The Real Jesus

2003-9-7 20:51:00

Glenys brings up an interesting question. She writes:

In May 1999 we briefly discussed DK telling us in Initiation Human and Solar that Jesus took his fifth initiation as Apollonius of Tyana, the problem being that history seems to indicate that they were born at the same time. In fact, some even think that the are one and the same although reports of their early lives would indicate that's not the case.

Clive wrote an email at the time saying:

Dear Glenys, With regard to Master Jesus being Apollonius ; I remember reading some material quite a few years ago that most scholars now agree that Jesus and Apollonius were alive at the same time or at least there is a considerable overlap. I was in the Arcane School (Alice Bailey's thing) at the time I heard this and I phoned them. The man I spoke to said that they now accepted the Tibetan was wrong on this point. I didn't keep the names, dates etc of who said what and when so I can't even tell you who to check for the material on Apollonius. It is also my personal belief from my meditations that this is so. Maybe JJ could ask John for us? He would have a definitive answer.'

You said that you hadn't thought about it but would investigate and get back to us. While I do not wish to hurry you, I wonder if you've had the time to think about this matter during the last few years :-))

JJ:
At the time Clive brought this up I had never heard of this discrepancy before. There are still a number of questions I have that I have not received an answer on. Sometimes I am just given the answer but more often than not I must search intensely for it. The general principle for all of us is this. Find out all you can on your own first. If that does still not yield the answer, continue to place attention on it and search. This will build the point of tension and the answer will eventually come. But to be successful you must be as the little child and look at all things no matter how they differ with what you have been taught.

I have gathered together quit a bit of information on Apollonius, but have just taken the time to go through a portion of it and have not reached a final conclusion.

Here are some of my thoughts on the matter.

There are some mysteries associated with Jesus and the Christ which have not been clearly revealed by the Hierarchy. I think the reason for this is that the orthodox association with the Christ is so strong that they feel the time is not yet right to disturb the waters with strong authority which is associated with true revelation.

That said, here is DK's controversial statement:

"As Appollonius of Tyana, He (Jesus) took the fifth initiation and became a Master of the Wisdom."

Now, the problem here is that most scholars believe that Jesus and Apollonius were both born right around the same time period, close to 4-1 BC. Therefore, by normal reasoning it would seem they were contemporaries and it would have been impossible for Jesus to have been Apollonius.

The most probable esoteric way around this dilemma is that, after the crucifixion that Apollonius vacated his body and Jesus walked in and continued with his work.

A second possibility is that Apollonius was overshadowed by Jesus.

A third possibility is that they both belonged to the same oversoul.

But some students of Apollonius have another exotic explanation. They say that Jesus and Apollonius are one and the same person. The story is that around the age of 30, Apollonius happened by the Jerusalem area and started teaching. He stayed there for over three years, as Jesus, and was crucified, but survived, left the area and never returned. He lived to around the age of 100.

Other explanations revolve around the idea that our history of that period is very vague and we have many dates and details wrong.

Around this direction Benjamin Creme actually presented an interesting possibility. He said: "The Disciple Jesus (24 BC to 9 AD), who is now the Master Jesus, was born in Palestine as a third-degree initiate. When He went out of incarnation at the Crucifixion, Jesus was a fourth-degree initiate. In His next incarnation, as Apollonius of Tyana (16AD to c.97 AD), He became a Master (fifth-degree initiate). He died in India."

This is an interesting thought and it would harmonize DK's controversial statement, but there is no historical evidence that Jesus was born as early as 24 BC or that the birth of Apollonius was as late as 16 AD.

Another interesting twist comes from H. P. Blavatsky and expanded somewhat by the Theosophical Society.

They do not accept the writings of Alice A. Bailey so they were not trying to harmonize DK's paradox. Even so, they have an explanation that does this.

