Esoteric Christianity, by Annie Besant

Reading Schedule

Overview

Ch. 1: The Hidden Side of Religions (1–23)

Ch. 2: The Hidden Side of Christianity (24–46)

Ch. 3: The Hidden Side of Christianity (47–81)

Ch. 4: The Historical Christ (82–98)

Ch. 5: The Mythic Christ (99–115)

Ch. 6: The Mystic Christ (116–131)

Ch. 7: The Atonement (132–157)

Ch. 8: Resurrection and Ascension (158–172)

Ch. 9: The Trinity (173–188)

Ch. 10: Prayer (189–205)

Ch. 11: The Forgiveness of Sins (206–221)

Ch. 12/13: Sacraments (222–250)

Ch. 14: Revelation (251–263)

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 CHRONOLOGY: Annie Besant, 1847–1933

THE ORTHODOX, LITERALIST CHRISTIAN

1847, October 1: born Annie Wood in London raised by a widowed mother, dreams of being
a Christian martyr
1867 (aet. 20): married Frank Besant, Church of England clergyman
THE DOUBTER
becomes skeptical of Church teachings
agonizes over child’s sickness
1873 (aet.26): separated from her husband
THE ATHEIST
1874 (aet. 27): met atheist and freethinker Charles Bradlaugh, leader of National Secular
Society writes for the National Reformer
1875 (aet. 28): becomes VP of National Secular Society lectures on the political rights of
women
1876 (aet. 29): with Bradlaugh founds the Freethought Publishing Company and becomes
coeditor of the National Reformer published Charles Knowlton’s The Fruits of
Philosophy
1877 (aet. 30): she and Bradlaugh arrested and tried for publishing obscene literature;
convicted of corrupting morals; overturned on a technicality; Besant recognized as one
of England’s finest orators and advocates for women’s rights
1878 (aet. 31): divorced by Frank Besant
THЕ SOCIALIST
1880s: enters circle of George Bernard Shaw, becomes a socialist, breaks with Bradlaugh
1887 (aet. 40): resigns as co-editor of National Reformer and joins Shaw’s Fabian Society
1888 (aet. 41): champions strike of the matchgirls; first woman accepted at the
University of London; given a copy of The Secret Doctrine to review
THE THEOSOPHIST
1889, May 10 (aet. 42): joins the Theosophical Society, becomes an associate of HPB’s,
• August 4 and 8: lectures at the Hall of Science, London, on “We Seek for
Truth” and “Why I Became a Theosophist”
1890, January 2 (aet. 43): elected President of Blavatksy Lodge
• August 16: put in charge of the Working Women’s Club, East End, founded by
HPB 1891, August 30 (aet. 44): gives farewell address at Hall of Science to
Secularists, who had refused to hear her speak further on Theosophy
1893 (aet. 46): visited India for the first time; toured U.S. and starred at World’s Parliament
of Religions
THE ESOTERIC CHRISTIAN
1896 (aet. 49): delivers lectures at the 21St anniversary of the Theosophical Society at
Adyar on “Four Great Religions” (Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity)
1901 (aet. 54): publishes Esoteric Christianity: Or, The Lesser Mysteries
1907 (aet. 60): succeeded Olcott as second international President
1908 (aet. 61): accepted Jiddu Krishnamurti as the future vehicle for the World Teacher
1909 (aet. 62): founded the Order of the Star in the East
1922 (aet. 75): publication of a book of sermons: Theosophical Christianity.
1933, September 21 (aet. 86): dies

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 Esoteric Christianity — The Hidden Side of Religions

Great philosophy molds the mind; great science gives the light of
knowledge to the world. But religion which teaches us our duty, which
inspires us with strength to accomplish it, is greater. Greatest of all is that
knowledge of the human soul which makes daily service the path of
progress and finds in the lowest work the steps that lead to the highest
achievement. (AB, “The Supreme Duty”)

Why must there be a hidden side to a religion if it is to be strong and stable?

What is the object or purpose of religions?

Why do all individuals in the “rising gradient” of evolution require teachings appropriate to
their level?

In what way do religions seek to “quicken human evolution?”

How do religions “stimulate the unfoldment of the spiritual nature?”

How do religions provide answers to “Where have I come from?” — “Who am I?” — and
“Where am I going?”

Why is the “proper ending” the “union of the human Spirit with the divine?”

