THE THIRD LESSON
THE MYSTIC YOUTH OF JESUS
In our last lesson we promised to tell you the
esoteric story of the youth of Jesus. And there is such a
story to tell, although the
churches know little or nothing about it. The
churches have nothing but the husks that have always been
the property of the masses. The real kernels of truth have
been possessed by but the few elect ones. The legends of the
mystic brotherhoods and occult orders have preserved the
story intact, and you shall now be given the essence of the
mystic legends and traditions.
At the end of our first lesson we left Joseph, Mary
and the infant Jesus in Egypt, the land to which they had
flown to escape the wrath of the tyrant Herod. They dwelt in
Egypt for a few years, until the death of Herod. Then Joseph
retraced his steps, and returned toward his own country,
bringing with him his wife and the babe. For some reasons
unknown to those familiar with the legends and traditions,
Joseph decided not to locate in Judea, but instead, bent his
way toward the coast and returned to Nazareth where Mary and
he had originally met and become betrothed. And, so, in
Nazareth, the humble little mountain town the boyhood days
of Jesus were spent, the grinding poverty of the family
being relieved (according to the occult legends) by the
yearly presents of gold from the hands of disguised
messengers of the Magi.
The traditions relate that Jesus began His study of
the Hebrew Law when He was but five years of age. It is
related that He displayed an unusual ability and talent in
the direction of mastering not only the text, but also the
spirit of the Hebrew Scripture, and far outstripped His
fellow students. It is also related that He displayed an
early impatience at the dreary formalism of His Hebrew
teachers, and a disposition to go right to the heart of the
text before Him, that He might discern the spirit animating
it. So much was this the case that He frequently brought
down upon His head the censure of His instructors who
overlooked the spirit of the teachings in their devotion to
the forms and words.
Nazareth was an old-fashioned place and it and its
inhabitants were made the target for the jests and
witticisms of the people of Judea. The word "Nazarene" was
synonymous with "lout"; "boor"; "peasant"; etc., to the
residents of the more fashionable regions. The very
remoteness of the town served to separate it in spirit from
the rest of the country. But this very remoteness played an
important part in the early life of Jesus. Nazareth, by
reason of its peculiar location, was on the line of several
caravan routes. Travelers from many lands traveled through
the town, and rested there overnight, or sometimes for
several days. Travelers from Samaria, Jerusalem, Damascus,
Greece, Rome, Arabia, Syria, Persia, Phoenicia, and other
lands mingled with
the Nazarenes. And the traditions relate that Jesus,
the child, would steal away and talk with such of these
travelers as were versed in occult and mystic lore, and
would imbibe from their varied founts of learning, until He
was as thoroughly informed on these subjects as many a
mystic of middle age. The traditions have it that the boy
would often delight and astonish these traveling occultists
with His wonderful insight into their secret doctrines and
knowledge. And it is also told that some of the wisest of
these, seeing the nature of the child, would overstay their
allotted time of sojourn, that they might add here and there
to the various parts of general occult lore possessed by the
child. It is also taught that the Magi informed some of
these travelers regarding the boy, that they might impart to
him some truth or teaching for which He was ready.
And so the boy grew in knowledge and wisdom, day by
day, year by year, until, finally, there occurred an event
in His life, which has since been the subject of greatest
interest to all Christians and students of the New
Testament, but which without the above explanation is not
readily understood.
The Feast of the Passover occurred in its allotted
time of the year--April--when Jesus was in his thirteenth
year. This feast was one of the most important in the Jewish
calendar, and its observance was held as a most sacred duty
by all Hebrews. It was the feast set down for the
remembrance and perpetuation of that most important event in
the history of the Jewish people when the Angel of Death
swept over all of Egypt's land smiting the first-born child
of every house of the natives, high and low, but sparing all
the houses of the captive Hebrews who marked their
door-sills with the sacrificial blood as a token of their
faith. This is no place to give the explanation of this
apparently miraculous event, which students now know to be
due to natural causes. We merely mention it in passing.
The Law-givers of Israel had appointed the Feast of
the Passover as a perpetual symbol of this event so
important by the nation, and every self-respecting Jew felt
obligated to take part in the observance and sacrament.
Every pious Jew made it a point to perform a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem at the time of the Feast of the Passover, if he
could in any way manage to do so.
