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The Fourth Lesson: The Beginning of the Ministry.975
who was proud to be but the Forerunner of the Master, of whose coming he
had been informed by the Brotherhood.
And, as we have told you in the first lesson, one day there came before
him, a young man, of a dignified, calm appearance, gazing upon him with the
expressive eyes of the true Mystic. The stranger asked to be baptized, but
John, having perceived the occult rank of the stranger by means of the signs
and symbols of the Brotherhood, rebelled at the Master receiving baptism
at the hands of himself, one far below the occult rank of the stranger. But
Jesus, the stranger, said to John, “Suffer it to be,” and stepped into the water
to receive the mystic rite again, as a token to the people that He had come
as one of them.
And then occurred that strange event, with which you are familiar, when a
dove descended as if from Heaven and rested over the head of the stranger,
and a soft voice, even as the sighing of the wind through the trees, was
heard, whispering, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” And
then the stranger, evidently awed by the strange message from the Beyond,
passed away from the multitude, and bent his way toward the wilderness,
as if in need of a retreat in which he could meditate over the events of the
day, and regarding the work which He could now dimly see stretching its
way before Him.
The average student of the New Testament passes over the event of Jesus
in the Wilderness, with little or no emotion, regarding it as a mere incident
in His early career. Not so with the mystic or occultist, who knows, from the
teachings of his order, that in the Wilderness Jesus was subjected to a severe
occult test, designed to develop His power, and test His endurance. In fact,
as every advanced member of any of the great occult orders knows, the
occult degree known as “The Ordeal of the Wilderness” is based upon this
mystic experience of Jesus, and is intended to symbolize the tests to which
He was subjected. Let us consider this event so fraught with meaning and
importance to all true occultists.