Theosophy - Vernal Blooms by W.Q.Judge
VERNAL
BLOOMS
by
William Quan Judge
CONTENTS
A Friend of Old
Time and of the Future
Yours Till Death and After,
H.P.B.”
Advantages and Disadvantages in Life
Friends or Enemies in the Future
Reflections
Iconoclasm
Towards Illusions
Hypocrisy or Ignorance
Of Occult Powers and Their Acquirement
Spiritual Gifts and Their Attainment
Mechanical Theosophy
Through the Gates of Gold
The Gates of Gold”
Hit the Mark
Methods of Theosophical Work
What We Need Most : Theosophical Education
Simplification of Teachings
Of Studying Theosophy
Cautions in Paragraphs
What Should Theosophists Read?
Much
Reading, Little Thought
What
Should Theosophists Talk About?
Astral Intoxication
Claiming to Be Jesus
Glamour—Its
Purpose and Place in Magic
Occult
Arts:
No.1
Precipitation
No.
2 Disintegration—Reintegration
No. 3 Some Propositions by H.P. Blavatsky
Proofs of the Hidden Self
Imagination and Occult Phenomena
Conversations
in Occultism:
1. The
Kali Yuga—The Present
Age
2. Elementals and Elementaries
3. Elementals—Karma
4. Elementals and Treasure: Dangers
of Occult Knowledge
5. Mantrams
6. Elementals—Metals—Moods
7. Studying the Elementals
8. Occult
Vibrations—A
Fragment of Conversation with
H.P.B in 1888
9. Devachan, Precipitations, Adepts, Elementals
10. The Two Aspects of Occultism
11. Clairvoyance, Intuition, Adepts
12. Phantasy; Memory and Mind; The Sun; Altruism
13. Rules for Higher Conduct
14. The Destruction of Evil
The
Dweller of the Threshold
Give Us One Fact
Which is Vague, Theosophy or Science?
Wrong Popular Notions
Our Sun and the True Sun
The Allegorical Umbrella
Two Lost Keys: The Bhagavad-Gita—The
Zodiac
Theosophy and Capital Punishment
Jacob Boehme and the Secret Doctrine
Are the “Arabian Nights” All
Fiction?
H.P.B—A
Lion-Hearted Colleague Passes
Our Objects
The Theosophical Society
The Future of the Theosophical Society
An Epoch-Making Letter
Foreword
Fifty
years ago, on the Day of the Spring Equinox, William Quan Judge laid aside his
body of only forty-four years, after accomplishing a mighty task. Students of
Theosophical history know how substantially he contributed to the building of
the organism through which was radiated the Divine Wisdom. Intuitive aspirants
to soul-knowledge are conscious that his writings are profound; and deep is
the impress that these make upon their minds and hearts.
In
this volume we have brought together but a few culled flowers, fragrant
of sympathy
and understanding, colourful in knowledge. That knowledge not only appeals
to the head but also fecundates the heart with real compassion and awakens
both
to sacrificial service of mankind. Untiring was Mr. Judge’s patience and
gentleness with his pupils, with his co-workers, and with all the men and women
he contacted. The attentive reader of this volume will learn much but the ardent
one will gain, by invisible osmosis and assimilation, these outstanding qualities
of his. Such a devoted reader will find in the book not only usable knowledge
but also exercises for the control of the mind and the awakening of the heart,
exercises to be daily done.
The
book contains articles which deal with principles and practices of the higher
morality founded upon the metaphysics of Theosophy; next, articles which indicate
to the promulgator the methods of service; then, expositions on psychic powers
and phenomena and on spiritual ones pertaining to Divine Occultism. The last
five articles are of historical interest but have a distinct message for the
present-day workers who are building the future.
Mr.
Robert Crosbie made the utmost use of the writings of W.Q. Judge and as a devoted
chela he pointed to their value. He wrote:-
Frequent
reading of articles by W.Q.J. develops the tendency to present the right
ideas
in the simplest form, and these ideas become a mental storehouse which can
be drawn upon at will. It is not so necessary that we understand the
deeply metaphysical
concepts of Theosophy, as it is to comprehend the fundamentals and be able
to make an application of them to every problem of life. W.Q.J’s articles
will be found to contain “alphabet, grammar and composition,” or,
in other words, a basis for right ideas, right thinking and right application.
A daily reading from his writings is advisable. One who does this cannot help
but imbibe—the spirit of them, and become an exponent who is at once deep,
simple and convincing.
This
is a memorial volume in the sense that it gives a few devotees of William
Quan
Judge an opportunity to offer a token of gratitude at the feet of the great
Soul whose one aim was to elevate the minds of his fellowmen . For thousands
of mystically inclined readers and aspirants, all over the world, William
Quan
Judge has become or will become the Link which makes and keeps intact their
relation to the World of Elder Brothers. He makes clear, as no one else
has
done, the purpose of the Mission of his senior—H.P. BLAVATSKY. In her
last hour she called upon her pupils to “keep the Link unbroken.”
Mr. Judge’s last message was: “There should be calmness. Hold fast.
Go slow.” In themselves these two messages provide a key to the comprehension
of critical stages in the Theosophical Movement of the nineteenth-twentieth
century.
In
preparing this volume we have enjoyed and have benefited from the sweetness
and the strength of its contents. May these Vernal Blooms prove veritable puja
flowers for many, many Pilgrim-Souls bound for the Temple of Divine Wisdom.
Bombay,
21st March 1946
The Publishers
A
Friend of Old Time and of the Future
As
such does William Quan. Judge appear to me, as doubtless he does to many others
in this and other lands.
The
first Theosophical treatise I read was his Epitome of Theosophy; my first
meeting with him changed the whole current of my life. I trusted him then ,
as I trust him now and all those whom he trusted; to me it seems that “trust”
is the bond that binds, that makes the strength of the Movement, for it is of
the heart. And this trust he called forth was not allowed to remain a blind
trust, for as time went on, as the energy, steadfastness and devotion of the
student became more marked, the “real W.Q.J.” was more and more
revealed, until the power that radiated through him became in each as ever present
help in the work. As such it remains today, a living centre in each heart that
trusted him, a focus for the Rays of the coming “great messenger.”
Having
been engaged in active T.S. work in Boston for over seven years, it has been
my Karma to be brought in touch with him under many different circumstances,
the various crises, local and general, through which the Society has safely
passed. In all these, his was the voice that encouraged or admonished, his the
hand that guided matters to a harmonious issue. Of his extraordinary power of
organization, his marvellous insight into the character and capacity of individuals,
his ability of turning seeming evils into powers for good, I have had many proofs.
That
he was a “great occultist” many know by individual experience, but
none have fathomed the depths of his power and knowledge. The future will reveal
much in regard to him that is now hidden, will show the real scope of his lifework.
We know that to us that lifework has been an inestimable boon, and that through
us it must be bestowed on others. The lines have been laid down for us by H.P.B,
W.Q.J., and Masters, and we can take again as our watchword, that which he gave
us at the passing of H.P.B, “Work, watch and wait.” We will not
have long to wait.
Robert
Crosbie
“Yours
Till Death and After, H.P.B”
Such
has been the manner in which our beloved teacher and friend always concluded
her letters to me. And now, though we are all of us committing to paper some
account of that departed friend and teacher, I feel ever near and ever potent
the magic of that resistless power, as of a mighty rushing river, which those
who wholly trusted her always came to understand. Fortunate indeed is that Karma
which, for all the years since I first met her, in 1875, has kept me faithful
to the friend who, masquerading under the outer mortal garment known
as H.P. BLAVATSKY, was ever faithful to me, ever kind, ever the teacher and
the guide.
In
1874, in the City of New York, I first met H.P.B in this life. By her
request,
sent through Colonel H.S. Olcott, the call was made in her rooms in Irving
Place, when then , as afterwards, through the remainder of her stormy
career, she was
surrounded by the anxious, the intellectual, the bohemian, the rich and the
poor. It was her eye that attracted me, the eye of one whom I must have
known
in lives long passed away. She looked at me in recognition at that first hour,
and never since has that look changed. Not as a questioner of philosophies
did
I come before her, not as one groping in the dark for lights that schools and
fanciful theories had obscured, but as one who, wandering many periods
through
the corridors of life, was seeking the friends who could show where the designs
for the work had been hidden. And true to the call she responded, revealing
the plans once again, and speaking no words to explain, simply pointing
them
out and went on with the task. It was as if but the evening before we had parted,
leaving yet to be done some detail of a task taken up with one common end; it
was teacher and pupil, elder brother and younger, both bent on the one single
end, but she with the power and the knowledge that belong to lions and sages.
So, friends from the first, I felt safe. Others I k now have looked with suspicion
on an appearance they could not fathom, and though it is true they adduce many
proofs which, hugged to the breast, would damn sages and gods, yet it is only
through blindness they failed to see the lion’s glance, the diamond heart
of H.P.B
The
entire space of this whole magazine would not suffice to enable me to
record
the phenomena she performed for me through all these years, nor would I wish
to put them down. As she often said, they prove nothing but only lead
some souls
to doubt and others to despair. And again, I do not think they were done just
for me, but only that in those early days she was laying down the lines
of force
all over the land and I, so fortunate, was at the centre of the energy and
saw the play of forces in visible phenomena. The explanation has been
offered by
some too anxious friends that the earlier phenomena were mistakes in judgement,
attempted to be rectified in later years by confining their area and
limiting
their number, but until some one shall produce in the writing of H.P.B her
concurrence with that view, I shall hold to her own explanation made
in advance and never
changed. That I have given above. For many it is easier to take refuge behind
a charge of bad judgement than to understand the strange and powerful laws which
control in matters such as these.
Amid
the turmoil of her life, above the din produced by those who charged
her with
deceit and fraud and others who defended, while month after month, year after
year, witnessed men and women entering the theosophical movement only
to leave
it soon with malignant phrases for H.P. B., there stands a fact we might all
imitate—devotion absolute to her Master. “It was He,” she
writes, “who told me to devote myself to this, and I will never disobey
and never turn back.”
In
1888 she wrote to me privately:-
“Well,
my only friend, you ought to know better. Look into my life and try to
realize it—in its outer course at least, as the rest is hidden. I am under
the curse of ever writing, as the wandering Jew was under that of being ever
on the move, never stopping one moment to rest. I have to do. I live
an artificial life; I am an automaton running full steam until the power of
generating steam stops, and then—good bye! *** Night before last I was
shown a bird’s eye view of the Theosophical Societies. I saw a few earnest
reliable Theosophists in a death struggle with the world in general, with other—nominal
but ambitious—Theosophists. The former are greater in numbers than you
may think, and they prevailed as you in America will prevail, if you only remain staunch to the Master’s programme and true to yourselves.
And last night I saw *** and now I feel strong—such as I am in my body—and
ready to fight for Theosophy and a few true ones to my last breath. The
defending forces have to be judiciously—so scanty they are—distributed
over the globe, wherever Theosophy is struggling against the powers of darkness.”
Such
she ever was; devoted to Theosophy and the Society organized to carry out a
programme embracing the world in its scope. Willing in the service of the cause
to offer up hope, money, reputation, life itself, provided the Society might
be saved from every hurt, whether small or great. And thus bound body, heart
and soul to this entity called the Theosophical Society, bound to protect it
at all hazards, in face of every loss, she often incurred the resentment of
many who became her friends but would not always care for the infant organization
as she had sworn to do. And when they acted as if opposed to the Society, her
instant opposition seemed to them to nullify professions of friendship. Thus
she had but few friends, for it required a keen insight, untinged with personal
feeling, to see even a small part of the real H.P. BLAVATSKY.
But
was her object merely to form a Society whose strength should lie in numbers?
Not so, She worked under directors who, operating behind the scene, knew
that the Theosophical Society was, and was to be, the nucleus from which help
might spread to all the people of the day, without thanks and without acknowledgement.
Once, in London, I asked her what was the chance of drawing people into the
Society in view of the enormous disproportion between the number of members
and the millions in Europe and America who neither knew of nor cared for it.
Leaning back in her chair, in which she was sitting before her writing desk,
she said:-
“When
you consider and remember those days in 1875 and after, in which you could not
find any people interested in your thoughts, and now look at the wide-spreading
influence of theosophical ideas—however labelled—it is not so bad.
We are not working merely that people may call themselves Theosophists,
but that the doctrines we cherish may affect and leaven the whole mind of this
century. This alone can be accomplished by a small earnest band of workers,
who work for no human reward, no earthly recognition, but who, supported and
sustained by a belief in that Universal Brotherhood of which our Masters are
a part, work steadily, faithfully, in understanding and putting forth for consideration
the doctrines of life and duty that have come down to us from immemorial time.
Falter not, so long as a few devoted ones will work to keep the nucleus existing.
You were not directed to found and realise a Universal Brotherhood, but to
form
the nucleus for one; for it is only when the nucleus is formed that the accumulations
can begin that will end in future years, however far, in the formation of that
body which we have in view.”
H.P.B
had a lion heart, and on the work traced out for her she had the lion’s
grasp; let us, her friends, companions and disciples, sustain ourselves in carrying
out the designs laid down on the trestle-board, by the memory of her devotion
and the consciousness that behind her task there stood, and still remain, those
Elder Brothers who, above the clatter and the din of our battle, ever see the
end and direct the forces distributed in array for the salvation of “that
great orphan—Humanity.”
Advantages
and Disadvantages in Life
That
view of one’s Karma which leads to a bewailing of the unkind fate which
has kept advantages in life away from us, is a mistaken estimate of what is
good and what is not good for the soul. It is quite true that we may often
find
persons surrounded with great advantages but who make no corresponding use
of them or pay but little regard to them. But this very fact in itself goes
to
show that the so-called advantageous position in life is really not good nor
fortunate in the true and inner meaning of those words. The fortunate one has
money and teachers, ability, and means to travel and fill the surroundings
with
works of art, with music and with ease. But these are like the tropical airs
that enervate the body; these enervate the character instead of building it
up. They do not in themselves tend to the acquirement of any virtue whatever
but rather to the opposite by reason of the constant steeping of the senses
in the subtle essences of the sensuous world. They are like sweet things which,
being swallowed in quantities, turn to acids in the inside of the body. Thus
they can be seen to be the opposite of good Karma.
What
then is good Karma and what bad? The all embracing and sufficient answer is
this:
Good
Karma is that kind which the Ego desires and requires; bad, that which the Ego
neither desires nor requires.
And
in this the Ego, being guided and controlled by law, by justice, by the necessities
of upward evolution, and not by fancy or selfishness or revenge or ambition,
is sure to choose the earthly habitation that is most likely, out of all possible
of selection, to give a Karma for the real advantage in the end. In this light
then, even the lazy, indifferent life of one born rich as well as that of one
born low and wicked is right.
When
we, from this plane, inquire into the matter, we see that the “advantages”
which one would seek were he looking for the strengthening of character, the
unloosing of soul force and energy, would be called by the selfish and personal
world “disadvantages.” Struggle is needed for the gaining of strength;
buffeting adverse eras is for the gaining of depth; meagre opportunities may
be used for acquiring fortitude; poverty should breed generosity.
The
middle ground in all this, and not the extreme, is what we speak of. To be born
with the disadvantage of drunken, diseased parents, in the criminal portion
of the community is a punishment which constitutes a wait on the road of evolution.
It is a necessity generally because the Ego has drawn about itself in a former
life some tendencies which cannot be eliminated in any other way. But we should
not forget that sometimes, often in the grand total, a pure, powerful Ego incarnates
in just such awful surroundings, remaining good and pure all the time, and staying
there for the purpose of uplifting and helping others.
But
to be born in extreme poverty is not a disadvantage. Jesus said well when, repeating
what many a sage had said before, he described the difficulty experienced by
the rich man in entering heaven. If we look at life from the narrow point of
view of those who say there is but one earth and after it either eternal heaven
or hell, then poverty will be regarded as a great disadvantage and something
to be avoided. But seeing that we have many lives to live, and that they will
give us all needed opportunity for building up character, we must admit that
poverty is not, in itself, necessarily bad Karma. Poverty has no natural tendency
to engender selfishness, but wealth requires it.
A
sojourn for everyone in a body born to all the pains, deprivations and miseries
of modern poverty, is good and just. Inasmuch as the present state of civilization
with all its horrors of poverty, of crime, of disease, of wrong relations almost
everywhere, has grown out of the past, in which we were workers, it is just
that we should experience it all at some point in our career. If some person
who now pays no heed to the misery of men and women should next life be plunged
into one of the slums of our cities for rebirth, it would imprint on the soul
the misery of such a situation. This would lead later on to compassion and care
for others. For, unless we experience the effects of a state of life we cannot
understand or appreciate it from a mere description. The personal part involved
in this may not like it as a future prospect, but if the Ego decides that the
next personality shall be there then all will be an advantage and not a disadvantage.
If
we look at the field of operation in us of the so-called advantages of
opportunity,
money, travel and teachers we see at once that it all has to do with the brain
and nothing else. Languages, archaeology, music, satiating sight with
beauty,
eating the finest food, wearing the best clothes, travelling to many places
and thus infinitely varying impressions on ear and eye; all these begin
and
end in the brain and not in the soul or character. As the brain is a portion
of the unstable, fleeting body the whole phantasmagoria disappears from
view
and use when the note of death sends its awful vibration through the physical
form and drives out the inhabitant. The wonderful central master-ganglion
disintegrates,
and nothing at all is left but some faint aromas here and there depending on
the actual love within for any one pursuit or image or sensation. Nothing
left
of it all but a few tendencies—Skandhas, not of the very best.
The advantages then turn out in the end to be disadvantages altogether. But
imagine the same brain and body not in places of ease, struggling for a good
part of life, doing their duty and not in a position to please the senses: this
experience will burn in, stamp upon, carve into the character, more energy,
more power and more fortitude. It is thus through the ages that great characters
are made. The other mode is the mode of the humdrum average which is nothing
after all, as yet, but an animal
Friends
or Enemies in the Future
The
fundamental doctrines of Theosophy are of no value unless they are applied to
daily life. To the extent to which this application goes they become living
truths, quite different from intellectual expressions of doctrine. The mere
intellectual grasp may result in spiritual pride, while the living doctrines
becomes an entity through the mystic power of the human soul. Many great minds
have dwelt on this. Saint Paul wrote:-
“Though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I
am become
as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all
faith
so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned,
and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
The
Voice of the Silence, expressing the views of the highest schools of occultism,
asks us to step out of the sunlight into the shade so as to make room for others,
and declares that those whom we help in this life will help us in our next one.
Buttresses
to these are the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation. The first shows that
we must reap what we sow, and the second that we come back in the company of
those with whom we lived and acted in other lives. St. Paul was in complete
accord with all other occultists, and his expressions above given must be viewed
in the light Theosophy throws on all similar writings. Contrasted with charity,
which is love of our fellows, are all the possible virtues and acquirements.
These are all nothing if charity be absent. Why? Because they die with the death
of the uncharitable person; their value is naught, and that being is reborn
without friend and without capacity.
This
is of the highest importance to the earnest Theosophist who may be making the
mistake of obtaining intellectual benefits but remains uncharitable. The fact
that we are now working in the Theosophical movement means that we did so in
other lives, must do so again, and still more important, that those who are
now with us will be reincarnated in our company on our next rebirth.
Shall
those whom we now know or whom we are destined to know before this life ends
be our friends or enemies, our aiders or obstructors in that coming life? And
what will make them hostile or friendly to us then? Not what we shall say or
do and for them in the future life. For no man becomes your friend in a present
life by reason of present acts alone. He was your friend, or you his, before
in a previous life. Your present acts but revive the old friendship, renew the
ancient obligation.
Was
he your enemy before, he will be now even though you do him service now, for
these tendencies last always more than three lives. They will be more and still
more our aids if we increase the bond of friendship of today by charity. Their
tendency to enmity will be one-third lessened in every life if we persist in
kindness, in love, in charity now. And that charity is not a gift of money,
but charitable thought for every weakness, to every failure.
Our
future friends or enemies, then, are those who are with us and to be
with us
in the present. If they are those who now seem inimical, we make a grave mistake
and only put off the day of reconciliation three more lives if we allow
ourselves
today to be deficient in charity for them. We are annoyed and hindered by those
who actively oppose as well as others whose mere looks, temperament,
and unconscious
action fret and disturb us. Our code of justice to ourselves, often but petty
personality, incites us to rebuke them, to criticise, to attack. It is
a mistake
for us to so act. Could we but glance ahead to next life, we would see these
for whom we now have but scant charity crossing the plain of that life
with
ourselves and ever in our way, always hiding the light from us. But change
our present attitude, and that new life to come would show these bores
and partial
enemies and obstructors helping us, aiding our every effort. For Karma may
give them then greater opportunities than ourselves and better capacity.
Is
any Theosophist who reflects on this so foolish as to continue now, if
he has
the power to alter himself, a course that will breed a crop of thorns for his
next life’s reaping? We should continue our charity and kindnesses to
our friends whom it is easy to wish to help, but for those whom we naturally
dislike, who are our bores now, we ought to take especial pains to aid and carefully
toward them cultivate a feeling of love and charity. This adds interest to our
Karmic investment. The opposite course, as surely as sun rises and water runs
down hill, strikes interest from the account and enters a heavy item on the
wrong side of life’s ledger.
And
especially should the whole Theosophical organization act on the lines laid
down by St. Paul and The Voice of the Silence. For Karmic tendency is
an unswerving law. It compels us to go on in this movement of thought and doctrine,
it will bring back to reincarnation all in it now. Sentiment cannot move the
law one inch; and though that emotion might seek to rid us of the presence
of
these men and women we presently do not fancy or approve—and there are
many such in our ranks for every one—the law will place us again in company
with friendly tendency increased or hostile feeling diminished, just as we
now create the one or prevent the other. It was the aim of the founders of
the Society
to arouse tendency to future friendship; it ought to be the object of all our
members.
What
will you have? In the future life, enemies or friends?
Reflections
When
I am annoyed by an ungovernable animal, I am reminded that the brutes would
not oppose man if man understood and entered into his true relations with all
things. The brutes are unconsciously aware of the general human opposition,
which they see focalized in each human being. When I am in harmony with all
things, men cannot and brutes will not oppose me. In undeviating
instinct, the brute is more true than is the man, to the unwritten Law.
The “idle word” condemned
by Jesus is inactivity of Being. It is the cessation of the homogeneous
resonance, the Logos or Word. The Word in its highest
activity is pure spirit; in stagnation it is hell. To each man it is given
in trust for all men; if he misinterprets it he is tortured. Of he sequestrates
it, he is condemned to eternal death that it may be free; for it is eternally
free. Through misuse, he may learn its use. If he denies it, he is lost;
for
by it alone he lives.
It
is better for a man to sin deliberately against the Law than to chafe under
the mandates of conscience. The first is a renegade who chooses another King;
the second is a coward and slave who rebels but dares not disobey. The energy
of direct sin may, by reaction, compel return, but the lethargy of fear bears
no fruit.
If
you wish to receive, give. If you wish to ascend, descend. If
you wish to live, die. If you wish to understand these words, read them
by the lamp of the spirit, and reject that of the understanding.
Apparent
evil is a necessary result of manifestation or duality. The good alone is in
Time inactive. Evil is the balance of good: the Equilibrating power reigns
above and is alone eternal.
When
the silent Eternal gives birth to the activity of Spirit in Space the worlds
are evolved, and, seeking equilibrium, return again to the eternal silence.
So with the soul of man.
More
saving grace may be found in the society of thieves than in that of fine persons
who never reverberate to a true thought. In the first there is rebound; the
latter is the negation of life.
Expiation
is the kernel of sin. “Evil” containing its own punishment continually
defeats itself, and sows the seed of “good” in its own regeneration.
He
who would see Perfection must become It. How? By beginning the attempt. Its
first step is the full realization of imperfection in himself.
Iconoclasm
Towards Illusions
A
disposition not to interfere in any way with beliefs which are illusions
prevails
with many who dislike the pain caused by such tearing away of the veil. And
the argument that illusionary beliefs, creeds, and dogmas should not
be done
away with so long as the believer is happy or good has been used by the Christian
Church—and more especially by the Roman Catholic branch of it—as
a potent means of keeping the mind of man in an iron chain. They are accustomed
to add that unless such creeds and beliefs shall stand, morality will
die out
altogether. But experience does not prove the position to be correct.
For
numerous examples exist in the dissenting or Protestant form of Christianity
showing that the important doctrines of the Church are not necessary for the
prevailing of good morals; and, on the other hand, immortality, vice, and crime
in places high and low coexist with a formal declaration of belief in the church
dogmas. In many parts of Italy the grossest superstition and murderous vengefulness
and crooked hearts are found side by side with an outwardly pious compliance
with the ordinances of the Church and a superstitious belief in its dogmas.
The whole Christian assembly of nations officially violates the commands of
Jesus every day and hour.
Shall
it be worse or better, or kind or harsh, to tear away the veil as quickly as
possible? And if the inconoclastic attack should be made, for what reason ought
one to hesitate because the operation and the attack may result in mental pain?
The
only reason for hesitation lies in this fear to give pain; there can be nothing
but good results from the change from an untrue and illogical, and therefore
debasing, creed, if a system that is complete and reasonable be furnished in
its place.
Were
we dealing with children or with a race mind which though dwelling in
an adult
body is but that of a child, then, indeed, it would be right to lead them on
by what may be entirely an illusion. But the day of man’s childhood as
an immortal being has passed away. He is now grown up, his mind has arrived
at the point where it must know, and when, if knowledge be refused, this
violation
of our being will result in the grossest and vilest superstition of the most
appalling materialism. No child is born without the accompanying pains,
and
now the soul-mind of man is struggling for birth. Shall we aid in preventing
it merely for the avoidance of preliminary pain? Shall we help a vast
brood
of priests to refasten the clamps of steel which for so many centuries they
have held tightly on the race-mind? Never, if we see the great truth
that we
are preparing for a cycle when reason is to take her place beside the soul
and guide the pilgrim to the tree of life eternal.
Be
not beguiled by the argument that ‘'tis unwise to tell the truth. It is
but the song of the siren, intended to lure the traveller to his doom.
Tell
the truth, but do not force it. If even a pious soul should lose the historical
Jesus Christ and see instead the glorious image of the Self in every man, that
were a gain worth all the pain the first rude shock might give. The danger of
lifting the veil of Isis lies not in the doctrines of Unity, Reincarnation,
and Karma, but in untaught mysteries which no Theosophist is able to reveal.
The change from dogma or creed to a belief in law and justice impartial will
bring perhaps some tears to the soul, but the end thereof is peace and freedom.
That “great orphan Humanity,” now
grown up, no longer needs the toys of a thousand years ago, but requires,
and with a voice like the rush of mighty
waters demands, that every veil should be lifted, every lie unveiled, and every
light be lighted that can shed a ray upon the remainder of its toilsome
road.
Hypocrisy
or Ignorance
There
are some members of the Theosophical Society who expose themselves to the charge
of indulging in hypocrisy or being ignorant about their own failings and shortcomings.
They are those who, having studied the literature of the movement and accepted
most of its doctrines, then talk either to fellow-members or to outsiders as
if the goal of renunciation and universal knowledge had been reached in their
case, when a very slight observation reveals them as quite ordinary human beings.
If
one accepts the doctrine of Universal Brotherhood, which is based on the
essential
unity of all human beings, there is a long distance yet intervening between
that acceptation and its realization, in those who have adopted the doctrine.
It is just the difference between intellectual assent to a moral, philosophical,
or occult law, and its perfect development in one’s being so that it has
become an actual part of ourselves. So when we hear a theosophist say that
he could see his children, wife, or parents die and not feel anything whatever,
we must infer that there is a hypocritical pretension or very great ignorance.
There is one other conclusion left, which is that we have before us a monster
who is incapable of any feeling whatever, selfishness being over-dominant.
The
doctrines of Theosophy do not ask for nor lead to the cutting out of the human
heart of every human feeling. Indeed, that is an impossibility, one would think,
seeing that the feelings are an integral part of the constitution of man, for
in the principle called Kâma—the desires and feelings—we
have the basis of all our emotions, and if it is prematurely cut out of any
being death or worse must result. It is very true that theosophy as well as
all ethical systems demands that the being who has conscience and will, such
as are found in man, shall control this principle of Kâma and not be carried
away by it nor be under its sway. This is self-control, mastery of the human
body, steadiness in the face of affliction, but it is not extirpation of
the
feelings which one has to control. If any theosophical book deals with this
subject it is the Bhagavad Gita, and in that Krishna is constantly engaged
in enforcing the doctrine that all the emotions are to be controlled, that
one is not to grieve over the inevitable—such as death, nor to be unduly elated
at success, nor to be cast down by failure, but to maintain an equal mind
in every event, whatever it may be, satisfied and assured that the qualities
move
in the body in their own sphere. In no place does he say that we are to attempt
the impossible task of cutting out of the inner man an integral part of himself.
But,
unlike most other systems of ethics, theosophy is scientific as well, and
this
science is not attained just when one approaching it for the first time in
this incarnation hears of and intellectually agrees to these high doctrines.
For
one cannot pretend to have reached the perfection and detachment from human
affairs involved in the pretentious statement referred to, when even as
the
words are uttered the hearer perceives remaining in the speaker all the peculiarities
of family, not to speak of those pertaining to nation, including education,
and to the race in which he was born. And this scientific part of theosophy,
beginning and ending with universal brotherhood, insists upon such an intense
and ever-present thought upon the subject, coupled with a constant watch
over
all faults of mind and speech, that in time an actual change is produced
in the material person, as well as in the immaterial one within who is
the mediator
or way between the purely corporal lower man and his Higher divine self. This
change, it is very obvious, cannot come about at once nor in the course of
years of effort.
The
charge of pretension and ignorance is more grave still in the case of those
theosophists guilty of the fault, who happen to believe—as so many do–-that
even in those disciples whose duties in the world are nil from the very
beginning, and who have devoted themselves to self-renunciation and self-study
so long that they are immeasurably beyond the members of our Society, the defects
due to family, tribal, and national inheritance are now and then observable.
It
seems to be time, then, that no theosophist shall ever be guilty of making pretension
to any one that he or she has attained to the high place which now and then
some assume to have reached. Much better is it to be conscious of our defects
and weaknesses, always ready to acknowledge the truth that, being human, we
are not able to always or quickly reach the goal of effort.
Of
Occult Powers and Their Acquirement
There
are thousands of people in the United States, as well in the ranks of the Society
as outside, who believe that there are certain extraordinary occult powers to
be encompassed by man. Such powers as thought reading, seeing events yet to
come, unveiling the motives of others, apportation of objects, and the like,
are those most sought after, and nearly all desired with a selfish end in view.
The future is inquired into so as to enable one to speculate in stocks and another
to circumvent competitors. Those longings are pandered to here and there by
men and societies who hold out delusive hopes to their dupes that, by the payment
of money, the powers of nature may be invoked.
Even
some of our own members have not been guiltless of seeking after such wonderful
fruit of knowledge with those who would barter the Almighty, if they could,
for gold.
Another
class of earnest theosophists, however, have taken a different ground.
They
have thought that certain Adepts who really possess power over nature, who
can see and hear through all space, who can transport solid objects through
space
and cause written messages to appear at a distance with beautiful sounds
of astral bells , ought to intervene, and by the exercise of the same power
make
these earnest disciples hear sounds ordinarily called occult, and thus easily
transmit information and help without the aid of telegraph or mailboat.
But
that these Beings will not do this has been stated over and over again; for
the kingdom of heaven is not given away, it must be “taken by violence.” It lies there before us to be entered upon and occupied, but that can be only
after a battle which, when won, entitles the victor to remain in undisturbed
possession.
As
many have seemed to forget these rules, I thought it well to offer them the
following words from one of those very Adepts they seek to meet:
“The
educing of the faculty of hearing occult sounds would be not at all the
easy
matter you imagine. It was never done to any of us, for the iron rule is
that what powers one gets he must himself acquire, and when acquired
and ready for use, the powers lie dumb and dormant in their potentiality like
the wheels in a music box, and only then it is easy to wind the key and start
them. *** Yet every earnestly-disposed man may acquire such powers practically;
that is the finality of it. There are no more distinctions of persons in this
than there are as to whom the sun shall shine upon or the air give vitality
to. There are the powers of all nature before you; take what you can.”
This
is perfectly clear and strictly according to the Secret Canon. “When the
materials are all prepared and ready, the architect shall appear”; and
when we have acquired the powers we seek, by educing them ourselves from
our inner being, the Master will then be ready and able to start into exercise
that which we have obtained.
But—even
here is an important point. This. If the Master can, so to say, wind the key
and thus start the machinery, He can also refuse to give the necessary impulse.
For reasons that have to do with the motives and life of students, it may be
advisable for a while not to permit the exercise of these powers which “lie
dumb and dormant in their potentiality.” To sanction their use might in
one lead to the ruin of other lives, or in another to personal disaster and
retardation of true progress.
Therefore
the Master says that quite often he may not only refuse to give the start, but
yet further may prevent the wheels from turning.
THERE
ARE THE POWERS OF ALL NATURE BEFORE YOU; TAKE WHAT YOU CAN.
Spiritual
Gifts and Their Attainment
One
of the questions which a Theosophist is apt to ask, and to ask with some
earnestness
and intensity, is, How can I make progress in the higher life? How can I
attain spiritual gifts? For the phrase “spiritual gifts,” which is a rather
loose-jointed expression, we are indebted to Paul, the Apostle and Adept, who
thus wrote to the Corinthian Church: “Concerning spiritual gifts, brethren,
I would not have you ignorant.” Among the “gifts” which he
goes on to enumerate are these,—wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, the
working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, the speaking of divers
tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. And while the Apostle urges the
Corinthians to “covet earnestly the best gifts,” he yet proceeds
to show them a more excellent way, namely, the supreme law of love. “Now
abideth,” he says, “faith, hope, charity (or love), these three;
but the greatest of these is charity.” Spiritual gifts, then, however
desirable their possession may be, are plainly not, in the opinion of this good
Adept, on the highest plane, not the supreme object of human attainment, or
the most excellent way of reaching human perfection. They may doubtless properly
be regarded as evidences of advancement on the higher planes of thought and
spiritual life, and may be coveted and used for the benefit of others; but they
are not in themselves the chief object of human desire. For man’s supreme
aim should be to become God, and “God is love.”
But
let us look at the matter a little more closely. In the first place, what
is
a “gift”? What is the common acceptation of the word? Clearly something
given to or bestowed upon a recipient, not something which a man already possesses,
or which he may obtain by a process of growth or development. The latter, strictly
speaking, would a “fruit,” not a gift. A tree which has been producing
nothing but leaves and branches for many years finally breaks out into blossom
and fruit. No new “gift” has been conferred upon it; it has simply
reached a stage of development in its natural growth where certain powers,
inherent in the tree from the beginning, have an opportunity to assert themselves.
In
the same way the transcendental powers possessed by the Adepts are not gifts;
but the natural result of growth in certain directions, and the necessary
efforescence,
so to speak, of the profound development in their cases of those spiritual
potentialities which are the birthright of all men.
Taking
this view of the meaning of the word, I think most Theosophists will be
ready
to admit that the phrase “spiritual gifts” is a misnomer. There
are and can be no gifts for man to receive. Whatever the student of the higher
life is, he is as the result of his past labours. Whatever he may become in
the future will be due to his own efforts. He may develop his latent faculties
and in time become an Adept, or he may drift along the currents of life without
aim or effort, till he finally sinks into oblivion. His destiny is in his own
hands, and is in no way dependent upon “gifts.”
Bearing
in mind, however, the manifold nature of man, the subject may be looked
at from
another point of view. For all practical purposes man may be said to consist
of body, soul, and spirit, the soul being the true ego, and the spirit
one with
the Supreme. And regarding these for the time as separate entities, it is
perfectly true, as James, another apostle, puts it, that “every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above.” Every aspiration of the soul for spiritual
things, every resolve of the man to lead a purer life, every helping outstretched
hand to a weaker brother, every desire for the truth, all hungering and thirsting
after righteousness:—these and like yearnings and strivings of the soul
have first of all come from above, from the Divine within. In this sense they
may be called “gifts,”—gifts from the higher nature to the
lower, from the spiritual to the human. And this action of the above upon the
below is seen in those humane attributes, or qualities, or virtues—whatever
one may be pleased to call them—which Paul in another place enumerates
as the “fruits of the spirit,—love, joy, peace, long suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”
Looked
at from either of these points of view, how can we attain spiritual gifts?
The
answer would seem to depend upon what we are really striving for. If the
extraordinary powers of the Adepts have captivated our fancy and fired
our ambition, then
we must possess our souls in patience. Few, if any, of us are at all fitted
for a “forcing” process. We must be content to wait and work; to
grow and develop; line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and
there a little, till, ages hence perhaps, we come to the full stature of
the perfect
man. If however, wisely recognizing our limitations, we strive instead after
what may be termed the ordinary manifestations of the spirit, two obvious
lines
of conduct suggest themselves.
Every
impulse from above, every prompting of the Divine within, should meet at
once
with a hearty welcome and response. If you feel as if something urged you
to visit some sick or afflicted neighbour or friend, obey the suggestion
without
delay. If the wish to turn over a new leaf comes into the lower consciousness,
don’t wait till next New Year’s before actually turning it over;
turn it now. If some pathetic story of suffering has moved you, act on the emotion
while your cheeks are still wet with tears. In short, put yourself at once in
line with the Divine ways, in harmony with the Divine laws. More light, more
wisdom, more spirituality must necessarily come to one thus prepared, thus expectant.
How can a bar of iron be permeated with the earth’s magnetism if it is
placed across instead of in line with the magnetic meridian? How can a man
expect spiritual gifts or powers if he persists in ignoring spiritual conditions,
in
violating spiritual laws? To obtain the good, we must think good thoughts;
we must be filled with good desires; in short we must be good.
And
this practical suggestion is to fulfil faithfully and conscientiously every
known duty. It is in and through the incidents of daily life, in work well
done,
in duties thoroughly performed, that we today can most readily make progress
in the higher life,—slow progress, it may be, but at any rate sure. These
are stepping stones to better things. We advance most rapidly when we stop
to help other wayfarers. We receive most when we sacrifice most. We attain
to the
largest measure of Divine love when we most unselfishly love the brethren.
We become one with the Supreme most surely when we lost ourselves in work
for Humanity.
Mechanical
Theosophy
The
EARNEST, devoted student can hardly believe that there exist any theosophists
sincerely holding a belief in theosophical doctrines but who are, at the same
time, found to have such a mechanical conception of them as permits one to retain
undisturbed many old dogmas which are diametrically opposed to Theosophy. Yet
we have such among us.
It
comes about in this manner. First, Theosophy and its doctrines are well
received
because affording an explanation of the sorrows of life and a partial answer
to the query, “Why is there anything?” Then a deeper examination
and larger comprehension of the wide-embracing doctrines of Unity, Reincarnation,
Karma, the Sevenfold Classification, cause the person to perceive that
either
a means of reconciling certain old time dogmas and ideas with Theosophy must
be found, or the disaster of giving the old ones up must fall on him.
