Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to
Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
But John forbade him, saying, I have
need to be baptized of thee, and comest
thou to me?
And Jesus answering said unto him,
Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he
suffered him. And Jesus, when he was
baptized, went up straightway out of the
water: and lo, the heavens were opened
unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon
him:
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. — Matt. 3:13-17
All four Gospels record the
occurrence of the mystic rite of Baptism,
this being a definite step on the Christian
Mystic Path. It is also one of the
Sacraments, which may be called
keystones in the arch of evolution, for
they inculcate morals of the loftiest
nature. Just what constitutes baptism,
however, is a question about which there
have been arguments of great length and
intensity.
In order to obtain a true idea of
baptism it is necessary that we revert to
the early history of the human race as
recorded in the Memory of Nature.
There was a time when humanity lived in
the foggy atmosphere which surrounded
the Earth at that stage in our evolution.
They lived in one vast brotherhood,
innocent and childlike. In time the fog
condensed and water flooded the
depressions upon the Earth's surface.
Simultaneously, the atmosphere cleared,
and the eyes of man were opened and he
perceived himself as a separate Ego.
Then the universal Spirit of love was
superseded by egotism and self-seeking.
Today when a person is admitted to the
spiritual institution called a church, where love
and brotherhood are the basis of action, it
is appropriate to carry him under the
waters of baptism in symbol of the
beautiful condition of innocence and love
which existed when man dwelt under
the mists in that period long ago. As Max
Heindel has described in
Ancient and Modern Initiation:
"Then the Spirit is conducted under
the waters of Atlantis, where it sees the
primal condition of brotherly love and
kindness; where it perceives God as the
great Father of His children, who are
there surrounded by His wonderful love.
By the conscious return to this Ocean of
Love, the candidate becomes so
thoroughly imbued with the feeling of
kinship that the spirit of egoism is
banished from him forever. It is because
of this saturation with the Universal Spirit
that he is able later to say: 'If a man
takes your coat, give him your cloak also;
if he asks you to walk one mile with him,
go with him two miles.' Feeling himself
one with all, the candidate does not even
consider the murder of himself as
mistreatment, but can say: 'Father,
forgive them.' They are identical with
himself, who suffers by their action; he is
the aggressor as well as the victim. Such
is the true Spiritual Baptism of the
Christian Mystic, and any other baptism
that does not produce this universal
fellow-feeling is not worthy of the name."
This baptism may take place at any
time and at any place, for it occurs at the
moment when the candidate feels with
sufficient intensity the longing to know
the cause of sorrow and alleviate it.
— Rays from the Rose Cross Magazine, January, 1976, page 22
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