And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and malefactors, one an the right hand, and the other on the left.

  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots.

  And the people stood beholding him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.

  And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyseIf.

  And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, this is The King of the Jews.

  And when Jesus had cried, with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
— Luke 23:33-36

  An understanding of the inner meaning of the Crucifixion reveals this experience as a glorious consummation of the Way of the Cross. Instead of exclaiming, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? " Christ Jesus actually cried in exultation, "My God, my God, how thou hast glorified me." The liberation of the Christ Spirit from the bodies of the man Jesus made it possible that the Earth receive an indwelling Planetary Spirit, and the coming of this powerful purifying Force made it possible for all who will to enter the path of initiation and attain to heights of spiritual glory.

  The superscription placed on Christ Jesus' cross, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, gives the key to what takes place in man's body on the Path of Initiation. The letters INRI represent the names of the four elements in Hebrew: Iam, water; Nour, fire; Rauch spirit or vital air; and Iabeshah, earth. Of these is the human being made, and through their spiritualization he comes to the point, as had Jesus, where he can step out of his lower vehicles and travel in his soul body. As Max Heindel tells us:

  "This stage of the Christian Mystic's spiritual development involves a reversal of the creative force from its ordinary downward course to an upward course through the tripartite spinal cord, whose three segments are ruled by the Moon, Mars, and Mercury respectively, and where the rays of Neptune then light the regenerative Spirit Fire.

  "This mounting upward sets the pituitary body and the pineal gland into vibration, opening up the spiritual sight; and striking the frontal sinus it starts the crown of thorns throbbing with pain as the bond with the physical body is burned by the sacred Spirit Fire, which wakes this center from its age-long sleep to a throbbing, pulsating life sweeping onward to the other centers in the five-pointed stigmatic star. They are also vitalized, and the whole vehicle becomes aglow with a golden glory.

  "Then with a final wrench the great vortex of the desire body located in the liver is liberated, and the martial energy contained in that vehicle propels upward the sidereal vehicle (so-called because the stigmata in the head, hands, and feet are located in the same positions relative to one another as the points in a five-pointed star), which ascends through the skull (Golgotha), while the crucified Christian utters his triumphant cry, Consummatum est (it has been accomplished), and soars into the subtler spheres to seek Jesus, whose life he has imitated with such success and from whom he is thenceforth inseparable."
   — Rays from the Rose Cross Magazine, April, 1976, page 168