What is the source of religions according to the comparative mythologists?

What is the source of religions according to the comparative religionists?

To what people were religions given?

Why can we not have “the same religious teaching” for the whole world?

Why should teachings about “hidden processes” and “control over natural energies” be
limited to a select group?

“Has this hidden side existed in the past, forming a part of the religions of the world?” Why

was “theurgy” practiced in the “Higher Mysteries” of some Neo-Platonists?

How does “ecstasy” as a state of the soul, allow the ecstatic to perceive what was previously
hidden?

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Levels of interpretation: literal, typological, allegorical (moral), anagogical (mystical,
spiritual)

Mystery = not something learned, but something experienced as transforming

And he spoke many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow:
And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them
up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung
up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched: and
because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns: and the thorns
sprung up, and choked them: but other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an
hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And the
disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he
answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. (Mt 13.3–1 1)

And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they
might not see, and hearing they might not understand. (Lk 8.9–10)

And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of god: but
unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see,
and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should
be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. And he said unto them, Know ye not
this parable? and how then will ye know all parables? (Mk 4.10–13)

Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor
of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a
mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. (1
Cor 2.6–7)

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of
God. (1 Cor 4.1)

Behold a shew you a mystery: We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed. In a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Cor 15.51–52)

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man
leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Eph 5.30–32)

. . . the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is
given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God: Even the mystery which hath been hid from
ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. (Col 1.24–26)

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 Alternative Traditions

Gnosticism, rooted in Jewish and perhaps Zoroastrian traditions, developed as a Christian

heresy: existence of an esoteric teaching within Christianity; distinction between a
remote supreme Divine being and the Demiurge, creator of the material world; gnosis as
a means of redemption for the pneumatikoi ‘spiritual ones’; Jesus as emissary of the
supreme God in “docetic” or illusory form; sometimes philosophical and moral dualism,
and an elaborate mythology.
Marcion (ca. 160)
Valentinus (ca. 140)
Basilides (2 c.)
Nag Hammadi library (4 c.): Gospel of Truth, Apocalypse of Adam, Gospel of Thomas,
Trimorphic Protennoia
Mani (216 – ca. 274), “Apostle of Light,” “Illuminator,” Iranian dualist, religion of
Manichaeism spread from Spain and France to China, St. Augustine a convert in his
youth, ecumenical and universal religion adapting locally to Christianity, Buddhism,
Taoism, etc. Salvation is by knowledge of our unity with transcendent reality.
Community: ascetic “elect” and general “hearers.”
Paulicians (7–9 c.), dualistic Christian sect in Armenia, a Christianized Manichaeism,
rejecting OT and epistles of Peter as well as sacraments and hierarchy of the established
Church, accepting epistles of Paul
Bogomils (10–15 c.), Bulgarian fusion of Manichaeism and Bulgarian Orthodoxy, dualistic,
ascetic.
Cathars; Albigensians (12–13 c.), South of France, moral dualists; two groups: the “believers”
and the “perfect,” who were initiated by the ceremony of the “consolamentum”

St. Clement of Alexandria (ca 150 – ca. 211–5), head of the School of Alexandria, a
Hellenizing opponent of the Gnostics, regarded Greek philosophy as comparable to the
Mosaic Law as leading to the truth of the Logos, held gnosis to be the chief element in
perfection. (removed from Roman list of saints in 1586 as heretically inclined)
Origen (ca. 185 – ca. 254), student of and successor to Clement, having studied earlier under
Ammonius Saccas. Taught goodness of God and the freedom and perfectability of all
creatures; even Satan will be saved; reincarnation, continuous creation, continuous
spiritual evolution; Christ divine, but in a lesser sense than the Father. Distinguished two
kinds of Christians: simple and perfect. Interpreted scripture allegorically, with a plain
sense accessible to all and a spiritual sense known only to the “perfect.” Condemned by
2nd council of Constantinople. (553).
Neoplatonism: theosophia. Relates the One to the many by a hierarchy of being, beginning
with the One, Intelligence (nous), and the World Soul (psyche).
Ammonius Saccas, founder of Neoplatonism
Plotinus (ca. 205 – 270), his six Enneads are the major work of the movement
Porphyry (ca. 232 – ca. 303), anti-Christian, biographer and editor of his teacher
Plotinus Iamblicus (d. 326)
Proclus (ca. 410 – 485), expounder of theurgy, the use of correspondences to ascend to
the One knowledge of God and the universe is always incomplete, the learned man is
one who knows his own ignorance, the search for truth is squaring the circle.

