The mystic instinctively recognizes that two mysteries are mingled together in the Christian story. The process of interpretation have confused the patterns, but internally we have certain faculties of discrimination which refuse to accept the confusion. Our spiritual need requires the two fold realization, and this need cannot be denied. There is Jesus, the son of man, and Christ the son of God. We accept the fact that Jesus was Christened, but not that Jesus was Christ. As the folk hero, Jesus is humanity, considered individually or collectively. Christ is the redemptive power of God, the Supreme Being manifesting through and upon the human creation. Christ is the son of heaven, and Jesus the son of earth.

The life of Jesus, like the Mystery rituals of the ancient temples, describes “the perilous journey.” Jesus personifies the eternal neophyte seeking admission at the gates of the spiritual universe.

…the Christian mystic meditates upon Jesus as the mystical personification of his own higher nature. In this sense, Jesus was immaculately conceived. He was born of the virgin – the power of the soul – and he came as the fulfilment of the divine promise.

Manly P. Hall