Contemplating
the criminal class and laws thereon the mechanical theosophist sees that perhaps
the retaliatory law of Moses must be abandoned if the modus vivendi is
not found. Ah! Of course, are not men agents for Karma? Hence the criminal who
has murdered may be executed, may be violently thrust out of life, because that
is his karma. Besides, Society must be protected. You cite the bearing on this
of the subtle inner, living nature of man. The mechanical theosophist necessarily
must shut his eyes to something, so he replies that all of that has no bearing,
the criminal did murder and must be murdered; it was his own fault. So at one
sweep away goes compassion, and, as well, any scientific view of criminals and
sudden death, in order that there may be a retaliatory Mosaic principle which
is really bound up in our personal selfish nature.
Our
naturalistic mechanic in the philosophy of life then finds quite a satisfaction.
Why, of course, being in his own opinion a karmic agent he has the right to
decide when he shall act as such. He will be a conscious agent. And so he executes
karma upon his fellows according to his own desires and opinions; but he will
not give to the beggar because that has been shown to encourage mendicity, nor
would he rescue the drunken woman from the gutter because that is her fault
and karma to be there. He assumes certainly to act justly, and perhaps in his
narrowness of mind he thinks he is doing so, but real justice is not followed
because it is unknown to him, being bound up in the long, invisible karmic streams
of himself and his victim. However, he has saved his old theories and yet calls
himself a theosophist.
Then
again the mechanical view, being narrow and of necessity held by those who have
no native knowledge of the occult, sees but the mechanical, outer operations
of karma. Hence the subtle relation of parent and child, not only on this plane
but on all the hidden planes of nature, is ignored. Instead of seeing that the
child is of that parent just because of karma and for definite purposes; and
that parentage is not merely for bringing an ego into this life but for wider
and greater reasons, the mechanical and naturalistic theosophist is delighted
to find that his Theosophy allows one to ignore the relation, and even to curse
a parent, because parentage is held to be merely a door into life and nothing
more.
Mechanical
Theosophy is just as bad as that form of Christianity which permits a man
to
call his religion the religion of love, while he at the same time may grasp,
retaliate, be selfish, and sanction his government’s construction of death-dealing
appliances and going to war, although Jesus was opposed to both. Mechanical
Theosophy would not condemn—as Christianity does not—those missionaries
of Jesus who, finding themselves in danger of death in a land where the people
do not want them, appeal to their government for warships, for soldiers,
guns
and forcible protection in a territory they do not own. It was the mechanical
view of Christianity that created an Inquisition. This sort of religion has
driven out the true religion of Jesus, and the mechanical view of our doctrines
will, if persisted in, do the same for Theosophy.
Our
philosophy of life is one grand whole, every part necessary and fitting
into
every other part. Every one of its doctrines can and must be carried to its
ultimate conclusion. Its ethical application must proceed similarly. If
it conflicts
with old opinions those must be cast off. It can never conflict with true
morality. But it will with many views touching our dealings with one another.
The spirit
of Theosophy must be sought for; a sincere application of its principles
of life and act should be made. Thus mechanical Theosophy, which inevitably
leads—as
in many cases it already has—to a negation of brotherhood, will be impossible,
and instead there will be a living, actual Theosophy. This will then raise
in our hearts the hope that at least a small nucleus of Universal Brotherhood
may
be formed before we of this generation are all dead.
Through
the Gates of Gold
The
most notable book for guidance in Mysticism which has appeared since Light
on the Path was written has just been published under the significant title
of “Through the Gates of Gold.” [Through the Gates of Gold; a
Fragment of Thought. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1887. Price 50 cents.] Though
the author’s name is withheld, the occult student will quickly discern
that it must proceed from a very high source. In certain respects the book
may be regarded as a commentary on Light on the Path. The reader would do
well to bear this in mind. Many things in that book will be made clear by the
reading of this one, and one will be constantly reminded of that work, which
has already become a classic in our literature. Through the Gates of Gold
is a work to be kept constantly at hand for reference and study. It will surely
take rank as one of the standard books of Theosophy.
The “Gates of Gold” represent
the entrance to that realm of the soul unknowable through the physical
perceptions, and the purpose of this work is
to indicate some of the steps necessary to reach their threshold. Through
its extraordinary beauty of style and the clearness of its statement it
will appeal
to a wider portion of the public than most works of a Theosophical character.
It speaks to the Western World in its own language, and in this fact lies
much
of its value.
Those
of us who have been longing for something “practical” will find
it here, while it will probably come into the hands of thousands who know little
or nothing of Theosophy, and thus meet wants deeply felt though unexpressed.
There are also doubtless many, we fancy, who will be carried far along in its
pages by its resistless logic until they encounter something which will give
a rude shock to some of their old conceptions, which they have imagined as firmly
based as upon a rock—a shock which may cause them to draw back in alarm,
but from which they will not find it so easy to recover, and which will be
likely to set them thinking seriously.
The
titles of the five chapters of the book are, respectively, “The Search
for Pleasure,” “The Mystery of the Threshold,” “The
Initial Effort,” “The Meaning of Pain,” and “The Secret
of Strength.” Instead of speculating upon mysteries that lie at the very
end of man ‘s destiny, and which cannot be approached by any manner of
conjecture, the work very sensibly takes up that which lies next at hand,
that which constitutes the first step to be taken if we are ever to take
a second
one, and teaches us its significance. At the outset we must cope with sensation
and learn its nature and meaning. An important teaching of Light on the Path has been misread by many. We are not enjoined to kill out sensation, but to “kill out desire for sensation,”` which is something quite
different. “Sensation, as we obtain it through the physical body, affords
us all that induces us to live in that shape,” says this work. The problem
is, to extract the meaning which it holds for us. That is what existence is
for. “If men will but pause and consider what lessons they have learned
from pleasure and pain, much might be guessed of that strange thing which
causes these effects.”
“The
question concerning results seemingly unknowable, that concerning the life beyond
the Gates,” is presented as one that has been asked throughout the ages,
coming at the hour “when the flower of civilization had blown to its full,
and when its petals are but slackly held together,” the period when man
reaches the greatest physical development of his cycle. It is then that in the
distance a great glittering is seen, before which many drop their eyes bewildered
and dazzled, though now and then one is found brave enough to gaze fixedly on
this glittering, and to decipher something of the shape within it. “Poets
and philosophers, thinking and teachers, all those who are the ‘elder
brothers of the race’—have beheld this sight from time to time,
and some among them have recognized in the bewildering glitter the outlines
of the Gates of Gold.”
Those
Gates admit us to the sanctuary of man’s own nature, to the place whence
his life-power comes, and where he is priest of the shrine of life. It needs
but a strong hand to push them open, we are told. “The courage to enter
them is the courage to search the recesses of one’s nature without fear
and without shame. In the first part, the essence, the flavour of the man,
is found the key which unlocks those great Gates.”
The
necessity of killing out the sense of separateness is profoundly emphasized
as one of the most important factors in this process. We must divest ourselves
of the illusions of the material life. “When we desire to speak with those
who have tried the Golden Gates and pushed them open, then it is very necessary—in
fact it is essential—to discriminate, and not bring into our life the
confusions of our sleep. If we do, we are reckoned as madmen, and fall back
into the darkness where there is no friend but chaos. This chaos has followed
every effort of man that is written in history; after civilization has flowered,
the flower falls and dies, and winter and darkness destroy it.” In this
last sentence is indicated the purpose of civilization. It is the blossoming
of a race, with the purpose of producing a certain spiritual fruit; this
fruit
having ripened, then the degeneration of the great residuum begins, to be
worked over and over again in the grand fermenting processes of reincarnation.
Our
great civilization is now flowering and in this fact we may read the reason
for the extraordinary efforts to sow the seed of the Mystic Teachings wherever
the mind of man may be ready to receive it.
In
the “Mystery of Threshold,” we are told that “only a man who
has the potentialities in him both of the voluptuary and the stoic has any
chance of entering the Golden Gates. He must be capable of testing and
valuing to its
most delicate fraction every joy existence has to give; and he must be capable
of denying himself all pleasure, and that without suffering from the denial.”
The
fact that the way is different for each individual is finely set forth
in “The
Initial Effort,” In the words that man “may burst the shell that
holds him in darkness, tear the veil that hides him from the eternal, at any
moment where it is easiest for him to do so; and most often this point will
be where he least expects to find it.” By this we may see the uselessness
of laying down arbitrary laws in the matter.
The
meaning of those important words, “All steps are necessary to make up
the ladder,” finds a wealth of illustration here. These sentences are
particularly pregnant: “Spirit is not a gas created by matter, and we
cannot create our future by forcibly using one material agent leaving out the
rest. Spirit is the great life on which matter rests, as does the rocky world
on the free and fluid ether; whenever we can break our limitations we find ourselves
on that marvellous shore where Wordsworth once saw the gleam of the gold.”
Virtue, being of the material life, man has not the power to carry it with him,
“yet the aroma of his good deeds is a far sweeter sacrifice than the odour
of crime and cruelty.
“To
the one who has lifted the golden latch the spring of sweet waters, the
fountain
itself whence all softness arises, is opened and becomes part of his heritage.
But before this can be reached a heavy weight has to be lifted from the
heart,
an iron bar which holds it down and prevents it arising in its strength.
The
author here wishes to show that there is sweetness and light in occultism,
and
not merely a wide dry level of dreadful Karma, such as some Theosophists
are prone to dwell on. And this sweetness and light may be reached when
we discover
the iron bar and raising it shall permit the heart to be free. This iron
bar is what the Hindus call “the knot of the heart!” In their scriptures
they talk of unloosing the knot, and say that when that is accomplished freedom
is near. But what is the iron bar and the knot? is the question we must answer.
It is the astringent power of self—of egotism—of the idea of separateness.
This idea has many strongholds. It holds its most secret court and deepest counsels
near the far removed depths and centre of the heart. But it manifests itself
first, in that place which is nearest to our ignorant perceptions, where we
see it first after beginning the search. When we assault and conquer it there
it disappears. It has only retreated to the next row of outworks where for a
time it appears not to our sight, and we imagine it killed, while it is laughing
at our imaginary conquests and security. Soon again we find it and conquer again,
only to have it again retreat. So we must follow it up if we wish to grasp it
at least to its final stand just near the “kernel of the heart.”
There it has become “an iron bar that holds down the heart,” and
there only can the fight be really won. That disciple is fortunate who is
able to sink past all the pretended outer citadels and seize at once this personal
devil who holds the bar of iron, and there wage the battle. If won there,
it is easy to return to the outermost places and take them by capitulation.
This is very difficult, for many reasons. It is not a mere juggle of words to
speak of this trial. It is a living tangible thing that can be met by any real
student. The great difficulty of rushing at once to the centre lies in the unimaginable
terrors which assault the soul on its short journey there. This being so it
is better to begin the battle on the outside in just the way pointed out in
this book and Light on the Path, by testing experience and learning from
it.
In
the lines quoted the author attempts to direct the eyes of a very materialistic
age to the fact which is an accepted one by all true students of occultism,
that the true heart of a man—which is visibly represented by the muscular
heart—is the focus point for spirit, for knowledge, for power; and that
from that point the converged rays begin to spread out fan-like, until they
embrace the Universe. So it is the Gate. And it is just at that neutral spot
of concentration that the pillars and the doors are fixed. It is beyond it that
the glorious golden light burns, and throws up a “burnished glow.”
We find in this the same teachings as in the Upanishads. The latter speaks of
“the ether which is within the heart,” and also says that we must
pass across that ether.
“The
Meaning of Pain” is considered in a way which throws a great light on
the existence of that which for ages has puzzled many learned men. “Pain
arouses, softens, breaks and destroys. Regarded from a sufficiently removed
standpoint, it appears as a medicine, as a knife, as a weapon, as a poison,
in turn. It is an implement, a thing which is used, evidently. What we desire
to discover is, who is the user; what part of ourselves is it that demands
the
presence of this thing so hateful to the rest?”
The
task is, to rise above both pain and pleasure and unite them to our service. “Pain and pleasure stand apart and separate, as do the two sexes; and
it is in the merging, the making the two into one, that joy and deep sensation
and profound peace are obtained. Where there is neither male nor female,
neither
pain nor pleasure, there is the god in man dominant, and then is life real.”
The
following passage can hardly fail to startle many good people; “Destiny,
the inevitable, does indeed exist for the race and for the individual; but who
can ordain this save the man himself? There is no clew in heaven or earth to
the existence of any ordainer other than the man who suffers or enjoys that
which is ordained.” But can any earnest student of Theosophy deny, or
object to this? Is it not a pure statement of the law of Karma? Does it not
agree perfectly with the teaching of the Bhagavat-Gîtâ? There is
surely no power which sits apart like a judge in court, and fines us or rewards
us for this misstep or that merit; it is we who shape, or ordain, our own
future.
God
is not denied. The seeming paradox that a God exists within each man is made
clear when we perceive that separate existence is an illusion; the physical,
which makes us separate individuals, must eventually fall away, leaving each
man one with all men, and with God, who is the Infinite.
And
the passage which will surely be widely misunderstood is that in “The
Secret of Strength.” “Religion holds a man back from the path, prevents
his stepping forward, for various very plain reasons. First, it makes the vital
mistake of distinguishing between good and evil. Nature knows no such distinctions.”
Religion is always man -made. It cannot therefore be the whole truth. It is
a good thing for the ordinary and outside man, but surely it will never bring
him to the Gates of Gold. If religion be of God how is it that we find that
same God in his own works and acts violating the precepts of religion? He kills
each man once in life; every day the fierce elements and strange circumstances
which he is said to be the author of, bring on famine, cold and innumerable
untimely deaths; where then, in The True, can there be any room for such distinctions
as right and wrong? The disciple must, as he walks on the path, abide by law
and order, but if he pins his faith on any religion whatever he will stop at
once, and it makes no matter whether he sets up Mahatmas, Gods, Krishna, Vedas
or mysterious acts of grace, each of these will stop him and throw him into
a rut from which even heavenly death will not release him. Religion can only
teach morals and ethics. It cannot answer the question “what am I?” The Buddhist ascetic holds a fan before his eyes to keep away the sight of objects
condemned by his religion. But he thereby gains no knowledge, for that part
of him which is affected by the improper sights has to be known by the man
himself,
and it is by experience alone that the knowledge can be possessed and assimilated.
The
book closes gloriously, with some hints that have been much needed. Too
many,
even of the sincerest students of occultism, have sought to ignore that one-half
of their nature, which is here taught to be necessary. Instead of crushing
out
the animal nature, we have here the high and wise teaching that we must learn
to fully understand the animal and subordinate it to the spiritual. “The
god in man, degraded, is a thing unspeakable in its infamous power of production.
The animal in man, elevated, is a thing unimaginable in its great powers of
service and of strength.” and we are told that our animal self is a great
force, the secret of the old-world magicians, and of the coming race which Lord
Lytton foreshadowed. “But this power can only be attained by giving the
god the sovereignty. Make your animal ruler over yourself, and he will never
rule others.”
This
teaching will be seen to be identical with that of the closing words of “The
Idyll of the White Lotus” : “He will learn how to expound spiritual
truths, and to enter into the life of his highest self, and he can learn
also to hold within him the glory of that higher self, and yet to retain
life upon
this planet so long as it shall last, if need be; to retain life in the vigour
of manhood, till his entire work is completed, and he has taught the three
truths
to all who look for light.”
There
are three sentences in the book which ought to be imprinted in the reader’s
mind, and we present them inversely:
“Secreted
and hidden in the heart of the world and the heart of man is the light
which
can illumine all life, the future and the past.”
“On
the mental steps of a million men Buddha passed through the Gates of Gold;
and
because a great crowd pressed about the threshold he was able to leave behind
him words which prove that those gates will open.”
“This
is one of the most important factors in the development of man, the recognition—profound
and complete recognition—of the law of universal unity and coherence.”
“The
Gates of Gold”
“When
the strong man has crossed the threshold he speaks no more to those on the other
(this) side. And even the words he utters when he is outside are so full of
mystery, so veiled and profound, that only those who follow in his steps can
see the light within them.”—Through the Gates of Gold, p.19.
He
fails to speak when he has crossed, if he did, they would neither hear
nor understand him . All the language he can use when on this side is language.
All the language he can use when on this side is language based upon experience
gained outside the Gates, and when he uses that language, it calls up in the
minds of his hearers only the ideas corresponding to the plane they are on and
experience they have undergone; for if he speaks of that kind of idea and experience
which he has found on the other side, his hearers do not know what is beneath
his words, and therefore his utterances seem profound. They are not veiled and
profound because he wishes to be a mystic whose words no one can expound, but
solely because of the necessities of the case. He is willing and anxious to
tell all who wish to know, but cannot convey what he desires, and he is sometimes
accused of being unnecessarily vague and misleading.
But
there are some who pretend to have passed through these Gates and who
utter mere nothings, mere juggles of words that cannot be understood because
there is nothing behind them rooted in experience. Then the question arises, “How are we to distinguish between these two?
There
are two ways.
1.
By having an immense erudition, a profound knowledge of the various and numberless
utterances of those known Masters throughout the ages whose words are full of
power. But this is obviously an immense and difficult task, one which involves
years devoted to reading and rarely-found retentiveness of memory. So it cannot
be the one most useful to us. It is the path of mere book-knowledge.
2.
The other mode is by testing those utterances by our intuition. There is
scarcely
any one who has not got an internal voice—a silent monitor—who,
so to say, strikes within us the bell that corresponds to truth, just as a piano’s
wires each reports the vibrations peculiar to it, but not due to striking
the wire itself. It is just as if we had within us a series of wires whose
vibrations
are all true, but which will not be vibrated except by those words and propositions
which are in themselves true. So that false and pretending individual who
speaks
in veiled language only mere nothingness will never vibrate within us those
wires which correspond to truth. But when one who has been to and through
those
Gates speaks ordinary words really veiling grand ideas, then all the invisible
wires within immediately vibrate in unison. The inner monitor has struck
them,
and we feel that he has said what is true, and whether we understand him
or not we feel the power of the vibration and the value of the words we have
heard.
Many
persons are inclined to doubt the existence in themselves of this intuition,
who in fact possess it. It is a common heritage of man, and only needs unselfish
effort to develop it. Many selfish men have it in their selfish lives; many
a great financier and manager has it and exercises it. This is merely its lowest
use and expression.
By
constantly referring mentally all propositions to it and thus giving it
an opportunity
for growth, it will grow and speak soon with no uncertain tones. This is
what is meant in old Hindu books by the expression, “a knowledge of the real
meaning of sacred books.” It ought to be cultivated because it is one
of the first steps in knowing ourselves and understanding others.
In
this civilization especially we are inclined to look outside instead of
inside
ourselves. Nearly all our progress is material and thus superficial. Spirit
is neglected or forgotten, while that which is not spirit is enshrined
as such.
The intuitions of the little child are stifled until at last they are almost
lost, leaving the many at the mercy of judgements based upon exterior reason.
How, then, can one who has been near the Golden Gates—much more he who
passed through them—be other than silent in surroundings where the golden
refulgence is unknown or denied. Obliged to use the words of his fellow travellers,
he gives them a meaning unknown to them, or detaches them from their accustomed
relation. Hence he is sometimes vague, often misleading, seldom properly
understood.
But not lost are any of these words, for they sound through the ages, and
in future eras they will turn themselves into sentences of gold in the hearts
of
disciples yet to come.
Hit
the Mark
“Having
taken the bow, the great weapon,let
him place on it the arrow, sharpened by devotion.
Then, having drawn it with a thought
directed to that which is, hit the mark,
O friend,—the Indestructible.
OM
is the
bow, the Self is the arrow, Brahman is called
its aim.
It is to be hit by a man who is
not thoughtless; and then as the arrow becomes
one with the target,
he will become one
with Brahman. Know him alone as the Self,
and leave off other words.
He is the bridge
of the Immortal. Meditate on the self
as OM.
Hail to you that you may cross beyond
the sea of darkness.”
Mundaka
Upanishad
Archery
has always been in vogue, whether in nations civilized or among people
of barbarous
manners. We find Arjuna, prince of India, the possessor of a wonderful bow
called Gandiva, the gift of the gods. None but its owner could string it,
and in war
it spread terror in the ranks of the enemy. Arjuna was a wonderful archer
too. He could use Gandiva as well with his right as with his left hand,
and so was
once addressed by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gîtâ dialogue as “thou
both-handed.” The bow figures in the lives of the Greek heroes, and just
now the novelist Louis Stevenson is publishing a book in which he sings the
praises of a bow, the bow of war possessed by Ulysses; when war was at hand
it sang its own peculiar, shrill, clear song, and the arrows shot from it
hit
the mark.
Archery
is a practice that symbolizes concentration. There is the archer, the arrow,
the bow, and the target to be hit. To reach the mark it is necessary to
concentrate
the mind, the eye, and the body upon many points at once, while at the same
time the string must be let go without disturbing the aim. The draw of
the string
with the arrow must be even and steady on the line of sight, and when grasp,
draw, aim, and line are perfected, the arrow must be loosed smoothly at
the
moment of full draw, so that by the bow’s recoil it may be carried straight
to the mark. So those who truly seek wisdom are archers trying to hit the
mark. This is spiritual archery, and it is to this sort that the verse from
the Mundaka
Upanishad refers.
In
archery among men a firm position must be assumed, and in the pursuit of truth
this firm position must be taken up and not relaxed, if the object in view is
to be ever attained. The eye must not wander from the target, for, if it does,
the arrow will fly wide or fall short of its goal. So if we start out to reach
the goal of wisdom, the mind and heart must not be permitted to wander, for
the path is narrow and the wanderings of a day may cause us years of effort
to find the road again.
The
quality of the bow makes a great difference in the results attained by
the archer.
If it is not a good bow of strong texture and with a good spring to it, the
missiles will not fly straight or with sufficient force to do the work
required;
and so with the man himself who is his own bow, if he has not the sort of
nature that enables him to meet all the requirements, his work as a spiritual
archer
will fall that much short. But even as the bow made of wood or steel is subject
to alterations of state, so we are encouraged by the thought that the laws
of
karma and reincarnation show us that in other lives and new bodies we may
do better work. The archer says too that the bow often seems to alter with
the
weather or other earthly changes, and will on some days do much better work
than on others. The same thing is found by the observing theosophist, who
comes
to know that he too is subject from time to time to changes in his nature
which enables him to accomplish more and to be nearer the spiritual condition. But
the string of the bow must always be strung tight; and this, in spiritual
archery, is the fixed determination to always strive for the goal.
When
the arrow is aimed and loosed it must be slightly raised to allow for the trajectory,
for if not it will fall short. This corresponds on its plane with one of the
necessities of our human constitution, in that we must have a high mental and
spiritual aim if we are to hit high. We cannot go quite as high as the aim,
but have to thus allow for the trajectory that comes about from the limitations
of our nature; the trajectory of the arrow is due to the force of gravity acting
on it, and our aspirations have the same curve in consequence of the calls of
the senses, hereditary defects, and wrong habits that never permit us to do
as much as we would wish to do.
Let
us hit the mark, O friend! and that mark is the indestructible, the highest
spiritual life we are at any time capable of.
Methods
of Theosophical Work
In
my experience with the Theosophical Society I have noticed a disposition on
the part of some members to often object to the methods of others or to their
plans on the ground that they are unwise, or not suitable, or what not. These
objections are not put in a spirit of discord, but more often arise merely from
a want of knowledge of the working of the laws which govern our efforts.
H.P.B
always said—following the rules laid down by high teachers—that
no proposal for theosophical work should be rejected or opposed provided
the proposer has the sincere motive of doing good to the movement and to
his fellows.
Of course that does not mean that distinctly bad or pernicious purposes are
to be forwarded. Seldom, however, does a sincere theosophist propose bad
acts.
But they often desire to begin some small work for the Society, and are frequently
opposed by those who think the juncture unfavourable or the thing itself
unwise.
These objections always have at bottom the assumption that there is only
one certain method to be followed. One man objects to the fact that a Branch
holds
open public meetings, another that it does not. Others think the Branch should
be distinctly metaphysical, still more that it should be entirely ethical.
Sometimes
when a member who has not much capacity proposes an insignificant work in
his own way, his fellows think it ought not to be done. But the true way
is to bid
good-speed to every sincere attempt to spread theosophy, even if you cannot
agree with the method. As it is not your proposal, you are not concerned
at all in the matter. You praise the desire to benefit; nature takes care
of results.
A
few examples may illustrate. Once in New York a most unique newspaper article
about theosophy appeared. It was a lying interview. All that it had in
it true
was the address of an official of the T.S. It was sent by an enemy of the
Society to a gentleman who had long desired to find us. He read it, took
down the address,
and became one of our most valued members. In England a lady of influence
had desired to find out the Society’s place but could not. By accident a placard
that some members thought unwise fell into her hands noticing an address
on theosophy in an obscure place. She attended, and there met those who
directed
her to the Society. In the same town a member who is not in the upper classes
throws cards about at meetings directing those who want to know theosophical
doctrines where to go. In several cases these chance cards, undignifiedly
scattered,
have brought into the ranks excellent
members who had no other means of finding out about the Society. Certainly the
most of us would think that scattering cards in this manner is too undignified
to our work.
But
no one method is to be insisted on. Each man is a potency in himself, and
only
by working on the lines which suggest themselves to him can he bring to bear
the forces that are his. We should deny no man and interfere with none;
for
our duty is to discover what we ourselves can do without criticizing the
actions of another. The laws of karmic action have much to do with this.
We interfere
for a time with good results to come when we attempt to judge according to
our own standards the methods of work which a fellow member proposes for
himself.
Ramifying in every direction are the levers—absolutely necessary for the
greatest of results—being very small and obscure. They are all of them
human beings, and hence we must carefully watch that by no word of ours the
levers are obstructed. If we attend strictly to our own duty all will act
in
harmony, for the duty of another is dangerous for us. Therefore if any member
proposes to spread the doctrines of theosophy in a way that seems wise to
him,
wish him success even if his method be one that would not commend itself
to you for your own guidance.
What
We Need Most : Theosophical Education
The
first object of our Society is the formation of a nucleus of a Universal
Brotherhood.
This is a practical object and at the same time a fact in nature. It has
been long regarded by the greater number of men as an Utopian ideal, one
that might
be held up, talked about, desired, but impossible of attainment. And it was
no wonder that people so regarded it, because the ordinary religious view
of
God, nature, and man placed everything on a selfish basis, offered personal
distinction in heaven to the saints who might die in the odour of sanctity,
and thus made impossible the realization of this beautiful dream. But when
the
Theosophical philosophy shows that there is a unity among beings not only
in their better natures but also on the physical plane, our first object
becomes
most practical. For if all men are brothers in fact, that is, joined one
to another by a tie which no one can break, then the formation of the nucleus
for
the future brotherhood is something that has to do with all the affairs of man,
affects civilizations, and leads to the physical as well as moral betterment
of each member of the great family.
This
first object means philanthropy. Each Theosophist should therefore not only
continue his private of public acts of charity, but also strive to so understand
Theosophical philosophy as to be able to expound it in a practical and easily
understood manner, so that he may be a wider philanthropist by ministering to
the needs of the inner man. This inner man is a thinking being who feeds upon
a right or wrong philosophy. If he is given that one which is wrong, then, becoming
warped and diseased, he leads his instrument, the outer man, into bewilderment
and sorrow.
Now
as Theosophical theories were and are still quite strange, fascinating, and
peculiar when contrasted with the usual doctrines of men and things, very many
members have occupied themselves with much metaphysical speculation or with
diving into the occult and the wonderful, forgetting that the higher philanthropy
calls for a spreading among men of a right basis for ethics, for thought, for
action. So we often find Theosophists among themselves debating complicated
doctrines that have no present application to practical life, and at the same
time other members and some inquirers breathing a sigh of relief when anyone
directs the inquiries into such a channel as shall cause all the doctrines to
be extended to daily life and there applied.
What
we most need is such a Theosophical education as will give us the ability
to
expound Theosophy in a way to be understood by the ordinary person. This
practical, clear exposition is entirely possible. That it is of the highest
importance
there can be no doubt whatever. It relates to and affects ethics, everyday
life, every thought, and consequently every act . The most learned, astute,
and successful
church, the Roman Catholic, proceeds on this basis. Should we refrain from
a good practice because a bigot takes the same method? The priests of Rome
do
not explain, nor attempt to explain or expound, the highly metaphysical and
obscure, though important, basis of their various doctrines. They touch
the
people in their daily life, a knowledge of their own system in all its details
enabling them to put deep doctrine into every man’s language, although
the learning of the preacher may be temporarily concealed. With them the
appeal is to fear; with us it is to reason and experience. So we have a
natural advantage
which ought not to be overlooked.
High
scholarship and a knowledge of metaphysics are good things to have, but
the
mass of the people are neither scholars nor metaphysicians. If our doctrines
are of any such use as to command the efforts of sages in helping on to
their
promulgation , then it must be that those sages—our Masters—desire
the doctrines to be placed before as many of the mass as we can reach. This
our Theosophical scholars and metaphysicians can do by a little effort. It
is
indeed a little difficult, because slightly disagreeable, for a member who
is naturally metaphysical to come down to the ordinary level of human minds
in
general, but it can be done. And when one does do this, the reward is great
from the evident relief and satisfaction of the inquirer.
It
is pre-eminently our duty to be thus practical in exposition as often as possible.
Intellectual study only of our Theosophy will not speedily better the world.
It must, of course, have effect through immortal ideas once more set in motion,
but while we are waiting for those ideas to bear fruit among men a revolution
may break out and sweep us away. We should do as Buddha taught his disciples,
preach, practise, promulgate, and illustrate our doctrines. He spoke to the
meanest of men with effect, although having a deeper doctrine for greater and
more learned minds. Let us, then, acquire the art of practical exposition of
ethics based on our theories and enforced by the fact of Universal Brotherhood.
Simplification
of Teachings
At
the present time one of the most urgent needs is for a simplification of Theosophical
teachings. Theosophy is simple enough; it is the fault of its exponents if it
is made complicated, abstruse or vague. Yet enquiring people
are always complaining that it is too difficult a subject for them, and
that their education has not been deep enough to enable them to understand
it. This is greatly the fault of the members who have put it in such a manner
that
the people sadly turn away. At public meetings or when trying to interest
an enquirer it is absolutely useless to use Sanskrit, Greek or other foreign
words.
Nine times out of ten the habit of doing so is due to laziness or conceit.
Sometimes it is due to having merely learned certain terms without knowing
and assimilating
the ideas underneath. The ideas of Theosophy should be mastered, and once
that is done it will be easy to express those in the simplest possible terms.
And
discussions about the Absolute, the Hierarchies, and so forth, are worse
than useless. Such ideas as Karma, Reincarnation, the Perfectibility of Man,
the
Dual Nature, are the subjects to put forward. These can be expounded—if
you have grasped the ideas and made them part of your thought—from a thousand
different points of view. At all meetings the strongest effort should be
made to simplify by using the words of our own language in expressing that
which
we believe
Of
Studying Theosophy
It
is often asked: How should I or my friend study theosophy?
In
the beginning this study a series of “don’t’s” should
first engage the student’s attention. Don’t imagine that you know
everything, or that any man in scientific circles has uttered the last word
on any subject; don’t suppose that the present day is the best, or that
the ancients were superstitious, with no knowledge of natural laws. Don’t
forget that arts, sciences, and metaphysics did not have their rise with European
civilization; and don’t forget that the influence of Socrates, Plato,
and Aristotle of ancient Greece is still imposed upon the modern mind. Don’t
think that our astronomers would have made anything but a mess of the zodiac
if the old Chaldeans had not left us the one we use. Don’t forget that
it is easy to prove that civilization of the highest order has periodically
rolled around this globe and left traces great and small behind. Don’t
confine Buddhism with Brahmanism, or imagine that the Hindus are Buddhists;
and don’t take the word of English or German Sanscrit scholars in explanation
of the writings and scriptures of eastern nations whose thoughts are as foreign
in their form to ours as our countries are. One should first be prepared
to
examine with a clear and unbiased mind.
But
suppose the inquirer is disposed at the outset to take the word of theosophical
writers, then caution is just as necessary, for theosophical literature does
not bear the stamp of authority. We should all be able to give a reason for
the hope that is within us, and we cannot do that if we have swallowed without
study the words of others.
But
what is study? It is not the mere reading of books, but rather long, earnest,
careful thought upon that which we have taken up. If a student accepts
reincarnation
and karma as true doctrines, the work is but begun. Many theosophists accept
doctrines of that name, but are not able to say what it is they have accepted.
They do not pause to find out what reincarnates, or how, when, or why karma
has its effects, and often do not know what the word means. Some at first
think
that when they die they will reincarnate, without reflecting that it is the
lower personal I they mean, which cannot be born again in a body. Others
think
that karma is—well, karma, with no clear idea of classes of karma, or
whether or not it is punishment or reward or both. Hence a careful learning
from one or two books of the statement of the doctrines, and then a more
careful
study of them, are absolutely necessary.
There
is too little of such right study among theosophists, and too much
reading of new books. No student can tell whether Mr. Sinnett in Esoteric
Buddhism writes reasonably unless his book is learned
and not merely skimmed. Although his style is clear, the matter treated
is difficult, needing firm lodgement in the mind, followed by careful
thought. A proper use of his book, The Secret Doctrine, The Key
to Theosophy, and all other matter written upon the constitution
of man, leads to an acquaintance with the doctrines as to the being
most concerned, and only when that acquaintance is obtained is one
fitted to understand the rest. * [This article appeared in The
Path for January 1890. Mr. Judge himself wrote The Ocean of
Theosophy in 1893. It is a most able presentation of the Esoteric
Philosophy and an excellent epitome of H.P. BLAVATSKY’s Secret
Doctrine. There is no equal to The Ocean of Theosophy as
a textbook for study classes and to the individual reader it offers
an accurate exposition of Theosophy.—Eds.]
Another
branch of study is that pursued by natural devotees, those who desire to enter
into the work itself for the good of humanity. Those should study all branches
of theosophical literature all the harder, in order to be able to clearly explain
it to others, for a weak reasoner or an apparently credulous believer has not
much weight with others.
Western
theosophists need patience, determination, discrimination, and memory, if they
ever intend to seize and hold the attention of the world for the doctrines they
disseminate.
Cautions
in Paragraphs
Do
not make statements that tend to mix up the Theosophical Society with any religious
belief, political theory, or social observance or non-observance.
Beware
of the propositions that the rich or those in social life needing theosophy
as much as the humbler ranks should therefore have special efforts made for
them while they fail or refuse to openly help the Society with their countenance
and effort.
Do
not be misled by the fancy that special effort to “convert” a scientific
celebrity will lead to any great benefit to the theosophical movement, or
sufficiently offset the time thereby lost from the general work among those
who are ready
to listen.
Never
cry down the efforts of a sincere member to disseminate theosophy merely because
it does not meet your standards of method or propriety.
Always
discountenance any proposal to establish a censorship of either literature or
effort in theosophical ranks, for such a censorship is against the broad and
free platform on which the Society rests.
Suffer
not yourself to be annoyed because scientific men claim as their new and original
discoveries that which theosophical literature has always claimed; remember
we are not in this movement for glory, but that men shall know the truth regardless
of where the credit for discovery is given.
Never
forget that a theosophical Branch is for the study of theosophy, and not for
discussion upon outside topics.
Let
not sentimentality make you fear to bring forward what you believe to be theosophy,
even though some persons threaten to leave the ranks because their own fad seems
endangered by the strength of your theory; but beware you do not mistake self-assertion
in yourself for the strength of your theories
Be
not deluded by the idea that you can do great good by entering a church society
in which you do not believe. Theosophy is not benefited by being thrown among
those who declare they do not want it.
Beware
of the person who offers to sell spiritual science in so many lessons for a
sum of money. Expositions by lectures in public of general theosophical principles
for an admission fee are proper, but courses of lessons on magic arts, spiritual
science, secret of nature, and the like are eternally improper, emanate from
cupidity or undisciplined intellect, and lead to nothing.
Be
charitable enough to remember that the theosophist is human, and perhaps has
to struggle all the harder with our common failings just because he has entered
on the battle with the lower nature.
Do
not fancy that because ours is called a brotherhood any exclusion of woman is
inferred. English is not the only language on earth, and in many others the
same term describes both feminine and masculine, Theosophy does not concern
sex distinctions and talks more of souls, which are sexless, than it does of
the bodies they inhabit.
Carefully
avoid confounding Brahmânism with Buddhism, and the religions flourishing
outside of India with those of that country. Buddhism not being the religion
of India, confusion of uttered sounds and knowledge results from calling
Hindus
Buddhists.
Very
carefully refrain from confusing Christianity with the religion of Jesus. The
latter is not the former, inasmuch as Christianity is split up into over three
hundred different sects, whereas Jesus had but one doctrine.
Pay
the highest respects to the sermons of Jesus, from the remembrance of the fact
that in his discourses he but gave forth once again the old doctrine taught
to him by the ancient theosophists of whom he was a disciple.
Do
not make the blunder of mistaking the glitter of our civilization for true progress.
Weigh fine houses, good clothes, mechanical devices, and universal male suffrage
against the poverty, misery, vice, crime, and ignorance which go with the former,
before you conclude what is the best civilization.
What
Should Theosophists Read?
There
are several hindrances to the doing of good work by individuals, with resulting
loss to the movement. These are all surmountable, for hindrances that are
insurmountable
are nature’s own limitations that can be used as means instead of being
left as barriers. One of these surmountable and unnecessary hindrances is the
prevalent habit of reading trashy and sensational literature, both in newspaper
and other form. This stupefies and degrades the mind, wasted time and energy,
and makes the brain a storehouse of mere brute force rather than what it should
be—a generator of cosmic power. Many people seem to “read from the
pricking of some cerebral itch,” with a motive similar to that which ends
in the ruin of a dipsomaniac: a desire to deaden the personal consciousness.
Sensation temporarily succeeds in drowning the voice of conscience and the pressure
that comes from the soul that so many men and women unintelligently feel. So
they seek acute sensation in a thousand different ways, while others strive
to attain the same end by killing both sensation and consciousness with the
help of drugs or alcohol. Reading of a certain sort is simply the alcohol habit
removed to another plane, and just as some unfortunates live to drink instead
of drinking that they may live, so other unfortunates live to read instead of
reading that they may learn how to live. Gautama Buddha went so far as to forbid
his disciples to read novels—or what stood for novels in those days—holding
that to do so was most injurious. People are responsible for the use they make
of their brains, for the brain can be used for the noblest purposes and can
evolve the most refined quality of energy, and to occupy it continually with
matters not only trivial but often antagonistic to Theosophical principles is
to be untrue to a grave trust. This does not mean that the news of the day should
be ignored, for those who live in the world should keep themselves acquainted
with the world’s doings: but a fair test is that nothing not worth remembering
is worth reading. To read for the sake of reading, and so filling the sphere
of the mind with a mass of half-dead images, is a hindrance to service and
a
barrier to individual development.
