Understanding John the Baptist: Symbolism and Spiritual Awakening

The struggle between higher consciousness and carnal desires reveals the path to Christ within oneself.

### Understanding the Symbolism of John the Baptist's Death in Spiritual Awakening
* 📖 The teachings at the Christian village church focus on the hidden meanings within the Bible, emphasizing that **true understanding comes from meditation and spiritual insight**.
* 🔍 Jesus Christ spoke about the mysteries of the kingdom, indicating that **deeper truths are revealed to those who are his disciples**, suggesting that **meditation is crucial for spiritual growth**.
* 🕊 The Apostle Paul warned against taking the Bible literally, highlighting that biblical stories, such as the **death of John the Baptist**, should be viewed **allegorically** to uncover their **spiritual significance**.
* 💡 The story of John the Baptist symbolizes the **struggle between the higher consciousness**, represented by John, and the **carnal mind**, represented by Herod and Salome, illustrating the **internal conflict we face in our spiritual journeys**.
* ⚖ The narrative stresses that the **emotional desires**, embodied by Herodias and Salome, often overshadow the guiding voice of our **higher self**, leading us away from **Christ consciousness**.
* 🧘 To overcome this, one must engage in **profound meditation**, which allows for the **awakening of the higher mind** and the **realization of the Christ within**, as stated in John 14:23.
* 🌌 The emphasis is placed on the importance of **aligning one's emotions and desires with the renewed mind** to achieve **spiritual purity and connection with Christ**, as indicated in 2 Corinthians 11:2.
* 📞 The church invites individuals to explore these teachings further through various sessions on meditation and biblical interpretations, encouraging a **deeper understanding of one's spiritual path**.

the show from what she likes to meditate. The Christian village church, 134 route 9, Forked River, next to Mrs. Walker's ice-cream parlor. And we teach the hidden meanings, the hidden meanings in the Bible. It's very interesting because Jesus Christ said, Unto you is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. He's talking about those who are disciples of his, who do what he says, which means meditation. Okay, come on up. But to those who are without, that means stay without, do not go within. All these things are parable. The Apostle Paul said, Be not a minister of the letter, for the letter killed. In other words, don't take the Bible literally. In Galatians 4:24, the Apostle Paul says, talking of biblical things in the Old Testament, Which things are an allegory. An allegory is a symbolic story which uses outer things that seem to be historical only to convey a deeper truth which is mystical or spiritual. And with that in mind, let's take a look at the death of John the Baptist. Let's not look

at it from a historical point of view because that's ridiculous. If we're really saying this is a Bible, if it's a Bible and it has to be a spiritual story, and it has to then have a relevance for you, otherwise it's something that happened 2,000 years ago and who cares. Is the death of John the Baptist a historical event? I don't know. I don't really know. I do know it's in the Bible, and that then propels me to find out why is the death of John the Baptist recounted in the Bible. What significance has it to you? I mean, they say read the Bible. Well, you don't want to read, you know, you're not reading a history book about something that happened to somebody. You want to read because it has a spiritual relevance to your life. And I'll tell you something that if you go into Matthew 14, 1-2, 14-12, the episodes concerning John the Baptist are filled with occult significance. And a cult doesn't mean you

know sacrificing cats, and she'd said in front of prissy, or you know all that stuff, it means hidden. Jesus never spoke but in a parable. That means that's a cult. We have, we get hung up on words, but that's what the word really means. If you look it up in the dictionary, you'll find it means hidden. If you'll follow carefully, you'll see that each character in the drama of the death of John the Baptist is a symbol of one of the seven principal aspects of men, which are carried by the side covered by the seven chakras to the book of Revelation. In Matthew 14:2, King Herod said, This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead. Now, why did Herod say that John the Baptist was risen from the dead? Because Jesus taught that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah. Look at, if you look at Matthew 11, okay, Matthew 11, and in Matthew 11, verse 14, Jesus Christ says this. He says, If you will receive it, and

he's talking about John the Baptist. This is Elijah, Elijah which was foretold to come. So, I mean, Jesus Christ is saying that Elijah has reincarnated into John the Baptist. And so, Herod in Matthew 14 turns around and says, John the Baptist is risen from the dead. Because what he was saying was that this John the Baptist is actually now manifesting physically that which was Elijah who had died, see? And that came strictly from Jesus who said that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah, okay? John the Baptist must be in you. John the Baptist has a spiritual, a mystical significance in your life. You shouldn't read about a man when you read the Bible about John the Baptist. You should read about yourself. Because John the Baptist means the awakening of conscience to turn from the lower mind to the higher. See, that is John the is that part of you which directs you to the awakening, that part of you which directs you to the Christ. Herod is the

