The Image of God
An investigation of the many misconceptions modern Christians have about God and occultism
Guest article by A. N. Christian
Introduction by Occult Mysteries
What you are about to read is a powerful and compelling critique of dogmatic Christianity. Many Christians would be horrified and incensed to be accused of idolatry, but this is what the worship of a God made in the image of man, possessed of all the vices, follies and weaknesses of man, amounts to. The author, who has chosen to write under a pseudonym, is a Christian occultist — itself a blasphemous abomination to most devout Christians, yet not as unusual as some might suppose. Such luminaries as Sir Isaac Newton fall into this category, as do the astrologer William Lilly and the 19th century magician Éliphas Lévi. So "A. N. Christian" is in good company!
We hope that those of our readers who are Christians as well as those who come from a Christian perspective, many of whom have been taught that the 'occult' is evil or have grave misgivings about occultism due to the opprobrium heaped upon it by the Church, will find both encouragement and illumination in this new article.
On the authority of Genesis the Christian Church teaches that Man is made in the image of God, and is the pinnacle of the entire work of creation. But is the Man of Genesis the same as the material, physical being of that name? Many Christians believe he is. But how can the average specimens of humanity who are steeped in so-called 'sin' and know nothing of God be made in His image? The Apostle Paul rightly draws a distinction between the "man of sin" and the divine and heavenly man who is equal to God and is God — which in Paul's eyes was Jesus the Christ. This contradiction arises from the fact that Christians, in common with the 'heathens' they love to disparage and judge so unfairly, would rather make a God in their own image and likeness, according to their own human impurities and sinful desires, and according to their limited vision and mental power. As John Temple explains in chapter three of The Search for Truth, "All the Gods of these religions [he mentions Judaism, Islam and Christianity], as well as many others, past and present; cruel, tribal and jealous, are the empty phantoms of man's disordered imagination. Born in the mind of the zealot, the fanatic and the idle dreamer, they have taken form and overshadowing human ideals, brought darkness, strife and hatred instead of light, peace and love. Only when these false idols are cast down in the hearts and minds of mankind will the higher realisation of their oneness as the children of the God of Life, Light and Love become the heritage of all."
By attuning with material things and our worst impulses and selfish desires — i.e., by aligning ourselves with the lower mind we lower our whole being — we weaken ourselves mentally and become perverse and stupid. Once we are inured to such a low mental state, we are more likely to imagine the kind of deity John Temple describes. A God who can be bribed with promises of future good behaviour in return for present gifts, is not a god but an idol. A god who can be importuned to send death and destruction to our enemies while sparing ourselves is not a god but a demon. The phantasms of what so many Christians think God to be only serve to hide the reality of the true God of Light and Love from our hearts and minds. The great spiritual teachers of the past, whose divine privilege and dispensation it was to instruct and guide others, all taught that we are rather to mould ourselves into the likeness of God; to elevate human nature unto the Divine, not to debase the Divine by dragging it down to our level. This inner labour of self-mastery and self-perfection has been called Herculean, for the difficulties which must be faced can seem overwhelming. But to those who truly wish to grow in the likeness of their Maker, there is no other way. It is a necessity, not an option, and they must go on until the goal is attained. This process is none other than attunement with the Soul. It is the Royal Road of transmuting the material dross of Paul's "man of sin" into the spiritual gold of Man made in the Image of God; the Heavenly Man or Higher Mind and the Soul in eternal embrace.
Man made in the Image of God — The Heavenly Man
Illustration by Ethelwynne M Quail of a magnificent Deva seen by the clairvoyant occultist Geoffrey Hodson from his book The Kingdom of the Gods
All good things flow from this attunement, which are like shrines and altars and sacred works devoted to God, arising naturally as the mind is further enrapt in the Divine. This work of transmutation has never been more vividly and truly described than in Vision 7 of The Golden Star.
"It makes no difference how we interpret the cry from the Cross: 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' or 'My God, my God, how Thou dost glorify me!' — for there is very great Truth in both these renderings. Both these things happen in the great Initiations, and the sufferings of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, His Crucifixion and His Resurrection are indicative of a very high form of Initiation, namely, the Fourth...The Fourth Initiation is always a crucifixion, for it seems as if all friends forsake the Initiate for a time, and he stands alone in his grief; but this part of the path is also his glorification — when in the midst of traitors, who twist his every word and distort his every act; when all good things are taken from him, and all his beloved ones desert him; when a shower of abuse descends upon him, and his holiness is despised and rejected; and when he even wavers in his own inner belief in the Love of his Father in Heaven, and seems to be cut off from all Divine Inspiration and comfort — when, in spite of all these tribulations, he still keeps his faith and turns to God, then comes the moment in which he is truly glorified, and the Father stretches out a loving hand which raises up the sufferer and translates him from the path of blindness and despair to that of Sight and Bliss. The agony of the Cross has then become the beatification of the Higher Mind and Soul, and a choir of jubilation resounds and echoes in all the Heavens, for the Initiate has learned to stand apart from all external things and conditions, and he knows triumphantly that he is One with the Logos and that all else is illusion and temptation. The Cross has been conquered and the shining Pathway stretches straight before him and continues for all Eternity, leading from Glory to Glory."
