Christos, the Seventh Sacred Degree

Christos is the Greek Khristós, meaning the anointed one an appellation given to the Savior of the World, and synonymous with the Hebrew Messiah. It was a custom of antiquity to consecrate persons to the sacerdotal and regal offices by anointing them with oil.–Webster’s American Dictionary
  Christos means anointed or consecrated, chosen by divine intervention. Other definitions include an ideal type of humanity and the ideal truth that comes as a divine manifestation of God to destroy incarnate error.–Oxford English Dictionary

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”–John 16:33

  The Christos fulfills the law of absolute personal responsibility. Ascension is the Christos initiation. Ascension is continually moving up in consciousness, growing in awareness, an increasing rate of vibration and an expanding aura. The Christos power of being is to create or to invoke life by the spoken Word, first for others, then for yourself. You reach this by complete surrender to become the servant of all Power, standing in the Light as Light.
  The Christos Degree, the degree of Christing, is least familiar and most poorly understood. This Degree was the greatest attainable in the temples of ancient Egypt, and existed long before Jesus of Nazareth became the Christ.
  A Christos Degree keynote is having an expansive transcendent vision of reality. Having opened the spiritual eyes and ears, the Christos sees and hears spiritually, as God does. This vision is both acute and discerning, not subject to confusion, doubt or wonderment.
  Sacrifice, the sacrifice of all self, is the great Christos requirement. Jesus’ sacrifice involved laying down his life to become the Christ. In so doing, he became our template for how to do it. As a Christos candidate, you constantly sacrifice self by surrendering your old attitudes to become the new way of being.
  One is rarely required to sacrifice his life, as Jesus did, but is asked instead to sacrifice every mode of identifying with the world. You identify with the material world according to gender, marital status, education, IQ, profession, hobbies, religion, politics, earnings, house, clothes, or car.
  Enlightenment, a Christos Degree byproduct, is the consciousness that "I and my Father are one" (or my mother, my sister, my brother, my friend, my enemy). One. Man has given mystical enlightenment many names, including communion, illumination, satori, samadhi, the ever-new bliss, cosmic consciousness, or Christ consciousness.
  On the Via Christa, we often speak of Christ consciousness and illumination. We define illumination as an inner state of equilibrium, harmony and a heightened awareness, a perception in which we are perfectly in sync with the universe.
  Atonement is another name for Christ consciousness. We call it "at-one-ness," achieving that universality of consciousness where you are separate from nothing. As a Christos candidate, you ascend in consciousness without dying.

Edna Lister on the Christos Degree

On the Christos Degree, you may not ask or force, but only work on your inner place.–Edna Lister, Initiations, the Beatitudes, December 22, 1934.

The Beatitudes are nine attitudes you must express to attain the Christos Degree.–Edna Lister, Beatitudes, January 19, 1935.

Praise for all small things and great joy earns Christos crowns for different degrees according to the ascending stations of Light.–Edna Lister, March 10, 1941.

The Christos resides in the golden silence, saying Praise God, and Thank Thee, Father, for Thou hast said yes before I asked.–Edna Lister, November 18, 1942.

The second Christos Degree requires that you become fully responsible as a father or mother for others; it means to be as forgiving as God, who sees only perfection, not anything to forgive.–Edna Lister, November 18, 1942.

Seven Degrees to transformation progress from self awareness to soul consciousness: The first three degrees, the Neophyte, Disciple, and Adept all practice varying degrees of self-control. The Mystic stands at the center point of balance, the fulcrum between self and soul. As a Mystic, you commune directly with God, needing no other intervening agency, creed or dogma. The final three degrees, the Master, Priest and Christos all deal with soul conquering through absolute responsibility, service and surrender of the self to the soul. You work on all seven degrees always.–Edna Lister, April 13, 1945.

The 33rd Degree of absolute purification includes four Christos degrees, which provide purification by fire. You conquer through sacrifice, by overcoming self, by accepting responsibilities and passing your initiations.–Edna Lister, December 1, 1948.

The Christos Order of sacrifice, surrender and selfless sacrificial service is comprised only of those desiring to become the law of Light.–Edna Lister, February 3, 1949.

