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Creating Bridges: The Spiritual & Philosophical |
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Teachings from the Western Mystery Traditions:
The Esoteric "Paths of Return"
Esoteric Christianity
and the Jesus Mysteries
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by Jacquelyn Small
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Gnostic Christians were the original Christians, before the Roman Empire made Christianity a mandate for the masses as a political power drive. We've never heard much about these primitive Christians, because they were a small movement of individuals committed to personal growth who did not proselytize, or care anything about political power. They believed that everyone had the right to one's own way of knowing God. And further, they taught that anyone could make direct contact with God without the intercession of a priest or the need for organized religion. Therefore, their message rarely became known by the masses. Many of them, both Jews and Christians alike, were healers and very intelligent sages like the Essenes.
The Gnositc Nag Hammadi Library contains all the books of Christ's teachings that were omitted from the accepted Bible. The writings of the apostles Thomas, Philip, and Mary Magdalene especially reveal the inner process of awakening that Jesus taught his Initiates. This information came to light following the Library's discovery in 1945, found hidden near Nag Hammadi, written on original papyrus composed in Greek. These teachings track with the Essenes? Dead Sea Scrolls, found in the 1950's hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert, telling us a similar story: that we may have been deceived now for centuries about the true meaning of Jesus' teachings. We can count our blessings today that some of these forbidden gospels survived.
The Coptic Scrolls of the Gnostic gospels all speak of Christ's ministry in mortal terms. The Vatican, of course, tried hard to suppress these scrolls, since they highlight glaring historical discrepancies and downright lies. They confirm that the Bible we?ve been given was compiled by men with political agendas, to solidify their own power base. More than 80 gospels were considered for The New Testament, with relatively few chosen.
It is common knowledge today that The Bible is a product of man, not of God. Man created it during tumultuous times and it has been through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History does not have a definitive version of The Bible and never has. Nothing in Christianity is original according to documented history. Constantine combined paganism and his brand of Christianity in his own manner.
For example, December 25 was chosen as Jesus' birthday. And December 25 was also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. Baby Krishna was also given gold, frankincense and myrrh. Even Sunday was stolen from the pagan's day of worshipping the sun god. Originally, Christians honored the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday as their holy day.
Until the ecumenical meeting called the Council of Nicaea, where the Nicene Creed in Catholicism originated, Jesus was known as a great and powerful prophet, a mortal. Jesus' establishment as "the Son of God" and an immortal was decided by vote at the Nicene Council -- and a relatively close vote at that. Constantine commissioned a new Bible which omitted all the gospels that spoke of Christ's human traits and embellished the gospels to make him only divine. The technical knowledge of today has been able to examine the kinds of ink and writing materials used at various times in history and can determine which books of the Bible were changed, and when.
The earlier gospels were gathered up and most of them were burned. Anyone choosing the forbidden gospels over what the Church called the truth were labeled heretics and were banished or murdered. No longer could people access The Christ directly. This precluded further pagan challenges and established the Roman Church as the sacred channel to reach God. It was all about power. In other words, Jesus was stolen from his original followers, hi-jacked by the Romans and his message shrouded in an impenetrable cloak of divinity and used to expand their own powers. Educated Christian leaders know this history, but they do not speak of it because it would be the demise of the Roman Catholic Church. Dan Brown, who wrote The Da V inci Code, tells us that nearly everything we've been taught about Jesus is false.
The Nag Hammadi Library's apocryphal gospels teach us that primitive Christianity was a radical movement. Jesus called for a full reversal of values, advocating the end of the world as we have known it and its replacement by a quite new kind of life in which the ideal could be realized. Jesus took a stand quite independent of the authorities of his day. And, as we all know, did not last very long before they eliminated him. Those who cherished his radical views were eventually seen as enemies of the church, and most of them were killed.
These early Christians believed that in principle, though not in practice, the world was good. They did not misconstrue human beings as being evil, which caused philosophies to develop that made people want to escape being human in order to "be spiritual." -- as though the origin of the world was caused by a terrible fault. The plight of those who just naturally saw through this distorted mentality was that they had to withdraw from the outer world and go into a concentrated inwardness, undistracted by external factors. They sought to always maintain the overview, our bigger story as spiritual beings living in human bodies, and stay in touch with the All, which they believed is the destiny of every "spark of the divine."
Esoteric Christianity has grown into its own quiet movement through the Ages by people who have studied the apocryphal books of the Bible and see beyond the Roman doctrines into the deep truth of Jesus' teachings. His messages to His disciples were all about how the kingdom of God is within us, and that we each must go within to become enlightened and loving individuals in service to the world, by doing the inner work necessary to cleanse our misunderstandings.
In the Theosophical teachings of Alice Ann Bailey's book, From Bethlehem to Calvary, we discover how Christianity was intended for the Western world, while the Buddha's teachings were the counterpart for the East. We are shown how these two schools of wisdom and love complete one another, as though Jesus and the Buddha are spiritual brothers.
The Buddha's method was detachment, dispassion and discrimination. The Christ?s methods was individuation, initiation, and identification. The Buddha's teachings prepare the lower nature to become a conscious expression of divinity. Detachment means to turn a deaf ear to the call of the lower nature and imposes a new rhythm on the self. Dispassion means to become immune to the sufferings of the lower nature when its non-essential desires aren't met. Discrimination is the quality that teaches us to focus on the good, the beautiful and the true. These bring us the wisdom needed to prepare for the Christ life.
