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- Lucifer, vol. 5, no. 25, September 1889, pp. 54-64
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Title for references: Mead G.R.S. - The Astral Plague and Looking-Glass
Short description:
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A system of thought, new to the Western hemisphere, but old as the world itself, embracing in one synthesis religion, science and philosophy, is brought before our notice and claimed by its introducer to have been received from certain sources. It succeeds in arousing wide interest, in creating a new train of ideas, in attracting the attention of men and women of the most diverse nationalities, beliefs, tastes, gifts and attainments in every part of the civilized globe. And this simply in its broad outlines, by its ideas and innate force.
The introducer of the system says: “This is not my invention. I was taught it by others; neither do I know it in its entirety nor its last word. But even if you think me a deceiver, there’s the system. Judge it on its own merits. What you have is but a sketch; work out the details for yourselves.”
The study is fascinating even for the superficial, and the curiosity of numbers is fiercely aroused. They would give worlds to know all, to work out the ideas in externals. “The key is within you,” says the system. That was the great difficulty. Few could understand it. “If we had only a scientific primer with easy experiments!” they cried.
So there was a great demand for primers, and trade became brisk; and some worked it out this way, and some that, and there was a great disputing. And some clever but unscrupulous persons who did not love their brother students, arose and worked it out to their own satisfaction; plausibly enough to all seeming, but cunningly devised to pander to the ambitions and desires of the curious ignorant; and howled that they were greater, wiser, purer, better far than the original teachers, nay were the only true guides.
So these precocious and uninvited pupils set up a school of their own, and in the delirium of the plague which had now obtained firm hold upon them, began to spread abroad the insane charge that their late brother students in the original school were but poor dolts and weak past mentioning, and the teachers iniquitous depraved Satanities.
Perhaps it had not been so totally unpardonable if the system of these pretenders had been new and borne the stamp of essential difference from the school in which these ignoramuses had been such sorry outside surface pupils. That, however was beyond their attainments: they could not construct, they could but throw into confusion, destroy. Therefore with subtle ingenuity they stole and plagiarised, heaping together gold and silver, brass and iron and abominations, and threw over it a cloak of specious fascination and decent exterior. And by flattering the race-prejudices, pride, persons and presumptions of their victims, drew an eager crowd of flies around the garbage-bin which they had smeared with the sweet adulterated honey of falsehood and self-deception.
One thing alone they could not hide: abominations, as is their wont, must putrify, and the odour which thus arose, was most unsavoury.
55 The following is an extract from the New York Path of August:
or The Science of the Soul and the Stars.
Some few years ago was started (about 1884) an order called “H. B. of L.” – or Hindu, Hermetic, or Hibernian Brotherhood of Luxor, as one may choose – which, under pledge of secrecy, pretended to give occult information and teaching to its members. The “private secretary” of this was Mr. T. H. Burgoyne, of whom a short biography has hitherto been written. The instructions were to be free. In August 1887, a circular was received by the members of the order reading thus:
Dear and Esteemed –”
[The first paragraph, for which we have no room, stated that because the order was not sufficiently united the Private Secretary had determined upon a plan of instruction, and then proceeds. Ed.]
“Those members who have read and thought upon the work just issued to them, The Mysteries of Eros, will see that I have therein but briefly outlined a few of the first principles, as it were – the Alphabet only – of Occultism. I am, therefore, preparing an elaborate course of lessons giving the theoretical and revealing the practical secrets of the science, which I am about to teach in connection with a series of lessons on the Ancient Chaldean Astrology. This system of Chaldean Astrology constitutes the basic principles from which all doctrines, theories, systems and practices radiate, and cannot be found in published works. I have thoroughly elucidated this science in the lessons, after eighteen years of incessant labour, study and practice.[1] Apart also, from this series of lessons, I have in preparation a Special Course upon Egyptian and Chaldean Magic, which will follow as a natural sequence.
