Theosophy - A Lecture to Enquirers into Theosophy and Practical Occultism - by W.W.Westcott, F.T.S. -
A LECTURE TO ENQUIRERS
INTO THEOSOPHY AND PRACTICAL OCCULTISM
by W. W. WESTCOTT.
FTS
reprinted
from “Theosophical Siftings” Volume - 3 -
[Page 5] I HAVE been requested to speak to you this evening
for a short time on the subject of Theosophy and the Occult
Sciences. There can be no doubt that the established form
of religious Christian instruction has for many years now
failed to satisfy the aspirations of the more enquiring of
the people. The rapid advances made by science have enabled
it to contest and overcome the ordinarily received explanations
of Biblical statements on many subjects connected with the
groundwork of the Jewish faith, upon which you must remember
the foundation of the Christian exoteric religion was laid.
The rapid advances made by Science in the investigation of
the structure of vegetable and animal beings, coupled with
the demonstration of the so-called Natural Laws, have limited
the popular conceptions of the Spiritual and have tended
more and more to a gross materialism. Pari passu with this
material development there has grown with its growth and
strengthened with its strength a type of selfishness, which
is fatal to a high spiritual development of the inner man.
To combat these
evil tendencies of the present day is the self-imposed
function of the Fellows of the Theosophical Society. Far
be it from any of us to boast of any success that may have
been gained, we are content to devote time and funds to
the execution of our schemes and to await the verdict of
posterity upon our conduct. Our aims are to cultivate a
brotherhood of the whole human race, — a family of
brothers all seeking a high ideal of mental and bodily purity,
offering on the altar of mutual improvement, lives of self-sacrificing
zeal. For such of us as have time — and opportunity — and
education there are other objects of attainment, the search
into the records of the past; the lives and writings of sages
of a vanished age and race may yet be pregnant with many
a seed of wisdom which may be fertilized and bring forth
a rich crop of good in the future. For such again as have
still rarer attributes, we offer the inducement of the successes
of some of us, to pursue investigations into the hidden mysteries
of nature and into the secrets of man, — his constitution,
his origin, and his destiny.
The presence here
today of your earnest faces leads me to hope that all of
you have been convinced that there is a something to be
learned [Page 6] beyond the
knowledge of the schools, beyond the contents of the Encyclopaedias;
and an attainable aim beyond that even of living respected
and dying regretted.
The Theosophy
of which I am the unworthy exponent is not a Theology,
is not a Religion, and I am not concerned in founding any
new sect, nor even in trying to tear you away from the
Faith of your choice or of your upbringing. By Theosophy
I plead for the elevation of your lives, and for your development
into beings of purer aspirations and enlarged powers, so
that on resigning the earthly garments you now wear, you
may not only reach a haven of calm, but may in some future
age and state once more start into active existence on a
higher plane; and that you may escape the degradation which
a life of earthly impurity and sordid cares and enjoyments
will surely be the forerunner of. Your futures are in your
own hands, by your own thoughts and actions shall your future
lot be decided. The law of Karma is an unerring law, and
the cause must be followed by its effects, — as ye
sow so shall ye also reap.
The doctrines
which we teach describe no place for reward, no
New Jerusalem, and no bottomless pit for a Hell, but we
say that this earth is the scene of your future existence
and that your course of life in the personality to follow
will be framed, by a law unerring in its justice and implacable
in its accuracy, to avenge the faults of your present existence
and to acknowledge the successes in development which you
may now attain. In the same manner we say your present life
is fashioned by the Karma of your past, your attributes are
tinctured by the follies and the sins of a former existence.
Human knowledge is too finite for any man to tell you in
what you have sinned in the past life, any more than anyone
can tell you what were the sins of your youth which mayhap
have tinctured the life you are living today — but
the cases are similar and the effect is equally registered
in your life history.
This Karma is
as accurate in its perception, and as relentless in its
action as the All-seeing Eye of the personal deity of the
orthodox among you, it is the never-failing Law which supplies
to every cause its appropriate effect whether of a moral,
spiritual or physical nature: of it again may be paraphrased
the attribute of the Christian God, "not
one sparrow may fall to the ground" without the corresponding
effect, however minute that result may be.
