This made him ask himself over and over:
What kind of man is this?
The more he asked it the further did he seem from his duty.
How many had he seen crucified? Hundreds in his time, and yet he had never heard those words – ‘My God, how you have elevated me!’ – a phrase uttered by every initiate who is raised!
This was an initiate. He had no doubt!
And yet…
What kind of initiate is this?
The more he grew meek and frail, the more he was beaten and tortured, the more abundant was his compassion and love for all who tormented him. And what kind of influence did he have over the elements when the greater his compassion the more the yellow storm clouds grew in the sky?
By observing these portents and signs, by these slow means, there began in Cassius’ soul a certain change and a species of knowledge rose to his mind.
This crucified man is more than an initiate!
Did he not speak, of the glory of God in him? Of Exousia, which meant that his body was enlightened by Mithras?
This was the ancient mystery wisdom:
Through God we are born!
He recalled that afternoon in Galilee when, beside Claudia Procula, he had seen the light of the sun spill out of Jesus. Now he wondered how he could have put such a vision from his mind?
‘This man is surely the Son of God!’ he said aloud.
The Centurion Abenader was hard-hearted and yet even he was stopped with a look of amazement, for he too could see it.
In the midst of the tempest of air and light and earth, Cassius observed foot soldiers coming up the incline. By the time they reached the hillock, the daystar had grown cold and lifeless and was hidden so deep in the clouds that it seemed to Cassius to be a manifestation of the portents of those sibyls who had long ago foretold the end of the world.
The Temple guards, led by a captain, approached the crosses in haste and shouted for those Jews who had remained, the three women and one youth, to move out of the way.
Cassius knew what they had come to do and yet he went to them and in the confusion of wind and dust and storm shouted in Aramaic,
‘Halt!’
The captain shouted back, so as to be heard, ‘Rome recognises our custom!’
‘You may break the legs of those two.’ he pointed to the malefactors. ‘For they are yet alive, the other in their midst, is by now dead!’
The captain of the guards, no doubt desiring to have it over with, did not argue but sent two guards to fight through the moving air to the crosses. They did not climb the ladders, but took their iron staves and broke only the legs of the men, who in turn uttered terrible cries as they struggled for breath.
These abuses made the storm tossed women below moan and hold onto each other. The swirling world tore bites from their robes and beat into their faces but they did not move.
‘I need to be certain this one is dead!’ shouted the captain and moved forward to his task, but at that moment Gaius Cassius saw before his eyes his dream made real.
This was that cold day forsaken by sun, and obscured by cloud in the penumbral light! He saw that he was standing before the God Mithras! Mithras was upon that illuminated cross, defying the darkness! Overpowering was the memory of a child now, a child with stars over his head who had become a man and whose eyes were like suns! When had he seen this child? Was it at Bethlehem aeons ago?
An impulse came through him:
I am a Son of Fire and I will use the lance of fire!
He intercepted the captain of the Jew guard and shouted into his face, ‘In the name of Caesar Tiberias I order you to give me your lance!’
The man, confused by wind and this strange command, did not know what to do.
‘NOW!’
The man acquiesced.
Cassius went to the body of Jesus and with a hand to shield his eyes from the sand-dust lifted the weapon to the dead man’s chest and made a thrust upwards, plunging the Jew spear deep into the light body of the God.
He shouted, ‘He is dead, do you see!’
From the world we enter the spirit!
He said the ancient mystery words to himself.
‡
‘Blood and water, rose-warm life, now sprayed over him, pairé, and fell into his eyes. A tremble came from the heart of the earth and tore at the very foundations of the world and the sky let loose a great crack of thunder, rending the skies, and among these tempers he saw Christ in all of His fullness and truth, in all of His majesty and splendour. Christ now showed Gaius Cassius Longinus a distant future.
‘Tell me Lea…what did he see?’
‘He saw a man upon a great mountain fortress, gazing backwards in time at him. In that moment, the two places were woven into the same space in life’s evolving stream, and those two souls could look upon one another knowing the other as himself.
‘It was only an instant, but to Cassius it was an eternity, gazing with wonder and awe at all that would pass in between: sorrows and battles, births and deaths, lifetimes.