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Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535), soldier, physician, alchemist,
astrologer, magician, author of De occulta philosophia (1531), the subject of popular
legends
Paracelsus, byname of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493–
1541), German-Swiss physician and alchemist, known for pioneering work in
chemotherapy anticipating homeopathy. Trained in the universities of his day, he also
sought out folk wisdom in medicine, wandering over Europe and the Near East to
discover it. He wrote: “He who is born in imagination discovers the latent forces of
Nature”; his medical theory stressed the healing power of nature. His adopted name,
“Para-Celsus” implies “beyond Celsus,” the most famous Roman physician.
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600), Renaissance Hermeticist and pantheist, author of De l’infinito
universo et mondi.
Jakob Boehme (1575–1624), Protestant philosophical mystic: “in yes and no all things
consist.” Influenced by Paracelsus and alchemy. At odds with church authority.

St. Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582), Carmelite reformer, author of spiritual classics such as The
Way of Perfection (1583) and The Interior Castle (1588).
St. John of the Cross (1542–1591), mystic and poet, supporter of St. Teresa, Carmelite
reformer and co-founder of the Discalced Carmelites, described the steps of mystical
ascent in poetic terms.
St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622), author of Introduction to a Devout Life (1609), presenting
spiritual perfection as possible for those involved with worldly affairs, not just for those
who withdraw.

Rosicrucians. Fama Fraternitatis (1614) purports to be a message from adepts to people of

learning as a call to moral renewal and perfection, recounts the legend of Christian
Rosencreutz. Confessio (1615) offers initiation to selected applicants. Chemical Nuptials
of Christian Rosencreutz (1616) is another and contradictory biographical account.
Probable author: Johann Valentin Andrae (1586–1654), Lutheran pastor.
Cambridge Platonists (fl. 1633–1688), Anglican philosophical theologians mediating the
extremes of Puritanism and High Church Anglicanism, judging revelation by reason:
Robert Fludd (1574–1637), alchemist and physician
Henry More (1614–1687)
Thomas Vaughan (1622–1666, penname Eugenius Philalethes), alchemist and poet,
follower of Cornelius Agrippa, translated Fama and Confessio.

Miguel de Molinos (1628–1696), Spanish priest and advocate of quietism condemned as a

heretic.
Mme. de Guyon (1648–1717), mystic advocate of quietism and teacher of the Abbé de
Fénelon.
Quietism is the doctrine that perfection comes by stilling the perturbations of the mind.
François Fénelon (1651–1715), spiritual director emphasizing disinterested love and
passive contemplation.
William Law (1686–1781), devotional writer at Cambridge, influenced by Boehme, his
spiritual guidebook, A Serious Call to an Devout and Holy Life, was influential on
evangelicals like the Wesleys.

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 THE HISTORICAL CHRIST

1. Christology (inner reality; confessional Jesus Christ)

personhood: Jesus, Christ

Nestorianism: two persons
one person

nature: human, divine

Arianism: Christ is an angelic being, neither human nor divine
Adoptionism: Christ was a human who was divinized
Apollinarius (ca. 310 – ca. 390): human body & soul, but divine spirit
Eutyches (ca. 378 – 454): one nature, divine
Docetism: Christ’s seeming human nature and suffering were illusions
Monophysites: one nature, wholly divine or blending human and divine
Diophysites: two natures in one person (Orthodox)

2. Jesus of history (personality; scriptural Jesus)

Approaches to the question

Albert Schweitzer (1875 –1965), The Quest for the Historical Jesus
(1910) Jesus Seminar: historical scholars and form critics (1953-)

Opinions about the question

itinerant rabbi, teacher of Wisdom
Jewish Messiah, political leader
Stoic philosopher, Hellenized teacher of morals
(Christ of faith: Redeemer)

3. Theosophical tradition

Jesus, an initiated disciple who served as the vehicle for the World Teacher
Christ, the World Teacher, the Bodhisattva, a being evolved beyond the human
stage who serves the world, an avatar or incarnation of divine (i.e.,
superhuman) life

