with preserving their traditions. They had two

principal centres, one in Egypt, on the banks of Lake Maoris, the

other in Palestine, at Engaddi, near the Dead Sea. The name of

Essenes they had adopted came from the Syrian word " Asaya " , physician

_ in Greek, therapeutes; for their acknowledged ministry with regard

to the public was that of healing disease both physical and

moral. " They studied with great diligence " , says Josephus, " certain

medical writings dealing with the occult virtues of plants and

minerals " .

 

Some of them possessed the gift of prophecy, as, e.g. Menahim, who

had prophesied to Herod that he should reign. " They serve God " , said

Philo, " with great piety, not by offering victims but by sanctifying

the spirit; avoiding towns, they devote themselves to the arts of

peace; not a single slave is to be found among them; they are all

free and work for one another " . The rules of the Order were strict;

in order to enter, a year's noviciate was necessary. If one had given

sufficient proofs of temperance, he was admitted to the ablutions,

though without entering into relations with the masters of the Order.

Tests, extending over another two years, were necessary before being

received into the brotherhood. They swore " by terrible oaths " to

observe the rules of the Order and to betray none of its secrets.

Then only did they participate in the common repasts, which were

celebrated with great solemnity and constituted the inner worship of

the Essenes.

 

The garment they had worn during these repasts they looked upon as

sacred and to be removed before resuming work; These fraternal

lovefeast, primitive form of the Supper instituted by Jesus, began an

ended by prayer. The first interpretation of the sacred books of

Moses and the prophets was here given. But the explanation of the

texts allowed of three significations, just as there were three

degrees of initiation. Very few attained to the highest degree. All

this wonderfully resembles the organisation of the Pythagoreans, but

certainly it was almost the same amongst the ancient prophets, for

it is to be found wherever initiation has existed. It must be added

that the Essenes professed the essential dogma of the Orphic and

Pythagorean doctrine; that of pre-existence of the soul, the

consequence and reason of its immortality. " The soul " , they

said, " descending from the most subtle ether, and attracted into the

body by a certain natural charm (iuggi tini phusike), remains there

as in a prison; freed from the bonds f the body, as form a long

servitude, it joyfully takes its flight " (Josephus, A.J, ii,8).

 

Among the Essenes, the brothers, properly so called, lived under a

community of property, and in a condition of celibacy, cultivating

the ground, and, at times, educating the children of strangers. The

married Essenes formed a lass affiliated and under subjection to the

other. Silent, gentle, and grave, they were to be met with here and

there, cultivating the arts of peace. Carpenters, weavers, vine-

planters, or gardeners, never gunsmiths or merchants. Scattered in

small groups about the whole Palestine, and in Egypt, even as far as

Mount Horeb, they offered one another the most complete hospitality.

Thus we see Jesus and his disciples journeying from town to town, and

from province to province, and always certain of finding shelter and

lodging. " The Essenes " , said Josephus, " were of an exemplary

morality, they forced themselves to suppress passion and anger;

always benevolent, peaceable, and trustworthy. Their word was more

powerful than an oath, which, in ordinary life, they looked upon as

superfluous, and almost as perjury. They endured the most cruel of

tortures with admirable steadfastness of soul and smiling countenance

rather than violate the slightest religious precept " . Indifferent to

the outard pomp of worship at Jerusalem, repelled by the harshness of

the Sadducees, and the prayers of the Pharisees, as well as by the

pedantry of the synagogue, Jesus was attracted towards the Essenes by

natural affinity.

 

The premature death of Joseph set entirely free Mary's son, now grown

into a man. His brothers could continue the father's trade and supply

all family needs, so Mary gave him permission to leave secretly

Engaddi. Welcomed as a brother and one of the elect, he rapidly

acquired over his very masters an invincible ascendancy, by reason of

his superior faculties, his ardent love, and an indescribable, divine

element manifested throughout his entire being. From the Essenes he

received what they alone could give him: The esoteric tradition of

the prophets, and by its means, his own historical and religious

tendency or trend. He came to understand how wide a gulf separated

the official Jewish doctrine from the ancient wisdom of the

initiates, the veritable mother of religions, though ever persecuted

by Satan, i.e. by the spirit of evil, of egoism, hatred, and denial,

allied with absolute political power and priestly imposture. He

learned that Genesis, under the seal of its symbolism, concealed a

theogony and cosmogony as far from literal signification as is the

profoundest truth of science from a child's fable. He contemplated

the days of Aelohim, or the eternal creation by emanation of the

elements and the formation of the worlds, the origin of the floating

souls, and their return to God by progressive existences of

generations of Adam. He was struck with the grandeur of the thought

of Moses, whose intention had been to prepare the religious unity of

the nations by establishing the worship of the one God, and

incarnating this idea into a people.