“The actual teaching alone, connected with these lessons, will absorb the whole of my time for at least twelve months, hence it is impossible for me to attempt this work without remuneration. I have, therefore, decided to form a Special Class within our Order, for those who desire this sublime knowledge. My terms to each will be $60 for the complete course, payable quarterly in advance (viz. $15). Therefore, all wishing to subscribe will do me a special favour by sending their names at once, so as to enable me to make the necessary preparations.
“In conclusion, I desire to impress upon each individual member who desires to attain unto actual imitation [so printed and altered to initiation in ink. Ed.] the great necessity of subscribing for this Elaborate Course in Occult Instruction, as these teachings are not simply metaphysical speculations, but Actual facts, each and all of which have been verified by actual experiences in the great astral soul-world of nature; further, each fact and theory advanced is issued with the
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knowledge, full consent and approval of our revered Masters, the Hermetic Adepts and guardians of ‘The Wisdom of the Ages.’
T. H. Burgoyne,
Private Secretary.
Address, P. O. Box ( ) Monterey, California.
Embraced in the Foregoing Letter.
Part I.
Occultism and Hermetic Philosophy.
“A full and complete course of twelve lessons, embracing the most arcane doctrines of the Hermetic Wisdom. This course is subdivided into three principal divisions containing four lessons each.
- I. “The Involution of Spirit.”
- II. “The Evolution of Matter.”
- III. “The Laws of Crystallization – the production of Forms.”
- IV. “The Origin of Life.”
- V. “Reincarnation” – Its truths, its apparent truths, and its delusions.
- VI. “The Hermetic Constitution of Man.” Apparent contradictions reconciled.
- VII. “Karma” – Its real truths revealed and its oriental delusions exposed.
- VIII. “Mediumship” – Its nature, laws and mysteries.
- IX. “The Soul and its Attributes,” and the method of their unfoldment.
- X. “Mortality and Immortality,” and the processes of its attainment.
- XI. “The Dark Satellite,” and the laws of the soul’s annihilation.
- XII. “The Triumph of the Soul.” Adeptship – what it is, and how attainable.
N.B. – In the above lessons all argument or superfluous matter will be strictly omitted, and the laws, teachings and principles briefly and concisely stated. They will therefore contain the real gist and substance of what would otherwise be a very large book. The contents of Part I. contains about 100 pages. Part II, 260 pages. They will be clear lithographs of the original, produced by “the Autocopyist.”
The Astro-Masonic Science of the Stars.
“Embracing a most thorough and complete course of 26 lessons, containing an elaborate exposition of the arcane mysteries of Astrology, giving also, in
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detail, The Ancient Chaldean System of reading the stars. Scores of Horoscopes (chiefly those of public and historical characters) will be given as examples to demonstrate the absolute truth of planetary influence, according to the laws and rules contained in these lessons. The student will then see for himself how we read the past, realize the present, and anticipate the future.
“The lessons will be issued with strict regularity, as follows, on the first Monday of each month, commencing with October. One lesson of the Occult series will be issued, and all questions thereon answered during the interim.
“Commencing upon the same date, the first lesson of the Astrological series will be issued and continued fortnightly. Consequently each student will receive one lesson upon Occult Philosophy and two lessons upon Astrology each month. The whole course occupying exactly one year.”
The private secretary signed all his letters to the order with the symbol found on the title page of “The Light of Egypt.” An inspection shows that the book is mostly a reprint of the instructions which were “lithographs of the original produced by the Autocopyist.”
It will therefore be instructive to quote from the preface and give the table of contents of the “Light of Egypt.”
“For nearly twenty years[2] the writer has been deeply engaged investigating the hidden realms of occult force, and, as the results of these mystical labours were considered to be of great value and real worth by a few personal acquaintances who were also seeking light, he was finally induced to condense, as far as practicable, the general results of these researches into a series of lessons for private occult study. This idea was ultimately carried out and put into external form; the whole, when completed, presenting the dual aspects of occult lore as seen and realised in the soul and the stars, corresponding to the microcosm and the macrocosm of ancient Egypt and Chaldea and thus giving a brief epitome of Hermetic philosophy.