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 THE MYTHIC CHRIST

“A myth is far truer than a history, for a history only gives a story of the shadows, whereas a
myth gives a story of the substances that cast the shadows.” (Annie Besant)
Krishna was the eighth incarnation (avatar) of the god Vishnu, the second person of the Hindu
Trinity (trimurti “three forms”). He was born to Vasudeva and his wife Devaki, whose brother
was the wicked king of Mathura, Kamsa. Kamsa had heard a prophesy that his sister’s eighth
child would be his downfall, so he imprisoned Vasudeva and Devaki, but when Krishna was
born, he was magically smuggled out of the prison and taken across the Jamuna river to
another country, where he was raised by the cowherds. As a child, Krishna engaged in many
mischievous pranks, performed marvels, and slew demons. As a youth, he was the darling of
the cowmaids, for whom he played his flute and with whom he sported in the forests,
multiplying himself magically so each cowmaid could dance with him simultaneously. When
they came of age, Krishna and his brother Balarama returned to Mathura, slew the wicked
Kamsa, and liberated the people. In the Mahabharata, Krishna is the charioteer and instructor
of Prince Arjuna.
Siddhartha Gotama was an incarnation of the Buddha nature, which has three modes of being
(trikaya “three bodies”). His mother, Mahamaya, the wife of Siddhodna, King of the Shakyas,
dreamed that a beautiful white elephant with six tusks entered her womb through her side.
The seers who interpreted the dream said that her son would become either a universal
monarch or a buddha, an enlightened one. Siddhartha led a life of sheltered luxury, which
ended when he took four excursions outside the palace compound, during which he saw an
old man, a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic, from whom he learned that all grow old, ill, and
die, only to be reborn, but that some look for a way out of the cycle of death and birth. He left
the palace and, after the unsuccessful practice of asceticism, sat in meditation under the
Bo(dhi) tree until he attained enlightenment discovering the Four Noble Truths and the
Middle Way.
Mithra, called Petrogenes “born of a rock,” was the god of light and of compacts (or
covenants), also called “the Mediator.” In Vedic myth, he is one of three Adityas (“boundless
ones”), the maintainer of social order, along with Varuna (maintainer of cosmic order) and
Aryaman. The story of Mithra is unknown but has been reconstructed as including these
elements: The sun god sent his messenger, the raven, to Mithra with orders to sacrifice the
holy white bull. Reluctantly, Mithra obeys the order, and as he does so, the bull is transformed
into the Moon, Mithra’s cloak is transformed into the sky and stars, and from the body of the
bull spring all living things. That sacrifice was both the creation of the world and the salvation
of Mithra’s initiates by shedding eternal blood. After the sacrifice, Mithra and the sun god
banquet together and then depart in the sun god’s chariot to cross the ocean to the end of the
world. His cultus included meeting in caves, a communal meal of bread and wine, a
celebration of his birth on December 25, and seven grades of initiation each associated with a
planet: Raven (Mercury), Bride (Venus), Soldier (Mars), Lion (Jupiter), Persian (Moon),
Runner of the Sun (Sun), and Father (Saturn).
Osiris was the god of fertility who was slain through drowning by his wicked brother Seth,
who divided Osiris’s body into fourteen parts and scattered them over the earth. The parts
were collected by Osiris’s wife, Isis, and her sister Nephthys, thus resurrecting Osiris, who
became the father of Homs, whose eyes were the sun and the moon.

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Having answered the question “Who was Christ?” (historic, mythic, mystic), the next
question is “Why was Christ?” Its answer is the atonement.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate: atonement = “the reconciliation of God and
manthrough the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.”
Latin: piaculum “a means of expiating sin, of doing away with the consequences of
sin” <pius Italian: espiazione; Spanish: expiación; French: expiation
Hebrew: kippūr “purge, cleanse, purify” (Yom Kippur) <kappēr “cover up, cloak”
<at + one; OED: “The condition of being at one with others; unity of feeling,
harmony, concord, agreement.” 1513 Thomas More “Having more regarde to
their olde variaunce then their newe attonement.”
Christian doctrine: 1526 Tindale 2Cor 5.18 “God. . . hath geven unto us the office to
preache the atonement.” (Vulgate: reconciliatio)
King James “God . . . hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” (reconcile <“to
bring back into the group of those called together”)

