The Occult Gospel of Matthew, Part 9: Matthew 4:12-17

The Gospel of Matthew Chapter 4, Verses 12-17

12 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;

 

13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:

 

14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

 

15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;

 

16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

 

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Whither John the Baptist?

There are three things that I want to extract from this section.

First, note the imprisonment of John the Baptist. This will end in John's execution by beheading. We're a long way off from there, but for now I want to draw attention to it, because it's going to be important.

Order and Chaos

Second: The people in darkness have seen a great light; light is sprung up in the region and shadow of death.

The Timaeus is Plato's account of the creation of the universe. It's a difficult text, but well worth reading in detail. (Also, and as an aside, if you want to get a sense of the sanctimonious idiocy of 19th century scholarship, you could do far worse than to read Benjamin Jowett's introduction at the link provided; it's on full display.) In any case, the important thing for our text is how the creation is accomplished in the Timaeus. Creation does not begin out of nothing. We begin with a formless void, the Chaos. The work of the Most High God-- called the Demiurgos, the Maker or Craftsman God-- is to assemble the world out of formless darkness, rather than create it out of nothing.

The same process of creation occurs in the Cosmographia, a 12th century epic poem written by Bernardus Sylvestris. Cosmographia is basically the Timaeus Christianized, and was considered orthodox enough at one time to have been recited before the Pope. In Sylvestris's work, Creation begins when Nature turns up in Heaven to complain to God that Sylva-- that is, physical reality-- is formless chaos. God-- or, rather, his interlocutor, Noys, "Divine Mind," consents to bring Sylva into ordered regularity.  Here again, creation consists of bringing form to formlessness.

The Book of Genesis details this same process. The only difference is that Genesis 1:1 moves the second hand of the clock back one tick. And so we get:

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

In our terms, this First Creation is not a moment in time, but the ongoing and eternal process by which God, or the One, causes Being, or brings Being into being. (Recall the YHVH formula from a few entries back.) This bringing-into-being is then immediately followed by:

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
 

 

What is the first thing to be created out of the void?

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
 

Thus we can see that "The people in darkness have seen a great light" recalls the creation of the world out of formlessness. The beginning of Jesus's preaching, then, is a re-capitulation of the creation of the world itself. 

Jesus is the Initiator of his magical current, and His life is the model for all those who would follow Him and receive His Initiation. We are reminded, now, that the work of the mage is, above all the work of self-creation. This particular act isn't the initial creation out of nothing. You already exist. The ongoing bringing-into-being of YHVH gives you mere existence, and your parents donated the time and physical material necessary to get you into embodiment. But when you first step onto the path, your existence is a Chaos. But now, you have stepped onto the path, and begun the work of Initiation. The Soul in Darkness has seen a Great Light. The Light is the Light of God, reflected through the individual Soul; the light of the Eternal Sun of the Noetic Realm, which is visible to the very highest part of your soul, your Nous. The Light is your own Light-- the Light that you will shine when the work of creation is complete and you stand eternally and entirely in the presence of God.

Change Your Nous, for the Kingdom of Heaven is Within You

The final thing I want to point out is just what Jesus says when he begins to preach:

Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.
 

We've already discussed what these words mean. (If you missed it, head back to the discussion of Matthew 3:1-2.) The important thing for today is that they are the same as the words John the Baptist used. This confirms for us what we've already seen: Jesus is initiated into a magical current by John the Baptist; and, that Initiation is not complete until he faces down Satan during his 40 days in the wilderness.