At the conclusion of the first part, we read – “We have written during the past twelve months probably as much as the ordinary human mind will be able to realise.”
SECTION I.
The Genesis of Life.
I. The Realm of Spirit,
The Involution of the Divine Idea.
II. The Realm of Matter,
Evolution and the Crystallisation of Force.
III. The Origin of Physical Life,
Progressive Expressions of Polarity.
IV. The Mysteries of Sex.
Differentiations of the Biune Spirit.
SECTION II.
The Transition of Life.
Incarnation and Re-incarnation,
Its truths, Its Apparent truths, Its Delusions.
The Hermetic Constitution of Man,
Principles versus Results.
Contradictions Reconciled.
III. Karma,
Its real nature and influence.
IV. Mediumship,
Its Universal Nature, Laws and Mysteries.
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The Realities of Life.
I. The Soul,
Its Nature and its Attributes.
II. Mortality and Immortality,
Nature’s Processes.
The Appearance and the Reality.
III. The Dark Satellite,
The Sphere of Failure and Undeveloped Good.
IV. The Triumph of the Human Soul,
Adeptship, Its Nature and how attainable.
PART II.
The Science of the Stars.
To quote from the H. B. of L. instructions would be simply to reprint the “Light of Egypt.”
It is interesting to notice that H. B. C., the private secretary of M. Theon the “Adept,” signs himself with the identical “dilapidated swastica” of the “Author” of the “Light of Egypt.” The object of the present paper is first of all to prove the source of the volume beyond refutation, and then to deal solely with the book itself and prove the perniciousness of its teachings. Burgoyne, d’Alton, H. B. Corini, M. Theon, Stella the Astrologer &c. &c. (all these being permutations and combinations of aliases of persons unfortunately too well known by many of us), with their schemes, occasional forced retirements from public life, rapid change of residence, mediumship and avowed practice of the foulest black magic, may be left to Karma.
And what is this “Light” which presumption, with reiterated claims of knowledge, professes to throw on the problem of being?
“Where now, O Egypt, where are thy diviners and ordainers of the hour? . . . . Thou shalt not, therefore, know what the Lord Sabaoth shall do. For this Egypt is the inefficacious Hyle.”
Throughout the whole book the claim of having verified their assertions by actual experiment is again and again brought forward.
We recognize here the disease which has overtaken so many who have contacted the Astral Light. Do they not know that there are states far more material still than this external world of ours?
The skeleton of their body of doctrine is plagiarized wholesale from what they understand of Eastern cosmogenesis.[3] We read of (Re) incarnation, Karma, septenary rounds, principles, races, &c., the eighth sphere, cyclic progression, involution, evolution, the One Life and its two aspects, &c., &c. But what a tangled skein they have made of it! The threads are all thrown into inextricable confusion, and the spirit of the original gives place to excuses for the exercise of passion and indulgence. On this framework are patched together scraps from Swedenborg, the Perfect Way, the works of Lake Harris, and preeminently of the P. B. Randolph school, making, as a unity, I know not what sorry olla podrida of absurdities and obscenities. The word “obscenity” may perhaps 59startle the general reader of the volume under examination. The public exposition of their “Love” doctrine has been made in such generally guarded language that it may well deceive those who read in good faith and without a knowledge of the authors and their “secrets.” We hope, however, to enlighten the public on some of these “mysteries.”
Two subjects will be sufficient examples of their method. (i) Reincarnation and (ii) Karma.
(i) “In no case does the soul monad commence as a mineral and attain unto the animal or human upon the same planet, but it becomes latent on each alternate orb. For instance, the mineral atoms upon this earth will undergo a purely impersonal cycle upon Venus (!)[4] which is their next sphere, and then become incarnated within the vegetable circuit upon the next planet, and so on; while the mineral atoms of the planet Mars (!) when they reach this planet, are purely impersonal beings and do not incarnate here as objective forms, but pass their cycle in the astral spaces, then enter material conditions again upon Venus.”
