SYMBOLOGY OF THE CHRIST BLOOD
Frederick K. Davis
Published in Azoth (1920)
Blood is one of the most vital factors in the Christian formula of salvation.
There lies before me a propaganda card, distributed by a Protestant organization. In the middle of it is printed the word “Blood” in large embossed red letters. Around the sides appear numerous Bible texts which are the baskf of the Christian dictum that humanity can only be redeemed from hell by the blood of Christ.
The crucifixion was necessary, we are told, for without the shedding of the Christ blood there is no remission of sins.
Blood is a distasteful subject to many refined people. It is naturally associated with slaughter and savagry. The sight of blood causes some sensitive people to become nauseated or even to faint.
A number of savage tribes use blood in connection with re volting religious practices. The blood of the battlefield and slaughter house attracts horrible astral vampires which are far worse than the physical parasites that draw their life from blood.
It is therefore startling to find blood inseparably linked with fundamental Christian doctrine. Plainly, Christianity is a blood religion. But what has blood to do with characterbuilding, spirituality and mastery? ,
“Washed in the blood of Jesus” is a Christian shibboleth. The well-known hymn words it clearly:
“There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains.”
As to being plunged into a fountain of blood – well, excuse me! It’s a bit too grewsome. And if any sane person were soused in blood, or his clothes stained with.it, he would promptly seek water and soap.
Isn’t it really extraordinary – all this stress that is laid upon the redeeming blood? If you ask for an explanation from the authorized expounders of the Christian faith, and inquire of them why Christianity derives such solace from fountains of blood – you are politely (or impolitely) referred to the Scripture texts. But as for a spiritual analysis of the dogma, they have none.
The great religions of the world have been reared, clumsily for the most part, on the Sacred Mysteries. And’one’s heart aches with the realization that the great spiritual truths of the universe, known to the Brotherhood in all ages, have been so pitifully materialized and degraded.
To drink human blood is outright cannibalism. Yet we find Christians commemorating the sacrifice of Jesus by drinking His blood; or, rather, the blood of the grape is used as a substitute.
The Roman Church is very emphatic that the actual blood of Jesus is drunk. It is claimed that by the process of priestly transsubstantiation the wine becomes the literal blood of Jesus. It would appear, therefore, that mass is a cannibalistic ceremony.
But what may we say, for the Bible is adduced as authority for the practice? Jesus is reported to have said: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him.”
Literally, of course, it is ridiculous to conceive that we can dwell in some other personality or he in us. Yet Christians hold God and Christ to be personalities. Judging from the present time schedule by which the orthodox are progressing it will be another thousand years before they fully learn that the Bible is a largely mystical and occult book.
Blood was likewise a cardinal factor in the Jewish religion. Early in the Old Testament we are instructed that, “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
Similar doctrine has been held in nearly all parts of the world. For example, the ancient Peruvians sought atonement for their souls by sacrificing the blood of virgins upon the altar. In Mexico human blood sacrifice was frequent. Near the close of the period of the Druid religion, when their teachings had become materialized, they also made human sacrifice and sprinkled the blood on the altar and on the worshipers. Blood is used today in voodoo rites.
The Hebrews, however, regarded animal blood as sufficient to accomplish the desired atonement. It was commonly touched to the horns of the altar by the priest and poured in front of it. Before receiving the Ten Commandments a blood covenant was made with the Lord by Moses, who sprinkled the sacrificial blood On both the altar and the people.
Nor might the Hebrews drink blood. It was held to be sacred because “the life of the flesh is in the blood.”
At the consecration of Solomon’s temple he sacrificed 2020 oxen and 120,000 sheep. It is appalling! In modern terms that would be 40 trainloads of sheep, if we assign 100 sheep to a car and 30 cars to a train. Estimating that each sheep, yielded one quart of blood, we find that there were 600 barrels of sacrificial blood! Time forbids that we pause to calculate the barrels of ox blood.
Does any one imagine that 600 barrels of sheep blood ennobled one single character, purified one single heart, or brought spiritual illumination to a single soul?
At the time of Jesus the City of Jerusalem reeked with the pollution and repulsive stench of blood and burning animal flesh. The curse of blood was on humanity, and men’s hearts and minds have not even yet cast off the thrall!
The Jews made the shedding of blood a religious rite and as a natural fruitage many Jews have been offered as a blood sacrifice at the hands of other peoples. And Christianity, embracing this old blood doctrine, and itself founded in blood and endorsing salvation by blood, has likewise reaped a harvest of blood! Its devotees have slain each other by the millions, and slaughtered the “heathen” as well.
Sow blood; reap blood! Thus works the Divine Law when spiritual truths are degraded into abominable literalism and these fearful materializations are enthroned in mien’s minds.
I have said that even mire-dragged symbols may have had a basis in spiritual truth. What then, may be the truth underlying the doctrine of salvation through blood?
Spiritual truth goes veiled. It has always in past ages been taught to the public in parables, by allegories, and by symbols. The Bible is no exception.
Physical things are a reflection of spiritual realities; humanity is a reflection of Divinity. So physical symbols may be used, through the application of analogy, to represent spiritual realities.
In a public religious ceremony objects must be used that we can see and handle. But if we mistake the physical object or ceremony for anything more than symbolism—then we are heathen, no matter we term ourselves Buddhists or Christians or what not.
