Bible Chronicles: Jesus and the Christ Spirit

The Past Lives of Jesus According 

to Edgar Cayce

Who is Edgar Cayce?

Edgar Cayce (pronounced "Kay-see") was a simple Sunday School teacher who, over the span of

his lifetime (1877-1945), had more near-death experiences than anyone ever documented. Cayce

learned at a young age that when he was hypnotized, he could leave his body and journey into

the afterlife realms. His self-induced out-of-body experiences were identical to near-death

experiences. Cayce made over 14,000 otherworldly journeys in his life and the information he

gained from these journeys has astounded people all over the world.

The system of metaphysical thought which emerges from the Cayce material can be described as

a "Christianized" version of the mystery religions of ancient Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, India, and

Greece. It fits Christ into the mystical tradition of one God for all people, and places Christ in his

proper place, at the apex of the philosophical structure - the capstone of the pyramid.

Cayce was a fundamentalist Christian who was raised in strict nineteenth century Bible tradition.

When he discovered that his subconscious information declared the ancient mystic religions to be

true and acclaimed Jesus as their crowning glory, he suffered the greatest mental and emotional

shock of his life. Cayce had only a seventh grade education and consciously knew nothing of

what he said while in a deep trance-like state. He was only versed in the Bible and had no high

school or college background of any kind. Up until his revelations, Cayce had never heard of the

mystery religions. Yet the Cayce material agrees with everything about them that is known to be

authentic. He spoke at length on Christian Gnosticism well before the Gnostic writings were

discovered after his death. Cayce affirmed that Christian Gnosticism is the type of Christianity

that was taught by Jesus. Much of the information from Cayce has solved some of the greatest

mysteries of humanity, some of which were later validated after the discoveries of the Dead Sea

Scrolls and the early Christian writings discovered in Egypt.

Cayce's descriptions of the Essenes of Mount Carmel reveal the religious sect to be an ideal for

others who would prepare the way for the Second Coming of Christ. Cayce's revelations of Jesus'

so-called "lost years" as a youth studying in Egypt, Persia, and India suggest an important

compatibility of between the eastern and western religions. Cayce's Christology also makes the

Christ soul not only an ideal and pattern toward which everyone should aspire, but a living

presence to guide people toward "at-one-ment" with God - the perfect divine-human unity which

Jesus attained.

The Christ Spirit

According to the Cayce material, Jesus and Adam were different incarnations of the same Christ

soul. Eve and the Virgin Mary (Jesus' twin soul) were also different incarnations of the same soul.

This karmic connection between Adam and Jesus explains why Jesus was able to pay the

"karmic debt" by atoning for the "sin of Adam." This Adam-Jesus connection can be seen in the

following excerpt from the Cayce readings:

Question: "When did the knowledge come to Jesus that he was to be the Savior

of the world?"

Cayce: "When he fell in Eden." [2067-7]

According to Cayce, many other personalities from the Old Testament and history were also

incarnations of Jesus. The Cayce material describes the entire Christian Bible as part of the story

of Jesus' long struggle to attain "Christhood" and provide humanity a pattern to do the same.

Here is a list of the incarnations of Jesus according to Cayce:

The Incarnations of Jesus Christ According to Edgar Cayce:

I . Amilius -    Amilius was the first expression of Divine Mind (the logos); the

Christ soul before his incarnation into a physical body

(corresponding to Genesis 1); the entity that Cayce described

living in the lost civilization of Atlantis who redirected the process

of human evolution by creating a more appropriate physical form

for the influx of souls to incarnate into rather than incarnating into

the ape-like human form which souls had entangled themselves in.

II. Adam   - Adam was the first "son of man" and "son of God"; the Christ soul

after his incarnation into a physical body (corresponding to

Genesis 2). 

III. Enoch  - Enoch was the antideluvian patriarch who journeyed to heaven to

receive mysteries.

IV - Hermes -  Hermes, also known as Thoth, was the architect of the Great

Pyramid and the sage who began the Hermetic tradition.

V  -Melchizedek  - Melchizedek was the mystical high priest and king of Salem

(ancient Jerusalem).