 

Afterwards he was instructed in the doctrine of the divine Word,

already taught by Krishna in India, by the priests of Osiris, by

Orpheus and Pythagoras in Greece, and known to the prophets under the

name of the " Mysteries of the Son of Man and of the Son of God " .

According to this doctrine, the highest manifestation of God is an,

who, in constitution, form, organs, and intelligence is the image of

the Universal Being, whose faculties he possesses. IN the earthly

evolution of humanity, however, God is scattered, split up, and

mutilated, so to speak, in the multiplicity of men and of human

imperfections. In it he suffers, struggles, and tries to find imself,

he is the Son of Man, he perfect Man, the Man-Type, the profoundest

thought of God, remaining hidden in the infinite abyss of his desire

and power. And yet at certain epochs, when humanity is to be saved

from some terrible gulf, and set on a higher plane, a chosen one

identifies himself with divinity, attracts it to himself by strength,

wisdom, and love, and manifests it anew to men. Then, divinity, by

the virtue and breath of the Spirit, is completely present in him :

The Son of Man becomes the Son of God, and his living word. In other

ages among other nations, there had already appeared sons of God, but

since Moses, none had arisen in Israel. All the prophets were

expecting this Messiah. The Seers even said that this time he would

call himself the Son of Woman, of the Heavenly Isis, of the divine

light which is the Bride of God, for the light of Love would shine in

him, above every other light, with a dazzling splendour, hitherto

unknown on earth.

 

All these secrets which the patriarch of the Essenes unfolded to the

young Galilean on the solitary banks of the Dead Sea, in lonely

Engaddi, seemed to him wonderful, but yet known. It was with no

ordinary emotion that he heard the chief of the Order comment on the

words still to be read in the Book of Henoch : " From the beginning

the Son of Man was in the Mystery. The Father kept him near his

mighty presence, and, and " manifested to his elect…. " But th Kings

shall be afraid and shall prostrate themselves to the ground with

terror, when they shall see the Son of Woman seated on the throne of

Glory…. Then the elect shall summon all the forces of heaven, all the

saints from on high and the power of God; and the Cherubim, the

Seraphim, the Ophanim, all the angels of Might all the angels of the

Lord, i.e. of the Elect and of the other Might, serving on earth and

above the waters, shall raise their voices. "

 

At these revelations the words of the prophets, read and meditated

upon times innumerable, appeared before the eyes of the Nazarene,

with a profound and terrible light, like lightning flashes in the

night. Who could this Elect be, and when would he appear before

Israel ?

 

Jesus passed a series of years among the Essenes. He submitted to

their discipline, studied with them he secrets of nature, and the

occult power of healing. To develop his spirit, he gained entire

mastery over his body. Not a day passed without self-questionning and

meditation on the destiny of humanity. That was a memorable night for

the Order of the Essenes and the new adept, when he received in

profoundest secrecy the superior initiation of the fourth degree, the

one granted only in the special case of a prophetic mission,

requested by the brother, and confirmed by the Elders. A meeting was

held in a cave cut into the mountain, and resembling a vast hall with

an altar of stones seats. The chief of the Order was there with a few

Elders. Sometimes two or three initiates, prophetesses also Essenes,

were admitted to the mysterious ceremony. Bearing torches and

branches of palm trees, they greeted the new Initiate who was clothed

in a robe of white linen, as " Bridegroom and King " , the one they had

seen in vision, and whom they now looked upon perhaps for the last

time! Then, the chief of the Order, generally an old centenarian

(Josephus states that the Essenes lived to an advanced age) offered

him the " golden chalice " as a symbol of the final initiation,

containing the " the wine of the Lord's vineyard " , symbol of divine

inspiration. Some said that Moses and the seventy had drunk

therefrom; others trace it back from Abraham, who received from

Melchisedek this very initiation under the elements of bread and

wine. The Elders never offered the cup to any one in whom they had

not recognised, with distinct certainty, the signs of a prophetic

mission. But no one could define this mission, he was to find it

himself; such is the law of the initiates _ nothing from without,

everything from within. Henceforth he was free, master of his own

actions, liberated from the Order, a very hierophant, obedient to the

impulses of the spirit which could fling him into the depths or

transport him on high, far above scenes of torture and human passion.