carnal mind, the lustful ambitions of the flesh, and then you're gonna run, run into this old lady by the name of Herodias, who is the mother of Salome, and she represents the desire of the emotions. You would say, Well, how do you know she represents this? Okay, if I say to you, Let's go shoot the ostrich, you're gonna stare at me. If I say, Let's go shoot the kangaroo, you're not. What's he talking about? But if I say, Let's go shoot the bull, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Okay, if I said, He spilled the leaves, What? He spilled the leaves. What does that mean? If I say, He spilled the cake, He spilled the cake. What does that mean? But if I say to you, He spilled the beans, Wow! You know exactly what I'm talking about because you understand the symbolic language of today. And what I am addressing to you is the symbolic language of yesterday, the symbolic language of the Bible times of which

Jesus taught, and why the Apostle Paul said the Bible is an allegory and must not be taken literally. If you read this literally, it's like when somebody said, Let's shoot the bull, that you're gonna go get a gun. That's ridiculous, and that's why you cannot read the Bible literally. That's why Apostle Paul says, Do not be a minister of the letter because the letter kills. Don't read it literally, okay? So, this is a drama then, the death of John the Baptist, between your awakening mind, which is John the Baptist, awakening you to Christ, and your inner senses, the lower flesh, the carnal mind, which is represented by Herod and Salome in the gang that eventually killed John the Baptist. There's a struggle taking place between your John the Baptist mind, which is trying to lead you to Christ consciousness within yourself, and your hurried flesh, which is trying to keep you down to the area of sensuality, to the area of physical desire. It's saying that's in Romans 8:7.

that says in the Bible in Romans 8:7, If the carnal mind is the enemy of God, that's your human mind is God's enemy, that it cannot obey the law of God, that it is not subject to the law of God. And so, this here is the struggle not between John the Baptist and Herod, but between your higher mind represented by John the Baptist and your lower mind represented by Herod and Salome. See, so you know that John the Baptist was put in prison. So, what you have to do when you read that and say, Wow, you know, are you gonna read it as a history book? Say, No, I want to read it as a Bible story. That is, I want to know what it symbolically means, and I want to understand it mystically. John the Baptist, or that part of your mind which would awaken and lead you to the Christ who is within you. You remember John 14:23 says, At that time you will know, I am in the Father, you in me, and I in you. That aspect of you, that John the

Baptist aspect is bound and in bondage and put in prison. It is locked away, and it is locked away by your own carnal lust. Li ego, that's why Jesus Christ said you look and look but you don't say, you listen and listen but you don't hear, you don't understand. And Jesus says that the kingdom of God is given to those who enter within, but for those who are without, it's a parable. So, that's why they look and look but they don't see, they don't understand. So, why people are predicting that there gonna be a war in Iraq and it's gonna be Armageddon? Because they're reading the Bible literally, that's not true. There will not be a war because the great Aquarian age is upon us. The age of the coming of Christ is upon us, and it's happening in people all over the world. The reason that you see so many people into this new age in the Renda meditation is because they have discovered that Christ has returned and

is within them, and they are fellowshipping with Christ within themselves in the upper room of the higher consciousness. Other people who are looking at the things literally and traditionally are getting upset by it, just as they got upset with Jesus when he was here. They're getting upset again with Jesus because now he's within people, and he's manifesting himself within people. You see these people in new ages, they're not fighting anybody that doing bad things, they're not threatening any kinds of Armageddon's or bombs, the peace people. They're talking about compassion for dolphins, they're talking about compassion for the earth, they're talking about stopping wars. That's the Jesus mentality. So the reason here that John the Baptist or your higher consciousness that would lead you to Christ is in bondage to the lower mind is because the awakened mind or John the Baptist was saying you cannot have relations with your brother's wife. You remember the story John the Baptist was saying to Herod you cannot have

sexual intercourse with your brother's wife. Well, here you have to say now, what does that mean to me? I know that John the Baptist means the part of me that leads me to Christ within. I know that Herod is the lower carnal mind. Who is my brother's wife? You have four brothers, okay? Those are the fourfold nature of your body. You have spirit, emotion, physical, and intellectual. Those are your four brothers, okay? Your brother's wife is the emotional desire, the nature of the flesh. Wife, woman, always means emotions. Mind, male, masculine means mind. For instance, where you say it says a wife must be subjected to her husband, does not mean that physically, literally. If you take that literally, you're violating the Bible. It doesn't mean a wife must be subjected to her husband. It means the emotions, wife, must be subjected to the renewed mind, husband, okay? That's what it means, and that's a symbolic language. In the same way, I said shoot the bowlers, you know, spilled the beans, or you know, whatever. I'm just trying to think of