At the time of the Passover celebration of which we
are speaking, Jesus had just entered into His thirteenth
year, which age entitled Him, under the ecclesiastical law,
to the privilege of sitting with the adult men of His race
at the Passover supper, and also to publicly join with the
male congregation in the thanksgiving service in the
synagogues.
And so, on this year, He accompanied His father and
mother to Jerusalem and made His _second_ visit to the Holy
City. It will be remembered that His _first_ visit there was
made when as an infant He was carried thither from Bethlehem
in His mother's arms in accordance with the Jewish law, and
at which time an aged priest and an old prophetess had
publicly acknowledged the divine nature of the child.
The father, mother and child--the divine trinity of
Human relationship--traveled slowly over the highway that
led from Nazareth
to Jerusalem. The father and mother were concerned
with the details of the journey, mingled with pious thoughts
concerning the sacred feast in which they were to take part.
But the boy's mind was far away from the things that were
occupying his parent's thoughts. He was thinking over the
deep mystic truths which He had so readily absorbed during
the past few years, and He was looking forward in delightful
anticipation to His expected meeting with the older mystics
in the temples and public places of Jerusalem.
It must be remembered that underlying the Jewish
ecclesiastical teachings and formalism, which were all that
the mass of the people knew, there was a great store of
Jewish occultism and Mysticism known to the few elect. The
Kaballah or Jewish occult writings were closely studied by
the learned Jews, and this work with other similar teachings
were transmitted verbally from teacher to student, and
constituted the Secret Doctrine of the Hebrew religion. And
it was toward the learned teachers of this Secret Doctrine
that Jesus directed His mind and steps, although His parents
knew it not.
Four or five days were consumed in the journey, and
at last the Holy City--Jerusalem--came into full view, the
wonderful Temple of Israel showing plainly above the other
buildings. The bands of pilgrims, of which the family of
Joseph formed a part, formed into orderly array and led by
flute-players they solemnly marched into the streets of the
Holy City, singing and chanting the Sacred Songs used by the
faithful upon this solemn occasion. And the boy walked with
the rest, with bowed head, and eyes that seemed to see
things far removed from the scene around them.
The Passover rites were carried out--the duties were
performed--the ceremonies were observed. The Passover Feast
extended over a full week, of which the first two days were
the most important, and during which two days the obligatory
ceremonies were performed. Each family made the offering of
the sacrificial lamb--each family baked and ate the
unleavened bread. The beautiful idea of the Passover had
degenerated into a horrible feast of blood, for it is
related that upon these occasions over a quarter-million of
poor innocent lambs were slaughtered and offered up as a
sacrifice pleasing to Jehovah, who was supposed to delight
in this flood of the blood of innocents. In pursuance of
this barbarous idea, the altars and courts of the Temple of
the Living God ran red with the life-blood of these poor
creatures, and the hands and garments of the anointed
priests of Jehovah were stained like those of butchers, that
the vanity of a barbarous conception of Deity might be fed.
All this for "the Glory of God!" Think of it! And
think of the feeling that must have been aroused in the
mystic mind of Jesus at this horrible sight. How His soul
must have been outraged at this prostitution of the sacred
rite! And what would have been His thoughts had He known
that centuries after, a great religion would stand, bearing
His name, the followers of which would be carried away with
this same false idea of sacrificial blood, which would be
voiced in hymns about "A fountain filled with blood, flowing
from Immanuel's veins," and about "sinners plunged beneath
that bloody flood losing all their guilty stains?" Alas, for
the prostitution of sacred truths and teachings. No wonder
that a people so saturated with the abominable ideas of a
Deity delighting in this flow of blood should have afterward
put to death the greatest man of their race--a Being who
came to bring them the highest mystic and occult truths. And
their prototypes have survived through the centuries, even
unto today, insisting upon this idea of blood sacrifice and
death atonement, unworthy of any people except the
worshippers of some heathen devil-god in the remote sections
of darkest Africa.
