Jesus of Nazareth as known in esoteric traditions

Jesus in the Fifth Gospel of Rudolf Steiner. an excerpt

The Fifth Gospel from Rudolf Steiner

The Fifth Gospel from Rudolf Steiner reveals several important episodes in Jesus's life before he became the Christ.

From the fountain of the greatest human wisdom ,present in Jesus as the re-incarnation of the Zarathustra ego, Jesus experienced and agonized over 3 tragedies besetting the life of his times and his community.

One, was his realization that Jewish religious traditions, wisdom-knowledge and spirituality had reached its final stages of relevance for the world. The God of Israel had ceased to communicate to the Chosen people. There were no more prophets nor listeners of the Word from God from among them.

Second, that remnants of old pagan religious cults still present in the periphery of life were now dominated and ruled by dark forces rather than good spirits, hence the proliferation of sickness , decay and evil ,

Third, that pure and devout spiritual communities like the Essene Order while preserving authentic godliness and wisdom from among their ranks only served to save themselves from the general darkness surrounding the world at large, but that by their exclusive concern for their own spiritual fortification , drove the dark spirits to ravage undeterred the rest of humanity 's weaker souls , now bereft of spiritual protection and guidance .

Jesus even had visions of lost souls wandering restlessly , seeking for redemption from their spiritual misery, filled with their sense or worthlessness. and suffering sickness and deepest pain wrought on their bodies and souls by moral maladies and spiritual emptiness.

Driven by these visions and spiritual realizations Jesus was advised by his mother to seek divine guidance and inspiration from John the Baptist , the lone prophet in Israel who seemed to possess the spiritual power and certainty of vision about the impending hour of Israel's redemption.

 Jesus of Nazareth possessed not only the vision, the knowledge that is wisdom, but had in a certain sense become an Initiate through the experiences of life itself.

This came to the knowledge of certain people who in those days had gathered together in an Order, known very widely as the Order of the Essenes.

The Essenes were people who practised a kind of secret cult and secret tenets at certain places in Palestine.

It was a strict, rigorous Order. One who desired to enter it was required to pass through a year, at the very least, of strict probation, to show by his conduct during this period, by his moral principles, by his obedience in worshipping the supreme Powers of the Spirit, by his sense of justice and of equality among men, by his disregard of earthly goods and the like that he was worthy to be initiated.

There was a succession of grades through which he had to pass, leading to that Essenian life which strove to approach the spiritual world in a certain separation and aloofness from the rest of humanity, through strict monastic discipline and rules of cleanliness, in order that all impurity both in body and in soul might be purged.

These principles were expressed in many symbolic rules of the Order.

The deciphering of the Akasha Chronicle has shown that the name "Essene" derives from or at any rate is connected with the Hebrew word "Essin" or "Assin." This means something like a trowel, a little shovel, because the Essenes always wore as their badge a little shovel — a symbol that has been preserved in many Orders to this day.

And certain symbolic customs gave expression to their aims: they were not allowed to carry coins about with them nor to pass through any gateway that was either painted or had images in its neighbourhood.