VI. Joseph  - Joseph was the son of Jacob who became the Prince of Egypt.

VII  Joshua  -  Joshua was the warrior who led the Israelites into the Promised

Land.

VIII- Asaph  -  Asaph was the music director and seer who served under David

and Solomon.

IX -Jeshua Jeshua was the high priest who helped organize the return from

exile and the rebuilding of the temple (as recounted in the books

of Ezra and Nehemiah) and who is claimed by Cayce to have

compiled and translated the books of the Bible

X - Zend  -  Zend, also spelled "Zen", "Zan", "Sen", or "San," was the father of

Zoroaster who wrote the Zend Avesta and founded the religion

Zoroastrianism

XII -Jesus   - Jesus was the man who attained complete "at-one-ment" as the

divine-human unity known as "the Christ"

XII -  ????    -   The Christ soul will reincarnate again to be the Messiah foretold

by the Hebrew prophets in order to usher in the so-called "Throne

of David" (i.e., the kingdom of heaven) on Earth.

According to Cayce, the "fall of man" was an event recorded symbolically in Genesis where souls

from heaven first descended to the earth plane to began incarnating as humans. The first wave of

souls to incarnate (known in the Bible as "the sons of men") became entrapped in the earth plane

accidentally, through their misuse of free will. These events gave rise to legends of the "fall of the

angels" and to mythical beasts of the kind described in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings."

The second wave of incarnations (known in the Bible as "the sons of God") consisted of those

souls led by Amilius - the Christ soul - who voluntarily became entrapped in order to assist the

first wave of trapped souls. They accomplished this by steering the process of physical evolution

in a way that created more appropriate physical forms for these souls. Cayce places Amilius on

Atlantis, but says that he did not physically incarnate until the human physical form had been

created, at which time the Genesis accounts of Adam and Eve begin. Cayce sometimes used the

word "Adam" to also refer to the entire group of souls which had accompanied the Christ soul into

incarnating into the earth plane and who incarnated as the five races of humanity on five separate

continents.

Adam (as the Christ soul) joined his twin soul Eve in allowing himself to be seduced by materiality

himself. This is symbolized by his acceptance of "the forbidden fruit." The other sons of God

followed his lead and incarnated, and as a result were moved to express their materiality by

interbreeding with the "daughters of men" (Genesis 6:1-2) who were the homo sapiens that

evolved from ape-men according to Darwin's theory of evolution. According to the Cayce material

and Christian Gnosticism, their banishment from the Garden of Eden was actually a great

blessing because death and reincarnation are designed to draw our attention away from

materiality and the flesh, and toward our true spiritual nature.

Cayce also identified Melchizedek as an incarnation of the Jesus-entity. Melchizedek was the

"king of Salem" and "priest of the most high God" who shares bread and wine with Abraham in

Genesis 14:18-20. Melchizedek is also mentioned both in the Dead Sea Scrolls (I I Q Melch) and

the Nag Hammadi codices (NEC IX 1), where he appears as a cosmic angelic figure similar to the

risen Christ. Hebrews 5:10 refers to Jesus "a high priest after the order of Melchizedek."

According to Cayce, Melchizedek wrote the Book of Job which contains many unusual verses

that Cayce would often quote from while in trance. For example, Cayce stated, "For, as the sons

of God came together to reason, as recorded by Job, "WHO recorded same? The Son of Man!

Melchizedek wrote Job!"

Cayce also identified the Biblical personality named Enoch to be a Jesus-entity incarnate. Enoch

is described in several pseudepigraphal writings as well as some Kabbalistic writings. The

modern Bible has a brief mention of Enoch:

"And Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him." (Gen. 5:18-24)

The Books of Enoch describe the fall of the angels into materiality - the beginning of the

incarnation of souls from heaven. It also describes Enoch's several heavenly journeys where it is

revealed to him the future up until the time of the Messiah. Enoch is also taught traditional topics

as angelology and the divine throne-chariot. The Ethiopic Enoch introduces Enoch to a messianic

figure referred to as "the Son of Man." The Hebrew scripture known as "Apocalypse of Enoch"

describes Enoch transfigured into an angel named Metatron. In the New Testament, Enoch is

mentioned in Hebrews 11:5 and Jude 14-15, with the latter passage apparently quoting from the

pseudepigaphal Enochian literature. The fact that the Bible itself quotes from the Book of Enoch

is evidence that Cayce was correct about the book being a valid source for higher spiritual

knowledge.

