By James Pryse, “The Apocalypse Unsealed” & “The Restored New Testament”Initiation of jesus

The initiation of Anointed Iesous (Jesus), which the God conferred on him to make known to his slaves the (perfections) which must be attained speedily. He sent his Divinity and by him symbolized (them) to his slave Ioannes, who gave evidence of Anointed Iesous – of all the (visions) that he saw.

COMMENTARY:

In the Greek Mysteries, which were also called the “perfecting” or “finishing” rites, the candidates for initiation, after receiving some preparatory training in semi-exoteric lesser rites, were termed MYSTAI (*all italicized words will be capitalized) “veiled ones”, while the Initiates were called EPOPTAI, “those having super-sight” – or seers. The word APOKALYPSIS, “unveiling”, is clearly a substitute for EPOPTEIA, “initiation into seership.”

That Ioannes could not possibly have intended the title of his occult treatise to convey the meaning of “revelation” is evident from the nature of the work, which is not only profoundly esoteric and couched in the mystery-language of the zodiac, but also has its meaning so impregnably intrenched behind symbolism, allegory, anagram, number-words, and other puzzling devices, that it has successfully withstood the assaults of “those without” (the exotericists) for nearly two millenniums.

Its subtitle also, by the word “symbolized” (esemanen), likewise indicates that it was not written as light literature for the profane (any persons that were considered “outside the Temple” by the Initiates). True, the “authorized” translators render the verb “signified”; yet with bland inconsistency they ascribe the sense of “miracle” to the substantive SEMEION, which properly means a “symbol”, or a “sign”, as a constellation or sign of the zodiac.

The title makes Ioannes the one to be initiated (unless it is taken as merely indicating his authorship, which in the light of the text is hardly a reasonable supposition), while the sub-title gives Iesous as the candidate for initiation who emerges as the Conqueror after the telestic ordeals; for here, as in the fourth Evangel, Ioannes and Iesous are but one individuality, Ioannes representing the incarnated man, and Iesous his noetic Sel, whose “slave” the material man truly must become if he wills to reach the heights celestial.

The Divinity who comes at the behest of Iesous is higher than Iesous himself; for he is the Logos, who in the initial vision makes his appearance as the “son of man,” and remains throughout as the Hierophant, or Initiator, while Iesous is the candidate who is subjected to the initiatory trials and has to do the perfecting “works”, whereby he finally becomes the Conqueror on the white horse – the new Initiate in his solar body. T

he spiritual perfections have to be attained “speedily” by sustained, unremitting effort; yet, as time is regarded by those who look upon earth-life as an affair of but one incarnation, the telestic work would seem by no means expeditious; for it requires not less than seven incarnations of untiring effort before the final goal is reached. But the “path” of the esotericist is indeed a short-cut, and his a speedy journey, as compared with the progress of those who are content to follow the common highway of evolution, and who will reach their divine destination, their promised land, only after long ages of aimless wandering in the wilderness of terrestrial life.

It is the intuitive mind – “Anointed Iesous” – that gives evidence of the Logos to the neophyte, and he in turn must, according to the law of the occult, transmit it to his fellow-man – who usually repay him with some form of physical or mental martyrdom.

CHAPTER 1. VERSE 3

Immortal is he who discerns, and they who learn (from him), the arcane doctrines of this Teaching, and observe the (precepts) which are written in it; for (their) season is near.

COMMENTARY

This is a dedication of the book to every mystic who may succeed in penetrating to its inner meaning, and impart to other students the occult doctrines (LOGOI) it contains. For the “Logoi (oracles) of the Lord” are esoteric aphorisms having in them the potency of the Divine Thought, and are not mere “words” comprehensible to the conventionalist. Likewise, PROPHETEIA is not merely “prophecy” in the fortune-telling sense of predicting future events; the word means literally “speaking for” (the Gods); the office of the seer being to receive and interpret the truths taught in the noetic world, the realm of the Logos. The writings of Ezekiel, Zechariah, and the other Hebrew “prophets”, are esoteric treatises on the nature of man, thinly disguised as predictions. In them, nations and personages play the parts that in the APOCALYPSE are acted by the heavenly bodies.

The word MAKARIOS means much more than simply “blessed”. It connotes the state of the immortal Gods (emancipated souls), as expressed by the Sanskrit term SACHCHIDANANDA, “true being, consciousness and bliss.” To the man or woman who resolutely pursues the path of purity and devotion, there will come unfailingly this consciousness of immortality and spiritual calm; it is but a matter of centering the mind upon the deathless inner Self instead of upon the outer self that is under the sway of alternating death and birth. This mental reverting is the METANOIA of the NEW TESTAMENT, not merely “repentance”, but “changing the mind” from the mortal to the immortal mode of thought.

SOURCE: THE INITIATION OF IOANNES (JOHN) An Esoteric Interpretation of the Book of Revelations by James Pryse, “The Apocalypse Unsealed” & “The Restored New Testament”

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