Note[1]
“Christianity” is a religion; but the word “religion” has evidently three distinct meanings:
- In the first place it signifies the practice of a certain kind of spiritual training, by which the higher principles in the constitution of man are developed and reunited (bound back) to the divine source to which they belong. In this sense it is the same as yogism (from yog, to bind).
- In the second aspect it implies the knowledge of the true relation existing between microcosmic man as a part of the All and the macrocosm of the spiritual and material universe. In this sense it is a science.
- In the third and common acceptation of the term, “religion” means a certain system of forms, ceremonies and usages, by which some supposed eternal deity is worshipped or propitiated and his favor obtained, so that the sinner may escape the deserved punishment and evade the law. In this sense it is a superstition.
To become a “Christian” of the third order, it is merely necessary to submit to a certain ceremony called baptism, whose mode of administration varies in the different sects; but it seems that to become a real Christian some other baptism is necessary, namely, the baptism of the water of Truth, the baptism of Blood, and the baptism of the living Fire of the Spirit.
The first baptism, with the water of Truth, means the attainment of spiritual knowledge, and corresponds to the first of the four noble truths taught by Buddha: “right doctrine.”
The second, or the baptism of Blood, is commonly supposed to mean a shedding of blood by martyrdom, in the defense of a belief in a historical Christ.
But such a process would be a loss of blood and not a reception of it, and could not properly be called a “baptism.” The best way to obtain information in regard to this “baptism of blood,” will be to ask those who have received it or who are receiving it at present.
There is a certain class of “practical occultists,” whose inner senses are opened to a great extent, and who have been taught by no one but the spirit within themselves and their own experience. They say that the “baptism of blood” means a penetration of the growing spiritual germ in man, through the flesh and blood and bones of the physical body, by which even the gross elements of the physical form are attenuated and purified,[2] and that this process produces pains and sufferings, typically represented by the suffering, crucifixion and death of the man Jesus of Nazareth. They say that no one can be a true follower of Christ, or a “real Christian,” who has not undergone this baptism of blood, and experienced the pains of crucifixion,[3] but that man having passed through that occult process becomes an Adept, when only the highest baptism (or the last initiation)—the baptism of Fire—will be necessary to enter the highest attainable state (Spiritual Power), and to become a Son of Light.
But, it is asked, what has Jesus of Nazareth to do with that process? How does the latter come to be typified by his suffering, and what is the rationale of it?
It is claimed that at the beginning of certain historical periods, when old religious truths are about to be forgotten, and the idolatry of form assumes the place of true religion, some great spirit (planetary) appears upon the Earth, incarnated into a human form, and by his word and example impresses the old truths forcibly upon a number of receptive minds, to communicate them to others, and thus lay the foundation of a new religious system, embodying old truths in a new form.
It is believed that the man Jesus of Nazareth was the mortal form in which such a Spirit was embodied; the latter being no less than what I believe every planetary spirit to be—an emanation of the Universal Logos or the Word.[4]
But what is the Logos? or, to express it better, how can we form a conception of it? We can conceive of no other God (or Supreme Good) but the one which lives within ourselves, and which is said to be the image of the Universal God reflected in the purified human soul, where it (He) may attain self-consciousness and the knowledge of self. The Universal God may be described as the incomprehensible centre from which proceed the elements of Love, Life and Light in the various modes of manifestation on the different planes. The whole of Nature is a product of the Spirit of God, being poured out throughout the All by the power of The Word, which is the Life—or thought rendered active by will.
The same process which took place in the eternal Macrocosm of the Universe, takes place in the inner world belonging to the microcosm of man. “No one can come to the Father, but through the Son;” that is to say: No God will take his seat in the interior temple of Man, except through the power of the Word—in other words; by the concentration of thought and good will upon the divine germ which rests in the innermost centre of every human being. If we concentrate our Love upon that centre of Good, the divine germ will begin its active Life, and the interior world will gradually become illuminated by the Light of the spirit. As this principle grows, it will penetrate the soul and through the soul all the lower principles, even the physical body, throwing off the impurities of soul and body, and the more such impurities are present, the greater will be the suffering, typically represented by Jesus, until finally the baptism of blood is completed, the soul purified, the animal ego dead and the man has become a “Christ” or an Adept,—that is to say one in whom the (6th) Christ principle has taken form.