Cayce also identified the Biblical personality named Joseph (son of Jacob) as an incarnation of

the Jesus-entity soul. Accordingly, Joseph's escape from the pit was not only a literal event, but a

symbolic anticipation of Jesus' resurrection. Cayce's identification of Joshua, the notorious

genocidal leader of Israel in the Old Testament, as an incarnation of the Jesus-entity is a little

more difficult to believe. But Cayce viewed Joshua's claim to fame as being the scribe for Moses

who "psychically" dictated much of what is attributed to Moses. This interesting bit of information

explains how "Moses" wrote about his own death. Another Biblical personality named by Cayce to

be a Jesus-entity incarnate is the high priest named Jeshua who helped organize the return from

exile and the rebuilding of the temple (see Ezra and Nehemiah). According to Cayce, this Jeshua

is the one who compiled and translated the books of the Bible. In essence, Cayce identifies all

these Biblical personalities to be psychic revelators.

An interesting fact is that "Joshua", "Jeshua", and "Jesus" are really the same name. The name

"Jesus" is a Latin version of the Aramaic name Jeshua or "Yeshua." And Yeshua is Hebrew for

Joshua or "Yehoshua." Thus, Cayce has assigned the soul-entity Jesus to be incarnations of the

three Biblical characters having the same name. Cayce also mentions that Jesus was an Essene

who was registered by his Essene school under the name of "Jeshua".

Concerning the so-called "Second Coming" of Christ (which is really not the second, but many)

Cayce sometimes interpreted it to be an internal spiritual and psychic event within the individual

(see Cayce on the Book of Revelation). On other occasions, Cayce interpreted it to be an actual

return of Jesus Christ in physical form. When Cayce gave his prophecies about the massive

geological changes predicted to being around 2000 and beyond AD, he stated that:

"These will begin in those periods from '58 to '98 when these will be proclaimed as

the periods when His light will be seen in the clouds" (3976-15).

This reading from Cayce suggests that Jesus will appear in the sky and return to earth in bodily

form. Cayce stated that Jesus will walk the earth again:

"As given, for a thousand years he will walk and talk with men of every clime. Then

in groups, in masses, and then they shall reign of the first resurrection for a

thousand years; for this will be when the changes materially come." (364-8)

Cayce gave the year of the "entrance of the Messiah into this period -1998." (5748-5) He also

mentions that no one knows the exact day of event because it cannot occur "until His enemies -

and the earth - are wholly in subjection to His will, His powers." (57491). So this suggests that

Jesus return will not be a future incarnation in the flesh since Jesus has already transcended the

need to reincarnate.

The Incarnation as Jesus

Two years after Cayce's death in 1945, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in Qumran. This

remarkable archeological discovery revealed a large amount of information about a religious sect

around the time of Jesus referred to as the Essenes and affirmed information provided by Cayce.

The word "Essene" is never used in the Dead Sea Scrolls but most scholars accept that the

Qumran sect was either identical or closely related to the Essenes of the classical authors such

as Josephus and Pliny. According to Cayce, Jesus was an Essene along with Mary and Joseph

who was affiliated with an Essene community based on Mount Carmel which was a continuation

of a "school of the prophets" begun by Elijah, Elisha, Samuel, and Melchizedek. Cayce described

the Essenes as an pious religious community of men and women whose purpose was to prepare

the way for the coming of the Messiah. Archeology does not reveal the meaning behind the word

"Essene" but Cayce mentioned that it means "expectancy." According to Josephus, the Essenes

were known for divination (foretelling the future) which agrees with Cayce's descriptions of them

spending their time recording experiences of "the supernatural or out of the ordinary experiences;

whether in dreams, visions, voices, or what not" (1472-1). Cayce also mentioned that the

Essenes were students of astrology, numerology, and reincarnation.