“The talented author of ‘Art Magic’ and ‘Ghost Land,’ who for years had investigated the various unseen realms of life for himself, gives the world the brief results of his life-long research in the latter work. Speaking upon re-incarnation the writer says: ‘To my dim apprehension, and in view of my long years of wandering through spirit spheres, where teaching spirits and blessed angels guided my soul’s ardent explorations, this brief summary of pre-existent states explains all that the re-incarnationists have laboured so sedulously to theorize upon. . . . the universal and reiterated assertion of myriads of spirits in every stage of a progressive beyond, convinced me there was no return to mortal birth, no retrogression in the scale of cosmic being, as a return to material incarnations undoubtedly would be,[5] and all the demands of progress, justice and advancement, are supplied by the opportunities offered the soul in the sphere of spiritual existence.”
Oh the Summerland, the harps and streets of gold! But why should the author who elsewhere insists on the Cyclic law of progression, quote the opinion of his “adept” friend to support his pet theory.
Is this the materializing of the spiritual or not? To this there can be but one answer. If such chaos-makers could have their own way, they would poison the pure spiritual state with the mephitic exhalations of their passionate lower natures, and make a “Hell” of “Heaven.” If they could have comprehended the idea of the word plane or sensed the mystic meaning of the term planet, they would never have been guilty of such “inversive” delusion, or have so bedaubed the pure garments of spirit with the mire of matter.
As long as an attraction to the material exists so long will the monad return under the Law. These, on the contrary, would project the gross matter of their lower natures, unpurified, into the realm of Spirit. It is true that the Fixed must be transformed into the Volatile. But many processes and many days are necessary for the transformation, and every atom must be transmuted, the operator continually watching and aiding the Great Work. And this he must do alone. And, therefore, must he sleep and wake again and again returning to the task.
All such material schemes have an attraction for surface-skimmers, as presenting a mind-picture which the vulgar can easily follow. This is not the method of true Occultism. The mystery of Man can never be told in words. One facet only at a time of the Stone of the Philosophers can be glimpsed at. Its unity must be sensed by the spirit.
(ii). Karma for Theosophists is a law affecting both spirit and matter. The School of Misrepresentation informs us that we believe that 60
“Karma at death remains somewhere or other down upon the astral planes of the planet, like an avenging demon, waiting anxiously for the period of Devachanic happiness to come to an end, in order to re-project the poor unfortunate soul once more into the magnetic vortices of material incarnation, where, with its load of bad Karma hanging like a mill-stone round its neck, it will, in all human probability, generate a still greater load of this theological dogma, and, consequently, at each re-birth it will sink deeper, unless the spiritual Ego can bring it to some consciousness of its fearfully sinful state.”
This will be news for most of us. Surely we live and learn (mostly lies)! Now hear what comfortable words the “Hermetic” doctrine teaches.
“Karma is not an active principle, but, on the contrary, it is a crystallized force.”
. . . . . . . . . . . .
“Karma is the offspring of everything. . . . Races of men, species of animals, and classes of plants also evolve special racial Karmas which constitute their astral world.. . . . .
“Karma is absolutely confined to the realms of the astral light, and consequently is always subjective. . . . When the soul leaves the planet the Karma disintegrates. (!!)
“When the soul enters the spiritual states of the soul world (which Buddhists term Devachan), the power of its earthly Karma can never re-attract it to earth; its influence over the soul is for ever lost.”
Astral, very astral! The result of indigestion. And to think of credulity paying sixty dollars for so pernicious a disease! And if they will give sixty dollars for an acute attack of astral dyspepsia, what would they not pay for an indulgence in astral aphrodisiacs? Here we have a brew of such abominations from the astral materia medica. Those who have in their possession the MS. notes to Eulis, circulated by the H. B. of L., will recognize the hand of the same crew.[6]
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“The twin souls are related to each other primarily as brother and sister, and finally as man and wife. In this latter state their true meeting place is the plane of embodied humanity. . . . But whenever the two halves of the same divine Ego do meet, love is the natural consequence; not the physical sensations produced by the animal magnetism of their sexual natures, but the deep, silent emotions of the soul . . . . this Spiritual love is the outcome of their Divine relationship, and should never be set aside nor crushed by any worldly considerations. But, on the contrary, wherever possible, these pure intuitions of the soul should be obeyed ... If a female should marry under these circumstances and become the mother of children, it will frequently transpire that the actual germs of spiritual life will be transmitted by this absent one, the external husband only provides the purely physical conditions for the manifestation of the spiritual offspring of the true lord. The rejected soul-mate, the spiritual bride-groom, is the real father, and very often the child born will resemble the image of its true parent.”