Much
Reading, Little Thought
The
wise man sagely said that of making books there is no end. If true in his day,
it is the same now. Among members of the Theosophical Society the defects are
widespread, of reading too many of the ever coming books and too little thought
upon the matter read. Anyone who is in a position to see the letters of inquiry
received by those in the Society who are prominent, knows that the greater number
of the questions asked are due to want of thought, to the failure on the part
of the questioners to lay down a sure foundation of general principles.
It
is so easy for some to sit down and write a book containing nothing new save
its difference of style from others, that the pilgrim theosophist may be quickly
bewildered if he pays any attention. This bewilderment is chiefly due to the
fact that no writer can express his thoughts in a way that will be exactly and
wholly comprehended by every reader, and authors in theosophic literature are
only, in fact, trying to present their own particular understanding of old doctrines
which the reader would do much better with if they devoted more time to thinking
them out for themselves.
In
the field of everyday books there is so much light reading that the superficial
habit of skimming is plainly everywhere apparent, and it threatens to show itself
in theosophical ranks.
So
well am I convinced there are too many superfluous books in our particular field,
that, if I had a youth to train in that department, I should confine him to
the Bhagavid Gîtâ, the Upanishads, and the Secret
Doctrine for a very long time, until he was able to make books for himself
out of those, and to apply the principles found in them to every circumstance
and to his own life and thought.
Those
theosophists who only wish to indulge in a constant variety of new theosophical
dishes will go on reading all that appears, but the others who are in earnest,
who know that we are here to learn and not solely for our pleasure, are beginning
to see that a few books well read, well analysed, and thoroughly digested are
better than many books read over once. They have learned how all that part of
a book which they clearly understand at first is already their own, and that
the rest, which is not so clear or quite obscure, is the portion they are to
study, so that it also, if found true, may become an integral part of their
constant thought.
What
Should Theosophists Talk About?
When
two or three or more Theosophists meet together socially, what should they
talk
about in the absence of uninterested strangers? It may be said that they
should talk like any other people, but this ought not to be the case. The
usual worldly
custom is to bring up for conversation unimportant matters, often in regard
to persons, not infrequently to their detriment, or in regard to transient
events,
and to discuss these without relating them to permanent and basic principles.
Many people talk for the sake of talking, as others read for the sake of
reading,
regardless of results. But those who know that a “single word may ruin
a whole city or put the spirit of a lion into a dead fox” will be more
careful of their words. Apart from that aspect of the question, it should be
evident that for people who profess to be interested in Theosophy to meet together
without discussing it is to fritter away their time and opportunity. To babble
out words does not help on the evolution of humanity or inspire any other idea
but the natural one that such conversation borders on the idiotic. Nor is there
any reason why conversation should not be at once interesting and instructive.
It can easily be led into such channels by anyone present. No one has a right
to excuse himself on the ground that “the others” would talk gossip,
or about clothes or games or similar things; for a few words and, more important
still, a proper attitude of mind will at once lead the conversation into
the
proper channel. And here again any extreme should be avoided. There is a
right time and a wrong time for the discussion of games, clothes, food, and
so forth,
and there is a decided limit to the usefulness of such discussion. Other
topics should be dealt with when fellow students are so fortunate as to meet
together.
They at least should never part without conversing on some ennobling and
uplifting subject that will help them in their work and study. To make that
a rule would
not only insure much positive good; it would insure against much positive
harm.
Astral
Intoxication
There
is such a thing as being intoxicated in the course of an unwise pursuit
of what
we erroneously imagine is spirituality. In the Christian Bible it is very
wisely directed to “prove all” and to hold only to that which is good;
this advice is just as important to the student of occultism who thinks that
he has separated himself from those “inferior” people engaged either
in following a dogma or in tipping tables for messages from deceased relatives—or
enemies—as it is to spiritists who believe in the “Summerland”
and “returning spirits.”
The
placid surface of the sea of spirit is the only mirror in which can be
caught
undisturbed the reflections of spiritual things. When a student starts upon
the path and begins to see spots of light flash out now and then, or balls
of
golden fire roll past him, it does not mean that he is beginning to see the
real Self—pure spirit. A moment of deepest peace or wonderful revealings
given to the student, is not the awful moment when one is about to see
his spiritual guide, much less his own soul. Nor are psychical splashes of blue
flame, nor visions of things that afterwards come to pass, nor sights of small
sections of the astral light with its wonderful photographs of past or future,
nor the sudden ringing of distant fairy-like bells, any proof that you are cultivating
spirituality. These things, and still more curious things, will occur when you
have passed a little distance on the way, but they are only the mere outposts
of a new land which is itself wholly material, and only one remove from the
plane of gross physical consciousness.
The
liability to be carried off and intoxicated by these phenomena is to be
guarded
against. We should watch, note and discriminate in all these cases, place
them down for future reference, to be related to some law, or for comparison
with
other circumstances of a like sort. The power that Nature has of deluding
us is endless, and if we stop at these matters she will let us no further.
It is
not that any person or power in nature has declared that if we do so and
so we must stop, but when one is carried off by what Boehme calls “God’s
wonders,” the result is an intoxication that produces confusion of the
intellect. Were one, for instance, to regard every picture seen in the astral
light as a spiritual experience, he might truly after a while brook no contradiction
upon the subject, but that would be merely because he was drunk with this
kind
of wine. While he provided with his indulgence and neglected his true progress,
which is always dependent upon his purity of motive and conquest of his known
or ascertainable defects, nature went on accumulating the store of illusory
appearances with which he satiated himself.
It
is certain that any student who devotes himself to these astral happenings will
see them increase. But were our whole life devoted to and rewarded by an enormous
succession of phenomena, it is also equally certain that the casting off the
body would be the end of all that sort of experience, without our having added
really anything to our stock of true knowledge.
The
astral plane, which is the same as that of our psychic senses, is as full of
strange sights and sounds as an untrodden South American forest, and has to
be well understood before the student can stay there long without danger. While
we can overcome the dangers of a forest by the use of human inventions, whose
entire object is the physical destruction of the noxious things encountered
there, we have no such aids when treading the astral labyrinth. We may be physically
brave and say that no fear can enter into us, but no untrained or merely curious
seeker is able to say just what effect will result to his outer senses from
the attack or influence encountered by the psychical senses.
And
the person who revolves selfishly around himself as a centre is in greater
danger
of delusion than any one else, for he has not the assistance that comes from
being united in thought with all other sincere seekers. One may stand in
a dark
house where none of the objects can be distinguished and quite plainly see
all that is illuminated outside; in the same way we can see from out of
the blackness
of our own house—our hearts—the objects now and then illuminated
outside by the astral light; but we gain nothing. We must first dispel the inner
darkness before trying to see into the darkness without; we must know
ourselves before knowing things extraneous to ourselves.
This
is not the road that seems easiest to students. Most of them find it far pleasanter
and as they think faster, work, to look on all these outside allurements, and
to cultivate all psychic senses, to the exclusion of real spiritual work.
The
true road is plain and easy to find, it is so easy that very many would-be students
miss it because they cannot believe it to be so simple.
“The
way lies through the heart”;
Ask
there and wander not;
Knock
loud, nor hesitate
Because
at first the sounds
Reverberating,
seem to mock thee.
Nor,
when the door swings wide,
Revealing
shadows black as night,
Must
thou recoil,
Within,
the Master’s messengers
Have
waited patiently;
That
Master is Thyself!
Claiming
to be Jesus
In
one of the letters written by the Master K.H. and printed by Mr. Sinnett it
is said the world (including doubtless East and West) is still superstitious.
That this is true can hardly be denied, and in America the appearance of many
who claim to be Jesus and who thus gain followers, shows how foolish and superstitious
people yet are.
A
man named Teed appeared in New York and is now in some western city, who said
he was Jesus. He had a theory of our living inside a hollow globe. He induced
a wealthy woman to give much money, and still has followers in his present place.
In
Cincinnati a Mrs. Martin declared herself to be the Christ, and immortal. She
gathered believers. But unfortunately in the summer of this year she died. Her
coterie refused to believe in her demise and kept her body until mortification
compelled a burial.
Out
in New Mexico, in 1895, a German named Schlatter rises on the scene and at last
says he is the Christ. He is one who takes no money, eats but little, and it
is said he cures many of their diseases. At any rate great excitement arose
about him and hundreds came to be cured. He then went to Denver, a larger city,
and is still there posing as Jesus and claiming that his cures constitute the
proof. And there are others scattered about; those cited are merely examples.
The
posing of these claimants is due to partial insanity and to vanity. They
do
not like to pretend to be anything less than God. But their having followers
shows how far superstitious and gullible other people are. Theosophists
will
doubtless laugh at both. But are we so free from the same defect? Has that
folly exhibited itself or not among us, though perhaps under a different
name? What
of that “superstition” which sees in every dark-skinned Hindu either
an Adept or a teacher, or at least a high disciple of some Yogi through whom
occult favours may be had? Why it is known that this nonsense went so far in
one case that the adorer devoted large sums of money to the crafty young fellow
who posed as “just a little less than a Mahatma.” We are not quite
clear of the beam we have seen in the eyes of others.
A
safe rule will be that those who say they are Jesus or the equivalent of
Christ,
are not so, and instead of either following them or looking about for wonderful
beings we will follow the ancient saying: “Man, know thyself.”
Glamour
Its Purpose and Place in Magic
The
word “glamour” was long ago defined in old dictionaries as “witchery
or a charm on the yes, making them see things differently from what they really
are.” This is still the meaning of the word. Not long ago, before the
strange things possible in hypnotic experiments became known to the Western
world, it seemed as if everything would be reduced to mere matter and motion
by the fiat of science. Witchery was to fade away, be forgotten, be laughed
out of sight, and what could not be ascribed to defective training of the
senses
was to have its explanation in the state of the liver, a most prosaic organ.
But before science with its speculation and ever-altering canons could enlighten
the unlearned multitude, hypnotism crept slowly and surely forward and at
last
began to buttress the positions of theosophy. Glamour stands once more a
fair chance for recognition. Indeed, H.P.B uttered prophetic words when she
said
that in America more than anywhere else this art would be practised by selfish
men for selfish purposes, for money-getting and gratification of desire.
Hurriedly
glancing over some fields of folklore, see what a mess of tales bearing
on glamour
produced by men, gods, or elementals. In India the gods every now and then,
often the sages, appear before certain persons in various guises by means
of
a glamour which causes the eye to see what is not really there. In Ireland
volumes of tales in which the person sees houses, men, and animals where
they are not;
he is suddenly given the power to see under the skin of natural things, and
then perceives the field or the marketplace full of fairies, men, and women
gliding in and out among the people. Anon a man or woman is changed into
the
appearance of animal or bird, and only regains the old semblance when touched
with the magic rod. This change of appearance is not a change in fact,
but always
a glamour affecting the eyes of the other person. Such a mass of similar
stories found during all time and among every people cannot be due to folly
nor be without
a basis. The basis is a fact and a law in man’s nature. It is glamour,
the reason for glamour, and the power to bring it about. Just because there
have always been those who, either by natural ability or training, had the power
to bring on a “witchery over the eyes,” these stories have arisen.
A
writer well known in England and America once thought he had found a mare’s
nest when he reported that Mme. Blavatsky had confessed to him that certain
phenomena he enquired of had been caused by glamour.
“Ah,
glamour!” he said; “thus falls this theosophic house of cards”;
and he went away satisfied, for in truth he had been himself thoroughly glamoured.
But theosophists should not stumble and fall violently as this gentleman
did
over a word which, when enquired into, carries with it a good deal of science
relating to an important branch of occultism. When I read in an issue of
the Arena all about this confession on glamour, I was quite ready to believe
that H.P.B did say to the learned enquirer what he reported, but at the same
time, of course, knew that she never intended to apply her enchantment explanation
to every phenomenon. She only intended to include certain classes,—although
in every occult phenomenon there is some glamour upon some of the observers
according to their individual physical idiosyncrasies.
The
classes of phenomena covered by this word are referred to in part by Patanjali
in his Yoga Aphorisms, where he says that if the luminousness natural
to object and eye is interfered with the object will disappear, whether it be
man or thing and whether it be day or night. This little aphorism covers a good
deal of ground, and confutes, if accepted, some theories of the day. It declares,
in fact, that not only is it necessary for rays of light to proceed from the
object to the eye, but also light must proceed from the eye towards the object.
Cut off the latter and the object disappears; alter the character of the luminousness
coming from the eye, and the object is altered in shape or colour for the perceiver.
Carrying
this on further and connecting it with the well-known fact that we see no objects
whatever, but only their ideal form as presented to the mind, and we arrive
at an explanation in part of how glamour may be possible. For if in any way
you can interfere with the vibrations proceeding to the eye on the way to affect
the brain and then the percipient within, then you have the possibility of sensibly
altering the ideal form which the mind is to cognize within before it declares
the object to be without which produced the vibration.
Take
up now imagination in its aspects of a power to make a clear and definite image.
This is done in hypnotism and in spiritualism. If the image be definite enough
and the perceiver or subject sensitive enough, a glamour will be produced. The
person will see that which is not the normal shape or form or corporature of
the other. But this new shape is as real as the normal, for the normal form
is but that which is to last during a certain stage of human evolution and will
certainly alter as new senses and organs develop in us.
Thus
far having gone, it is not easy to see that if a person can make the definite
and vivid mind-pictures spoken of, and if the minor organs can affect and be
affected, it is quite probable and possible that trained persons may have glamoured
they eyes of others so as to make them see an elephant, snake, man, tree, pot,
or any other object where only is empty space, or as an alternation of a thing
or person actually there? This is exactly what is done in experiments by the
hypnotists with this difference, that they have to put the subject into an abnormal
state, while the other operators need no such adventitious aids. Glamour, then,
has a very important place in magic. That it was frequently used by H.P.B there
is not the smallest doubt, just as there is no doubt that the yogi in India
puts the same power in operation.
In
many cases she could have used it by making the persons present think they
saw
her when she had gone into the next room, or that another person was also
present who was not in fact. The same power of glamour would permit her
to hide from
sight any object in the room or in her hands. This is one of the difficult
feats of magic, and not in the slightest degree dependent on legerdemain.
Persons
sometimes say this is folly even if true, but looked at in another light
it is not folly, nor are the cases those in which anyone was entitled to
know all
that was going on. She exhibited these feats—seldom as it was—for
the purpose of showing those who were learning from her that the human subject
is a complicated and powerful being, not to be classed, as science so loves
to do, with mere matter and motion. All these phenomena accomplished two objects.
First, to help those who learned from her, and second, to spread abroad again
in the West the belief in man’s real power and nature. The last was a
most necessary thing to do because in the West materialism was beginning
to have too much sway and threatened to destroy spirituality. And it was
done also
in pursuance of the plans of the Great Lodge for the human race. As one of
her Masters said, her phenomena puzzled sceptics for many years. Even now
we see
effects, for when such men as Stead, the Editor of the Review of Reviews,
and Du Prel, Schiaparelli, and others take up the facts of Spiritualism scientifically,
one can perceive that another day for psychology is dawning.
This
power of glamour is used more often than people think, and not excluding
members
of the T.S., by the Adepts. They are often among us from day to day appearing
in a guise we do not recognize, and are dropping ideas into men’s minds
about the spiritual world and the true life of soul, as well as also inciting
men and women to good acts. By this means they pass unrecognized and are
able
to accomplish more in this doubting and transition age than they could in
any other way. Sometimes as they pass they are recognized by those who
have the
right faculty, but a subtle and powerful bond and agreement prevents their
secret from being divulged. This is something for members of the Society
to think of,
for they may be entertaining now and then angels unawares. They may now and
then be tried by their leaders when they least expect it, and the verdict
is
not given out but has its effect all the same.
But
glamour covers only a small part of the field of occultism. The use of the astral
body enters into nearly all of the phenomena, and in other directions the subject
of occult chemistry, absolutely unknown to the man of the day, is of the utmost
importance; if it is ever given out it will be a surprise to science, but certainly
that divulgation will not soon be to such a selfish age.
OCCULT
ARTS
No.1:
Precipitation
The
word “precipitation” means to throw upon or within. This term is
used in chemistry to describe the fact of a substance, held or suspended in
fluid, being made to disengage itself from the intimate union with the fluid
and to fall upon the bottom of the receptacle in which it is held; in the use
of applied electricity it may be used to describe the throwing upon a metal
or other plate, of particles of another metal held in suspension in the fluid
of the electric bath. These two things are done every day in nearly all the
cities of the world, and are so common as to be ordinary. In photography the
same effect is described by the word “develop,” which is the appearing
on the surface of the sensitized gelatine plate of the image caught by the
camera. In chemical precipitation the atoms fall together and become visible
as a separate
substance in the fluid; in photography the image made by an alternation of
the atoms composing the whole surface appears in the mass of the sensitized
plate.
In
both cases we have the coming forth into visibility of that which before was
invisible. In the case of precipitation of a substance in the form of a powder
at the bottom of the receptacle containing the fluid, there is distinctly, (a)
before the operation an invisibility of a mass of powder, (b) upon applying
the simple means for precipitation the sudden coming into sight of that which
was before unseen.
And
precisely as the powder may be precipitated in the fluid, so also from the air
there can be drawn and precipitated the various metals and substances suspended
therein. This has been so often done by chemists and others that no proofs are
needed.
The
ancients and all the occultists of past and present have always asserted that
all metals, substances, pigments, and materials exist in the air held in suspension,
and this has been admitted by modern science. Gold, silver, iron and other metals
may be volatilized by heat so as to float unseen in the air, and this is also
brought about every day in various mines and factories of the world. It may
therefore be regarded as established beyond controversy that as a physical fact
precipitation of substances, whether as merely carbon or metal, is possible
and is done every day. We can then take another step with the subject.
It
is possible to precipitate by will power and use of occult laws upon a surface
of wood, paper, metal, stone, or glass a mass of substance in lines or letters
or other combinations so as to produce an intelligible picture or a legible
message? For modern science this is not possible yet; for the Adept it is possible,
has been done, and will be still performed. It has also been done unintelligently
and as mere passive agents or channels, among mediums in the ranks of European
and American spiritualists. But in this latter case it has the value, and no
more than that, of the operations of nature upon and with natural objects, to
be imitated by conscious and intelligently-acting man when he has learned how,
by what means, and when. The medium is only a passive controlled agent or channel
who is ignorant of the laws and forces employed, as well as not knowing what
is the intelligence at work, nor whether that intelligence is outside or a part
of the medium.
The
Adept, on the other hand, knows how such a precipitation can be done, what materials
may be used, where those materials are obtainable, how they can be drawn out
of the air, and what general and special laws must be taken into account. That
this operation can be performed I know of my knowledge; I have seen it done,
watching the process as it proceeded, and have seen the effect produced without
a failure. One of these instances I will give you later on.
Precipitation
of words or messages from Adepts has been much spoken of in the Theosophical
Society’s work, and the generality of persons have come to some wrong
conclusions as to what they must be like, as well as how they are done and
what materials may be and are used. Most suppose as follows:
1.
That the precipitated messages are on rice paper;
2.
That they are invariably in one or two colours of some sort of chalk or carbon.
3.
That in every case they are incorporated into the fibre of the paper so as to
be ineradicable;
4.
That in each case when finished they came from Tibet or some other distant place
invisibly through the air;
5.
That all of them are done by the hand of the Adept and are in his handwriting
as commonly used by him or them.
While
it is true in fact that each of the above particulars may have been present
in some of the cases and that every one of the above is possible, it is not
correct that the above are right as settled facts and conclusions. For the way,
means, methods, conditions, and results of precipitation are as varied and numerous
as any other operation of nature. The following is laid down by some of the
masters of this art as proper to be kept in mind.
(a)
A precipitated picture or message may be on any sort of paper.
(b)
It may be in black or any other pigment.
(c)
It may be in carbon, chalk, ink, paint, or other fluid or substance.
(d)
It may be on any sort of surface or any kind of material.
(e)
It may be incorporated in the fibre of the paper and be thus ineffaceable, or
lie upon the surface and be easily eradicated.
(f)
It may come through the air as a finished message on paper or otherwise, or
it may be precipitated at once at the place of reception on any kind of substance
and in any sort of place.
(g)
It is not necessarily in the handwriting of the Adept, and may be in the hand
comprehended by the recipient and a language foreign to the Adept, or it may
be in the actual hand of the Adept, or lastly in a cipher known to a few and
not decipherable by any one without its key.
(h)
As a matter of fact the majority of the messages precipitated or sent by the
Adepts in the history of the Theosophical Society have been in certain forms
of English writing not the usual writing of those Adepts, but adopted for use
in the Theosophical movement because of a foreknowledge that the principal language
of that movement would for some time be the English.
Some
messages have been written and precipitated in Hindi or Urdu, some in Hindustani,
and some in cipher perfectly unintelligible to all but a few persons. These
assertions I make upon personal knowledge founded on observation, on confirmation
through an inspection of messages, and on logical deduction made from facts
and philosophical propositions. In the first place, the Adepts referred
to—and
not including silent ones of European birth—are Asiatics whose languages
are two different Indian ones: hence their usual handwriting is not English
and not Roman in the letters. Secondly, it is a fact long suspected and
to many well known both in and out of the Theosophical Society that the Fraternity
of Adepts has a cipher which they employ for many of their communications: that,
being universal, is not their handwriting. Thirdly, in order to send
any one a precipitated message in English it is not necessary for the Adepts
to know that language; if you know it, that is enough; for putting the thought
in your brain, he sees it there as your language in your brain, and using that
model causes the message to appear. But if he is acquainted with the language
you use, it is all the easier for the Adept to give you the message exactly
as he forms it in his brain at first. The same law applies to all cases of precipitation
by an alleged spirit through a medium who does not know at all how it is done;
in such a case it is all done by natural and chiefly irresponsible agents who
can only imitate what is in the brains concerned in the matter.
These
points being considered, the questions remain, How is it all done, what is the
process, what are the standards of judgment, of criticism, and of proof to the
outer sense, is imposition possible, and, if so, how may it be prevented.
As
to the last, the element of faith or confidence can never be omitted until
one
has gotten to a stage where within oneself the true standard and power of
judging are developed. Just as forgery may be done on this physical plane,
so also may
it be done on the other and unseen planes and its results shown on this.
Ill-disposed souls may work spiritual wickedness, and ignorant living persons
may furnish
idle, insincere, and lying models for not only ill-disposed souls that are
out of the body, but also for mere spirits that are forces in nature of
considerable
power but devoid of conscience and mind. Mind is not needed in them, for
they use the mind of man, and merely with this aid work the hidden laws
of matter.
But this furnishes some protection illustrated in the history of spiritualism,
where so many messages are received that on their face are nonsense and
evidently
but the work of elementals who simply copy what the medium or the sitter
is vainly holding in mind. In those cases some good things have come, but they
are never beyond the best thought of the persons who, living, thus attempt
to speak with the dead.
Any
form of writing once written on earth is imprinted in the astral light
and remains there as model. And if it has been used much, it is all
the more deeply imprinted. Hence the fact that H.P. Blavatsky, who
once was the means for messages coming from the living Adepts, is
dead and gone is not a reason why the same writing should not be used
again. It was used so much in letters to Mr. Sinnett from which Esoteric
Buddhism was written and in many other letters from
the same source that its model or matrix is deeply cut in the astral
light. For it would be folly and waste of time for the Adepts to make
new models every time any one died. They would naturally use the old
model. There is no special sanctity in the particular model used by
them, and any good clairvoyant can find that matrix in the astral
light. Hence from this, if true, two things follow: (a) that new communications
need not be in a new style of writing, and (b) there is a danger that
persons who seek either clairvoyants or mesmerized lucides
may be imposed on and made to think they have messages from the Adepts,
when in fact they have only imitations. The safeguard therein is that,
if these new messages are not in concordance with old ones known to
be from their first appointed channel, they are not genuine in their
source, however phenomenally made. Of course for the person who has
the power inside to see for himself, the safeguard is different and
more certain. This position accords with occult philosophy, it has
been stated by the Adepts themselves, it is supported by the facts
of psychic investigation inside the ranks of Spiritualism, of Theosophy,
of human life.
It
is well known that mediums have precipitated messages on slates, on paper, and
on even the human skin, which in form and manner exactly copied the hand of
one dead and gone, and also of the living. The model for the writing was in
the aura of the enquirer, as most mediums are not trained enough to be able
independently to seek out and copy astral models not connected with some one
present. I exclude all cases where the physical or astral hand of the medium
wrote the message, for the first is fraud and the second a psychological trick.
In the last case, the medium gazing into the astral light sees the copy or model
there and merely makes a facsimile of what is thus seen, but which is
invisible to the sitter. There is no exemption from law in favour of the Adepts,
and the images they make or cause to be made in astral ether remain as the property
of the race; indeed in their case, as they have a sharp and vivid power of engraving,
so to say, in the astral light, all the images made there by them are deeper
and more lasting than those cut by the ordinary and weak thoughts and acts of
our undeveloped humanity.
The
best rule for those who happen to think they are in communication with Adepts
through written messages is to avoid those that contradict what the Adepts have
said before; that give the lie to their system of philosophy; that, as has happened,
pretend that H.P.B was mistaken in her life for what she said and is now sorry.
All such, whether done with intention or without it, are merely bombinans
in vacuo, sound that has no significance, a confusion between words and
knowledge delusive and vain altogether. And as we know that the Adepts have
written that they have no concern with the progress of selfish science, it must
be true that messages which go on merely to the end of establishing some scientific
propositions or that are not for the furtherance especially of Brotherhood cannot
be from them, but are the product of other minds, a mere extension through occult
natural law of theories of weak men. This leads to the proposition that: Precipitation
of a message is not per se evidence that it is from one of our White
Adepts of the Great Lodge.
The
outer senses cannot give a safe final judgment upon a precipitated message,
they can only settle such physical questions as how it came, through whom, the
credibility of the person, and whether any deception on the objective plane
has been practised. The inner senses, including the great combining faculty
or power of intuition, are the final judges. The outer have to do solely with
the phenomenal part, the inner deal with the causes and the real actors and
powers
As
precipitations have been phenomenally made through “controlled”
mediums who are themselves ignorant of the laws and forces at work, these are
but strange phenomena proving the existence of a power in Nature either related
to human mind or wholly unrelated to it. These are not the exercise of Occult
Arts, but simply the operation of natural law, however recondite and obscure.
They are like the burning of a flame, the falling of water, or the rush of the
lightning, whereas when the Adept causes a flame to appear where there is no
wick, or a sound to come where there is no vibrating visible surface, occult
art is using the same laws and forces which with the medium are automatically
and unconsciously operated by subtle parts of the medium’s nature and
“nature spirits,” as well as what we know as kâma-lokic
human entities, in combination. And here the outer senses deal solely with the
outer phenomena, being unable to touch in the least on the unseen workings behind.
So they can only decide whether a physical fraud has been practised; they can
note the day, the hours, the surrounding circumstances, but no more.
But
if one hitherto supposed to be in communication with the White Adepts comes
to us and says “Here is a message from one of Those,” then if we
have not independent power in ourselves of deciding the question on inner knowledge,
the next step is either to believe the report or disbelieve it. In the case
of H.P.B, in whose presence and through whom messages were said to come from
the White Adepts, it was all the time, at the final analysis, a matter of faith
in those who confessedly had an have no independent personal power to know by
the use of their own inner senses. But there intuition, one of the inner powers,
decided for the genuineness of the report and the authentication of the messages.
She herself put it tersely this way: “If you think no Mâhatma wrote
the theories I have given of man and nature and if you do not believe my report,
then you have to conclude that I did it all.” The latter conclusion would
lead to the position that her acts, phenomena, and writings put her in the position
usually accorded by us to a Mâhatma. As to the letters or messages of
a personal nature, each one had and has to decide for himself whether or
not to follow the advice given.
Another
class of cases is where a message is found in a closed letter, on the margin
or elsewhere on the sheet. The outer senses decide whether the writer of
the
letter inserted the supposed message or had some one else to do it, and that
must be decided on what is known of the character of the person. If you
decide
that the correspondent did not write it nor have anyone else do so, but that
it was injected phenomenally, then the inner senses must be used. If they
are
untrained, certainly the matter becomes one of faith entirely, unless intuition
is strong enough to decide correctly that a wise as well as powerful person
caused the writing to appear there. Many such messages have been received
in
the history of the T.S. Some came in one way, some in another; one might
be in a letter from a member of the Society, another in a letter from an
outsider
wholly ignorant of these matters. In every case, unless the recipient had
independent powers developed within, no judgement on mere outer phenomena would be safe.
It
is very difficult to find cases such as the above, because first, they
are extremely rare, and second, the persons involved do not wish to relate
them, since the matter transmitted had a purely personal bearing. A fancy
may exist that in America or England or London such messages, generally considered
bogus by enemies and outsiders, are being constantly sent and received, and
that persons in various quarters are influenced to this or that course of
action
by them, but this is pure fancy without basis in fact so far as the knowledge
and experience of the writer extend. While precipitations phenomenally by
the
use of occult power and in a way unknown to science are possible and have
occurred, that is not the means employed by the White Adepts in communicating
with those
thus favoured. They have disciples with whom communication is already established
and carried on most generally through the inner ear and eye,, but sometimes
through the prosaic mail. In these cases no one else is involved and no one
else has the right to put questions. The disciple reserves his communications for the guidance of his own action, unless he or she is directed to tell another.
To spread broadcast a mass of written communications among those who are
willing
to accept them without knowing how to judge would be the sheerest folly,
only productive of superstition and blind credulity. This is not the aim
of the Adepts
nor the method they pursue. And this digression will be excused, it being
necessary because the subject of precipitation as a fact has been brought
up very prominently.
I may further digress to say that no amount of precipitations, however clear
of doubt and fraud as to time, place, and outward method, would have the
slightest
effect on my mind or action unless my own intuition and inner senses confirmed
them and showed them to be from a source which should call for my attention
and concurrence.
How,
then, is this precipitation done, and what is the process? This question brings
up the whole of the philosophy offered in the Secret Doctrine. For if the postulate
of the metaphysical character of the Cosmos is denied, if the supreme power
of the disciplined mind is not admitted, if the actual existence of an inner
and real world is negatived, if the necessity and power of the image-making
faculty are disallowed, then such precipitation is an impossibility, always
was, and always will be. Power over mind, matter, space, and time depends on
several things and positions. Needed for this are: Imagination raised to its
highest limit, desire combined with will that wavers not, and a knowledge of
the occult chemistry of Nature. All must be present or there will be no result.
Imagination
is the power to make in the ether an image. This faculty is limited by
any want
of the training of mind and increased by good mental development. In ordinary
persons imagination is only a vain and fleeting fancy which makes but a
small
impression comparatively in the ether. This power, when well-trained, makes
a matrix in ether wherein each line, word, letter, sentence, colour, or
other
mark is firmly and definitely made. Will, well-trained, must then be used
to draw from the ether the matter to be deposited, and then, according
to the laws
of such an operation, the depositing matter collects in masses within the
limits of the matrix and becomes from its accumulation visible on the surface
selected.
The will, still at work, has then to cut off the mass of matter from its
operation, and who then is the wiser? Those learned in the schools laugh,
and well they
may, for there is not in science anything to correspond, and many of the
positions laid down are contrary to several received opinions. But in Nature there are
vast numbers of natural effects produced by ways wholly unknown to science,
and Nature does not mind the laughter, nor should any disciple.
But
how is it possible to inject such a precipitation into a closed letter? The
ether is all-pervading, and the envelope or any other material bar is no bar
to it. In it is carried the matter to be deposited, and as the whole operation
is done on the other side of visible nature up to the actual appearance of the
deposit, physical obstructions do not make the slightest difference.
It
is necessary to return for a moment to the case of precipitations through
mediums.
Here the matrix needs no trained imagination to make it nor trained will
to hold it. In the astral light the impressions are cut and remain immovable;
these
are used by the elementals and other forces at work, and no disturbing will
of sitter being able to interfere—simply from blind ignorance—there
is no disturbance of the automatic unconscious work. In the sitter’s aura
are thousands of impressions which remain unmoved because all attention has
been long ago withdrawn. And the older or simpler they are the more firmly
do
they exist. These constitute also a matrix through which the nature spirits
work.
I
can properly finish this with the incident mentioned at the beginning.
It was
with H.P.B I was sitting in her room beside her, the distance between us
being some four feet. In my hand I held a book she never had had in her
possession
and that I had just taken from the mail. It was clear of all marks, its title
page was fresh and clean, no one had touched it since it left the bookseller.
I examined its pages and began to read. In about five minutes a very powerful
current of what felt like electricity ran up and down my side on the skin,
and
I looked up at her. She was looking at me and said “What do you read?” I had forgotten the title, as it was one I had never seen before, and so I turned
back to the title page. There at the top on the margin where it had not been
before was a sentence of two lines in ink, and the ink was wet, and the writing
was that of H.P.B who sat before me. She had not touched the book, but by
her
knowledge of occult law, occult chemistry, and occult will, she had projected
out of the ink-bottle before her the ink to make the sentence, and of course
it was in her own handwriting, as that was the easiest way to do it. Hence
my
own physical system was used to do the work, and the instant of its doing
was when I felt the shock on the skin. This is to be explained in the way
I have
outlined, or it is to be all brushed aside as a lie or as a delusion of mine.
But those last I cannot accept, for I know to the contrary, and further I
know
that the advice, for such it was, in that sentence was good. I followed it,
and the result was good. Several other times also have I seen her precipitate
on different surfaces, and she always said it was no proof of anything whatever
save the power to do the thing, admitting that black and white magicians
could
do the same thing, and saying that the only safety for any one in the range
of such forces was to be pure in motive, in thought, and in act.
No.
II Disintegration—Reintegration
Just
as we have seen that precipitation is known to material science in electroplating
and other arts, so also it is true that in most departments of applied
science
disintegration is understood, and that here and there reintegration of such
substances as diamonds has been successfully accomplished. But these are
all
by mechanical or chemical processes. The question here is, whether—as
in respect to precipitation—the occult powers of man and nature can bring
about the results. Has any one ever reduced a solid object to impalpable
powder and then at a distant place restored the object to its former state?
And, if
so, how is it done? As to the first, I can only say that I have seen this
done, and that many testimonies have been offered by others at various times
for the
same thing. In the records of Spiritualism there are a great many witnesses
to this effect, and accepting all cases in that field which are free from
fraud
the same remarks as were made about precipitation apply. With mediums it
is unconsciously done; the laws governing the entire thing are unexplained
by the
medium or the alleged spirits; the whole matter is involved in obscurity
so far as that cult is concerned, and certainly the returning spooks will
give
no answer until they find it in the brain of some living person. But the
fact remains that among powerful physical mediums the operation has been
performed
by some unknown force acting under hidden guidance, itself as obscure.
This
fact is not the same as apportation, the carrying or projecting of an object
through space, whether it be a human form or any other thing. Buddhist and Hindu
stories alike teem with such apportation; it is alleged of Apollonius the Greek,
of Tyana; Christian saints are said to have been levitated and carried. In the
Buddhist stories many of the immediate disciples of Buddha, both during his
life and after his death, are said to have flown through the air from place
to place; and in the history of Rama, some ascetics and Hanuman the monkey god
are credited with having so levitated themselves.
So
many metals and minerals may be volatilized that we may take it as a general
rule that all—until an exception is met with—are volatile under
the proper conditions. Gold is slow in this respect, some observers having
kept it heated for two months with no loss of weight, and others found
a small loss
after exposing it to violent heat; a charge of electricity will dissipate
it. Silver volatilizes at red heat, and iron can also be similarly affected.
But
when we come to wood or softer vegetable matter, the separation of its atoms
from each other is more easily accomplished. The process of disintegrating
by
the use of occult forces and powers is akin to what we can do on the material
plane. The result is the same, however the means employed may vary; that
is,
the molecules are pressed apart from each other and kept so. If by mechanical,
chemical, and electrical processes man can bring about this result, there
is
no reason, save in an assorted unproved denial, why it may not be done by
the use of the mind and will. Rarity or unusualness proves nothing; when
the telegraph
was new its rarity proved nothing against its actuality; and it is every day
becoming more the fashion to admit than it is to deny the possibility of
anything in the realm opened by our knowledge of electricity, while the probability
is
left merely to suspended judgement.
Passing
from material science to the medical researches into hypnotism, we find
there
the steppingstone between the purely mechanical physical processes and the
higher subtler realm of the mind, the will, and the imagination. Here we
see that the
powerful forces wielded by the mind are able to bring about effects on bone,
flesh, blood, and skin equal in measure to many processes of disintegration
or volatilization. But in everyday life we have similar suggestive facts.
In
the blush and the cold chill which come instantaneously over the whole frame,
spreading in a second from the mental source, are effects upon matter made
directly
from mind. Even a recollection of an event can easily bring on this physical
effect. In hypnotic experiments the skin, blood, and serum may be altered
so
as to bring out all the marks and changes of a burn or abrasion. In these
cases the mind influenced by another mind makes an image through which
the forces
act to cause the changes. It is possible because, as so often asserted by the
ancient sages, the Universe is really Will and Idea, or, as is so well put in
a letter from one of the Adepts, “the machinery of the cosmos is not only
occult, it is ideal: and the higher metaphysics must be understood if one is
to escape from the illusions under which men labour and which will continually
lead them into the adoption of false systems respecting life and nature in consequence
of the great “collective hallucination” in which modern scientific
persons glory so much, but which they do not call by that name.” * [From
an unpublished letter.]
So
much then being briefly premised, it is said by the schools of occultism,
known
not only since the rise of the Theosophical movement but followed for ages
in the East and continued down to the present day in India—that the trained
man by the use of his will, mind, and imagination can disintegrate an object,
send it along currents definitely existing in space, transport the mass of atoms
to a distant place, passing them through certain objects, and reintegrate the
object at the given distant spot exactly with the same visibility, limits, and
appearance as it had when first taken up for transport. But this has its limitations.
It cannot ordinarily be done with a human living body. That would require such
an expenditure of force and so interfere with the rights of life that it may
be excluded altogether. Size and resistance of obstacle have also to do with
success or failure. Omnipotence of a sort that may transcend law is not admitted
in Occultism; that the Adepts pointed out when they wrote that if they could
at one stroke turn the world into an arcadia for lofty souls they would do so,
but the world can only be conquered step by step and under the rule of law.
It is the same in all operations that copy nature either chemically or mechanically.
Hence it is said in these schools that “there are failures in occult art
as well as among men.” Such failures come from an inability to cope with
limiting conditions.
We
can analyse the phenomenon of disintegration and transport of mass of matter
and reintegration in this way: There is the operator who must know how to use
his will, mind, and imagination. Next is the object to be dealt with. Then there
is the resisting obstacle through which it may have to pass; and the air, ether,
and astral light through which it travels. Lastly is the question whether or
not there is the force called cohesion, by means of which masses of matter are
held together within limits of form.
If
it be said that the force known as gravity holds masses of matter together,
we are reduced to accepting a more mysterious explanation for a common
thing
than the three persons in one God. But cohesion without any other postulate
amounts merely to saying that masses of matter cohere because they cohere.
