Esoteric Teachings

I have been interested in both Western and Eastern forms of esotericism for many years but never written much about them and for a variety of reasons. To begin with, if I did it would really just be passing on what I have read elsewhere as is the case with practically everything written on the subject. People learn about it from other people who have learned about it from others and so on. It is largely an intellectual thing. When esoteric knowledge is not just intellectual but is supplemented by experience of some kind that experience has usually arisen because an individual has followed certain techniques or methods designed to induce it. I don't believe real spirituality comes about in this way. Spirituality is of the heart and esotericism, fascinating as it can be, belongs to the occult world not the spiritual one; the difference being that one takes the human being as its centre even if it is the human being in its higher aspects while the other is centred around a relationship with God.

Christians have long considered the esoteric as a diversion from proper religion. This can be a form of spiritual cowardice, intellectual laziness or reluctance to explore the inner worlds which may be seen as belonging entirely to the devil which is a mistake. But it can also be the recognition that the esoteric is not what the spiritual is really about. That is a simple love of God. Only this love takes you beyond yourself without doing harm to the self for it raises you up in a way that transforms the ego from a self-centred thing to a God -centred one. The ego-transcending techniques of certain esoteric practises, even assuming they work, do not sanctify or make holy. They just bring about an expansion of consciousness and this is effectively putting the cart before the horse. Such an expansion is a by-product not the purpose of the religious life.

Increasingly in the modern world the esoteric can potentially be a spiritual diversion or distraction. Everything now that is not centred on Christ is tending towards the triumph of Satan in this world. My younger self would no doubt have been amused or even shocked by such a statement. I didn't and still don't consider myself a fundamentalist in any way. But as the latter days gather pace and history approaches a point of denouement we are either for or against Christ and if we are not for him, for him in spirit and in truth not just nominally, then we are against him. The middle ground is vanishing and there is only high ground or low. The choice must be made. It's a simple question and the esoteric will not really help you answer it. It may even hinder especially if it takes you away from the heart too far into the mind or the desire for personal experience. The devil is the most learned of esotericists. Which is not to condemn the esoteric as such but just to say that it is not the true spiritual.

We are meant to acquire knowledge about God and know our true purpose and destiny but this knowledge must be grounded in Christ, and the true Christ of the Gospels not a re-invented form tailored to fit into a particular esoteric perspective. Christ came to reveal the Mysteries and to make the hidden visible which is why there are no secrets in Christianity. My teachers told me that truth is simple but people love to get caught up in theory and speculation. This doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to know and to understand but that should always be secondary to a love for God.