Theories:
Victory over evil (classical; Christus Victor) theory (Irenaeus, ca. 130 – ca. 200): The
devil had humanity in his power because of original sin. Christ ransomed
humanity by taking our place and giving himself to the devil. But Christ cheated
the devil by his Resurrection. Satisfaction theory (Anselm, 1033 – 1109): Human
sin dishonored God, to whom satisfaction is therefore due. But God is infinite,
and humans are finite, so we can never pay the required satisfaction. Therefore
God became man in Christ to satisfy the debt. Demonstrative theory (Abelard,
1079 – 1142): Christ’s death was a demonstration of God’s love, which elicits
human repentance and love.
Penal substitution theory (Calvin, 1509 – 1564): Christ’s death propitiated God’s anger
at human sin by bearing the penalty for it. Cf. God’s commanding Abraham to
substitute a ram for his son Isaac.
Identifιcation theory: The atonement becomes effective when the individual, by faith,
identifies himself with Christ’s sacrificial death.

Sacrifice <Latin sneer “holy” + facere “to make”

Holy: whole: healthy save, salvation <salvare “to make safe, healthy, whole”

expiation of a fault or sin do ut des (bribery)

propitiation of an angry deity
apotropaic (averting evil)
purgation
thanksgiving
substitutionary (bait & switch)
commensal (mutual benefit)
maintenance of cosmic order (Hindu)
celebration
sublimation (of violence in a community)
catharsis
social bonding (potlatch)
linking sacred and profane worlds

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Avatar: “Whenever there is decay of order (dharma) and there is exaltation of disorder
(adharma), then I myself come forth. For the protection of the good, for the destruction
of evil doers, for the sake of firmly establishing order (dharma), I am born from age to
age. (Gita 4.7–8)

We believe neither in vicarious atonement, nor in the possibility of the remission of

the smallest sin by any god, not even by a “personal Absolute” or “Infinite “ if such a
thing could have any existence. What we believe in, is strict and impartial justice. Our
idea of the unknown Universal Deity, represented by Karma, is that it is a Power
which cannot fail, and can, therefore, have neither wrath nor mercy, only absolute
Equity, which leaves every cause, great or small, to work out its inevitable effects. The
saying of Jesus: “With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again”
(Matth. vii., 2), neither by expression nor implication points to any hope of future
mercy or salvation by proxy. —H. P. Blavatsky, Key to Theosophy, 199–200

Let not the fruit of good Karma be your motive; for your Karma, good or bad,
being one and the common property of all mankind, nothing good or bad can happen
to you that is not shared by many others. Hence your motive, being selfish, can only
generate a double effect, good and bad, and will either nullify your good action, or turn
it to another man’s profit. * * “There is no happiness for one who is ever thinking of
Self and forgetting all other Selves.
The Universe groans under the weight of such action (Karma), and none other
than self-sacrificial Karma relieves it. * How many of you have helped humanity to
carry its smallest burden, that you should all regard yourselves as Theosophists. Oh,
men of the West, who would play at being the Saviors of mankind before they even
spare the life of a mosquito whose sting threatens them!, would you be partakers of
Divine Wisdom or true Theosophists? Then do as the gods when incarnated do. Feel
yourselves the vehicles of the whole humanity, mankind as part of yourselves, and act
accordingly.
—from letters of the Masters, quoted by HPB
in her 1889 letter to the third annual
convention of the American Section

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 Esoteric Christianity — Resurrection and Ascension

In what way do religions seek to quicken human evolution? Religions

seek to evolve the moral and intellectual natures, and to aid the
spiritual nature to unfold itself. (Chapter 1)
Will the Churches of today again take up the mystic teaching, the
Lesser Mysteries, and so prepare their children for the re-
establishment of the Greater Mysteries, again drawing down the
Angels as Teachers, and having as Hierophant the Divine Master,
Jesus? On the answer to that question depends the future of
Christianity. (Chapter 3)
A myth is far truer than a history, for a history only gives a story of
the shadows, whereas a myth gives a story of the substances that cast
the shadows. (Chapter 5)

