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BY MADAME H. P. BLAVATSKY</center>

BY MADAME H. P. BLAVATSKY</center>

 

Among the numerous sciences pursued by the well-disciplined army of earnest students of the present century, none has had less honors or more scoffing than the oldest of them—the science of sciences, the venerable mother-parent of all our modern pigmies. Anxious, in their petty vanity, to throw the veil of oblivion over their undoubted origin, the self-styled, positive scientists, ever on the alert, present to the courageous scholar who tries to deviate from the beaten highway traced out for him by his dogmatic predecessors, a formidable range of serious obstacles.

Among the numerous sciences pursued by the well-disciplined army of earnest students of the present century, none has had less honors or more scoffing than the oldest of them—the science of sciences, the venerable mother-parent of all our modern pigmies. Anxious, in their petty vanity, to throw the veil of oblivion over their undoubted origin, the self-styled, positive scientists, ever on the alert, present to the courageous scholar who tries to deviate from the beaten highway traced out for him by his dogmatic predecessors, a formidable range of serious obstacles.

In their primitive shape, the elementary spirits, so often mistaken in modern Spiritualism for the undeveloped or unprogressed spirits of our dead, stand in relation to our planet as we stand in relation to the Summer Land. When we use the term “disembodied spirit,” we only repeat what the elementary ones most certainly think or say of us human beings, and if they are as yet devoid of immortal souls, they are, nevertheless, gifted with instinct and craft, and we appear as little material to them as the spirits of the fifth sphere appear to us. With our passage into each subsequent sphere, we throw off something of our primitive grossness. Hence, there is eternal progress—physical and spiritual—for every living being. The transcendental knowledge and philosophy of the greatest Oriental Cabalists never penetrated beyond a certain mark, and the Hermetist, or rather Rosicrucian, if we would be precise, never went farther than to solve the majestic, but more limited problems of the Jewish Cabala, which we can divide thus:

In their primitive shape, the elementary spirits, so often mistaken in modern Spiritualism for the undeveloped or unprogressed spirits of our dead, stand in relation to our planet as we stand in relation to the Summer Land. When we use the term “disembodied spirit,” we only repeat what the elementary ones most certainly think or say of us human beings, and if they are as yet devoid of immortal souls, they are, nevertheless, gifted with instinct and craft, and we appear as little material to them as the spirits of the fifth sphere appear to us. With our passage into each subsequent sphere, we throw off something of our primitive grossness. Hence, there is eternal progress—physical and spiritual—for every living being. The transcendental knowledge and philosophy of the greatest Oriental Cabalists never penetrated beyond a certain mark, and the Hermetist, or rather Rosicrucian, if we would be precise, never went farther than to solve the majestic, but more limited problems of the Jewish Cabala, which we can divide thus:

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{{Page aside|113}}

1. The nature of the Supreme Being:

1. The nature of the Supreme Being:

2. The origin, creation, and generation of the Universe, the Macrocosmos;

2. The origin, creation, and generation of the Universe, the Macrocosmos;

3. The creation, or generation, of outflowing of angels and man;

3. The creation, or generation, of outflowing of angels and man;

4. The ultimate destiny of angels, man, and the Universe; or the inflowing;

4. The ultimate destiny of angels, man, and the Universe; or the inflowing;

5. To point out to humanity the real meaning of the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures.

5. To point out to humanity the real meaning of the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures.

I will close by startling, perhaps, even Orthodox Spiritualists by reaffirming that all who have ever witnessed our modern materializations of genuine spirit-forms, have, unwittingly, become the initiated neophytes of the Ancient Mystery; for each and all of them have solved the problem of Death, have “lifted the veil of Isis.”

I will close by startling, perhaps, even Orthodox Spiritualists by reaffirming that all who have ever witnessed our modern materializations of genuine spirit-forms, have, unwittingly, become the initiated neophytes of the Ancient Mystery; for each and all of them have solved the problem of Death, have “lifted the veil of Isis.”

{{HPB-CW-comment|[At the end of this article, in her Scrapbook, Vol. I, p. 45, where the cutting was pasted, H.P.B. wrote in pen and ink the following:]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[At the end of this article, in her Scrapbook, Vol. I, p. 45, where the cutting was pasted, H.P.B. wrote in pen and ink the following:]}}

Shot No. 1—Written by H.P.B. by express orders from S *** (See first result in the query from a learned!! Mason—art: “Rosicrucianism,” back of the page.

Shot No. 1—Written by H.P.B. by express orders from S *** (See first result in the query from a learned!! Mason—art: “Rosicrucianism,” back of the page.

{{HPB-CW-comment|[The parenthesis is not closed in the original.]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[The parenthesis is not closed in the original.]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In her Scrapbook, Vol. III, H.P.B. pasted the cuttings of this long article again. It occupies pages 241-245 therein. She signed the article in pen and ink: H. P. Blavatsky, June 1875.]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In her Scrapbook, Vol. III, H.P.B. pasted the cuttings of this long article again. It occupies pages 241-245 therein. She signed the article in pen and ink: H. P. Blavatsky, June 1875.]}}

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