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Identify J. Brailsford Bright and unite all three Lucifer instalments of Theosophy and Modern Socialism.
(Use small-cap journal headings and distinct Lucifer page markers; consolidate Volume I publication details and navigation.) |
(Identify J. Brailsford Bright and unite all three Lucifer instalments of Theosophy and Modern Socialism.) |
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''Electronic journal edition: articles by authors with dictionary entries are linked to their separate pages; other materials are reproduced here in journal order. The texts reproduced in this volume are taken from the [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/60852/60852-h/60852-h.htm Project Gutenberg library], including its typographical corrections. For articles by [[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], links lead to the texts prepared by [[Zirkoff, Boris|B. de Zirkoff]] in her [[BCW|Collected Writings (BCW)]].'' | ''Electronic journal edition: articles by authors with dictionary entries are linked to their separate pages; other materials are reproduced here in journal order. The texts reproduced in this volume are taken from the [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/60852/60852-h/60852-h.htm Project Gutenberg library], including its typographical corrections. For articles by [[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], links lead to the texts prepared by [[Zirkoff, Boris|B. de Zirkoff]] in her [[BCW|Collected Writings (BCW)]].'' | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Whats in a Name|What's in a Name?]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Whats in a Name|What's in a Name?]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 1-7</center> | ||
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{{Style P- | {{Style P-Quote|1=Occultism is not magic, though magic is one of its tools. | ||
Occultism is not the acquirement of powers, whether psychic or intellectual, though both are its servants. Neither is occultism the pursuit of happiness, as men understand the word; for the first step is sacrifice, the second, renunciation.}} | |||
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{{Style P-Quote|1=Life is built up by the sacrifice of the individual to the whole. Each cell in the living body must sacrifice itself to the perfection of the whole; when it is otherwise, disease and death enforce the lesson.}} | |||
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{{Style P- | {{Style P-Quote|1=Occultism is the science of life, the art of living.}} | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - Comments on Light on the Path|Comments on “Light on the Path”]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - Comments on Light on the Path|Comments on “Light on the Path”]]}} | ||
[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]] | <center>[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]], pp. 8-14</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The History of a Planet|The History of a Planet]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The History of a Planet|The History of a Planet]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 15-22</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - The Blossom and the Fruit|The Blossom and the Fruit]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - The Blossom and the Fruit|The Blossom and the Fruit]]}} | ||
[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]] | <center>[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]], pp. 23-38</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Keightley A. - A Law of Life|A Law of Life]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Keightley A. - A Law of Life|A Law of Life]]}} | ||
[[Keightley, Archibald|A. Keightley]] | <center>[[Keightley, Archibald|A. Keightley]], pp. 39-45</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Lane-Fox G. - The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism|The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Lane-Fox G. - The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism|The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism]]}} | ||
[[Lane-Fox, George|St. George Lane-Fox]] | <center>[[Lane-Fox, George|St. George Lane-Fox]], pp. 49-51</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Last of a Good Lama|The Last of a Good Lama]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Last of a Good Lama|The Last of a Good Lama]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 51</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Levi E. - The Birth of Light|The Birth of Light]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Levi E. - The Birth of Light|The Birth of Light]]}} | ||
[[Levi, Eliphas|Éliphas Lévi]] | <center>[[Levi, Eliphas|Éliphas Lévi]], pp. 52-54</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Literary Jottings|Literary Jottings]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Literary Jottings|Literary Jottings]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 71-75</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Theosophical and Mystic Publications|Theosophical and Mystic Publications]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Theosophical and Mystic Publications|Theosophical and Mystic Publications]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 77-79</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher|From the Note-Book of an Unpopular Philosopher]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher|From the Note-Book of an Unpopular Philosopher]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 80</center> | ||
== No. 2 – October 1887 == | == No. 2 – October 1887 == | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Massey G. - The Lady of Light|The Lady of Light]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Massey G. - The Lady of Light|The Lady of Light]]}} | ||
[[Massey, Gerald|G. Massey]] | <center>[[Massey, Gerald|G. Massey]], pp. 81-82</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Signs of the Times|The Signs of the Times]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Signs of the Times|The Signs of the Times]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 83-89</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Self-Knowledge|Self-Knowledge]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Self-Knowledge|Self-Knowledge]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 89</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - Comments on Light on the Path|Comments on “Light on the Path”]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - Comments on Light on the Path|Comments on “Light on the Path”]]}} | ||
[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]] | <center>[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]], pp. 90-96</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Will and Desire|Will and Desire]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Will and Desire|Will and Desire]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 96</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Keightley A. - A Law of Life|A Law of Life]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Keightley A. - A Law of Life|A Law of Life]]}} | ||
[[Keightley, Archibald|A. Keightley]] | <center>[[Keightley, Archibald|A. Keightley]], pp. 97-101</center> | ||
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{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=2|p=101}} | |||
{{Style P-Quote|1=“The great watch-word of the True is this: – in last analysis all things are divine.”|signature=(''Jasper Niemand in the “Path”'').}} | |||
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{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=2|p=102}} | {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=2|p=102}} | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Origin of Evil|The Origin of Evil]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Origin of Evil|The Origin of Evil]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 109-119</center> | ||
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{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=2|p=119}} | |||
{{Style P- | {{Style P-Quote|1=“Man will regain his lost Eden on that day when he can look at every desire in the broad, quiet light of this question: – How can I give desire such vent as shall conduce to the benefit of other men?”|signature=(''Jasper Niemand in the “Path”'').}} | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Great Paradox|The Great Paradox]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Great Paradox|The Great Paradox]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 120-122</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - The Blossom and the Fruit|The Blossom and the Fruit]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - The Blossom and the Fruit|The Blossom and the Fruit]]}} | ||
[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]] | <center>[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]], pp. 123-133</center> | ||
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{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=2|p=133}} | |||
{{Style P- | {{Style P-Quote|1=“Spirituality is not what we understand by the words ‘virtue’ or ‘goodness.’ It is the power of perceiving formless, spiritual essences.” | ||
