Epiphany – January 6

The festival of Epiphany which celebrates the baptism of Jesus occurs on the sixth of January and so we should skip forward a few verses and look at the account of the baptism in the four Gospels. The word epiphany is a combination of two words, epi, meaning on to, and phainein, to show, that is, to manifest. At the baptism of Jesus, which was facilitated by John the Baptist, the physical manifestation of the mighty Cosmic Christ Spirit appeared. As Luke tells us, when Jesus was about thirty years of age he had perfected himself to the point where he was able to receive this Christ Spirit into himself. Read the following accounts in all four gospels of this deed.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Mt 3:13-17

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.” Mk 1:9-10

…when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.” Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, Lk 3:21-23

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness, “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” Jn 1:29-34

We can find three main points in these accounts of the baptism; heaven opened, spirit descended as a dove and the Son of God was announced.

How would heaven open? What would it look like? We might find a clue in the words used for ‘open’. Matthew uses anoigo from ana which means in the midst and oigo which means to open. Mark uses schizo which means to split or tear; Luke also uses anoigo; John doesn’t mention opening, just descending. Could we assume from this that something opened in the centre of the ‘heavens’. If we turn to astronomy, the law of all the heavenly bodies, we could direct our attention to the centre of the galaxy where we find what Robert Powell describes as the Central Sun. This highest heaven, way beyond our earthly planets, is quite possibly the abode of THE God. This place in the universe, beyond the stars and planets, cannot be seen with human eyes primarily because of its distance away from us. So what was seen? It is feasible that in the middle of the Central Sun an opening appeared and attention was drawn to it by the descent of a holy spirit. This doesn’t necessarily mean THE holy spirit, although it could.

The spirit descended “as a dove or like a dove”. The word for dove is peristera, peri meaning around and stera meaning star. So what they could have seen perhaps looked like a spiraling shooting star coming from the highest possible point in the galaxy through an opening that was virtually beyond their understanding.

Then came the announcement by a voice from that place: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” What is the experience of every parent when they look upon their own child as soon as it is born? They see something that they have created and they see something of themselves in what they have created. So God, in saying “this is my beloved son” was seeing himself outside himself if you like. He was also seeing a pinnacle of his creative activity.

This is what the baptism signifies and all that we have been considering in these reflections so far was necessary to get to this point. Two Jesus beings’, one purely spiritual and one who had reached the pinnacle of earthly wisdom, became one in the temple. Then, for around 20 years, further preparations were made in the various bodies (physical, etheric, astral and I-being) so as to create the perfect environment so that the Christ Spirit could “remain on him.” We shouldn’t underestimate what was necessary for such a powerful spirit to remain and not withdraw.

The only way we can begin to understand all these events is to create imaginative ideas about them. We can imagine how we were part of God in the beginning, perhaps in that Galactic Centre, and how we were dispersed into the universe to make a life of our own, gradually becoming more and more individual and more and more physical through our own power of creativity until at a certain point we reconnect with the intentions of God and awaken to the son-ship which takes place at the baptism. All of this could only take place through the power of love in its highest expression. This love that is truly free and totally wise.

This is our path; the Jesus in us, our I Am, must reach that point where the Christ Spirit can “remain” so that our son-ship can be declared. Each year around the sixth of January we can re-experience this seemingly miraculous process in ourselves which took place at the river Jordon all those ago. By Kristina Kaine “Who is Jesus, What is Christ Vol 1”

The Baptism of Christ by Leonardo Da Vinci

https://www.amazon.com/Who-Jesus-What-Christ-Vol-ebook/dp/B00D9PT76Q