Occultism,
in common with the Vedântic philosophy, says that there is a force of
cohesion which has its roots and power in the spirit and in the ideal form;
and attraction and repulsion operate from the same base also. Further, that
school holds gravitation to be but an exhibition of the action of these two—attraction
and repulsion. Living masses such as vegetables, animals, and men deal with
matter in another state from that which is in minerals, and exhibit the quicker
action of disintegrating forces; while minerals go to pieces very slowly.
Both
kinds are compelled in time to fall apart as masses in consequence of the
action of evolutionary law when they are left altogether to themselves; that
is, the
whole quantity of matter of and belonging to the globe is continually subject
to the hidden forces which are moulding it for higher uses and turning it,
however
slowly, into a higher class of matter. The normal rate is what we see, but
this normal rate may be altered, and that it can be altered by intelligent
mind and
will is the fact. This alternation of rate is seen in the forcing processes
used for plants by which they are made to grow much faster than is usual
under
common conditions. In the same way in masses of matter which will surely
go to pieces in the course of time, long or short, the molecules may be pushed
apart before their time and held so by the trained will. That is, the force
of repulsion can be opposed to natural attraction so as to drive the molecules
apart and hold them thus away from each other. When the repulsion is slackened,
the molecules rush together again to assume their former appearance. In this
case the shape is not altered, but the largely diffused body of molecules
retains
its shape though invisible to the eye, and upon appearing to sight again
it simply condenses itself into the smaller original limits, thus becoming
dense
enough to be once more seen and touched.
When
a small object is thus disintegrated by occult means it can be passed through
other objects. Or if it is to be transported without disintegration, then
any
dense intervening obstacle is disintegrated for a sufficient space to allow
it to pass. That the latter is one of the feats of the fakirs, yogis, and
certain
mediums can be hardly a matter of doubt except for those who deny the occult
character of the cosmos. Alleged spirits in respect to this have said, “We
make the intervening obstacle fluid or diffused, or do the same thing for the
object transported,” and for once they seem to be right. A gentleman of
high character and ability in the Northwest told me that one day a man unknown
in his village came to the door, and exhibiting some rings of metal made one
pass through the other, one of the rings seeming to melt away at the point of
contact. H.P. Blavatsky has narrated to me many such cases, and I have seen
her do the same thing. As, for instance she has taken in my sight a small object
such as a ring, and laying it on the table caused it to appear without her touching
it inside of a closed drawer near by. Now in that instance either she disintegrated
it and caused it to pass into the drawer, or disintegrated the drawer for a
sufficient space, or she hypnotized me with all my senses on the alert, putting
the object into the drawer while I was asleep and without my perceiving any
sort of change whatever in my consciousness. The latter I cannot accept, but
if it be held as true, then it was more wonderful than the other feat. The circumstances
and motive were such as to exclude the hypnotizing theory; it was done to show
me that such a phenomenon was possible and to give me a clue to the operation,
and also to explain to me how the strange things of spiritualism might be done
and, indeed, must be done under the laws of man’s mind and nature.
Next
we have the intelligent part of the matter to look at. Here the inner senses
have to act under the guidance of a mind free from the illusions of matter,
able to see into the occult cosmos behind the veil of objectivity. The
will
acts with immense force, exerting the powers both of attraction and repulsion
as desired; knowledge of occult chemistry comes into use; the currents
in the
astral light or ether have to be known, as also how to make new currents.
Those who have seen the astral light and looked at the currents moving
to and fro
will understand this, others will either doubt, deny, or suspend judgment.
The imagination as in the case of precipitation, is of prime importance;
for in
these things imagination is the sight and the hand of the mind and the will,
without which the latter can accomplish nothing; just as the will and brain
of a man whose arms are cut off can do nothing unless others aid him. But
mind,
will, and imagination do not reconstruct the disintegrated object, for as soon
as the dispersing force is slackened from its hold on the mass of molecules,
the imagination having held the image of the object, the same obediently
and
automatically rearrange themselves as before.
All
this may seem fanciful, but there are those who know of their own knowledge
that it is all according to fact. And it is doubtless true that in no long time
modern science will begin, as it is even now slowly starting, to admit all these
things by admitting in full the ideal nature of the cosmos, thus removing at
once the materialistic notions of man and nature which mostly prevail at the
present day.
No.
III: Some Propositions by H.P. BLAVATSKY
[Isis
Unveiled, Vol.II, page 587, et seq.] The following is extracted from
H.P.B’s first book, and is printed in this series with the belief that
it will be useful as well as interesting. She gives some fundamental oriental
propositions relating to occult arts, thus:
1.
There is no miracle. Everything that happens is the result of law—eternal,
immutable, ever-active. Apparent miracle is but the operation of forces antagonistic
to what Dr. W.B. Carpenter, F.R.S.—a man of great learning but little
knowledge—calls “the well ascertained laws of nature.” Like
many of his class, Dr. Carpenter ignores the fact that there may be laws once
“known,” now unknown, to science.
2.
Nature is triune: there is a visible objective nature; an invisible, indwelling,
energizing nature, the exact model of the other, and its vital principle; and
above these two is spirit, the source of all forces, alone eternal and
indestructible. The lower two constantly change; the higher third does not.
3.
Man is also triune; he has his objective physical body; his vitalizing
astral
body (or soul), the real man; and these two are brooded over and illuminated
by the third—the sovereign, the immortal spirit. When the real man succeeds
in merging himself with the latter, he becomes an immortal entity.
4.
Magic, as a science, is the knowledge of these principles, and the way
by which
the omniscience and omnipotence of the spirit and its control over nature’s
forces may be acquired by the individual while still in the body. Magic,
as an art, is the application of this knowledge in practice.
5.
Arcane knowledge misapplied is sorcery; beneficently used, true magic or wisdom.
6.
Mediumship is the opposite of Adeptship; the medium is the passive instrument
of foreign influences, the Adept actively controls himself and all inferior
potencies.
7.
All things that ever were, that are, or that will be, having their record upon
the astral light, or tablet of the unseen universe, the initiated Adept, by
using the vision of his own spirit, can know all that has been known or can
be known.
8.
Races of men differ in spiritual gifts as in colour, stature, or any other external
quality; among some people seership naturally prevails, among others mediumship.
Some are addicted to sorcery, and transmit its secret rules of practice from
generation to generation, with a range of psychical phenomena, more or less
wide as the result.
9.
One phase of magical skill is the voluntary and conscious withdrawal of
the
inner man (astral form) from the outer man (physical body). In the cases
of some mediums withdrawal occurs, but it is unconscious and involuntary.
With
the latter the body is more or less cataleptic at such times; but with the
Adept the absence of the astral form would not be noticed, for the physical
senses
are alert and the individual appears only as though in a fit of abstraction—“a
brown study,” as some call it. To the movements of the wandering astral
form neither time nor space offers any obstacle. The thaumaturgist thoroughly
skilled in occult science can cause himself (that is, his physical body)
to seem to disappear or to apparently take on any shape that he may choose.
He may make his astral form visible, or he may give it protean appearances.
In both cases these results will be achieved by a mesmeric hallucination simultaneously
brought on. This hallucination is so perfect that the subject of it would stake
his life that he saw a reality, when it is but a picture in his own mind impressed
upon his consciousness by the irresistible will of the mesmeriser.
But
while the astral form can go anywhere, penetrate any obstacle, and be seen at
any distance from the physical body, the latter is dependent upon ordinary methods
of transportation. It may be levitated under prescribed magnetic conditions,
but not pass from one locality to another except in the usual way. Inert matter
may be in certain cases and under certain conditions disintegrated, passed through
walls and recombined, but living animal organisms cannot.
Arcane
science teaches that the abandonment of the living body by the soul frequently
occurs, and that we encounter every day in every condition of life such
living
corpses. Various causes, among them overpowering fright, grief, despair,
a violent attack of sickness, or excessive sensuality, may bring this about.
The vacant
carcass may be entered and inhabited by the astral form of an adept sorcerer,
or an elementary (an earthbound disembodies human soul), or, very rarely,
an
elemental. Of course an Adept of white magic has the same power, but unless
some very exceptional and great object is to be accomplished he will never
consent
to pollute himself by occupying the body of an impure person. In insanity
the patient’s astral being is either semi-paralysed, bewildered, and subject
to the influence of every passing spirit of any sort, or it has departed
forever and the body is taken possession of by some vampirish entity near
its own disintegration
and clinging desperately to earth whose sensual pleasures it may enjoy for
a brief season longer by this expedient.
10.
The cornerstone of magic is an intimate practical knowledge of magnetism and
electricity, their qualities, correlations, and potencies. Especially necessary
is a familiarity with their effects within and upon the animal kingdom and man.
There are occult properties in many other minerals equally strange with that
in the lodestone, which all practitioners of magic must know and of which so-called
exact science is wholly ignorant. Plants also have like mystical properties
in a most wonderful degree, and the secrets of the herbs of dreams and enchantments
are only lost to European science, and, needless to say, too, are unknown to
it, except in a few marked instances such as opium and hashish. Yet the psychical
effects of even these few upon the human system are regarded as evidences of
a temporary mental disorder.
To
sum up all in a few words; magic is spiritual wisdom; nature the material ally,
pupil, and servant of the magicians. One common vital principle pervades all
things, and this is controllable by the perfected human will. The Adept can
stimulate the movements of the natural forces in plants and animals in a preternatural
degree. Such experiments are not obstructions of nature but quickenings; the
conditions of intenser vital action are given.
The
Adept can control the sensations and alter the conditions of the physical and
astral bodies of other persons not Adepts; he can also govern and employ as
he chooses the spirits of the elements. He cannot control the immortal spirit
of any human being living or dead, for all such spirits are alike sparks of
the Divine Essence and not subject to any foreign domination.
Propositions
2 and 3 contain and include the sevenfold classification. In 1877 H.P.B was
writing for those who had known but the threefold scheme. In Number two the
vital principle (prana or Jîva)is given; the body with vitality
makes two; the real man inside called the soul, being composed of astral
body, desires, and mind, makes five; the spirit, including the connecting
link of Buddhi, completes the seven. The will is one of the forces directly
from spirit, and is guided, with ordinary men, by desire; in the Adepts’ case the will is guided by Buddhi, Manas, and Atma, including in its operation
the force of a pure spiritual desire acting solely under law and duty.
-----------------------------
Proofs
of the Hidden Self
Through
Dreams
The
dream state is common to all people. Some persons say they never dream,
but
upon examination it will be found they have had one or two dreams and that
they meant only to say their dreams were few. It is doubtful whether the
person exists
who never has had a dream. But it is said that dreams are not of importance;
that they are due to blood pressure, or to indigestion, or to disease,
or to
various causes. They are supposed to be unimportant because, looking at them
from the utilitarian viewpoint, no great use is seen to follow. Yet there
are
many who always make use of their dreams, and history, both secular and religious,
is not without records of benefit, of warning, of instruction from the
dream.
The well-known case of Pharaoh’s dream of lean and fat kine which enabled
Joseph as interpreter to foresee and provide against a famine represents
a class of dream not at all uncommon. But the utilitarian view is only one
of many.
Dreams
show conclusively that although the body and brain are asleep—for sleep
begins primarily in the brain and is governed by it—there is still active
a recollector and perceiver who watches the introspective experience of dreaming.
Sorrow, joy, fear, anger, ambition, love, hate, and all possible emotions
are
felt and perceived in dreams. The utility of this on the waking plane has
nothing to do with the fact of perception. Time all is measured therein,
not according
to solar division but in respect to the effect produced upon the dreamer.
And as the counting of this time is done at a vastly quicker rate than is
possible
for the brain, it follows that some person is counting. In all these dreams
there is a recollection of the events perceived, and the memory of it is
carried
into the waking state. Reason and all the powers of intelligent waking man
are used in dreams; and as emotion, reasoning, perception, and memory are
all found
to be even more active in dreams than in waking life, it must follow that
the Hidden Self is the one who has and does all this.
The
fanciful portion of dreams does not invalidate the position. Fancy is not peculiar
to dreaming; it is also present in waking consciousness. In many people fancy
is quite as usual and vivid as with any dreamer. And we know that children have
a strong development of fancy. Its presence in dream simply means that the thinker,
being liberated temporarily from the body and the set forms or grooves of the
brain, expands that ordinary faculty. But passing beyond fancy we have the fact
that dreams have prophecy of events not yet come. This could not be unless there
exists the inner Hidden Self who sees plainly the future and the past in an
ever present.
In
Clairvoyance
Waking
clairvoyance cannot now be denied. Students of Theosophy know it to be a faculty
of man, and in America its prevalence is such as to call for no great proof.
There is the clairvoyance of events past, of those to come, and of those taking
place.
To
perceive events that have taken place in which the clairvoyant had no part nor
was informed about, means that some other instrument than the brain is used.
This must be the Hidden Self. Seeing and reporting events that subsequently
transpire gives the same conclusion. If the brain is the mind, it must have
had a part in a vast event which it now reports, either as actor or as hearer
from another who was present, but as in the cases cited it had no such connection
as actor, then it follows that it has received the report from some other perceiver.
This other one is the Hidden Self, because the true clairvoyant case excludes
any report by an eyewitness.
Then
again, when the clairvoyant is dealing with an event presently proceeding at
a distance, it is necessary that a perceiver who recollects must be present
in order to make report. For the brain and its organs of sight and hearing are
too far off. But as the clairvoyant does report correctly what is going on it
is the other Hidden Self who sees the event, bridges the gap between it and
the brain, and impresses the picture upon the bodily organs.
The
Feeling of Identity
If
recollection is the basis for the feeling of identity continuous throughout
life, and if brain is the only instrument for perception, then there is an inexplicable
series of gaps to be accounted for or bridged over, but admitting the Hidden
Self no gaps exist.
We
are born feeling that we are ourself, without a name, but using a name
for convenience
later on. We reply to challenge by saying “It is I”—the name
following only for convenience to the other person. This personal identity remains
although we fall asleep each night and thus far become unconscious. And we know
that even when a long period is blotted out of memory by fall, blow, or other
accidental injury, the same feeling of identity crosses the gap and continues
the same identical “I” to where memory again acts. And although
years of life with all their multiplicity of events and experience have passed,
leaving but a small amount of recollection, we yet know ourselves as that
unnamed
person who came to life so many years before. We do not remember our birth
nor our naming, and if we are but a bundle of material experience, a mere
product
of brain and recollection, then we should have no identity but constant confusion.
The contrary being the case, and continuous personal identity being felt
and
perceived, the inevitable conclusion is that we are the Hidden Self and that
Self is above and beyond both body and brain.
Imagination
and Occult Phenomena
The
faculty of imagination has been reduced to a very low level by modern western
theorisers upon mental philosophy. It is “only the making of pictures,
daydreaming, fancy, and the like”: thus they have said about one of the
noblest faculties in man. In Occultism it is well known to be of the highest
importance that one should have the imagination under such control as to
be
able to make a picture of anything at any time, and if this power has not
been so trained the possession of other sorts of knowledge will not enable
one to
perform certain classes of occult phenomena.
Those
who have read Mr. Sinnett’s Occult World will have noticed two
or three classes of phenomena performed by H.P. BLAVATSKY and her unseen
friends, and those who have investigated spiritualism will know that in
the latter have
been many cases of similar phenomena done by so-called “controls.” Others who made no such investigations have, however, on their own account seen
many things done by forces not mechanical but of a nature which must be called
occult or psychical. In spiritualism, and by the Adepts like H.P. BLAVATSKY
and others, one thing has excited great interest, that is the precipitating
on to paper or other substances of messages out of the air, as it were, and
without any visible contact between the sender of the message and the precipitated
letters themselves. This has often occurred in séances with certain
good mediums, and the late Stainton Moses wrote in a letter which I saw many
years ago that there had come under his hand certain messages precipitated out
of the air. But in these cases the medium never knows what is to be precipitated,
cannot control it at will, is in fact wholly ignorant of the whole matter and
the forces operating and how they operate. The elemental forces make the pictures
through which the messages are precipitated, and as the inner nature of the
medium is abnormally developed, acting subconsciously to the outer man, the
whole process is involved in darkness so far as spiritualism is concerned. But
not so with trained minds or wills such as possessed by Madame Blavatsky and
all like her in the history of the past, including the still living Adepts.
The
Adepts who consciously send messages from a distance or who impress thoughts
or sentences on the mind of another at a distance are able to do so because
their imagination has been fully trained.
The
wonder-worker of the East who makes you see a snake where there is none, or
who causes you to see a number of things done in your presence which were not
done in fact, is able to do so to impress you with his trained imagination,
which, indeed, is also often in his case an inheritance, and when inherited
it is all the stronger when trained and the easier to put into training. In
the same way but to a much smaller degree the modern western hypnotizer influences
his subject by the picture he makes with his imagination in those cases where
he causes the patient to see or not to see at will, and if that power were stronger
in the West than it is, the experiments of the hypnotizing schools would be
more wonderful than they are.
Take
the case of precipitation. In the first place, all the minerals, metals,
and
coloured substances any one could wish for use are in the air about us held
in suspension. This has long been proved so as to need no argument now.
If there
be any chemical process known that will act on these substances, they can
be taken from the air and thrown down before us into visibility. This visibility
only results from the closer packing together of the atoms of matter composing
the mass. Modern science has only a few processes for thus precipitating,
but
while they do not go to the length of precipitating in letters or figures
they do show that such precipitation is possible. Occultism has a knowledge
of the
secret chemistry of nature whereby those carbons and other substances in
the air may be drawn out at will either separately or mixed. The next step
is to
find for these substances so to be packed together a mould or matrix through
which they may be poured, as it were, and, being thus closely packed, become
visible. Is there such a mould or matrix?
The
matrix is made by means of the trained imaginations. It must have been trained
either now or in some other life before this, or no picture can be precipitated
nor message impressed on the brain to which it is directed. The imagination
makes a picture of each word of each letter of every line and part of line in
every letter and word, and having made that picture it is held there by the
will and the imagination acting together for such a length of time as is needed
to permit the carbons or other substances to be strained down through this matrix
and appear upon paper. This is exactly the way in which the Masters of H.P.B
sent those messages which they did not write with their hands, for while they
precipitated some they wrote some others and sent them by way of the ordinary
mail.
The
explanation is the same for the sending of a message by words which the receiver
is to hear. The image of the person who is to be the recipient has to be made
and held in place; that is, in each of these cases you have to become as it
were a magic lantern or a camera obscura, and if the image of the letters or
of the image of the person be let go or blurred, all the other forces will shoot
wide of the mark and naught be accomplished. If a picture were made of the ineffectual
thoughts of the generality of people, it would show little lines of force flying
out from their brains and instead of reaching their destination falling to the
earth just a few feet away from the person who is thus throwing them out.
But,
of course, in the case of sending and precipitating on to paper a message
from
a distance, a good many other matters have to be well known to the operator.
For instance, the inner as well as the outer resistance of all substances
have
to be known, for if not calculated they will throw the aim out, just as the
billiard ball may be deflected if the resistance of the cushion is variable
and not known to be so by the player. And again, if a living human being
has
to be used as the other battery at this end of the line, all the resistances
and also all the play of that person’s thought have to be known or a complete
failure may result. This will show those who inquire about phenomena, or
who at a jump wish to be adepts or to do as the adepts can do, what a task
it is
they would undertake. But there is still another consideration, and that
is that inasmuch as all these phenomena have to do with the very subtle
and powerful
planes of matter it must follow that each time a phenomenon is done the forces
of those planes are roused to action, and reaction will be equal to action
in
these things just as on the ordinary plane.
An
illustration will go to make clear what has been said of the imagination. One
day H.P. BLAVATSKY said she would show me precipitation in the very act. She
looked fixedly at a certain smooth piece of wood and slowly on it came out letters
which at last made a long sentence. It formed before my eyes and I could see
the matter condense and pack itself on the surface. All the letters were like
such as she would make with her hand, just because she was making the image
in her brain and of course followed her own peculiarities. But in the middle,
one of the letters was blurred and, as it were, all split into a mass of mere
colour as to part of the letter.
“Now
here,” she said, “I purposely wandered in the image, so that you
could see the effect. As I let my attention go, the falling substance had
no matrix and naturally fell on the wood any way without shape.”
A
friend on whom I could rely told me that he once asked a wonder-worker in the
East what he did when he made a snake come and go before the audience, and he
replied that he had been taught from very early youth to see a snake before
him and that it was so strong an image everyone there had to see it.
“But,”
said my friend, “how do you tell it from a real snake?” The man
replied that he was able to see through it, so that for him it looked like
the shadow of a snake, but that if he had not done it so often he might be
frightened
by it himself. The process he would not give, as he claimed it was a secret
in his family. But anyone who has made the trial knows that it is possible
to
train the imagination so as to at will bring up before the mind the outlines
of any object whatsoever, and that after a time the mind seems to construct
the image as if it ware a tangible thing.
But
there is a wide difference between this and the kind of imagination which is
solely connected with some desire or fancy. In the latter case the desire and
the image and the mind with all its powers are mixed together, and the result,
instead of being a training of the image-making power, is to bring on a decay
of that power and only a continual flying to the image of the thing desired.
This is the sort of use of the power of the imagination which has lowered it
in the eyes of the modern scholar, but even that result would not have come
about if the scholars had a knowledge of the real inner nature of man.
Conversations
on Occultism
No.
1: The Kali Yuga - The Present Age
Student—I
am very much puzzled about the present age. Some theosophists seem to abhor
it as if wishing to be taken away from it altogether, inveighing against modern
inventions such as the telegraph, railways, machinery, and the like, and bewailing
the disappearance of former civilizations. Others take a different view, insisting
that this is a better time than any other, and hailing modern methods as the
best. Tell me, please, which of these is right, or, if both are wrong, what
ought we to know about the age we live in.
Sage—The
teachers of Truth know all about this age. But they do not mistake the present
century for the whole cycle. The older times of European history, for example,
when might was right and when darkness prevailed over Western nations, was as
much a part of this age, from the standpoint of the Masters, as in the present
hour, for the Yuga—to use a Sanskrit word—in which we are now had
begun many thousands of years before. And during that period of European darkness,
although this Yuga had already begun, there was much light, learning, and civilization
in India and China. The meaning of the words “present age” must
therefore be extended over a far greater period than is at present assigned.
In fact, modern science has reached no definite conclusion yet as to what should
properly be called “an age,” and the truth of the Eastern doctrine
is denied. Hence we find writers speaking of the “Golden Age,” the
“Iron Age,” and so on, whereas they are only parts of the real age
that began so far back that modern archaeologists deny it altogether.
Student—What
is the Sanskrit name for this age, and what is its meaning?
Sage—The
Sanskrit is “Kali,” which added to Yuga gives us “Kali-Yuga.”
The meaning of it is “Dark Age.” Its approach was known to the ancients,
its characteristics are described in the Indian poem “The Mahâbhârata.” As I said that it takes in an immense period of the glorious part of Indian
history, there is no chance for anyone to be jealous and to say that we
are
comparing the present hour with that wonderful division of Indian development
Student—What
are the characteristics to which you refer, by which Kali-Yuga may be
known?
Sage—As
its name implies, darkness is the chief. This of course is not deducible
by
comparing today with 800 A.D., for this would be no comparison at all. The
present century is certainly ahead of the middle ages, but as compared
with the preceding
Yuga it is dark. To the Occultist, material advancement is not of the quality
of light, and he finds no progress in merely mechanical contrivances that
give
comfort to a few of the human family while the many are in misery. For the
darkness he would have to point but to one nation, even the great American
Republic.
Here he sees a mere extension of the habits and life of the Europe from which
it sprang; here a great experiment with entirely new conditions and material
was tried; here for many years very little poverty was known; but here
today
there is as much grinding poverty as anywhere, and as large a criminal class
with corresponding prisons as in Europe, and more than in India. Again,
the
great thirst for riches and material betterment, while spiritual life is to
a great extent ignored, is regarded by us as darkness. The great conflict
already begun between the wealthy classes and the poorer is a sign of darkness.
Were
spiritual light prevalent, the rich and the poor would still be with us,
for Karma cannot be blotted out, but the poor would know how to accept their
lot
and the rich how to improve the poor; now, on the contrary, the rich wonder
why the poor do not go to the poorhouse, meanwhile seeking in the laws for
cures
for strikes and socialism, and the poor continually growl at fate and their
supposed oppressors. All this is of the quality of spiritual darkness.
Student—Is
it wise to inquire as to the periods when the cycle changes, and to speculate
on the great astronomical or other changes that herald a turn?
Sage—It
is not. There is an old saying that the gods are jealous about these things,
not wishing mortals to know them. We may analyse the age, but it is better not
to attempt to fix the hour of a change of cycle. Besides that, you will be unable
to settle it, because a cycle does not begin on a day or year clear of any other
cycle; they interblend, so that, although the wheel of one period is still turning,
the initial point of another has already arrived.
Student—Are
these some of the reasons why Mr. Sinnett was not given certain definite periods
of years about which he asked?
Sage—Yes.
Student—Has
the age in which one lives any effect on the student; and what is it?
Sage—It
has an effect on every one, but the student after passing along in his
development
feels the effect more than the ordinary man. Were it otherwise, the sincere
and aspiring students all over the world would advance at once to those
heights
towards which they strive. It takes a very strong soul to hold back the age’s
heavy hand, and it is all the more difficult because that influence, being a
part of the student’s larger life, is not so well understood by him. It
operated in the same way as a structural defect in a vessel. All the inner
as well as the outer fibre of the man is the result of the long centuries
of earthly
lives lived here by his ancestors. These sow seeds of thought and physical
tendencies in a way that you cannot comprehend. All those tendencies affect
him. Many powers
once possessed are hidden so deep as to be unseen, and he struggles against
obstacles constructed ages ago. Further yet are the peculiar alterations
brought
about in the astral world. It, being at once a photographic plate, so to
say and also a reflector, has become the keeper of the mistakes of ages past
which
it continually reflects upon us from a plane to which most of us are strangers.
In that sense therefore, free as we suppose ourselves, we are walking blindly
under the suggestions thus cast upon us.
Student—Was
that why Jesus said,” Was that why Jesus said, “Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do”?
Sage—That
was one meaning. In one aspect they acted blindly, impelled by the age, thinking
they were right.
Regarding
these astral alternations, you will remember how in the time of Julian the seers
reported that they could see the gods, but they were decaying, some headless,
others flaccid, others minus limbs, and all appearing weak. The reverence for
these ideals was departing, and their astral pictures had already begun to fade.
Student—What
mitigation is there about this age? Is there nothing at all to relieve the picture?
Sage—There
is one thing peculiar to the present Kali-Yuga that may be used by the
Student. All causes now bring about their effects much more rapidly than in
any other or better age. A sincere lover of the race can accomplish more in
three incarnations under Kali Yuga’s reign than he could in a much
greater number in any other age. Thus by bearing all the manifold troubles of
this Age and steadily triumphing, the object of his efforts will be more quickly
realized, for, while the obstacles seem great, the powers to be invoked can
be reached more quickly.
Student—Even
if this is, spiritually considered, a Dark Age, is it not in part redeemed by
the increasing triumphs of mind over matter, and by the effects of science in
mitigating human ills, such as the causes of disease, disease itself, cruelty,
intolerance, bad laws, etc.?
Sage—Yes,
these are mitigations of the darkness in just the same way that a lamp gives
some light at night but does not restore daylight. In this age there are great
triumphs of science but they are nearly all directed to effects and do
not take away the causes of the evils. Great strides have been made in
the arts and in cure of diseases, but in the future, as the flower of our civilization
unfolds, new diseases will arise and more strange disorders will be known, springing
from causes that lie deep in the minds of men and which can only be eradicated
by spiritual living.
Student—Admitting
all you say, are not we, as Theosophists, to welcome every discovery of truth
in any field, especially such truth as lessens suffering or enlarges the moral
sense?
Sage—That
is our duty. All truths discovered must be parts of the one Absolute Truth,
and so much added to the sum of our outer knowledge. There will always be a
large number of men who seek for these parts of truth, and others who try to
alleviate present human misery. They each do a great and appointed work that
no true Theosophist should ignore. And it is also the duty of the latter to
make similar efforts when possible, for Theosophy is a dead thing if it is not
turned into the life. At the same time, no one of us may be the judge of just
how much or how little our brother is doing in that direction. If he does all
that he can and knows how to do, he does his whole present duty.
Student—I
fear that a hostile attitude by Occult teachers towards the learning and philanthropy
of the time may arouse prejudice against Theosophy and Occultism, and needlessly
impede the spread of Truth. May it not be so?
Sage—The
real Occult Teachers have no hostile attitude towards these things. If some
persons, who like Theosophy and try to spread it, take such a position, they
do not thereby alter the one assumed by the real Teachers who work with all
classes of men and use every possible instrument for good. But at the same time
we have found that an excess of the technical and special knowledge of the day
very often acts to prevent men from apprehending the truth.
Student—Are
there any causes, other than the spread of Theosophy, which may operate to reverse
the present drift towards materialism?
Sage—The
spread of the knowledge of the laws of Karma and Reincarnation and of a belief
in the absolute spiritual unity of all beings will alone prevent this drift.
The cycle must, however, run its course, and until that is ended all beneficial
causes will of necessity act slowly and not to the extent they would in a brighter
age. As each student lives a better life and by his example imprints
upon the astral light the picture of a higher aspiration acted in the world,
he thus aids souls of advanced development to descend from other spheres
where the cycles are so dark that they can no longer stay there.
Student—Accept
my thanks for your instruction.
Sage—May
you reach the terrace of enlightenment.
No.
II : Elementals and Elementaries
Student—If
I understand you, an elemental is a centre of force, without intelligence,
without
moral character or tendencies, but capable of being directed in its movements
by human thoughts, which may, consciously or not, give it any form, and
to a
certain extent intelligence; in its simplest form it is visible as a disturbance
in a transparent medium, such as would be produced by “a glass fish, so
transparent as to be invisible, swimming through the air of the room,” and leaving behind him a shimmer, such as hot air makes when rising from a stove.
Also, elementals, attracted and vitalized by certain thoughts, may effect
a
lodgement in the human system (of which they then share the government with
the ego) and are very hard to get out.
Sage—Correct,
in general, except as to their “effecting a lodgement.” Some classes
of elementals, however, have an intelligence of their own and a character,
but they are far beyond our comprehension and ought perhaps to have some
other name.
That
class which has most to do with us answers the above description. They are centres
of force or energy which are acted on by us while thinking and in other bodily
motions. We also act on them and give them form by a species of thought which
we have no register of. As, one person might shape an elemental so as to seem
like an insect, and not be able to tell whether he had thought of such a thing
or not. For there is a vast unknown country in each human being which he does
not himself understand until he has tried, and then only after many initiations.
That “elementals* * * may effect a lodgement in the human system, of which
they then share the government, and are very hard to get out” is, as a
whole, incorrect. It is only in certain cases that any one or more elementals
are attracted to and “find lodgement in the human system.” In such
cases special rules apply. We are not considering such cases. The elemental
world interpenetrates this, and is therefore eternally present in the human
system.
As
it (the elemental world) is automatic and like a photographic plate, all
atoms
continually arriving at and departing from the “human system” are
constantly assuming the impression conveyed by the acts and thoughts of that
person, and therefore, if he sets up a strong current of thought, he attracts
elementals in greater numbers, and they all take on one prevailing tendency
or colour, so that all new arrivals find a homogeneous colour or image which
they instantly assume. On the other hand, a man who has many diversities
of
thought and meditation is not homogeneous, but, so to say, parti-coloured,
and so the elementals may lodge in that part which is different from the
rest and
go away in like condition. In the first cast it is one mass of elementals
similarly vibrating or electrified and coloured, and in that sense may be
called one elemental,
in just the same way that we know one man as Jones, although for years he
has been giving off and taking on new atoms of gross matter.
Student—If
they are attracted and repelled by thoughts, do they move with the velocity
of thought, say from here to the planet Neptune?
Sage—They
move with the velocity of thought. In their world there is no space or
time
as we understand those terms. If Neptune be within the astral sphere of this
world, then they go there with that velocity, otherwise not; but that “if” need not be solved now.
Student—What
determines their movements besides thought,—e.g., when they are
floating about the room?
Sage—Those
other classes of thoughts above referred to; certain exhalations of beings;
different rates and ratios of vibrations among beings; different changes of
magnetism caused by present causes or by the moon and the year; different polarities;
changes of sound; changes of influences from other minds at a distance.
Student—When
so floating, can they be seen by any one, or only by those persons who are clairvoyant?
Sage—Clairvoyance
is a poor world. They can be seen by partly clairvoyant people. By all those
who can see thus; by more people, perhaps, than are aware of the fact.
Student—Can
they be photographed, as the rising air from the hot stove can?
Sage—Not
to my knowledge yet. It is not impossible, however.
Student—Are
they the lights, seen floating about a dark seance room by clairvoyant people?
Sage—In
the majority of cases those lights are produced by them.
Student—Exactly
what is their relation to light, that makes it necessary to hold seances in
the dark?
Sage—It
is not their relation to light that makes darkness necessary, but the
fact that light causes constant agitation and alternation in the magnetism of
the room. All these things can be done just as well in the light of day.
If
I should be able to make clear to you “exactly what is their relation
to light,” then you would know what has long been kept secret, the key
to the elemental world. This is kept guarded because it is a dangerous secret.
No matter how virtuous you are, you could not—once you know the secret—prevent
the knowledge getting out into the minds of others who would not hesitate
to use it for bad purposes.
Student—I
have noticed that attention often interferes with certain phenomena; thus a
pencil will not write when watched, but writes at once when covered; or a mental
question cannot be answered till the mind has left it and gone to something
else. Why is this?
Sage—This
kind of attention creates confusion. In these things we use desire, will, and
knowledge. The desire is present, but knowledge is absent. When the desire is
well formed and attention withdrawn, the thing is often done; but when our attention
is continued we only interrupt, because we possess only half attention. In order
to use attention, it must be of that sort which can hold itself to the point
of a needle for an indefinite period of time.
Student—I
have been told that but few people can go to a seance without danger to themselves,
either of some spiritual or astral contamination, or of having their vitality
depleted for the benefit of the spooks, who suck the vital force out of the
circle through the medium, as if the former were a glass of lemonade and the
latter a straw. How is this?
Sage—Quite
generally this happens. It is called Bhut worship by the Hindus.
Student—Why
are visitors at a seance often extremely and unaccountably tired next day?
Sage—Among
other reasons, because mediums absorb the vitality for the use of the “spooks,” and often vile vampire elementaries are present.
Student—What
are some of the dangers at seances?
Sage—The
scenes visible—in the Astral—at seances are horrible, inasmuch as
these “spirits”—bhuts—precipitate themselves upon the
sitters and mediums alike; and as there is no seance without having present
some or many bad elementaries—half dead human beings,—there is much
vampirising going on. These things fall upon the people like a cloud or a
big octopus, and disappear within them as if sucked in by a sponge. That
is one
reason why it is not well to attend them in general.
Elementaries
are not all bad, but, in a general sense, they are not good. They are shells,
no doubt of that. Well, they have much automatic and seemingly intelligent
action
left if they are those of strongly material people who died attached to things
of life. If of people of an opposite character, they are not so strong.
Then
there is a class which are really not dead, such as suicides, and sudden
deaths, and highly wicked people. They are powerful. Elementals enter into
all of them,
and thus get a fictitious personality and intelligence wholly the property
of the shell. They galvanize the shell into action, and by its means can
see and
hear as if beings themselves, like us. The shells are, in this case, just
like a sleepwalking human body. They will through habit exhibit the advancement
they
got while in the flesh. Some people, you know, do not impart to their bodily
molecules the habit of their minds to as great extent as others. We thus
see
why the utterances of these so-called “spirits” are never ahead
of the highest point of progress attained by living human beings, and why
they take up the ideas elaborated day-by-day by their votaries. This seance
is what
was called in Old India the worship of the Pretas and Bhuts and Pisachas
and Gandharvas.
I
do not think any elementary capable of motive had ever any other than a bad
one; the rest are nothing, they have no motive and are only the shades refused
passage by Charon.
Student—What
is the relation between sexual force and phenomena?
Sage—It
is at the bottom. This force is vital, creative, and a sort of reservoir.
It
may be lost by mental action as well as by physical. In fact its finer part
is dissipated by mental imaginings, while physical acts only draw off the
gross
part, that which is the “carrier” (upâdhi) for the finer.
Student—Why
do so many mediums cheat, even when they can produce real phenomena?
Sage—It
is the effect of the use of that which in itself is sublimated cheating, which,
acting on an irresponsible mind, causes the lower form of cheat of which the
higher is any illusionary form whatever. Besides, a medium is of necessity unbalanced
somewhere.
They
deal with these forces for pay, and that is enough to call to them all
the wickedness
of time. They use the really gross sorts of matter, which causes inflammation
in corresponding portions of the moral character, and hence divagations
from
the path of honesty. It is a great temptation. You do not know, either, what
fierceness there is in those who “have paid” for a sitting and wish
“for the worth of their money.”
Student—When
a clairvoyant, as a man did here a year ago, tells me that ‘he sees a
strong band of spirits about me,’ and among them an old man who says he
is a certain eminent character, what does he really see? Empty and senseless
shells? If so, what brought them there? Or elementals which have got their
form
from my mind or his?
Sage—Shells,
I think, and thoughts, and old astral pictures. If, for instance, you once
saw
that eminent person and conceived great respect or fear for him, so that
his image was graven in your astral sphere in deeper lines than other images,
it
would be seen for your whole life by seers, who, if untrained,—as they
all are here,—could not tell whether it was an image or reality; and then
each sight of it is a revivification of the image.
Besides,
not all would see the same thing. Fall down, for instance, and hurt your
body,
and that will bring up all similar events and old forgotten things before
any seer’s eye.
The
whole astral world is a mass of illusion; people see into it, and then, through
the novelty of the thing and the exclusiveness of the power, they are bewildered
into thinking they actually see true things, whereas they have only removed
one thin crust of dirt.
Student—Accept
my thanks for your instruction.
Sage—May
you reach the terrace of enlightenment.
No.
III: Elementals—Karma
Student—Permit
me to ask you again, are elementals beings?
Sage—It
is not easy to convey to you an idea of the constitution of elementals; strictly
speaking, they are not, because the word elementals has been used in
reference to a class of them that have no being such as mortals have. It would
be better to adopt the terms used in Indian books, such as Gandharvas, Bhuts,
Pisachas, Devas, and so on. Many things well known about them cannot be put
into ordinary language.
Student—Do
you refer to their being able to act in the fourth dimension of space?
Sage—Yes,
in a measure. Take the tying in an endless cord of many knots—a thing
often done at spiritist seances. That is possible to him who knows more dimensions
of space than three. No three-dimensional being can do this; and as you understand
“matter,” it is impossible for you to conceive how such a knot can
be tied or how a solid ring can be passed through the matter of another solid
one. These things can be done by elementals.
Student—Are
they not all of one class?
Sage—No.
There are different classes for each plane, and division of plane, of nature.
