Original Christianity
Robe of Light
An Esoteric Christian Cosmology
Where are we? How did we get here? What is the purpose of creation, and toward what is human spiritual evolution leading? Robe of Light begins with these fundamental questions and answers them through a concise but far-reaching presentation of esoteric Christian cosmology.
Swami Nirmalananda Giri describes creation as an evolutionary spiritual process. Individual spirits emerge into relative existence, enter successively richer forms of consciousness, and develop the capacity to participate consciously in the infinite life of God. The world is therefore not an accidental exile from divinity, but part of a vast movement by which the spirit comes to know its Source directly.
Within this larger pattern, the book interprets the biblical accounts of Lucifer, Adam and Eve, and the Fall as a disruption of the normal course of evolution. It then considers Mary, Christ, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection as stages in a work of restoration: the divine pattern is renewed, and humanity is again given the possibility of rising beyond the distortions that have shaped earthly life.
The destination is not merely external rescue or assent to doctrine. It is transformation—the recovery of our true nature and our eventual conscious participation in divine life. In this perspective, the mysteries of Christian scripture become an account of the soul’s origin, its long evolution, and its return to God.
A book to live with
Why Read This Book?
Explore an esoteric Christian account of creation and the soul’s long evolution toward conscious participation in God.
Understand Lucifer and the Fall of Adam and Eve as disruptions of the divine evolutionary pattern rather than isolated biblical episodes.
See how Mary and Jesus restore the interrupted path through incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.
Discover human destiny as transformation: the recovery of our divine likeness and an ever-deepening union with God.
Experience the writing
From the Book
Featured excerpt
The Purpose of Creation
The eternal impulse
All conscious beings have existed eternally within the being of God, the “bosom of the Father” (John 1:18), living within the heart of God, one with him, distinct though not separate. Having their essential being rooted in the infinity of God, the individual consciousnesses have within them a natural impulse to transcend their finitude and attain the boundlessness of their origin. This, of course, is impossible, since the essential, eternal nature of a being cannot be altered. Being rooted in God, and therefore in a sense a part of God, all beings are as immutable as God, the only infinite Being. Yet the urge for transcendence is part of their essential nature.
The solution
The solution to this dilemma is actually quite simple: the individual consciousnesses cannot alter their natural state of finitude, but they can come to share and participate in the infinite consciousness of God. That is, they cannot become infinite themselves, but they can experience the infinity of another–their divine Father-Source. This is symbolized in the Scriptures by the expressions regarding their coming to sit in the throne of the Father or becoming heirs of His kingdom. “Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you,… ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones” (Matthew 19:28). “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Revelation 3:21). “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?” (James 2:5). “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16,17). “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
Just as a psychically sensitive person can experience the thoughts and feelings of another by tuning in to him, yet in no way becoming that other person, so the individual consciousness can come to experience the Consciousness of God while remaining in its limited native state. It is necessary, however, for the individual spirit to develop the capacity for such a state of awareness. And this is done by learning to fully experience the state of existence of a being completely different from oneself–to enter into an alien mode of being altogether, while retaining the awareness of one’s true identity. In other words, the individual spirit must learn to put on the “costume” of a consciousness utterly different from its own and become able not just to fully experience that other mode of consciousness, but also to develop the ability to function as that other kind of being.
Evolutionary creation
To enable the spirits to enter into this process, God breathes forth–emanates–his own self as the Son and the Holy Spirit and manifests all the realms of relative existence, from the most subtle worlds of the Cherubim and Seraphim to the most objective worlds of atomic matter. The spirits then enter into relative existence by taking on bodies of varying grades and patterns of vibratory energies and finally descending into this material world to begin working their way back up the ladder of ever-evolving forms, beginning with forms whose scope of consciousness is much lesser than theirs and working their way upward, entering into higher and higher levels of awareness until they can surpass their original breadth of consciousness and begin to partake of a life of awareness much beyond their own. Upward and upward they evolve until their capacity for awareness is developed to such a perfect state that they can actually experience the state of being of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Then, after having perfected themselves in even that empyrean state, they can actually reenter the Bosom of the Father in full participation of his all-embracing consciousness, thenceforth to live in his infinity, his ultimate gift of love to them, thus experiencing the meaning of his ancient declaration: “I am… thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1).
