I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to ponder over the nature of Jesus when left to my own devices. In fact, I probably think about Jesus a lot more than any non-christian really should. More than most schizophrenics even.
However, I feel I really must clarify what I mean when I talk about 'Jesus'.
I'm not LITERALLY referring to that guy from the New Testament with the beard, hair and sandals, and I don't believe that 'he' was the LITERAL son of God. Not for ONE minute. I'm not even sure that I believe that 'he' was an actual living figure from history, per se. SO what DO I mean?
Well, I think - or more correctly, FEEL - that the life and figure of Jesus Christ as laid out in the Bible are actually a way of discussing the human condition and the nature of OUR relationship with what is known as 'God' (which is in ITSELF a term that refers to something OTHER, a convenient name given in order to codify and simplify something into a form that can be more easily digested by our linear brains) in a veiled and abstracted way.
It occurred to me some time ago that the crucifixion can also function as a way of desribing the pain and trauma that comes with descending from a spiritual existence, into a physical, fleshly one. This also ties in with the multiple references to 'The Fall' throughout christianity - theres the 'original' fall of man into sin, and Satan/Lucifer's fall. I think that both of those are attempts to describe the same thing as the crucifixion - the 'imprisonment' of a being of SPIRIT in a body of dull, barely sensitive FLESH. The nailing of Christ to the cross echoes the feeling of being imprisoned in the fleshy suit of armour that IS the human body. To descend from the boundless freedom of life as a spirit, into the restrictive, sluggish leaden existence of 'life' as WE know it MUST feel exactly like having cold iron driven through the body and to be tethered to an immovable bulk until death comes.
So, the descent from spirit into flesh of the crucifixion is echoed in the idea of 'the Fall from Gods grace' of humanity, and that of Satan/Lucifer. To 'fall from the grace of god', is to descend from pure spirit into dense, corrupted matter - like a liquid or a gas congealing - downwards from Kether, the 'Godhead', to Malkuth, Earth, on the Qabalistic Tree Of Life. The Tree functions as a perfect glyph to express HOW the 'seed' of 'God' filters down through existence to cohere into matter. THIS process is what is hidden behind the crucifixion and 'The Fall(s) from grace'.
Interestingly, the fall of Satan/Lucifer opens up ANOTHER can of worms in relation to the nature of 'soul' and 'spirit', as there was a belief amongst the gnostics that 'humanity IS 'The Devil' - that when Satan/Lucifer fell from heaven, he shattered into pieces, and those pieces entered into the 'souls' of, then-nascent, humanity - forever tainting them. Now, my own personal theory on this is that the taint of 'evil', or hubris maybe, from this event - whatever it may be a cloak for - manifests most strongly when humans gather together for something. A crowd is generally not very smart en masse, and can turn nasty VERY easily, thus showing the taint of 'evil'. I have other thoughts in this area, but I feel its something for another time, as I've gone off on a tangent already from my original subject.
Jesus. I've established that the story of the crucifixion could serve as veiled way of referring to the pain of the descent from spirit into matter - or pure energy into form, correctly - but what about all this 'son of God' talk? Well, I believe that when Jesus said HE was THE son of God, he meant that, by extension, WE are ALL 'sons' of God - Don't forget that HE is supposed to have made us in His own image - and that Jesus basically functioned as 'paragon' of humanity, he was what WE should ASPIRE to. He was, to quote Alan Moore, the PINNACLE of humanity....and we trampled him down. We, the dull, prisoners of the flesh with our tainted 'souls, destroyed our own paragon.
Clearly there is a deeper meaning there, and an esoteric one too. I choose to read it as a warning that to be 'like' Jesus - spiritual and 'ascended' - is to open yourself up to the hatred and jealousy of those around you (This is ALSO parallelled in the idea that Satan/Lucifer 'fell'/was pushed from heaven due to his pride and jealousy over Gods position AND the respect given to 'man' over 'angel' - ANOTHER digression!), which is something that those who choose to follow the path of magick must beware of - friends and family WILL try to dissuade you from the path. This happened to Jesus also, he was mocked and ridiculed by those i positions of religious authority who felt threatened by his ideas. In many ways, Jesus was a terrorist - something i cannot see going down well with our American friends as a concept - when you think about it; He was in opposition to the ruling powers, he actively spoke out against them, and he was not afraid to physically act for his cause, OR to die for it.
Hehehehe. I can see THAT one going down well....'Jesus was a terrorist'........
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