Many can never be recognized by men. And those pertaining to one plane
do not
act in another. You must remember, too, that these “planes” of which
we are speaking interpenetrate each other.
Student—Am
I to understand that a clairvoyant or clairaudient has to do with or is affected
by a certain special class or classes of elementals?
Sage—Yes.
A clairvoyant can only see the sights properly belonging to the planes his development
reaches to or has opened. And the elementals in those planes show to the clairvoyant
only such pictures as belong to their plane. Other parts of the idea or thing
pictures may be retained in planes not yet open to the seer. For this reason
few clairvoyants know the whole truth.
Student—Is
there not some connection between the Karma of man and elementals?
Sage—A
very important one. The elemental world has become a strong factor in the
Karma
of the human race. Being unconscious, automatic , and photographic, it assumes
the complexion of the human family itself. In the earlier ages, when we
may
postulate that man had not yet begun to make bad Karma, the elemental world
was more friendly to man because it had not received unfriendly impressions.
But so soon as man began to become ignorant, unfriendly to himself and
the rest
of creation, the elemental world began to take on exactly the same complexion
and return to humanity the exact pay, so to speak, due for the actions
of humanity.
Or, like a donkey, which, when he is pushed against, will push against you.
Or, as a human being when anger or insult is offered, feels inclined to
return
the same. So the elemental world, being unconscious force, returns or reacts
upon humanity exactly as humanity acted towards it, whether the actions
of men
were done with the knowledge of these laws or not. So in these times it has
come to be that the elemental world has the complexion and action which is
the exact result of all the actions and thoughts and desires of men from
the earliest
times. And, being unconscious and only acting according to the natural laws
of its being, the elemental world is a powerful factor in the workings of
Karma.
And so long as mankind does not cultivate brotherly feeling and charity towards
the whole of creation, just so long will the elementals be without the impulse
to act for our benefit. But so soon and wherever man or men begin to cultivate
brotherly feeling and love for the whole of creation, there and then the
elementals
begin to take on the new condition.
Student—How
then about the doing of phenomena by adepts?
Sage—The
production of phenomena is not possible without either the aid or disturbance
of elementals. Each phenomenon entails the expenditure of great force,
and also
brings on a correspondingly great disturbance in the elemental world, which
disturbance is beyond the limit natural to ordinary human life. It then
follows
that, as soon as the phenomenon is completed, the disturbance occasioned
begins to be compensated for. The elementals are in greatly exited motion,
and precipitate
themselves in various directions. They are not able to affect those who are
protected. But they are able, or rather it is possible for them, to enter
into
the sphere of unprotected persons, and especially those persons who are engaged
in the study of occultism. And then they become agents in concentrating
the
karma of those persons, producing troubles and disasters often, or other
difficulties which otherwise might have been so spread over a period of
time as to be not
counted more than the ordinary vicissitudes of life. This will go to explain
the meaning of the statement that an Adept will not do a phenomenon unless he
sees the desire in the mind of another lower or higher Adept or student; for
then there is a sympathetic relation established, and also a tacit acceptance
of the consequences which may ensue. It will also help to understand the peculiar
reluctance often of some persons, who can perform phenomena, to produce them
in cases where we may think their production would be beneficial; and also why
they are never done in order to compass worldly ends, as is natural for worldly
people to suppose might be done—such as procuring money, transferring
objects, influencing minds, and so on.
Student—Accept
my thanks for your instruction.
Sage—May
you reach the terrace of enlightenment.
No.
IV: Elementals and Treasure: Dangers of Occult Knowledge
Student—Is
there any reason why you do not give me a more detailed explanation of the constitution
of elementals and modes by which they work?
Sage—Yes.
There are many reasons. Among others is your inability, shared by most of the
people of the present day, to comprehend a description of things that pertain
to a world with which you are not familiar and for which you do not yet possess
terms of expression. Were I to put forth these descriptions, the greater part
would seem vague and incomprehensible on one hand, while on the other many of
them would mislead you because of the interpretation put on them by yourself.
Another reason is that, if the constitution, field of action, and method of
action of elementals were given out, there are some minds of a very inquiring
and peculiar bent who soon could find out how to come into communication with
these extraordinary beings, with results disadvantageous to the community as
well as the individuals.
Student—Why
so? Is it not well to increase the sum of human knowledge, even respecting most
recondite parts of nature; or can it be that the elementals are bad?
Sage—It
is wise to increase the knowledge of nature’s laws, but always with proper
limitations. All things will become known some day. Nothing can be kept back
when men have reached the point where they can understand. But at this
time
it would not be wise to give them, for the asking, certain knowledge that
would not be good for them. That knowledge relates to elementals, and it
can for the
present be kept back from the scientists of today. So long as it can be retained
from them, it will be, until they and their followers are of a different
stamp.
As
to the moral character of elementals, they have none: they are colourless
in
themselves—except some classes—and merely assume the tint, so to
speak, of the person using them.
Student—Will
our scientific men one day, then, be able to use these beings, and, if so, what
will be the manner of it? Will their use be confined to only the good men of
the earth?
Sage—The
hour is approaching when all this will be done. But the scientists of today
are not the men to get this knowledge. They are only pigmy forerunners who sow
seed and delve blindly in no thoroughfares. They are too small to be able to
grasp these mighty powers, but they are not wise enough to see that their methods
will eventually lead to Black Magic in centuries to come when they shall be
forgotten.
When
elemental forces are used similarly as we now see electricity and other
natural
energies adapted to various purposes, there will be “war in heaven.”
Good men will not alone possess the ability to use them. Indeed, the sort of
man you now call “good” will not be the most able. The wicked will,
however, pay liberally for the power of those who can wield such forces,
and at last the Supreme Masters, who now guard this knowledge from children,
will
have to come forth. Then will ensue a dreadful war, in which, as has ever
happened, the Masters will succeed and the evil doers be destroyed by the
very engines,
principalities, and powers prostituted to their own purposes during years
of intense selfish living. But why dilate on this; in these days it is only
a prophecy.
Student—Could
you give me some hints as to how the secrets of the elemental plane are preserved
and prevented from being known? Do these guardians of whom you speak occupy
themselves in checking elementals, or how? Do they see much danger in divulgement
likely in those instances where elemental action is patent to the observer?
Sage—As
to whether they check elementals or not need not be enquired into, because,
while that may be probable, it does not appear very necessary where men
are
unsuspicious of the agency causing the phenomena. It is much easier to throw
a cloud over the investigator’s mind and lead him off to other results
of often material advantage to himself and men, while at the same time acting
as a complete preventative or switch which turns his energies and application
into different departments.
It
might be illustrated thus: Suppose that a number of trained occultists
are set
apart to watch the various sections of the world where the mental energies
are in fervid operation. It is quite easy for them to see in a moment any
mind that
is about reaching a clue into the elemental world; and besides, imagine that
trained elementals themselves constantly carry information of such events.
Then,
by superior knowledge and command over this peculiar world, influences presenting
various pictures are sent out to that enquiring mind. In one case it may
be
a new moral reform, in another a great invention is revealed, and such is
the effect that the man’s whole time and mind are taken up by this new thing
which he fondly imagines is his own. Or, again, it would be easy to turn
his thoughts into a certain rut leading far from the dangerous clue. In
fact, the
methods are endless.
Student—Would
it be wise to put into the hands of truly good, conscientious men who now use
aright what gifts they have, knowledge of and control over elementals, to be
used on the side of right?
Sage—The
Masters are the judges of what good men are to have this power and control.
You must not forget that you cannot be sure of the character at bottom
of those
whom you call “truly good and conscientious men,” Place them in
the fire of the tremendous temptation which such power and control would
furnish, and most of them would fall. But the Masters already know the characters
of
all who in any way approach to a knowledge of these forces, and They always
judge whether such a man is to be aided or prevented. They are not working
to
make these laws and forces known, but to establish right doctrine, speech
and action, so that the characters and motives of men shall undergo such
radical
changes as to fit them for wielding power in the elemental world. And that
power is not now lying idle, as you infer, but is being always used by those
who will
never fail to rightly use it.
Student—Is
there any illustration at hand showing what the people of the present day would
do with these extraordinary energies?
Sage—A
cursory glance at men in these western worlds engaged in the mad rush after
money, many of them willing to do anything to get it, and at the strain,
almost
to warfare, existing between labourers and users of labour, must show you
that, were either class in possession of power over the elemental world,
they would
direct it to the furtherance of the aims now before them. Then look at Spiritualism.
It is recorded in the Lodge—photographed, you may say, by the doers of
the acts themselves—that an enormous number of persons daily seek the
aid of mediums and their “spooks” merely on questions of business.
Whether to buy stocks, or engage in mining for gold and silver, to deal in lotteries,
or to make new mercantile contracts. Here on one side is a picture of a coterie
of men who obtained at a low figure some mining property on the advice of elemental
spirits with fictitious names masquerading behind mediums; these mines were
then to be put upon the public at a high profit, inasmuch as the “spirits” promised metal. Unhappily for the investors, it failed. But such a record is
repeated in many cases.
Then
here is another where in a great American city—the Karma being favourable—a
certain man speculated in stocks upon similar advice, succeeded, and, after
giving the medium liberal pay, retired to what is called the enjoyment
of life.
Neither party devoted either himself or the money to the benefiting of humanity.
There
is no question of honour involved, nor any as to whether money ought or ought
not to be made. It is solely one as to the propriety, expediency and results
of giving suddenly into the hands of a community unprepared and without an altruistic
aim, such abnormal power. Take hidden treasure, for instance. There is much
of it in hidden places, and many men wish to get it. For what purpose? For the
sake of ministering to their luxurious wants and leaving it to their equally
unworthy descendants. Could they know the mantram controlling the elementals
that guard such treasure, they would use it at once, motive or no motive, the
sole object being the money in the case.
Student—Do
some sorts of elementals have guard over hidden treasure?
Sage—Yes,
in every instance, whether never found or soon discovered. The causes for the
hiding and the thoughts of the hider or loser have much to do with the permanent
concealment or subsequent finding.
Student—What
happens when a large sum of money, say, such as Captain Kidd’s mythical
treasure, is concealed, or when a quantity of coin is lost?
Sage—Elementals
gather about it. They have many and curious modes of causing further concealment.
They even influence animals to that end. This class of elementals seldom, if
ever, report at your spiritualistic seances. As time goes on the forces of air
and water still further aid them, and sometimes they are able even to prevent
the hider from recovering it. Thus in course of years, even when they may have
altogether lost their hold on it, the whole thing becomes shrouded in mist,
and it is impossible to find anything.
Student—This
in part explains why so many failures are recorded in the search for hidden
treasure. But how about the Masters; are they prevented thus by these weird
guardians?
Sage—They
are not. The vast quantities of gold hidden in the earth and under the
sea are
at their disposal always. They can, when necessary for their purposes, obtain
such sums of money on whom no living being or descendants of any have the
slightest
claim, as would appal the senses of your greatest money getter. They have
but to command the very elementals controlling it, and They have it. This
is the
basis for the story of Aladdin’s wonderful lamp, more true than you believe.
Student—Of
what use then is it to try, like the alchemists, to make gold? With the immense
amount of buried treasure thus easily found when you control its guardian, it
would seem a waste of time and money to learn transmutation of metals.
Sage—The
transmutation spoken of by the real alchemists was the alteration of the
base
alloy in man’s nature. At the same time, actual transmutation of lead
into gold is possible. And many followers of the alchemists, as well as of
the pure-souled Jacob Boehme, eagerly sought to accomplish the material transmuting,
being led away by the glitter of wealth. But an Adept has no need for transmutation,
as I have shown you. The stories told of various men who are said to have
produced
gold from base metal for different kings in Europe are wrong explanations.
Here and there Adepts have appeared, assuming different names, and in certain
emergencies
they supplied or used large sums of money. But instead of its being the product
of alchemical art, it was simply ancient treasure brought to them by elementals
in their service and that of the Lodge. Raymond Lully or Robert Fludd might
have been of that sort, but I forbear to say, since I cannot claim acquaintance
with those men.
Student—I
thank you for your instruction.
Sage—
May you reach the terrace of enlightenment!
No.
V: Mantrams
Student—You
spoke of mantrams by which we could control elementals on guard over hidden
treasure. What is a mantram?
Sage—A
mantram is a collection of words which, when sounded in speech, induce certain
vibrations not only in the air, but also in the finer ether, thereby producing
certain effects.
Student—Are
the words taken at haphazard?
Sage—Only
by those who, knowing nothing of mantrams, yet use them.
Student—May
they, then, be used according to rule and also irregularity? Can it be possible
that people who know absolutely nothing of their existence or field of operations
should at the same time make use of them? Or is it something like digestion,
of which so many people know nothing whatever, while they in fact are dependent
upon its proper use for their existence? I crave your indulgence because I know
nothing of the subject.
Sage—The “common people” in
almost every country make use of them continually, but even in that case
the principle at the bottom is the same as in the other.
In a new country where folklore has not yet had time to spring up, the people
do not have as many as in such a land as India or in long settled parts
of Europe.
The aborigines, however, in any country will be possessed of them.
Student—You
do not now infer that they are used by Europeans for the controlling of elementals?
Sage—No.
I refer to their effect in ordinary intercourse between human beings. And yet
there are many men in Europe, as well as in Asia, who can thus control animals,
but those are nearly always special cases. There are men in Germany, Austria,
Italy, and Ireland who can bring about extraordinary effects on horses, cattle,
and the like, by peculiar sounds uttered in a certain way. In those instances
the sound used is a mantram of only one member, and will act only on the particular
animal that the user knows it can rule.
Student—Do
these men know the rules governing the matter? Are they able to convey it to
another?
Sage—Generally
not. It is a gift self-found or inherited, and they know only that it can be
done by them, just as a mesmeriser knows he can do a certain thing with a wave
of his hand, but is totally ignorant of the principle. They are as ignorant
of the base of this strange effect as your modern physiologists are of the function
and cause of such a common thing as yawning.
Student—Under
what head should we put this unconscious exercise of power?
Sage—Under
the head of natural magic, that materialistic science can never crush out.
It
is a touch with nature and her laws always preserved by the masses, who,
while they form the majority of the population, are yet ignored by the “cultured
classes.” And so it will be discovered by you that it is not in London
or Paris or New York drawing-rooms that you will find mantrams, whether regular
or irregular, used by the people. “Society,” too cultured to be
natural, has adopted methods of speech intended to conceal and to deceive,
so that natural mantrams cannot be studied within its borders.
Single,
natural mantrams are such words as “wife.” When it is spoken it
brings up in the mind all that is implied by the word. And if in another language,
the word would be that corresponding to the same basic idea. And so with expressions
of greater length, such as many slang sentences; thus, “I want to see
the colour of his money.” There are also sentences applicable to certain
individuals, the use of which involves a knowledge of the character of those
to whom we speak. When these are used, a peculiar and lasting vibration is
set
up in the mind of the person affected, leading to a realization in action
of the idea involved, or to a total change of life due to the appositeness
of the
subjects brought up and to the peculiar mental antithesis induced in the
hearer. As soon as the effect begins to appear the mantram may be forgotten,
since the law of habit then has sway in the brain.
Again,
bodies of men are acted on by expressions having the mantramic quality;
this
is observed in great social or other disturbances. The reason is the same
as before. A dominant idea is aroused that touches upon a want of the people
or
on an abuse which oppresses them, and the change and interchange in their
brains between the idea and the form of words go on until the result is
accomplished.
To the occultism of powerful sight this is seen to be a “ringing”
of the words coupled with the whole chain of feelings, interests, aspirations,
and so forth, that grows faster and deeper as the time for the relief or change
draws near. And the greater number of persons affected by the idea involved,
the larger, deeper, and wider the result. A mild illustration may be found in
Lord Beaconsfield of England. He knew about mantrams and continually invented
phrases of that quality. “Peace with honour” was one; “a scientific
frontier,” was another; and his last, intended to have a wider reach,
but which death prevented his supplementing, was “Empress of India.”
King Henry of England also tried it without himself knowing why, when he added
to his titles, “Defender of the Faith.” With these hints numerous
illustrations will occur to you.
Student—These
mantrams have only to do with human beings as between each other. They do not
affect elementals, as I judge from what you say. And they are not dependent
upon the sound so much as upon words bringing up ideas. Am I right in
this; and is it the case that there is a field in which certain vocalizations
produce effects in the acacia by means of which men, animals, and elementals
alike can be influences, without regard to their knowledge of any known language?
Sage—You
are right. We have spoken of natural, unconsciously-used mantrams. The
scientific
mantrams belong to the class you last referred to. It is to be doubted whether
they can be found in modern Western languages—especially among English-speaking
people who are continually changing and adding to their spoken words to such
an extent that the English of today could hardly be understood by Chaucer’s
predecessors. It is in the ancient Sanskrit and the language which preceded
it that mantrams are hidden. The laws governing their use are also to be
found
in those languages, and not in any modern philological store.
Student—Suppose,
though, that one acquires a knowledge of ancient and correct mantrams, could
he affect a person speaking English, and by the use of English words?
Sage—He
could; and all adepts have the power to translate a strictly regular mantram
into any form of language, so that a single sentence thus uttered by them will
have an immense effect on the person addressed, whether it be by letter or word
of mouth.
Student—Is
there no way in which we might, as it were, imitate those adepts in this?
Sage—Yes,
you should study simple forms of mantramic quality for the purpose of thus reaching
the hidden mind of all the people who need spiritual help. You will find now
and then some expression that has resounded in the brain, at last producing
such a result that he who heard it turns his mind to spiritual things.
Student—I
thank you for your instruction.
Sage—May
the Brahmâmantram guide you to the everlasting truth—OM.
No.
VI: Elementals—Metals—Moods
Student—A
materialist stated to me as his opinion that all that is said about mantrams
is mere sentimental theorizing, and while it may be true that certain words
affect people, the sole reason is that they embody ideas distasteful or pleasant
to the hearers, but that the mere sounds, as such, have no effect whatever,
and as to either words or sounds affecting animals he denied it altogether.
Of course he would not take elementals into account at all, as their existence
is impossible for him.
Sage—This
position is quite natural in these days. There has been so much materialization
of thought, and the real scientific attitude of leading minds in different branches
of investigation has been so greatly misunderstood by those who think they follow
the example of the scientific men, that most people in the West are afraid to
admit anything beyond what may be apprehended by the five senses. The man you
speak of is one of that always numerous class who adopt as fixed and unalterable
general laws laid down from time to time by well known savants, forgetting
that the latter constantly change and advance from point to point.
Student—Do
you think, then, that the scientific world will one day admit much that is known
to Occultism?
Sage—Yes,
it will. The genuine Scientist is always in that attitude which permits
him
to admit things proven. He may seem to you often to be obstinate and blind,
but in fact he is proceeding slowly to the truth,—too slowly, perhaps,
for you, yet not in the position of knowing all. It is the veneered scientist
who swears by the published results of the work of leading men as being the
last word, while, at the very moment he is doing so, his authority may have
made notes or prepared new theories tending to greatly broaden and advance the
last utterance. It is only when the dogmatism of a priest backed up by law declares
that a discovery is opposed to the revealed word of his god, that we may fear.
That day is gone for a long time to come, and we need expect no more scenes
like that in which Galileo took part. But among the materialistic minds to whom
you referred, there is a good deal of that old spirit left, only that the “revealed
word of God” has become the utterances of our scientific leaders.
Student—I
have observed that within even the last quarter of a century. About ten
years
ago many well-known men laughed to scorn any one who admitted the facts within
the experience of every mesmeriser, while now, under the term “hypnotism,” they are nearly all admitted. And when these lights of our time were denying
it all, the French doctors were collating the results of a long series
of experiments.
It seems as if the invention of a new term for an old and much abused one
furnished an excuse for granting all that had been previously denied. But
have you anything
to say about those materialistic investigators? Are they not governed by
some powerful, though unperceived, law?
Sage—They
are. They are in the forefront of the mental, but not of the spiritual, progress
of the time, and are driven forward by forces they know nothing of. Help is
often given to them by the Masters, who, neglecting nothing, constantly see
to it that these men make progress upon the fittest lines for them, just as
you are assisted not only in your spiritual life but in your mental also. These
men, therefore, will go on admitting facts and finding new laws or new names
for old laws, to explain them. They cannot help it.
Student—What
should be our duty, then, as students of the truth? Should we go out as reformers
of science, or what?
Sage—You
ought not to take up the role of reformers of the school and their masters,
because success would not attend the effort. Science is competent to take
care
of itself, and you would only be throwing pearls before them to be trampled
under foot. Rest content that all within their comprehension will be discovered
and admitted from time to time. The endeavour to force them into admitting
what
you believe to be so plain would be due almost solely to your vanity and
love of praise. It is not possible to force them, any more than it is for
me to force
you, to admit certain incomprehensible laws, and you would not think me wise
or fair to have open before you think, to understand which you have not
the
necessary development, and then to force you into admitting their truth.
Or if, out of reverence, you should say “These things are true,” while
you comprehended nothing and were not progressing, you would have bowed to
superior force.
Student—But
you do not mean that we should remain ignorant of science and devote ourselves
only to ethics?
Sage—Not
at all. Know all that you can. Become conversant with and sift all that the
schools have declared, and as much more on your own account as is possible,
but at the same time teach, preach, and practise a life based on a true understanding
of brotherhood. This is the true way. The common people, those who know no science,
are the greatest number. They must be so taught that the discoveries of science
which are unillumined by spirit may not be turned into Black Magic.
Student—In
our last conversation you touched upon the guarding of buried treasure by elementals.
I should like very much to hear a little more about that. Not about how to control
them or to procure the treasure, but upon the subject generally.
Sage—The
laws governing the hiding of buried treasure are the same as those that
relate
to lost objects. Every person has about him a fluid, or plane, or sphere,
or energy, whichever you please to call it, in which are constantly found
elementals
that partake of his nature. That is, they are tinted with his colour and
impressed by his character. There are numerous classes of these. Some men
have many of
one class or of all, or many of some and few of others. And anything worn
upon your person is connected with your elementals. For instance, you wear
cloth
made of wool or linen, and little objects made of wood, bone, brass, gold,
silver, and other substances. Each one of these has certain magnetic relations
peculiar
to itself, and all of them are soaked, to a greater or less extent, with
your magnetism as well as nervous fluid. Some of them, because of their
substance,
do not long retain this fluid, while others do. The elementals are connected,
each class according to its substance, with those objects by means of the magnetic
fluid. And they are acted upon by the mind and desires to a greater extent than
you know, and in a way that cannot be formulated in English. Your desires have
a powerful grasp, so to say, upon certain things, and upon others a weaker hold.
When one of these objects is suddenly dropped, it is invariably followed by
elementals. They are drawn after it, and may be said to go with the object by
attraction rather than by sight. In many cases they completely envelop the thing,
so that, although it is near at hand, it cannot be seen by the eye. But after
a while the magnetism wears off and their power to envelop the article weakens,
whereupon it appears in sight. This does not happen in every case. But it is
a daily occurrence, and is sufficiently obvious to many persons to be quite
removed from the realm of fable. I think, indeed, that one of your literary
persons has written an essay upon this very experience, in which, although treated
in a cosmic vein, many truths are unconsciously told; the title of this was,
if I mistake not, “Upon the Innate Perversity of Inanimate Objects.” There is such a nice balancing of forces in these cases that you must be careful
in your generalizations. You must ask, for instance, Why, when a coat is
dropped,
it seldom disappears from sight? Well, there are cases in which even such
a large object is hidden, but they are not very common. The coat is full
of your
magnetism, and the elementals may feel in it just as much of you as when
it is on your back. There may be, for them, no disturbance of the relations,
magnetic
and otherwise. And often in the case of a small object not invisible, the
balancing of forces, due to many causes that have to do with your condition
at the time,
prevents the hiding. To decide in any particular case, one would have to
see into the realm where the operation of these laws is hidden, and calculate
all
the forces so as to say why it happened in one way and not in another.
Student—But
take the case of a man who, being in possession of treasure, hides it in the
earth and goes away and dies, and it is not found. In that instance the elementals
did not hide it. Or when a miser buries his gold or jewels. How about those?
Sage—In
all cases where a man buries gold, or jewels, or money, or precious things,
his desires are fastened to that which he hides. Many of his elementals
attach
themselves to it, and other classes of them also, who had nothing to do with
him, gather round and keep it hidden. In the case of the captain of a ship
containing
treasure the influences are very powerful, because there the elementals are
gathered from all the persons connected with the treasure, and the officer
himself
is full of solicitude for what is committed to his charge. You should also
remember that gold and silver—or metals—have relations with elementals that
are of a strong and peculiar character. They do not work for human law, and
natural law does not assign any property in metals to man, nor recognize
in
him any peculiar and transcendent right to retain what he has dug from the
earth or acquired to himself. Hence we do not find the elementals anxious
to restore
to him the gold or silver which he has lost. If we were to assume that they
occupied themselves in catering to the desires of men or in establishing
what
we call our rights over property, we might as well at once grant the existence
of a capricious and irresponsible Providence. They proceed solely according
to the law of their being, and, as they are without the power of making
a judgment,
they commit no blunders and are not to be moved by considerations based upon
our vested rights or our unsatisfied wishes. Therefore, the spirits that
appertain
to metals invariably act as the laws of their nature prescribe, and one way
of doing so is to obscure the metals from our sight.
Student—Can
you make any application of all this in the realm of ethics?
Sage—There
is a very important thing you should not overlook. Every time you harshly and
unmercifully criticise the faults of another, you produce an attraction to yourself
of certain quantities of elementals from that person. They fasten themselves
upon you and endeavour to find in you a similar state or spot or fault that
they have left in the other person. It is as if they left him to serve you at
higher wages, so to say.
Then
there is that which I referred to in a preceding conversation, about the
effect
of our acts and thoughts upon, not only the portion of the astral light belonging
to each of us with its elementals, but upon the whole astral world. If
men saw
the dreadful pictures imprinted there and constantly throwing down upon us
their suggestions to repeat the same acts or thoughts, a millennium might
soon draw
near. The astral light is, in this sense, the same as a photographer’s
negative plate, and we are the sensitive paper underneath, on which is being
printed the picture. We can see two sorts of pictures for each act. One is
the
act itself, and the other is the picture of the thoughts and feelings animating
those engaged in it. You can therefore see that you may be responsible for
many
more dreadful pictures than you had supposed. For actions of a simple outward
appearance have behind them, very often, the worst of thoughts or desires.
Student—Have
these pictures in the astral light anything to do with us upon being reincarnated
in subsequent earth-lives?
Sage—They
have very much indeed. We are influenced by them for vast periods of time, and
in this you can perhaps find clues to many operations of active Karmic law for
which you seek.
Student—Is
there not also some effect upon animals, and through them upon us, and vice
versa?
Sage—Yes,
the animal kingdom is affected by us through the astral light. We have
impressed
the latter with pictures of cruelty, oppression, dominion, and slaughter.
The whole Christian world admits that man can indiscriminately slaughter
animals,
upon the theory, elaborately set forth by priests in early times, that animals
have no souls. Even little children learn this, and very early begin to
kill
insects, birds, and animals, not for protection, but from wantonness. As
they grow up the habit is continued, and in England we see that shooting
large numbers
of birds beyond the wants of the table, is a national peculiarity, or, as
I should say, a vice. This may be called a mild illustration. If these
people
could catch elementals as easily as they can animals, they would kill them
for amusement when they did not want them for use; and, if the elementals
refused
to obey, then their death would follow as a punishment. All this is perceived
by the elemental world, without conscience of course; but, under the laws of
action and reaction, we receive back from it exactly that which we give.
Student—Before
we leave the subject I should like to refer again to the question of metals
and the relation of man to the elementals connected with the mineral world.
We see some persons who seem always to be able to find metals with ease—or,
as they say, who are lucky in that direction. How am I to reconcile this
with the natural tendency of elementals to hide? Is it because there is
a war or
discord, as it were, between different classes belonging to any one person?
Sage—That
is a part of the explanation. Some persons, as I said, have more of one class
attached to them than another. A person fortunate with metals, say of gold and
silver, has about him more of the elementals connected with or belonging to
the kingdoms of those metals than other people, and thus there is less strife
between the elementals. The preponderance of the metal-spirits make the person
more homogeneous with their kingdoms, and a natural attraction exists between
the gold or silver lost or buried and that person, more than in the case of
other people.
Student—What
determines this? Is it due to a desiring of gold and silver, or is it congenital?
Sage—It
is innate. The combinations in any one individual are so intricate and due to
so many causes that you could not calculate them. They run back many generations,
and depend upon peculiarities of soil, climate, nation, family and race. These
are, as you can see, enormously varied, and, with the materials at your command
now, quite beyond your reach. Merely wishing for gold and silver will not do
it.
Student—I
judge also that attempting to get at those elementals by thinking strongly will
not accomplish that result either.
Sage—No,
it will not, because your thoughts do not reach them. They do not hear
or see
you, and, as it is only by accidental concentration of forces that unlearned
people influence them, these accidents are only possible to the extent
that
you possess the natural leaning to the particular kingdom whose elementals
you have influenced.
Student—I
thank you for your instruction.
Sage—May
you be guided to the path which leads to light!
No.
VII: Studying the Elementals
Student—What
principal idea would it be well for me to dwell upon in my studies on the subject
of elementals?
Sage—You
ought to clearly fix in your mind and fully comprehend a few facts and the laws
relating to them. As the elemental world is wholly different from the one visible
to you, the laws governing them and their actions cannot as yet be completely
defined in terms now used either by scientific or metaphysical schools. For
that reason, only a partial description is possible. Some of those facts I will
give you, it being well understood that I am not including all classes of elemental
beings in my remarks.
First,
then, Elementals have no form.
Student—You
mean, I suppose, that they have no limited form or body as ours, having a surface
upon which sensation appears to be located.
Sage—Not
only so, but also that they have not even a shadowy, vague, astral form such
as is commonly ascribed to ghosts. They have no distinct personal form in which
to reveal themselves.
Student—How
am I to understand that, in view of the instances given by Bulwer Lytton and
others of appearances of elementals in certain forms?
Sage—The
shape given to or assumed by any elemental is always subjective in its
origin.
It is produced by the person who sees, and who, in order to be more sensible
of the elemental’s presence, has unconsciously given it a form. Or it
may be due to a collective impression on many individuals, resulting in the
assumption of a definite shape which is the result of the combined impressions.
Student—Is
this how we may accept as true the story of Luther’s seeing the devil?
Sage—Yes,
Luther from his youth had imagined a personal devil, the head of the fraternity
of wicked ones, who had a certain specific form. This instantly clothed the
elementals that Luther evoked, either through intense enthusiasm or from disease,
with the old image reared and solidified in his mind; and he called it the Devil.
Student—That
reminds me of a friend who told me that in his youth he saw the conventional
devil walk out of the fire place and pass across the room, and that ever since
he believed the devil had an objective existence.
Sage—In
the same way also you can understand the extraordinary occurrences at Salem
in the United States, when hysterical and mediumistic women and children saw
the devil and also various imps of different shapes. Some of these gave the
victims information. They were all elementals, and took their illusionary forms
from the imaginations and memory of the poor people who were afflicted.
Student—But
there are cases where a certain form always appears. Such as a small, curiously-dressed
woman who had never existed in the imagination of those seeing her; and other
regularly recurring appearances. How were those produced, since the persons
never had such a picture before them?
Sage—These
pictures are found in the aura of the person, and are due to prenatal impressions.
Each child emerges into life the possessor of pictures floating about and
clinging
to it, derived from the mother; and thus you can go back an enormous distance
in time for these pictures, all through the long line of your descent.
It is
a part of the action of the same law which causes effects upon a child’s
body through influences acting on the mother during gestation. * [See Isis
Unveiled in the Chapter on Teratologyl. (ED.—PATH)]
Student—In
order, then, to know the cause of any such appearance, one must be able
to look
back, not only into the person’s present life, but also into the ancestor’s
past?
Sage—Precisely.
And for that reason an occultist is not hasty in giving his opinion on
these
particular facts. He can only state the general law, for a life might be
wasted in needless investigation of an unimportant past. You can see that
there would
be no justification for going over a whole lifetime’s small affairs in
order to tell a person at what time or juncture an image was projected before
his mind. Thousands of such impressions are made every year. That they are
not developed into memory does not prove their non-existence. Like the unseen
picture upon the photographer’s sensitive plate, they lie awaiting the
hour of development.
Student—In
what way should I figure to myself the essence of an elemental and its real
mode of existence?
Sage—You
should think of them as centres of energy only, that act always in accordance
with the laws of the plane of nature to which they belong.
Student—Is
it not just as if we were to say that gunpowder is an elemental and will invariably
explode when lighted? That is, that the elementals knew no rules of either wrong
or right, but surely act when the incitement to their natural action is present?
They are thus, I suppose, said to be implacable.
Sage—Yes;
they are like the lightening which flashes or destroys as the varying circumstances
compel. It has no regard for man, or love, or beauty, or goodness, but may as
quickly kill the innocent, or burn the property of the good as of the wicked
man.
Student—What
next?
Sage—That
the elementals live in and through all objects, as well as beyond the earth’s
atmosphere.
Student—Do
you mean that a certain class of elementals, for instance, exist in this mountain
and float unobstructed through men, earth, rocks, and trees?
Sage—Yes,
and not only that, but at the same time, penetrating that class of elementals,
there may be another class which float not only through rocks, trees and men,
but also through the first of the classes referred to.
Student—Do
they perceive these objects obstructive for us, through which they thus float?
Sage—No,
generally they do not. In exceptional cases they do, and even then never with
the same sort of cognition that we have. For them the objects have no existence.
A large block of stone or iron offers for them no limits or density. It may,
however, make an impression on them by way of change of colour or sound, but
not by way of density or obstruction.
Student—Is
it not something like this, that a current of electricity passes through a hard
piece of copper wire, while it will not pass through an unresisting space of
air.
Sage—That
serves to show that the thing which is dense to one form of energy may
be open
to another. Continuing your illustration, we see that man can pass through
air but is stopped by metal. So that “hardness” for us is not “hardness” for electricity. Similarly, that which may stop an elemental is not a body that
we call hard, but something which for us is intangible and invisible, but
presents
to them an adamantine front.
Student—I
thank you for your instruction.
Sage—Strive
to deserve further enlightenment!
No.
VIII: Occult Vibrations
A
Fragment of Conversation with H.P.B in 1888
[The
following was written by me at the dictation of H.P.B in 1888 with the
purpose
of printing it at that time. But it was not used then, and as I brought it
home with me it is now of interest.—W.Q.J.]
Question—It
has struck me while thinking over the difference between ordinary people
and
an adept or even a partly developed student, that the rate of vibration of
the brain molecules, as well as the coördination of those with the vibrations
of the higher brain, may lie at the bottom of the difference and also might
explain may other problems.
H.P.B—So
they do. They make differences and also cause many curious phenomena; and the
differences among all persons are greatly due to vibrations of all kinds.
Q—In
reading the article in the Path of April, 1886, this idea was again suggested.
I open at p. 6, Vol. I. “The Divine Resonance spoken of above is not the
Divine Light itself. The Resonance is only the outbreathing of the first sound
of the entire Aum.... It manifests itself not only as the power which stirs
up and animates the particles of the universe, but also in the evolution and
dissolution of man, of the animal and mineral kingdoms, and the Solar system.
Among the Aryans it was represented by the planet Mercury, who has always been
said to govern the intellectual faculties and to be the universal stimulator.” What of this?
H.P.B—Mercury
was always known as the god of secret wisdom. He is Hermes; as well ad
Budha
the son of Soma. Speaking of matters on the lower plane, I would call the “Divine
Resonance” you read of in the Path “vibrations” and
the originator, or that which gives the impulse to every kind of phenomena
in the astral plane.
Q—The
differences found in human brains and natures must, then, have their root in
differences of vibration?
H.P.B—Most
assuredly so.
Q—Speaking
of mankind as a whole, it is true that all have one key or rate of vibration
to which they respond?
H.P.B—Human
beings in general are like so many keys on the piano, each having its own sound,
and the combination of which produces other sounds in endless variety. Like
inanimate nature they have a keynote from which all the varieties of character
and constitution proceed by endless changes. Remember what was said in Isis
Unveiled at p.16, Vol. I, “The Universe is the combination of a thousand
elements, and yet the expression of a single spirit,—a chaos to the sense
(physical), a cosmos to the reason” (manas).
Q—So
far this applies generally to nature. Does it explain the differences between
the adept and ordinary people?
H.P.B—Yes.
This difference is that an adept may be compared to that one key which contains
all the keys in the great harmony of nature. He has the synthesis of all keys
in this thoughts, whereas ordinary man has the same key as a basis, but only
acts and thinks on one or a few changes of this great key, producing with his
brain only a few chords out of the whole great possible harmony.
Q—Has
this something to do with the fact that a disciple may hear the voice of his
master through the astral spaces, while another man cannot hear or communicate
with the adepts?
H.P.B—This
is because the brain of a chela is attuned by training to the brain of
the Master.
His vibrations synchronize with those of the Adept, and the untrained brain
is not so attuned. So the chela’s brain is abnormal, looking at it from
the standpoint of ordinary life, while that of the ordinary man is normal
for worldly purposes. The latter person may be compared to those who are
colour-blind.
Q—How
am I to understand this?
H.P.B—What
is considered normal from the view of the physician is considered abnormal from
the view of occultism, and vice versa. The difference between a colour-blind
signal man who mistakes the lamps and the adept who sees is that the one takes
one colour for another, while the adept sees all the colours in every colour
and yet does not confuse them together.
Q—Has
the adept, then, raised his vibrations so as to have them the same as those
of nature as a whole?
H.P.B—Yes;
the higher adepts. But there are other adepts who, while vastly in advance of
all men, are still unable to vibrate to such a degree.
Q—Can
the adept produce at his will a vibration which will change one colour to another?
H.P.B—He
can produce a sound which will alter colour. It is the sound which produces
the colour, and not the other or opposite. By correlating the vibrations of
a sound in the proper way a new colour is made.
Q—Is
it true that on the astral plane every sound always produces a colour?
H.P.B—Yes;
but these are invisible because not yet correlated by the human brain so
as
to become visible on the earth plane. Read Galton, who gives experiments
with colours and sounds as seen by psychics and sensitives, showing that
many sensitive
people always see a colour for every sound. The colour-blind man has coming
to him the same vibration as will show red, but not being able to sense
these
he alters the amount, so to say, and then sees a colour corresponding to
the vibrations he can perceive out of the whole quantity. His astral senses
may
see the true colour, but the physical eye has its own vibrations, and these,
being on the outer plane, overcome the others for the time, and the astral
man
is compelled to report to the brain that it saw correctly. For in each case
the outer stimulus is sent to the inner man, who then is forced, as it
were,
to accept the message and to confirm it for the time so far as it goes. But
there are cases where the inner man is able to even then overcome the outer
defect and to make the brain see the difference. In many cases of lunacy
the confusion among the vibrations of all kinds is so enormous that there
is no
correlation between the inner and the outer man, and we have then a case
of aberration. But even in some of these unfortunate cases the person inside
is
all the time aware that he is not insane but cannot make himself be understood.