Like the law of
gravity of the scientist, its effects are around us, and
may be appreciated, — and the law itself
as an entity is equally unappreciable.
Karma is the recompenser
for suffering and the stern hand of retributive justice
upon the evil doer. The poverty, squalor and misery which
exist today are truly the effect of some antecedent wrong-doing
of the past, for Karma exists as a fate devolving upon
nations, as well as a [Page
7] redresser
or executioner of an individual. Too true to be turned aside
by regret or by prayer, it is also too firm in its decrees
for any to, escape its effects. The punishment for a crime
must be borne, — and then may come surcease of sorrow
and future joy.
Once more I can
refer to the Christian Bible for an appropriate quotation, "With what measure you mete it shall be measured
to you again", here is the law described, oh ! that
other parts of this volume had been permitted to remain unaltered,
and to represent as truly the words of Jesus called the Christ.
That Jesus was a great prophet, or rather great teacher,
no one can deny, but alas, like almost every other great
master in the past, he left no writings of his own, and the
scattered sayings that have survived him, have been so emended,
added to, taken from, and mistranslated, partly by inadvertence,
often by design, until the whole volumes designed to illustrate
the doctrines of the master fail us in our hour of need.
The scattered fragments of ancient truth found in the teachings
of Jesus demonstrate his Initiation, the complete volumes
of his church teach us how frail is mankind, and how fallible
is tradition.
The words I have quoted are indeed the words of truth such
as a master may speak, and there is no context to point us
to a vicarious redemption, which by the sacrifice of another
shall enable us to escape the just penalties of our failings.
In further recognition
of this Law, did Jesus, like Buddha, preach self-abasement,
practical altruism, forgiveness of others. In knowledge
of Karmic retribution did they teach, cease to do evil,
learn to do well, resist not evil, and render good for
evil — for by such means your personal
future is improved and evil deeds shall recoil on the head
of the transgressor, and perchance your good examples may
at length be not without good effect on the evil doer. An
evil action returned by you lays up for your future a sin
to be atoned for, while your act which may produce a present
pain may relieve your aggressor of a share of his punishment
in the future. I do not wish to be understood to mean that
you standing with me here in this land, where selfishness
is rampant and the Kali Yuga is upon us, can carry out this
auspicious line of conduct in its entirety, but little will
probably be gained by Quixotic and isolated instances of
high conduct, but the Theosophist can resist and refrain
from active evil, and lose no opportunity of aiming at this
ideal himself and teaching it to his neighbours.
We hold that Jesus then, has been misrepresented and his
teachings gradually altered by successive generations of
his followers, too many of whom formulated their own ideal
of his meaning and by dominant personality succeeding in
obscuring in the course of centuries his primitive doctrine.
We teach that the orthodox scheme of the constitution of
man, as a compound of body, soul and spirit, fails to carry
with it a correct [Page 8] appreciation of the real nature
of humanity, and we say further that the simple ideal of
a Soul to be saved is incorrect and misleading. By the orthodox
it is laid down that the whole nature of man is desperately
wicked on account of a primal sin of the first human beings,
and that even if anyone can resist further wickedness in
life, yet the original sin in his constitution will necessitate
his damnation, in the absence of a saving faith in a vicarious
redemption. Theosophy assures us that this whole idea rests
on a mis-conception, and is founded on an allegory, and further
that the Genesis legend was not even written nor formulated
for centuries after the date of its reputed author, Moses.
The Wisdom Religion traces indeed in Genesis a resemblance
to the origination of certain races in a remote past, but
condemns as incorrect the Christian scheme which has been
founded on this Jewish basis. It has been truly said that
Christianity is founded on the Devil, who is of vital importance
to the whole scheme, for if the primal temptation and fall
be erased there exists no foundation on which is needed any
Redemptory structure. But even here if we excise all the
personal powers from the narrative we get another expression
of Karmic Law, that primitive, even as present man, must
be punished for his sins, but his punishment is not to be
averted by the sacrifice of an innocent being, however exalted
in his rank and constitution.
