Printed in the Summer 2023 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Smoley, Richard, "The Reappearance of the Christ" Quest 111:3, pg 23-25
By Richard Smoley
The reappearance of the Christ is a frequent theme in certain metaphysical and New Age circles.
Although it bears some resemblance to conventional Christian doctrine, this view of the return of the Christ differs strongly from it as well. It does not picture Christ manifesting in the skies in a luridly obvious way. What it does mean, particularly in a Theosophical context, is worth exploring.
The central figure forecasting the return of the Christ in this manner was Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949). Bailey was originally a Theosophist, but in 1920 she and her husband, Foster, broke with the Theosophical Society for reasons that are differently described by various sources. One source of contention was her claim to be in contact with the Master Djwhal Kul, or D.K., often known as “the Tibetan”—identified with a disciple of the Mahatmas Morya and K.H. Much of Bailey’s voluminous work was ostensibly channeled through to her from D.K.
Bailey’s Christ is not the God-Man proclaimed by the churches. He is instead a member of the unseen Hierarchy that constitutes the secret rulership (or supervision) of the human race. He is the particular embodiment of the Second Ray force of Love-Wisdom, “Who—for the first time in planetary history, as far as we know—transmitted the divine energy of love to our planet and in a most definite sense to humanity” (Bailey, Reappearance, 6).
In Bailey’s view, the relation of the Christ to specific men in history is one of overshadowing: the divine presence of the “Avatar” takes over the personality and body of an individual. This view is similar to the doctrine of adoptionism in some versions of Christology, which teach that the human Jesus was not born the Christ but became so only when the Christ took over his body. This is usually assumed to have happened at Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. This doctrine was held by Rudolf Steiner, but it goes back to the earliest days. Some of the most ancient copies of the Gospel texts show variant readings suggesting that this may have been the original view of the some of the Evangelists, the texts having been altered later on to obscure this point.
Bailey’s early work Initiation: Human and Solar outlines the role of the Christ. He is the “World Teacher,” the “presiding head” of a certain wing of the Hierarchy. “He is that Great Being Whom the Christian calls the Christ; He is known also in the Orient as the Bodhisattva, and as the Lord Maitreya, and is the One looked for by the devout Mohammedan, under the name of the Imam Mahdi” (Bailey, Initiation, 43).
Here Bailey identifies the Christ with “the Lord Maitreya,” the “Bodhisattva.” She is alluding to a teaching in Mahayana Buddhism that there have been many Buddhas over the eons: the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, is only the most recent one. Another Buddha is to come, and his name is Maitreya.
This idea is rooted in the Buddhist doctrine of impermanence. All manifest things are impermanent and therefore doomed to perish. The same is true of the Dharma, the teaching of the Buddha: eventually it will be degraded and corrupted and forgotten. The bodhisattva Maitreya will at that point come to earth, achieve enlightenment to become the next Buddha, and reinvigorate and perpetuate the Dharma.
In her late work The Reappearance of the Christ (1948), Bailey said that the world’s exigencies after the Second World War made it necessary for the Christ to manifest in human form on the earth: “This unique opportunity with which He is presented is brought about by certain world conditions which themselves are unique; there are factors in the world today, and happenings have taken place within the past century which have never before occurred” (Bailey, Reappearance, 15).
Bailey emphasizes that this manifested Christ will be a public figure. “He must again enter the public arena, play His part in world affairs, and prove the scope of His mission. . . . His major task is surely the establishing of right human relations in every department of human living” (Bailey, Reappearance, 56).
We are also told that “the development of spiritual recognition is the great need today in preparation for His reappearance; no one knows in what nation He will come; He may appear as an Englishman, a Russian, a Negro, a Latin, a Turk, a Hindu, or any other nationality. . . . He may be a Christian or a Hindu by faith, a Buddhist or of no particular faith at all; He will not come as the restorer of any of the ancient religions, including Christianity, but He will come to restore man’s faith in the Father’s love, in the fact of the livingness of the Christ and in the close, subjective and unbreakable relationship of all men everywhere” (Bailey, Reappearance, 19).
It would be very difficult to associate this figure with anyone now known on the world scene.