Christianity also has its sacred initiations; though they are not known by this term. Nonetheless, Christianity recognises and practises initiation. In Christianity the first three Initiations are symbolized by the Birth, the Baptism, and the Transfiguration, although the occult teaching underlying them has been lost. The fourth initiation described in The Golden Star is wanting in the Christian scheme unless we consider death to symbolize it. The ancient Egyptians did preserve the esoteric meaning of the Fourth Initiation, the formula for which runs: "Then shall the candidate be bound upon the wooden cross, he shall die, he shall be buried, and shall descend into the underworld; after the third day he shall be brought back from the dead." This is reflected in the old proverb: "No cross, no crown." Theon of Smyrna, the famous Greek mathematician who flourished in the first century A.D., divided these initiations into five parts in his book Mathematica. The first of these was birth, the same as we find in Christianity. The second consisted of what he calls "certain purifications," which corresponds perfectly with the Christian rite of Baptism. The third initiation he denominated epopteia, meaning the reception of the sacred teachings taught in the Eleusinian Mysteries of which Theon was an initiate. This too, closely resembles the Christian Feast of Transfiguration which commemorates Jesus' assimilation to his Father in Heaven. Occultly, this corresponds to the attunement of the Higher Mind with the Soul. The fifth initiation, also wanting in Christianity, was described by Theon as "friendship and interior communion with God," in other words assimilation to the Deity, which the Greeks called Henosis.
Unfortunately, these profound occult truths are almost entirely unknown to modern Christians, or if dimly suspected, are dismissed as pagan nonsense at best or smacking of the dreaded 'occult' at worst. This is a very great pity and shows just how many of the earliest and most fundamental teachings of the Church contemporary Christians have lost or forgotten, to their great detriment. It is this ignorance, coupled with the entirely false doctrine of vicarious atonement which causes so many Christians to fall into the trap of mistaking the lower mind for the Higher, and of worshipping that instead of fulfilling their divine potential and attuning with Truth. In this respect they are little better than the Canaanites, who sacrificed human beings on their altars to Moloch — a cruel, bloodthirsty deity fashioned in their own degraded image. Such a God is a caricature of all the worst vices of human nature. Surprisingly, Moloch is still worshipped today by millions of Christians who would be horrified to learn that there is very little difference between the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the bloodthirsty Canaanite deity. If we turn to Leviticus chapter 26 we find a whole catalogue of curses and punishments with which the "Lord your God" threatens his children, meaning YOU and ME! In the next chapter of the same book we may read: "And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the LORD. For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Leviticus 27:6 and 11). Now, ask yourself honestly, what sort of a 'god' is it that demands blood sacrifices from his worshippers to 'atone' for their supposed sins? How, in the name of all that is sane, good and holy, can the shedding of the blood of innocent animals atone for the 'iniquities', vices and weaknesses of men and women?
God made in the image of Man — St. Paul's "man of sin"
From an illustration by Gustave Doré — The Brazen Serpent — Copper engraving, 1866
Surely, if we have committed a crime against Man or God the right way — the only way — to atone for our misdeeds is to correct what we have done wrong? I don't mean we should embark on a frenzy of forcing upon others what we think are "good deeds" to make ourselves look or feel better. Only by turning our every thought, our very hearts, our whole being, towards the true and heavenly Light, and aligning ourselves with that God, may we hope to atone for the wrongs we have committed. It is through sacrificing the man of sin on the altar of divine benediction and eternal service that we become the very Image of God. The way to this victory is open to all, though as Jesus taught his disciples, "...strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14). Strait is not the same as 'straight'. Strait is an archaic adjective meaning difficult, strict and arduous. The gate that leads to Life and Light is so difficult that not only do few ever 'find it' as Jesus said, but almost no one even bothers looking for it! Why would they want to, given what I said earlier when I quoted the words of J Michaud in The Golden Star about crucifixion? For those who err (and who has not?), the good news is that we can free ourselves from error and absolve our own sin by turning to the Soul, the divine Christos. The Christian teaching that it is possible to be saved without any sacrifice, effort or merit, through so-called Grace alone seems totally unjust to me. It goes against all reason. If this were true, why should a thief, rapist, or murderer ever repent? He or she could gleefully continue to steal, rape and murder all the days of their life, secure in the knowledge that 'Grace' will miraculously save them. Modern Christians define Grace as the unmerited favour of God. The emphasis is mine. In Christian theology, it is taught that salvation is not earned by human effort but is a gift from God through His grace. This thoroughly unjust and illogical dogma is supposedly derived from Biblical verses like Ephesians 2: 8 which states, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." So why should any Christian ever repent?