The Dead Sea Scrolls describe the Essenes as an authoritarian, highly disciplined community

that controlled every facet of member's lives. They had to give all their money and property over

to the community after a year's probation. Their theology stressed a good versus evil duality. It

also describes a conflict between a "Teacher of Righteousness," a "Wicked Priest," and "the

Liar." They separated themselves from the outside world in an anticipated final war between the

sons of light and the sons of darkness. As for the Jesus connection to the Essenes, scholars

believe the idea of Jesus being an Essene does not fit the personality and teachings of Jesus

despite the many interesting similarities between Jesus and the Qumran community. For

example, scholars believe the Essenes wouldn't have approved of Jesus' bending of the moral

standards such as associating himself with prostitutes and tax collectors. It is also believed that

John the Baptist was an Essene because of the similarities between himself and the Essene

community.

According to Cayce, Jesus' mother Mary was chosen by the Essenes at the age of four to begin

intensive spiritual training lasting three years in preparation for the conception of the Messiah.

Her election as the mother of the Messiah occurs during a special ceremony in the temple at

Mount Carmel in which an angel leads her by the hand to the altar. Remarkably, this Cayce

reading agrees with an apocryphal book entitled the Infancy Gospel of James where Mary is

presented to the Lord at the age of three when her father Joachim "set her on the third step of the

altar, and the Lord God gave grace to her ... and she received food from the hand of an angel."

(325) Cayce and the Infancy Gospel of James agree that Joseph was chosen to be Mary's

husband by lot. They also agree that Joseph was much older than Mary. Cayce gives their ages

at the time of their marriage as thirty-six and sixteen, respectively. Cayce and the Infancy Gospel

of James agree that Jesus was born in a cave.

Jesus and Eastern Mysticism

According to Cayce, Jesus was sixteen years old when his education about the ways of the

ancient teachers began. First, he traveled to Egypt where, as an infant, Jesus was taken after his

birth by his parents to flee Herod as the Gospel of Matthew states. After spending time learning in

Egypt, Jesus spent three years in India and finally a year in Persia.

The idea that Jesus had spent his "lost years" wandering Asia did not originate with Cayce. Its

first proponent seems to have been the Russian war correspondent Nicholas Notovitch (1858 -

1916), who described his travels in British India in a book entitled "The Unknown Life of Jesus

Christ" published in 1894. According to his book, Notovitch was told by the "chief lama" of a

monastery that their library contained records of a visit by Jesus in ancient times. The chief lama

finally relented to Notovitch's requests to examine the records. From two large bound volumes

written in Tibetan, Notovitch translated them through his interpreter as "The Life of Saint Issa:

Best of the Sons of Men."

The text begins by summarizing the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, Israel's lapse into sin during

the prophetic period, and the subsequent Roman occupation. But God has mercy on one poor

couple (Mary and Joseph), whom he rewards by giving them a son, Issa (which is the Qu’anic

name for Jesus). All is well until the boy turns thirteen and the parents arrange a marriage for

him. Issa "... left the parental house in secret, departed from Jerusalem, and with the merchants

set out towards Sind, with the object of perfecting himself in the divine word and of studying the

laws of the great Buddhas. [IV. 12- 13]

At fourteen, he encountered the "erring worshippers of Jaine" a reference to Jainism. Then he

spent six years studying the Vedas and learned the art of exorcism and intercessory prayer. Issa

rebuked Brahmin priests for upholding the caste system. Issa also would violate their customs by

giving teachings to the lower castes. He is seen rejecting the authority of the Vedas and Puranas,

denying the Trimurti and the incarnation of Brahma as Vishnu, Shiva, and other gods. It is written

that Issa belittled idolatry and barely escaped India with his life. In Nepal, he grew proficient in

Pali and spent six years studying Buddhist sutras. He condemned human and animal sacrifices,

sun-worship, the dualism of good and evil, and the Zoroastrian priesthood. The Zoroastrian

priests seized him and abandoned him to the wilderness to be devoured by wild beasts but he

escapes anyway.

