then occurred that strange event, with which you are familiar,
when a dove descended as if from Heaven and rested over the head of
the stranger, and a soft voice, even as the sighing of the wind
through the trees, was heard, whispering, "This is my beloved son, in
whom I am well pleased." And then the stranger, evidently awed by the
strange message from the Beyond, passed away from the multitude, and
bent his way toward the wilderness, as if in need of a retreat in
which he could meditate over the events of the day, and regarding the
work which He could now dimly see stretching its way before Him.

The average student of the New Testament passes over the event of
Jesus in the Wilderness, with little or no emotion, regarding it as a
mere incident in His early career. Not so with the mystic or
occultist, who knows, from the teachings of his order, that in the
Wilderness Jesus was subjected to a severe occult test, designed to
develop His power, and test His endurance. In fact, as every advanced
member of any of the great occult orders knows, the occult degree
known as "The Ordeal of the Wilderness" is based upon this mystic
experience of Jesus, and is intended to symbolize the tests to which
He was subjected. Let us consider this event so fraught with meaning
and importance to all true occultists.

The Wilderness toward which Jesus diverted His steps, lay afar off
from the river in which the rites of Baptism had been performed.
Leaving behind him the fertile banks, and acres, of cultivated land,
He approached the terrible Wilderness which even the natives of that
part of the country regarded with superstitious horror. It was one of
the weirdest and dreariest spots in even that weird and dreary portion
of the country. The Jews called it "The Abode of Horror"; "The
Desolate Place of Terror"; "The Appalling Region"; and other names
suggestive of the superstitious dread which it inspired in their
hearts. The Mystery of the Desert Places hung heavy over this place,
and none but the stoutest hearts ventured within its precincts. Though
akin to the desert, the place abounded in dreary and forbidding hills,
crags, ridges and canyons. Those of our readers who have ever traveled
across the American continent and have seen some of the desolate
places of the American Desert, and who have read of the terrors of
Death Valley, or the Alkali Lands, may form an idea of the nature of
this Wilderness toward which the Master was traveling.