It will readily be seen that this process is much more difficult to accomplish, than merely to go to church, pay the dues to the priests, attend to prayer-meetings and perform the prescribed ceremonies. To accomplish this process requires a constant meditation of the highest kind, and a continual employment of will power to keep away the disturbing elements of evil, which in a person who strives for light are still more boisterous than in one who is indifferent, for as soon as the spiritual light kindled in the centre begins to radiate its life-giving rays throughout our interior world, the “dwellers of the threshold”—the evil egos, created by evil thoughts and selfish desires, floating at the periphery of the soul-sphere like clouds sailing through the atmosphere of our earth, begin to feel the destroying influence of the central sun and battle for their existence. Still this atmosphere of evil must be penetrated before we can reach the luminous centre and the tranquil heaven within, and this is done by clinging to the principle of Good and virtue whose rays radiate from the centre. This principle will at first only be felt intuitionally but as we feed it with good thoughts, it grows and the interior spiritual senses become opened, so that we may see and hear its voice distinctly and without any fear of misunderstanding its meaning.
The “below” is always in exact correspondence to and related with the “above.” We are immersed in an all surrounding but invisible ocean of life, whose waves pervade our psychic organization, in the same sense as volumes of air enter our lungs, and as the latter stimulates the life of the body, likewise the former stimulates the growth of the elements of the spirit; which draw their substance from the lower-animal-principles. In the same way the caloric rays of the sun enter the bodies of plants and stimulate the assimilation of the elements which are drawn from earth, water and air.
Those who have gone through that occult process, will require no proof of the truth of these assertions: because they know it to be true by experience; but the “exoteric Christian” and sceptic, having no such experience to assist his faith, may arrive at a certain degree of conviction by using his reasoning powers and logic in conjunction with the teachings of the Bible. Christ is reported in the New Testament to have said: “Except Ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in You” (John vi, 53); and again: “I am the living bread, which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever” (John vi, 51.) Now this seems plain enough to every student of occultism, and if translated into the scientific language of modern occultists, it would mean: “Unless you absorb and assimilate within your psychic organization the sixth principle (The Christ), which is the only permanent and immortal principle in the constitution of Man, you will have no sixth principle developed within you, and consequently possess no immortal life—at least as far as Your personality is concerned (for the divine and now unconscious germ within you cannot die, but will reincarnate again). But if you absorb the principle or spiritual life and develop the spirit within you, so that it grows through your flesh and blood, then will you have drunk from the Elixir of Life and received the Baptism of Blood and become a Christian, an Adept; for ‘Christ’ will have taken form in your body, and being himself immortal you will be immortal through him.”
These views are corroborated by the great Christian mystic Jacob Boehme, by Jane Leade, Paracelsus, the Rosicrucians, and I can find nothing in them which would in any way conflict with the Esoteric Doctrine, as taught by the Eastern Adepts. If any difference in opinion could arise, it could be only, in regard to the person of Jesus of Nazareth or Jehoshua, and whether he lived exactly at the time claimed by modern Christians. This question I must leave to some one wiser than myself to settle; but it seems of no great importance to me; for the existence of the Christ-principle is disputed by none, and the man, Jesus—having died—can only be a Savior to us at present, if we study his character and imitate his example.
Hartmann, M. D.
Notes:
[1] What is true Christianity? Franz Hartmann, M.D. The Path 1, no. 12 (March 1887), 355-359. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[2] Compare the “Elixir of Life” in The Theosophist.
[3] This has nothing whatever to do with so-called “stigmatization”: the latter being merely the result of a strong imagination upon a weak body.
[4] “That which was from the beginning.” etc.—John. Epistle I, i.