 

When after the songs and prayers and sacramental words of the Elder

the Nazarene took the cup, a pale ray of the sun shooting through a

rugged mountain crag ran in and about the torches and the flowing

white garments of the Essene prophetesses. They too shuddered as they

saw it fall on the Galilean's beautiful countenance, now overshadowed

with a look of infinite sorrow. Were his thoughts dwelling on the

poor wretches of Siloam; had he already, in that ever-present

anguish, caught a glimpse of the path he was to traverse ?

 

About this time, John the Baptist was preaching on the banks of the

Jordan. He was not an Essene but a prophet of the people, belonging

to the sturdy race of Judah. Driven into the wildereness by a

fasting, mortification, lived a life of the strictest ascetism. Over

his bare sun-tanned skin he wore a camel's hair cloak, symbol of the

penitence he wished to impose both on himself and on his people.

Deeply did he feel Israel's distress, and ardently did he await

deliverance. According to the Jewish idea, he imagined the Messiah

would soon come as an Avenger and a Judge; that like another

Maccabaus, he would rouse the people to revolt, drive out the Romans,

punish the guilty, and finally enter Jerusalem in triumph, where in

peace and justice, he would re-establish the kingdom of Israel over

all nations. He announced to the multitudes, who eagerly drank in his

words, that the time was nigh for the coming of this Messiah, adding

that they must prepare for it in a spirit of true repentance.

Adopting the Essenian custom of ablution and transforming it, he had

looked upon baptism in the Jordan as a visible symbol, a public

accomplishment of the inner purification he insisted upon. This new

ceremony, this earnest preaching to immense crowds of people, with

the wilderness as a background, and beside the sacred waters of the

Jordan, near the rugged mountains of Peraea and Judaea, seized hold

of the imagination, and attracted multitudes. It recalled the

glorious days of the prophets of old, and gave the people what the

temple could not give them, an inner shock, and,, after the terrors

of repentance had passed, a vague though mighty hope. They came from

every part of Palestine, and even from more distant lands, to hear

the desert-saint who foretold the coming of the Messiah. The

populace, attracted by his message, remained there in camps, for

weeks at a time, listening to him daily, unwilling to depart,

awaiting the Messiah's coming. Many asked to take up arms under his

command, and to recommence the holy war. Herod Antipas and the

priests of Jerusalem began to be uneasy at this excitement of the

populace. The signs of the times, too, were ominous; Tiberius, at the

age of seventy-four, was rapidly hastening his death by scenes of

debauchery at Capri; Pontius Pilate was persecuting the Jews with

redoubled fury; whilst in Egypt, the priests had given forth that the

Phoenix was about to spring again to birth from the ashes.

 

Jesus, who felt the prophetic calling even more emphatic within his

soul, though as yet he was still feeling his way, came also to the

desert of the Jordan, accompanied by a few Essenes, who already

acknowledged him as master. He wished to see the Baptist, to listen

to his message, and be baptized in public. His desire was to present

himself in an humble and respectful attitude towards the prophet who

had the courage to denounce the present rulers, and arouse frm

slumber the souol of Israel.