Disgusted and outraged by this barbarous sight,
Jesus, the boy, stole away from the side of His parents, and
sought the remote chambers and corridors of the Temple where
were to be found the great teachers of the Law and of the
Kaballah, surrounded by their students. Here the boy sat and
listened to the teachings and disputations of the teachers
and exponents of the doctrines. From one group to another He
wandered, and listened, and pondered, and thought. He
compared the teachings, and submitted the various ideas to
the touchstone of the truth as He found it within His own
mind. The hours rapidly passed by unnoticed by
the boy, who found Himself amidst such congenial
environments for the first time. The talks with the
travelers of the caravans paled into insignificance when
compared with these of the great occult teachers of Israel.
For be it remembered that it was the custom of the great
teachers of that day to so instruct those who were attracted
to their company. And Jerusalem being the centre of the
culture and learning of Israel, the great teachers dwelt
there. And so it will be seen that Jesus now found Himself
at the very fountain-head of the Hebrew Secret Doctrines,
and in the actual presence of the great teachers.
On the third day, there began a breaking-up of the
vast gathering of the two million of people who had made the
pilgrimage to the Holy City. Those poorer in purse were the
first to leave, after the obligatory rites of the first two
days had been performed. And Joseph and Mary were among
those preparing to retrace their steps to their distant
homes. Their friends and neighbors gathered together, and
the preparations for the return were completed. But at the
last moment, the parents discovered that the boy, Jesus, was
missing. They were alarmed, but friends told them that their
boy had been seen in the company of kinsmen and neighbors
traveling along the same road, who had preceded them but a
few hours. Somewhat reassured, the parents left with their
company, hoping that they would overtake the boy before
nightfall. But when they reached the first station on the
caravan route--a village called Beroth--and the night
descended upon them, and the boy failed to appear among the
neighbors and kinsmen, the parents were sorely distressed.
They slept but little that night, and when the first rays of
dawn appeared, they parted from the company, and retraced
their way back to Jerusalem, in search of the boy apparently
lost in the great capital amid the hundreds of
thousands of pilgrims.
Every mother and father will enter into the feelings
of Joseph and Mary in their frantic return to the city, and
in their subsequent
search for the lost child. They inquired here and
there for the boy, but not a trace of him was found. And
night came without a ray of hope. And the next day was
likewise barren of results. And the next day after. For
three days the devoted parents searched high and low for
their beloved child--but no word of encouragement came to
them. The boy had seemingly dropped out of sight in the vast
crowds and winding streets. The parents reproached
themselves for their lack of care and caution. None but a
parent can imagine their anguish and terror.
They visited the many courts of the Temple many
times, but no sight or word of the boy rewarded their
search. The bloody altars, the showy costumes of the
priests; the chants; the readings; seemed like mockery to
them. They wished themselves back in their humble village,
with their boy by their side. They prayed and besought
Jehovah to grant their hopes and desire, but no answer came.
Then, on the last day, a strange event occurred. The
weary and heart broken parents wandered once more into the
Temple--this time visiting one of the less frequented
courts. They saw a crowd gathered--something of importance
was occurring. Almost instinctively they drew near to the
crowd. And then amidst the unusual silence of the people
they heard a boyish voice raised to a pitch adapted to a
large circle of hearers, and speaking in the tones of
authority. It was the voice of the boy, Jesus!
With eager feet the couple pushed forward, unto the
very inner row of the circle. And there, wonder of wonders,
they saw their child in the centre of the most celebrated
teachers and doctors of the Law in all Israel. With a rapt
expression in his eyes, as if He were gazing upon things not
of this world, the boy Jesus was standing in a position and
attitude of authority, and around him were grouped the
greatest minds of the day and land, in respectful attention,
while at a further distance stood the great circle of the
common people.
When one remembers the Jewish racial trait of
reverence for age, and the consequent submission of Youth,
one will better understand the unusual spectacle that burst
upon the gaze of Joseph and Mary. A mere boy--a
child--daring to even speak boldly in the presence of the
aged teachers was unheard of, and the thought of such a one
actually presuming to dispute, argue and teach, in such an
assembly, was like unto a miracle. And such it was!
The boy spoke with the air and in the tones of a
Master. He met the most subtle arguments and objections of
the Elders with the power of the keenest intellect and
spiritual insight. He brushed aside the sophistries with a
contemptuous phrase, and brought back the argument to the
vital point.
The crowd gathered in greater volume, the gray heads
and beards grew more and more respectful. It was evident to
all that a Master had arisen in Israel in the form of a boy
of thirteen. The MASTER was apparent in tone, gesture, and
thought. The Mystic had found his first audience, and his
congregation was composed of the leading thinkers and
teachers of the land. The insight of the Magi was verified!