Jesus the Christ

Cayce made a distinction between Jesus and "the Christ." He said that "Christhood" is the goal

which every human should strive for. Jesus was simply the first evolved human to attain it. Cayce

referred to Jesus as our "elder brother" and "the pattern" for our own spiritual growth. The Bible

states that Christ fulfilled the law and, according to Cayce, so can we. That is the entire purpose

of Jesus' teaching. Cayce wrote:

"The law of God made manifest [that] He becomes the law by manifesting same

before man; and thus - as man, even as you becomes one with the Father" (1158- 12).

Because of Jesus' triumph over "flesh and temptation", Jesus "became the first of those that

overcame death in the body, enabling Him to so illuminate, to so revivify that body as to take it up

again, even when those fluids of the body had been drained away by the nail holes in His hands

and by the spear piercing His side." (1152-1)

In essence, Cayce described the Christ soul as the impelling force and core of truth behind all

religions that teach that "God is One."

"I and my Father are one. Then they took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shown you from my Father; for which of these do you stone me? They

answered him, saying, For a good work we stone you not; but for blasphemy; and because that you, being a man, make yourself God. Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law: I said

'you are gods?" - John 10:30-34, Jesus quoting Psalm 82:6 to defend his teaching that God dwells within all human beings."

Source: Except from" Edgar Cayce on the book of revelation"

Bible Chronicles : Jesus and the Mystic Christianity

Mystic Christianity
Except from the book:Secret Teachings of the Ages
by Manly P. Hall 33 deg mason

THE true story of the life of Jesus of Nazareth has never been unfolded to the world, either in the
accepted Gospels or in the Apocrypha, although a few stray hints may be found in some of the
commentaries written by the ante-Nicene Fathers. The facts concerning His identity and mission are

among the priceless mysteries preserved to this day in the secret vaults beneath the "Houses of the

Brethren." To a few of the Knights Templars, who were initiated into the arcana of the Druses,

Nazarenes, Essenes, Johannites, and other sects still inhabiting the remote and inaccessible fastnesses of 

the Holy Land, part of the strange story was told. The knowledge of the Templars concerning the early 

history of Christianity was undoubtedly one of the main reasons for their persecution and final 

annihilation. The discrepancies in the writings of the early Church Fathers not only are irreconcilable,

but demonstrate beyond question that even during the first five centuries after Christ these learned men 

had for the basis of their writings little more substantial than folklore and hearsay. To the easy believer 

everything is possible and there are no problems. The unemotional person in search of facts, however, is 

confronted by a host of problems with uncertain factors, of which the following are typical: 

According to popular conception, Jesus was crucified during the thirty-third year of His life and in the 

third year of His ministry following His baptism. About A.D. 180, St. Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, one of 

the most eminent of the ante-Nicene theologians, wrote Against Heresies, an attack on the doctrines of 

the Gnostics. In this work Irenæus declared upon the authority of the Apostles themselves that Jesus 

lived to old age. To quote: "They, however, that they may establish their false opinion regarding that 

which is written, 'to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,' maintain that He preached for one year

only, and then suffered in the twelfth month. [In speaking thus], they are forgetful of their own
disadvantage, destroying His whole work, and robbing Him of that age which is both more necessary

and more honourable than any other; that more advanced age, I mean, during which also as a teacher He 

excelled all others. For how could He have had His disciples, if He did not teach? And how could He 

have taught, unless He had reached the age of a Master? For when He came to be baptised, He had not 

yet completed His thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about thirty years of age (for thus Luke, who 

has mentioned His years, has expressed it: 'Now Jesus was, as it were, beginning to be thirty years old,' 

when He came to receive baptism); and, (according to these men,) He preached only one year reckoning 

from His baptism. On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who 

had by no means attained to advanced age. Now, that the first stage of early life embraces thirty years, 

and that this extends onward to the fortieth year, every one will admit; but from the fortieth and fiftieth 

year a man begins to decline towards old age, which Our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office

of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify; those who were conversant in Asia with John,

the disciple of the Lord, (affirming) that John conveyed to them that information. And he remained 

among them up to the time of Trajan. Some of them, moreover, saw not only John, but the other apostles 

also, and heard the very same account from them, and bear testimony as to the'(validity of) the 

statement. Whom then should we rather believe? Whether such men as these, or Ptolemæus, who never 

saw the apostles, and who never even in his dreams attained to the slightest trace of an apostle?"