some others I'm sure you can think of a lot of them. You shot his mouth off. He's three sheets to the wind. You know those things are all symbolic, and here in the ancient mysticism, when the ancients wrote symbolically, parabolically, allegorically, the word wife or female was emotions. The word husband or mind was her husband or me. It was mine. So it means that the emotions must be subjected to the renewed mind. So your brother's wife is your own emotional desire. Okay, that which that part of you you have. You have four brothers: intellectual, physical, spiritual, and emotional. And one of the aspects, one of those brothers, is that which is the desire of the flesh, the emotions. Okay, so the fourfold nature of the emotional nature are married, but the king of your being, being Herod, now that directive principle of your carnal mind is going to have a relationship with the desires that come from your flesh. That's what this is talking about. It's not

Herod having intercourse with his brother's wife. I mean, what's that in the Bible for? I mean, that's something you would ban that from HBO or something. Well, we're talking spiritual here. The directive principle of your mind wants to intercourse with the desires of your flesh. You've got something that you want. You know, it's just overwhelming you. You've got to have it. Say your flesh has desires, but you must abstain from having an intercourse or relationship with those desires. That's why the Bible talks about whoredom. That's why the Bible says Jesus Christ is the bridegroom, because it means that your intercourse or relationship spiritually must be reserved for Christ consciousness, the higher mind. It cannot be into the lower mind, which is an intercourse relationship with desires of the flesh. That is adultery of the Spirit, and that's what the Bible means when it's talking about not committing adultery. It doesn't mean committing adultery in the physical sense. That doesn't make committing adultery in the physical sense right, but you have to understand

Adultery in the physical sense comes as a result of the carnal mind, and the Apostle Paul says that your carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. If you stop having adultery inside, you'll stop the adulteries outside. You'll never stop the adulteries of the flesh outside until first you cut away that flesh by rising to the higher consciousness inside. Don't you see? We dwell on the adulteries in the physical; we miss the adulteries in the spiritual. And so then we have the chaos sets out. What am I talking about here in 2nd Corinthians 11:2? The Apostle Paul says, I am jealous over you. I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. That means virgin consciousness. When you take no thought, when you enter into profound meditation, when you separate from the thoughts of the mind, you are a chaste virgin. And then you can have an intercourse with Christ consciousness.

because only through a virgin can the Christ be born in the chamber of your consciousness. This is good. It's got a great ending. The Christian village church, 134 route 9, Forked River. We're right next to Mrs. Walker's ice-cream parlor. On their Sunday morning at 11, teachings of Jesus Christ. Sunday night 7:30, teachings on the book of Revelation. Tuesday night we have meditation. Thursday night we teach meditation. Friday night I teach the zodiac and the Bible, and I invite you down if you would like. We have tapes and all of that stuff. I'll send you information about all we have if you call at the end of the show, 609-971-0537. 609-971-0537. Also, keeping us here talking about this stuff requires some help. So if you would like, people ask for a monthly envelope. We send you an envelope, and you put whatever you can in. If you can't this month, maybe next month or whatever. 609-971-0537.

seven okay so here then we've taken this John the Baptist and talking about Herod's wife and we've gotten it back into ourselves knowing that your higher mind, this part of you, this John the Baptist which directs you to Christ consciousness, is in bondage to the flesh. It's being overwhelmed by the desires that come from that which is the carnal mind. Okay, your nature is having a relationship with the flesh, your ego, your desire, and of course, that's the way we are, that's the way we're built, that's the way we're made. And the only way we can break that desire, the only way we can break that relationship, is when we go into profound meditation and raise our consciousness up to a higher level where there is no thought. When there is no thought, there is no desire, but your awakened mind, meaning the John the Baptist part of you, has told you this is wrong, and you know it. Your conscience is telling you this is wrong, but you found it the only way to deal with this.