Then in a momentary pause in the argument, the
stifled cry of a woman was heard--the voice of the Mother.
The crowd turned impatient, reproachful glances upon Mary,
who had been unable to restrain her emotion. But the boy,
looking sadly but affectionately at his lost parents, gave
her a reassuring glance, which at the same time bade her
remain still until he had finished his discourse. And the
parents obeyed the newly awakened will of their child.
The teaching ended, the boy stepped from his position
with the air of one of the Elders, and rejoined his parents,
who passed as rapidly as possible from the wondering crowd.
Then his mother reproached him, telling him of their
distress and wearisome search. The boy listened calmly and
patiently until she had finished. Then he asked, with his
newly acquired air of authority, "Why sought ye me?" And
when they answered him in the customary manner of parents,
the boy took on still a greater air of authority, and in
tones that though kindly, were full of power, he replied,
"Knew ye not, that I must be in my Father's House? I must be
about the things of my Father." And the parents, feeling
themselves in the presence of the Mystery that had ever been
about the child, followed Him silently from the
Temple grounds.
And here closes the New Testament story of the boy
Jesus at the age of thirteen, which story is not resumed
until His appearance at the place of the preaching of John
the Baptist, _over seventeen years later_, when the boy had
reached the age of a man of thirty years. When and how did
he spend those seventeen years? The New Testament is totally
silent on this score. Can anyone who has read the above
imagine that Jesus spent these years as a growing youth and
young man, working at His father's carpenter bench in the
village of Nazareth? Would not the Master, having found his
strength and power, have insisted upon developing the same?
Could the Divine Genius once self-recognized be content to
be obscured amid material pursuits? The New Testament is
silent, but the Occult Traditions and Mystic Legends
tell us the story of the missing seventeen years, and these
we shall now give to you.
*
*
*
* *
The legends and traditions of the mystic and occult
organizations and brotherhoods tell us that after the
occurrence of Jesus and the Elders in the Temple, and his
recovery by his parents, the latter were approached by
members of the secret organization to which the Magi
belonged, who pointed out to the parents the injustice of
the plan of keeping the lad at the carpenter's bench when He
had shown evidences of such a marvelous spiritual
development and such a wonderful intellectual grasp of
weighty subjects. It is told that after a long and serious
consideration of the matter the parents finally consented to
the plan advanced by the Magi, and allowed them to take the
lad with them into their own land and retreats that He might
there receive the instructions for which His soul craved,
and for which His mind was fitted.
It is true that the New Testament does not
corroborate these occult legends, but it is likewise true
that it says nothing to the contrary.
It is silent regarding this important period of
between seventeen and eighteen years. It is to be remembered
that when He appeared upon the scene of John's ministration,
the latter did not recognize Him, whereas had Jesus remained
about His home, John, his cousin, would have been acquainted
with his features and personal appearance.
The occult teachings inform us that the seventeen or
eighteen years of Jesus' life regarding which the Gospels
are silent, were filled with travels in far and distant
lands, where the youth and young man was instructed in the
occult lore and wisdom of the different schools. It is
taught that He was taken into India, and Egypt, and Persia,
and other far regions, living for several years at each
important center, and being initiated into the various
brotherhoods, orders, and bodies having their headquarters
there. Some of the Egyptians' orders have traditions of a
young Master who sojourned among them, and such is likewise
the case in Persia and in India. Even among the lamasaries
hidden in Tibet and in the Himalayan Mountains are to be
found legends and stories regarding the marvelous young
Master who once visited there and absorbed their wisdom and
secret knowledge.
More than this, there are traditions among the
Brahmans, Buddhists and Zoroastrians, telling of a strange
young teacher who appeared among them, who taught marvelous
truths and who aroused great opposition among the priests of
the various religions of India and Persia, owing to his
preaching against priestcraft and formalism, and also by his
bitter opposition to all forms of caste distinctions and
restrictions. And this, too, is in accord with the occult
legends which teach that from about the age of twenty-one
until the age of nearly thirty years Jesus pursued a
ministry among the people of India and Persia and
neighboring countries, returning at last to his native land
where He conducted a ministry extending over the last three
years of His life.
