Christ means the “Anointed One.” Throughout history and across cultures and religions, oil figures prominently, along with water, in ritual moments of sacred awakenings.
While the water of Baptism prepares and cleanses, anointing ( from a linguistic root meaning to “smear”) is often performed using blessed oils, or chrism. In opening the Heart to the second sacramental gate, the oil, richer and heavier than water, penetrates to the inmost layers of our Being forming a foundation. It adds complexity.
The anointing with oil signifies an effulgence, an expression of one’s uniqueness, and brings the soul into more direct contact with the Christ Within. It materializes the spark of Divine Light that knows no evening, the fire that pierces the darkness. Where the waters of Baptism meet the flammable oil of Chrismation, the flight of one’s soul toward the Omega Point, the Heart of the Infinite whence it arose, is enabled.
The Holy Spirit, the breath of the Beloved, moves through matter and psyche, like the solar wind, creating auroral-like currents announcing the presence of the Son. In this sacrament, we are confirmed in our identity as a seeker of the Grail, as a Knight commissioned by the “Most High.” We are deemed ready to step boldly into uncertainty and face the perils along a narrow road. We receive our first true commission to advance on the road that Joseph Campbell calls the “Hero’s Journey.”
Known better in Western Christendom as “confirmation,” this sacrament acts to energize the second sephirot of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, “Yesod,” or foundation. It represents “shalom” or peace. It completes what began in Baptism, when the first sephirot, “Malchut,” or the Kingdom, was spiritually opened. The second sephirot builds on the baptismal naming of the soul, exciting the gift of self-expression or the embodiment of the Logos. “Yesod” also represents the unconscious Mind and the charism of spiritual knowledge. With the anointing, the first two gates to the Kingdom of the Beloved are opened to the soul, and the spiritual journey enters a new phase in fulfilling its telos (τέλοϛ) in the Pleroma, or the Divine fullness.
In Catholicism, Confirmation is the conscious decision to “be a soldier for Christ and defend the faith,” and is usually conferred in young adulthood. In Eastern Orthodoxy, Chrismation is combined with Baptism by water as a mystical conjoint act of naming and blessing. In Protestantism, confirmation is a rite viewed as a service of public declaration of membership.
For me, the Eastern tradition of Chrismation retains the fullest sense of the mystery that these moments of sacred encounter embody. The anointing with oil communicates a Christic charism to help unleash the foundations of the quest for the Pearl of Great Price. The Gates of the Cosmic Heart are swung wide as the individual soul joins the collective movement of the World Soul toward the Teilhardian “Omega Point,” the place at which the great opus of creation realizes its destiny according to the divine archetypes guiding it.
Meditative Epilogue:
In preparing greens and vegetables for a meal, we first wash them thoroughly and purify them. More often than not, we next garnish them with a favorite oil. First the cleansing by water, then the adornment with oil as the base with spices added that adhere to the oil and elevate a common collection of materials to something truly delicious; a culinary experience in the hands of a master chef.
So, too, we come into the world with a common collection of materials ( the organic stuff of what it means to be human). We are Baptized in water, cleansed, and are then fully opened to receive the charisms that follow. Then comes the anointing with oil, that awakens us further to embrace the spices added later by the Master: the remaining five sacraments, and the experience of a lifetime in expanding upon them.
It is powerful to revisit these moments that happened in one’s youth, recalling their nature as perpetually active, not static happenings. Each day, the action of each blessing expands our spiritual universe as the universe we observe all around us accelerates its expansion.
© Brother Anton and The Harried Mystic, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
The Harried Mystic 
My first experience of being filled with the spirit was a powerful one aged about 17, and it felt exactly like oil being poured onto the crown of my head, and spilling down the sides of my head. In eastern as well as Kabballah teachings the crown of the head is the location of one of the most powerful energy centres (chakras) in the body, and the descriptions of the opening of the crown chakra is very similar t the experiences I had. Odd.
