Analogue 39: The First Sacrament & Naming

 Analogue 39

The First Sacrament and the Naming

If one goes down into the water and comes up having received nothing and then says, “I too am the Christ,” he or she is Christian in name only and has simply taken the Name “on loan.” But if he or she receives the gift of the sacred Spirit, then that Name has also been received as a gift, which can never be taken away, whereas a loan can always be recalled.

• The perennial problem of spiritual and religious nominalism in sacred tradition—being a Christian in name only. 
• Anointed Consciousness versus ideological identity in religion. 
• External authority versus inner sovereignty.  
• The Sacred Spirit is given as the gift of true authority. 
• The Spirit is a shared reality and altogether interior, a part of interiorized Judaism as was taught by Yeshua. 
• Inner versus outer naming. 
• Use of the Name—invocation of the divine Name.  

COMMENTARY

The Jewish Rite of Conversion

First century Judaism practiced a rite of conversion (also called metanoia) that is known today in the Christian tradition as baptism. It was the immersion of one’s body (and hopefully one’s whole being) into living water. In the early literature it was said that the followers of Yeshua were initiated in this manner by John the Baptist who used the rite to indicate an inner turning away from a broad religious path toward a narrower path of spiritual dedication and practice. This rite has continued on, of course, into later eras up to the present moment. For most Christians today, however, it has lost its earlier significance and is now considered to be an institutional act, promulgated by the church to indicate adherence to its doctrines and practices. Philip, however, saw it differently, more akin to its original usage as an initiation into the interior pathways following the early masters of Wisdom. 

For the inner, esoteric experience of baptism, nominalism is a perennial and tragic outcome of institutionalization. It means that for most folk baptized today, taking the name Christian, is simply an act of outer conformity—they have become Christians in name only. There is little or no interior connection to the Messiah himself nor to his inner Spirit. There is no deep commitment to his teachings or to the pathways of his practice. Nothing of the interior dimension of his praxis is alive within them. This is not to deny that one can undergo the rite and then receive these gifts, experiencing them later. This Gospel, however, insists upon a living experience that takes the individual into the deep essence of intimacy with the Master.

A Gateway to Spirit

In this Gospel, the physical act of baptism is seen as a gateway into the reception of Spirit. In the writings of St. Paul, he also speaks of a baptism into Spirit which accompanies the rites of water baptism. Without that reception there appears to be little that changes or can change an individual’s inner world—one has simply received the name of the Christ as an accepted title, but, even then, it is only “on loan.” It has no transformative value—it has not touched the soul deeply. In this text, the significance is not simply the name “Christian” but the inner experience of the act itself: to be washed with water outwardly and anointed with Spirit inwardly is to know the existence of realities of these on the inside. The saturation of consciousness with Spirit is said to be at the heart of the experience of anointing which is received at the time of immersion. From the perspective of this Gospel, these two external rites, baptism and anointing, are inseparably entwined.  

It is only then that the power and the significance of the application of the sacred name “Christian” can come to be fully known, not as a name but as a relationship with the Master and his Spirit. Nothing less than this will suffice, for this is the means by which the divine gift is given to bring about the interior transformations which will lead the individual deeper into the mysteries of the Master’s path (which shall be more fully explicated in the next analogue). One cannot enter these mysteries in name only. Nominalistic or institutional religion will not give one entrance into the mystical experiences of the Bridal Chamber which is the subject to follow. 

Inner Authority

An external authority cannot cause or authorize such an inner turning. Its is only the establishment of an inner authority or sovereignty that becomes foundational for everything else that is to follow in this text. These realities lie at the heart of the “interiorized Judaism” which Yeshua himself knew and practiced, which had little to do with the following of a formal religion—though he was able to do that as well. What he chose and knew was an interior path which was the gift of Spirit that empowered him with sovereignty or inner authority. He chose then to share this inner experience with others—all those who would step onto this same pathway with him, making a like journey of Spirit. The Gospel of Philip introduces us to the mysterious experiences which follow from walking this path, which is again the way of Interiorized Judaism and the mystical tradition reflecting the consciousness of first Temple Judaism. How else can these deeper mysteries be understood?

In contrast to this, one can see how in normal religious practice, the rite of baptism establishes a  form of political or institutional identity (what today we call religious or denominational identity) through which one becomes associated with one particular branch of the church administering the rite with its own unique doctrinal ideology. To be identified as a Christian member with one particular denomination is, of course, normal. The Gospel of Philip, however, wants to know whether or not, along with these possible identities, there has been a change in one’s inner being or consciousness. Identities can be changed fairly quickly and easily. It is only a name change or a new institutional title. The question is, however, has that changed the fundamental structure of one’s being and consciousness? 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. Have you been baptized? What is your experience and understanding of that act? Who authorized and administered it and what has it meant to you?
2. Does this passage change the way you think about this rite in any way? Describe and journal your insights. 
3. Have you ever thought about what the gift of the Sacred Spirit means (which Paul describes as another kind of immersion)? Do you have knowledge or an experience of that? 
4. Do you name yourself a Christian? Why or why not? Have you ever been anointed in a Christian way? What has that meant for you?
5. The Gospel of Philip suggests that you not only carry but become the sacred Name in some way. How might you describe that? 
6. Have you ever practiced the recitation of the divine Names as a spiritual practice? If this is new to you, there are many divine Names used in various traditions as a kind of prayer form or mantra. This might be an opportune moment to find out more about this practice of remembrance and experiment with it. Using a Name in a proper way connects you to that individual by calling out to that individual with inner attention. 