We confess indeed
that Christ Jesus was God, or as we say, was overshadowed
by the Highest Divine Essence, the Atma-Ray of the Absolute,
and as an ultimate incarnation of a series of lives of
self-exaltation by suffering and by personal humility,
was of immense importance to us ordinary men, — but
we claim that each one is also God in the same sense, however
far removed from him, or from Buddha, or from Pythagoras,
or Zoroaster, who have all been great souls, Mahatmas if
you will, and have all been great teachers — each specially
suitable to his time and the necessities and peculiarities
of his nation. We claim that each one of us has the potential
divinity within us, the Triad of the Spiritual, which is
indeed Christos, the Ray from the Supreme Atma, the Buddhi
vehicle or mode of communication, and the Manas, Mind or
Consciousness of the Individual: these three inspire each
personality here present, and in each one of us there is
a possibility of advancement and spiritual elevation if we
do but live so cleanly and so purely in this life of sorrow,
weakness and temptation, as to dissipate the Veil which hides
us from our higher selves and permit us to reach up and perceive
that sublime essence of the Christos Spirit, that our personality
may grow by its reflection and become strong by contemplation
of its purity. And the pure and serene ray of Atma which
by exaltation we may yet perceive, will by a series of ever
widening powers, and ever ascending stages of development,
at length attain in the Pralaya of the future that Nirvana
or absorption into the Absolute Deific essence [Page
9] which
is the heaven of the Esotericist, as it has been the dream
of the Kabbalist, and the constant and much misunderstood
ambition of the millions of living Buddhists.
With these exhortations
then, my friends, which are applicable to every conscious
human being, and which serve to point to the Universal
scheme of the Elevation of Man, I propose to leave the
general subject and to request your attention to the Path
which may be trod by the Few. I have already hinted
at the third object of our society, the investigation of
the "hidden mysteries of nature", if I may borrow
a phrase from the Freemasons, who also profess the same ideal,
they too claim for their Order that it is a system of Morality.
I, as a Freemason, acknowledge both the claims, but I blush
to think of how little study the members of the order give
to the mysteries, and again I regret to confess that the
doctrines of morality are often insufficient to preserve
the high character of the members. No matter now, Freemasonry
had secrets, even if its present professors have lost them,
and Theosophy has had secrets, and has them still; the so-called
occult sciences are a reality, — but their existence
is a veiled one, and rightly so, for were the powers which
are unknown to the world, but which really exist, only known
to the selfish among men, and were evil men but able to wield
the powers which can be learned by the pure, the amount of
human suffering might be intensified and the foundations
of human institutions might be shaken. Small wonder then
that such powers should be strictly guarded; — and
perhaps I might say small wonder that the scientific world
scoffs at their existence. The selfishness which our vaunted
civilization tends constantly to increase, and which orthodox
religion certainly further intensifies, is fatal to any hope
of acquiring magical power. The Higher Magic has always existed,
among a few adepts in every age, and probably will never
be widespread; benevolence is its mainspring, and test stone,
and immense power may be gained and wielded by the pure,
if he do but exercise patience, self-restraint, self-sacrifice,
and mental and bodily purity; to him is not alone good Karma,
but enlarged powers of usefulness, and a higher perception
of the secrets of existence, and glimpses "beyond the
Veil where others sit".
But commensurate with these enlarged powers are the dangers
of these occult pursuits, many are the pitfalls, greatly
increased are the temptations to sin, immense may be the
dangers to life and mental soundness which ignorance and
recklessness will expose the tyro to suffer.
Waves of attraction
to the Unseen World seem to sweep over men's minds at intervals,
and many get seized with a craze for occult research, whether
they be or be not fitted for such pursuits. It has been
said the Magus is born not made, just as has been said
also of the Poet, and there is an element of truth in the
assertions. However it is certain that the
[Page 10] expression of the
desire for the occult is no proof of suitability
for such study: I do not think we who know some little
of these subjects have any right to bar the door of progress
to others if they can progress, but we are within the right
to cease to encourage anyone who fails in his promises,
in his efforts, or who is found to be manifestly too weak
or too erring. I do not assert that it is impossible for
a man alone to make himself an adept, but I do insist on
the extreme rarity of the occurrence; a teacher is distinctly
necessary and so is a system. No one but a teacher who has
himself followed the Path with success can lead others; and
no neophyte can fail to be assisted in his researches by
one who has discovered the blind, but often alluring bye-paths
which lie to right and left of the narrow way of progress
in occultism. No one but he who has threaded the maze can
warn of the pitfalls and quagmires in which mind and body
may be engulfed. Be warned in time then, ye aspirants, and
beware of the evil effects of rushing in like fools where
angels might well fear to tread. Tempt not the powers which
haunt the entrance to the caves of Olympus, unless you know
yourself armed with virtue, purified by restraint, furnished
with the weapon of knowledge and guarded by a high purpose
and exalted aspirations — not for persona pre-eminence
but for enlarged powers of doing good to your fellow creatures.