|signature=''(Jasper Niemand in the “Path.”)'' | |||
}} | |||
{{Style P- | {{Style P-Separator custom}} | ||
{{ | {{Style P-Quote|1=“The discovery and right use of the true essence of Being – this is the whole secret of life.” | ||
|signature=''(Jasper Niemand in the “Path.”)'' | |||
}} | |||
{{Style P- | {{Style P-Separator custom}} | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|plain=yes|1=Desire Made Pure}} | |||
When desire is for the purely abstract – when it has lost all trace or tinge of “self” – then it has become pure. | |||
The first step towards this purity is to kill out the desire for the things of matter, since these ''can'' only be enjoyed by the separated personality. | |||
The second is to cease from desiring for oneself even such abstractions as power, knowledge, love, happiness, or fame; for they are but selfishness after all. | |||
The mere familiarity with the ''sound'' of a word, or a phrase, or the mere familiarity with the ''appearance'' of a symbol, does not, of ''necessity'', involve the possession of the idea properly associated with the said word, phrase or symbol. To insist, therefore, on the contrary cannot be theosophical; but would be better described as ''un''theosophical. | Life itself teaches these lessons; for all such objects of desire are found Dead Sea fruit in the moment of attainment. This much we learn from experience. Intuitive perception seizes on the ''positive'' truth that satisfaction is attainable only in the infinite; the will makes that conviction an actual fact of consciousness, till at last all desire is centred on the Eternal. | ||
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{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=2|p=134}} | |||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=Thoughts on Theosophy.}} | |||
“<span style="font-variant:small-caps">The</span> letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life,” this is the keynote of all true reform. Theosophy is the vehicle of the spirit that gives life, consequently nothing ''dogmatic'' can be truly ''theosophical''. | |||
It is incorrect, therefore, to describe a ''mere'' unearthing of dead letter dogmas as “Theosophic work.” | |||
When a word, phrase, or symbol, having been once used for the purpose of suggesting an idea ''new'' to the mind or minds being operated on, is insisted upon irrespective of the said idea, it becomes a dead letter dogma and loses its vitalising power, and serves rather as an obstruction to, than as vehicle of the spirit; but, alas, this insistance upon the letter is too often carried on under the honoured name of “Theosophy.” | |||
A man cannot acquire an idea ''new to him'' unless it ''grows'' in his mind. | |||
The mere familiarity with the ''sound'' of a word, or a phrase, or the mere familiarity with the ''appearance'' of a symbol, does not, of ''necessity'', involve the possession of the idea properly associated with the said word, phrase or symbol. To insist, therefore, on the contrary cannot be theosophical; but would be better described as ''un''theosophical. | |||
It would certainly be theosophical work to point out kindly and temperately how certain words, phrases and symbols appear to have been misunderstood or misapplied, how various claims and professions may be excessive or confused as a consequence of ignorance or vanity, or both. But it is quite another thing to condemn a man or a body of men ''outright'', for certain errors in judgment or action; even though they were the result of vanity, greed or hypocrisy; indeed such wholesale condemnation would, on the contrary, be untheosophical. | It would certainly be theosophical work to point out kindly and temperately how certain words, phrases and symbols appear to have been misunderstood or misapplied, how various claims and professions may be excessive or confused as a consequence of ignorance or vanity, or both. But it is quite another thing to condemn a man or a body of men ''outright'', for certain errors in judgment or action; even though they were the result of vanity, greed or hypocrisy; indeed such wholesale condemnation would, on the contrary, be untheosophical. | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Massey G. - Are the Teachings Ascribed to Jesus Contradictory|Are the Teachings Ascribed to Jesus Contradictory?]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Massey G. - Are the Teachings Ascribed to Jesus Contradictory|Are the Teachings Ascribed to Jesus Contradictory?]]}} | ||
[[Massey, Gerald|G. Massey]] | <center>[[Massey, Gerald|G. Massey]], pp. 135-138</center> | ||
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{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=2|p=135}} | |||
{{Style P- | In ''Light'', for September 10th, there is a letter from Dr. Wyld, who writes as follows: | ||
{{Style P-Quote|1=“In the last number of ''Light'' there is a quotation from the ''Spiritual Reformer'' in which the writer shows the absurdity of the idea that Jesus was not an historic being. But while thanking the writer for this contribution, I would take the strongest objection to his assertion that many of Christ’s teachings are contradictory and mistaken. This is an assertion occasionally made by Spiritualists, and whenever I have met with it I have asked for evidence of the assertion, but hitherto I have received none.” | |||
}} | |||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Massey G. - Are the Teachings Ascribed to Jesus Contradictory|Are the Teachings Ascribed to Jesus Contradictory? – continued]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Massey G. - Are the Teachings Ascribed to Jesus Contradictory|Are the Teachings Ascribed to Jesus Contradictory? – continued]]}} | ||
[[Massey, Gerald|G. Massey]] | <center>[[Massey, Gerald|G. Massey]], pp. 135-138</center> | ||
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|signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Interrogator.</span> | |signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Interrogator.</span> | ||
}} | }} | ||
{{Style P- | {{Style P-Separator custom}} | ||
It seems to me there is some confusion in this letter between obtaining knowledge by experiment, and testing it by experiment. Edison knew that his discoveries were only things to look for, and he tested his knowledge by experiment. The actual work of great inventors is the bringing of intuitive knowledge on to the plane of practice by applying the test of experiment. But all inventors are seers; and some of them having died without being able to put into practice the powers which they knew existed in Nature were considered madmen. Later on, other men are more fortunate, and re-discover the laughed-at knowledge. This is an old and familiar story, but we need constantly to be reminded of it. How often have great musicians or great artists been regarded as “infant prodigies” in their childhood? They have intuitive knowledge of that power of which they are chosen interpreters, and experiment is only necessary in order to find out how to give that which they know to others. | |||
Intuitive knowledge in reference to the subjects with which I have been dealing must indeed be tested by experiment; and it is the whole purpose of “Light on the Path” itself, and the “Comments” to urge men to test their knowledge in this way. But the vital difference between this and material forms of knowledge is that for all occult purposes a man must obtain his own knowledge before he can use it. There are many subjects of time content to linger on through æons of slow development, and pass the threshold of eternity at last by sheer force of the great wheel of life with which they move; possibly during their interminable noviciate, they may obtain knowledge by experiment and with well-tested tools. Not so the pioneer, the one who claims his divine inheritance now. He must work as the great artists, the great inventors have done; obtain knowledge by intuition, and have such sublime faith in his own knowledge that his life is readily devoted to testing it. | |||
But for this purpose the testing has to be actually done in the astral life. In a new world, where the use of the senses is a pain, how can the workman stay to test his tools? The old proverb about the good workman who never quarrels with them, however bad they are, though of course had he the choice he would use the best, applies here. | |||
As to whether intuitive knowledge exists or no, I can only ask how came philosophies, metaphysics, mathematics into existence? All these represent a portion of abstract truth. | |||
Before I received this letter the “Comments” for this month were written, in which, as it happens, I have spoken a great deal about intuitive knowledge. {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=2|p=140}}Therefore, I will now only quote the definition of a philosopher from Plato, which is given near the end of Book V., – | |||
{{ | {{Style P-Quote|1=“I mean by philosopher, the man who is devoted to the acquisition of knowledge, real knowledge, and not merely inquisitive. The more our citizens approach this temperament, the better the state will be. True knowledge in its perfection and its entirety, man cannot attain. But he can attain to a kind of knowledge of realities, if he has any knowledge at all, because he cannot know nonentities. Hence his knowledge is half-way between real knowledge and ignorance, and we must call it opinion.” | ||