They say the real Jesus was born over a hundred years earlier than the Biblical Jesus. His real name was Jeschu Ben Pandira. He was really stoned to death and later "hung on a tree" as described by Paul. (See Galations 3:13) After the death of Pandira several initiates got together and compiled the Gospel story loosely based on his life with incidents and teachings from several other initiates mixed in. It was a combination of fact and fiction created to teach certain principles and subtly give out the principles of initiation. For some reason they moved the time frame ahead a hundred years and if this account is true, they would have had to go to enormous pains to create a new historical background.

An interesting point supporting this point of view is that the Age of Pisces did not start at the orthodox birth of Christ but well over 100 BC. If the avatar of the age is supposed to come at the beginning of the age then Jesus missed it by some time.

See below for an excerpt from Esoteric Christianity by Annie Besant who followed H. P. Blavatsky as President of the Theosophical Society.

Not all Theosophists and esoterists believe this approach. Rudolf Steiner thought that Blavatsky was deceived on the matter and Jesus was crucified April 3, 33 AD. He believed that Pandira was as forerunner of the real Christ.

Then there is the final possibility that seems to be accepted by Lucis Trust - that DK just made a mistake.

Here are my thoughts on the matter. It is difficult to imagine that DK would have made such a black and white mistake such as this, especially when he had about thirty years to correct it before Alice A. Bailey's death. One more mystery is why some student did not ask Bailey about it and then she ask DK. We see no evidence of this happening. Maybe it did happen and we have no record. My logic would dictate that Apollonius was somehow linked to Jesus but at this point I do not have the full answer.

This may be a good exercise for the group. Read over this post and the writings below and contemplate and then give us your impressions.

From the writings of Annie Besant: The thread of the life-story of Jesus is one which may be disentangled from those with which it is intertwined without any great difficulty. We may fairly here aid our study by reference to those records of the past which experts can reverify for themselves, and from which certain details regarding the Hebrew Teacher have been given to the world by H.P. Blavatsky and by others who are experts in occult investigation...

The occult records partly endorse the story told in the Gospels, and partly do not endorse it; they show us the life, and thus enable us to disentangle it from the myths which are intertwined therewith.

The child whose Jewish name has been turned into that of Jesus was born in Palestine B.C. 105, during the consulate of Publius Rutilius Rufus and Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. His parents were well-born though poor, and he was educated in a knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. His fervent devotion and a gravity beyond his years led his parents to dedicate him to the religious and ascetic life, and soon after a visit to Jerusalem, in which the extraordinary intelligence and eagerness for knowledge of the youth were shown in his seeking of the doctors in the Temple, he was sent to be trained in an Essene community in the southern Judaean desert. When he had reached the age of nineteen he went on to the Essene monastery near Mount Serbal, a monastery which was much visited by learned men traveling from Persia and India to Egypt, and where a magnificent library of occult works -- many of them Indian of the Trans-Himalayan regions -- had been established. From this seat of mystic learning he proceeded later to Egypt. He had been fully instructed in the secret teaching which were the real fount of life among the Essenes, and was initiated in Egypt as a disciple of that one sublime Lodge from which every great religion has its Founder. For Egypt has remained one of the world-centres of the true Mysteries, whereof all semi-public Mysteries are the faint and far-off reflections. The mysteries spoken of in history as Egyptian were the shadows of the true things "in the Mount," and there the young Hebrew received the solemn consecration which prepared him for the royal priesthood he was later to attain. So superhumanly pure and so full of devotion was he, that in his gracious manhood he stood out pre-eminently from the severe and somewhat fanatical ascetics among whom he had been trained, shedding on the stern Jews around him the fragrance of a gentle and tender wisdom, as a rose-tree strangely planted in a desert would shed its sweetness on the barrenness around. The fair and stately grace of his white purity was round him as a radiant moonlit halo, and his words, though few, were ever sweet and loving, winning even the most harsh to a temporary gentleness, and the most rigid to a passing softness. Thus he lived through nine and twenty years of mortal life, growing from grace to grace.