Spiritual Body Fine Film of Subtle Matter: Interpenetrating of Unity

Bliss/Resurrection Body/Vesture of Glory

Natural Body Mental Body

Desire Body
Etheric Body
Physical Body

. . . . and we begin to understand the full truth of the apostolic teaching that
Christ was not a unique personality, but “the first fruits of them that slept,” and
that every man was to become a Christ. Not then was the Christ regarded as an
external Saviour, by whose imputed righteousness men were to be saved from
divine wrath. There was current in the Church the glorious and inspiring
teaching that He was but the first fruits of humanity, the model that every man
should reproduce in himself, the life that all should share. The Initiates have
ever been regarded as these first fruits, the promise of a race made perfect. To
the early Christian, Christ was the living symbol of his own divinity, the
glorious fruit of the seed he bore in his own heart. Not to be saved by an external
Christ, but to be glorified into an inner Christ, was the teaching of esoteric
Christianity, of the Lesser Mysteries. The stage of discipleship was to pass into
that of Sonship. The life of the Son was to be lived among men till it was closed
by the Resurrection, and the glorified Christ became one of the perfected
Saviours of the world. (Chapter 8)

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Prayer:
Besant identifies three types: Styles:
A. Petition for material things vocal prayer
B. Petition for spiritual things mental prayer
C. Communion with the divine quiet prayer
Four dimensions: Techniques:
Speaking to God liturgy
Listening to God (meditation) mantras: rosary, litanies, Jesus prayer
Attention to God (contemplation) spontaneous
Communion with others (group
prayer, intercession) Goals:
latria (devotion to God)
Forms: semilatria (veneration of objects
adoration associated directly with God, e.g.
thanksgiving the Cross)
praise hyperdulia (devotion to Mary)
confession dulia (devotion to the saints and
petition angels)
intercession
unitative

HPB on Prayer (from Key to Theosophy):

Meditation is silent and unuttered prayer, or, as Plato expressed it, “the ardent turning of the
soul toward the divine; not to ask any particular good (as in the common meaning of prayer),
but for good itself — for the universal Supreme Good” of which we are a part on earth, and
out of the essence of which we have all emerged.
ENQ. Is there any other kind of prayer?
THEO. Most decidedly; we call it WILL-PRAYER, and it is rather an internal command than
a petition.
ENQ. To whom, then, do you pray when you do so?
THE0. To “our Father in heaven” — in its esoteric meaning.
ENQ. Is that different from the one given to it in theology?
THEO. Entirely so. An Occultist or a Theosophist addresses his prayer to his Father which is
in secret (read, and try to understand, ch. vi. v. 6, Matthew), not to an extra-cosmic
and therefore finite God; and that “Father” is in man himself. . . .
Let no Theosophist, if he would hold to divine, not human truth, say that this
“God in secret” listens to, or is distinct from, either finite man or the infinite essence
— for all are one. Nor, as just remarked, that a prayer is a petition. It is a mystery
rather; an occult process by which finite and conditioned thoughts and desires, unable
to be assimilated by the absolute spirit which is unconditioned, are translated into
spiritual wills and the will; such process being called “spiritual transmutation.” The
intensity of our ardent aspirations changes prayer into the “philosopher’s stone,” or
that which transmutes lead into pure gold. The only homogeneous essence, our “will-
prayer” becomes the active or creative force, producing effects according to our
desire.

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Sacraments / Ordinances

Latin sacramentum “oath of (military) allegiance”

Greek mystērion “mystery” (an invisible reality or sacred rite such as practiced in the
Mysteries)

Book of Common Prayer: “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual
grace.” Perennial Dictionary of World Religions: “ritual acts which both express
and bring about a spiritual reality”
Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions: “religious sign or symbol . . . in
which a sacred or spiritual power is believed to be transmitted through material
elements viewed as channels of divine grace.”

Cf. Rites of passage, rites of spring, harvest feasts, weather rituals, etc.

Baptism
Confirmation (Chrismation)
Penance (Confession, Rite of Reconciliation)
Eucharist (Lord’s Supper, Mass, Blessed Sacrament, Sacrament of the Altar) Holy
Matrimony
Holy Orders (Ordination)
Extreme Unction (Anointing of the Sick)

foot-washing (Maundy Thursday)

exorcism

Sacramentals: rosary, medals, vestments, altar lights, holy water, ashes, oil, grace at
meals, angelus, litanies, stations of the cross, sign of the cross, etc.

To be valid, a sacrament must have the correct matter (things required), form (way of
using them), and intention (of doing what the sacrament is supposed to do).

To be efficacious, the recipient must be in the proper state to receive the sacramental
grace.

Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders are indelible and cannot be repeated.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are dominical sacraments.

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