< Spiritualism and Theosophy (continued from page 11-19) >
Think for a moment of what this theosophical study exacts of a man who would really penetrate the mysteries and become a true Illuminatus. The lusts of the flesh, the pride of life, the prejudices of birth, race, creed (so far as it creates dogmatism)—must all be put aside. The body must be made the convenience instead of the despot of the higher self. The prison bars of sense that incarcerate the man of matter must be unlocked, and while living in, and being a factor in, the outer world, the theosophist must be able to look into, enter, act in, and return from the inner world, fraught with divine truths. Are there —were there ever—such men, such demigods, rather let us say? There were; there are. The legends of the past may seem to us tinged with error, wild and fantastic, even; but, nevertheless, such men as these existed and displayed their powers, in many countries, at various epochs. And nowhere more than in India, this blessed land of the sun—now so poor, so spiritless, so famished and degraded. This was the home of ancient Theosophy; here— upon these very Himalayan mountains that tower so high yonder—lived and taught the men who won the prize of divine knowledge, whose wisdom—a fertilising stream—flowed through Grecian and Egyptian channels towards the West. Believe me or not, as you will, I am fully persuaded that there still linger among these fastnesses, out of the poisoned moral atmosphere of the nineteenth century, social life, safe from the blight and persicution of bigotry and intolerant modern superstition, safe from the cruel malice of scepticism—those who are true theosophists. Neither pessimist nor optimist, I am not satisfied that our race is doomed to destraction, present or future, nor that the moral sense of society can be kept undiminished without constant refreshment from the parent fount. That fount I conceive to be theosophical study and personal illumination, and I regard him as a benefactor to his kind who points to the sceptical, the despairing, the world-weary, the heart-hungry, that the vanities of the world do not satisfy the soul’s aspirations, and true happiness can only be acquired by interior self-developement, purification and enlightenment. It is not in accord with the abstract principles of Justice that the world should be left entirely without such exemplars of spiritual wisdom. I do not believe it ever was, or ever will be.
To him who takes up this course of effort, the phenomena of mediumship are transcendingly important, for they usher him into the realm of the Unseen, and show him some of the weirdest secrets of our human nature. Along with mediumship he studies vital magnetism, its laws and phenomena, and the Odyle of Von Reichenbach, which together show us the real nature and polarities of this Force, and the fact that it seems to be akin to the one great force that pervades all nature. Further proof he draws from Buchanan’s psychometry, and experiments with those whom lie finds to be endowed with the psychometrical faculty. If there are any here to whom this is a new word, I will say that this is a name given by the modern discoverer to a certain power possessed by about one person in four, to receive intuitive impressions of the character of the writer of a letter or the painter of a picture, by direct contact with the manuscript or the painting. Every one of us is constantly leaving the impress of his character upon everything wo touch, as the loadstone imparts some of its properties to every needle it is rubbed against. A subtle something—magnetism, or vital fluid, or psychic force— constantly exudes from us. We leave it on the ground and our dog finds us; on our clothing, and the slaver’s bloodhound sniffs the scent and tracks the poor runaway to his hiding place. We saturate with it the walls of our houses, and a sensitive psychometer upon entering our drawing-room can unerringly tell before seeing the family, whether that is a happy home or one of strife. We are surrounded by it as a sensitive vapour, and when we meet each other we silently take in our impressions of our mutual congeniality or antipathy. Women have this sense more than men, and many arc the instances where a wife’s prophectic intuition, unheeded and ridiculed by the husband in the case of some new acquaintance, has afterwards been recalled with regret that it should have been dis regarded. Good psychometers can even take from any fragment of inanimate matter, such as a bit of an old building, or a shred of an old garment, a vivid impression of all the scenes s of its history. In its highest manifestation psychometry becomes true clairvoyance, and, when that soul-sight is indeed opened, the eye within us that never grows lustreless shows us the arcana of the Unseen Universe.
Theosophy shows the student that evolution is a fact, but that it has not been partial and incomplete as Darwin’s theory makes it. As <... continues on page 11-21 >