The Eastern teachings leaned toward unity of all beings and tended to negate the value of the individual ? which is what Christ's message brings us. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works." (Matt. V, 16) The keynote of the entire message of The Christ is expressed in these terms. Through the process of his five Initiations Jesus shows us the value of the individual and one's self-initiated efforts to grow in stature as we learn to perfect ourselves into God's image of who we are intended to be. We are all to achieve Christ consciousness by our own efforts. This is the meaning of St. Paul's statement: "the Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. I, 27)
Individuation means to set yourself apart from mass consciousness and your family's belief systems and become capable of free thought. ŒNo one comes to the Father but by me.? Jesus meant by this that he is modeling for us the Way, that we are to do as he did. Unfortunately, this message is mis-transcribed, and is consequently misinterpreted by fundamentalists as meaning unless you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you won't be "saved." Initiation is the process of awakening, the natural unfolding in stages of the realization of that which already is. ŒI AM the way, the truth and the light.? He wanted us to know who we are. Through the authentic teachings of Jesus, Humanity was presented with this inner way to undergo "a new birth" and grow through a gradual achievement of spiritual stature through initiatory trials. Then, we are to identify with each other, and later with God. Identification is the process of dis-identifying with the personality and re-identifying as our highest Self, as God?s offspring. ŒI and the Father are one.?
Jesus is the archetype of the Divine Human, and the first to know that we are all sons and daughters of God. Researched history shows that Jesus was an amazing prophet of staggering influence, perhaps the most influential the world has ever seen, and also the most enigmatic. Seeing Jesus as a mortal does not take away from the power and beauty of this amazing prophet. He did walk this earth, modeling for us how to be a perfected human, inspiring millions to lead better lives.
It was also known by the original Christians that Jesus said he would be our teacher until "the ending days," which meant the end of the Piscean Age, during which time we were to learn to worship high teachers and follow them. At the end of this age, we were to become our own masters, going inward to find the wisdom within ourselves. This is the Aquarian dispensation of which the astrologers of that time knew.
The translators of the Gnostic Nag Hammadi Library are not radicals; James Robinson, its senior editor, is a conventional gentleman with a strong interest in truth. He comments in the Introduction of this amazing work:
"The focus that brought this together is an estrangement from the mass of humanity, an affinity with an ideal order that completely transcends life as we know it.... It is not an aggressive revolution that is intended, but rather a withdrawal from involvement in the contamination that destroys clarity of vision."
May we all have the courage to withdraw from involving in any form of contamination of the truth as well! |
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Jacquelin Small,
Spiritualist, Clairvoyant Psychologist
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JACQUELYN SMALL, LMSW, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in human psychology and clinical social work. She is a licensed non-denominational minister and a licensed psychotherapist who works with both spiritual and psychological concerns.
Jacquelyn is a popular presenter and consultant in academic settings, new-thought churches and new paradigm conferences and mental health settings, known for her easy-going, self-disclosing, humorous style of intimate relating with her audiences.
She has a long history in addiction counselor training, consulting and counseling, and trains all kinds of health professionals in the emerging field of spiritual psychology. She is one of the teachers who has been selected by Unity Church for their national TV ministry. She served as the Director of Training for the Texas Commission on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse for nine years, and served on the adjunct faculty of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Stanford, California for four years.
Jacquelyn has authored eight books about soul-based psychology and the process of personal transformation, some of which have become classics in the counseling and consciousness fields. She is represented by the Tom Grady Agency. She has many audio tapes as well through Eupsychia's publishing company, Eupsychian Press.
Her published books are:
* Becoming Naturally
Therapeutic (Bantam)
* Transformers, the
Artists of Self-Creation
(DeVorss & Co.)
* Awakening in Time
(Eupsychian Press)
* Embodying Spirit (HarperSanFrancisco
/Eupsychian)
* Rising to the Call with
co-author Mary Yovino (DeVorss & Co.)
* Becoming a Practical Mystic (Quest Books)
* Psyche's Seeds-The 12 Sacred Principles of Soul-Based Psychology (Tarcher/Putnam
/Penguin)
Jacquelyn is a regular columnist for Science of Mind Magazine and is featured often in other magazines. Among the many conferences and programs for which Jacquelyn has keynoted or presented programs, include:
* The Association for Humanistic Psychology
* Association for Transpersonal Psychology
* Omega Institute
including their Body &
Soul Conferences
* Tracor and Texaco, Inc.
* Church of Religious Science Annual
Conference
* Great Lakes Addiction Conference
* Whole Life Expo
* The College of William & Mary's Annual Addictions Conference
* Most major universities
in the United States
* U.S. Department of Heath, Education and Welfare
* Omega Institute's
Body & Soul Conferences
* New Age Magazine's Bahama Teaching Cruise
The ConferenceWorks!
She has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, America's Talking, Wisdom Television and Radio, New Dimensions Radio, NPR's People's Pharmacy and a CNN's series on Alternative Healing and continues to make regular guest appearances for radio and television.
Jacquelyn Small serves on the Advisory Board of the International Psychosynthesis Association, the National Council on Codependence, and The Holistic Alliance of Professional Practitioners, Entrepreneurs and Networkers, Inc.
She is the Founding Director of Eupsychia (pronounced u-si'-ki-a) Institute which means "good psyche" or "well being" in Greek, a not-for-profit professional training and healing program in Soul-Based Psychology and Integrative Breathwork. With her staff of dedicated, experienced spiritual therapists, she conducts workshop intensives throughout North America on a regular basis.
Eupsychia Institute
PO Box 151960
Austin, TX 78715-1960
(800) 546-2795
Local (512) 327-2795
Fax (512) 327-6043
eupsychia1@aol.com
Contact Webmistress
www.eupsychia.com
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