Purity of heart, mind and purpose are the virtues of the third Christos Degree.–Edna Lister, April 5, 1949.

Helping the other fellow to lift, no matter what, is the Christos work.–Edna Lister, October 2, 1950.

Completing the twelve Labors of Hercules earns the finale of the Christos, including plucking the gold and silver apples of the Hesperides. It requires that you are honorable and faithful to God. If you are loyal to God, you will be loyal to your fellow man. Where you are is your measuring rod for where you want to be. You must love your fellow man as you love God.–Edna Lister, June 4, 1951.

The Seven Degrees on which you are climbing include the Neophyte, Disciple, Adept, Mystic, Master, Priest and Christos. You can enter the major Seven Degrees only through seven lesser degrees under each, just as earning a doctorate requires having passed all the lesser courses of instruction. Thus, an illiterate Neophyte can be living a Christos life.

You go through 49 Degrees from Neophyte to reach Christos, while you pass 144 steps in initiation. Events may happen to you for no apparent reason when you are taking the final three Christos Degrees, which include the ten Commandments on the emotional, mental and spiritual levels.

You cannot return home to God until you have learned your lessons. Desire for perfection takes you through the final degrees, and you receive credit for the good you have done. Initiation is right where you are now. You could take 144 steps in twenty-four hours under complete surrender of self. You could take the first initiation, know the score and pass the Gates of Light.–Edna Lister, June 14, 1951.

The Christos stands steadfastly under Light.–Edna Lister, November 27, 1951.

The 33rd Christos Degree initiation of Ascension is the toughest of all in tests, trials by fire and temptations. It includes bloody temptations, for the heart does bleed when you pull out the roots of self. An ancient aphorism declares that Until the aspirant has washed his feet in the blood of his own heart, he is not worthy to ascend.–Edna Lister, April 22, 1952.

Thirty-three is the number of the Christos Order. You open the I AM center of Oversoul consciousness in the golden bowl when you awaken and develop the intuition and illumination faculties and complete the 33 Degrees. This requires that you complete the first and second marriages of the Lamb. The first marriage is your first ascension of desire to mate with will. The Christos invites the descent of the Oversoul for the second marriage of the Lamb, in which you mate desire and will with God’s Love and Wisdom. Once you consummate the second marriage of the Lamb, there is no turning back. The law uses you to its own glory, to its own end. To polish the Christos Degree requires acceptance of any call, sacrificing self to answer that call, and the complete surrender of self for service.–Edna Lister, July 16, 1953.

The Christos practices ascension at the crown chakra daily.–Edna Lister, Conquering Space, October 15, 1957.

At one place on the path, you are asked to give up your personal identity as a great initiation. This testing on loss of identity takes place in the Neophyte sub-degree of the Christos. Edna Lister, December 9, 1957.

The Christos Degree requires full ascension of soul.–Edna Lister, February 13, 1958.

The Degrees of Priest and Christos are spoken of only by Mystics, not by mediums of lesser degrees, who know nothing about them.–Edna Lister, May 8, 1958.

The final three Christos Degrees require seventeen initiations. Anyone who achieves these degrees does so by observing all laws on silence. By their works shall ye know them. The requisites are compassion, charity that begins at home, and understanding given to the world.–Edna Lister, October 30, 1958.

The Mystic Brotherhood Degrees (Master, Priest and Christos) cover the Garden of Eden, which lies above the collar bones in man. These work degrees deal with becoming a mediator, soul conquering and ascension. A mediator follows Jesus the Christ all the way home. The Christos attains the fortress, the high tower of Ascension in the Garden of Eden. He lives by the precepts of soul in the higher creative centers, within the golden bowl, the skull.
  The Christos, at the crown center, rules the central nervous system, the brain and spinal cord, and the pineal body. You reenter the Garden of Eden through the crown center, which is the link between conscious and super-conscious mind, when open to the Oversoul. You ascend from outer to inner in all ways and surrender all self-centered identity.
  This is the degree of the fully conquering soul who lives by pure illumination. The mental body thousand-petaled lotus opens under Christed consciousness. The Christos learns that I die daily refers to the death of self. You learn to lift all fear of old age and death. The world fears death, old age, and becoming worthless. The seventh law of expression is to live by pure illumination, the final, complete conquering of soul.–Edna Lister, The Pioneering Mystic, May 5, 1959.

