Jesus the Prophet and Master of Wisdom is of the order of those “whose goings forth are from of old.” Some have seen in Him the reincarnation of the Buddha, whose ethical doctrine is strongly akin to the teachings of the holy Nazarene.
But there are strong reasons in the astrological scheme here presented, to warrant all Occultists in accepting the Incarnation in a sense other than symbolical or mythological. The prophecies and the record agree with the astronomical facts. Jesus is called especially “the Lamb of God,” and is born under the rising of the sign Aries. He is called also the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” and Mars, the ruler of the horoscope, is found in Leo. He is called “the Virgin-born,” and we find the Sun at the Nativity in the sign of the Virgin. These positions are not accidental, but are in agreement with the particular state of the visible heavens at the epoch to which we are impelled by reference to the facts of the case in conformity with the historical record.
We have, I think, specific evidence of the Incarnation—of what? Of the Christ, the Logos, the Word. Jesus the man, whose horoscope we have been tracing, is not to be confounded with the Christ principle investing that Personality, nor yet with the Spirit of God animating the Christ. The relationship of these are apparently as Spirit, Soul and Body to one another, that is—
Spirit = God.
Soul = Christ.
Body = Jesus.
This order seems to be supported by the earliest statements of the Christian faith. The Master-Soul speaking through the person of Jesus said: “These things I do not of myself but of the Spirit of God which dwelleth in me,” and again, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” Further, the Master in bidding farewell to His disciples said, “I go unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God.” It is clear, therefore, in what relations the incarnate Christ stood to humanity and to God. Other masters have appeared at various times as manifestations of the Spirit of Truth, Bodhisattvas as they are called in India, and are seen to be the founders of schools of religious thought in all parts of the world. They all answer to the universal paradigm, and consequently we find the same myths and legends centring in them. Occasionally we get specific record of the birth of these Great Souls. Thus we know that Confucius (Kong-fu-tze) was born 550 B.C. on the 27th day of the 10th month, and died on the 18th day of the 2nd month in the year 477 B.C., at the age of seventy-three years. The birth of Gautama Sakyamuni is vaguely indicated as having taken place at the full Moon of Jyestha. So far no records have been discovered to throw light upon the year of birth, so that we cannot determine the cosmic relations of this great luminary. The birth of Sri S’ankarāchārya, however, is specifically indicated in a stanza of Yidyāranya, where it is said that the Sun, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars were all in their exaltation signs, that is to say, in Aries, Libra, Cancer and Capricorn respectively; and in Kendra, i. e. in signs that were upon the angles of the horoscope. This is the ideal horoscope of the successful reformer, and this Confucius of India, who began his crusade at twenty years of age, has left his mark for all time upon Indian thought and literature.
Wherever we can obtain the time of the incarnation of these Great Souls, it is seen that either there are some special celestial portents attending them or the planetary positions are such as to stamp the horoscope at once as that of an epoch-making birth. The portents attending the birth of Romulus, as recited by Dionysius, are no less striking than those which signalized his death. Something of this sort was obviously the belief in Shakespeare’s time concerning the death of great men—
When beggars die there are no comets seen,
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of Princes.