This superhuman purity and devotion fitted the man Jesus, the disciple, to become the temple of a loftier Power, of a mighty, indwelling Presence. The time had come for one of those Divine manifestations which from age to age are made for the helping of humanity, when a new impulse is needed to quicken the spiritual evolution of mankind, when a new civilization is about to dawn. The world of the West was then in the womb of time, ready for the birth, and the Teutonic sub-race was to catch the sceptre of empire failing from the failing hands of Rome. Ere it started on its journey a World-Saviour must appear, to stand in blessing beside the cradle of the infant Hercules.

A mighty "Son of God" was to take flesh upon earth, a supreme Teacher, "full of grace and truth" -- One in whom the Divine Wisdom abode in fullest measure, who was verily "the Word" incarnate, Light and Life in outpouring richness, a very Fountain of the Waters of Life. Lord of Compassion and of Wisdom, such was His name -- from His dwelling in the Secret Places He came forth into the world of men.

For Him was needed an earthly tabernacle, a human form, the body of a man, and who so fit to yield his body in glad and willing service to One before whom Angels and men bow down in lowliest reverence, as this Hebrew of the Hebrews, this purest and noblest of "the Perfect," whose spotless body and stainless mind offered the best that humanity could bring? The man Jesus yielded himself a willing sacrifice, "offered himself without spot" to the Lord of Love, who took unto Himself that pure form as tabernacle, and dwelt therein for three years of mortal life.

This epoch is marked in the traditions embodies in the Gospels as that of the Baptism of Jesus, when the Spirit was seen "descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him," and a celestial voice proclaimed Him as the beloved Son, to whom men should give ear. Truly was He the beloved Son in whom the Father was well-pleased, and from that time forward "Jesus began to preach," and was that wondrous mystery, "God manifest in the flesh" -- not unique in that He was God, for: "Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are Gods? If he called them Gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemist; because I said, I am the Son of god?" Truly all men are Gods, in respect to the Spirit within them, but not in all is the God-head manifested, as in that well-beloved Son of the Most High.

To that manifested Presence the name of "the Christ" may rightly be given, and it was he who lived and moved in the form of the man Jesus over the hills and plains of Palestine, teaching, healing diseases, and gathering round Him as disciples a few of the more advanced souls. The rare charm of his royal love, outpouring form Him as rays from a sun, drew round Him the suffering, the weary, and the oppressed, and the subtly tender magic of His gentle wisdom purified, ennobled, and sweetened the lives that came into contact with His own. By parable and luminous imagery He taught the uninstructed crowds who pressed around Him, and, using the powers of the free Spirit, He healed many a disease by word or touch, reinforcing the magnetic energies belong to His pure body with the compelling force of His inner life. Rejected by the Essene brethren among whom He first laboured -- whose arguments against His purposed life of loving labour are summarized in the story of the temptation -- because he carried to the people the spiritual wisdom that they regarded as their proudest and most secret treasure, and because His all-embracing love drew within its circle the outcast and the degraded -- ever loving in the lowest as in the highest, the Divine Self -- He saw gathering clouds of hatred and suspicion. The teachers and rulers of His nation soon came to eye Him with jealousy and anger; His spirituality was a constant reproach to their materialism, His power a constant, though silent, exposure of their weakness. Three years had scarcely passed since His baptism when the gathering storm broke, and the human body of Jesus paid the penalty for enshrining the glorious Presence of a Teacher more than man.

The Jesus Masquerade A Chapter From: Apollonius of Tyana : The Monkey of Christ?

Apollonius of Tyana : The Monkey of Christ? has as its core premise the following hypothesis, which this book will attempt to prove.