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{{Style P-Quote|1= | {{Style P-Quote|1= | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Westcott W.W. - The Kabbalah Unveiled|The Kabbalah Unveiled]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Westcott W.W. - The Kabbalah Unveiled|The Kabbalah Unveiled]]}} | ||
[[Westcott, William Wynn|W. W. Westcott]] | <center>[[Westcott, William Wynn|W. W. Westcott]], pp. 141-145</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians (review)|“An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians”]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians (review)|“An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians”]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 145-148</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Theosophical and Mystic Publications (1)|Theosophical and Mystic Publications]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Theosophical and Mystic Publications (1)|Theosophical and Mystic Publications]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 156-157</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher (1)|From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher (1)|From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 160</center> | ||
== No. 3 – November 1887 == | == No. 3 – November 1887 == | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Let Every Man Prove His Own Work|"Let Every Man Prove His Own Work"]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Let Every Man Prove His Own Work|"Let Every Man Prove His Own Work"]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 161-169</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Let Every Man Prove His Own Work|"Let Every Man Prove His Own Work" – continued]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Let Every Man Prove His Own Work|"Let Every Man Prove His Own Work" – continued]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 161-169</center> | ||
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{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=3|p=170}} | |||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=4|1=The Demand of the Neophyte}} | |||
<center>[Continuation of <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Comments on Light on the Path</span>: By the Author.]</center> | |||
{{Style P-Quote|1=“Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters.”}} | |||
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Speech</span> is the power of communication; the moment of entrance into active life is marked by its attainment. | |||
And now, before I go any further, let me explain a little the way in which the rules written down in “Light on the Path” are arranged. The first seven of those which are numbered are sub-divisions of the two first unnumbered rules, those with which I have dealt in the two preceding papers. The numbered rules were simply an effort of mine to make the unnumbered ones more intelligible. “Eight” to “fifteen” of these numbered rules belong to this unnumbered rule which is now my text. | |||
As I have said, these rules are written for all disciples, but for none else; they are not of interest to any other persons. Therefore I trust no one else will trouble to read these papers any further. The first two rules, which include the whole of that part of the effort which necessitates the use of the surgeon’s knife, I will enlarge upon further if I am asked to do so. But the disciple is expected to deal with the snake, his lower self, unaided; to suppress his human passions and emotions by the force of his own will. He can only demand assistance of a master when this is accomplished, or at all events, partially so. Otherwise the gates and windows of his soul are blurred, and blinded, and darkened, and no knowledge can come to him. I am not, in these papers, purposing to tell a man how to deal with his own soul; I am simply giving, to the disciple, knowledge. That I am not writing, even now, so that all who run may read, is owing to the fact that super-nature prevents this by its own immutable laws. | |||
The four rules which I have written down for those in the West who wish to study them, are as I have said, written in the ante-chamber of every living Brotherhood; I may add more, in the ante-chamber of every living or dead Brotherhood, or Order yet to be formed. When I speak of a Brotherhood or an Order, I do not mean an arbitrary constitution made by scholiasts and intellectualists; I mean an actual fact in super-nature, a stage of development towards the absolute God or Good. During this development the disciple encounters harmony, pure knowledge, pure truth, in different degrees, and, as he enters these degrees, he finds himself becoming part of what might be roughly described as a layer of human consciousness. He encounters his equals, men of his own self-less character, and with them his association becomes {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=3|p=171}}permanent and indissoluble, because founded on a vital likeness of nature. To them he becomes pledged by such vows as need no utterance or framework in ordinary words. This is one aspect of what I mean by a Brotherhood. | |||
If the first rules are conquered the disciple finds himself standing at the threshold. Then if his will is sufficiently resolute his power of speech comes; a two-fold power. For, as he advances now, he finds himself entering into a state of blossoming, where every bud that opens throws out its several rays or petals. If he is to exercise his new gift, he must use it in its two-fold character. He finds in himself the power to speak in the presence of the masters; in other words, he has the right to demand contact with the divinest element of that state of consciousness into which he has entered. But he finds himself compelled, by the nature of his position, to act in two ways at the same time. He cannot send his voice up to the heights where sit the gods till he has penetrated to the deep places where their light shines not at all. He has come within the grip of an iron law. If he demands to become a neophyte, he at once becomes a servant. Yet his service is sublime, if only from the character of those who share it. For the masters are also servants; they serve and claim their reward afterwards. Part of their service is to let their knowledge touch him; his first act of service is to give some of that knowledge to those who are not yet fit to stand where he stands. This is no arbitrary decision, made by any master or teacher or any such person, however divine. It is a law of that life which the disciple has entered upon. | |||
Therefore was it written in the inner doorway of the lodges of the old Egyptian Brotherhood, “The labourer is worthy of his hire.” | |||
“Ask and ye shall have,” sounds like something too easy and simple to be credible. But the disciple cannot “ask” in the mystic sense in which the word is used in this scripture until he has attained the power of helping others. | |||
Why is this? Has the statement too dogmatic a sound? | |||
Is it too dogmatic to say that a man must have foothold before he can spring? The position is the same. If help is given, if work is done, then there is an actual claim – not what we call a personal claim of payment, but the claim of co-nature. The divine give, they demand that you also shall give before you can be of their kin. | |||
This law is discovered as soon as the disciple endeavours to speak. For speech is a gift which comes only to the disciple of power and knowledge. The spiritualist enters the psychic-astral world, but he does not find there any certain speech, unless he at once claims it and continues to do so. If he is interested in “phenomena,” or the mere circumstance and accident of astral life, then he enters no direct ray of thought or purpose, he merely exists and amuses himself in the astral life as he has existed and amused himself in the physical life. Certainly {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=3|p=172}}there are one or two simple lessons which the psychic-astral can teach him, just as there are simple lessons which material and intellectual life teach him. And these lessons have to be learned; the man who proposes to enter upon the life of the disciple without having learned the early and simple lessons must always suffer from his ignorance. They are vital, and have to be studied in a vital manner; experienced through and through, over and over again, so that each part of the nature has been penetrated by them. | |||
To return. In claiming the power of speech, as it is called, the Neophyte cries out to the Great One who stands foremost in the ray of knowledge on which he has entered, to give him guidance. When he does this, his voice is hurled back by the power he has approached, and echoes down to the deep recesses of human ignorance. In some confused and blurred manner the news that there is knowledge and a beneficent power which teaches is carried to as many men as will listen to it. No disciple can cross the threshold without communicating this news, and placing it on record in some fashion or other. | |||