Commenting on the foregoing passage, Godfrey Higgins remarks that it has fortunately escaped the

hands of those destroyers who have attempted to render the Gospel narratives consistent by deleting all 

such statements. He also notes that the doctrine of the crucifixion was a vexata questio among Christians 

even during the second century. "The evidence of Irenæus," he says, "cannot be touched. On every 

principle of sound criticism, and of the doctrine of probabilities, it is unimpeachable."

It should further be noted that Irenæus prepared this statement to contradict another apparently current in

his time to the effect that the ministry of Jesus lasted but one year. Of all the early Fathers, Irenæus, 

writing within eighty years after the death of St. John the Evangelist, should have had reasonably 

accurate information. If the disciples themselves related that Jesus lived to advanced age in the body, 

why has the mysterious number 33 been arbitrarily chosen to symbolize the duration of His life? Were 

the incidents in the life of Jesus purposely altered so that His actions would fit more closely into the 

pattern established by the numerous Savior-Gods who preceded Him? That these analogies were 

recognized and used as a leverage in converting the Greeks and Romans is evident from a perusal of the 

writings of Justin Martyr, another second-century authority. In his Apology, Justin addresses the pagans 

thus:

"And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union,

and that He, Jesus Christ, Our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into 

heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of 

Jupiter. * * * And if we assert that the Word of God was born of God in a peculiar manner, different 

from ordinary generation, let this, as said above, be no extraordinary thing to you, who say that Mercury 

is the angelic word of God. But if any one objects that He was crucified, in this also He is on a par with 

those reputed sons of Jupiter of yours, who suffered as we have now enumerated."

From this it is evident that the first missionaries of the Christian Church were far more willing to admit

the similarities between their faith and the faiths of the pagans than were their successors in later 

centuries.

In an effort to solve some of the problems arising from any attempt to chronicle accurately the life of

Jesus, it has been suggested that there may have lived in Syria at that time two or more religious teachers 

bearing the name Jesus, Jehoshua or Joshua, and that the lives of these men may have been confused in 

the Gospel stories. In his Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon, Bernard H. Springett, a Masonic author, 

quotes from an early book, the name of which he was not at liberty to disclose because of its connection 

with the ritual of a sect. The last part of his quotation is germane to the subject at hand:

"But Jehovah prospered the seed of the Essenians, in holiness and love, for many generations. Then

came the chief of the angels, according to the commandment of GOD, to raise up an heir to the Voice of 

Jehovah. And, in four generations more, an heir was born, and named Joshua, and he was the child of 

Joseph and Mara, devout worshippers of Jehovah, who stood aloof from all other people save the 

Essenians. And this Joshua, in Nazareth, reestablished Jehovah, and restored many of the lost rites and 

ceremonies. In the thirty-sixth year of his age he was stoned to death in Jerusalem * * *"

THE ROUND TABLE OF KING ARTHUR.
From Jennings' The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries.
According to tradition, Arthur, when a boy of fifteen, was crowned King of Britain, in A.D. 516. Soon after his

ascension to the throne he founded the Order of the Knights of the Round Table at Windsor. Thereafter the 

Knights met annually at Carleon, Winchester, or at Camelot, to celebrate Pentecost. From all parts of Europe 

came the brave and the bold, seeking admission into this noble order of British knighthood. Nobility, virtue, and 

valor were its requirements, and those possessing these qualities to a marked degree were welcomed to King

Arthur's court at Camelot. Having gathered the bravest and noblest Knights of Europe about him, King Arthur

chose twenty-four who excelled all the others in daring and integrity and formed of them his Circle of the Round 