 

He saw the rough ascetic, hairy and bearded, with his prophetic

lionlike head, standing in a wooden pulpit under a rustic tent

covered with branches and goat-skins. All round among the scanty

desert shrubs was a mighty crowd, an entire camp : publicans,

soldiers of Herod, Samaritans, Levites from Jerusalem; Idumeans with

their flocks of sheep, even Arabs with their camels, tents and

caravans, arrested by " the voice crying in the wilderness " , and this

voice of thunder passed over these multitudes. It said : " Repent ye;

prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight " . He called

the Pharisees and Scribes " a race of vipers " . He added that " the axe

was already laid unto the root of the trees " , and said of the

Messiah : " I baptize you with fire " . Then, about sunset, Jesus saw

the crowds press towards a cove on the water's bank, and Herod's

mercenaries bend their rough backs beneath the water poured over them

by the Baptist. He drew nearer; John did not know Jesus, knew nothing

whatever concerning him, but he recognised the Essene by his linen

garment. He saw him, a mere unit in the crowd, enter the water up to

the girdle, and humbly bend to receive the baptismal sprinkling. When

the neophyte arose, the savage preacher's fiery eyes met the

Galilean's calm, gentle gaze. A quiver ran through the man of the

wilderness as he saw the look of wondrous sweetness beaming from the

eyes of Jesus, and involuntariy the question escaped his lips : " Art

thou the Messiah? "

 

The mysterious Essene made no reply, but with bowed head and crossed

hands, he waited the blessing. John knew that silence was the law of

the Essene novices. After solemnly extending both hands, the Nazarene

disappeared with his companions among the water reeds.

 

The Baptist saw him depart with mingled feelings of doubt, secret

joy, and profound sadness. What was his own knowledge, his own

prophetic hope compred with the light he had seen in the eyes of the

unknown, a light which seemed to illuminate his whole being ? Ah ! if

the handsome young Galilean were the Messiah, then indeed had the

brightest day of his life dawned ! But his own part would now be

over, his own voice silent. From this day forward he preached in

deeper and more emotional tones on the melancholy theme: " He must

increase and I must decrease " . He was beginning to feel the gloom and

weariness of an old lion tired of roaring, and now silently awaiting

the end.

 

Could it be that he was the Messiah ? The Baptist's question also

found an echo in the soul of Jesus Ever since his consciousness had

sprung to life, he had found God within himself, and the certainty of

the kingdom of Heaven in the radiant beauty of his visions. Then cae

the suffering of humanity which had filled his heart with the awful

outpour of its anguish. The wise Essenes had taught him the secret of

religions and of mysteries, they had shown him the spiritual

decadence of humanity, and its expectation of a saviour. But how

could he find the strength needed to rescue it from the pit ? And

now, the direct call of John the Baptist fell on the silence of his

meditations like a thunderbolt from Sinai. Could he be the Messiah ?

 

Jesus could answer this question only by inmost meditation. Hence

this retreat, this forty days fast, narrated by Matthew in the form

of a symbolic legend. The Temptation in reality represents in the

life of Jesus this great crisis, this sovereign vision of truth,

which all prophets, all religious initiates, must infallibly

experience before beginning their work.

 

Over above Engaddi, where the Essenes cultivated sesame and the vine,

a steep footpath led to a cave of grotto opening out on to the

mountain side. It was entered by way of Dorian columns cut out in the

rough rock, similar to those of the " Apostles " retreat in the valley

of Jehoshaphat. There one remained suspended above the yawning

precipice as though frm an eagle's nest. Below, in a gorge, could be

seen vineyards and human dwellings away in the distance, the Dead Sea

motionless and grey, and the lonely mountains of Moab. The Essenes

had appointed this retreat for such among them as wished to submit to

the test of solitude. In this spot were several rolls of the

prophets, strengthening spices, dry figs, and a small stream of

trickling water, sole nourishment of the ascetic in meditation. It

was to this cave that Jesus retired. First of all, he mentally

reviewed the whole of hulmanity's past life, and estimated the

gravity of the present times. Rome was in sovereign power, and with

her what the Persian magi had called the reign of Ahrimanes, and the

prophets the reign of Satan, the sign of the Beast, the aotheosis of

Evil. Darkness covered humanity, the soul of earth.

 

The eople of Israel had received from Moses the royal and sacerdotal

mission of representing the male religion of the Father of the pure

Spirit, of teaching it to other nations, and effecting its triumph.

Had its kings and prophets fulfilled this mission ? The prophets who

alone had been conscious of it, replied unanimously : No ! Israel was

in her last throes, crushed beneath the might of Rome. Ought a rising

of the people to be hazarded once more as the Pharisees still

expected; a restoration by force on the temporal royalty of Israel ?