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An anointing by the Spirit, illuminating Keter, the First Sefirot, (or the regal crown), is incomparable.
It often is described as a liquid heat being poured from above. The Regal Crown is also said to be unknowable, beyond our comprehension. It is also the heart of ultimate compassion manifest in the Bhodisattva. The activation of Keter as the head of the Tree of Life derives from above it. All ten sefirot are aroused in attunement to the will of the Spirit. How wonderful to experience it so young. It is a great mystery that throughout life we are then in pursuit of that exquisite attunement of these energy centers to the Cosmic Heartbeat so we can hopefully experience it many times before our journey back into the All. Thank you for your always warm and enthusiastic reply. All the best.
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I didn’t know what had happened to me and no one seemed to be able to tell me! On the occasions it happend again while at university, it left me far too vulnerable and open, because no follow up to help me understand and develop was forthcoming.
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I do understand what you mean. These experiences benefit significantly by having a spiritual companion. Otherwise, the engine can burn too hot and the impact overwhelming. I recall an occasion on a 5 day silent retreat at a local monastery when a Franciscan Brother interceded to encourage me to bite off something a bit less taxing than a 5 day full silent retreat. Instead, we interspersed wonderful dialogues in the midst of the silent time and it made all the difference in the world.
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I think for me, as a very young woman, it was actually quite frightening to experience this without any understanding of the context or the meaning, and for some time I felt I was going mad. There were few if any people around who were able to guide me, though plenty who thought they could try to control and direct me the way THEY thought I should go. Needless to say, being a stubborn sort, and with a will to find my own way and not become a clone, I rebelled and fought back and continue to do so to this day!
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The grace to find one’s own way is a great gift in a world in which “appropriate” or “right interpretation” is defined too often in connection with conformity to set standards. Rarely are the conformists the ones that offer the breakthroughs or the innovations and revolutions that change not just what we know, but how we know it.
Much is said about cultivating independent thinking while most of the behavior of the teaching offices revolves around creating quite the opposite. Blessed are the rebels, the plaintive voices singing of different paths, and the wide-eyed visionaries who see possibilities to which the official wisdom or spokespersons for the established canons are so often blind.
The false teachers are those who wish to bend the will and thinking of the student to their own understanding. The truly inspiring ones, are those that provide a dynamic and living scaffold to help guide the inherent genius of a sojourner. These guides are rare and easy to spot. They are:
* themselves grateful for the chance to learn as fresh ideas are born out of dialogue;
* content to present a working context [in brackets] as hypothesis, and;
* delight more in asking the better questions than presenting a pat set of cliche answers.
Generally, we meet a few remarkable members of this rare breed a hand-full of times in a lifetime, if that. So, I thank you for sharing what it was like to not have had such a context-maker at the time of your experience and to pave your own path. I sing in praise of stubborness!
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This is gorgeous. And You’re a fellow Joseph Campbell lover! My favourite part was when You spoke of us washing and oiling our vegetables. I eat tons and although I do this at times with love and light and gratitude, I have never looked at is as ritual. Really lovely. I’m going to do that!
Thank You and Cheers and Namaste. 🙂
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I am a devoted fan of Campbell’s work. He inspired my study of art history and Jungian Psychology. His 12 stages of Hero’s Journey is a remarkable and profound discovery, Thank you so much for your enthusiastic and thoughtful message. Thank you. Namaste.
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Great Stuff!! I love reading your blog. Keep up the fantastic writing!
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Thanks for stopping by my place. All the best.
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For me, it resulted in being subject to various attempts to make me “better” including a number of cockeyed versions of exorcism and similar and at best disapproval. It was the same at theological college.
That said, I suspect I am more a complete person than otherwise. There are times whenc conformity would be more comfortable and less lonely though!
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How true! The cost of a non-traditional approach is a lonelier path. It took me a good long while to accept the reality that my own choice would mean itinerant and often solitary work but, then again, parish life would entail so much more of the politics that distract from the real work.
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