A part of the story of Mary and Jesus is represented on these pages through the story of the Easter drama, with readings from the New Testament, short meditations, and art. At the bottom of each reading is a corresponding passage for meditation. Click on the image for a larger version of the image.

The Christian Mysteries and "The Suffering Servant"

The Christian Mysteries are not only about the story of the man Jesus and his mother Mary, the stories are about "The Suffering Servant" immortalized in the Judeo-Christian world in the passages and stories of the Bible and other associated works including, the Thanksgiving Hymns of the Dead Sea Scrolls attributed to the Teacher of Righteousness. The general theme of "The Suffering Servant" follows a literary theme of what today we might call the literary archetype of the "Hero's Journey" as defined by Joseph Campbell and others, stretching back to Aristotle according to the Hero's Journey entry in Wikipedia which defines the literary form as "narratology and comparative mythology." Further, the article states,

"The hero's journey, also known as the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.

Earlier figures had proposed similar concepts, including psychoanalyst Otto Rank and amateur anthropologist Lord Raglan. Eventually, hero myth pattern studies were popularized by Joseph Campbell, who was influenced by Carl Jung's analytical psychology. Campbell used the monomyth to analyze and compare religions. In his famous book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), he describes the narrative pattern as follows:

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."

While some scholars debunk the theory, we may look back to the Ancient stories written by Homer, the Greek poet credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and who because of his works, "is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history."

Another useful example, would be Plutarch ( c.2nd C AD) a Greco-Roman philosopher, historian, and Apollonian priest, who wrote The Parallel Lives, a series of 48 biographies of famous men. Also known as Plutarch's Lives, the Comparative Lives, the Lives of Illustrious Men, the Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans and more. The lives are arranged in pairs to illuminate the "common moral virtues or failings of the figures he wrote about. "The surviving Parallel Lives comprises 23 pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman of similar destiny, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, or Demosthenes and Cicero."

Plutarch explains in the first paragraph of his Life of Alexander, in his introduction that he "was not concerned with writing histories, but with exploring the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of famous men." His writing follows much the same pattern for each biography; generally, he provides signs of a birth that will lead to public fame, precociousness as a child, deeds of fame in middling life, great speeches (of course constructed by Plutarch), falls from grace, a rebirth of one sort or another, suffering in life, and the circumstances of death.

Campbell includes a much longer list, but generally a similar pattern. A short list includes a call to adventure, a refusal to heed the call, supernatural aid, a road of trials, tests, the identification of allies and enemies, ordeals and rewards, flight, mastery of the spiritual and material worlds, and the circumstances of death, which in some cases is at the hands of an unjust society, and so on. Examples of the latter in relationship to Jesus could be in real life the assassinations of Gandhi, the Kennedy brothers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and so on.

Whatever the case, the literary approach to the Biblical stories of the famous personages we think of today, such as Adam and Eve, Able and Cain, Abraham and Isaac, Joseph, Leah and Rachel, Moses, David, (the list could be long), and last but not least, Jesus and Mary and the disciples, that all the stories concerning the struggles and the overcoming of those struggles in life, are events we all experience similarly in one way or another, whether famous or not. In other words, while people get lost in the question of whether or not the Bible is historical, in doing so the literary message is lost. Rather, the mystical view is that every character allegorically represents an interior part of our psyche, presenting an opportunity to examine what happens when we succumb to the desires of the small ego or in contrast, whether we rise to the occasion and suppress the small ego in favor of acting in accordance with the Divine aspect of ourselves: the Good.

With the idea of the Hero's Journey in mind, we can now reconsider The Christian Mysteries. In the Catholic Church and mainstream Christianity, the mysteries are most usually presented as the unique experiences of Jesus and Marry; however, on the esoteric level the Mysteries, allegorically and symbolically pertain to the sufferings and joys experienced by all souls during their lifetimes.