After some months, Apollonius and Damis left "India" and returned to Babylon and Ninevah, where they undoubtedly visited the family of Damis, on their way back to Tyana. The year was 27 CE, and Apollonius was thirty years old. Damis' family might have just returned to Ninevah from Jerusalem. Whilst on their way home, they'd have passed by the River Jordan and seen John The Baptist calling the people to revolution against Rome and "baptizing" all his new cadres. The return of a Messiah had been predicted for centuries, and many thought that John The Baptist himself was the one intended. The singular objective of them all -- Apollonius, Damis, John The Baptist, the Elkhasaites and the Kristosite Revolutionaries -- would have been the end of Roman rule in their territories.

Apollonius and Damis obviously decided to check this out on their way back to Tyana, so they put on some new linen garments, resupplied their provisions and set out walking to Palestine. When they arrived at the River Jordan a couple of days later, John was haranguing the troops and calling for others to join him in his revolution.

Assuming, as we do, that "the Jesus Christ" was none other than Apollonius of Tyana, then ipso facto it would imply that the "Messiah" who was baptized by John The Baptist was Apollonius.

What is baptism? Today it is the symbolic washing away of one's sins and the devoting of one's life to the service of, primarily, "our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to redeem us from sin."

John The Baptist is the first person in recorded history to use baptism on as large a scale as he did. He adopted the ritual from certain ancient Jewish practices, which were only occasionally used.

John The Baptist had a "mission": to alert the world to their perverted ways and call for "revolution" by a "Messiah" whom he predicted would soon appear to help guide humanity from its abject state of degradation, the sewers to which it had sunk under the Herod Family and the early Roman Emperors. The "mission" of John The Baptist was a lot more than just a "religious movement." It had enormous political overtones, and for these "subversive activities" John The Baptist was eventually executed.

The fact that John is called "The Baptist" is because he is famous in religious history as being the first one to use this practice on a systematic basis. However, he did not use it as a method of washing away one's sins. When someone went up to John The Baptist and asked to be baptized, that person was showing all the other followers of John that this person, too, symbolically united him/herself with John's movement and the laws and aspirations of the Jewish people. It was a public demonstration of loyalty to John's ideas.

Thus, Apollonius, and probably Damis, showed solidarity by being "baptized." Since Apollonius had always been a friend of the birds, it is not surprising that a bird might by chance have landed on his shoulder at the baptism. John The Baptist would immediately have thought that this handsome, mysterious, cosmopolitan ascetic was the perfect "Messiah," the perfect "symbolic leader" of the revolt. After all, Apollonius himself had been speaking out against the evils of the Roman Empire since childhood.

Apollonius was thirty years old. He was one of the most handsome men of the times in which he lived. Because he did not shave or cut his hair, he looked different from the common man. Undoubtedly, when Apollonius and Damis arrived at the River Jordan revolutionary headquarters, they probably looked very handsome and urbane. Because they were vegetarians and so forth, they must have looked extremely healthy compared to the common man and been quite impressive figures to suddenly appear on the scene, "out of nowhere." All the secret knowledge of "India" was fresh on their minds, right at their fingertips. They must have had an air of self-confidence that one can only begin to imagine.

"What do you think, Damis? Should I do it?"

"Why not, Apollonius? Aren't you secretly eager to demonstrate some of the powers that you learned from Iarchas and the Indians?"

"You know me too well, Damis! Let's remain for a while and see what happens."

"I am at your service!"

The revolution heated up. King Herod got the hots for the wicked Princess Salome. By now John The Baptist was a real revolutionary threat to Rome, and this "Messiah" who had suddenly shown up on the scene was not making the situation any better. Somewhat reluctantly, because he realized the adverse political implications of his act, King Herod had John The Baptist arrested and thrown into prison. That done, Herod decided to host a lavish, gala banquet at the palace. Princess Salome was in attendance at lecherous, diseased King Herod's side. She seduced him into beheading John The Baptist and bringing his head on a platter to the banquet table. Then she danced before the eyes of the dead John The Baptist.