Returning to the theme, let us once more inquire: What is the symbology of sacrificial blood?
Blood is the vehicle and carrier of the Life Force. The very Life Essence is in the blood. Blood builds our bodies. Blood, it is, that sustains them. It is the cleansing blood that flows from the fountain of the heart and washes away the bodily impurities.
It is the blood, the Life Fluid, that is constantly being poured forth from the heart for the purification and redemption of our bodies from death. To redeem means to buy back. And it is the blood that thus redeems the physical corruption and buys bick our bodies to strength and vigor.
If it were not so, our bodies would be soon destroyed by impurities, inharmonies, disease and death. The salvation of our bodies therefore depends on the redeeming blood.
A man’s body is a little universe all in itself. It consists of many parts and organs. These are in turn comprised of a countless host of minute lives; and the well-being or salvation of these myriad atoms is essential to man’s well-being and salvation as an individual universe or body.
Our Life Fluid is faithfully poured forth through the ar teries by the heart for the redemption from inharmony and death of these minute atomic lives. We are to them as a god in whom they live and move and have their being. Any that die or cannot be redeemed must be cast out of the body. Otherwise the pollution would spread and destroy our personal cosmos.
So we gladly give of our redeeming blood for the salvation of all these tiny lives, and the blood takes upon itself all their impurities. When it proceeds from the heart it is pure and crimson, but as it washes the body of its inharmonies (sins) it becomes defiled and blue. It then returns to the lungs to itself receive redemption from exterior agency and the defilement is reduced to gas and carried off into the air where the purification of this carbon dioxide in turn occurs.
Now that we have seen the significance of blood in man as a microcosm, we extend our consideration to our planetary system – a macrocosm.
The planets are the organs that constitute the physical body of our Planetary Logos. The Sun is the heart of the system. It is the projecting source of the Life Essence of the Logos.
Were it not for the Life Force which the Sun pours out un failingly in definite waves or currents, no life could exist. This Isiac Essence (Prana) outflows from the Sun in rhythmic propulsions that correspond to the rhythmic beatings of a human heart as it propels the Life Fluid through the body.
It is this Life Principle or blood of the Sun that integrates and sustains all life forms and bodies. Bathed in this blood of the Sun, we live and move and have our being.
Like the blood in man or the sap (blood) in a plant, this Life Force of the Sun is ever alleviating inharmonies, transmuting impurities, and redeeming all things from a hell of chaos and decay. It is the source of physical salvation. By its magical action even a vile compost heap is purified.
The Sun is the highest physical symbol of Deity — it is light, life and heat (love). But it is only a symbol. What the Sun is to us physically, Deity is to us spiritually. The Parsees do not worship the Sun as Deity, but simply turn to it as a symbol of God instead of using some much less appropriate object such as a crucifix.
So, then, it is by the sacrifice of the Sun of its blood or Life Force, the pouring out or shedding of its light and life blood for us, that humanity is saved from eternal physical darkness, death and chaos – hell!
In practically all the other religions except perhaps Judaism, Deity in manifestation is regarded as a trinity. An example is the Egyptian trinity of Osiris, Isis and Horus, or Father, Mother and Son.
In one physical sense, Horus the Son symbolized the Life Essence or blood of the Sun. He was called a saviour; was beeved to have been virgin-born; and descended into hell. He was not a literal man or god, but symbolized a Principle. Regarded as the Life Blood of the Sun, Horus was of course virgin born, descended into the hell of darkness and is the physical saviour and redeemer of all life.
In Christianity, Christ the Son denotes precisely the same thing. The Christ is not a man nor a god, but symbolizes a Principle. In a physical sense, the (Christ or Christ blood is therefore the sustaining and redeeming Life Essence of the Sun, the only force that can save humanity from a physical hell of chaos and death.
If we do not indraw (drink) the life of the Sun, i. e., dwell in the Christ and He in us, then we cannot have physical salvation and there is no health in us. Death must shortly be our lot.
With the foregoing as the basis for our further analogy, we may make the spiritual application.
In the highest sense, the Christian Christ, the Egyptian Horus, the Hindu Krishna, etc., denote the Spiritual Life Essence or luminous blood of Deity, which is the spiritual life of all the universe.
The Spiritual Life Essence of Deity is the blended Life Forces of the Divine Father-Mother; it is the Son, or third aspect of the Trinity. It is this Divine Son, the Divine Life Principle, that goes forth into manifestation for the spiritual sustaining and redemption of all souls, whether on the planet Earth or on the millions of other planets in the universe.
It is the Christ Principle poured out or shed for the spiritual purification, transmutation and salvation of God’s children. Only by Deity thus sending Its Son, the Christ, is humanity being slowly, very slowly redeemed from a damnation of spiritual darkness and death. But this salvation is the monopoly of no church or creed.
Away then with the blood of sheep or goats or man — for it has no spiritual saving power and is a sacrilegious abomination! The real Eucharist may best be celebrated alone, in the sacred silence of the Inner Chamber, where you in truth may feed with faith and thanksgiving on the ever-hallowed and eternal Christos. Then in solemn fact He will dwell in you and you in Him.
The impurities of your personality will be gradually washer away and your consciousness uplifted into atonement with the Divine Consciousness, so that you can say, “I and my Father are One”