One enthusiastic promoter of Bailey’s teaching was the Scottish visionary Benjamin Creme (1922‒2016). According to him, the Christ—whom Creme called Maitreya—is now alive and embodied on planet earth. He “has been based in the Asian community of London since July 1977, gradually emerging into full public view,” according to the website of Creme’s organization, Share International.
“On 14 January 2010 Benjamin Creme announced that Maitreya had given His first interview, on American television, and that millions had heard Him speak both on television and the internet. Mr Creme explained: ‘He was introduced not as Maitreya, the World Teacher and Head of our Spiritual Hierarchy, but simply as a man, one of us. In this way He ensures that men follow and support Him for the truth and sanity of His ideas rather than for His status. He spoke earnestly of the need for peace, achievable only through the creation of justice and the sharing of the world’s resources,’” says the Share International site. Maitreya is claimed to have appeared, wearing white robes, in Nairobi in 2010 and in other nations as well. But since Creme’s death, the enthusiasm over the coming of Maitreya has abated, although people still report sightings.
I do not believe in prophecies of any kind: very few of them, from any source, have come true. So I put no great faith in the manifestation of Maitreya in a form portrayed by Creme and possibly Bailey.
On the other hand, to make a negative prophecy is itself a prophecy, so I can hardly state with assurance that such a thing will definitely not occur.
Nevertheless, I have my doubts. The largest one is inspired by the current state of the world media. Say someone resembling Creme’s Maitreya were to appear. He (or she) would almost certainly become yet another celebrity, arousing enthusiasm, controversy, doubt, and all sorts of other mass emotions. I find it hard to imagine that his message would be heard over the din. As adepts have known for millennia, one can accomplish much more working out of the public view.
I think that if the Christ is to reappear, it will occur in quite a different form. I believe that this reappearance will be a collective one—something that occurs within humanity (or a certain portion of it) rather than in the form of yet another charismatic figure.
I tend to sympathize with the comments made on this subject by H.P. Blavatsky in her 1887 article “The Esoteric Character of the Gospels”:
“The coming of Christ,” means the presence of Christos in a regenerated world, and not at all the actual coming in body of “Christ” Jesus; . . . this Christ is to be sought neither in the wilderness nor in the “inner chambers,” nor in the sanctuary of any temple or church built by man; for Christ—the true esoteric Saviour—is no man, but the Divine Principle in every human being. He who strives to resurrect the Spirit crucified in him by his own terrestrial passions, and buried deep in the “sepulchre” of his sinful flesh; he who has the strength to roll back the stone of matter from the door of his own inner sanctuary, he has the risen Christ in him. (Blavatsky, 173)
This passage—which concisely summarizes the central principle of esoteric Christianity—points toward what I believe to be the genuine reappearance of the Christ. It will be a collective awakening, shared by some, perhaps many, perhaps all—but not in any one single public figure.
Conceivably this awakening of the collective Christ is already taking place. But whether it is—and what stage it may be at—will be clear only in retrospect.
Today there is much anxiety about the state of the world; but then there is always much anxiety about the state of the world. Our difficulties are unprecedented; but then the difficulties of every generation are unique and unprecedented. We will not extract ourselves from them by seeking masters and leaders on the outside. This time it will take contact with the Master within.
Sources
Emphasis in all quotations is from the original sources.
Bailey, Alice A. Initiation Human and Solar. New York: Lucis, 1922.
———. The Reappearance of the Christ. New York: Lucis, 1948.
Blavatsky, H.P. Collected Writings, Volume 8: 1887. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1960).
O’Callaghan, Sean. “The Theosophical Christology of Alice Bailey.” In Olav Hammer and Mikael Rothstein, eds. Handbook of the Theosophical Current. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 2013: 93‒112.
Zavadski, Katie. “What to Do When Your Telepathic Leader Dies.” The Daily Beast, Dec. 18, 2016.
Richard Smoley’s latest book, Seven Games of Life and How to Play, was reviewed in the Spring 2023 issue of Quest. This article previously appeared in the winter 2023 issue of the British Theosophical journal Esoterica.