Thus often persons are driven really insane by wrong treatment.
Q—By
what manner of vibrations do the elementals make colours and lights of variety?
H.P.B—That
is a question I cannot reply to though it is well known to me. Did I not tell
you that secrets might be revealed too soon?
No.
IX: Devachan , Precipitations, Adepts, Elementals
In
1875, ‘76, ‘77 and ‘78 my intimacy with H.P.B gave me many
opportunities for conversing with her on what we then called “Magic.” These useful, and for me very wonderful, occasions came about late at night,
and sometimes during the day. I was then in the habit of calling on her in
the
daytime whenever I could get away from my office. Many times I stayed in
her flat for the purpose of hearing as much and seeing as much as I could.
Later
on, in 1884, I spent many weeks with her in the Rue Notre Dame des Champs
in Paris, sitting beside her day after day and evening after evening; later
still,
in 1888, being with her in London, at Holland Park, I had a few more opportunities.
Some of what she said I publish here for the good of those who can benefit
by
her words. Certainly no greater practical occultist is known to this century:
from that point of view what she said will have a certain useful weight with
some.
On
Devachan
This
term was not in use at this time. The conversation was about steps on the Path
and returning here again. In answer to a question:
“Yes,
you have been here and at this before. You were born with this tendency,
and
in other lives have met these persons (supposed Adept influences), and they
are here to see you for that reason.”
Later,
when definite terms had come into use, the question raised was whether or not
all stayed 1500 years in Devachan.
“Well,
Judge, you must know well that under the philosophy we don’t all stay
there so long. It varies with the character of each. A thoroughly material
thinker will emerge sooner than one who is a spiritual philosopher and good.
Besides,
recollect that all workers for the Lodge, no matter of what degree, are helped
out of Devachan if they themselves permit it. Your own idea which you have
stated,
that 1500 years had not elapsed since you went into Devachan, is correct,
and that I tell is what Master himself tells me. So there you are.”
Precipitations
by Masters
In
reply to a question on this she said:
“If
you think Master is going to be always precipitating things, you mistake.
Yes,
He can do it. But most of the precipitations are by chelas who would seem
to you Masters. I see His orders, and the thoughts and words He wishes
used, and
I precipitate them in that form; so does * * * and one or two more.”
“Well,
what of Their handwritings?”
“Anything
you write is your handwriting, but it is not in your personal handwriting, generally
used and first learned if you assume or adopt some form. Now you know that Masters’
handwritings, peculiar and personal to Themselves, are foreign both as to sound
and form—Indian sorts, in fact. So They adopted a form in English, and
in that form I precipitate Their messages at Their direction. Why B— almost
caught me one day and nearly made a mess of it by shocking me. The message
has to be seen in the astral light in facsimile, and through that astral
matrix I precipitate the whole of it. It’s different, though, if Master
sends me the paper and the message already done. That’s why I call these
things ‘psychological tricks.’ The sign of an objective wonder seemed
to be required, although a moment’s thought will show it is not proof
of anything but occult ability. Many a medium has had precipitations before
my miserable self was heard of. But blessed is the one who wants no sign. You
have seen plenty of these things. Why do you want to ask me? Can’t you
use your brain and intuition? I've sampled almost the whole possible range
of wonders for you. Let them use their brains and intuition with the known
facts
and the theories given.”
If
White Magicians Act, What Then?
“Look
here; here’s a man who wants to know why the Masters don’t interpose
at once and save his business. They don’t interpose at once and save his
business. They don’t seem to remember what it means for a Master to use
occult force. If you explode gunpowder to split a rock you may knock down a
house. There is a law that if a White Magician uses his occult power an equal
amount of power may be used by the Black one. Chemists invent powders for explosives
and wicked men may use them. You force yourself into Master’s presence
and you take the consequences of the immense forces around him playing on yourself.
If you are weak in character anywhere, the Black ones will use the disturbance
by directing the forces engendered to the spot and may compass your ruin. It
is so always. Pass the boundary that hedges in the occult realm, and quick forces,
new ones, dreadful ones, must be met. Then if you are not strong you may become
a wreck for that life. This is the danger. This is one reason why Masters do
not appear and do not act directly very often, but nearly always by intermediate
degrees. What do you say,—‘the dual forces in nature’? Precisely,
that’s just it; and Theosophists should remember it.”
Do
Masters Punish?
“Now
I’m not going to tell you all about this. They are just; They embody the
Law of Compassion. Do not for an instant imagine the Masters are going to come
down on you for your failures and wrongs, if any. Karma looks out for this.
Masters’ ethics are the highest. From the standpoint of your question
They do not punish. Have I not told you that, much as detractors have cast
mud at Them, never will the Masters impose punishment. I cannot see why such
a question
comes up. Karma will do all the punishing that is necessary.”
About
Elementals
“It’s
a long time ago now that I told you this part would not be explained. But I
can tell you some things. This one that you and Olcott used to call * * * can’t
see you unless I let him. Now I will impress you upon it or him so that like
a photograph he will remember so far. But you can’t make it obey you until
you know how to get the force directed. I’ll send him to you and let him
make a bell.”
[In
a few days after this the proposed sign was given at a distance from her, and
a little bell was sounded in the air when I was talking with a person not interested
in Theosophy, and when I was three miles away from H.P.B On next seeing her
she asked if * * * has been over and sounded the bell, mentioning the exact
day and time.]
“This
one has no form in particular, but is more like a revolving mass of air. But
it is, all the same, quite definite, as you know from what he has done. There
are some classes with forms of their own. The general division into fiery, airy,
earthy, and watery is pretty correct, but it will not cover all the classes.
There is not a single thing going on about us, no matter what, that elementals
are not concerned in, because they constitute a necessary part of nature, just
as important as the nerve currents in your body. Why in storms you should see
them how they move about. Don’t you remember what you told me about that
lady * * * who saw them change and move about at that opera? It was due to her
tendencies and the general idea underlying the opera.” [It was the opera
of Tristan and Isolde, by Wagner—J.] “In that case, as Isolde is
Irish, the whole idea under it aroused a class of elementals peculiar to that
island and its traditions. That’s a queer place, Judge, that Ireland.
It is packed full of a singular class of elementals; and by Jove! I see they
have even emigrated in quite large numbers. Sometimes one quite by accident
rouses up some ancient custom, say from Egypt; that is the explanation of that
singular astral nose which you said reminded you of a sistrum being shaken;
it was really objective. But, my dear fellow, do you think I will give you a
patent elemental extractor?—not yet. Bulwer Lytton wrote very wisely,
for him, on the subject.”
[Riding
over in Central Park, New York] “It is very interesting here. I see a
number of Indians, and also their elementals, just as real as you seem to be.
They do not see us; they are all spooks. But look here, Judge, don’t confound
the magnetism escaping through your skin with the gentle taps of supposed
elementals who want a cigarette.”
[In
W. 34th Street, New York. The first time she spoke to me of elementals
particularly, I having asked her about Spiritualism—J]
“It
is nearly all done by elementals. Now I can make them tap anywhere you like
in this room. Select any place you wish.” [I pointed to a hard plaster
wall-space free from objects.] “Now ask what you like that can be answered
by taps.”
Q—What
is my age? Taps: the correct number.
Q—How
many in my house? Taps: right.
Q—How
many months have I been in the city? Taps: correct.
Q—What
number of minutes past the hour by my watch? Taps: right.
Q—How
many keys on my ring? Taps: correct.
H.P.B—“Oh
bosh! Let it stop. You won’t get any more, for I have cut it off. Try
your best. They have no sense; they got it all out of your own head, even the
keys, for you know inside how many keys are on the ring, though you don’t
remember; but anyhow I could see into your pocket and count the number and then
that tapper would give the right reply. There’s something better than
all that magic nonsense.”
She
Precipitates in London
In
1888 I was in London and wanted a paper, with about four sentences written
on
it in purple ink, which I had left in America. I came down to her room where
B. Keightley was, and, not saying anything, sat down opposite H.P.B I thought: “If only she would get me back someway a copy of that paper.” She
smiled at me, rose, went into her room, came out at once, and in a moment
handed me a piece of paper, passing it right in front of Keightley. To
my amazement
it was the duplicate of my paper, a facsimile, I then asked her how she
got it, and she replied: “I saw it in your head and the rest was easy.
You thought it very clearly. You know it can be done; and it was needed.” This was all done in about the time it takes to read these descriptive sentences.
William
Q. Judge
____________________
No.
X: The Two Aspects of Occultism
Student—What
is Occultism?
Sage—It
is that branch of knowledge which shows the universe in the form of an
egg.
The cell of science is a little copy of the egg of the universe. The laws
which govern the whole govern also every part of it. As man is a little
copy of the
universe—is the microcosm—he is governed by the same laws which
rule the greater. Occultism teaches therefore of the secret laws and forces
of the universe and man, those forces playing in the outer world and known
in
part only by the men of the day who admit no invisible real nature behind
which is the model of the visible.
Student—What
does Occultism teach in regard to man, broadly speaking?
Sage—That
he is the highest product of evolution, and hence has in him a centre or focus
corresponding to each centre of force or power in the universe. He therefore
has as many centres or foci for force, power, and knowledge as there are such
in the greater world about and within.
Student—Do
you mean to include also the ordinary run of men, or is it the exceptions you
refer to!
Sage—I
include every human being, and that will reach from the lowest to the very
highest,
both those we know and those beyond us who are suspected as being in existence.
Although we are accustomed to confine the term “human” to this earth,
it is not correct to confine that sort of being to this plane or globe, because
other planets have beings the same as ours in essential power and nature
and
possibility.
Student—Please
explain a little more particularly what you mean by our having centres or foci
in us.
Sage—Electricity
is a most powerful force not fully known to modern science, yet used very
much.
The nervous, physical, and mental systems of man acting together are able
to produce the same force exactly, and in a finer as well as subtler way
and to
as great a degree as the most powerful dynamo, so that the force might be
used to kill, to alter, to move, or otherwise, change any object or condition.
This
is the “vril” described by Bulwer Lytton in his Coming Race.
Nature
exhibits to our eyes the power of drawing into one place with fixed limits any
amount of material so as to produce the smallest natural object or the very
largest. Out of the air she takes what is already there, and by compressing
it into the limits of tree or animal form makes it visible to our material eyes.
This is the power of condensing into what may be known as the ideal limits,
that is, into the limits of the form which is ideal. Man has this same power,
and can, when he knows the laws and the proper centres of force in himself,
do precisely what Nature does. He can thus make visible and material what was
before ideal and invisible by filling the ideal form with the matter condensed
from the air. In his case the only difference from Nature is that he does quickly
what she brings about slowly.
Among
natural phenomena there is no present illustration of telepathy good for
our
use. Among the birds and beasts, however, there is telepathy instinctually
performed. But telepathy, as it is now called, is the communicating of
thought or idea
from mind to mind. This is a natural power, and being well-understood may
be used by one mind to convey to another, no matter how far away or what
be the
intervening obstacle, any idea or thought. In natural things we can take
for that the vibration of the chord which can cause all other chords of
the same
length to vibrate similarly. This is a branch of Occultism, a part of which
is known to the modern investigator. But it is also one of the most useful
and
one of the greatest powers we have. To make it of service many things have
to combine. While it is used every day in common life in the average way—for
men are each moment telepathically communicating with each other—to do
it in perfection, that is, against obstacle and distance, is perfection of
occult art. Yet it will be known one day even to the common world.
Student—Is
there any object had in view by Nature which man should also hold before him?
Sage—Nature
ever works to turn the inorganic or the lifeless or the non-intelligent and
non-conscious into the organic, the intelligent, the conscious; and this should
be the aim of man also. In her great movements Nature seems to cause destruction,
but that is only for the purpose of construction. The rocks are dissolved into
earth, elements combine to bring on change, but there is the ever onward march
of progress in evolution. Nature is not destructive of either thing or time,
she is constructive. Man should be the same. And as a free moral agent he should
work to that end, and not to procuring gratification merely, nor for waste in
any department.
Student—Is
Occultism of truth or of falsehood; is it selfish or unselfish; or is it part
one and part the other?
Sage—Occultism
is colourless, and only when used by man for the one side or the other
is it
good or bad. Bad Occultism, or that which is used for selfish ends, is not
false, for it is the same as that which is for good ends. Nature is two-sided,
negative
and positive, good and bad, light and dark, hot and cold, spirit and matter.
The Black magician is as powerful in the matter of phenomena as the White,
but
in the end all the trend of Nature will go to destroy the black and save
the white. But what you should understand is that the false man and the
true can
both be occultists. The words of the Christian teacher Jesus will give the
rule for judgement: “By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes
of thorns or figs of thistles?” Occultism is the general, all-inclusive
term, the differentiating terms are White and Black; the same forces are used
by both, and similar laws, for there are no special laws in this universe for
any special set of workers in Nature’s secrets. But the path of the untruthful
and the wicked, while seemingly easy at first, is hard at last, for the black
workers are the friends of no one, they are each against the other as soon as
interest demands, and that may be anytime. It is said that final annihilation
of the personal soul awaits those who deal in the destructive side of Nature’s
hall of experience.
Student—Where
should I look for the help I need in the right life, the right study?
Sage—Within
yourself is the light that lighteth every man who cometh here. The light of
the Higher Self and of the Mahatma are not different from each other. Unless
you find your Self how can you understand Nature?
No.
XI: Clairvoyance, Intuition, Adepts
Student—What
is the effect of trying to develop the power of seeing in the astral light before
a person is initiated?
Sage—Seeing
in the astral light is not done through Manas, but through the senses,
and hence
has to do entirely with sense-perception removed to a plane different from
this, but more illusionary. The final perceiver or judge of perception
is in Manas,
in the Self; and therefore the final tribunal is clouded by the astral perception
if one is not so far trained or initiated as to know the difference and
able
to tell the true from the false. Another result is a tendency to dwell on
this subtle sense-perception which at last will cause an atrophy of Manas
for the
time being. This makes the confusion all the greater, and will delay any
possible initiation all the more or for ever. Further, such seeing is in
the line of
phenomena, and adds to the confusion of the Self which is only beginning
to understand this life; by attempting the astral another element of disorder
is
added by more phenomena due to another plane, thus mixing both sorts up.
The Ego must find its basis and not be swept off hither and thither. The constant
reversion of images and ideas in the astral light, and the pranks of the
elementals there, unknown to us as such and only seen in effects, still
again add to the
confusion. To sum it up, the real danger from which all others flow or follow
is in the confusion of the Ego by introducing strange things to it before
the
time.
Student—How
is one to know when he gets real occult information from the Self within?
Sage—Intuition
must be developed and the matter judged from the true philosophical basis, for
if it is contrary to true general rules it is wrong. It has to be known from
a deep and profound analysis by which we find out what is from egotism alone
and what is not, if it is due to egotism, then it is not from the Spirit and
is untrue. The power to know does not come from book-study nor from mere philosophy,
but mostly from the actual practice of altruism in deed, word, and thought;
for that practice purifies the covers of the soul and permits that light to
shine down into the brain-mind. As the brain-mind is the receiver in the waking
state, it has to be purified from sense-perception, and the truest way to do
this is by combining philosophy with the highest outward and inward virtue.
Student—Tell
me some ways by which intuition is to be developed.
Sage—First
of all by giving it exercise, and second by not using it for purely personal
ends. Exercise means that it must be followed through mistakes and bruises
until
from sincere attempts at use it comes to its own strength. This does not
mean that we can do wrong and leave the results, but that after establishing
conscience
on a right basis by following the golden rule, we give play to the intuition
and add to its strength. Inevitably in this at first we will make errors,
but
soon if we are sincere it will grow brighter and make no mistake. We should
add the study of the works of those who in the past have trodden this path
and
found out what is the real and what is not. They say the Self is the only
reality. The brain must be given larger views of life, as by the study
of the doctrine
of reincarnation, since that gives a limitless field to the possibilities
in store. We must not only be unselfish, but must do all the duties that
Karma
has given us, and this intuition will point out the road of duty and the true
path of life.
Student—Are
there any Adepts in America or Europe?
Sage—Yes,
there are and always have been. But they have for the present kept themselves
hidden from the public gaze. The real ones have a wide work to do in many departments
of life and in preparing certain persons who have a future work to do. Though
their influence is wide they are not suspected, and that is the way they want
to work for the present. There are some also who are at work with certain individuals
in some of the aboriginal tribes in America, as among those are Egos who are
to do still more work in another incarnation, and they must be prepared for
it now. Nothing is omitted by these Adepts. In Europe it is the same way, each
sphere of work being governed by the time and the place.
Student—What
is the meaning of the five pointed star?
Sage—It
is the symbol of the human being who is not an Adept, but is now on the plane
of the animal nature as to his life-thoughts and development inside. Hence it
is the symbol of the race. Upside down it means death or symbolizes that. It
also means, when upside down, the other or dark side. It is at the same time
the cross endowed with the power of mind, that is, man .
Student—Is
there a four-pointed star symbol?
Sage—Yes.
That is the symbol of the next kingdom below man, and pertains to the animals.
The right kind of clairvoyant can see both the five and the four-pointed star.
It is all produced by the intersections of the lines or currents of the astral
light emanating from the person or being. The four-pointed one means that the
being having but it has not as yet developed Manas.
Student—Has
the mere figure of a five-pointed star any power in itself?
Sage—It
has some, but very little. You see it is used by all sorts of people for trademarks
and the like, and for the purposes of organizations, yet no result follows.
It must be actually used by the mind to be of any force or value. If so used,
it carries with it the whole power of the person to whom it may belong.
Student—Why
is the sword so much spoken of in practical Occultism by certain writers?
Sage—Many
indeed of these writers merely repeat what they have read. But there is
a reason,
just as in warfare the sword has more use for damage than a club. The astral
light corresponds to water. If you try to strike in or under water with
a club,
it will be found that there is but little result, but a sharp knife will
cut almost as well under water as out of it. The friction is less. So in
the astral
light a sword used on that plane has more power to cut than a club has, and
an elemental for that reason will be more damaged by a sword than by a
club
or a stone. But all of this relates to things that are of no right value
to the true student, and are indulged in only by those who work in dark
magic or
foolishly by those who do not quite know what they do. It is certain that
he who used the sword or the club will be at last hurt by it. And the lesson
to
be drawn is that we must seek for the true Self that knows all Occultism
and all truth, and has in itself the protecting shield from all dangers. That is
what the ancient Sages sought and found, and that is what should be striven
after by us.
No.
XII: Phantasy; Memory and Mind; The Sun; Altruism
Student—Is
there not some attitude of mind which one should in truth assume in order to
understand the occult in nature?
Sage—Such
attitude of mind must be attained as will enable one to look into the realities
of things. The mind must escape from the mere formalities and conventions
of
life, even though outwardly one seems to obey all of them, and should be
firmly established on the truth that Man is a copy of the Universe and
has in himself
a portion of the Supreme Being. To the extent this is realized will be the
clearness of perception or truth. A realization of this leads inevitably
to the conclusion
that all other men and beings are united with us, and this removes the egotism
which is the result of the notion of separateness. When the truth of Unity
is
understood, then distinctions due to comparisons made like the Pharisee’s
that one is better than his neighbour, disappear from the mind, leaving it
more pure and free to act.
Student—What
would you point out as a principal foe to the mind’s grasping of truth?
Sage—The
principal foe of a secondary nature is what was once called phantasy;
that is, the reappearance of thoughts and images due to recollection or memory.
Memory is an important power, but mind in itself is not memory. Mind is restless
and wandering in its nature, and must be controlled. Its wandering disposition
is necessary or stagnation would result. But it can be controlled and fixed
upon an object or idea. Now as we are constantly looking at and hearing of new
things, the natural restlessness of the mind becomes prominent when we set about
pinning it down. Then memory of many objects, things, subjects, duties, persons,
circumstances, and affairs bring up before it the various pictures and thoughts
belonging to them. After these the mind at once tries to go, and we find ourselves
wandering from the point. It must hence follow that the storing of a multiplicity
of useless and surely-recurring thoughts is an obstacle to the acquirement of
truth. And this obstacle is the very one peculiar to our present style of life.
Student—Can
you mention some of the relations in which the sun stands to us and nature in
respect to Occultism?
Sage—It
has many such, and all important. But I would draw your attention first
to the
greater and more comprehensive. The sun is the centre of our solar system.
The life-energies of that system come to it through the sun, which is a
focus or
reflector for the spot in space where the real centre is. And not only comes
mere life through that focus, but also much more that is spiritual in its
essence.
The sun should therefore not only be looked at with the eye but thought of
by the mind. It represents to the world what the Higher Self is to the
man. It
is the Soul-centre of the world with its six companions, as the Higher Self
is the centre for the six principles of man. So it supplies to those six
principles
of the man many spiritual essences and powers. He should for that reason
think of it and not confine himself to gazing at it. So far as it acts
materially
in light, heat, and gravity, it will go on of itself, but man as a free agent
must think upon it in order to gain what benefit can come only from his voluntary
action in thought.
Student—Will
you refer to some minor one?
Sage—Well,
we sit in the sun for heat and possible chemical effects. But if at the same
time that we do this we also think on it as the sun in the sky and of its possible
essential nature, we thereby draw from it some of its energy not otherwise touched.
This can also be done on a dark day when clouds obscure the sky, and some of
the benefit thus be obtained. Natural mystics, learned and ignorant, have discovered
this for themselves here and there, and have often adopted the practice. But
it depends, as you see, upon the mind.
Student—Does
the mind actually do anything when it takes up a thought and seek for more light?
Sage—It
actually does. A thread, or a finer, or a long darting current flies out
from
the brain to seek for knowledge. It goes in all directions and touches all
other minds it can reach so as to receive the information if possible.
This is telepathically,
so to say, accomplished. There are no patents on true knowledge of philosophy
nor copyrights in that realm. Personal rights of personal life are fully
respected,
save by potential black magicians who would take any one’s property. But
general truth belongs to all, and when the unseen messenger from one mind arrives
and touched the real mind of another, that other gives up to it what it may
have of truth about general subjects. So the mind’s finger or wire flies
until it gets the thought or seed-thought from the other and makes it its own.
But our modern competitive system and selfish desire for gain and fame is constantly
building a wall around people’s minds to everyone’s detriment.
Student—Do
you mean that the action you describe is natural, usual, and universal, or only
done by those who know how and are conscious of it?
Sage—It
is universal and whether the person is aware or not of what is going on. Very
few are able to perceive it in themselves, but that makes no difference. It
is down always. When you sit down to earnestly think on a philosophical or ethical
matter, for instance, your minds flies off, touching other minds, and from them
you get varieties of thought. If you are no well-balanced and physically purified,
you will often get thoughts that are not correct. Such is your Karma and the
Karma of the race. But if you are sincere and try to base yourself on right
philosophy, your mind will naturally reject wrong notions. You can see in this
how it is that systems of thought are made and kept going, even though foolish,
incorrect, or pernicious.
Student—What
mental attitude and aspiration are the best safeguards in this, as likely to
aid the mind in these searches to reject error and not let it fly into the brain?
Sage—Unselfishness,
Altruism in theory and practice, desire to do the will of the Higher Self
which
is the “Father in Heaven,” devotion to the human race. Subsidiary
to these discipline, correct thinking, and good education.
Student—Is
the uneducated man, then, in a worse condition?
Sage—Not
necessarily so. The very learned are so immersed in one system that they reject
nearly all thoughts not in accord with preconceived notions. The sincere ignorant
one is often able to get the truth but not able to express it. The ignorant
masses generally hold in their minds the general truths of Nature, but are limited
as to expression. And most of the best discoveries of scientific men have been
obtained in this subconscious telepathic mode. Indeed, they often arrive in
the learned brain from some obscure and so-called ignorant person, and then
the scientific discoverer makes himself famous because of his power of expression
and means for giving it out.
Student—Does
this bear at all upon the work of the Adepts of all good Lodges?
Sage—It
does. They have all the truths that could be desired, but at the same time
are
able to guard them from the seeking minds of those who are not yet ready
to use them properly. But they often find the hour ripe and a scientific
man ready,
and then touch his cogitating mind with a picture of what he seeks. He then
has a “flash” of thought in the line of his deliberations, as many
of them have admitted. He gives it out to the world, becomes famous, and the
world wiser. This is constantly done by the Adepts, but now and then they give
out larger expositions of Nature’s truths, as in the case of H.P.B This
is not at first generally accepted, as personal gain and fame are not advanced
by any admission of benefit from the writings of another, but as it is done
with a purpose, for the use of a succeeding century, it will do its work
at
the proper time.
Student—How
about the Adepts knowing what is going on in the world of thought, in the West,
for instance?
Sage—They
have only to voluntarily and consciously connect their minds with those of the
dominant thinkers of the day, to at once discover what has been or is being
worked out in thought and to review it all. This they constantly do, and as
constantly incite to further elaboration or changes by throwing out the suggestion
in the mental plane so that seeking and receptive minds may use it.
No.
XIII: Rules for Higher Conduct
Student—Are
there any rules, binding on all, in white magic or good occultism? I mean rules
similar to the ten commandments of the Christians, or the rules for the protection
of life, liberty, and property recognized by human law.
Sage—There
are such rules of the most stringent character, the breaking of which is never
wiped out save by expiation. Those rules are not made up by some brain or mind,
but flow from the laws of nature, of mind, and of soul. Hence they are impossible
of nullification. One may break them and seem to escape for a whole life or
far more than a life; but the very breaking of them sets in motion at once other
causes which begin to make effects, and most unerringly those effects at last
react on the violator. Karma here acts as it does elsewhere, and becomes a Nemesis
who, though sometimes slow, is fate itself in its certainty.
Student—It
is not, then, the case that when an occultist violates a rule some other adept
or agent starts out like a detective or policeman and brings the culprit to
justice at a bar or tribunal such as we sometimes read of in the imaginative
works of mystical writers or novelists?
Sage—No,
there is no such pursuit. On the contrary, all the fellow-adepts or students
are but too willing to aid the offender, not in escaping punishment,
but in
sincerely trying to set counteracting causes in motion for the good of all.
For the sin of one reacts on the whole human family. If, however, the
culprit
does not wish to do the amount of counteracting good, he is merely left alone
to the law of nature, which is in fact that of his own inner life from
which
there can be no escape. In Lytton’s novel, Zanoni, you will notice
the grave Master, Mejnour, trying to aid Zanoni, even at the time when the latter
was falling slowly but surely into the meshes twisted by himself that ended
in his destruction. Mejnour knew the law and so did Zanoni. The latter was suffering
from some former error which he had to work out; the former, if himself too
stern and unkind, would later on come to the appropriate grief for such a mistake.
But meanwhile he was bound to help his friend, as are all those who really believe
in brotherhood.
Student—What
one of those rules in any way corresponds to “Thou shalt not steal”?
Sage—That
one which was long ago expressed by the ancient sage in the words, “Do
no covet the wealth of any creature.” This is better than “Thou
shalt not steal,” for you cannot steal unless you covet. If you steal
for hunger you may be forgiven, but you coveted the food for a purpose, just
as another covets merely for the sake of possession. The wealth of others includes
all their possessions, and does not mean mere money alone. Their ideas, their
private thoughts, their mental forces, powers, and faculties, their psychic
powers—all, indeed, on all planes that they own or have. While they in
that realm are willing to give it all away, it must not be coveted by another.
You
have no right, therefore, to enter into the mind of another who has not given
the permission and take from him what is not yours. You become a burglar
on
the mental and psychic plane when you break this rule. You are forbidden taking
anything for personal gain, profit, advantage, or use. But you may take
what
is for general good, if you are far enough advanced and good enough to be able
to extricate the personal element from it. This rule would, you can see,
cut
off all those who are well known to every observer, who want psychic powers
for themselves and their own uses. If such persons had those powers of
inner
sight and hearing that they so much want, no power could prevent them from
committing theft on the unseen planes wherever they met a nature that
was not protected.
And as most of us are very far from perfect, so far, indeed, that we must work
for many lives yet, the Masters of Wisdom do not aid our defective natures
in
the getting of weapons that would cut our own hands. For the law acts implacably,
and the breaches made would find their end and result in long after years.
The Black Lodge, however, is very willing to let any poor, weak, or sinful
mortal
get such power, because that would swell the number of victims they so much
require.
Student—Is
there any rule corresponding to “Thou shalt not bear false witness”?
Sage—Yes;
the one which requires you never to inject into the brain of another a false
or untrue thought. As we can project our thoughts to another’s mind, we
must not throw untrue ones to another. It comes before him, and he overcome
by its strength perhaps, finds it echoing in him, and it is a false witness
speaking falsely within, confusing and confounding the inner spectator
who lives
on thought.
Student—How
can one prevent the natural action of the mind when pictures of the private
lives of others rise before one?
Sage—That
is difficult for the run of men. Hence the mass have not the power in general;
it is kept back as much as possible. But when the trained soul looks about in
the realm of soul it is also able to direct its sight, and when it finds rising
up a picture of what it should not voluntarily take, it turns its face away.
A warning comes with all such pictures which must be obeyed. This is not a rare
rule or piece of information, for there are, many natural clairvoyants who know
it very well, though many of them do not think that others have the same knowledge.
Student—What
do you mean by a warning coming with the picture?
Sage—In
this realm the slightest thought becomes a voice or a picture. All thoughts
make pictures. Every person has his private thoughts and desires. Around these
he makes also a picture of his wish for privacy, and that to the clairvoyant
becomes a voice or picture of warning which seems to say it must be let alone.
With some it may assume the form of a person who says not to approach, with
others it will be a voice, with still others a simple but certain knowledge
that the matter is sacred. All these varieties depend on the psychological idiosyncrasies
of the seer.
Student—What
kind of thought or knowledge is excepted from these rules?
Sage—General,
and philosophical, religious, and moral. That is to say, there is no law of
copyright or patent which is purely human in invention and belongs to
the competitive
system. When a man thinks out truly a philosophical problem it is not his under
the laws of nature; it belongs to all; he is not in this realm entitled
to any
glory, to any profit, to any private use in it. Hence the seer may take as
much of it as he pleases, but must on his part not claim it or use it
for himself.
Similarly with other generally beneficial matters. They are for all. If a Spencer
thinks out a long series of wise things good for all men, the seer can
take
them all. Indeed, but few thinkers do any original thinking. They pride themselves
on doing so, but in fact their seeking minds go out all over the world
of mind
and take from those of slower movement what is good and true, and then make
them their own, sometimes gaining glory, sometimes money, and in this
age claiming
all as theirs and profiting by it.
No.
XIV: The Destruction of Evil
Student—At
a former time you spoke of entities that crowd the spaces about us. Are these
all unconscious or otherwise?
Sage—They
are not all unconscious. First, there are the humdrum masses of elementals
that move like nerve-currents with every motion of man, beast, or natural
elements.
Next are classes of those which have a peculiar power and consciousness of
their own and not easily reached by any man. Then come the shades of
the dead, whether
mere floating shells, or animated elementals, or infused with galvanic and
extraordinary action by the Brothers of the Shadow. Last, the Brothers
of the Shadow, devoid
of physical bodies save in rare cases, bad souls living long in that realm
and working according to their nature for no other end than evil until
they are
finally annihilated—they are the lost souls of Kama Loka as distinguished
from the “animated corpses” devoid of souls which live and move
among men. These Black entities are the Dugpas, the Black Magicians.
Student—Have
they anything to do with the shocks, knocks, bad influences, disintegration
of soft material accompanied by noises more or less distinct?
Sage—Yes,
they have. Not always, of course. But where they are actually seen at the time
preceding such occurrence, they are the agents.
Student—Then
I am to suppose that if such takes place with me I am the attracting person,
the unfortunate channel through which they have come?
Sage—No,
you are thoroughly in error there. You are not such a channel in that case.
You are in fact the opposite, and the very cause for the temporary defeat
of
that dark entity. You have mistaken the appearance, the outer manipulation
of forces, for the thing itself. If you were their channel, their agent,
the cause
for their coming and thus making their presence possible, there would be no
noise and no explosion. They would then act in and through you for the
hurt
of others, silently and insidiously. They approach your sphere and attempt
to make an entry. The strength of your character, of your aspiration,
of your life,
throws them off, and they are obliged, like rain-clouds, to discharge themselves.
The more strong they are, the louder will be their retreating manifestation.
For the time they are temporarily destroyed or, rather, put outside the
combat,
and like a war vessel, have to retire for repairs. In their case this consists
in accumulating force for a new attack, there or elsewhere.
Student—If,
then, such loud explosions, with pulverization of wall-plaster and the like,
take place, and such an evil entity is seen astrally, it follows that
the person
near whom it all occurred—if identification due to solitude is possible—was
in fact the person who, by reason of inner power and opposition to the evil
entity, became the cause for its bursting or temporary defeat?
Sage—Yes,
that is correct. The person is not the cause for the entity’s approach,
nor its friend, but is the safeguard in fact for those who otherwise would
be insidiously affected. Uninformed students are likely to argue the other
way,
but that will be due to want of correct knowledge. I will describe to you condensedly
an actual case. Sitting at rest on a seat, eyes closed, I saw approach one
of
those evil entities along the astral currents, and looking as a man. His hands
like claws reached out to affect me; on his face was a devilish expression.
Full of force he moved quickly up. But as I looked at him the confidence I
felt
and the protection about me acted as an intense shock to him, and he appeared
to burst from within, to stagger, fall to pieces, and then disappeared. Just
as the disintegration began, a loud noise was caused by the sudden discharge
of astral electricity, causing reactions that immediately transmitted themselves
into the objects in the room, until, reaching the limit of tension, they created
a noise. This is just the phenomenon of thunder, which accompanies discharges
in the clouds and is followed by equilibrium.
Student—Can
I carry this explanation into every objective phenomenon, say, then, of spiritualistic
rappings?
Sage—No,
not to every case. It holds with many, but specially relates to the conscious
entities I was speaking of. Very often the small taps and raps one hears are
produced under the law referred to, but without the presence of such an entity.
These are the final dissipations of collected energy. That does not always argue
a present extraneous and conscious entity. But in so far as these taps are the
conclusion of an operation, that is, the thunder from one astral cloud to another,
they are dissipations of accumulated force. With this distinction in mind you
should not be confused.
Student—Have
not colours a good deal to do with this matter?
Sage—Yes;
but just now we will not go into the question of colour except to say that the
evil entities referred to often assume a garb of good colour, but are not able
to hide the darkness that belongs to their nature.
The
Dweller on The Threshold
Has
such a being any existence? Has any one ever seen it? Are there many or several,
and has it any sex?
Such
are the questions asked by nearly all students who read theosophical books.
Some of those who all their life believed in fairies in secret and in the
old
tales of giants, have proceeded to test the question by calling upon the
horrid shade to appear and freeze their blood with the awful eyes that
Bulwer Lytton
has made so famous in his “Zanoni.” But the Dweller is not to be
wooed in such a way, and has not appeared at all, but by absolute silence
leads the invoker to at last scout the idea altogether.
But
this same enquirer then studies theosophical books with diligence, and
enters
after a time on the attempt to find out his own inner nature. All this while
the Dweller has waited, and, indeed, we may say, in complete ignorance
as yet
of the neophyte’s existence. When the study has proceeded far enough to
wake up long dormant senses and tendencies, the Dweller begins to feel that
such a person as this student is at work. Certain influences are then felt,
but not always with clearness, and at first never ascribed to the agency
of
what had long ago been relegated to the lumber-room of exploded superstitions.
The study goes still farther and yet farther, until the awful Thing has revealed
itself; and when that happens, it is not a superstition nor is it disbelieved.
It can then never be got rid of, but will stay as a constant menace until
it
is triumphed over and left behind.
When
Glyndon was left by Mejnour in the old castle in Italy, he found two vases
which
he had received directions not to open. But disobeying these he took out
the stoppers, and at once the room was filled with intoxication, and soon
the awful,
loathsome creature appeared whose blazing eyes shone with malignant glare
and penetrated to Glyndon’s soul with a rush of horror such as he had never
known.
In
this story Lytton desired to show that the opening of the vases is like the
approach of an inquirer to the secret recesses of his own nature. He opens the
receptacles, and at first is full of joy and a sort of intoxication due to the
new solutions offered for every problem in life and to the dimly seen vistas
of power and advancement that open before him. If the vases are kept open
long enough, the Dweller of the Threshold surely appears, and no man is
exempt from the sight. Goodness is not sufficient to prevent its appearance,
because even the good man who finds a muddy place in the way to his destination
must of necessity pass through it to reach the end.
We
must ask next, WHAT is the Dweller? It is the combined evil influence that is
the result of the wicked thoughts and acts of the age in which any one may live,
and it assumes to each student a definite shape at each appearance, being always
either of one sort or changing each time. So that with one it may be as Bulwer
Lytton pictured it, or with another only a dread horror, or even of any other
sort of shape. It is specialized for each student and given its form by the
tendencies and natural physical and psychical combinations that belong to his
family and nation.
Where,
then, does it dwell? is the very natural inquiry which will follow. It dwells
in its own plane, and that may be understood in this manner.
Around
each person are planes or zones, beginning with spirit and running down to gross
matter. These zones extend, within their lateral boundaries, all around the
being. That is to say, if we figure ourselves as being in the centre of a sphere,
we will find that there is no way of escaping or skipping any one zone, because
it extends in every direction until we pass its lateral boundary.
When
the student has at last gotten hold of a real aspiration and some glimmer
of
the blazing goal of truth where Masters stand, and has also aroused the determination
to know and to be, the whole bent of his nature, day and night, is to reach
out beyond the limitations that hitherto had fettered his soul. No sooner
does
he begin thus to step a little forward, that he reaches the zone just beyond
mere bodily and mental sensations. At first the minor dwellers of the threshold
are aroused, and they in temptation, in bewilderment, in doubt or confusion,
assail him. He only feels the effect, for they do not reveal themselves
as shapes.
But persistence in the work takes the inner man farther along, and with that
progress comes a realization to the outer mind of the experiences met,
until
at last he has waked up the whole force of the evil power that naturally
is arrayed against the good end he has set before him. Then the Dweller
takes what
form it may. That it does take some definite shape or impress itself with palpable
horror is a fact testified to by many students.
One
of those related to me that he saw it as an enormous slug with evil eyes
whose
malignancy could not be described. As he retreated—that is, grew fearful—,
it seemed joyful and portentous, and when retreat was complete it was not.
Then he fell further back in thought and action, having occasionally moments
of determination
to retrieve his lost ground. Whenever these came to him, the dreadful slug
appeared, only to leave him when he had given up again his aspirations. And
he knew that
he was only making the fight, if ever he should take it up again, all the
harder.
Another
says that he has seen the Dweller concentrated in the apparent form of
a dark
and sinister-looking man, whose slightest motions, whose merest glance, expressed
the intention and ability to destroy the student’s reason, and only the
strongest effort of will and faith could dispel the evil influence. And the
same student at other times has felt it as a vague, yet terrible, horror
that
seemed to enwrap him in its folds. Before this he has retreated for the time
to prepare himself by strong self-study to be pure and brave for the next
attack.