consciousness that is accusing you is to put you on the Baptist in prison. In other words, put down those impulses that are coming from the higher mind. So, you know, you don't get involved in meditation, you know, want to really get involved in church. You stay away from it. You're gonna do your own thing. In Jeremiah 13:27, it says, I have seen your adultery's and your nines. That means crying's, the lewdness of your whoredoms. Will you not be made clean? And the only way that you can be made clean is by meditation. When it will be, it says, when shall it once be? It once was in the eons before man took the fall and started taking out of the lower mind instead of taking from the higher mind. The only possible way that you know we have, we set up counseling agencies, and they all do a great job. Everybody's doing the best they can, but it's frustration. We're spinning our wheels because you get somebody, your counsel somebody, but as soon as they get back

and their mind starts talking to them. Wow, they're off again. Why? Because the core of the problem hasn't been dealt with, and the core of the problem are the thoughts that come out of your mind. They'll always be there, and once you finally reach a point of intercourse with the Christ in the upper room, the higher consciousness, that is when you come to grips with the problem. Because when the pollution on the inside is taken care of, there will be no pollution on the outside. So when you're told to come expecting miracles, to look for signs, it's of the mind, it's of the flesh, it's all desires to see things in Jesus Christ's sense. It's an adulterous generation that looks for signs. I think this isn't gonna get me in trouble with you. I know you're gonna get mad at me, but Jesus Christ said in Matthew 12:39, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. Why? Because looking for some kind of miracles to happen through a religion is desires of the flesh to

see some magic. It doesn't happen that way. If you're really religious and you enter into meditation, you rise to a point of absolute nothingness. It's what Buddha called nirvana. It's a bliss within in which there are no thoughts of your own and only the thoughts that start to come in are those which are God's in Christ. And hey, you know, people say, Oh, you know, you're gonna open your mind to Devils. That's because we don't have a faith in Jesus Christ who told us to meditate. Jesus Christ said, If you ask your father for a fish, he's not gonna send you a serpent. God doesn't trick people. There's no Devils inside of you anyhow. That's a terrible thing that people put on you. So what we do is we put John the Baptist in prison. We slam the door on the voice of the one who is instructing us to raise ourselves up to the upper room into meditation. Now why? In other words, let's take a look at this in Matthew 14:5. It says that Herod

was really afraid to put you on the Baptist to death because he feared the multitude because they felt that John the Baptist was a prophet. It's like people who have a Bible on the table. It's a family heirloom. They disregard it, but they don't want to put it up in the attic, you know, because everybody's liable to get mad at them since that's not what I think. They come to church, many of them, and that church has no impact on their lives, but they're afraid not to show up because somebody's warned the man. You should do this. You know, it's the thing to do. Well, then I have the exciting part of the story in Matthew 14:6. It's Herod's birthday, which means it's a celebration of your physical life. Everything is consumed with your physical life. And Herodias, okay, this is Herod's wife, the desires of your emotional nature now have you totally consumed. Whatever they want, you want. Whatever they want, you're gonna go after it. And the desire nature, let me

look here and let's take a look at Matthew 14, alright, and verse 8. And what is it? And she, being before instructed of her mother, this is Salome, 'Give me here John the Baptist's head in a charge of the desire nature wants now.' Salome represents that which is the sensual, the lustful desires of your flesh. Forget her as a person; this is you. The desire nature wants the total cutting off of the pathway of change, okay? Your desire nature does not want any more of that which is John the Baptist leading you to Christ consciousness. He wants to cut off; she wants to cut off the lustful desires, and ego wants you totally. And the only way it can have you totally is when it cuts off the head of John the Baptist. In other words, it cuts off that one's intellect, which comes down from the higher mind of God, directing you to Christ. So in John and in Matthew 14:9, it says, 'The king was sorry.' Pilate washed his hands.

because what's happening now is that means there was a feeling within you that this is wrong. You shouldn't be cutting away these impulses. What you're telling you to find Christ within yourself. There's something within you telling you that this is wrong. Say that there is a glimmer now, the real meaning of life welling up inside of you, or your desire nature screams to cut you off from the one who leads you to Christ. You don't want any part of it and says in verse 9 in the but nevertheless for the oaths sake and for them that were around. He decided to do it. Your ego will always respond to the opinions and to the pressures of other people. I don't care whether it's religion, I don't care whether it's family or the community or the society. If Jesus Christ says to do it this way, we will do it that way because we are afraid to offend people and that's the way it is always. But I am Telling You Jesus Christ taught profound

meditation. Jesus Christ said, Out of your eye be single; your body will fill with light. Enter the closet and close the door when you pray. That is Easter, and then that means the single eye is profound meditation and virgin consciousness above the thoughts of the mind. Entering the closet means cutting off the thoughts of the human mind. Jesus Christ said, The kingdom of God is within you. He said, At that time you will know, 'I am in the Father, you in me, and I in you.' Jesus Christ said in Luke 11:52, You take away the key of knowledge because you don't enter within yourself. And yet we are afraid to obey Him because we do not want to offend the opinions of other people, even though we see that by going to the opinions of others instead of following Jesus Christ, we have made the world a disaster, a violent, disastrous place in which the leading, second-leading killer of teenagers is suicide, and just about everybody and their brothers on drugs. And we've done that because we have refused to obey Jesus Christ, and I've