He stands horror-struck at the imperfect and unprepared manner in which he has done this; and then comes the desire to do it well, and with the desire thus to help others comes the power. For it is a pure desire, this which comes upon him; he can gain no credit, no glory, no personal reward by fulfilling it. And therefore he obtains the power to fulfil it. | |||
The history of the whole past, so far as we can trace it, shows very plainly that there is neither credit, glory, or reward to be gained by this first task which is given to the Neophyte. Mystics have always been sneered at, and seers disbelieved; those who have had the added power of intellect have left for posterity their written record, which to most men appears unmeaning and visionary, even when the authors have the advantage of speaking from a far-off past. The disciple who undertakes the task, secretly hoping for fame or success, to appear as a teacher and apostle before the world, fails even before his task is attempted, and his hidden hypocrisy poisons his own soul, and the souls of those he touches. He is secretly worshipping himself, and this idolatrous practice must bring its own reward. | |||
The disciple who has the power of entrance, and is strong enough to pass each barrier, will, when the divine message comes to his spirit, forget himself utterly in the new consciousness which falls on him. If this lofty contact can really rouse him, he becomes as one of the divine in his desire to give rather than to take, in his wish to help rather than be helped, in his resolution to feed the hungry rather than take manna from Heaven himself. His nature is transformed, and the selfishness which prompts men’s actions in ordinary life suddenly deserts him. | |||
<center>(''To be continued.'')</center> | |||
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[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 173-180</center> | ||
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[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]] | <center>[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]], pp. 193-202</center> | ||
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[[Harbottle, Thomas Benfield|T. B. Harbottle]] | <center>[[Harbottle, Thomas Benfield|T. B. Harbottle]], pp. 212-215</center> | ||
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''A.'' The senses called astral in the comments on “Light on the Path” are the senses which perceive the inner essence, certainly; which are cognisant of the life underlying every form of matter. The ordinary psychic or clairvoyant only perceives other forms of matter than those we ordinarily see, and perceives them as a child perceives the forms in this world at first, without understanding their meaning. The astral senses carry beyond matter, and enlighten man with regard to any form of life which especially interests him. They show the poet painter, and composer the things they express to other men, who regard these great ones as beings of another order – beings with the gift of genius. So they are, and the vigour of that genius carries them on into the inner life where meaning, and harmony, and the indefinable all-desired are to be perceived. Wordsworth saw it in nature, he recognised the “spirit in the woods” – not the wood-nymphs but the divine spirit of peace which teaches a lesson in life. Richard Jeffries saw it in nature, too, as perhaps no other man ever has seen it; through the finite visible world he perceived the infinite invisible one, and before he died he had begun to know that the visible world does not exist. Turner, perhaps, is the only parallel. By the invisible world I must repeat again that I do not mean what the spiritualists call by that name – a new world of other forms. I mean the formless world. It is the farthest limit man’s ''consciousness'' can reach to; and only the pure and star-like soul can become even aware of its existence. It is not man’s divine nature, but the man who enters it with any reverence for the great miracle of life can only do so by the aid of his divine nature, whether as a poet, a painter, or an occultist. The soul which enters it without reverence is unable to endure its extreme rarity of atmosphere and turns to the psychic-astral in which to live; such men become madmen and suicides, more or less pronounced, as men do who refuse to dwell in any form of physical life but the grossest and simplest. There is some law of life which impels men onward – call it evolution or developement or what you will; and a man can no more go downwards without suffering than a tree can be placed with its branches in the ground, instead of its roots, without discomfort, and in the end, death. | |||
I propose to use two phrases which have been suggested to me; the psychic-astral and the divine-astral. This seems the only way to make my meaning clear, {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=3|p=227}}for the word astral has two meanings, its own proper derivative one, from the Sanskrit ''stri'' to strew light, and that given it by the use of all occultists. Paracelsus appropriated the word for all things sidereal, subject to the moon and stars, part and parcel of this material universe, even though formed as Dryden says of “purest atoms of the air.” In this sense the spiritualists and psychics have the right of custom to use it as they do, to describe their world of finer forms. In this meaning an astral shape is the form of the human soul, still in possession of the passions which make it human; and the astral senses perceive not the subtle and supreme glory which Shelley seized on in Prometheus, but a region full of shapes and forms differing but little from those we now wear, and still distinctly material. | |||
The “astral man” in the “Comments on Light on the Path” should have been written the divine-astral man, according to this evident difference of meaning between the present writer and all other writers on occultism. | |||
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<center>II.</center> | <center>II.</center> | ||
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The answer to the former question seems to contain the answer to this, which is clearly prompted by a conception of the word “astral” in its divine sense. | |||
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''A.'' This seems to be rather a statement of a truth than a question which can be answered in any way other than putting it into different words, perhaps not so good. | |||
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''A.'' This is what should be. But materialists have brought their sense of reality into the shadowed life. | |||
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''A.'' To me no way is known but that of living the life of a disciple. | |||
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''A.'' Surely this must be so; yet rarely, for when it is accomplished the man would be divine, a Buddha! | |||
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''A.'' “The whole of ‘Light on the Path,’ is written in an astral cipher” is stated {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=3|p=228}}at the outset of the “comments;” the word “tears” does not refer to physical tears in any way. | |||
{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=3|p=228}} | It is the only word which will convey any idea whatever of the moisture of life, that which bursts from the human soul in its experience of sensation and emotion, and in the passion of its hunger for them. | ||
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''A.'' This is the great mystery which each man must solve for himself. | |||
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''A.'' Once more I must refer to the preliminary statement in the comments that “Light on the Path,” is written in an astral cipher, and that tears do not mean the tears of the physical body, but the rain drops that come from the passion-life of the human soul. These being stayed for ever, the astral sight is no longer blinded or blurred. Divine love and charity then find room, when personal desire is gone. Joy and sorrow, ''for oneself'', then drop naturally into another place than that which they filled before. | |||
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{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=3|p=229}} | {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=3|p=229}} | ||
''A.'' (1.) Not any iota of your belief in the power of the Christ-spirit would or should be sacrificed; it would rather increase, for that spirit is the same Divine overshadowing which has inspired every Redeemer. | |||
(2.) It matters very little by what name you call the Master of Masters, so that you do appeal to “''Its''” power throughout. | |||
(3.) Man can find no comforter save in the Divine Spirit within himself. Does not the tale of the life of Jesus illustrate this, looking at it from one point of view? In what dread isolation he lived and died; His disciples, even those who were most beloved by Him, could not reach His spirit in its sublime moments, or in the hours of its keenest suffering. So with every one who raises himself by effort above the common life of man, in however small a degree. Solitude becomes a familiar state, for nothing personal, not even a personal God, can comfort or cheer any longer. | |||
