Look to the Light of the Savior

Dear friends, you who hold Jesus Christ close as the heart of your faith—his love, his mercy, his call to live as he did—I invite you to consider a possibility. What if Jesus—whose birthday, virgin birth, and resurrection echo the stories of Horus, Mithra, Attis, and Dionysus before him—was a historicized avatar of a timeless higher consciousness, who has appeared throughout history when and where he is most needed? This doesn’t diminish his teachings or his path. His parables—those beautiful stories of compassion and grace—show us the godly way to live, myth or not.

Think about what draws you to Jesus. Is it the dates and places, or the way his words stir your soul—urging you to love your neighbor, forgive endlessly, welcome the lost? These truths stand firm, whether he walked Galilee or speaks through timeless tales. Scholars tell us that ancient Aramaic was the language people were speaking at the time. When translated into Greek and then English, as in the King James Bible, Jesus says, “Believe in me” but in the original Aramaic, the meaning is “Believe like me.” In the King James Bible, Jesus says, “I am” but, in Aramaic, “I-I,” or the mind of his human self (nafsha) joined with the mind of the universal Self, the One, God: “I and the Father are one.” Imagine early Christians, sipping a sacred wine, feeling this unity dissolve their egos into a cosmic whole. His example isn’t lessened by myth—it’s enriched.

Watts saw the Bible’s power in its symbols, not its history. Jesus joins a chorus of ancient figures—born of virgins, rising from death—not to compete, but to shine as humanity’s shared dream of the divine. Long ago, rituals with visionary herbs opened hearts to God’s presence, a practice that the early Christians knew before Rome stamped it out in the fourth century, when today’s Bible was standardized—all gospels except those of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were branded heretical—and Roman Emperor Theodosius closed the Eleusinian Mysteries, where communal drinking of psychoactive wine produced the ecstatic experience of divine visitation, shared by all participants. Jesus was, and is, a mythic guide to that same awe, his parables like seeds planted in us all. This doesn’t erase your faith—it widens it.

Archaeological chemistry—particularly of the sacred cups, or grails, used by early Christians—has proven that they mixed wine with visionary drugs. Today, with a single dose of psilocybin, the psycho-pharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers.

Consider Jesus’ words anew. In Aramaic, “spirit” is “breath”—not a ghost, but the air you share with the earth, breathed by God into being. When he said “the kingdom is within you” and “among you,” he broke the walls between heaven and earth, pointing to a unity you can feel. His “I-I” ties your daily struggles to cosmic wonder, a path to follow, not a statue to worship. He invites you to live his way, not just honor his name.

I ask you to try this: live his stories. Feed the hungry, lift the fallen—let Jesus’ parables guide your hands, not your debates. Take five minutes daily, breathe deep, ask “Who am I?” Feel the “I-I” he lived—the you that’s one with all. He said, “I have set you an example” (John 13:15)—not “prove me,” but “do as I do.” You don’t need to drop your Bible—just see it as a mirror to your soul, not a history book.

You’re part of a vast family—65% of Americans share your love for Christ. Some cling to every word as fact, which divides humanity into Christian and non-Christian; others see the allegorical truths that unite all of humanity. This is for you in the middle: cherish Jesus, but be guided by the actual meanings of his teachings, in the Aramaic-to-English translation, one version of which can be found at buffaloriverforge.com/peshitta Let’s walk his way together, not as judges of truth, but as bearers of his light.

With respect and hope,
A fellow seeker