The Sun, the Light of life, rules the Christos Degree of selflessness where you burn away all self.–Edna Lister, Transfiguration, Resurrection and Ascension, May 19, 1959.

You touch the pure white Light of the Christ, the Sun/Son of Selflessness and the joy vibration under the Christos Degree.–Edna Lister, The Kabbalistic Four Worlds, May 26, 1959.

You always work ahead to the Christos Degree. Every time you conquer even a small point, you gain credits for a degree ahead, a little at a time. Soul credit is the source of your strength.–Edna Lister, The Kabbalistic Four Worlds, May 26, 1959.

The seventh Buddhist path includes development of seven attributes for ascension: First, face life, never running from self or man. Second, bridle your will, tongue, and imagination. Third, synthesize the five senses into the one great soul sense of apperception. Fourth, seek full use of the mystical third eye and ear, spiritual seeing and hearing. Fifth, translate life’s experiences into ascension of soul. Sixth, become the perfect balance of Love and Wisdom.
  The seventh great power of being is the ability to create life, to invoke life by speaking the Word. Invoke life for others first, then for yourself by complete surrender to be the servant of all Power. The Christos becomes completely responsible to stand as Light, to take all blame, to assume responsibility for everything where your name is used or with which you are connected.–Edna Lister, Eight Great Powers of Being, June 23, 1959.

Those on the Christos Degree live by pure love for and devotion to God,–Edna Lister, Heaven, a Place to Fill, April 10, 1962.

The insignia of the Christos candidate is to be alive and aware under acceptance and surrender. The keynote is forgiveness.–Edna Lister, January 23, 1964.

You cannot burn away the silver cord just by being good. First, you loosen it from the heart center by conquering on the Christos Degree, following the Master through the Gates of Light.–Edna Lister, The Eighth Age: Earth’s Final Age, July 16, 1963.

The Christos walks the Via Christa, or Way of Responsibility. The full Light of your Oversoul star enables you to create as a Christos, literally. It vibrates with the Christos vibration. To create as a Christos, you use the words, This is good! Let thehre be Light!, which is the only preamble that unlocks the Christos Power.–Edna Lister, Seven Stages of Unfolding, From Concentration to Comprehension, December 3, 1963.

The Christos earns all enlightenment and functions the principles of Wisdom, Love and Selflessness at once. In Egypt, the final Christos initiation was death, being out of the body three days. The King’s Chamber was known as the Holy of Holies and the most sacred place in the pyramid.–Edna Lister, The Pyramid Mysteries, May 18, 1965.

The Christ not only means the Christos of Light in Greek, but the crossed, referring to the angle between the earth’s orbit around the sun and the axis upon which it spins. Hence, the earth life is referred to as the cross borne by the incarnated soul, the eternal spark that descends into the mirror-like illusion that you think is real.–Edna Lister, Mithraic Mysteries, June 29, 1965.

The heaviest trials of the burning sands of the desert come with the first initiation to consume darkness for the Christos Degree.–Edna Lister, October 27, 1966.

The Christos lays his body in the open sarcophagus in the King’s Chamber to complete the initiation of the 33rd Degree: Death to all old ideas and ways of living, three days out of the body, bridging the abyss from understanding under earth consciousness to full comprehension as the Oversoul, living, moving and being as the Light.
  The King’s Chamber was a temple of initiation only, never used as a tomb. It was the most sacred place within the pyramid and called the Holy of Holies. The seven slabs of stone above the King’s Chamber represent the seven veils of illusion, through which the candidate for initiation must pass to complete the supreme initiations of the Seven Degrees. To pass requires the initiate to be perfect as a Neophyte in all body phases, completely obedient as a Disciple, understanding of Power as an Adept, a Master who has become all law, a Priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek, and the Christos who is all enlightenment and functions as the three Emanations: Mind, Power and Substance.
  To pierce the seven veils, the initiate must completely lift and sublimate the five outer senses, the five foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. When lifted and sublimated, the senses become faculties represented by the five wise virgins of the parable. These senses/faculties are contained within the first five stone slabs. The last two slabs represent the opened and functioning glands and lotus centers of the brain, alive to the Light. Thus, the five wise virgins ascend to become perfected imagination, thinking, desire, will and intuition. Edna Lister, The Seven Degrees Within the Great Pyramid, October 22, 1968.