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''A.'' It is difficult for such a one to know anything of what lies beneath the surface of his nature until it has been probed by the fiercer experiences of life. But, of course, the theory of re-incarnation makes it possible that such experiences are left behind in the past. The entrance to the gates is marked by one immutable sign; the sense that personal joy or sorrow no longer exist. The disciple lives for humanity, not for himself; works for all creatures that suffer instead of knowing that he himself has pain. | |||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Esoteric Buddhism (BCW vol.8)|[Editorial reply to “Esoteric Buddhism” by N. D.]]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|plain=yes|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Esoteric Buddhism (BCW vol.8)|[Editorial reply to “Esoteric Buddhism” by N. D.]]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 230</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Quote|1=“Being courteously invited to address any questions bearing on the matter contained in <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Lucifer</span> to the Editors, Madame la Marechale Canrobert would gladly know: – First, What is the distinction made (page 11) between ''the soul'' and the starry spirit? Is it that soul which is again alluded to (page 91) as the animal soul, in opposition to the Divine soul? Second, What are the external forms of the individualised being spoken of also on page 91?”}} | {{Style P-Quote|1=“Being courteously invited to address any questions bearing on the matter contained in <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Lucifer</span> to the Editors, Madame la Marechale Canrobert would gladly know: – First, What is the distinction made (page 11) between ''the soul'' and the starry spirit? Is it that soul which is again alluded to (page 91) as the animal soul, in opposition to the Divine soul? Second, What are the external forms of the individualised being spoken of also on page 91?”}} | ||
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''A.'' The human soul, that which is subject to human passions, but which can also yearn towards the nobility of the Divine soul, is that which is spoken of on page 11. The starry spirit is the Divine-astral. The animal soul is that which animates the mere physical life, the unintelligent existence of the body. The “external forms” referred to on page 91 are the successive human shapes which the starry spirit inspires during its long pilgrimage. | |||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Real History of the Rosicrucians (review)|The Real History of the Rosicrucians]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Real History of the Rosicrucians (review)|The Real History of the Rosicrucians]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 231-236</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher (2)|From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher (2)|From the Note Book of an Unpopular Philosopher]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 239-240</center> | ||
== No. 4 – December 1887 == | == No. 4 – December 1887 == | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Lucifer to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Greeting|"Lucifer" to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Greeting!]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Lucifer to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Greeting|"Lucifer" to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Greeting!]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 241-251</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Johnston C. - Emerson and Occultism|Emerson and Occultism]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Johnston C. - Emerson and Occultism|Emerson and Occultism]]}} | ||
[[Johnston, Charles|C. Johnston]] | <center>[[Johnston, Charles|C. Johnston]], pp. 252-257</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - The Blossom and the Fruit|The Blossom and the Fruit]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - The Blossom and the Fruit|The Blossom and the Fruit]]}} | ||
[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]] | <center>[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]], pp. 258-266</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=4|1=Theosophical Society's Convention of 1887}} | |||
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Safely</span> returned from my long tour of ten months, my first duty upon reaching home is to remind the Branches that the time approaches for the Annual Meeting of the Convention of the General Council – 27th to 30th of December. It appears that the attendance this year will be much larger than ever before; some thinking that we shall register between 200 and 300 Delegates: besides the old, there will be some twenty new Branches entitled to representation and votes. The yearly extension of our Society is thus steadily augmenting the strength of the General Council, and the importance of its Annual Convention. As the Society settles gradually upon its constitutional basis, the volume of committee and parliamentary work lessens and more time becomes available for theosophical lectures, the formation of friendships, and the cultivation of a good mutual understanding as to the work before us. | |||
The Adyar Library, to which considerable gifts of old MSS. and books have been made since last December, is already being put to use. The Dwaita Catechism was issued at the last Convention, and at this year’s the Vishistadvaita and Advaita Catechisms will be ready; as will also a compilation of Buddhistic Morals from the sacred literature of Ceylon. It is hoped that members of our many Branches will kindly bring forward as many ancient works upon every Department of Aryan knowledge as they can procure for this best of national monuments, the Adyar Library. | |||
Every effort will be made to promote the comfort of Delegates, as heretofore. Lectures are being arranged for, but learned Mofussil members who are willing to read discourses upon special topics interesting to Delegates, are requested to at once correspond with the Secretary, and if the MSS. are ready, to send them in for approval. | |||
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In conclusion let me assure our colleagues of all races, creeds and colors, that a hearty and brotherly welcome awaits them at their Theosophical home at Adyar. | |||
Adyar, 17th October, 1887. | |||
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H. S. Olcott, P.T.S.}} | |||
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[[Wachtmeister, Constance|C. Wachtmeister]] | <center>[[Wachtmeister, Constance|C. Wachtmeister]], pp. 274-281</center> | ||
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<center>[[Bright, John Brailsford|J. Brailsford Bright]], pp. 282-287</center> | |||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1= | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Scott-Elliot W. - The Great Quest|The Great Quest]]}} | ||
<center>[[Scott-Elliot, William|W. Scott-Elliot]], pp. 288-291</center> | |||
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<center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 292-293</center> | |||
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<center>[[Serjeant, William C. Eldon|W. C. Eldon Serjeant]], pp. 293-295</center> | |||
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<center>[[Ellis, William Ashton|W. A. Ellis]], pp. 296-298</center> | |||
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Why fearest thou the darksome shades | |||
That creep across the path of life? | |||
Why tremble at the thought of strife | |||
That oftentimes the soul invades? | |||
Why sicken at the thought of ills? | |||
The horrors that invade thy dreams, | |||
Why sicken at the thought of ills? | |||
The horrors that invade thy dreams, | |||
The shadowland of forms, that seems | The shadowland of forms, that seems | ||
Dark terror to the soul it fills? | Dark terror to the soul it fills? | ||
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|signature=5, Christie Street, Paisley.<br /><span style="font-variant:small-caps">J. H. Beatty.</span> | |signature=5, Christie Street, Paisley.<br /><span style="font-variant:small-caps">J. H. Beatty.</span> | ||
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{{ | (1.) The difficulty experienced in fathoming the mysteries of Karmic Law arises from the conditions of our present intellectual environment and general evolutionary status. It has been, also, frequently stated that a ''complete'' comprehension of its workings is reserved for the Initiate who has transcended the domain of terrestrial activity – viz., the necessity for soul-evolution through successive births. But, passing over this consideration, it is evident that, in the process of bringing down fragments of the Divine Truth on to the plane of mere intellectual interpretation, an inevitable distortion must ensue. The rays of spiritual light will be split up and refracted as they pass through the prism of the brain. Mr. Beatty will recognise this fact more clearly owing to his belief “that ''human'' knowledge is ''merely relative''.” Surely, when that most familiar fact of our experience, the “perception of matter,” is, metaphysically speaking, an illusion, the relativity of ''mental'' conceptions of spiritual truths would appear to be a necessity. According to Huxley, Spencer, Du Bois Reymond, and all leading thinkers, we know nothing of things as they are even on this plane, which to the materialist is “All in all.” The essence of the thing “perceived” escapes us; all we really grasp is its presentation in consciousness. It is, therefore, clear that in interpreting realities on the superphysical plane, we cannot advance beyond word-symbols and adumbrations. The intuition of the individual must effect the rest. | ||
