THE CHRISTIAN MYSTIC INITIATION By Max Heindel

Echoes from Mt. Ecclesia  June 1913

THE CHRISTIAN MYSTIC INITIATION By Max Heindel

Besides the Rosicrucian system of Initiation, fitted for those who must walk the way by the light of reason, there is also a path for people who walk by faith alone, and while there are great advantages in knowledge and the delib erate conscious  process of the Rosicrucian Initiation, the Christian Mystic Initiation is touching and beautiful. Only those who are free from the domination of the intellect, who can forbear asking questions and take every thing in simple, childlike faith, can go this way.

The whole Bible is a book containing different systems of Initiation and illumination from different phases of development. There is no doubt that Christ Jesus lived and went through experiences recounted in the four gospels, but it is also true that these gospels are formulae of  Initiation, and that the Christian Mystic follows Christ Jesus upon that path, though he is always unconscious that he is undergoing occult development.

The foundation laid in former lives brings him into the world by parents of pure natures; thus, his body is immaculately conceived.When mankind rose from the waters of  Atlantis, they lost the spirit of Love and Brotherhood, they became egotistical and self seeking. The spirit of Love and Universal Brotherhood descends anew upon the Christian Mystic when he goes under the water of Baptism and he feels the throb of the Great Heart of God beating in his bosom.
Egotism and selfishness drew a veil between God and man, and when restored, love lights the way to the secret places. On the mount of transfiguration the Mystic sees the continuity of life by rebirth in different bodies. Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist are expressions of  the same immortal spirit.

Forms are used as stepping stones for the evolving life. The mineral is dis-organized to nourish the plants, therefore the plant owes a debt of gratitude to the mineral. Plants are destroyed to feed animal and man, hence, we are obligated to them. As the lower serves the higher, there must be a return; to restore the balance, the higher beings must serve the lower as teachers, and to inculcate the lesson that the pupils have a claim to their service, the Mystic washes his pupil's feet. To him nothing is menial; if a disagreeable task is to be per formed, he does it greedily to save others.

But though he serves others gladly, he must learn to bear his burdens alone. When he goes through Gethsemane, even those who are closest to him sleep. When he is ostracized and condemned by the world, they also deny him; thus, he is taught to look to no one else, but to rely solely on the spirit.

He thus realizes that He is a spirit and the body a cross which he must patiently bear. The vortices evolved by his spiritual acts and exercises slowly but surely sever the vital body from the dense and the crucified soars into the higher spheres with the gladsome cry: "Consummatum est”—(it has been accomplished). He is then a citizen of the visible and invisible worlds as much as the aspirant who pursues the Rosicrucian path of attainment, for both schools meet at “the Cross."