The Gospel narrative informs us that a guard was placed around the tomb to prevent the body being stolen and a consequent assertion of the Resurrection which the priests well knew to be expected.  It further states that the tomb was sealed and guarded by a squad of Roman soldiers, but that notwithstanding these precautions the body of the Master actually came to life and emerged from the tomb, and that His followers were disturbed by the evidences that His body had been stolen.

The occult traditions, however, state that the close friends of Jesus, aided by a prominent Jew who was a secret believer, obtained from the willing Pilate a secret order which enabled them to deposit the body in a safe and secret resting place where it gradually resolved itself into the dust to which all that is mortal must return.  These men knew that the Resurrection of the Master had naught to do with mortal fleshly form or body.  They knew that the immaterial soul of the Master still lived and would reappear to them clad in the more ethereal body made manifest to their mortal senses.  Every occultist will understand this without further comment.  To others we advise that they read the occult teachings concerning the Astral Body and its characteristics.  This is no place in which to again describe at length the phenomena of the Astral Body of Man.

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The first to see the Master in His Astral Form was Mary of Magdala, a woman admirer and follower of her Lord.  She was weeping beside the empty tomb, when looking up she saw a form approaching.  The Astral Form was indistinct and unfamiliar, and at first she did not recognize it.  Then a voice called her name, and looking up she saw the form growing more distinct and familiar, and she recognized the features of her Master.

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More than this, the occult legends assert the truth of some of the traditions of the early Christian Church, namely, that in the three days succeeding the scene of Calvary there appeared in and around Jerusalem the disembodied forms of many persons who had died a short time previously.  It is said that the Astral Bodies of many dead Jews revisited the scenes of their former life, and were witnessed by friends and relatives.

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Then Jesus appeared in His Astral Body to the disciples.  The traditions have it that two of the eleven met Him on the afternoon of the day when He first appeared to Mary—­Easter Sunday.  Strange to say, they did not at first recognize Him, although they walked the road with Him and afterward ate at the same table.  This failure to recognize the Master is wholly beyond ordinary explanation and the churches make no real attempt to make it understandable.  But the occult traditions say that Jesus had not wholly materialized His Astral Body at first, for reason of prudence, and that consequently His features were