< | |||
{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=4|p=318}} | Such considerations, however, in no way militate against the successful defence of Esoteric philosophy on purely intellectual lines. Translated into terms of human thought, its metaphysics must be shown to blend intimately with the ''facts'' of science and psychology, and its ability to solve the enigmas of life demonstrated. “Philosophy is chaos,” remarks the author of “Absolute Relativism,” referring to modern thought. If we are to avoid the spectacle of a future “moral chaos,” also, as the fruit of the materialistic Upas tree, some fresh impulse must be infused into the dry bones of Western metaphysics – some ''raison d’être'' assigned to life, and an ideal worthy of man’s noblest efforts presented to the multitude of ''laissez-faire'' pessimists. Such is an aspect of the work now before us. | ||
(2.) A man may certainly injure himself<ref name="nf113">No law of Nature can be set aside, but a man ''transgresses'' a law of his [mental] being when he deliberately places himself under the sway of certain “evil” forces. The gist of Mr. Beatty’s criticism is not quite evident here.</ref> by shutting his eyes to a spiritual {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=4|p=316}}interpretation of the Universe and its workings. The only acquisition he can carry with him after physical death is the ''aroma'' of the vast aggregate of mental states generated in one incarnation. The ''personality'' or brain-consciousness of the physical man is, after all, a mere feeler projected into this objective plane to harvest experience for its individual Self. It does not at all follow that any experience may be acquired which the Monad is enabled to assimilate. Abstract thinking, religious aspirations, scientific lore; poetry, the nobler emotions, and all such efflorescences of human consciousness, furnish the “material” which go to build up the ''transcendental individuality'' of the Ego progressing towards the Nirvana. The materialist presents a frequent instance of soul-death – so far as the fruitage of the personality is concerned. His knowledge may be enormous, but being unspiritualised, a mere creature of the physical brain, it cannot blossom into luxuriance in the Devachanic interim between successive births. Consequently, as the True Self – the “transcendental subject” of the neo-Kantian German school – only assimilates experience suitable to its own exalted nature, it becomes evident that, ideals apart, the philosophy of a man is of very great importance. At the same time, it need not be said that sectarian “religion” is almost more pernicious than materialism, inasmuch as it combines the two factors of crass ignorance and spiritual torpor. | |||
(3.) Harmony ''is'' essentially the law of the Universe. The contrasted aspects of Nature come into being subsequently to the differentiation of matter from its several ''protyles'' in the commencement of a cycle of becoming, or Manwantara, and can have no reality except in the experience of conscious Egos.<ref name="nf114">The ''phenomenal'' contrast is not denied, but it is representative of no fundamental want of harmony. In the same way the contrast of Subject and Object is essential to our present finite consciousness, although it has no basis of reality beyond the limits of conditional being. Moreover, even in this phenomenal Universe, equilibrium (harmony) is most certainly maintained by the very conflict of the contrasted forces alluded to.</ref> For beneath the surface of the great ocean of cosmic illusion – beneath the clash of apparently clashing forces – lies the Eternal Harmony. The semblance of discord is but a ripple on the stream of Maya, or illusion. One aspect of esoteric solution of apparent evils is dealt with in the last issue of <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Lucifer</span> (''vide'' art., “Origin of Evil”). But Mr. Beatty will not find himself in a position to accept its validity so long as he continues to “waive the question of reincarnation,” the acceptance of that doctrine lying at the root of the real explanation. | |||
The Universe must, at bottom, be a Harmony. Why?<ref name="nf115">Mr. Beatty asks how the Universe would come to a stand-still, if the law of Harmony was suspended. Now suppose, for instance, the law of “gravity” was not ''counterbalanced'' by the action of other “forces,” what would happen? Science assures us that everything would have long before gravitated to a common centre, and a universal dead-lock have ensued! ''Vice versa'', if “gravity” were to lapse. ''Verb. Sap.''</ref> The equilibrating action of the forces around us is a sufficient proof of the fact; the apparent discord existing, as argued by Spinoza, solely in the sensations of conscious beings. The matter in reality involves the re-opening of the much debated question as to whether an optimistic or pessimistic pantheism is the creed of the true philosopher. Can we with von Hartmann postulate the strange contradiction of an absolutely wise (though from our standpoint unconscious) cause {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=4|p=317}}behind phenomena confronted with a “worthless universe?” Obviously not. Moreover, as pantheists necessarily regard the individual mind as only a rushlight compared with the blazing sun of the Universal Mind, its source, how is a final conclusion as to the “unfathomable folly” of manifested being possible? On the other hand, a non-recognition of the Maya of appearances is a tacit impeachment of the wisdom of the Absolute. The pantheist – and pantheism alone accounts for consciousness itself – is, at least, logically driven into the admission that the “nature of things” is sound and that, probably, apparent flaws in the mechanicism of the Universe would, if viewed from a wider standpoint than the human, altogether vanish. | |||
If, however, the Spinozistic axiom that evil ''exists only in us'', is true – and it is not for a relativist of our critic’s type to deny the fact – pessimism is routed in the recognition of the equilibrating action of the law of Karma. The examples cited by Mr. Beatty of brute forces “one in conflict with another;” of the sufferings of animals in the struggle for existence; and more especially of human suffering in no way controvert the views of the “Harmonists.” The first group is representative of those forces which balance one another by oscillating about a common centre of equilibrium, producing harmony by conflict, just as in the case of the so-called centripetal and centrifugal forces, which regulate the earth’s orbital journey. The second group is, undoubtedly, characterised by the infliction of much incidental pain. But in all instances where Nature immolates the individual organism on the altar of natural selection, she does it for the benefit of the species or the “survival of the fittest” – the individuals borne down by violence in the struggle, reaping, one and all, the results of a compensatory Karma. In the domain of ''human'' suffering, moral debasement, etc., an entirely new factor supervenes – the equilibrating influence of a ''positive'' Karma, which in biblical language demands “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” | |||
(4). “Why,” asks our critic, “is man so important that the Universe was polluted for his sake?” In the first place, Humanity is, by no means, unimportant; the panorama of evolution only existing in order to evolve the Ego from the animal stage up to that of a conscious God. The designation of nature as divided into “good” and “evil” principles, has been taken by Mr. Beatty in its absolute, as opposed to its relative, aspect. Man pollutes only himself and his fellows by “sin”; nature remaining constant ''per se''. “How can he be responsible for what he does?” he continues. He is only so within certain wide limits defined by his previous Karma – the tendencies moral, mental and spiritual, generated in previous lives, continually driving him on to certain lines of action. The “Free Will absolute” of the theologians is as unpsychological and worthless a concept as it is possible to formulate. Not so the doctrine that the Ego is able to ''mould'' its tendencies of thought and emotion within “constitutional limits.” It was the recognition of this fact which led John Stuart Mill to take up a midway position between the equally absurd extremes of Free Will and Necessarianism. The same conviction led the prophet of Materialism, Dr. Louis Büchner, to contradict his whole system by admitting human liberty within a certain area mapped {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=4|p=318}}out by “Heredity” and Environment, and Professor Clifford to invest the “conscious, automaton” Man with the power to control his own ideas!! Responsibility