The eight steps of the Christos confer full mediator abilities. The Christos practices ascension upward always.–Edna Lister, The Fiery Furnace, March 19, 1970.

The Christos holds full comprehension and responsibility as a mediator, a liaison officer between the world and God.–Edna Lister, The Seven Vials of Wrath June 23, 1970.

Let your light so shine that it glorifies your Father in heaven. refers to the Christos path of Ascension to the Crown of all Creation. Your destiny is to return to the Source. To achieve the Christos Degree means that His Light shines through you so that others see it in the world.–Edna Lister, The First Full Descent of the Oversoul, June 8, 1971.

I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.–John 16:28-33. This last verse is numbered thirty-three, the number symbolizing the Christed One who has overcome the world.–Edna Lister, Undated Papers, 1924 to 1971.

Christos Love

Love is an essence and a fragrance of happiness in another’s joy. It is a deep desire always to take the blame if possible, to smooth another’s path. Love is a conviction that you should cover with Light and so hide others’ mistakes from the world. It is a deep heart-desire to do anything asked of you to give another even a moment’s happiness.

Love takes delight in being instantly obedient to the Father’s desire, not waiting for Him to express His desire in words as an order or command. Love’s honor, paid to the Master and Father, is so great that it would willingly face even death in joy to carry out an order, even if others utterly misunderstand it on earth. Love is honor in expression on earth because God’s honor is an exact, perfect blend and balance of love and wisdom always expressing itself selflessly, under all circumstances. Love is incapable of forgetting to love, despite anything earth can produce.

Love is the soul giving itself up to God and to man. This is only a beginning. It is an individual soul thing. You cannot command, copy it or buy it. You must earn it through the travail of experience in surrender, enduring all things in joy. You find it ensampled in our Master, Jesus the Christ and each must be like unto him to know and express the joy of love.–Edna Lister, December 22, 1942.

A Christos Questionnaire

Am I faithfully fulfilling all my Neophyte vows? (Taking care of your physical body, diet, exercise, fresh air and recreation.)

Am I faithfully living all my Disciple vows? (You must surrender idle words, thinking and feelings to God, the Light.)

Am I steadfastly seeking selflessness while obeying all my Adept vows? (As the Power moves through, you must be careful that it is the Father’s selfless will, not your personal selfish will.)

Am I praying without ceasing? (All that is good, useful and creative is prayer if your consciousness is joyously at one with the Father.) A. I pray, asking for more Power and Light to move through me and out from me. B. I must pray with a mold in mind so that my prayer is not general but specific and always selfless.

Am I, through full Mastery of self-conquering, lifting all things? (Am I lifting up all my negative thinking or acting, succumbing to self?)

Am I fully, obediently the selfless consecrated Priest?

Am I a fully, completely surrendered servant of God? (I make myself good and the other fellow happy.)–Edna Lister, October 15, 1946.

A Soul Searching Questionnaire for the Third Christos Degree

Have you yet a doubt of any kind within your heart or mind?
  Have you any fear of anything above or below in your heart or mind?
  Have you used hasty words?
  Have you first stood in any negative darkness before standing in the Light?
  Must you remind yourself to be in faith? In joy? In praise?
  How many hours a day are you Light-conscious? Joy-conscious? Praise-conscious? Miracle-conscious? (If you need to remind yourself to look up, to praise, to be joyous, then you are in fear and doubt, or worse, in hate, resentment, rebellion, pride or self-pity.)
  Search your soul that your service may be pure and undefiled, undiluted and unadulterated by self.–Edna Lister, March 9, 1950.

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