The 19th century Theologian Dr E. V. Kenealy comprehensively refutes this odious dogma in The Book of Fo:
Neither in the highest heavens;
Nor in the earth, nor in the waters, nor in the air;
Nor in fire, nor in any element;
Can the spirit escape the consequences of its acts.
It cannot be forgiven;
It must purify itself;
It cannot be atoned for or redeemed;
It must purify itself; it must purify itself;
Sacrifice cannot make it beautiful; it must purify itself;
Offerings or prayers brighten it not;
It must purify itself; it must purify itself."
As John Temple explains in The Search for Truth, "A clearer or truer refutation of the insidious dogma of priestly absolution has never been written. By 'purify' Dr Kenealy not only means righting the wrongs we have committed, whether in thought or deed, but the cleansing of wrong thinking and wrong attunement. Our thoughts and deeds follow us from life to life and by their virtue or vice determine our future fate. This is not 'Karma' as it is popularly misunderstood but the working out of prior causes, what Kenealy calls the 'consequences' of our acts." This sheds more light on the second initiation that I mentioned earlier which is reproduced in a distorted form in the Christian rite of Baptism. I say 'distorted' deliberately, for what 'sins' can a baby possibly have committed that require purifying? If we truly want to 'save' ourselves we should follow the example of the Greek Hero Alcides who did not ask how God could save him from the consequences of the atrocious crime of murdering his wife and sons, but rather asked how he could absolve himself from his sin. For those who do not know this greatest of Greek myths, Alcides was tasked with performing a series of astoundingly difficult feats, called the Twelve Labours of Hercules, which took place all over ancient Greece. Only after he had succeeded did he earn the divine name of Heracles (Roman Hercules), and so atone for his crimes, to be rewarded with immortality in the end.
But unlike Alcides we should not seek to serve God through violence or injustice. Nor is the arduous work of atonement intended to elevate ourselves above others, so we may wallow in the glow of self-satisfaction and pride ourselves on our virtue. On the contrary, the process of purification elevates the whole of human nature, sloughing off vice and replacing it with virtue. In the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus this process is called Regeneration. This concept is found in Christianity too where, in the Old Testament, the word means turning away from evil and sin. In the New Testament 'generation' occurs twice, meaning 'becoming new again' — a sort of reconstitution in the spirit. To the early Christians who had previously been steeped in 'sin', the change which took place when they entered on a truly Christian life was so radical and so thorough that it defied definition. 'Regeneration' is only one of many metaphors employed in the Bible which were intended to express the fact that before anyone can atone for their sins a profound change must be wrought within them. That change is the awakening of the faculties that were present in the Higher Mind from the beginning of its conscious existence, but are either wholly or completely dormant in most people on earth.
Of course, we first need to learn what "right and wrong" actually are, to discover what sin really is and what it is not, and to learn how to attune with the Soul and so fulfil this high calling we all have as children of God. This learning process is not easy. It can be quite a shock to discover that what most people claim to be "right and wrong" is not a reliable basis for our decision-making. Should we obey the hollow ritual observances which comprise much of the Old Testament as so many fundamentalist Christians do? Remember — these are the kind of Christians who would gladly imprison or murder gays. Is this how we should serve God’s purpose? Or should we be like the hard-headed (and heartless) philosopher Callicles in Plato's Gorgias who sought to aggrandize himself and lord it over those weaker than himself? Or should we rather seek to precisely weigh up how beneficial or pernicious every choice we make is, resolving all morality into a question of utility, as the British philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill exhorted? Or perhaps we should try to lecture everyone we meet like so many fanatical evangelists do, without first removing the beam from our own eye? What does it really mean to do what is right and attune with the Soul? That is probably the most important question anyone could ever ask, but it is not one which I feel qualified to answer at my present state of development.
All I can do is to pass on what I have learned, such as the occult knowledge and truths to be found in this website's many articles, or in books like the Platonic dialogues and the Bible. Or I could draw from my own personal experiences as some of the other contributors to Occult Mysteries have done, such as Eve Bennett, Greg Wade and Kurt Flaxman, and so try to formulate hypotheses on what my responsibilities are generally. I have come to believe that the only way to cut this Gordian Knot is through the study of Occult Science. Only Occult Science can show us what is needed to lead the best life possible and always do what is right, either through one’s own purity and inherent wisdom or under the careful guidance of those who have already attained Occult Wisdom and hold the keys of instructing others in this truest and holiest of sciences and arts. Sadly, such teachers do not grow on trees, unless we include the false pretenders to knowledge who claim to teach such things. But as I say in my Afterword, all they can do is show us what not to do and what is not Occult Wisdom.
Article and Afterword © A. N. Christian. Introduction © Copyright occult-mysteries.org.
All worldwide rights reserved. Article published 12 July 2026.