varies enormously, and is, perhaps, almost wanting in the savage (who, however, is in all cases the degraded relic of primæval civilisation). In all cases, the human Ego must be held to be the evolver of the group of tendencies which make up the personality of each re-birth. The sensualist is the victim of a “Frankenstein’s monster,” into which he has infused strength through many lives. We really cannot follow Mr. Beatty when he writes: “Has man instincts, desires, and inclinations, or has he not? If he has, ''why should he have them if he is not to follow them''?” He has them because they are the heritage handed down to him from past lives, and also because his Karma as an individual is bound up with that of the race to which he belongs. It rests with him as to how far he chooses to ''modify'' them “for weal or woe,” for every moment the exhaustion of past Karma runs parallel with the creation of new. It is certainly a strange doctrine here enunciated by Mr. Beatty, that the possession of certain “instincts, etc,” justifies their gratification. Crime, debauchery and cruelty would be difficult to deal with on this hypothesis! It is certainly true – to some extent – that “we are good or bad by reason of all the forces that act on or through us.” These latter are the stimuli to action (''subject to the control of the will''), but are in their turn the resultant of previous Karma. Judging from the general tone of his criticism, it would appear that his first acquaintance with the esoteric philosophy does not date back to a very remote antiquity. | |||
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|signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">(Rev.) T. G. Headley.</span> | |signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">(Rev.) T. G. Headley.</span> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=4|1=Hylo-Idealism – An Apology}} | |||
{{Style P-Quote|1=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">My</span> attention has been directed to a somewhat slighting notice of the above theory of human nature, on pages 72 and 75 of your issue for September, the contents of which are, doubtless, most suggestive of the ''nouvelles couches mentales'' at the basis of all ''nouvelles couches sociales'', and which Physical Science, in its vulgar realism, has altogether missed. | |||
My main position, to which all else is but subsidiary, is that the worlds both of thought and thing, which thus become identified and unified, ''must'' be a product of ''our own'' personality or Egoity, which thus constitutes each Ego Protagonist and Demiurge, from whose tribunal there can be no possible appeal. This being granted, and even Max Müller, in his “Science of Thought,” considers the position ''impregnable'', it matters not one jot, at least in the first line and as far as my main object is concerned, whether the Ego be a Body or a “Spirit.” Our own individuality, as sum and substance of all “things,” is the only essential point of the question. So that it may be argued either on the somatic (hylozoic) or “Spiritual” hypothesis of life and mind. I have always contended that Hylo-Idealism, or Auto-centricism, is the only thorough and legitimate outcome of the phenomenal world theory – this representative ''Weltanschanung'' having been, for some generations past, the accredited creed both of physical science and philosophy. It is well summed up in Kant’s negation of “''Das Ding an sich.''” Vulgar Physical Science, as interpreted by its greatest hierophants, from Newton to Huxley and Darwin, from its incarnate dualism, is fatally handicapped in its search after the ''final'' “good, beautiful, and true.” Even Cardinal Newman is in a similar case, when he predicates ''two'' luminous spectra, God and Self, as the sole entities. The former Spectrum, on the Hylo-ideal, or visional, or phenomenal hypothesis, ''must'' be only the functional ''imago'' of the latter; Self being thus proved to be “Alpha and Omega, beginning and ending, first and last.” Beyond Self, it is manifest, mortal mind can never range. Whether Self be body or “spirit” is, I repeat, for my chief contention, quite immaterial – I sit on both sides of the stile, facing both ways. | |||
|signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Robert Lewins, M.D.</span> | |||
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[[Courtney, Herbert L|H. L. Courtney]] | <center>[[Courtney, Herbert L|H. L. Courtney]], pp. 323-325</center> | ||
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Shall melt in its beams, and in silence expire! | Shall melt in its beams, and in silence expire! | ||
|signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Helen Fagg.</span> | |signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Helen Fagg.</span> | ||
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{{Style P-Quote|1=.... “<span style="font-variant:small-caps">The</span> faith that you call sacred – ‘sacred as the most delicate or manly or womanly sentiment of love and honour’ – is the faith that nearly all of your fellow men are to be lost. Ought an honest man to be restrained from denouncing that faith because those who entertain it say that their feelings are hurt? You say to me: ‘There is a hell. A man advocating the opinions you advocate will go there when he dies.’ I answer: ‘There is no hell, the Bible that teaches it is not true.’ And you say: ‘How can you hurt my feelings?’” | |||
|signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">R. G. Ingersoll.</span> – ''Secular Review.'' | |||
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[[Serjeant, William C. Eldon|W. C. Eldon Serjeant]] | <center>[[Serjeant, William C. Eldon|W. C. Eldon Serjeant]], pp. 365-367</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Oxley W. - The Creator, and What we may know of the method of creation|The Creator, and What we may know of the method of creation]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Oxley W. - The Creator, and What we may know of the method of creation|The Creator, and What we may know of the method of creation]]}} | ||
[[Oxley, William|W. Oxley]] | <center>[[Oxley, William|W. Oxley]], pp. 403-408</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Absolute Monism (review)|Absolute Monism; or, Mind is Matter and Matter is Mind]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Absolute Monism (review)|Absolute Monism; or, Mind is Matter and Matter is Mind]]}} | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Harbottle T.B. - Socialism and Theosophy|Socialism and Theosophy]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Harbottle T.B. - Socialism and Theosophy|Socialism and Theosophy]]}} | ||
[[Harbottle, Thomas Benfield|T. B. Harbottle]] | <center>[[Harbottle, Thomas Benfield|T. B. Harbottle]], pp. 415-417</center> | ||
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<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Mr. Massey</span> has sent us a circular, the contents of which should be of interest to the lovers of Shakspeare and the buyers of rare books. The writer says: | <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Mr. Massey</span> has sent us a circular, the contents of which should be of interest to the lovers of Shakspeare and the buyers of rare books. The writer says: | ||
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{{Style P-Quote|1=“My work on the Secret Drama of Shakspeare’s Sonnets, with Sketches of his Private Friends, and of his own Life and Character, first published in the year 1866, the Second Edition of which was issued, with a Supplement, for Subscribers in 1872, has now been out of print many years. It is frequently enquired for, and very rarely to be found in the catalogues of second-hand booksellers. Therefore I am about to reproduce the work. It will have to be re-cast and re-written where {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=5|p=423}}necessary, as the writing can now be more definitely done. Errors must be confessed and corrected. The new volume will be on lines similar to those of the earlier work, accentuated in many of the details, but modified in others. There will be something new and more decisive to say concerning both sets of the Sonnets, which I call the Southampton and Herbert series; and not without reason or warrant will the Comparative method be pushed much farther than before. The work will be written up to date in the light of the latest knowledge. The most recent data, the latest results of Shakspearian Siftings, will be utilised; and something will have to be said concerning the current Baconian Craze, which was no doubt foreseen by the Great Humourist when he wrote, ‘''A most fine figure! To prove you a Cypher.''’ It is my aim to fight one last battle on this field for what I maintain to be the cause of truth and right; to entrust a final answer on the Sonnet question to the types of John Guttenberg, and leave in his safe keeping a plea that shall be heard hereafter, as a permanent memorial to the writer’s love and admiration for Shakspeare the Poet and Man. After twenty years the ground is felt to be firmer underfoot. The building will have a more concrete base. I am enabled to give a closer clinch to my conclusions, and, as I think, complete my case. Necessarily the book must be large, 700 or 800 pp. The price will be One Guinea.” | |||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - What is Truth|"What is Truth?"]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - What is Truth|"What is Truth?"]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 425-433</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Massey G. - Luniolatry|Luniolatry]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Massey G. - Luniolatry|Luniolatry]]}} | ||