As Shakespeare wrote, “all the world’s a stage” with the individual spirits wearing their costumes and playing their parts. Just as actors begin with small parts and progress to bigger roles by demonstrating their skill in those smaller parts, so also do the spirits advance to higher and more complex forms of existence and consciousness through taking on and perfecting their identity and functions within the evolutionary forms of creation, at last returning home to God.
Excerpt twoThe Divine Pattern and Its Distortion+
The way it should be
Turning back from this ugly spectacle, let us again consider normal creation and evolution. In a normal creation the spirit descends into matter and there begins to experience ever-more-complex forms of existence, evolving upward through an almost infinite number of levels until perfect union with the Divine Consciousness is gained. There is no pain, anxiety, or strain in any of this. Rather, it is a leisurely, joyous, conscious process, death being no more than a simple stepping out of a no-longer-needed vehicle when its full potential has been realized. It is a happy, assured journey upward back to the Bosom of God with never a moment’s experience of estrangement, isolation, or separation from the Divine Life. Suffering is thus impossible to the journeying spirit.
The way it has become
Such is not the case in our present creation, where distortion is the norm. So extensive and deep-seated is the twisting of the universe that some religions have even held that it was created by an evil god whose delight is the suffering and bondage of spirits. This is erroneous, but we can certainly understand how such a view could be adopted (another example of how astray the unenlightened intellect can lead us). The divine pattern is still present, but the overlay of demonic illusion (including a lot of religion) is immeasurable, stifling the life of spirits. The earth plane has become a terrible trap filled with crippled, agonizing intelligences. And daily it increases. The reign of Lucifer is superficial, but to our shallow awareness it seems all-embracing. And therefore, since we believe it to be so, it is so for us until we break from that illusion.
One of the demonic lies accepted by our human race is the principle that suffering is necessary–that it “purifies” and “ennobles,” even supposedly enabling us to know what happiness is. Christianity in both the East and West has succumbed to this evil voice, idolatrizing suffering as God’s will, and repeating the absurd proposition that we can rise through suffering. Submission to suffering has come to be extolled as a supreme virtue, thereby turning what should goad us to transcendence into a perverse form of bondage.
One of the most dramatic portrayals of our condition is the Fifteenth Major Arcanum of the Tarot deck. There we see two people, male and female, in imagined bondage to the Devil. The chains that supposedly bind them are only looped loosely around their necks. All the pair need do is slip off the chains and walk away, for they are already free. But instead they accept their non-existent enslavement as real and even normal. We must realize that the power of bondage is within ourselves and, when turned about, becomes the power which effects our freedom. We bind and release ourselves–none other is able to do so.
Excerpt threeChanged Into the Same Image+
Even now you and I are divine sons of God, potentially. This is why Saint John wrote: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (I John 3:2-3). In this passage Saint John outlines several amazing spiritual facts: (1) we are ourselves already–eternally–sons of God; (2) we yet have to attain to a full revelation and conscious taking on of that status which (3) is to be the same as that of Christ Jesus; to which end we must (4) purify ourselves, attaining a purity identical with his.
Originally all that is written here was known to all Christians. Therefore Saint Paul could write to the Corinthians: “My speech and my preaching was…in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect:…the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:…as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.…[And] we have the mind of Christ” (I Corinthians 2:4-7, 9-10, 16). And: “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God” (I Corinthians 4:1). (For an exposition of these deifying Mysteries see The Yoga of the Sacraments.)
The knowers of these Mysteries, by faithful application, “with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18). “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.… Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (I Corinthians 15:49, 51, 53-55).
Then we shall not only know the meaning of, but shall ourselves be living embodiments of his further words: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. …when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (I Corinthians 15:22, 24, 26, 28).
And then all cosmology is ended, for the cosmos, like the evolving spirits within it, shall have returned to the Bosom of the Father, the All In All. Then to each one shall be fulfilled the promise spoken to Saint John: “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Revelation 21:7).
Continue the journey
Continue Exploring
Companion books and approved resources for going further.