The chief danger
of occult study lies in the fact that to certain persons
of peculiar constitution the way to unusual powers lies
open to some extent, and may remain open, although the
actor be not pure in mind and body, and in those
cases there arises that dark shadow of the Higher Magic
which has existed from time immemorial in isolated cases,
and at times in large groups of men, and which is properly
designated Black Magic. This fearful possibility, like
its great and high predecessor, is also often scoffed at
by the outer world, which indeed has grown so clever in
the last century or two as to deny even the possibility
of its existence and even to repeal laws which the men
of past times deemed necessary for its repression: and
yet Black Magic is a great fact, it does yet exist, and
incautious students may be led into it and may fall into
its meshes, and come to moral ruin, almost as surely as
he who with perverse will seeks the black art for his personal
aggrandisement or for the pursuit of revenge.
Evil forces and
evil remanets of humanity may exist around us unperceived
and unknown to men in their ordinary condition, but he
who oversteps the threshold of the unseen world may expose
himself to their action. For example, he who tampers with
spiritualism not only exposes his senses to be deceived
by fraud, which is rife whenever money or personal gain is
obtained by occult arts, but also endangers his intellect
by the reception of lying and ensnaring allusions which may
be uttered by mediums at the instigation of evil forces — Kama
lokic shells of [Page 11] suicides — and
perhaps others, to whose insidious advances the man who makes
no such experiments is not exposed. Modern England is not
free from sorcerers, who also in India are well known to
exist and form societies of reprobates known as Dugpas, Red
Caps or Black Magicians.
If one once take the first step from the ordinary walks
of life, nothing but a powerful will and a fixed intention
of benevolence can keep the student from harm.
The Wisdom of
the Himalayan Adepts is able, I have no doubt, to lead
the student as far along the path of Practical Occultism
as finite man can tread, and can lead him safely. There have
been in various countries, and there are still, other mystics,
whose learning no doubt came from the same parent stock but
from lapse of time and remoteness of place, has become somewhat
differentiated from that of the Indian teachers. Probably
there is no one in this country who has gone far enough in
more than one system to judge of their final identity; at
any rate there are other small groups of observers who can
show part of the way to Occult Science, the only one I mention
is that of the Kabbalists, who combining the secret doctrines
of the remote Hebrew Esoteric Rabbis with the Hermetic doctrines
of the Ancient Egyptian mysteries, and the Chaldee Magic,
are still, in secret, teaching their methods to favoured
pupils.
I have myself
been through a large portion of their tuition, which perhaps
is most properly named Rosicrucian, and passing from their
system I have been favoured by the teachers of Theosophy
with an insight into the first glimpses of Eastern Occultism.
I am not going to say tonight anything more concerning
the Rose and the Cross, and indeed I should dissuade anyone
who has taken up the Theosophic teaching, from beginning
any other such study, for the second will certainly tend
to mar success in the first.
One cannot well move along two lines at once, even if they
be nearly parallel in parts of their course.
There is one other
matter I should like to utter one warning about, and that
is with regard to the Hypnotic experiments which are now
once more the public rage: and here again I do not propose
to show you anything nor give any instruction in the art,
but I only desire to give a solemn warning to anyone disposed
to these proceedings. Be well assured that you will suffer
a Karmic penalty for any evil that may result from it.