Should he declare himself son of David, and exclaim with Isaiah : " In

my wrath I will trample upon the people…. And overthrow their might? "

Should he be a second Maccabaeus, and allow himself to be nominated

pontifex-king ? Jesus might have made the attempt. He had seen the

crowds ready to rise at the voice of John the Baptist, and the

strength he was himself conscious of was far greater that that of the

prophet of the wilderness ! But then, would violence overcome

violence ? Would the sword put an end to government by the sword ?

Would there not be thus supplied fresh recruits to the powers of

darkness who were watching their prey in secret ?

 

Ought he not rather to place within the reach of all mankind this

truth, which hitherto had remained the privilege of a few sanctuaries

and initiates, to open every heart to receive it, until the time

should be ripe for it to penetrate the mind by inner revelation and

science, i.e. to preach the kingdom of Heaven to the poor and lowly,

substitute the reign of Grace for that of the Law, transform humanity

frm its very base by regeneration of souls ?

 

But to whom would victory belong, to Satan or to God ? To the spirit

of evil who reigns with the formidable powers of earth, or to the

divine spirit who is enthroned above the invisible regions of heaven,

and sleeps in the heart of man just as the spark lies hidden in the

flint ? What would be the fate of the prophet who should dare to tear

away the veil from the temple and lay bare the emptiness of the

sanctuary, braving at once Herod and Caesar ?

 

And yet it must be done ! The inner voice did not say to him as it

did to Isaiah : " Take a large volume and write therein with a man's

pen! " The voice of God cried out to him, " Rise and speak! " The word

of life must be found, the faith which removes mountains, the

strength which shatters the bulwarks of evil.

 

Jesus began fervently to pray. Then a feeling of uneasiness, an

increasing trouble came over his soul. He had a feeling that he was

losing the marvellous felicity he had participated in, and that he

was sinking into a very pit of darkness. A black, dense mist came

over him, peopled with phantoms of every kind. He recognised his

brothers, his Essene masters, his mother. One after the other they

said to him : " It is madness for you to wish for what can never be !

You know not what is before you ! Renounce it all ! " The invincible

inner voice replied : " I must go on ! " Thus he struggled for a

series of days and nights, at times standing, then again on his knees

or prostrate on the ground. The abyss in which he was sinking became

deeper and deeper, and thicker and thicker the enveloping mist. He

felt as though he were approaching something inexpressibly terrible.

 

Finally, he entered that state of lucid ecstasy in which the very

depth of consciousness awakens, enters into communication with the

living Spirit of things, and projects in dreams the images of past

and future. His eyes close, and the outer world disappears. The Seer

contemplates truth in the light which floods his whole being, and

converts his intelligence into a burning furnace.

 

Then came the clash of thunder, the mountain shook to its

foundations. A whirlwind coming from distant space carried off the

Seer to the top of the temple at Jerusalem. Down below shone roofs

and minarets like a forest of gold and silver. Hymns were ascending

from the Holy of Holies, waves of incense arose from every altar and

formed in eddying circles beneath his feet. People in festive garb

filled the porticoes, whilst women joyfully sang into the air their

hymns of ardent devotion. Trumpets sounded and a mighty chorus of

voices exclaimed : " Glory to the Messiah ! the King of

Israel! " . " Thou shalt be this King if thou wilt worship me, " said a

voice from below. " Who art thou ? " asked Jesus.

 

Again the wind carried him throough space to the summit of a

mountain. At his feet lay, in their golden glory, all the kingdoms of

the earth.

 

" I am the king of spirits and the prince of the earth, " answered the

voice from below…. " I know who thou art " , said Jesus; " thy forms are

innumerable, thy name is Satan. Appear in thy earthly form " . …. The

figure of a crowned monarch appeared, enthroned in the clouds. Around

his imperial head shone a faint, pale halo. The sombre figure stood

out against a blood-red nimbus, with its pallid, ghastly countenance,

and eyes flashing forth a cold steely light. He said : " I am Caesar.

Only bow down before me, and I will give thee all these kingsoms " .

Jesus said to him : " Get thee behind me, tempter ! It is

written : " Thou shalt worship only the Lord thy God " . Immediately the

vision faded away.

 

Finding himself alone in the cave of Engaddi, Jesus said : " By what

sign shall I overcome the powers of the earth ? " …. " By the sign of

the Son of Man " , said a voice from above. " Show me this sign " , said

Jesus.