While experiences vary across the globe, dependent upon nation, culture, race, and religion, we all experience suffering and its opposite, joy. And especially, when a Soul consciously chooses to follow the Spiritual Path or The Way, as some call it, suffering normally escalates as most usually, if not always, the desire to follow the "Good" comes into conflict with the errant world, largely invested in satisfying the desires of the small ego instead of satisfying the Heart. In the Bible, certain passages speak of the "Suffering Servant". While scholars generally do not recognize that these verses refer not to any particular individuals, but rather, are indicative of what happens to any individual who chooses to follow "The Way".

According to an Oxford reference,"The Suffering Servant" songs were first identified by Bernhard Duhm in his 1892 commentary on Isaiah: Das Buch Jesaia (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1892). "The Suffering Servant" passages are also known as "The Servant Songs", "The Servant Poems" or "The Songs of the Suffering Servant" . These names refer to certain sections, defined by scholars, as songs or poems, of four different chapters of the Book of Isaiah.: Isaiah 42:1–4; Isaiah 49:1–6; Isaiah 50:4–11; and Isaiah 52:13–53 Some scholars include a fifth section: Isaiah 61:1–3 although the word "servant" is not mentioned in the passage. The writers of the New Testament looked back to these songs as pieces of literature foretelling the incarnation of Jesus as "the one alluded to as "The Suffering Servant, in particular, the fifth passage, Isaiah 61:1–3 that reads:

61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

The songs or poems collectively, all refer to a "certain" servant, a "servant of YHWH" (Hebrew: Yahweh) sent by Yahweh to lead the nations, but the servant is horribly abused by them; however, in the end, he is rewarded in some way.

The stories of the Bible in general, when read from a literary standpoint, allegorically represent the story of every man and woman on Earth, no matter what race, ethnicity, or religion and at some point become the "Suffering Servant". The Story of Mary and Jesus has its root in the ancient past, but when we read from a literary (not literal) standpoint, the story becomes relative to the circumstances of our own life and era.

In the Western Tradition, the events of the lives of Mary and Jesus have their corollary, when we consider the inner spiritual journey we all experience in life in one way or another; we are all faced at one time or another to consciously choose to override the desires of the small ego in favor of the Divine within us. Such choices often require personal sacrifices and dependent upon their import, sometimes cause great emotional and mental anguish.

The "Hero's Journey", or simply "The Journey" is, in the Esoteric World, therefore called initiatory; we are required to change our level of consciousness and come to a new level of understanding of what is important and not important, what we actually need and don't need, we come to terms at each stage with a new level of knowing who we are and what our real purpose in life is and is not.

Initiations are a part of life. Initiations are significant spiritual experiences we have in life that cause a shift in our consciousness. In some Western Traditions, initiations are realized and understood through devotion, meditation, contemplation, and celebrated in worship. Examples in the Christian tradition would be meditations on the 14 Stations of the Cross and/or meditations on the mysteries of the Rosary: Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous, and of course meditations on the Bible stories and associated texts. In order to perform these meditations from ad Esoteric standpoint however, we have to let go of any dogma or preconceived notions we might have accumulated over the years. That is the hard part.

In the Esoteric Western Tradition, Mary and Jesus are perceived as World Teachers. Mary and Jesus lived and died in this world. From the Mystical point of view, because they lived here on Earth, and their teachings became so widespread, their consciousness is a part of our present day consciousness; thus, we may contact that consciousness through meditation and prayer, and receive guidance and comfort. They experienced both the joys and sorrows of this world. There are arguments about how they actually lived, whether or not Jesus was married, etc., but these arguments lose importance when we consider their lives in the Light of their having been world Teachers.

When we meditate upon the symbolic meaning and contact the presences of Mary and Jesus, we may gain an awareness of the Great Love and Compassion of the Spirit of God; we may become aware of the sacred and the journey we all take in Awakening to a Greater Consciousness and gain a greater understanding of Love, Compassion and how we may bring it into this world in greater abundance.

And meditation on these stories sometimes gives us the means to put aside our own confusion and suffering and understand the pain and suffering of others; when we see our problems from another perspective, we may be given a clearer understanding and even gain new hope.