If you are the means of paralysing the mental consciousness
of any person, you must be answerable for all effects, whether
intentional, or due to your ignorance, or your will. It is
a terrible thing to take away a man's sense, even by means
of chloroform, for you put his life in danger; still more
if you paralyse his actions by Will power supervening on
passivity, do you endanger his intellect and his future course
of life. You are in the wrong [Page
12] if you experiment
on human consciousness; if the hypnotic sleep must be used,
let it be employed alone by such as are purposely purified
and who have been instructed by those who know. I say again
Hypnotic powers are not fit for purposes of public amusement,
nor for public experiment; their use even by ordinary medical
men is to be condemned because wielded in ignorance, the
temporary relief of disease which has been observed by such
is often fallacious; there is a positive danger that a bodily
nervous ailment may be checked and converted into a moral
failing; and lastly there is a definite degradation of anyone
who is coerced by the will of another.
Bodily and intellectual
and moral strength coincide with Positivity, with him who
can guide and lead, and can bear with fortitude his fate;
beware of the state of acquired negativity, laying one
open to every evil influence, to mediumship and to failure.
The greatest praise is due to Dr. Norman Kerr, who a few
weeks back at Birmingham, in condemning Hypnotism as a
treatment, said: "Let the whole profession set
its face against the practice as a hazardous and unreliable
remedy, never free from the risk of perilous consequences,
liable to the gravest abuses, operative only in a limited
number of patients, liable to produce conditions of brain
conducive to mental unsoundness, and to transmit to posterity
permanent morbid nervous susceptibilities with an ill-balanced
and unstable brain — more especially in these days
of nerve riot, exhaustion, and unrest, when over-wearied
Nature yearns with an unutterable yearning for oblivion and
repose".
There may be some among you to whom it shall come, that initiation
for which I have longed, but believe me Adeptship is not
to be obtained by one life: as has been said, you must have
a Birthright, in other words in many previous existences
you must have gained more and more footing in the Path. Secondly,
you must be prepared to sacrifice all earthly ambitions.
Thirdly, you must cast aside all earthly pleasures which
are not pure, you must abstain from all bodily defilement,
from all mental dissipation: it has been said "he who
drinks beer, thinks beer", this is the key-note, mental
and moral elevation can hardly be obtained except by the
sacrifice of very many habits deemed permissible by society:
abstinence from alcohol is of the greatest importance, and
animal food mars the purity of the body, and, sexual enjoyment,
even if we neglect the consideration of its physical devitalization,
even by its mental claims so distracts the attention of the
mind as to render passion incompatible with adeptship. Although
you must exist on this physical plane, you must live above
it. The body is neither to be condemned nor neglected, but
to be used only as a local habitation and a name. Fourthly,
be ready to study at all times, be prepared to sift the true
from the false, let no glamour deceive you, no prestige mislead
you. [Page
13] Fifthly,
recognise your faults, your own special failings, seek for
no reward, hope not for gratitude, for that only which comes
unsought is to be appreciated. Sixthly, consider well before
the Path be entered, and having begun — look not back,
remember the allegory of the Pillar of Salt, pause not in
your progress, for no sluggard can succeed; and Seventhly,
proclaim not your progress as you pass the milestones of
the Path, nor your communications with higher powers to the
foolish. Contemplate the emblematic Sphinx of antiquity,
that complex symbol whose claws and limbs as of a Lion teach
audacity, whose loins as of a Bull denote strength and patient
endurance, whose Human Head suggests the cultivation of the
mind; and whose Wings as of an Eagle may enable you to mount
into those higher planes of thought and existence which are
flooded with the radiance of the Incomprehensible One All.
---------------------
In proportion
to the love existing among men, so will be the community
of property and power. Among true and real friends,
all is common; and, were ignorance and envy and superstition
banished from the world, all mankind would be friends.
The only perfect and genuine republic is that which
comprehends every living being. Those distinctions
which have been artificially set up, of nations, societies,
families and religions, are only general names, expressing
the abhorrence and contempt with which men blindly consider
their fellow-men. I love my country; I love my wife;
the city in which I was born, my parents and the children
of my care; and to this city, this woman, and this nation,
it is incumbent on me to do all the benefit in my power.
To what do these distinctions point, but to an evident
denial of the duty which humanity imposes on you, of
doing every possible good to every individual, under
whatever denomination he may be comprehended, to whom
you have the power of doing it ? You ought to love all
mankind; nay, every individual of mankind. You ought
not to love the individuals of your domestic circle less,
but to love those who exist beyond it more. Once make
the feelings of confidence and of affection universal,
and the distinctions of property and power will vanish.