“To suddenly and completely suppress the natural functions of the sexual organism will do a great deal of physical and spiritual harm, because the re-action will create violent discord with the ethereal constitution. In fact, the complete suppression is almost as bad as the excessive use or sensual indulgence.”
“No foreign or outside influence can absorb or annihilate the sexual qualities of the soul. It is therefore true that the masculine and feminine attributes of the soul cannot be destroyed as a whole. But the masculine portion may attract its feminine portion or soul mate, and the intense selfhood of its own dominant forces virtually destroy her manifested existence. This absorption, however, is a very rare occurrence and only transpires in the case of those magical adepts of the astral plane who have attained their psychological powers by a complete polarization of all the truly human elements of their internal natures. Such magical adepts become the concentrated centres of spiritual selfishness, but teach the external masses that self is the very demon they have conquered. . . . . It is from this magical school of thought that mankind have received the doctrines which teach that sex is only the appearance of matter, and not a spiritual reality, whereas, nothing in this mighty universe is so manifest and so eternal as the male and female expressions of the Divine soul. These adepts profess to have blended the two; but they have simply polarized the one, and created a conscious selfhood of the other.”
“Celibacy is a method that should be discouraged in all cases wherein the spiritual constitution of the organism is in a negative condition, and under the most favourable circumstances it is a very questionable practice unless the spiritual nature is sufficiently active to absorb and use the etherealised atoms of the seminal fluid which has become dematerialised by the magnetic activities of Occult training.[7] Celibacy, then, must only take place when the animal nature has been so far evolved upward toward the higher principles that the sexual propensities are susceptible of extending their vibrations to a higher plane of action. In this case celibacy becomes an absolute necessity of further Occult progress.”
“The human soul must be wholly evolved up out of the animal soul, i.e., the sphere of undeveloped good in man’s constitution must be developed, the animal forces and appetites, instead of being conquered and chained like a wild beast as sought by oriental mystics, must be gradually developed and transformed or evolved into the human.”
Very subtle indeed.[8] Love is a union of souls: a most excellent and righteous precept. But souls are male and female and each individual soul ever remains so and continues to aid in procreation, for “it frequently transpires that the actual germs of spiritual life will be transmitted by the absent one. . . And very often the child born will resemble the image of the true parent.” So 62that these souls may prostitute their bodies wholesale, for “during the present cycle very few of these spiritual unions take place,” and this, no-doubt, is quite to the satisfaction of such Don Juans. And thus we have a doctrine to encourage elective affinities; sympneumata triumphant, astral prostitution preached as the divine law. And still these inconsequent babblers proclaim that when “the animal is evolved,” celibacy becomes compulsory. But when shall the evolution of this monster cease? we cry. This is the momentous question. Shall it be now and within, or shall it be further indulged? Shall the “Kingdom of Heaven” be put off to a dim and distant future, and “Hell” continue to reign triumphant, or shall the cry go forth “Choose ye, this day, what gods ye shall serve”?
No doubt it is less damnable to their fellows that man and woman should weaken the passion of their thought sphere by an expression in act, and as legitimate a gratification as the self-preservative laws of society may provide. But to say such thoughts and acts are a necessity for man is a pernicious and frantic lie. The act is merely a curbing of the animal strength of the weak.
The pure in heart shall see, the pure in mind shall know, the pure in act shall be clad in the breast-plate of righteousness.
Marriage, it is true, is sanctified by the Churches; and in this they show a practical common sense and a desire to keep the animal within certain bounds, but not even they preach its necessity.