Table. According to legend, each of these Knights was so great in dignity and power that none could occupy a 

more exalted seat than another, so when they gathered at the table to celebrate the anniversary of their foundation

it was necessary to use a round table that all might occupy chairs of equal importance.
While it is probable that the Order of the Round Table had its distinctive rituals and symbols, the knowledge of

them has not survived the ages. Elias Ashmole, in his volume on the Order of the Garter, inserted a double-page 

plate showing the insignia of all the orders of knighthood, the block set aside for the symbol of the Round Table 

being left blank. The chief reason for the loss of the symbolism of the Round Table was the untimely death of 

King Arthur upon the field of Kamblan (A.D. 542) in the forty-first year of his life. While he destroyed his bitter

enemy, Mordred, in this famous battle, it cast him not only his own life but the lives of nearly all his Knights of

the Round Table, who died defending their commander.

Within the last century several books have been published to supplement the meager descriptions in the

Gospels of Jesus and His ministry. In some instances these narratives claim to be founded upon early 

manuscripts recently discovered; in others, upon direct spiritual revelation. Some of these writings are 

highly plausible, while others are incredible. There are persistent rumors that Jesus visited and studied in 

both Greece and India, and that a coin struck in His honor in India during the first century has been 

discovered. Early Christian records are known to exist in Tibet, and the monks of a Buddhist monastery 

in Ceylon still preserve a record which indicates that Jesus sojourned with them and became conversant 

with their philosophy.

Although early Christianity shows every evidence of Oriental influence, this is a subject the modern

church declines to discuss. If it is ever established beyond question that Jesus was an initiate of the 

pagan Greek or Asiatic Mysteries, the effect upon the more conservative members of the Christian faith 

is likely to be cataclysmic. If Jesus was God incarnate, as the solemn councils of the church discovered, 

why is He referred to in the New Testament as "called of God an high prim after the order of 

Melchizedek"? The words "after the order" make Jesus one of a line or order of which there must have 

been others of equal or even superior dignity. If the 

"Melchizedeks" were the divine or priestly rulers of 

the nations of the earth before the inauguration of the system of temporal rulers, then the statements 

attributed to St. Paul would indicate that Jesus either was one of these "philosophic elect" or was 

attempting to reestablish their system of government. It will be remembered that Melchizedek also 

performed the same ceremony of the drinking of wine and the breaking of bread as did Jesus at the Last 

Supper.

George Faber declares the original name of Jesus was Jescua Hammassiah. Godfrey Higgins has
discovered two references, one in the Midrashjoholeth and the other in the Abodazara (early Jewish

commentaries on the Scriptures), to the effect that the surname of Joseph's family was Panther, for in 

both of these works it is stated that a man was healed "in the name of Jesus ben Panther." The name 

Panther establishes a direct connection between Jesus and Bacchus--who was nursed by panthers and is 

sometimes depicted riding either on one of these animals or in a chariot drawn by them. The skin of the 

panther was also sacred in certain of the Egyptian initiatory ceremonials. The monogram IHS, now 

interpreted to mean Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus Savior of Men), is another direct link between the 

Christian and the Bacchic rites. IHS is derived from the Greek UHS, which, as its numerical value (608) 

signifies, is emblematic of the sun and constituted the sacred and concealed name of Bacchus. (See The

Celtic Druids by Godfrey Higgins.) The question arises, Was early Roman Christianity confused with 

the worship of Bacchus because of the numerous parallelisms in the two faiths? If the affirmative can be

proved, many hitherto incomprehensible enigmas of the New Testament will be solved.
It is by no means improbable that Jesus Himself originally propounded as allegories the cosmic activities

which were later con fused with His own life. That the Crist•V, Christos, represents the solar power 

reverenced by every nation of antiquity cannot be controverted. If Jesus revealed the nature and purpose 

of this solar power under the name and personality of Christos, thereby giving to this abstract power the 

attributes of a god-man, He but followed a precedent set by all previous World-Teachers. This god-man, 

thus endowed with all the qualities of Deity, signifies the latent divinity in every man. Mortal man 

achieves deification only through at-one-ment with this divine Self. Union with the immortal Self 

constitutes immortality, and he who finds his true Self is therefore "saved." This Christos, or divine man 

in man, is man's real hope of salvation--the living Mediator between abstract Deity and mortal 

humankind. As Atys, Adonis, Bacchus, and Orpheus in all likelihood were originally illumined men 

who later were confused with the symbolic personages whom they created as personifications of this 

divine power, so Jesus has been confused with the Christos, or god-man, whose wonders He preached.