Notes for Reference and Further Study

1. Rites of baptism and anointing go back into the ancient cultures of the past. According to the Tablets of Maklu, rituals around water were important in ancient Babylon as a ritualized cleansing agent in the cult of Enke, lord of Eridu. In ancient Egypt, a Book called the Going Forth by Day contains a treatise on the baptism of newborn children. The rite is performed to purify a child of blemishes acquired in the womb. The cold waters of the Nile were believed to have regenerative powers. They were also used to baptize the dead in a ritual based on the Osiris myth, ritualizing the idea of regeneration through water. In the cult of Isis, baptism represented the initiate's symbolic death to the life of this world, recalling Osiris' own drowning in the Nile. Immortality was also associated with baptism in the ancient Greek world. The mystery religions of that period often included rites of ablution either immersing or washing of the body for the purposes of purification as an initiation. Other concepts said to have been associated with these forms of baptisms included the transformation of one's life, the removal of sins, the attainment of greater physical vitality, a new beginning, and spiritual regeneration. It is believed that all ancient religions recognized some form of spiritual cleansing, renewal or initiation that was accomplished through washing or immersion in water. 
2. The liturgical use of water was also common in the Jewish world and was, of course carried over into the Christian world through a rite used by Yeshua’s cousin, John. The Law of Moses required ablutions (cleansing) on the part of priests following certain sacrifices and performed with certain individuals who were considered unclean because of infectious disease (Num. 19:1-22; Lev 14,15, 16:24-28). The use of water for purification was used symbolically and is used in such passages as Ezekiel 36:25 where God says, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities . . .” which can be seen to be foreshadowing baptism in the later Christian world which is also for the purpose of spiritual cleansing (1 Peter 3:21). This form of ritual cleansing was at the heart of the rites of the Essence communities along the Dead Sea and very active in Yeshua’s day. 
3. Toward the beginning of the Christian era as well as in Yeshua’s day, the Jewish world adopted the custom of baptizing proselytes seven days after their circumcision. A series of specific interrogations made it possible to judge the real intentions of the candidate who wished to adopt the Jewish religion. After submitting to these interrogations, males were circumcised and later baptized before witnesses. In the baptism, proselytes was immersed naked in a pools flowing with water; as they rose from the waters, they were seen as “children of Israel.” After their baptism, new converts were allowed access to sacrificial worship in the Temple. All of this appears to be at the center of the historical symbolism of Second Temple practice, but used in the Gospel of Philip as a sign of an inner alchemy taking place secretly inside the inner temple of kardial space within the individual. 
4. The fundamental human need is to have an encounter with Spirit as the divine Presence who (from the Jewish perspective) haunts history and the habitations of humankind. This has been a part of an ancient, biblical understanding. The universe itself was seen by the aboriginal world to be “animated” by Spirit (those traditions were rightly called animistic), filled with the sense of the haunting Presence of the divine. This is foundational to all of the earliest faiths and the established teachings concerning the experience of and encounter with the Sacred Spirit in all subsequent traditions, especially of the Abrahamic streams. To encounter the Spirit was to meet the Other, often a Presence unseen, but sensed and known in some way. That same Spirit could fill and “possess” a human being. To be anointed with oil was therefore seen to be both a gateway and a sign of this encounter and the subsequent filling. One could be immersed into water and at the same moment filled with Spirit, imagining it perhaps as a kind of double immersion—a human was plunged into water and the Spirit plunged into and filled a human’s soul (Acts 11:15-16).
5. In the same we name a human child at birth, the naming of the divine Presence with proper nomenclature, is also a part of the experience of an encounter with Spirt as divine Presence. With each other, we move from being unknown and anonymous to one another, to being aware of strangers whom we do not know, getting to know someone in various relationships of acquaintance, and then to deepening friendship, and finally into forms of intimacy. Our names for each other reflect these changes. When we know someone well, we call them perhaps by a personal nick-name, but before that we might address them with a title (Mr. and Mrs., or something more elaborate). In deepening acquaintance, we address each other by first name, indicating friendship. The practice of using the divine Name(s), and calling out to address the divine Presence indicates steps toward deeper knowledge and intimacy in those relationships. In the ancient Hebrew texts it is said that our ancestors called out, addressing the divine Presence by Name, often using names and titles to indicate honor and levels of acquaintance. Later, in the spiritual traditions, this use of the divine Name (and Names) as a means of sacred remembrance (and the exchanges of communication in each other’s presence), because a spiritual practice of prayer—this calling out or invocation of the the Holy Names, and the continuous remembrance by way of repetition as a form of recall and the sign of deepening intimacy. 

Notes on the Translation

1. The word “Christ” is used here to translate the word chosen in the Coptic text to indicate the literal meaning of the term of the Christ as an Anointed One, which is the direct result of Yeshua’s experience of baptism and spiritual anointing.
2. The term on loan is rendered as it is found directly in the original text.