These
things are not the same as the temptations of Saint Anthony. In his case he
seems to have induced an hysterical erotic condition, in which the unvanquished
secret thoughts of his own heart found visible appearance.
The
Dweller of the Threshold is not the product of the brain, but is an influence
found in a plane that is extraneous to the student, but in which his success
or failure will be due to his own purity. It is not a thing to be dreaded by
mere dilettanti theosophists; and no earnest one who feels himself absolutely
called to work persistently to the highest planes of development for the good
of humanity, and not for his own, need fear aught that heaven or hell holds.
Give
Us One Fact
Since
last I wrote for The Path, the most distinct call I have heard from many
students in the West is found in the cry: “Give us one Fact!”
They
have acquired the desire to know the truth, but have lingered still around
the
market places of earth and the halls of those scientific leaders of the blind
who are the prophets of materialism. They say that some “scientific”
men, while talking of Theosophy, have asked why the Masters have not “given
us one fact on which we may begin and from which a conclusion might be reached”;
and they—these students—most earnestly ask for that fact for themselves,
even though they shall conceal it from the very men who have formulated the
question.
Poor
children. What are the facts ye desire? Is it some astounding thaumaturgical
exhibitions that shall leave no room for doubt? If so, please say whether the
feat is to be performed in the sight of thousands, or only in the presence of
one postulant and his select circle? If the last, then ye are self-convicted
of a desire to retain unto yourselves what belongeth to many. Or perhaps ye
wish a statement of fact. But that would of course have to be supported by authority,
and we, poor wanderers, have no force of authority in science or art; statements
of facts coming from us would therefore be useless to you.
And
I must tell you in confidence, as the messengers have before this been
directed
to do and have not failed therein, that an exhibition of thaumaturgical skill
in the presence of a multitude would subvert the very ends the perfected
men
have in view. Suppose that some of those who know were now to appear in the
busy hum of American life, where the total sum of objects appears, at this
distance,
to be the gain of wealth, and like the two young princes of Buddha’s time
were to rise in the air unaided and there emit sheets of fire alternately from
their heads and feet, or were to rise again and float off to a distance in plain
sight of all; would that fact demonstrate anything to you? Perhaps in the breasts
of some aspiring students might spring up the desire to acquire the power to
do likewise. But pause and tell me what would the many do to whom such things
are myths? I will tell you. Some would admit the possibility of a genuine phenomenon,
seeking ways and means to do it too, so that they might exhibit it for an admission
price. Others, and including your scientific fact-seekers, would begin by denying
its truth, by ascribing it to delusion, and by charging those who did it, no
matter how really spiritual those were, with deliberate fraud and imposture,
while a certain section would deny the very happening of the matter and falsify
the eye-knowledge of hundreds. * [We can agree with the writer, as we have seen
just as wonderful things done by H.P.Blavatsky and next day heard accusations
of fraud against her and charges of credulity against those who had seen. (Ed—PATH)]
Still others would say “It is a God!” or—“It is a devil,” with consequence to correspond. No, friends, the true teachers do not begin
by laying the foundations for greater error and more fast-bound superstition
than those we are trying to destroy.
Then
I must tell you in all seriousness and truth that statements of the facts
you
really wish have been over and over again made in many places, books and
times. Not alone are they to be found in your new theosophical literature,
but in that
of older times. In every year for centuries past these facts have been given
out,—even in English. They were told in the days of the German and English
Alchemists, and by the Cabalists. But greed and wrong motive have ever formed
the self-constructed barriers and obscurers.
The
Alchemists of the pure school spoke of the gold they could make by means
of
their powders, and the salt, together with their mercury; and the Cabalists
said that by pronouncing Jehovah’s name not only was the gold formed,
but power obtained in all worlds. Very true these statements. Are they not
statements of fact? Did they satisfy the mass of seekers? So far from that,
the result
was to lead them into error. Many patiently sought for the powder and the
proper combination of the salt or sulphur and mercury, so that they might
make worthless
gold metal, which today is exchangeable and tomorrow is useless, and which
never could give peace of mind or open the door of the future. Then others
went by
themselves and tried various modulations of sound in pronouncing the supposed
name of their Mighty God, until they today have some two-score sorts. What
purblind
ignorance this, for God is God and has not changed with the rise and fall
of empires or the disappearance of languages; his name was once a different
sound
in ancient Egypt or India, in Lemuria, Atlantis or Copan. Where, then, are
those many sounds of His Holy Name, or has that been altered?
“But
where,” ye say, “is the fact in the pronunciation of the
name of God?” The answer is by asking “What and who is God?” He is the All; the earth, the sky, the stars in it; the heart of man; the elemental
and organic world; the kingdoms of the universe; the realm of sound and the
formless void. Is not the pronunciation of that Name to consist therefore
in Becoming all those kingdoms, realms and power, focussing in yourself
the entire essence of them, each and all at once? Is this to be done
by breathing forth “Jehovah” in one or many forms? You easily see
it is not. And your minds will carry you on the next step to admit that before
you can do this you must have passed through every one of those kingdoms,
retaining
perfect knowledge and memory of each, commander of each, before you can attempt
the pronunciation of the whole. Is this a small task? Is it not the task
Karma
has set before you, compelling you like children to repeat parts of the word
in the varied experiences of repeated lives spent on earth, bringing you
back
to the lesson until it is well learned?
And
so we are brought to ourselves. Our Aryan ancestors have made the declaration,
repeated by thousands since, that each man is himself a little universe. Through
him pass all the threads of energy that ramify to all the worlds, and
where any one of those lines crosses him is the door to the kingdom to which
that thread belongs. Listen to the Chandogya Upânishad: “There is
this city of Brahman—the body—and in it the palace, the small lotus
of the heart, and in it that small ether. Both heaven and earth are contained
within it, both fire and air, both sun and moon, both lightning and stars;
and
whatever there is of the Self here in the world, and whatever has been or
will be, all that is contained within it.”
Vain
it is to make search without. No knowledge will reach you from anywhere but
this small lotus of the heart. Just now ye are binding it so that it cannot
burst open. It is with the delusions of the mind ye bind it in a knot. That
knot ye must break. Break loose from scholastic error, make of your minds a
still and placid surface on which the Lord of the palace in the heart can reflect
pictures of Truth, become as little children who are not hindered by preconceptions,
and ye will have knowledge.
The
only fact I have to offer you is—YOURSELVES.
Which
is Vague, Theosophy or Science?
It
is commonly charged against the exponents of Theosophy that they deal in
vague
generalities only. A lecture is given or paper read by a Theosophist, and
the profane hearer laughs, saying, “All this is metaphysical absurdity; these
are mere abstractions; let us have something like that which science gives
us, something we can grasp.”
A
great many persons imagine, knowing but little in reality about science,
that
it is sure, certain, and fixed in the vital premises which underlie the practical
outcome seen in many branches of life’s activity. Why is this so? An inquiry
into the question discloses the fact that some, if not all, the basic postulates
of science are the purest abstractions, and that many statements from which
deductions of fact are drawn are themselves the merest hypotheses. We will
also
find that the commonest of people unconsciously use in every workaday act
the most abstract and indefinite premises without which they could do but
little.
Take
navigation of the ocean, by which we are able to send the largest ships
carrying
the richest of cargoes from shore to shore of any sea. These are guided in
their course by men who know little or nothing of Theosophy and who would
laugh at
metaphysics. But in order to safely carry the ship from departure to destination,
they have to use the lines of longitude and latitude, which, while seeming
very
real to them, have no existence whatever, except in theory. These lines must
be used, and, if not, the ship will strike a rock or run upon the shore.
Where
are the parallels of longitude and latitude? They are imagined to be on the
earth, but their only visible existence is upon the chart made by man,
and their
real existence is in the mind of the astronomer and those who understand
the science of navigation. The sea captain may think they are on the chart,
or he
may not think of it at all. Where do they stop? Nowhere; they are said to
extend indefinitely into space; yet these abstractions are used for present human commercial
needs. Is this any less vague than Theosophy?
In
the latter we have to guide the great human ship from shore to shore, and
in
that immense journey are obliged to refer to abstractions from which to start.
Our spiritual parallels of latitude and longitude are abstractions, indeed,
but no more so than those laid down upon the seaman’s chart. The scientific
materialist says: “What nonsense to speak of coming out of the Absolute!”
We may reply, “What nonsense for the mariner to attempt to guide his ship
by that which has no existence whatever, except in fancy; by that which is a
pure abstraction!” Again he laughs at us for assuming that there is such
a thing as the soul, “for,” he says, “no man has ever seen
it, and none ever can; it cannot be demonstrated.” With perfect truth
we can reply: “Where is the atom of science; who has ever seen it; where
and when has its existence been demonstrated?’ The “atom”
of science is today as great a mystery as the “soul” of Theosophy.
It is a pure hypothesis, undemonstrated and undemonstrable. It can neither
be weighed, nor measured, nor found with a microscope; indeed, in the opinion
of
many Theosophists it is a far greater mystery than the soul, because some
say they have seen that which may be soul; which looks like it; and no man
has been,
at any time, so fortunate or unfortunate as to have seen an atom.
Further,
the scientific materialist says, “What do you know about the powers of
the soul, which you say is the central sun of the human system?” And we
answer that “it is not more indefinite for us than the sun is for the
astronomers who attempt to measure its heat and estimate its distance. As to
the heat of the sun, not all are agreed that it has any heat whatsoever, for
some learned men think that it is a source of an energy which creates heat when
it reaches the earth’s atmosphere only. Others, celebrated in the records
of science, such as Newton, Fizeau, and many other well-known astronomers,
disagree as to the quantity of heat thrown out by the sun, on the hypothesis
that it
has any heat, and that difference is so great as to reach 8,998,600 degrees.
Thus as to the central sun of this system, there is the greatest vagueness
in
science and no agreement as to what may be the truth in this important matter.
In Theosophy, however, on the other hand, although there is some vagueness
with
mere students as to the exact quantity of heat or light thrown out by the
soul, those who have devoted more time to its study are able to give closer
estimates
than any which have been given by scientific men in respect to the sun of
the solar system. Yet all these generalities of science are the very things
that
have led to the present wonderful material development of the nineteenth
century.
But
let us glance for a moment at the subject of evolution, which engages the thought
of materialist and theosophist alike; let us see if theosophy is more vague
than its opponents, or more insane, we might say, in ability to lay wild theories
before intelligent men. The well-known Haeckel in his Pedigree of Man,
says, in speaking of Darwin’s teachings and lauding them: “Darwin
puts in the place of a conscious creative force, building and arranging the
organic bodies of animals and plants on a designed plan, a series of natural
forces working blindly, or we say, without aim, without design. In
place of an arbitrary act we have a necessary law of evolution, * * * A mechanical
origin of the earliest living form was held as the necessary sequence of
Darwin’s teaching.” Here we have blind, undesigning forces, beginning
work without design, haphazard, all being jumbled together, but finally working
out into a beautiful design visible in the smallest form we can see. There
is
not a single proof in present life whether mineral, vegetable, or animal,
that such a result from such a beginning could by any possibility eventuate.
But
these scientific men in those matters are safe in making hypotheses, because
the time is far in the dark of history when these blind, undesigning
acts were begun. Yet they ought to show some present instances of similar
blindness producing harmonious designs. Now is this not a wild, fanciful,
and almost insane
statement of Haeckel’s? Is it not ten times more absurd than theosophical
teachings? We begin truly with Parabrahmam and Mûlaprakriti and Hosts
of Dhyân Chohans, but we allege design in everything, and our Parabrahmam
is no more vague than motion or force, pets of science.
So
I have found that a slight examination of this question reveals science as more
vague than Theosophy is in anything. But some may say results are not indefinite.
The same is said by us, the results to be reached by following the doctrines
of theosophy, relating, as they do, to our real life, will be as definite, as
visible, as important as any that science can point to.
Wrong
Popular Notions
“What
are your proofs?” is often asked of the Theosophical student who believes
in reincarnation and Karma, who holds to the existence of the astral body, and
who thinks that evolution demands a place in the cosmos for Mâhatmâs
(or great souls) as facts and ideals. “If you cannot prove reincarnation
just as you would a fact in a court of law, I will not believe,” says
one, while another says, “Make such objective demonstrations as science
does, and then you may expect me to agree with you.” But in truth all
these objectors accept as proven in the way they demand for Theosophy many
things which on a slight examination are seen to rest as much on theory and
metaphysical
argument as do any of the doctrines found in Theosophical Literature. The
axioms of mathematics are unprovable; the very word assumes that they have
to be accepted.
Being accepted, we go forward and on the basis of their unproved truth demonstrate
other and succedent matters. The theories of modern astronomy are taken as
true
because by their means eclipses are foretold and other great achievements
of that science made possible. But many centuries ago quite different theories
of the relations and motions and structure of the heavens allowed the old
astronomers
to make the same deductions. Let us examine a few words and things.
The
Atom
The
atom and the molecule are very influential words. They are constantly used
by
people claiming to follow science, but who indulge in criticisms on the uncertainties
of Theosophical speculation. Yet no one ever saw an atom or a molecule.
They
are accepted as facts by science—just as the spiritually-inclined accept
the existence of the invisible soul—yet it is impossible to objectively
prove either the one or the other. They are deemed to be proven because they
are necessary. But let a Theosophist say that the astral body exists, and Mâhatmâs
also, because both are necessary in evolution, and at once a demand arises for
“demonstration” by objective proofs.
The
Sun
The
sun is the apparent source of energy, and is confidently supposed by many
to
be a mass of burning material. No one, however, knows this to be so. No one
was ever there, and the whole set of theories regarding the luminary rests
on
assumptions. Many natural facts are against some of the theories. The great
fact that the higher the mountain the more cold it is on top would be one,
not
wholly accounted for by theories as to radiation. And when we remember the
great, the immense, difference between the various scientific estimates
of the sun’s
heat, doubt increases. Seeing that electricity is now so much better known,
and that it is apparently all-pervading, the ancient idea that the sun
is a
centre of electrical or magnetic energy which turns into heat as well as
other things on reaching here, becomes plausible and throws some spice
of illusion
into the doctrine that our sun is a mass of burning matter.
Again
the sun is seen as if over the horizon in full view every clear evening, when
in fact he has been some minutes down below the line of sight. Refraction partly
accounts for this, but none the less is his apparent visibility or position
above the horizon an illusion.
The
Stars
Many
of those that are known as fixed stars are immeasurably far away. Sirius is
at an immense distance, and has been receding always many thousands of miles
each minute. Others are so far off that it takes one hundred thousand years
for their light to reach here.
Yet
since records began they have all remained apparently in one place and in the
same relation to each other. They constitute a vast illusion. They are moving
and yet they remain still. We point the telescope at one of our sister planets,
and knowing that its light takes fifteen minutes or more to get to us, we must
be continually directing the glass to a point in space where the planet is not,
and by no possibility can we point to where it actually is. Still for all this
uncertainty, many complicated and definite calculations are based on these observations
of mere illusions.
Latitude
and Longitude
These
are practically used every hour of the day for the safeguarding of human
life
and property. But they exist only in the brains of men, for they are not
in the sky or on land. They are theoretical divisions made by man, and
they are
possible only because the sole reality in nature is that which is jeered
at by many as the ideal. But if the ancients are said to be the constructors
of
a great human chart in the Zodiac, the divisions of which have a bearing
on the navigation of the great ocean of human evolution, the proud practical
man
says that you have but shown the ancients to be fanciful, superstitious,
grotesque. But they were not so. Doubtless the saying recorded of Jesus
about the time
when we should see “the sign of the Son of Man in the heavens” will
not so far from now be found to have a practical meaning in human life.
The
ancient sage was like the modern captain. The captain takes an observation of
the illusionary stars and the blazing sun, thus discovering whether his ship
is near or far from land. The Sage observed the Zodiac, and from the manner
it and its boats were related to each other he was able to calculate whether
the human freight in the boat of human evolution was near a rock or on the free,
open sea in its eternal and momentous journey.
Sensation
of Touch
Every
one is accustomed to say that he has touched this or that object on which
his
fingers may be rested. But this is not so. We do not touch anything; we only
perceive and report a sensation which we call touch. If that sensation
is due
to actual contact between the skin and the object, then the harder we are
pressed, and thus the nearer we came to the object’s surface, the more accurate
should be the sensation. In fact, however, if we press hard we dull the sensation
and turn it into one of pain for the skin. There is always a space between
the
skin and the surface dealt with, just as there is always a space between
the molecules of each mass. If two smooth planes be pushed on to each other
they
will adhere, and the smoother they are the more difficult it will be to get
them apart. If we could actually touch the hand to any surface so as to
cover
all of it with a touching surface, we could not withdraw the hand at all.
All that we get then, by what we call touch is the idea produced by the
vibration
and by that much of contact as is possible in the case.
Continuous
Solidity
Quite
Theosophical is the scientist when he says that “we cannot know anything
of the actual nature of matter in itself, but can only know the sensation or
the phenomena.” The mineral or metal called even the hardest is not solid
or continuous in itself. This is now admitted by all scientific men. Even the
diamond, “hardest of all,” is a mass of moving molecules made up
of like moving atoms. Its hardness is only relative. It is simply harder
than glass because its atoms are moving at a more rapid rate. In a recent
lecture
in London Mr. Bell, a scientific light, told how the edge or point of the
diamond cuts the glass because the molecules in the diamond move rapidly
and get in
between the slower ones of the glass and thus cut it. And so it is with all
other masses of matter. They are only masses of molecules in different rates
of vibration; none of them solid or hard save in a relative sense. It is
not
true, then, as so often held by philosophers and so insisted on by those
Adepts who gave us information through H.P. BLAVATSKY that the world we are
in is to
be properly considered in a metaphysical sense and not as a mere mechanism
that can be explained on mechanical principles? And in the face of all illusions
and all the speculations of life and science, why should the Theosophist
be
asked to make or give any different sort of proofs than those availed of by
science in all its investigations? There is no reason.
Our
Sun and the True Sun
Considering
how little is known of the sun of this system, it is not to be wondered
at that
still more is this the case respecting the true sun. Science laughs, of course,
at the mystic’s “true sun,” for it sees none other than the
one shining in the heavens. This at least they pretend to know, for it rises
and sets each day and can be to some extent observed during eclipses or
when
spots appear on it, and with their usual audacity the 19th century
astronomers learnedly declare all that they do not know about the mighty orb,
relegating the ancient ideas on the subject to the limbo of superstitious nonsense.
It is not to the modern schools that I would go for information on this subject,
because in my opinion, however presumptuous it may seem, they really know but
little about either Moon or Sun.
A
dispute is still going on as to whether the sun throws out heat. * [Among
great scientists such as Newton, Seechi, Pouillet, Spaeren, Rosetti, and
others, there is a difference as to estimated heat of the sun shown by their
figures,
for Pouillet says 1,461̊ and Waterston 9,000,000̊ or a variation of
8,998,600̊!]. On one hand it is asserted that he does; on the other, that
the heat is produced by the combination of the forces from the sun with the
elements on and around this earth. The latter would seem to the mystic to be
true. Another difference of opinion exists among modern astronomers as to the
distance of the sun from us, leaving the poor mystic to figure it out as he
may. Even on the subject of spots on our great luminary, everything nowadays
is mere conjecture. It is accepted hypothetically—and no more—that
there may be a connection between those spots and electrical disturbances
here. Some years ago Nasmyth discovered * [See Source of Heat in the Sun, R.
Hunt, FRS. (Pop. Sc. Rev. Vol.,IV, p.148)] objects (or changes) on the photosphere
consisting of what he called “willow leaves,” 1000 miles long and
300 miles broad, that constantly moved and appeared to be in shoals. But what
are these? No one knows. Science can do no more about informing us than any
keen sighted ordinary mortal using a fine telescope. And as to whether these
“willow leaves” have any connection with the spots or themselves
have relation to earthly disturbances, there is equal silence. To sum it up,
then, our scientific men know but little about the visible sun. A few things
they must some day find out, such as other effects from sun spots than mere
electrical disturbances; the real meaning of sun spots; the meaning of the peculiar
colour of the sun sometimes observed—such as that a few years ago attributed
to “cosmic dust,” for the want of a better explanation to veil ignorance;
and a few other matters of interest.
But
we say that this sun they have been examining is not the real one, nor any sun
at all, but is only an appearance, a mere reflection to us of part of the true
sun. And, indeed, we have some support even from modern astronomers, for they
have begun to admit that our entire solar system is in motion around some far
off undetermined centre which is so powerful that it attracts our solar orb
and thus draws his entire system with him. But they know not if this unknown
centre be a sun. They conjecture that it is, but will only assert that it is
a centre of attraction for us. Now it may be simply a larger body, or a stronger
centre of energy, than the sun, and in turn quite possibly it may be itself
revolving about a still more distant and more powerful centre. In this matter
the modern telescope and power of calculation are quickly baffled, because they
very soon arrive at a limit in the starry field where, all being apparently
stationary because of immense distances, there are no means of arriving at a
conclusion. All these distant orbs may be in motion, and therefore it cannot
be said where the true centre is. Your astronomer will admit that even the constellations
in the Zodiac, immovable during ages past, may in truth be moving, but at such
enormous and awful distances that for us they appear not to move.
My
object, however, is to draw your attention to the doctrine that there is
a true
sun of which the visible one is a reflection, and that in this true one there
is spiritual energy and help, just as our own beloved luminary contains
the
spring of our physical life and motion. It is useless now to speculate on
which of the many stars in the heavens may be the real sun, for I opine
it is none
of them, since, as I said before, a physical centre of attraction for this
system may only be a grade higher than ours, and the servant of a centre
still farther
removed. We must work in our several degrees, and it is not in our power
to overleap one step in the chain that leads to the highest. Our own sun
is, then,
for us the symbol of the true one he reflects, and by meditating on “the
most excellent light of the true sun” we can gain help in our struggle
to assist humanity. Our physical sun is for physics, not metaphysics, while
that true one shines down within us. The orb of day guards and sustains the
animal economy; the true sun shines into us through its medium within our
nature.
We should then direct our thought to that true sun and prepare the ground
within for its influence, just as we do the ground without for the vivifying
rays of
the King of Day.
The
Allegorical Umbrella
In
the Buddhist stories are numerous references to umbrellas. When Buddha
is said
to have granted to his disciples the power of seeing what they called “Buddha
Fields,” they saw myriads of Buddhas sitting under trees and jewelled
umbrellas. There are not wanting in the Hindu books and monuments references
to and representations of umbrellas being held over personages. In a very
curious
and extremely old stone relievo at the Seven Pagodas in India, showing
the conflict between Durga and the demons, the umbrella is figured over the
heads of the Chiefs. It is not our intention to exalt this common and useful
article to a high place in occultism, but we wish to present an idea in connection
with it that has some value for the true student.
In
the Upanishads we read the invocation: “Reveal, O Pushan, that face of
the true sun which is now hidden by a golden lid.” This has reference
to the belief of all genuine occultists, from the earliest times to the present
day, that there is a “true sun,” and that the sun we see is a secondary
one; or, to put it in plainer language, that there is an influence or power
in the sun which may be used if obtained by the mystic, for beneficent purposes,
and which, if not guarded, hidden, or obscured by a cover, would work destruction
to those who might succeed in drawing it out. This was well known in ancient
Chaldea, and also to the old Chinese astronomers: the latter had certain
instruments
which they used for the purpose of concentrating particular rays of sunlight
as yet unknown to modern science and now forgotten by the flowery land philosophers.
So much for that sun we see, whose probable death is calculated by some aspiring
scientists who deal in absurdities.
But
there is the true centre of which the sun in heaven is a symbol and partial
reflection. This centre let us place for the time with the Dhyân Chohans
or planetary spirits. It is all knowing, and so intensely powerful that, were
a struggling disciple to be suddenly introduced to its presence unprepared,
he would be consumed both body and soul. And this is the goal we are all striving
after, and many of us asking to see even at the opening of the race. But for
our protection a cover, or umbrella, has been placed beneath IT. The ribs are
the Rishees, or Adepts, or Mâhatmâs; the Elder Brothers of the race.
The handle is in every man’s hand. And although each man is, or is to
be, connected with some particular one of those Adepts, he can also receive
the influence from the true centre coming down through the handle.
The
light, life, knowledge, and power falling upon this cover permeate in innumerable
streams the whole mass of men beneath, whether they be students or not. As the
disciple strives upward, he begins to separate himself from the great mass of
human beings, and becomes in a more or less definite manner connected with the
ribs. Just as the streams of water flow down from the points of the ribs of
our umbrellas, so the spiritual influences pour out from the adepts who form
the frame of the protecting cover, without which poor humanity would be destroyed
by the blaze from the spiritual world.
Two
Lost Keys The Bhagavad Gîtâ - The Zodiac
It
has never been admitted by Orientalists that there existed a key to the
Bhagavad-Gîtâ,
other than a knowledge of the Sanskrit language in which it is written. Hence
our European translators of the poem have given but its philosophical aspect.
But
it is believed by many students of theosophy—among them such an authority
as H.P. Blavatsky—that there are several keys to the noble poem, and that
they have been for the time lost to the world. There has been no less of
them in the absolute sense, since they are preserved intact in many rolls
and books
made of polished stones hidden and guarded in certain underground temples
in the East, the location of which would not be divulged by those who know.
No
search has been made by the profane for these wonderful books, because there
is no belief in their existence; and for the sincere student who can project
his mental sight in the right direction, there is no need for such discovery
of the mere outward form in which those keys are kept.
There
is also a key for the Zodiac. The modern astrologers and astronomers have lifted
up their puny voices to declare regarding the probable origin of the Zodiac,
giving a very commonplace explanation, and some going so far as to speak of
the supposed author of it, not that they have named him or given him a distinct
place in history, but only referred to the unknown individual. It is
very much to be doubted if these modern stargazers would have been able to construct
anything whatever in the way of a Zodiac, had they not had this immemorial arrangement
of signs ready to hand.
The
Bhagavad-Gîtâ and the Zodiac while differing so much from each other
in that the one is a book and the other the sun’s path in the heavens
are two great storehouses of knowledge which may be construed after the same
method. It is very true that the former is now in book shape, but that is only
because the necessities of study under conditions which have prevailed for some
thousands of years require it, but it exists in the ideal world imbedded in
the evolutionary history of the human race. Were all copies of it destroyed
tomorrow, the materials for their reconstruction are near at hand and could
be re-gathered by those sages who know the realities underlying all appearances.
And in the same way the Zodiac could be made over again by the same sages—not,
however, by our modern astronomers. The latter no doubt would be able to
construct a path of the sun with certain classifications of stars thereon,
but it would
not be the Zodiac; it would bear but little relation to the great cosmic
and microcosmic periods and events which that path really has. They would
not apply
it as it is found used in old and new almanacs to the individual human being,
for they do not know that it can in any way be so connected, since their
system
hardly admits any actual sympathy between man and the Zodiac, not yet having
come to know that man is himself a zodiacal highway through which his own
particular
sun makes a circuit.
Considering
how laughable in the eyes of the highly-educated scientific person of today
the singular figures and arrangement of the Zodiac are, it is strange that
they
have not long ago abolished it all. But they seem unable to do so. For some
mysterious reason the almanacs still contain the old signs, and the moon’s
periods continue to be referred to these ancient figures. Indeed, modern
astronomers still use the old symbology, and give to each new asteroid
a symbol precisely
in line with the ancient zodiacal marks so familiar to us. They could not
abolish them, were the effort to be made.
The
student of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ soon begins to feel that there is somewhere
a key to the poem, something that will open up clearly the vague thoughts
of greater meanings which constantly rise in his mind. After a while he
is able
to see that in a philosophical and devotional sense the verses are full of
meaning, but under it all there runs a deep suggestiveness of some other
and grander
sweep for its words. This is what the lost key will reveal.
But
who has that key or where it is hidden is not yet revealed, for it is said by
those who know the Brotherhood that man is not yet in the mass ready for the
full explanation to be put into his hands. For the present it is enough for
the student to study the path to devotion, which, when found, will lead to that
belonging to knowledge.
And
so of the Zodiac. As our acquaintance, through devotion and endeavour, with
the journey of our own sun through our own human zodiac grows better, we will
learn the meaning of the great pilgrimage of the earthly luminary. For it is
impossible in this study to learn a little of ourselves without knowing more
of the great system of which we are a copy.
For Âtman
is the sun,
The
Moon also it is;
And
the whole collection of stars
Is
contained within it.
__________________________
Theosophy
and Capital Punishment
From
ignorance of the truth about man’s real nature and faculties and their
action and condition after bodily death, a number of evils flow. The effect
of such want of knowledge is much wider than the concerns of one or several
persons. Government and the administration of human justice under man-made
laws
will improve in proportion as there exist a greater amount of information
on this all-important subject. When a wide and deep knowledge and belief
in respect
to the occult side of nature and of man shall have become the property of
the people then may we expect a great change in the matter of capital punishment.
The
killing of a human being by the authority of the state is morally wrong and
also an injury to all the people; no criminal should be executed no matter what
the offence. If the administration of the law is so faulty as to permit the
release of the hardened criminal before the term of his sentence has expired,
that has nothing to do with the question of killing him.
Under
Christianity this killing is contrary to the law supposed to have emanated
from
the Supreme Lawgiver. The commandment is: “Thou shalt not kill!”
No exception is made for states or governments; it does not even except the
animal kingdom. Under this law therefore it is not right to kill a dog, to say
nothing of human beings. But the commandment has always been and still is ignored.
The Theology of man is always able to argue away any regulation whatever; and
the Christian nations once rioted in executions. At one time stealing a loaf
of bread or a few nails a man might be hanged. This, however, has been so altered
that death at the hands of the law is imposed for murder only—omitting
some unimportant exceptions.
We
can safely divide the criminals who have been or will be killed under our laws
into two classes: i.e., those persons who are hardened, vicious, murderous
in nature; and those who are not so, but who, in a moment of passion, fear,
or anger, have slain another. The last may be again divided into those who are
sorry for what they did, and those who are not. But even though those of the
second class are not by intention enemies of Society, as are the others, they
too before their execution may have their anger, resentment, desire for revenge
and other feelings besides remorse, all aroused against Society which persecutes
them and against those who directly take part in their trial and execution.
The nature, passions, state of mind and bitterness of the criminal have, hence,
to be taken into account in considering the question. For the condition which
he is in when cut off from mundane life has much to do with the whole subject.
All
the modes of execution are violent, whether by the knife, the sword, the bullet,
by poison, rope, or electricity. And for the Theosophist the term violent
as applied to death must mean more than it does to those who do not hold
theosophical views. For the latter, a violent death is distinguished from an
easy natural one solely by the violence used against the victim. But for us
such a death is the violent separation of the man from his body, and is a serious
matter, of interest to the whole state. It creates in fact a paradox, for such
persons are not dead; they remain with us as unseen criminals, able to do harm
to the living and to cause damage to the whole society.
What
happens? All the onlooker sees is that the sudden cutting off is accomplished;
but what of the reality? A natural death is like the falling of a leaf
near
the winter time. The time is fully ripe, all the powers of the leaf having
separated; those acting no longer, its stem has but a slight hold on the
branch and the
slightest wind takes it away. So with us; we begin to separate our different
inner powers and parts one from the other because their full term has ended,
and when the final tremor comes the various inner component parts of the
man
fall away from each other and let the soul go free. But the poor criminal
has not come to the natural end of his life. His astral body is not ready
to separate
from his physical body, nor is the vital, nervous energy ready to leave.
The entire inner man is closely knit together, and he is the reality. I
have said
these parts are not ready to separate—they are in fact not able to separate
because they are bound together by law and a force over which only great
Nature has control.
When
then the mere physical body is so treated that a sudden, premature separation
from the real man is effected, he is merely dazed for a time, after which he
wakes up in the atmosphere of the earth, fully a sentient living being save
for the body. He sees the people, he sees and feels again the pursuit of him
by the law. His passions are alive. He has become a raging fire, a mass of hate;
the victim of his fellows and of his own crime. Few of us are able, even under
favourable circumstances, to admit ourselves as wholly wrong and to say that
punishment inflicted on us by man is right and just, and the criminal has only
hate and desire for revenge.
If
now we remember that his state of mind was made worse by his trial and
execution,
we can see that he has become a menace to the living. Even if he be not so
bad and full of revenge as said, he is himself the repository of his own
deeds;
he carries with him into the astral realm surrounding us the pictures of
his crimes, and these are ever living creatures, as it were. In any case
he is dangerous.
Floating as he does in the very realm in which our mind and senses operate,
he is for ever coming in contact with the mind and senses of the living.
More
people than we suspect are nervous and sensitive. If these sensitives are
touched by this invisible criminal they have injected into them at once
the pictures
of his crime and punishment, the vibrations from his hate, malice and revenge.
Like creates like, and thus these vibrations create their like. Many a
person
has been impelled by some unknown force to commit crime; and that force came
from such an inhabitant of our sphere.
And
even with those not called “sensitive” these floating criminals
have an effect, arousing evil thoughts where any basis for such exist in
those individuals. We cannot argue away the immense force of hate, revenge,
fear,
vanity, all combined. Take the case of Guiteau, who shot President Garfield.
He went through many days of trial. His hate, anger and vanity were aroused
to the highest pitch every day and until the last, and he died full of
curses
for every one who had anything to do with his troubles. Can we be so foolish
as to say that all the force he thus generated was at once dissipated?
Of course
it was not. In time it will be transformed into other forces, but during
the long time before that takes place the living Guiteau will float through
our
mind and senses carrying with him and dragging over us the awful pictures
drawn and frightened passions engendered.
The
Theosophist who believes in the multiple nature of man and in the complexity
of his inner nature, and knows that that is governed by law and not by
mere
chance or by the fancy of those who prate of the need for protecting society
when they do not know the right way to do it, relying only on the punitive
and
retaliatory Mosaic law—will oppose capital punishment. He sees it as unjust
to the living, a danger to the state, and that it allows no chance whatever
for any reformation of the criminal.
Jacob
Boehme and the Secret Doctrine
Jacob
Boehme (or as some say Behmen) was a German mystic and spiritualist who began
to write in the 17th century. In his work he inserted a picture of
an angel blowing a trumpet, from which issued these words: “To all Christians,
Jews, Turks and Heathens, to all nations of the earth this Trumpet sounds for
the last time.” In truth it was a curious emblem, but he, the author,
was a mystic, and as all experience shows, the path of the mystic is a strange
one. It is, as Job says, a path which the “vulture knoweth not.”
Even as a bird cleaves the eternal ether, so the mystic advances on a path not
ordinary manifest, a way which must be followed with care, because like the
Great Light, which flashes forth and leaves only traces when it returns again
to its centre, only indications are left for those who come after seeking the
same spiritual wisdom. Yet by these “traces,” for such they are
called in the Kabbala, the way can be discerned, and the truth discovered.
Boehme
was poor, of common birth, and totally devoid of ordinary education. He was
only a shoemaker. Yet from the mind and out of the mouth of this unlettered
man came mighty truths.
It
would be idle to enquire into the complications of Karma which condemned
him
to such a life as his appeared to be. It must have been extremely curious,
because though he had grasped the truth and was able to appreciate it,
yet at the same
time he could not give it out in its perfect form. But he performed his work,
and there can be no manner of doubt about his succeeding incarnation. As
Krishna
says in the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, he has been already or will shortly be
“born into a family of wise devotees”; and thence “he will
attain the highest walk.”
His
life and writings furnish another proof that the great wisdom-religion—the
Secret Doctrine—has never been left without a witness. Born a Christian,
he nevertheless saw the esoteric truth lying under the moss and crust of
centuries, and from the Christian Bible extracted for his purblind fellows
those pearls
which they refused to accept. But he did not get his knowledge from the Christian
Scriptures only. Before his internal eye the panorama of real knowledge passed.
His interior vision being open he could see the things he had learned in
a former
life, and at first not knowing what they were was stimulated by them to construe
his only spiritual books in the esoteric fashion. His brain took cognizance
of the Book before him, but his spirit aided by his past, and perchance by
the
living guardians of the shining lamp of truth, could not but read them aright.
His
work was called “The Dawning of the Eternal Day.” In this he endeavours
to outline the great philosophy. He narrates the circumstances and reasons for
the angelic creation, the fall of its chief three hierarchies, and the awful
effects which thereupon fell upon Eternal Nature. Mark this, not upon man —for
he was not yet—but upon the eternal Nature, that is BRAHM. Then he says
that these effects came about by reason of the unbalancing of the seven
equipoised powers or forces of the Eternal Nature or Brahm. That is to say,
that so long as the seven principles of Brahm were in perfect poise, there
was no corporeal or manifested universe. So in the Bhagavad-Gîtâ we
find that Krishna tells Arjuna that “after the lapse of a thousand ages
(or Night of Brahm) all objects of developed matter come forth from the non-developed
principle. At the approach of that day they emanate spontaneously.” (Bhagavad-Gîtâ,
Chap. 8) Such is the teaching of the Secret Doctrine.
And
again Boehme shows the duality of the Supreme Soul. For he says in his
work “Psychologia Vera cum Supplemento” that these two eternal principles
of positive and negative, the yea and the nay of the outspeaking
Supreme One, together constitute eternal nature—not the dark world
alone, which is termed the “root of nature”—the two being
as it were combined in perfect indissoluble union.
This
is nothing else but Purush and Prakriti, or taken together, what is referred
to in the Bhagavid-Gîtâ where it is said: “But there is another
invisible, eternal existence, superior to this visible one, which does not
perish when all things perish. It is called invisible and indivisible.
This is my Supreme
Abode.”
Clearly
the Supreme Abode could never be in Purush alone, nor in Prakriti alone,
but in both when indissolubly united.
This
scheme is adhered to all through this great philosopher’s works, no matter
whether he is speaking of the great Universe or macrocosm, or of its antitype
in man or microcosm. In “De Tribus Princiis” he treats of the three
principles or worlds of Nature, describing its eternal birth, its seven
properties, and the two co-eternal principles; and furthermore in “De
Triplici Vitâ Hominis” he gives the threefold life of man from which
the seven is again deduced.
In “De Electione Gratiâ” he
goes into a subject that often proves a stumbling block to many, and that
is the inevitableness of evil as
well as of good. From this it is easy to pass to a contemplation of one of
the difficult points in occultism as shown in the Secret Doctrine, that
nothing
is evil, and that even if we admit evil or wickedness in man, it is of the
nature of the quality or guna, which in the Bhagavad-Gîtâ is denominated
............. or raja—foulness or bad action. Even this is better than
the indifferent action that only leads to death. Even from wickedness may
and does come forth spiritual life, but from indifferent action comes only
darkness,
and finally death.
Krishna
says in Bhagavad-Gîtâ, Chap. IV: “There are three kinds of
action; first that which is of the nature of Satyam, or true action;
second, that which is of the nature of Tamas, or indifferent action.”
He then says: “Although thou were the greatest of all offenders, thou
shalt be able to cross the gulf of sin in the bark of spiritual wisdom”;
and a little farther on “The ignorant and the man without faith, whose
spirit is full of doubt, is lost and cannot enjoy either world.” And in
another chapter in describing Himself, he says that he is not only the Buddha,
but also is the most evil of mankind or the Asura.