[[Massey, Gerald|G. Massey]] | <center>[[Massey, Gerald|G. Massey]], pp. 440-442</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - The Blossom and the Fruit|The Blossom and the Fruit]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Collins M. - The Blossom and the Fruit|The Blossom and the Fruit]]}} | ||
[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]] | <center>[[Collins, Mabel|Mabel Collins]], pp. 443-460</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Serjeant W.C.E. - Twilight Visions|Twilight Visions]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Serjeant W.C.E. - Twilight Visions|Twilight Visions]]}} | ||
[[Serjeant, William C. Eldon|W. C. Eldon Serjeant]] | <center>[[Serjeant, William C. Eldon|W. C. Eldon Serjeant]], pp. 461-465</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Brainard M.L. - The Relation of Colour to the Interlaced Triangles, or the Pentacle|The Relation of Colour to the Interlaced Triangles, or the Pentacle]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Brainard M.L. - The Relation of Colour to the Interlaced Triangles, or the Pentacle|The Relation of Colour to the Interlaced Triangles, or the Pentacle]]}} | ||
[[Brainard, M. L.|M. L. Brainard]] | <center>[[Brainard, M. L.|M. L. Brainard]], pp. 481-485</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Esoteric Character of the Gospels|The Esoteric Character of the Gospels]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - The Esoteric Character of the Gospels|The Esoteric Character of the Gospels]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 490-496</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=Reviews.}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=Reviews.}} | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Ellis W.A. - Spirit Revealed|Spirit Revealed]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Ellis W.A. - Spirit Revealed|Spirit Revealed]]}} | ||
[[Ellis, William Ashton|W. A. Ellis]] | <center>[[Ellis, William Ashton|W. A. Ellis]], pp. 497-499</center> | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Traite Elementaire de Science Occulte (review)|Traité Élémentaire de Science Occulte]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Traite Elementaire de Science Occulte (review)|Traité Élémentaire de Science Occulte]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 499-500</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - What of Phenomena|What of Phenomena?]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - What of Phenomena|What of Phenomena?]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 504-506</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - What of Phenomena|What of Phenomena? – continued]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - What of Phenomena|What of Phenomena? – continued]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 504-506</center> | ||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=4|1=Mr. Mohini M. Chatterji}} | |||
{{Style P-Quote|data=''To the Editors of'' <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Lucifer</span>.|1=Will you kindly afford publicity in the pages of <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Lucifer</span> to the enclosed letter I have just received from Mr. Mohini M. Chatterji who has been staying for a few months at Rome, with English friends, on his way back to India.|signature=– Yours very truly,<br /><span style="font-variant:small-caps">A. P. Sinnett.</span> | |||
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{{Style P- | {{Style P-Quote|data=TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON LODGE OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.|1=Sir, – I understand that among the members of your Society there is a rumour to the effect that I have joined the Roman Catholic Church, which has caused much annoyance to my friends and also to myself. I beg therefore that you will do me the justice to make it known that the rumour is entirely false and that I have no desire to join any Christian Church.|signature=– I am, Sir, your obedient servant,<br /><span style="font-variant:small-caps">Mohini M. Chatterji.</span><br /><span style="font-variant:small-caps">Rome</span> (Italy), ''January 30th'', 1888. | ||
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{{Style P- | {{Style P-Quote|data=''To the Editors of'' <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Lucifer</span>.|1=On behalf of the members of the London Lodge, I beg to state that the rumour referred to in Mr. Mohini’s letter emanated from two acquaintances of his belonging to the Romish Church, who themselves derived their information from the R. C. priesthood. As for the members of the L. L. they never believed in this report. | ||
|signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Bertram Keightley</span>, Hon. Sec. | |||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=Correspondence}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=Correspondence}} | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Correspondence|[Editorial introduction to the letters on hylo-idealism by Robert Lewins and G. M. McC.]]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|plain=yes|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Correspondence|[Editorial introduction to the letters on hylo-idealism by Robert Lewins and G. M. McC.]]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 507</center> | ||
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{{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=6|p=508}} | {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=6|p=507}} | ||
{{Style P-Title small caps|level=4|1=Re Hylo-Idealism}} | |||
{{Style P-Quote|data=To the Editors of <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Lucifer</span>.|1=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Perhaps</span> space may be found in the February or other early issue of your interesting and suggestive serial for the present curt communication. In a footnote of your January number I am coupled with Mr. H. Spencer as being more Atheist than Moleschott and Büchner – to say nothing of such compromising and irresolute scientists as Darwin, Huxley, and Co. Now, that atheistic or non-animist standpoint is the pivot on which my whole synthesis revolves; and is, I contend, the burning problem at this epoch – ethical and intellectual – of the human mind – ''thoroughly'' to establish on certain concrete, rational and scientific ''data'', that is to say – not on the Utopias of Speculation and Metaphysics. My principle is exactly that of Kant (inter alios) when he formulates the “Thing in Itself.” But we have only to study the short and handy “Critique of Kant,” referred to in your columns – by Kuno Fischer, translated by Dr. Hough, to see how fast and loose that “all-shattering” metaphysician played with his all-destructive theme. Not only does he entirely reverse it and its corollaries in his critique of the “Practical Reason,” and of “Judgment,” but also in the second edition of the “Critique of Pure Reason” itself, in which originally, as its corollary, or rather concomitant, he, like myself, only on less sure premises, disposes of God, the Soul (Anima or Vital Principle), and Immortality – that is of another “personal” life after death. I hold with Lucretius, Epicurus, and others in ancient and modern times, of whom Shelley is a typical case, that no greater benefit can be bestowed on humanity than the elimination from sane thought of this ghastly and maddening Triune Spectre. God alone is quite “l’infame” Voltaire dubs the Catholic Church. Looking through Nature “red in tooth and claws” to its ''pseudo'' Author, we must expect to find a ''Pandemon''. For any omnipotent Being who, unconditioned and unfettered in all respects, “''willed''” such a world of pain and anguish for sentient creatures, must be a Demon ''worse'' than mythology has fabled of Satan, Moloch, Mammon, or other fiends. It must be noted that in the classic Pantheon, the Fates, or Fatal Sisters, are “above” all the Immortals of Olympus, including Jove himself – a {{Page aside in Lucifer|v=1|n=6|p=508}}saving provision quite inadmissible in modern Monotheism, which endows its Divinity<ref name="nf189">Deuce, ''i.e.'', Devil, is the synonym of ''Deus''.</ref> with absolute omnipotence and fore-knowledge. | |||
|signature=<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Robert Lewins, M.D.</span> | |||
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{{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Correspondence|To Dr. Lewins, and the Hylo-Idealists at Large]]}} | {{Style P-Title small caps|level=3|1=[[Blavatsky H.P. - Correspondence|To Dr. Lewins, and the Hylo-Idealists at Large]]}} | ||
[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] | <center>[[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]], pp. 508-512</center> | ||
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