The Western Tradition teaches that the inner drive to find the truth and act upon it is innate and is the result of the force of the Logos-the Son of God within us; in other words, the Spirit of God in each of us is a part of the Great Spirit— the Holy Spirit of God.

The Spiritual Path or "The Way" is about manifesting the Consciousness of Christ ourselves, and as we travel along the Path, also called the Path of Enlightenment, we have experiences on a soul level that result in the transformation of ourselves into Christed beings.

What is it to be Christed?

"Christ, is a Greek term found in the Greek version of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint. In Hebrew, the verb is actually mashakh, meaning "to anoint." In early Israel the custom of anointing signified the endowment of the person with the qualification for an exalted office. The term Christ was applied not only to priests, but also to kings, prophets, and patriarchs. In time, the term came to mean the redeemer and restorer of the Jewish nation. In the New Testament, Christ, as a common noun and as a proper name, generally refers to Jesus of Nazareth."

Alternate terms for the designation Christ are: God the Son, second person of the Trinity, Word, Logos, Son of God, the Only Begotten, Word made Flesh, Incarnate Son, Messiah, Son of David, Rod of Jesse, the Lord's Anointed, Christ Immanuel, Lamb of God, Son of Man, Man of Sorrows, Son of Mary, Jesus, Jesu, Jesus Christ, Holy Infant, Christ Child, Child of Bethlehem, Jesus of Nazareth, the Nazarene, the Galilean, the Good Shepherd, Savior, Redeemer, Friend, Lord, Master, Rock of Ages, Bread of Life, True Vine, the Way, the Truth, the Life, Light of the World, Son of Righteousness, King of Kings, King of Heaven, King of Glory, Prince of Peace.

When we look back in time, the ancient teachers seemed to have understood that the Trinity was a means of symbolically describing the aspects of God in terms of a Macrocosm— that which cannot be fully understood, reflected in the Microcosm— that which can be understood. God may be understood through the Great Trinity, the first aspect— the Father-Mother God or the Creator, the second aspect— the Logos or Son-the Manifest, and the third aspect— the Holy Spirit, the source of all sacred wisdom.

The characters of our Western story and what happens to them are universal. Mary and Jesus manifested the story of the inner journey on a world level in real life. Mary represents the wisdom aspect of the soul, the divine feminine, the source of all inner knowledge, inspiration— the Holy Spirit in each of us. The divine feminine is always present to console and guide us on our journey. The soul is taught by the Spirit— that some call the Divine Sophia— represented by Mary.

Jesus Christ represents the conscious soul on its journey to become Christed. His life is about the sacrifices and experiences we all have as a result of living in this world, as we seek a greater consciousness and to manifest the divine aspects of our beings. It is the false ego or the false mind and beliefs that are sacrificed, not the real Ego— the Soul.

Mary and Jesus and the disciples, and every character in the story of Jesus, on a microcosmic allegorical level may be seen as symbolic of various parts of ourselves. The process of the awakening of the real Ego or Soul or Logos to the truth and the sacrifice that we must make in order to internalize the truth and free ourselves from the false idea that we are separate from God is represented by Jesus.

This new awareness or revelation causes great changes in the physical, emotional and psyche or psychic (meaning mind) and spiritual bodies of the being. We experience spiritual experiences through life. These include the whole range of human emotions from joy and ecstasy to pain and sorrow.

In the Esoteric tradition, it is explained to us that we all go through Minor and Major Initiations. In the Greater Initiations, we experience first an Awakening— the awareness there is more than what is apparent, then Illumination— the process of acquiring knowledge, Truth and Light, followed by Self Realization— the knowing that we are a part of God, and finally, we come to God Realization— the knowing that we are Sons of God and conscious creators made in the image of God and sharing consciousness with God. Both the Minor and the Major initiations are represented in the stories of Mary and Jesus Christ.

As you can see from the text above, the idea that Jesus Christ was THE Son of God is not a tenet of the Esoteric Western Tradition, however, it is our hope that meditation upon these pages may bring comfort and understanding to all, whatever one may believe.