This
is one of the most mystical parts of the whole secret doctrine. While Boehme
has touched on it sufficiently to show that he had a memory of it, he did
not
go into the most occult details. It has to be remembered that the Bhagavad-Gîtâ,
and many other books treating on the Secret Doctrine, must be regarded from
seven points of view: and that imperfect man is not able to look at it from
the centre, which would give the whole seven points at once.
Boehme
wrote about thirty different treatises, all of them devoted to great subjects,
portions of the Secret Doctrine.
Curiously
enough the first treated of the “Dawn of the Eternal Day,” and the
second was devoted to an elucidation of the “The Three Principles of Man.”
In the latter is really to be found a sevenfold classification similar to that
which Mr. Sinnett propounded in “Esoteric Buddhism.”
He
held that the greatest obstacle in the path of man is the astral or elementary
power, which engenders and sustains this world.
Then
he talks of “tinctures,” which we may call principles. According
to him there are two principal ones, the watery, and the igneous. These ought
to be united in Man; and they ardently seek each other continually, in order
to be identified with Sophia or Divine Wisdom. Many Theosophists will see in
this a clue not only to the two principles—or tinctures—which ought
to be united in man, but also to a law which obtains in many of the phenomena
of magic. But even if I were able, I should not speak on this more clearly.
For
many inquirers the greatest interest in these works will be found in his hypothesis
as to the birth of the material Universe. On the evolution of man from spirit
into matter he has much more than I could hope to glance at. In nearly all of
it he was outlining and illustrating the Secret Doctrine. The books indicated
are well worthy of study not only by Western but also by Eastern metaphysicians.
Let us add a few sentences to support this hypothesis from Count Saint Martin,
who was a devoted student of these works.
“Jacob
Boehme took for granted the existence of an Universal Principle; he was
persuaded
that everything is connected in the immense chain of truths, and that the
Eternal Nature reposed on seven principles or bases, which he sometime
calls powers,
forms, spiritual wheels, sources, and fountains, and that those seven bases
exist also in this disordered material nature, under constraint. His nomenclature,
adopted for these fundamental relations, ran thus: The first astringency,
the second gall or bitterness, the third anguish, the fourth fire,
the fifth light, the sixth sound, and the seventh he called BEING
or the thing itself.”
The
reader may have begun to think the author did not rightly comprehend the first
six but his definition of the seventh shows he was right throughout, and we
may conclude the real meanings are concealed under these names.
“The
third principle, anguish, attenuates the astringent one, turns
it into water, and allows a passage to fire, which was shut up
in the astringent principle.” There are in this many suggestions and a
pursuit of them will repay the student.
“Now
the Divine Sophia caused a new order to take birth in the centre of our system,
and there burned our sun; from that do come forth all kinds of qualities, forms
and powers. This centre is the separator.” It is well known that from
the sun was taken by the ancients all kinds of power; and if we mistake not,
the Hindus claim that when the Fathers enter into Para-Nirvâna, their
accumulated goodness pours itself out on the world through the “Door
of the Sun.”
The
Bhagavad-Gîtâ says, that the Lord of all dwells in the region of
the heart, and again that this Lord is also the Sun of the world.
“The
earth is a condensation of the seven primordial principles, and by the withdrawal
of eternal light this became a dark valley.” It is taught in the East,
that this world is a valley and that we are in it, our bodies reaching to
the moon, being condensed to hardness at the point where we are on the earth,
thus
becoming visible to the eye of man. There is a mystery in this statement,
but not such an one as cannot be unravelled.
Boehme
proceeds: “When the light mastered the fire at the place of the sun, the
terrible shock of the battle engendered an igneous eruption by which there shot
forth from the sun a stormy and frightful flash of fire—Mars. Taken captive
by light it assumed a place, and there it struggles furiously, a pricking
goad, whose office is to agitate all nature, producing reaction. It is the
gall of
nature. The gracious, amiable Light, having enchained unerupted Mars, proceeded
by its own power to the bottom or end of the rigidity of Nature, whence unable
to proceed further it stopped, and became corporeal; remaining there it warms
that place, and although a valet in nature, it is the source of sweetness
and
the moderator of Mars.
“Saturn
does not originate from the sun, but was produced from the severe astringent
anguish of the whole body of this Universe. Above Jupiter the sun could not
mitigate the horror, and out of that arose Saturn, who is the opposite of meekness,
and who produces whatever of rigidity there is in the creatures, including bones,
and what in normal nature corresponds thereto.” (This is all the highest
astrology, from one who had no knowledge of it). “As in the Sun is the
heart of life, so by Saturn commenceth all corporeal nature. Thus in these
two resides the power of the whole universal body, and without their power there
could be no creation nor any corporification.
“Venus
originates in effuvia from the Sun. She lights the unctuosity of the
water of the Universe, penetrates hardness, and enkindles love.
“Mercury
is the chief worker in the planetary wheel; he is sound, and wakes up
the germs in everything. His origin, the triumph of Light over Astringency
(in which sound was shut up silent), set free the sound by the attenuation
of the
astringent power.”
It
is certain that if this peculiar statement regarding Mercury is understood,
the student will have gained a high point of knowledge. A seductive bait is
here held out to those striving disciples who so earnestly desire to hold converse
with the elemental world. But there is no danger, for all the avenues are very
secret and only the pure can prevail in the preliminary steps.
Boehme
says again: “The Mercury is impregnated and fed continually by the solar
substance; that in it is found the knowledge of what was in the order above,
before Light had penetrated to the solar centre.”
As
to the Moon, it is curious to note that he says, “she was produced from
the sun itself, at the time of his becoming material, and that the moon is his
spouse.” Students of the story of Adam being made to sleep after his creation
and before coats of skin were given when Eve was produced from his side,
will find in this a strong hint.
The
above is not by any means a complete statement of Boehme’s system. In
order to do justice to it, a full analysis of all his works should be undertaken.
However, it is sufficient if thoughtful minds who have not read Boehme, shall
turn to him after reading this, or if but one earnest reader of his works, or
seeker after wisdom, shall receive even a hint that may lead to a clearing up
of doubts, or to the acquisition of one new idea. Count Saint Martin continually
read him ; and the merest glance at the “Theosophic Correspondence”
or, “Man—His Nature, &c.,” of Saint Martin, will show
that from that study he learned much. How much more then will the Western
mind be aided by the light shed on both by the lamp of Theosophical teachings.
“Let
the desire of the pious be fulfilled.”
Are
the “Arabian Nights” all Fiction?
For
many years it has been customary to regard that collection of interesting
stories
called “The Arabian Nights,” as pure fiction arising out of Oriental
brains at a time when every ruler had his storyteller to amuse him or to
put him to sleep. But many a man who has down in his heart believed in the
stories
he heard in his youth about fairies and ghosts, but felt a revival of his
young fancies upon perusing these tales of prodigies and magic. Others, however,
have
laughed at them as pure fables, and the entire scientific world does nothing
but preserve contemptuous silence.
The
question here to be answered by men of science is how did such ideas arise?
Taking them on their own ground, one must believe that with so much smoke
there
must at one time have been some fire. Just as the prevalence of a myth—such
as the Devil or Serpent myth—over large numbers of people or vast periods
of time points to the fact that there must have been something, whatever
it was, that gave rise to the idea.
In
this enquiry our minds range over that portion of the world which is near
the
Red Sea, Arabia and Persia, and we are brought very close to places, now
covered with water, that once formed part of ancient Lemuria. The name
Red Sea may have
arisen from the fact that it was believed really to cover hell: and its lower
entrance at the island of Perim is called “Babel Mandeb,” or “the
Gate of Hell.” This Red Sea plays a prominent part in the Arabian Nights
tales and has some significance. We should also recollect that Arabia once
had her men of science, the mark of whose minds has not yet been effaced
from our
own age. These men were many of them magicians, and they learned their lore
either from the Lemurian Adepts, or from the Black Magicians of the other
famous
land of Atlantis.
We
may safely conclude that the Arabian Nights stories are not all pure fiction,
but are the faint reverberations of a louder echo which reached their authors
from the times of Lemuria and Atlantis.
Solomon
is now and then mentioned in them, and Solomon, wherever he was, has always
been reckoned as a great adept. The Jewish Cabala and Talmud speak of Solomon
with great reverence. His power and the power of the seal—the interlaced
triangles—constantly crop up among the other magical processes adverted
to in these tales. And in nearly all cases where he is represented as dealing
with wicked genii, he buried them in the Red Sea. Now if Solomon is a Jewish
King far away in Palestine, how did he get down to the Red Sea, and where
is
there any mention made of his travelling at all? These genii were elemental
spirits, and Solomon is merely a name standing for the vast knowledge of
magic
arts possessed by adepts at a time buried in the darkness of the past. In
one tale, a fisherman hauls up a heavy load, which turns out to be a large iron pot, with a metal cover, on which was engraved Solomon’s Seal. The unlucky
man opened the pot, when at once a vapour rose out of it that spread itself
over the whole heavens at first, and then condensed again into a monstrous
form
who addressed the fisher saying, that ages before he had been confined there
by Solomon; that after two hundred years he swore he would make rich the
man
lucky enough to let him out; after five hundred years that he would reward
his liberator with power; but after one thousand years of captivity he would
kill
the one who should free him. Then he ordered the man to prepare for death.
The fisherman, however, said he doubted that the genii had really been in
the pot
as he was too large. To prove that he had been, the spirit immediately assumed
the vaporous condition and slowly with spiral motion sank into the iron pot
again, when at once the fisherman clapped on the cover and was about to cast
him back into the sea. The djin then begged for mercy and agreed to serve
the
man and not to kill him, whereupon he was released.
Many
persons will laugh at this story. But no one who has seen the wonders of
spiritualism,
or who knows that at this day there are many persons in India, as well as
elsewhere who have dealings with elemental spirits that bring them objects
instantaneously, &c., will laugh before reflecting on the circumstances.
Observe
that the pot in which he was confined was made of metal, and that the talismanic
seal was on the cover. The metal prevented him from making magnetic connection
for the purpose of escaping, and the seal on the cover barred that way.
There
were no marks on the sides of the pot. His spreading himself into a vast
vapour shows that he was one of the elementals of the airy kingdom—the most beautiful
and malignant; and his malignancy is shown in the mean, ungrateful oath he
took to destroy whomsoever should be his liberator. His spreading into
vapour, instead
of at once springing out of the pot, refers to his invisibility, for we see
that in order to enter it he was compelled to assume his vaporous state,
in
which he again put himself into the pot.
In
another story we see a young man visiting an elemental of the nature of a Succubus,
who permits him now and then to go out and perform wonders. But the entrance
of her retreat is unseen and kept invisible to others. In India there are those
who are foolish enough to make magnetic connection with elementals of this class,
by means of processes which we will not detail here. The elemental will then
at your wish instantaneously produce any article which the operator may have
touched, no matter how far away it may be or how tightly locked up. The consequences
of this uncanny partnership are very injurious to the human partner. The records
of spiritualism in America will give other cases of almost like character, sufficient
to show that a compact can be entered into between a human being and an intelligence
or force outside of our sensuous perceptions.
In
other stories various people have power over men and animals, and the forces
of nature. They change men into animals and do other wonders. When they
wish
to cause the metamorphosis, they dash a handful of water into the unfortunate’s
face crying: “Quit that form of man and assume the form of a dog.”
The terrible Maugraby is a Black Magician, such as can now be found in Bhootan,
who had changed many persons, and the story of his destruction shows that his
life and power as well as his death lay in the nasty practices of Black Magic.
When the figure and the talisman were destroyed he was also. The white magician
has no talisman but his Ãtman, and as that cannot be destroyed, he is
beyond all fear.
But
this paper is already too long. We are not forcing a conclusion when we say
that these admirable and amusing tales are not all fiction. There is
much nonsense in them, but they have come to us from the very land—now
bleak and desolate—where at one time the fourth race men held sway and
dabbled in both White and Black Magic.
H.P.B
A Lion-Hearted Colleague Passes
“On
the shore stood Hiawatha,
Turned
and waved his hand at parting;
On
the clear and luminous water
Launched
his birch canoe for sailing,
From
the pebbles of the margin
Shoved
it forth into the water;
Whispered
to it, ‘Westward! Westward!’
And
with speed it darted forward.
And
the evening sun descending
Set
the clouds on fire with redness,
Burned
the broad sky, like a prairie,
Left
upon the level water
One
long track and trail of splendour,
Down
whose stream, as down a river,
Westward,
Westward Hiawatha
Sailed
into the fiery sunset,
Sailed
into the purple vapours,
Sailed
into the dusk of evening.
Thus
departed Hiawatha,
Hiawatha
the beloved, * *
To
the Islands of the Blessed.”
That
which men call death is but a change of location for the Ego, a mere transformation,
a forsaking for a time of the moral frame, a short period of rest before
one
reassumes another human frame in the world of mortals. The Lord of this body
is nameless; dwelling in numerous tenements of clay, it appears to come
and
go; but neither death nor time can claim it, for it is deathless, unchangeable
and pure, beyond Time itself, and not to be measured. So our old friend
and
fellow-worker has merely passed for a short time out of sight, but has not
given up the work begun so many ages ago—the uplifting of humanity, the destruction
of the shackles that enslave the human mind.
I
met H.P.B in 1875 in the city of New York where she was living in Irving Place.
There she suggested the formation of the Theosophical Society, lending to its
beginning the power of her individuality and giving to its President and those
who have stood by it ever since the knowledge of the existence of the Blessed
Masters. In 1877 she wrote Isis Unveiled in my presence, and helped in
the proof reading by the President of the Society. This book she declared
to me then was intended to aid the cause for the advancement of which the
Theosophical
Society was founded. Of this I speak with knowledge, for I was present and
at her request drew up the contract for its publication between her and her
New
York publisher. When that document was signed she said to me in the street, “Now I must go to India.”
In
November, 1878, she went to India and continued the work of helping her
colleagues
to spread the Society’s influence there, working in that mysterious land
until she returned to London in 1887. There was then in London but one Branch
of the Society—the London Lodge—the leaders of which thought it
should work only with the upper and cultured classes. The effect of H.P.B’s
coming there was that Branches began to spring up, so that now they are in
many English towns, in Scotland, and in Ireland. There she founded her magazine Lucifer,
there worked night and day for the Society loved by the core of her heart, there
wrote the Secret Doctrine, the Key to Theosophy, and the Voice
of the Silence, and there passed away from a body that had been worn out
by unselfish work for the good of the few of our century but of the many in
the centuries to come.
It
has been said by detractors that she went to India because she merely left a
barren field here, by sudden impulse and without a purpose. But the contrary
is the fact. In the very beginning of the Society I drew up with my own hand
at her request the diplomas of some members here and there in India who were
in correspondence and were of different faiths. Some of them were Parsees. She
always said she would have to go to India as soon as the Society was under way
here and Isis should be finished. And when she had been in India some
time, her many letters to me expressed her intention to return to England
so as to open the movement actively and outwardly there in order that the
three
great points on the World’s surface—India, England and America—
should have active centres of Theosophical work. This determination was expressed
to me before the attempt made by the Psychical Research Society on her reputation—of
which also I know a good deal to be used at a future time, as I was present
in India before and after the alleged exposé—and she returned
to England to carry out her purpose even in the face of charges that she could
not stay in India. But to disprove these she went back to Madras, and then again
rejourneyed to London.
That
she always knew what would be done by the world in the way of slander and
abuse
I also know, for in 1875 she told me that she was then embarking on a work
that would draw upon her unmerited slander, implacable malice, uninterrupted
misunderstanding,
constant work, and no worldly reward. Yet in the face of this her lion heart
carried her on. Nor was she unaware of the future of the Society. In 1876
she
told me in detail the course of the Society’s growth for future years,
of its infancy, of its struggles, of its rise into the “luminous zone” of the public mind; and these prophecies are being all fulfilled.
Much
has been said about her “phenomena,” some denying them, others alleging
trick and device. Knowing her for so many years so well, and having seen at
her hands in private the production of more and more varied phenomena than it
has been the good fortune of all others of her friends put together to see,
I know for myself that she had control of hidden powerful laws of nature not
known to our science, and I also know that she never boasted of her powers,
never advertised their possession, never publicly advised anyone to attempt
their acquirement, but always turned the eyes of those who could understand
her to a life of altruism based on a knowledge of true philosophy. If the world
thinks that her days were spent in deluding her followers by pretended phenomena,
it is solely because her injudicious friends, against her expressed wish, gave
out wonderful stories of “miracles” which cannot be proved to a
sceptical public and which are not the aim of the Society nor were ever more
than mere incidents in the life of H.P. BLAVATSKY.
Her
aim was to elevate the race. Her method was to deal with the mind of the
century
as she found it, by trying to lead it on step by step; to seek out and educate
a few who, appreciating the majesty of the Secret Doctrine and devoted
to “the
great orphan Humanity,” could carry on her work with zeal and wisdom;
to found a Society whose efforts—however small itself might be—would
inject into the thought of the day the ideas, the doctrines, the nomenclature
of the Wisdom Religion, so that when the next century shall have seen its
75th year the new messenger coming again into the world would find the Society still
at work, the ideas sown broadcast, the nomenclature ready to give expression
and body to the immutable truth, and thus to make easy the task which for
her
since 1875 was so difficult and so encompassed with obstacles in the very
paucity of the language—obstacles harder than all else to work against.
Our
Objects
The
Convention Speeches of London, 1892
I
will now very earnestly and respectfully ask you to give your attention to myself.
As chairman of this meeting, as chairman of the Convention which has just closed,
as the General Secretary of the American Section of the Theosophical Society,
and as one of those who, with Colonel Olcott, and Madame Blavatsky, founded
the Theosophical Society seventeen years ago, I have been asked to speak to
you a little about the Theosophical Society. Last year Colonel Olcott himself,
as the President-Founder of the Society, addressed a similar meeting, but of
course I will not say what he said, nor shall I go over the same ground.
Now
the Theosophical Society was, as I said founded seventeen years ago, in
the
city of New York, in America. When it was started, a stream of jokes in the
newspapers, laughter, ridicule of every kind, greeted it and people thought, “This new thing, this new fad, in our faddy country, will
soon expire.” But you see that although many of those who joined us from
the spiritualist body have disappeared from our ranks, we have still a few
delegates to present to you tonight as representing the Society. It is a
Society which
now extends all over the civilised world, and into many parts of what you
are pleased to call the uncivilized world.
This
Theosophical Society was started by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, as
I said; and she and he worked together in it with some of us unflinchingly,
she as much as he. Her life on this earth has been ended. But Colonel Olcott
is still living, and working for the Society in India. To him we must give the
greatest credit, for he has worked against all sorts of opposition, both within
and without the Society; and without him as a bold and fearless pioneer we should
not have reached the influence which we have now attained. So we have all been
giving him credit today, and we wish you to remember him. Whether you belong
to our society or not, or whether you believe as we do or not, all present must
approve a fearless man. (Cheers).
The
Theosophical Society has three objects. Those objects are: first, to found
the
nucleus of a universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race,
creed, class, sex, colour, or previous condition. This is our first and
our
most important object; this is our only creed. It admits belief in any particular
creed. It does not say you must give up this, that, or the other—except
what is bad and immoral. It asks you only to accept the idea that universal
brotherhood is a thing we should strive for. And, in order to give support
to
that hitherto Utopian idea, it has two other objects; one of which is to
study, investigate, look into, the philosophies and religions of the past,
for that
includes the present, because our philosophy and our religion have grown
out of the past, it is but a counterfeit presentment of which the ancients
knew
and taught, and you have nothing of your own that is particularly new. Today,
as of old, in the time of Solomon, it is true that there is nothing new
in this
world under the sun. We thought that the second object was important, because,
while we are looking into the religions and philosophies of the past and
present
we shall perhaps discover the one truth which must underlie all systems of
religion and philosophy. We have come to believe that all systems of religion,
Buddhism,
Brahmanism, Confucianism, what you call Christianity, all rest on one basis,
all flow from one old school. And if we can cut away the husks, the crusts,
about this central truth, we shall at last have arrived at the truth about
it.
The only revelation which is possible is the revelation which comes to man
by his own experience, by his own effort, by his own suffering. He learns
in no
other way, and all the revealed books of the past are revelations from the
human heart and soul to itself.
Our
third object, to support these other two, because we are living in the
world
surrounded by phenomena, is to investigate the psychical laws that govern
man and nature. With these three objects we have covered the whole field.
By the
first we embrace progress in social life. If it were attained and made real
it would cure all the evils that legislation vainly attempts to cope with,
and
which legislation hitherto has failed in any way to cure. The last one, the
investigation of psychical laws of man and nature, you may say has not
been
pursued by us. But we think it has been pursued by us in the proper way.
We have in London and in America what people call the Psychical Research
Society,
which engages itself with what it grandly calls investigation into psychical
phenomena, consisting, as far as my experience goes, in recording a number
of
dreams, visions, apparitions and thoughts, in the mass not so large as we
have had before; but they give no explanation. We have discovered in the investigation
of the ancient philosophies that they have thought out all the psychological
laws of nature, and have given a system of philosophy which is scientific
and
explains them all. Some have been investigating this system of philosophy,
so that when we come to look at the things about us we may be able to explain
them
without going to the trouble of making a lot of books recording these things
without any explanation. We are, therefore, pursuing the last object in
the
proper way. Then we are prepared to show that we have discovered in this
and other countries that certain faculties are coming out which are of
a dangerous
character. Psychical characteristics are showing themselves more than ever
before. In my country I know (I have had it brought to my attention in
print as well
as by words) that men and women are striving to exercise the powers which
are indicated by what you call telepathy and hypnotism, for selfish purposes
and
for nothing else. Theosophy teaches us that it is a dangerous thing to go into
phenomena of this character unless you have first prepared the ground by
showing men why they should be moral, why they should not practise these
things for
selfish purposes. For we consider that those who practise telepathy, hypnotism,
and the like, for their own selfish ends, are just as immoral as the dynamiter
or the burglar. We think you have no right to burglarize the mind of another;
and we know many men and women in this city and in other cities who would
break
open the minds of their fellows to discover secrets for their own profit.
The
Theosophical Society has been investigating these three objects in a philosophical
and scientific manner, and all we ask of any one who wishes to join us
is that
he should believe in and attempt to practise “Universal Brotherhood,” so that we may begin to form the nucleus around which the real brotherhood may
at last accumulate itself.
I
have said that the Theosophical Society extends all over the world. I have
seen
it in India, America, and this country. It is in Africa, it is in New Zealand,
it is in the Isles of Europe about the various seas. It is all over India,
and
is connected there not only with bodies which are visible, but with bodies
of men who keep themselves unknown. It is connected there with societies
counting
thousands upon thousands of men in their ranks, and they are all devoted
to high purposes. They are not the heathen you think they are, but worshippers
of a single God or spirit, and, as St. Paul has said to you, “an unknown
God.” That is the Christian God, for the Christian Bible says you
cannot discover or find out God. If you cannot discover or find Him out you
cannot describe Him, or give Him attributes. And the poor heathen says, “We
cannot discover Him, or find Him, but we attempt to follow a high ideal”;
and they are not the miserable heathen you think them.
This
Society then embraces Europe, Asia, Africa, and America—and this has been
done in seventeen years. Do you consider that we have been snuffed out or
that we have failed? I think not. We have succeeded against opposition
such as no
Society in this country has succeeded against. The press and the pulpit have
attacked us without reason, have libelled us, and told lies about us. But
we
forgive them because we are weak human beings as they are, and we know the
right will prevail; that is, justice will prevail; and we have enormous
confidence
that this Theosophical Movement will be the greater movement of this or any
other century, small as it seems today and weak as we appear to you to
be. (Cheers)
The
Theosophical Society is without a creed, but any society devoting itself
to
a definite object must at last accumulate within its ranks a number of members
who all think more or less alike; and that is just what has happened in
the
Theosophical Society. A great many of us, the majority I will frankly say,
think about alike, but not because we have forced belief into each other.
We have
come together and said to each other, “Here are these ideas,” and
it has resulted in the majority having come to one conclusion. But the Society
is always free and open. It has no dogmas. The doctrines we have put principally
forward among a great many others for investigation cover everything; we are
so presumptuous as to say that Theosophy is large enough to cover all Science
and all Religion, to make indeed Science religious, and Religion scientific
(cheers)—but among all these doctrines we think there is a truth of the
highest importance to humanity, because sorrow prevails everywhere, and we are
attempting by our Society’s work to find a cure for sorrow. We think that
evils will never be cured by legislation. You have been legislating all these
long years and have not succeeded. We have still our strikes, our sorrows,
our
poverty. We began without anything against us in America, and today there
is the same thing there as here. As one of our great investigators of criminal
records says, crime in America is worse than in England in proportion. With
all your legislation, here is the same evil, and so we bring principally
forward
three doctrines which we think of the highest importance.
The
first is Justice; we call it Karma; you can call it Justice, but the old
Sanskrit
word is Karma. It is that you will reap the result of what you do. If you
do good you will get good; if you do evil you will get evil. But it is
said that
man does not get his deserts in many cases. That is true under the old theory.
But the next step is that we bring forward out of Christianity, Buddhism,
Brahmanism,
that doctrine under which it becomes true, and that is Reincarnation. This
means we are all spiritually immortal beings, and in order to receive our
deserts
we must all come to the place where we have done the good or the evil, so
that today you have come to this life from some other life. If you have
been good
you are happy, if you have been evil you are unhappy, just because you lived
in a corresponding way in that life. And if you are not caught up within
this
life you will be caught up within the next one which is coming. For after
you die you have a slight period of rest, and then return to this civilisation which
you have made, and for which you are responsible, and for which you will
suffer if its evils are not eliminated.
And
the next doctrine is that all these spiritual beings in these bodies are united
together in fact, not in theory; that you are all made of one substance; that
our souls vibrate together, feel for each other, suffer for each other, and
enjoy for each other; so that in far China people are suffering for the evils
of people in London, and people in London are suffering for the evils of people
in China, and in New York the same. We are all bound together with a bond we
cannot break, and that is the essential unity of the human family; it is the
basis of the universal brotherhood.
We
bring these three doctrines prominently forward because ethics must have a basis
not in fear, not in command, not in statute law, but in the man himself. And
when he knows that he is united with everyone else, and is responsible for the
progress of his brother, he will then come to act according to right ethics.
And until he so believes he will not, and our sorrows will increase and revolutions
will come on, blood will be shed, and you will only rise then out of the ruins
of that civilization which you hoped to make the grandest that the world has
ever seen.
We
hope that the day will soon come when these doctrines will be believed and practised,
which this movement, called the Theosophical movement, has thus brought prominently
forward. (Cheers)
The
Theosophical Society
The
death of H.P. BLAVATSKY should have the effect on the Society of making
the
work go on with increased vigour free from all personalities. The movement
was not started for the glory of any person, but for the elevation of Mankind.
The
organisation is not affected as such by her death for her official position
were those of Corresponding Secretary and President of the European Section.
The Constitution has long provided that after her death the office of Corresponding
Secretary should not be filled. The vacancy in the European Section will
be
filled by election in that Section, as that is matter with which only the
European Branches have to deal. She held no position in the exoteric American
Section,
and had no jurisdiction over it in any way. Hence there is no vacancy to
fill and no disturbance to be felt in the purely corporate part of the
American work.
The work here is going on as it always has done, under the efforts of its
members who now will draw their inspiration from the books and works of H.P.B and from
the purity of their own motive.
All
that the Society needs now to make it the great power it was intended to be
is first, solidarity, and second, Theosophical education.
These are wholly in the hands of its members. The first gives that resistless
strength which is found only in Union, the second gives that judgement and wisdom
needed to properly direct energy and zeal.
Read
these words from H.P Blavatsky’s Key to Theosophy:
“If
the present attempt in the form of our Society succeeds better than its predecessors
have done, then it will be in existence as an organized, living, and healthy
body when the time comes for the effort of the XXth century. The general condition
of men’s minds and hearts will have been improved and purified by the
spread of its teachings, and, as I have said, their prejudices and dogmatic
illusions will have been, to some extent, at least, removed. Not only so, but
besides a large and accessible literature ready to men’s hands, the next
impulse will find a numerous and united body of people ready to welcome
the new torchbearer of Truth. He will find the minds of men prepared for his
message, a language ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he brings,
an organisation awaiting his arrival which will remove the merely mechanical
material obstacles and difficulties from his path. Think how much one to whom
such an opportunity is given could approach. Measure it by comparison with what
the Theosophical Society actually has achieved in the last fourteen years
without any of these advantages and surrounded by hosts of hindrances
which would not hamper the new leader. Consider all this and then tell me
whether I am too sanguine when I say that, if the Theosophical Society survives
and
lives true to its mission, to its original impulse, through the next hundred
years—tell me, I say, if I go too far in asserting that this earth will
be a heaven in the twenty-first century in comparison with what it is now!”
“Let
us, then, be up and doing,
With
a heart for any fate;
Still
achieving, still pursuing,
Learn
to labour and to wait.”
The
Future and the Theosophical Society
In
1888 H. P. Blavatsky wrote: [See Lucifer for June 1891, p.291.] “Night
before last I was shown a bird’s eye view of the Theosophical Societies.
I saw a few earnest reliable theosophists in a death struggle with the world
in general and with other—nominal and ambitious—theosophists. The
former are greater in number than you may think, and they prevailed—as
you in America will prevail, if you only remain staunch to the Master’s
programme and true to yourselves. And last night I saw .... The defending
forces have to be judiciously—so scanty are they—distributed over
the globe wherever theosophy is struggling with the powers of darkness.”
And
in the Key to Theosophy:
“If
the present attempt in the form of our Society succeeds better than its predecessors
have done, then it will be in existence as an organised living and healthy body
when the time comes for the effort of the twentieth century. Not only so, but
besides a large and accessible literature ready to men’s hands, the next
impulse will find a numerous and united body of people ready to welcome the
new torchbearer of truth. He will find the minds of men prepared for his
message,
a language ready for him in which to clothe the new truth he brings, an organization
awaiting his arrival which will remove the merely mechanical material obstacles
and difficulties from his path. Think how much one to whom such an opportunity
is given could accomplish. Measure it by comparison with what the Theosophical
Society actually has achieved in the last fourteen years without any of these
advantages and surrounded by hosts of hindrances which would not hamper the
new leader.”
Every
member of the Society should be, and many are, deeply interested in the
above
words. The outlook, the difficulties, the dangers, the necessities are the
same now as then, and as they were in the beginning of this attempt in
1875. For,
as she has often said, this is not the first nor will it be the last effort
to spread the truths and to undertake the same mission as that taken up
by Ammonius
Saccas some centuries ago—to lead men to look for the one truth that underlies
all religions and which alone can guide science in the direction of ideal progress.
In every century such attempts are made, and many of them have been actually
named “theosophical.” Each time they have to be adapted to the era
in which they appear. And this is the era—marked by the appearance and
the success of the great American republic—of freedom for thought and
for investigation.
In
the first quotation there is a prophecy that those few reliable theosophists
who are engaged in a struggle with the opposition of the world and that
coming
from weak or ambitious members will prevail, but it has annexed to it a condition
that is of importance. There must be an adherence to the programme of the
Masters.
That can only be ascertained by consulting her and the letters given out
by her as from those to whom she refers. There is not much doubt about
that programme.
It excludes the idea that the Society was founded or intended as “a School
for Occultism,” for that has been said in so many words long ago in some
letters published by Mr. Sinnett and in those not published.
Referring
to a letter received (1884) from the same source we find: “Let the Society
flourish on its moral worth, and not by phenomena made so often degrading.” The need of the west for such doctrines as Karma and Reincarnation and the actual
Unity of the whole family is dwelt upon at length in another. And referring
to some of the effects of certain phenomena, it is said * [Occult World, p.101] “They have to prove ..... constructive of new institutions of a
genuine practical brotherhood of Humanity, where all will become co-workers
with Nature.” Speaking of present materialistic tendencies, the same authority
says:
“Exact
experimental science has nothing to do with morality, virtue, philanthropy—therefore
can make no claim upon our help until it blends itself with metaphysics....
The same causes that are materializing the Hindu mind are equally affecting
all western thought. Education enthrones scepticism but imprisons spirituality.
You can do immense good by helping to give the western nations a secure basis
on which to reconstruct their crumbling faith. And what they need is the
evidence
that Asiatic psychology alone supplies. Give this and you will confer happiness
of mind on thousands. This is the moment to guide the recurrent impulse which
must soon come and which will push the age towards extreme atheism or drag
it
back to extreme sacerdotalism, if it is not led to the primitive soul-satisfying
philosophy of the Aryans.”
This
is the great tone running through all the words from these sources. It is a
call to work for the race and not for self, a request to bring to the west and
the east the doctrines that have most effect on human conduct, on the relations
of man to man, and hence the greatest possibility of forming at last a true
universal brotherhood. We must follow this programme and supply the world with
a system of philosophy which gives a sure and logical basis for ethics, and
that can only be gotten from those to which I have adverted; there is no basis
for morals in phenomena, because a man might learn to do the most wonderful
things by the aid of occult forces and yet at the same time be the very worst
of men.
A
subsidiary condition, but quite as important as the other, is laid down
by H.P.B
in her words that we must “remain true to ourselves.” This means
true to our better selves and the dictates of conscience. We cannot promulgate
the doctrines and the rules of life found in theosophy and at the same time
ourselves not live up to them as far as possible. We must practise what we
preach,
and make as far as we can a small brotherhood within the Theosophical Society.
Not only should we do this because the world is looking on, but also from
a
knowledge of the fact that by our unity the smallest effort made by us will
have tenfold the power of any obstacle before us or any opposition offered
by
the world.
The
history of our sixteen years of life shows that our efforts put forth in
every
quarter of the globe have modified the thought of the day, and that once
more the word “Theosophy,” and many of the old ideas that science and
agnosticism supposed were buried forever under the great wide collar of present
civilization, have come again to the front. We do not claim to be the sole force
that began the uprooting of dogmatism and priestcraft, but only that we have
supplied a link, given words, stirred up thoughts of the very highest importance
just at a time when the age was swinging back to anything but what the reformers
had fought for. The old faiths were crumbling, and no one stood ready to supply
that which by joining religion and science together would make the one scientific
and the other religious. We have done exactly what the letter quoted asked for,
led the times a step “to the primitive soul-satisfying philosophy of the
Aryans.”
But
we can never hope to see the churches and the ministers coming over in
a body
to our ranks. It would be asking too much of human nature. Churches are so
much property that has to be preserved, and ministers are so many men who
get salaries
they have to earn, with families to support and reputations to sustain. Many “houses of worship” are intimately connected with the material progress
of the town, and the personal element would prevent their sinking the old
and glorious identity in an organisation like to ours. Congregations hire
their
priests at so much a year to give out a definite sort of theology, and do
not like to be told the truth about themselves nor to have too high a standard
of
altruism held up to them in a way from which, under the theosophical doctrines,
there would be no escape. They may all gradually change, heresy trials will
continue and heretical ministers be acquitted, but the old buildings will
remain
and the speakers go on in new grooves to make other reputations, but we may
not hope to see any universal rush to join us.
Our
destiny is to continue the wide work of the past in affecting literature
and
thought throughout the world, while our ranks see many changing quantities
but always holding those who remain true to the programme and refuse to
become dogmatic
or to give up common-sense in theosophy. Thus will we wait for the new messenger,
striving to keep the organisation alive that he may use it and have the
great
opportunity H.P.B outlines when she says “Think how much one, to whom
such an opportunity is given, could accomplish.”
An
Epoch-Making Letter
From
the Theosophical Society in America to the European Theosophists, in
Convention
Assembled as “The European Section of the Theosophical Society.”
BROTHERS
AND SISTERS:—We send you our fraternal greeting, and fullest sympathy
in all works sincerely sought to be performed for the good of Humanity. Separated
though we are from you by very great distance we are none the less certain that
you and we, as well as all other congregations of people who love Brotherhood,
are parts of that great whole denominated The Theosophical Movement, which began
far back in the night of Time and has since been moving through many and various
peoples, places and environments. That grand work does not depend upon forms,
ceremonies, particular persons or set organizations—“Its unity throughout
the world does not consist in the existence and action of any single organization,
but depends upon the similarity of work and aspiration of those in the world
who are working for it.” Hence organizations of theosophists must vary
and change in accordance with place, time, exigency and people. To hold that
in and by a sole organization for the whole world is the only way to work would
be boyish in conception and not in accord with experience or nature’s
laws.
Recognizing
the foregoing, we, who were once the body called The American Section of the
T.S., resolved to make our organization, or merely outer form for government
and administration, entirely free and independent of all others; but retained
our theosophical ideas, aspirations, aims and objects, continuing to be a part
of the theosophical movement. This change was an inevitable one, and perhaps
will ere long be made also by you as well as by others. It has been and will
be forced, as it were, by nature itself under the sway of the irresistible law
of human development and progress.
But
while the change would have been made before many years by us as an inevitable
and logical development, we have to admit that it was hastened by reason of
what we considered to be strife, bitterness and anger existing in other Sections
of the theosophical world which were preventing us from doing our best work
in the field assigned to us by Karma. In order to more quickly free ourselves
from these obstructions we made the change in this, instead of in some later,
year. It is, then, a mere matter of government and has nothing to do with theosophical
propaganda or ethics, except that it will enable us to do more and better work.
Therefore
we come to you as fellow-students and workers in the field of theosophical
effort,
and holding out the hand of fellowship we again declare the complete unity
of all theosophical workers in every part of the world. This you surely
cannot
and will not reject from heated, rashly-conceived counsels, or from personalities
indulged in by anyone, or from any cause whatever. To reject the proffer
would
mean that you reject and nullify the principle of Universal Brotherhood upon
which alone all true theosophical work is based. And we could not indulge
in
those reflections nor put forward that reason but for the knowledge that
certain persons of weight and prominence in your ranks have given utterance
hastily
to expressions of pleasure that our change of government above referred to
has freed them from nearly every one of the thousands of earnest, studious
and enthusiastic
workers in our American group of Theosophical Societies. This injudicious
and untheosophical attitude we cannot attribute to the whole or to any majority
of your workers.
Let
us then press forward together in the great work of the real Theosophical Movement
which is aided by working organizations, but is above them all. Together we
can devise more and better ways for spreading the light of truth through all
the earth. Mutually assisting and encouraging one another we may learn how to
put Theosophy into practice so as to be able to teach and enforce it by example
before others. We will then each and all be members of that Universal Lodge
of Free and Independent Theosophists which embraces every friend of the human
race. And to all this we beg your corporate official answer for our more definite
and certain information, and to the end that this and your favourable reply
may remain as evidence and monuments between us.
Fraternally
yours,
(Signed)
William Q. Judge,
President
(Signed)
Elliot B. Page, A P. Buchman
C
A. Griscom, Jr., H T. Patterson
Jerome
A. Anderson, Frank I. Blodgett,
Members
of the Executive Committee.
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