said on the other hand no. I will follow the opinions of my community. So, they brought John's head on a charger. That's a large flat plate. Now, desire, ego, lust now has cut off the way to Christ. That's exactly what did I see. John the Baptist is the way, symbolizes the way of Christ. The King symbolizes the ruling aspect of your desire nature, your physical, the desirous emotion. Salome finally makes the pitch, and your mind says yes, and you have cut off the way to Christ because your emotions and your desires have overwhelmed that which points the way, Jesus Christ. And that's basically the story. It's not a story of a man who has his head cut off. It's a story of you and I who have within us that which is directing us to Jesus Christ, to Christ consciousness, and we cut it off because of the fact that our desires are to please people around us, our desires are to please the emotions of our families and our friends and our religions. We don't want to offend any of them, and so

We offend Jesus Christ by turning away from him and cutting off that part of us which is leading us into his presence, which is divine meditation there.

67 Death of John The Baptist

William Donahue

The Spiritual Interpretation of the Bible

The speaker teaches the hidden meanings in the Bible, emphasizing the importance of meditation and inner understanding.

They argue that biblical stories, like the death of John the Baptist, should be viewed symbolically rather than literally, as they convey deeper spiritual truths.

The speaker highlights the occult significance of the episodes concerning John the Baptist and suggests that each character represents one of the seven principal aspects of humanity, linked to the chakras and the book of Revelation.

The Spiritual Significance of John the Baptist

John the Baptist is seen as the reincarnation of Elijah, as stated by Jesus.

Herod's perception of John as risen from the dead reflects this connection.

The struggle between John the Baptist and Herod symbolizes the conflict between spiritual awakening and carnal desires within ourselves.

The Struggle Between Higher and Lower Mind

The carnal mind is described as the enemy of God in Romans 8:7, representing the struggle between the higher mind (John the Baptist) and the lower mind (Herod and Salome).

John the Baptist's imprisonment symbolizes the bondage of the awakened mind, locked away by carnal desires.

The message of the new age is the inner manifestation of Christ, promoting compassion and peace, in contrast to traditional interpretations that predict conflict.

The Symbolism of Intercourse in Spirituality

The brother's wife represents emotional desires, while the four brothers symbolize the body's fourfold nature: spirit, emotion, physical, and intellectual.

The wife's subjection to the husband signifies the need for emotions to be governed by the renewed mind.

The passage emphasizes the importance of abstaining from a relationship with fleshly desires and reserving spiritual intercourse for higher consciousness, ultimately defining adultery of the Spirit.

Adultery stems from the carnal mind, which is not aligned with God's law, and addressing inner desires is crucial for stopping external actions.

The Apostle Paul's teachings emphasize the importance of achieving a virgin consciousness through meditation and separating from thoughts, allowing for a connection with Christ consciousness.

The struggle between the higher mind and the fleshly desires can be overcome through profound meditation and raising consciousness to a higher level, where thoughts and desires cease to exist.

The Power of Meditation and Higher Consciousness

Meditation is essential for overcoming negative impulses and achieving inner cleanliness, as emphasized in Jeremiah 13:27.

The core of personal struggles lies in the thoughts of the mind, and true transformation occurs through connecting with the higher consciousness.

Jesus Christ's teachings encourage meditation, promising that God's thoughts will guide those who seek inner peace, rather than falling into the desires of the flesh.

The Impact of Herod's Fear and Desire Nature

Herod was afraid to execute John the Baptist due to the people's belief in him as a prophet.

Herod's birthday celebration represented a focus on physical life, while Herodias and Salome's desires symbolized the overwhelming influence of emotional and sensual urges.

The desire nature's demand to cut off John the Baptist's head represented a rejection of the path to Christ consciousness, while Herod's internal conflict and eventual decision were driven by the pressure of others.

The Profound Teachings of Jesus on Meditation and Inner Knowledge

Jesus Christ emphasized the importance of single-mindedness and profound meditation for spiritual enlightenment.

He taught that the kingdom of God is within us and criticized those who neglect to enter within themselves for knowledge.

The story of John the Baptist's beheading symbolizes how our desires and emotions can cut off the path to Christ consciousness, leading us to prioritize the opinions of others over following Jesus.