The occult legends inform us that He aroused great
interest among the people of each land visited by Him, and
that He also aroused the most bitter opposition among the
priests, for He always opposed formalism and priestcraft,
and sought to lead the people back to the Spirit of the
Truth, and away from the ceremonies and forms which have
always served to dim and becloud the Light of the Spirit. He
taught always the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of
Man. He sought to bring the great Occult Truths down to the
comprehension of the masses of people who had lost the
Spirit of the Truth in their observance of
outward forms and pretentious ceremonies.
It is related that in India He brought down upon His
head the wrath of the Brahmin upholders of the caste
distinctions, that curse of India. He dwelt in the huts of
the Sudras, the lowest of all of the Hindu castes, and was
therefore regarded as a pariah by the higher classes.
Everywhere He was regarded as a firebrand and a disturber of
established social order by the priests and high-caste
people. He was an agitator, a rebel, a religious renegade, a
socialist, a dangerous man, an "undesirable citizen," to
those in authority in those lands.
But the seeds of His wisdom were sown right and left,
and in the Hindu religions of today, and in the teachings of
other Oriental countries, may be found traces of Truth, the
resemblance of which to the recorded teachings of Jesus,
show that they came from the same source, and have sorely
disturbed the Christian missionaries that have since visited
these lands.
And so, slowly and patiently, Jesus wended his way
homeward toward Israel, where He was to complete His
ministry by three years' work among His own race, and where
He was to again raise up against Himself the opposition of
the priests and the upper classes which would finally result
in His death. He was a rebel against the established order
of things, and He met the fate reserved for those who live
ahead of their time.
And, as from the first days of His ministry to His
last, so it is today, the real teachings of the Man of
Sorrows reach more readily the heart of the plain people,
while they are reviled and combatted by those in
ecclesiastical and temporal authority, even though these
people claim allegiance to Him and wear His livery. He was
ever the friend of the poor and oppressed, and hated by
those in authority.
And so, you see the Occult teachings show Jesus to
have been a world-wide teacher, instead of a mere Jewish
prophet. The world was his audience, and all races His
hearers.
He planted His seeds of Truth in the bosom of many
religions instead of but one, and these seeds are beginning
to bear their best fruit even now at this late day, when the
truth of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man is
beginning to be felt by all nations alike, and is growing
strong enough to break down the old which have divided
brother from brother, and creed from creed.
Christianity--true Christianity--is not a mere creed, but a
great human and divine Truth that will rise above all petty
distinctions of race and creed and will at last shine on all
men alike, gathering them into one fold of Universal
Brotherhood.
May the Great Day be hastened!
And so we leave Jesus, wending his way slowly
homeward toward Judea, the land of His father and the place
of His birth. Dropping a word here--planting a seed
there--onward. He pursued His way. Visiting this mystic
brotherhood, and resting a while in another occult retreat,
He slowly retraced the journey of His youth. But while His
outward journey was that of a student traveling forth to
complete His education, He returned as a Master and Teacher,
bearing and sowing the seeds of a great Truth, which was to
grow and bring forth great fruit, and which, in time, would
spread over all the world in its primitive purity,
notwithstanding its betrayal and corruption at the hands of
those in whose keeping He left it when he passed away from
the scene
of His labors.
Jesus came as a World Prophet, not as a mere Jewish
holy-man, and still less as a Hebrew Messiah destined to sit
upon the throne of His father David. And He left His mark
upon all of the great peoples of earth by His journey among
them. Throughout Persia are found many traditions of Issa,
the young Master who appeared in that land centuries ago,
and who taught the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of
Man. Among the Hindus are found strange traditions of Jesoph
or Josa, a young ascetic, who passed through the Hind long
since, denouncing the established laws of caste, and
consorting with the common people, who, as in Israel, "heard
him gladly." Even in China are found similar tales of the
young religious firebrand, preaching ever the Brotherhood of
Man--ever known as the Friend of the Poor. On and on He
went, sowing the seeds of human freedom and the casting off
of the yoke of ecclesiastical tyranny and formalism, which
seeds are springing unto growth even at this late day. Yea,
the Spirit of His real teachings are even now bearing fruit
in the hearts of men, and though nearly two thousand years
have passed by the "soul" of His social teachings still
"goes marching on" round and round the world.
