Dear Soul Arcanum:
I had a strict Catholic upbringing, and unfortunately, this really put me off on the Catholic Church. I am very spiritual, however – more so than most of the people I attended church with when I was growing up. Here’s my dilemma: I’m now pregnant with my first child, and my parents expect me to have my baby baptized. When I hesitated, my mother freaked out and said that my baby will never get into heaven if he’s not baptized. I feel sort of silly for admitting this, but I’m starting to doubt myself. I sure wouldn’t want my child to suffer because his mother was deluded! Do you think that being baptized is important in any way? Thank you!
– Laura
Dear Laura:
I understand your dilemma. On one hand, studying the origins of baptism is really eye-opening. On the other, I see great power and value in spiritual rituals in general, and as a mother myself, I know how intensely protective you must feel.
For those who aren’t familiar, baptism is a Christian ritual of spiritual cleansing that is symbolic of “rebirth.” According to the Catholic Church, baptism is the most important sacrament because it is what initiates us into a spiritual life.
Here’s what most Catholics don’t know: like so many Christian traditions, baptism has its origins in ancient pagan initiation rites. The use of water for cleansing one’s body and soul can be traced back to the beginning of recorded history. In fact, early Christians never baptized infants, for the act of baptism was supposed to reflect a conscious, willing dedication to Christ. Baptizing infants was part of pagan initiation into mystery school traditions, and was only incorporated into Christian practices relatively recently.
Like your mom, many Catholics believe that to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must be “born again of water and the Holy Ghost.” While being “born again” may simply be symbolic of turning over a new spiritual leaf, when we examine this idea in relationship to the tradition of baptism, one begins to wonder if perhaps baptism was originally designed to induce the profound spiritual awakening of a near death experience.
It seems that initially, baptism involved much more than the sprinkling of water on a person’s head. One was fully immersed in a body of water by the officiant; in fact, early writings about baptism include many references to drowning! The original practice may have involved holding someone under water until they surrendered with “faith” in God – in other words, nearly drowned.
Such an experience would alter one’s consciousness and perhaps induce mystical experiences. As NDE’s tend to spiritually awaken people like nothing else, we could say that being baptized was a “rebirth” both because one emerged from the experience a new person, and because one literally came back from death.
Throughout history, religious mystery schools have put seekers through extremely challenging physical initiations. If one survived these ordeals, they were assumed to be profoundly changed afterward. Perhaps our modern tradition of baptism is just a shadow of what was once a much more intense and mystical experience. If early on, a number of people drowned through baptism, it makes sense that as Christianity spread, the process would have grown less daunting and more acceptable. Thus we end up with a symbolic “rebirth” as opposed to a literal return to life.
Further, baptism is often referred to as being “reborn into the light,” which I think lends more credence to this theory, for a classic element of the near death experience is a vision of divine “light” that is beyond description in power and beauty.
I also think it’s fascinating that early baptisms were conducted in rivers, for researchers into the astral dimension like Robert Bruce have determined that a most effective means of cleansing one’s aura of negative astral entities is to cross running water. Perhaps baptism was designed to help people shed all the negativity they had picked up in their auras in order to make a fresh spiritual start. It would make sense to do this only when they were prepared to walk a conscious spiritual path from then on, otherwise, it’d be like taking a bath and then going right back out to play in the dirt.
On the other hand, water itself isn’t considered essential to the baptism process:
For John indeed baptized with water: but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost… (Acts, 1:5)
Like other spiritual rituals, baptism is a symbolic act signifying spiritual awakening and devotion to a spiritual path. Given natural spiritual laws like karma, living what we might call a “spiritual life” will indeed bring us great freedom and blessings in the future, including the afterlife. Even if the ritual of baptism isn’t essential to our future well-being, consciously choosing to live a “good” (spiritual) life is incredibly powerful.
Further, I do believe we can make quantum leaps in clearing karma by devoting ourselves to right action with all our hearts and souls. Thus being “born again,” baptized, having a spiritual awakening or choosing to devote ourselves to a spiritual path may indeed make a huge difference in terms of our destiny.
I also believe that being part of a religious community can bring many blessings, both in ways we can directly experience and in subtler ways as well. It doesn’t much matter which religion we embrace, so long as its basic aims are divine love, peace, and sincere good will toward others. When we are initiated into a religious or spiritual community, we gain the exponential power of unity. This blankets us with an astral cloak of positive belief and kinship with other seekers. Like teenagers who are surrounded with “good influences,” we gain support for staying out of spiritual trouble and embodying our highest values.
Also, during a baptism ceremony, the gathered family and friends pray for that individual to be protected by God, and prayer is powerful! Those who are especially devoted to the individual being baptized (such as the godmother or godfather) also promise to help them along their spiritual path through life. Though as a Spiritualist minister I am far from being Catholic, I was happy to become my nephew’s godmother a few years ago, for I’m certainly in harmony with helping people find their spiritual way through life.
Though fundamentalists would disagree with me on this (amongst many other things!), I don’t feel the act of baptism itself is what matters; what matters is the energy, intention and meaning behind it. When people pray together with sincere hearts for another’s good, a rich feeling lifts our spirits. If we undertake ceremonies like baptism with sincerity, they can hold great meaning and value.
Having your child baptized in church will certainly not HURT him, and it would show respect and honor for your parents. If you can get past the details you find offensive and sincerely pray for your child to enjoy a spiritual path of divine love and understanding, I think it could be a wonderful way to bless him and welcome him to the world.
– Soul Arcanum