Apollonius was furious about this latest madness by "the puppets" of Rome. He adopted John The Baptist's cause with renewed enthusiasm. The time arrived to take the Jewish Temple back from the Romans. Apollonius and Damis and a large entourage rode into Jerusalem on donkeys, waving palm leaves. There were riots in the Temple; Apollonius barely escaped with his life, and Damis was arrested for rebellion, thrown into prison and sentenced to crucifixion the following Friday. The situation now called for extreme measures, which Apollonius had never anticipated.

The course of these events had simply spun out of control for Apollonius of Tyana. Certainly the telepathic minds of Iarchas and the other sages were in touch with him at this juncture, supplying him with comforting "mental advice," as they'd assured him that they would always do. Apollonius had a choice: abandon Damis to the Romans or die alongside him on the cross. He chose to sacrifice himself as well.

Apollonius summoned his "inner circle" to his Upper Room. They plotted their strategy. Judas Iscariot agreed to "betray" Apollonius to the Romans on Thursday night. Thus, his trial would be scheduled for Friday; and if crucified, he, along with Damis, would be off the cross by sundown, possibly surviving the ordeal. Co-conspirator Joseph of Aramithea provided an empty tomb, one that was to be used by himself when he died. That night, Judas "betrayed" Apollonius in the Garden of Gethsemene.

The next morning Pontius Pilate looked intently at Apollonius of Tyana, who was wearing his crown of thorns.

"Do you speak Greek?"

Apollonius nodded. "Of course, I speak Greek. I am Ionian."

"Ionian? Really?"

"Yes."

Pontius Pilate glanced at a Roman general standing by his side. He whispered something in the general's ear. The general shrugged. Pontius Pilate looked back again at Apollonius of Tyana.

"Crucify him! Crucify him!" shouted the Sadducees who were gathered below the governor's palace, witnessing the trial. "Free Jesus Barabbas!"

"Silence!" ordered the Roman general.

Pontius Pilate smirked at Apollonius of Tyana.

"But -- art thou King of the Jews?" he questioned sarcastically.

"Thou sayeth," replied Apollonius.

"I sentence thee to crucifixion at noon." Then he turned to the Roman general. "Bring me a bowl of water. I'll wash my hands of this latest 'Messiah.' And let Jesus Barabbas go free."

By noontime, Apollonius and Damis were hanging on the cross. Damis, fearing that death was near, cried out to Apollonius who comforted his friend. At mid-afternoon, they "died." Perhaps, by chance the sky darkened. The earth rumbled. It began to rain. People were scurrying around. The Roman soldiers were in a bad mood, because the crucified bodies had to be taken down from the crosses in all that rain and mud.

There is a book titled The Jesus Conspiracy : The Turin Shroud & The Truth About The Resurrection by Holger Kersten and Elmar R.Gruber, published in 1994. The following is a quote from Part Three, "The Secrets Of Golgotha", which is one of the best and most logical debunkings of the Resurrection that I personally have ever seen.

"According to John (19:33-5) one of the soldiers drove his lance into Jesus' thorax, and some blood and water flowed out. Luke and Matthew are no help to us on this point, because neither of them mentions this event. Mark, however (15:44-5), gives us an interesting clue. Pilate, surprised that Jesus was already dead, summoned the centurion, who confirmed the death, and Pilate then released the body of Jesus. The centurion is the same one who, moved by the events during the crucifixion, praised Jesus as the true Son of God (Mark 15:39; Mark 27:54; Luke 23:47). Who was this centurion?