Since the Christos was the god-man imprisoned in every creature, it was the first duty of the initiate to

liberate, or "resurrect, " this Eternal One within himself. He who attained reunion with his Christos was 

consequently termed a Christian, or Christened, man.

One of the most profound doctrines of the pagan philosophers concerned the Universal Savior-God who

lifted the souls of regenerated men to heaven through His own nature. This concept was unquestionably 

the inspiration for the words attributed to Jesus: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh 

unto the Father but by me." In an effort to make a single person out of Jesus and His Christos, Christian 

writers have patched together a doctrine which must be resolved back into its original constituents if the 

true meaning of Christianity is to be rediscovered. In the Gospel narratives the Christos represents the 

perfect man who, having passed through the various stages of the "World Mystery" symbolized by the 

thirty-three years, ascends to the heaven sphere where he is reunited with his Eternal Father. The story of 

Jesus as now preserved is--like the Masonic story of Hiram Abiff--part of a secret initiatory ritualism

belonging to the early Christian and pagan Mysteries.

During the centuries just prior to the Christian Era, the secrets of the pagan Mysteries had gradually

fallen into the hands of the profane. To the student of comparative religion it is evident that these 

secrets, gathered by a small group of faithful philosophers and mystics, were reclothed in new 

symbolical garments and thus preserved for several centuries under the name of Mystic Christianity. It is 

generally supposed that the Essenes were the custodians of this knowledge and also the initiators and 

educators of Jesus. If so, Jesus was undoubtedly initiated in the same temple of Melchizedek where 

Pythagoras had studied six centuries before.

The Essenes--the most prominent of the early Syrian sects--were an order of pious men and women who

lived lives of asceticism, spending their days in simple labor and their evenings in prayer. Josephus, the 

great Jewish historian, speaks of them in the highest terms. "They teach the immortality of the soul," he 

says, "and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for." In another place he 

adds, "Yet is their course of life better than that of other men and they entirely addict themselves to 

husbandry. " The name Essenes is supposed to be derived from an ancient Syrian word meaning 

"physician," and these kindly folk are believed to have held as their purpose of existence the healing of 

the sick in mind, soul, and body. According to Edouard Schuré, they had two principal communities, or

centers, one in Egypt on the banks of Lake Maoris, the other in Palestine at Engaddi, near the Dead Sea.
Some authorities trace the Essenes back to the schools of Samuel the Prophet, but most agree on either

an Egyptian or Oriental origin. Their methods of prayer, meditation, and fasting were not unlike those of 

the holy men of the Far East. Membership in the Essene Order was possible only after a year of 

probation. This Mystery school, like so many others, had three degrees, and only a few candidates 

passed successfully through all. The Essenes were divided into two distinct communities, one consisting 

of celibates and the other of members who were married.

The Essenes never became merchants or entered into the commercial life of cities, but maintained
themselves by agriculture and the raising of sheep for wool; also by such crafts as pottery and carpentry.

In the Gospels and Apocrypha, Joseph, the father of Jesus, is referred to as both a carpenter and a potter.

In the Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas and also that of Pseudo-Matthew, the child Jesus is described as 

making sparrows out of clay which came to life and flew away when he clapped his hands. The Essenes 

were regarded as among the better educated class of Jews and there are accounts of their having been 

chosen as tutors for the children of Roman officers stationed in Syria. The fact that so many artificers 

were listed among their number is responsible for the order's being considered as a progenitor of modern 

Freemasonry. The symbols of the Essenes include a number of builders' tools, and they were secretly 

engaged.