Let us start by looking at the early Mithraic religion, where the worship of the Sun God, Mithra, was carried out by the Magi.

We find that the Mithraic religion had its sacraments, its baptism, its penitence, its Eucharist and its consecration by mystical words; the catechumens of that religion had preparatory trials, the Initiates or the faithful marked their foreheads with a sacred sign; they admitted also the dogma of the resurrection; they were presented with the crown, which ornamented the forehead of the martyrs; their sovereign Pontiff was not allowed to marry several times; they had their virgins and their laws of continence; in fact they had many things, which were later practised by the Christians. [Dupuis – The Origin of All Religions.]

We are also told by Macrobius that feasts of the Passion, or of the death and resurrection of the God Day, which had been fixed at the equinox of spring, were to be found in all sects of the religion of the Sun. With the Egyptians, it was the death and resurrection of Osiris, with the Phoenicians it was the death and resurrection of Adonis, and with the Phrygians it represented the tragic adventures of Atys, etc. Therefore the God Sun experiences in all religions the same misfortunes as Christ, like him he triumphs over death, and this happens just at the same epochs of its annual revolution.

If we look further, towards the Hindu religion, we can also see present the principle of the virgin birth. There we find that their supreme avatar, Krishna, although the eighth such, was the first to have descended in all plenitude from the Godhead, and to have been regarded as Vishnu himself in a human form.

Krishna was born of a chaste virgin, called Devaki, who, on account of her purity, was selected to become the “mother of God.” Buddha Himself was born of the virgin Maya, or Mary. The Siamese had a Virgin-born God and Saviour whom they called Codom. [Diegesis – Robert Taylor.]

Dean Millman, in his “History of Christianity”, refers to the tradition, found amongst the Chinese, that an early saviour, called Fo-hi, was born of a virgin, and he remarks also that the first Jesuit missionaries who went to China were appalled at finding, in the mythology of that country, a counterpart of the story of the virgin of Judea.

These are just one or two examples, but for the serious student of comparative religion, there are many well-researched accounts of the large numbers of similarities, both in form, as well as in belief between various religions, and earlier paganism too.

The problem, though, has come about through humanity’s insatiable desire for power over, and control, and thus using the letter of the ‘law’, or the peculiarities of a specific form, to claim that they are right and that all others are at best wrong, and at worst evil.

This practice started even as far back as the early Christians. For example, in his First Apology, St. Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-165) points to the large number of similarities between Christianity and other pre-existing religions as evidence why Christianity should be accepted. However, he also goes on to say that in spite of all these similarities, Christianity is the only true religion. Further, he maintains that where pre-existing religions are similar, these similarities were “imitated” in advance, by “the influence of the wicked demons, to deceive and lead astray the human race." This line of reasoning was perpetuated by Tertullian and, ever since, by a host of others.

Nevertheless, as Dupuis puts it: “there is not the slightest difficulty, without the intervention of the Devil, to perceive, that whenever two religions resemble each other so completely, the oldest must be the mother and the youngest the daughter.”

If, then, it is blind reliance on the form by power-hungry, fanatical or misguided adherents, then, one may wonder, what is it in any religion that lies beyond the form?

Beyond the form, or behind the veil, as expressed in the occult terminology, lie the hidden, true teachings; the inner core; the true legacy, for which the outer teachings are nothing more than a vehicle to lead the dedicated searcher into true understanding. The true inner teachings are, in reality, so powerful in their utter simplicity, that they could not be revealed to any but the most trusted initiates, for the very real fear that they would be abused.

Thus, for example, in earlier times, in India, it was because of this risk that the last of the Brahmans’ precious manuscripts were secured and hidden during the reign of the Emperor Akbar. In spite of all his bribes and threats the Emperor was never able to succeed in extorting from the Brahmans the original text of the Veda. [Prof. Max Müller, Lecture on the “Science of Religion.”]

Today, as a result of either the safeguarding of these inner teachings throughout the world, or the wholesale destruction of much of the evidence that points to them, by fanatics of every country, there is little written evidence of their existence, and even less true knowledge of their use. And in this respect, it is doubtful that there exists in the West today, true original versions of the texts of any of the major Eastern religions.

Yet, for those who truly have the eyes to see, and the HEART, as opposed to the MIND, with which to hear, the truth is still discernible – a truth that is the same foundation for all true religions; namely, that there is, and has always been, but One Life, evolving One awareness, through the utilization of One matter – the One, the Supreme Cause; nameless and formless, about Whom naught may be said, but the One from Whom and of Whom all issues.

Concerning this One Supreme Being, the ancient Vedas, predating even the oldest of the psalms, speak thus:

“Who has seen the primeval being at the time of His being born? What is that endowed with substance that the unsubstantial sustains? From earth are the breath and blood, but where is the soul – who may repair to the sage to ask this? What is that One alone, who has upheld these six spheres in the form of an unborn?”

Elsewhere we find:

“The germ that still lay covered in the husk

Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat.

Then first came Love upon it, the new spring

Of mind; yea, poets in their hearts discerned,

Pondering this bond between created things

And uncreated. Comes this spark from earth,

Piercing and all-pervading, or from heaven?

These seeds were sown, and mighty power arose,

Nature below, and Power and Will above.

Who knows the secret? Who proclaimed it here?

Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang?

The gods themselves came later into being.

Who knows from whence this great creation sprang?

He, from whom all this great creation came.

Whether His will created or was mute,

The Most High seer, that is in highest heaven,

He knows it; or, perchance, e’en He knows not.”

[History of India, Vol. 1 by Talboys Wheeler, and History of Sanscrit Literature, by Prof. Max Müller.]

From the Boundless One, proceeds Every-Thing, the Universe, and all that we know, or are able to describe.

In terms of cosmology, as expressed through the Toltec teachings, this Supreme Being relates to the origin of life, life unmanifest, or the Unspeakable, or what Toltecs refer to as the nagal, or pure spirit.

From the above arises the basic duality, as expressed through the little-understood law of polarity. This knowledge, embodied in all life-forms, was acknowledged and celebrated by the ancients through the early depiction in so many different religions, of the sexual organs. As Dupuis expresses it: “Those images and symbolical expressions of the two great forces of the God-Universe, were as simple as they were ingenious; they had been imagined in those ages, when the organs of generation and their union had not yet been blemished by the ridiculous prejudice of mysticism, or dishonored by the abuse of lewdness. The operations of Nature and of her agents were held as sacred as herself: our religious errors and vices have only profaned her.”

From the Unspeakable also arises the fundamental triplicity of the godhead that is found at the heart of all the great religions. Thus, we have, for example; God the Father, God the Holy Spirit and God Jesus Christ; Brahmâ, Shiva, Vishnu; Agni, Sûrya, Vâyu; Kether, Binah, Chokmah; Osiris, Isis, Horus, etc.

Yet, as we have seen, because these representations, or forms, have not been recognized as symbols for inner truths that can never be spoken about, but only lived and experienced, they have led to bitter conflicts as to which is the superior, and thus have led to extreme separativeness and destruction.

It is little wonder then, that the inner teachings have always had to remain hidden, for man is indeed the microcosm of the macrocosm, and the pathways to man’s inner being, as revealed through knowing and living the Eternal Truth, provide man with the most powerful keys, not only to his own life and happiness, but also to the entire universe.

These are the keys that are contained within man’s true heritage, and which are being revealed through the Toltec teachings as expressed by Théun Mares.

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