 

Away on the horizon appeared a shining constellation, four stars in

the sign of a cross. The Galilean recognised the sign of ancient

initiations familiar to Egypt and preserved by the Essenes. When the

worlds was young, the sons of Japhet had worshipped it as the sign of

earthly and heavenly fire, the sign of Life with all its joys, of

Love with all its wonders. Later the Egyptian initiates had seen in

it the symbol of the great mystery, Trinity dominated by Unity, the

image of the sacrifice of the ineffable Being who breaks himself in

order to manifest himself in the universe. Symbol at once of life,

death, and resurrection , it covered innumerable hypogea, temples and

tombs.

 

……The brilliant cross grew larger and came nearer, as though

attracted by the heart of the Seer. The four living stars shone forth

like suns of light and glory. " Behold the magic sign of Life and

Immortality! " said the heavenly voice. " In ancient times it was in

the possession of men, now it is lost. Wilt thou restore it to

them ? " ….. " I will " , said Jesus. ….. " Then look, behold thy

destiny ! "

 

Suddenly the four stars disappeared. It was night; loud thunderclaps

shook the mountains to their foundations; whilst from the depths of

the Dead Sea emerged a dark, sombre mountain, surmounted with a black

cross. On it was nailed a man in the agony of death. The mountain was

covered with a demon-stricken mob, crying out in hellish jeers : " If

thou art the Messiah, save thyself ! " The Seer opened wide his eyes,

then fell back, cold drops of perspiration streaming down his face,

for the crucified man was himself….. He had understood. In order to

overcome, he must identify himself with this terror-stricken image,

summoned up by himself, and placed there before him like an evil-

boding omen. Wavering in his uncertainty as to the emptiness of

infinite space, Jesus felt at once the tortures of the crucified one,

the insults of men, and the profound silence of heaven….. " Thou canst

take it or reject it " said the angelic voice. The vision of the cross-

phantom and the crucified victim began to grow dim, when of a sudden

Jesus saw once more by his side the sick wretches of the pool of

Siloam, and behind them myriads of despairing souls murmuring, with

clasped hands : " Without thee we are lost; save us, thou who knowest

how to love ! " Then the Galilean slowly arose, and with outstretched

arms, in an attitude of supreme love exclaimed : " Mine be the cross !

Let but the world be saved ! " Immediately Jesus felt a mighty rending

asunder throughout his frame, and a terrible groan escaped his

lips….. At the same time the dark, sombre mountain and the corss

faded away, a gentle radiant beam of divine felicity entered the soul

of the Seer, and from the heights of heaven a voice descended,

saying, " Sataan is no longer master ! Death is overthrown ! Glory to

the Son of Man ! Glory to the Son of God ! "

 

When Jesus awoke from this vision nothing around him had changed; the

rising sun cast his golden beams on the side of the cave of Engaddi;

soothing dewdrops _ veritable tears of angelic love _ bathed his

bruised feet, and light clouds of mist were rising from the Red Sea.

But he was no longer the same. A definite event had taken place in

the fathomless depths of his consciousness, he had solved the problem

of life and had won peace, the great certainty had entered his soul.

From the rejection of his earthly being, which he had trodden under

foot and cast into the pit, a new consciousness had arisen in radiant

majesty….. He knew he had become the Messiah by an irrevocable act of

his will.

 

Soon after, he once more descended to the village of the Essenes,

where he learned that John the Baptist had just been seized by

Antipas and imprisoned in the fortress of Makerous. Far from showing

fear at this omen, he saw therein a sign that the time was ripe and

that he in his turn must act. Accordingly, he gave out to the Essenes

that he was about to preach in Galilee, " the Gospel of the kingdom of

Heaven. " That meant, to bring the great mysteries within reach of the

poor and lowly, to translate for them the doctrine of the initiates.

Like boldness had never been seen since the days when Cakia Muni the

Last Buddha, moved by mighty compassion, had preached on the banks of

the Ganges. The same sublime compassion for humanity animated Jesus.

To it he joined inner illumination, capacity for loving, a grandeur

of faith and energy of action belonging to himself alone. From the

abyss of death which he had fathomed, and whose bitterness he had

tasted beforehand, he brought both hope and life for all his brethren.