True love of Humanity, the one religion, shows a nobler ideal, so that the higher ethics of Theosophy, as also the lives and teachings of the Nazarene and the Buddha, incalculate absolute purity, the virgin state, both of thought and act.
The crew of the piratical craft, sailing under the stolen flag of Egypt’s hoary wisdom, with brazen impudence proclaim aloud that the exercise of the sex function is a necessary step in the conscious development of “Adeptship”! Indulge the animal, they howl, develop it, do not suppress it; do not slay the dragon, fatten it up, give it to eat! Such is their creed. St. George shall no more slay the Dragon, nor Bellerophon the Chimæra, nor Hercules the Hydra; the Mysteries are overthrown and Chaos returns to its primæval slime. Progress is throttled and hurled into the yawning gulf of lust, and red Anarchy raises high its standards among the tents of men.
My brethren, can such things be?
And so at this time, when the “budding spirituality of the West” begins to feel a surfeit of this same animal, and to “get its eye at length upon the knot that strangles it,” begins to see this “Love” in its true colours and its poisonous influence on young and old; this band of knaves would drag the pure white maid of Love down into darkness and chaotic mire, and oozing out an ignis fatuus of lust would send it forth to hover round the noisome fens of passion. Pure Love is love for all Humanity, “Divine Compassion.” This love alone can teach man Justice.
It is indeed “Jehovah-God” whose constant exhortation was “Increase and multiply,” that spreads such dire delusions. Thus the world is taught to look on such an act as Divine and God-appointed.
It is true that this function is a fact in nature, but by no means a divine fact any more than any other of the natural functions. Simply an animal fact, owing 63to the evolution of matter, nothing more; but from the standpoint of that which is above the animal, – infernal. By this means, say these subtle tempters, the god within shall be strengthened. Aye, the false shadow “Jehovah” [9] but not “The God.”
Man must be a perfect animal. Quite so: all his animal organs must be perfect. He has then the power of choice at every moment whether his body shall be the playground of the animal or the temple of the God.
It is sometimes argued that from physiological considerations, the exercise of every function is necessary and to refrain from the use of any function harmful. In extraordinary cases, when the individual is suffering from a veritable disease, it may be so, and then only if it is entirely beyond the control of the patient and becomes a sort of madness. But in the great majority of ordinary cases, a large percentage of the medical faculty, in one country at least, has declared the exercise of such functions unnecessary to health.[10] This is, of course, a purely material judgment, but why need we any further witness?
But indeed the perniciousness of preaching such an indulgence as necessary and its deadly attraction, especially for those who hanker after the occult, is by no means the prejudiced imagining of sentimental prudery, but an actual fact of experience. The poison is subtle. Astral alcohol is of finer aroma and taste than the destructive fire water of modern commerce.
The sanctified spilling of Abel’s blood[11] is the corollary of the doctrine of Twin Souls and biune sentimentalism. That sex is the outward expression of a law is true. But that there is anything of the nature of sex relationships in higher states within this material veil of appearances, of this absurd union which breeds multiplicity and is therefore a descent into matter, is absolutely false and unthinkable. Is this then the path of progress which leads to Unity; this a means to At-one-ment? [12]
But let no one imagine that we call the sex function unnatural. It is natural beyond a doubt: but natural to the animal; natural to man, while the animal predominates – but no longer than that.
“Love, pure and divine, is the grand keynote according to which all the harmonies of the Infinite Universe are tuned. Love is life and immortality, while the teachings and practice which insidiously or openly produce a contempt for sex and love, all tend toward the dark satellite and death, in its
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awful and occult sense; for just in proportion as love is displaced, self rushes in to fill the vacuum. . . . the whole teaching of Re-incarnation and Karma as taught by Buddhism, esoteric (?) or otherwise, is purely dogma; it is materialism run to seed, combined with oriental speculations. It is a huge system of selfishness, to work out good here for the sake of greater good hereafter.”