"In the apocryphal 'Acta Pilata' he is called Longinus and presented as the captain who supervised the Crucifixion. According to a tradition testified to by Gregory of Nyssa, Longinus was said to have later become a bishop in his Cappadocian homeland. This change of heart may mean that he had some connection with Jesus and his followers before the Crucifixion, or was even a secret follower of Jesus. This would make many of the problems about the events during the Crucifixion understandable. Joseph of Aramithea, Nicodemus and the centurion Longinus were among the secret followers of Jesus. Since they held influential positions, they were informed well enough in advance about what the revolutionary exposure of Jesus was leading to. Joseph was highly respected as a member of the Sanhedrin. Since the second century BC this had been the high council of the supreme Jewish authorities for all affairs of state, judicature and religion. In consisted of seventy members under the chairmanship of the high priest. Nicodemus, who was initiated by Jesus under cover of night (John 3:1-22), was also a Jewish councillor. Thanks to their positions Joseph and Nicodemus had surely been kept well informed about the time and place of the execution and were thus able to plan the rescue of their master. We hear an echo of the advance information given to Nicodemus in a highly revered hagiographical legend of the Middle Ages. It tells how Nicodemus, in a letter sent to Mary Magdalene, warned Jesus about the attack by the Jews, when he was in Ephraim (John 11:53f).

"Joseph and Nicodemus knew that the Crucifixion itself could not be avoided. But if they could manage to take Jesus down from the cross early enough, and everything was well planned, it would be possible to keep him alive, and he would probably be able to continue his mission unobserved. It was crucially important to the whole operation that the apostles were not involved. They had gone into hiding for fear of persecution. Nothing would be done against the respected councillors Joseph and Nicodemus or the Roman centurion. So for a limited period there was a chance that the daring operation could be carried out successfully."

It is more than just coincidental significance that the conspiratorial centurion who assisted in this "plot" was a Cappadocian like Apollonius, and a man who later became involved in the dissemination of this "new religion." If a non-Jew like Apollonius were hanging naked on a cross in the center of Jerusalem, then his uncircumcised penis would be a dead giveaway that he was not a Jew. Thus, it is not surprising that the Jews themselves mocked him or that other uncircumcised non-Jews like Longinus would have come to his assistance.

Apollonius and Damis, by now unconscious and very nearly dead, were removed from the cross and hauled away to Joseph's tomb. The others worked throughout the night, cleaning them up and making sure that they survived. Apollonius recovered faster than Damis; and two days later, wearing fresh linen garments, he walked out of the tomb and was spotted by Mary Magdalene, who assumed that he had "risen from the dead." She hurried away to tell everybody about it.

When Damis finally regained consciousness and was told that Apollonius had also survived, at first he didn't believe it. He was "doubting" this until at last Apollonius appeared to him and showed him his wounds.

Apollonius and Damis hung around Jerusalem for a short while longer. Then Apollonius performed one of his disappearing acts that he'd learned from the Indian sages. He vanished before the very eyes of Damis and a group of followers, who assumed that he had ascended into Heaven. Damis was the only one who knew the real truth. He immediately left for Tyana to rejoin Apollonius there. Those who were left behind continued their revolution against Rome, now conducted in the name of this "Messiah," this "Anointed Savior," "the Jesus Christ."

Thus, it is not at all surprising that this "failure" in the life of Apollonius was not mentioned by Damis in the scrap-book. Nowhere did Damis write that he and Apollonius travelled to the Holy Land. It seems to have been the singular place they deliberated tried to avoid. But why would they have wished to remember such a land? Why else would they have so pointedly stayed away from it in the future?

In this regard, it is well to recall that in 69 CE, when Roman Emperor Vespasian wanted to consult with his friend Apollonius, who'd just arrived in Alexandria, Apollonius refused to go to Jerusalem, requiring that Vespasian travel to Alexandria. According to Philostratus, Apollonius "declined to enter a country which its inhabitants polluted both by what they did and by what they suffered."

Then finally, after Vespasian's son General Titus sacked and conquered Jerusalem in 70 CE, the remaining Christian population fled in safety not to other closer towns and cities but to Tyana, Cappadocia, the country of Apollonius. Eventually there, they made Tyana into "the Christian Capital of the World," because Tyana, not Jerusalem, was the center of regional Christianity. This simple fact alone speaks volumes.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
Steven Wright