Part I].—Tue Creep AND THE MYSTERIES

Study : Esoteric Christianity, Chapters V.,V., and V1
Esoreric Christianity puts us in possession of certain knowledge by which the Creed is lifted out of the realm of physical plane history and given an immensely added meaning and value.
It must be recognised that the separative element in religion is entirely one of creed, but these differences are in externals and upon the plane of concrete mind. It is in the effort to translate eternal verities and spiritual processes into terms of human experience, into symbolic imagery, words and formule, that systems differ so widely. To approach the domain of universal religion, the process must be reversed and a retranslation essayed into terms of life and spirit. As this is accom- plished the same great truths everywhere emerge, fundamentally identical, though so variously pre-
t sented. ‘| Every creed is finally but an attempt to convey 8
THE CREED
in words that which in reality is incommunicable, save to the spiritually quickened intuition. It can but offer figurative statements in which spiritual forces and life processes are concreted into imagery borrowed from physical plane experience. ‘Thus the “ historical’ Gospels, while containing some elements of history, are in the main symbolic accounts of processes at work upon the inner planes during successive stages of spiritual unfoldment. These may be read, according to the key employed, as alluding to cosmic, planetary, human (collective), or individual cycles of manifestation. So the Christian Creed, based upon those writings, may also be read at different levels of understanding, and when thus interpreted in terms both of cosmic process and soul experience takes on a universal significance.
We may accordingly divide our study of the Creed into several sections, taking (1) Its Relation to the Solar Cults of Antiquity. Our text-book fully discusses this, and the authorities quoted provide further valuable sources of information. It may be added that there were certain Gnostic sects who were instructed in the astronomical aspect of the faith. According to their tradition, Christ repre- sented the sun, and His first miracle of turning water into wine represented the yearly work of the sun ;
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ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY
His agony in Gethsemane was the pressing out of the grape in the winepress ; His descent into hell, the sun in the winter season ; His crucifixion on Calvary (calvus=bald, i.e., shorn of its rays) the sun’s crossing of the equator in the autumn. ‘The beheading of John the Baptist was shown to be John, Janus or Aquarius having his head cut off by the line of the horizon on August 29th, wherefore his festival occurs on that day. Many other in- stances could be cited.* The later established festivals of the Virgin Mary also follow closely the astronomically appropriate seasons.
The most important features in this study of correspondences are the two equinoxes, the vernal and the autumnal, when the ecliptic cuts the equator at an angle of about 234 degrees, forming the “crucifixion of the Heavenly Man” so often alluded to in mystical literature. The autumnal equinox (Michaelmas), with the dimming of the sun’s rays, symbolises the first crucifixion, that of the descent of spirit into matter, or of the individual soul into incarnation. ‘This is “death” to the spirit ; hence this season is assigned to St. Michael, lord of the underworld. Easter, the vernal equinox and rebirth of nature, symbolises the second
* C. W. Heckethorn, “ Secret Societies of all Ages,” Vol. I., Bk. 3. t+ Edward Carpenter, ‘‘ Pagan and Christian Creeds,” pp. 32 ef seg.
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crucifixion on the cross of initiation and the victori- ous passing over therewith to the new life of the spiritual kingdom. ‘Thus a very close parallel is maintained between the ritual of the Church and the ever-renewed pageant of nature.
Closely connected with the solar aspect of the Creed is (2) Its Relation to the Mysteries. It may be said that we possess in the Creed the remains of a ritual-drama setting forth the sacrificial death’ and victorious resurrection of a Saviour-God, which in the Mysteries was symbolically enacted as an initiation rite. Fragments of this ceremonial reappeared in the popular festivals of the pseudo- Mysteries, as in the cults of Osiris, T’ammuz, Adonis and others, widely spread over the ancient world, but in the true Mysteries the candidate himself enacted the part of the Divine Hero, with Him was symbolically slain and buried, and with Him reborn to the new life of the Spirit. An examination of the Egyptian initiation ritual, paralleled with the clauses of the Creed, will prove a most illuminating study, for which the reader is referred especially to “The Christian Creed,” by