And Theosophy inculcates selfishness! That which teaches the divine Brotherhood of Man, the one religion, the sole bond of union between humanity, Divine compassion, is selfish! Cannot these disloyal traitors to the truth, unloving sons of one fond mother, realise however vaguely the meaning of Sacrifice of Duty; are they still too blind to see the narrow way that leads across the mountain peaks of self unto the smiling plains of sweet Compassion. As long as sorrowing human kind remain on earth, so long must we continue to think and do and speak for it, for therein we live and move and have our being.
So that at length, when possible and endurable, we may refuse the heavenly bliss of Devachan, to crucify ourselves afresh, most willing victims for our brothers’ woes, and bearing the ever-growing burden of responsibility reach at length the Christ State of Nirmanakayas, to sorrow on until the feet of the last pilgrim soul have passed the narrow way.
These are they, who having suffered all and won through countless years Nirvanic bliss and an eternal rest; yet when the prize is now within their grasp, refuse Nirvana for their great large love, not to another soul of sex, but to Humanity, a sexless unity, and on this most delusive plane their sad and weary brothers in the flesh; and so in sympathy beneath this crushing weight of pain continue, till the Great Day “Be with us,” when all shall be in Paranishpanna, where “We are one and the same and thou art one and the same; this is the First Mystery, the Mystery of the Ineffable, before he came forth.”
And all this sorrowful and weary waiting to help a few at most from time to time; for even they are under the Great Law, the Absolute, and deaf mankind will neither hear nor yet perceive it. What work of Love can be compared to this, what higher ideal can be set before man as he is? What story of earthly suffering, or of the cruel crying woes of those great souls all born before their time, lost children[13] of our mother, or even of the more familiar scene on Calvary, can ever shadow forth this love of man which passeth all understanding?[14]
Footnotes
- ↑ This guru must have begun then his “incessant labour, study and practice” when ten years of age [?] For, in the “Extract from a report of the proceedings at the Leeds Borough Sessions in the Leeds Mercury of January 10, 1883,” before us, we find that one Thomas Henry Dalton, later alias d’Alton, alias Burgoyne, alias Corrini, Stella,” etc., etc., grocer, was in that year 27 years old. We have undeniable proofs corroborated by a photograph that the “Burgoyne” of the “H. B. of L.,” Dalton the enterprising (grocer) of Leeds, and the author of The Light of Egypt – helped of course by several others whom we know – are identical. – [Ed.]
- ↑ The italics are mine. – [G.R.S.M.] By comparing them with the synopsis of the H.B. of L., just quoted the reader wi be edified.
- ↑ In the H. B. of L. instructions (1884) we find a statement that the Races and Rounds are not taken from Mr. Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism, but were written by a young student in 1882. Granting this to be true, which is by no means sure, the Fragments of Occult Truths published in the Theosophist since 1881, containing the substance of Esoteric Buddhism, may account for the fact
- ↑ The Italics in all quotations are mine. – [G.R.S.M.]
- ↑ The “Adept” apparently places planes one above another and traces progress in a straight line [?].
- ↑ Extracts from the Mysteries of Eulis, by Dr. Pascal Beverley Randolph, 1882.
These mysteries were the most secret instructions of the H. B. of L.
“Conclusion. These are the fundamentals and all that is absolutely essential to anyone, for their application is as broad and varied as life itself; a list of over one hundred powers attainable is given in the A–– M––,† which see. But there are certain sexive applications not therein given, amongst which is that of life-prolonging through a peculiar rite which usually weakens health and destroys life, but which, under proper conditions, absolutely strengthens and prolongs both; this mystery is that of Mahicaligna – or the sexive principle of Eulis, and comes into active use in many ways, but principally in these seven:
- I. For purposes of increasing the brain and body power of an unborn child.
- II. Influencing one’s wife or husband and magnetically controlling them.
- III. Regaining youthful beauty, energy, vivacity, affectional and magnetic power.
- IV. Prolonging the life of either the subject or actor, or either at will.
- V. Attainment of supreme White Magic of Will, Affection or Love.
- VI. For the furtherance of financial interests, schemes, lotteries, &c.
- VII. The attainment of the loftiest insight possible to the earthly soul.
These seven constitute a crowning glory of the System of Eulis.”
Here follow long and detailed instructions, unfit for publication in any country. A hint or two may be given to show their general tendency. The seven problems are characterized as a “radical soul-sexive series of energies”; further on we are told that “the great intent” is to be executed through the magic use of gender. “The mystery of Life and Power, seership and forecast, endurance and longevity, silent energy and mental force lies in the SHE side of God, the love principle of human kind and in the sexual nature of the homos. Outside of it all is cold and death, in it resides all Fire, Energy, Procreant power (spiritual and all others) and the key unlocking every barred door in the realms that are.
“Fix this first principle firmly in your memory. Its basic form is ‘Love lieth at the formation,’ and love is convertibly Passion, Enthusiasm, Heat, Affection, Fire, God, ‘master that.’ . . . . Now I will teach you the grandest truth you ever dreamed of. It is this. Remember that the essence of all power, of whatsoever nature, character or kind ever resides in evolves out of and derives its impulsive energy from the She side of God . . . . “You cannot master what is herein written in a day or month, for it requires long and severe study and practice to thoroughly comprehend it.”
† Ansairetic Mystery, a work by the same author.
- ↑ Truly one may say “I smell all horse pond, at which my nose is most indignant.”
- ↑ The reader must bear in mind that the views brought forward in the present paper to combat the pernicious doctrines of these pseudo-teachers and pretended “Adepts” are meant only for those who believe in Occultism as a living fact and who seek to model their lives on its teachings. That the majority of us are capable of speedy success is extremely doubtful – still we can try; we may advance a few steps on the journey and not sit still with folded hands in passive lethargy; and so alone shall we gain courage to move boldly on, for face the task we must some day. But indeed in these latter times, that the doctrines of the great teachers of the past on this momentous question should receive even a just hearing is highly improbable. The two views contrasted are diametrically opposed to one another. It is for those alone who have made up their minds, to choose the Right or Left Path. The Middle is for those who doubt. Those therefore who do not yet believe in Occultism and that every act of their lives leaves its mark indelibly upon their moral atmosphere, cannot of course be expected to fully agree in the strong view brought forward, and for them it is not intended.
- ↑ Jod-hevah.
- ↑ See reports of the White Cross Society in America, and also Clinical Lectures and Essays by Sir J. Paget, p. 291; British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, 1865, vol. i. p. 389, an article by G. M. Humphrey, M.D.; Medical Times and Gazette, 1872, vol. i. p. 239, article by Dr. Neale; Vanguard, Aug. 1889, article by T. S. Clouston, M.D.; Ethics and Natural Law, by Joseph Rickaby, 8vo. Lond. 1888.
- ↑ Use the physiological key of esoteric symbology. Vide Secret Doctrine, vol. ii. p. 125.
- ↑ The reader will now be able to appreciate the brazen-faced impudence and falsehood of Hiram E. Butler of G. N. K. R. and “Esoteric” notoriety, a further development of the H. B. of L. imposture. In the Press of Boston for Feb. 3, 1889, the promoter of the “Call to the awakened” and “Esoteric College” is reported to have made the following answers to his interviewer's question: “Are the Theosophists throughout the country favourable to this movement?” “No, they hate us,” responded Butler. “They hate us for our many virtues. Do you know, I am convinced that all the Theosophists, not excepting Mdme. Blavatsky herself, cling to the pernicious doctrine that the way to conquer the passions is to exhaust them through gratification. For an organization that embraces so frightful a heresy there is no hope, absolutely none.” After this it is somewhat astonishing to find a favourable review of the “Light of Egypt” in L’Initiation of Paris, presumably a publication for the furtherance of Theosophy and Occultism.
- ↑ Infanti Perduti.
- ↑ Those who desire to know how high an ideal of unselfishness theosophy can teach should read the “Voice of the Silence,” translated by Mdme. Blavatsky and now in the press. It is impossible to imagine that so high an ideal can meet with one dissentient voice.