Lucifer/Vol6/Text
This text was extracted from an image and needs proofreading.
Electronic journal edition: substantial titled works with printed author credits and dictionary entries are linked to separate pages; unsigned texts, reviews without a reviewer’s signature, brief notes, aphorisms and extracts are reproduced here in journal order. Replies by H. P. Blavatsky included in BCW remain linked to their collected texts. Texts have been transcribed from the original journal scans. Where available, links for H. P. Blavatsky lead to the texts prepared by B. de Zirkoff in her Collected Writings (BCW). Original journal footnotes are retained.
No. 31 – March 1890
1
The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any opinions, whether religious, philosophical or social, expressed in signed articles.
The Cycle Moveth
Theosophy for the Profane
17
Theosophical Lending Libraries
We have to chronicle the opening of another Theosophical Lending Library. This time it is at Brixton, in charge of Herbert Coryn, Trewergie, Acre Lane, Brixton, S.E.
The Old House in the Canongate
24
What lose my kind |
25
The World's Intensity
WHAT do we mean when we say that matter is made up of atoms? The answers to this question are various, and as variety though charming is perplexing we will accept one, the simplest, and follow it out to the bitter end. Our answer is therefore that an atom is indivisible. And it would appear then that solid matter is made up of indivisible atoms. But it follows from this description of an atom that it is a point of force possessing no dimensions. An atom therefore does not exist as a material form, because then it would be measurable. But we still assert that it does exist, for we find that it may do so as a relative quantity of energy, and that as such it has very definite and personal functions to perform.
How then can we arrive at the conception of an atom, which resolves itself into a unit action having neither beginning nor end? As an atom is the ultimate conception of which the mind is capable with reference to existing substance, we must seek in the very commencement of time for its origine. We shall then find that its want of finality and effective definiteness is due to the peculiar nature of the matrix from which the original atom, prototype of all other atoms, is born.
The One and only Reality, the All, manifests itself, and in the act gives birth to the First Atom, the archetype of all.
The act of the One non-existent Reality becoming existent is the first non-dimensional point produced. This point of energy, or unit of action, represents the appearance of that mystery which even in its manifestation is veiled by the harsh glitter of its own light. This ultimate atom is the unit energy of manifestation, from which flows the endless current of life whose countless forms fill the heavens and the earths.
But it will be objected that the atom cannot be divided. Nor can the act which is typified by our atom be other than One and complete because by it the All manifests as One.
To divide the subjective atom is impossible; but we may divide its objective effects, its illusive reflexions.
The atom, whether it be the vibratory point of absolute Power as the First Law, or whether it be the point of energy denoting any of the minor laws, exhibits the one common characteristic of a motion, which to the finite mind of man takes the form of a swing from negative to positive existence or, as typified on our plane, from Death to Life.
It represents the movement of the First Cause, which again is the veiled representative of the One Reality, the Great Unconscious One. Thus even in the Beginning the motion of an atom and the form of its movement were two distinct and yet inseparable factors as motion and its Manifestation or 26Cause. We say that in this case the cause is identical with manifestation, because the cause of motion manifests as its Form and yet is not the Reality which it pretends to be.
As Infinity may be broken into an infinite series of numbers so the First Atom may be ideally separated into an infinite series of minor atoms which represent the vast stream of vitality, the objective reflection of the One atom which, nota bene, has not been really divided, but still remains the One Infinite Cause, as entire and inscrutable at the source of Life as though objective existence had never been. The continuous motion of this vital current, the endless flashing of its reflected powers, imitate in ever diminishing vibrations the first great swing from Non-Being to Being. The backward sweep completes the vibration which is made up of its unit to and fro movement, and establishes and denotes in terms of energy the equality existing between the One active and the One passive, while its continuous vibration attests the continuation of the act by which the Unconscious maintains its consciousness. Thus every atom is the more or less differentiated act of the One Reality or the invisible Truth which, in asserting itself and becoming apparently manifest, does so as a simple movement or act of Power.
This action we must call by another name. We must call it Law. For it is an imperative act generated by the one absolute Truth. The minor repetitions, the reflected copies blurred and condensed with Time, are minor laws or atomic points of non-dimensional energy vibrating with characteristic and imperative power.
Thus each atom is a law: each is a force appreciable only as a relative value, and the material universe appears to be immaterial, at all events as far as our physical notions about density are concerned.
For have we not ideal laws, as atoms, whose physical existence is due to their existing as links in a chain called Co-relation of Forces? And if because a law, since it is imperative, cannot be added to or subtracted from without ceasing to be (which, as an ever-present imperative would be impossible) and if, because of this peculiar indivisibility of character we say that the atom is inelastic, does it necessarily follow, as some say, that material expansion and contraction could not take place? If so, then we must allow that a subjective cause necessarily exhibits in itself its objective effects, which would be like saying that subject and object are the same in effect as they are in origine. Besides, because a want of elasticity is predicated of it in its abstract purity, that does not necessarily characterise its objective manifestation.
What is the peculiar power of manifestation? In an atom it is the power of Intensity. Each atom in the scale of differentiation is the First One at a different potential. Each differs from the other in the intensity of self-repetition, because the original act of which they are the reflexion was the All manifesting itself, which could only be through the One repeating and thus intensifying itself. Looking around us at the varied forms which 27nature exhibits, we realise the masking effect which the act of positive life possesses. We see at once that an action completed is objective to the source, and that this objectivity dresses up the underlying cause as something quite other than it really is. In the same way we see how the One Great underlying Mystery, in attempting its Self-manifestation, only succeeded in still further concealing itself. It threw around itself an entombing atom, prototype of life as the intensity of Truth; and prototype of form and substance as the link between life and death, the complete vibration.
Let us define an atom as the embodiment of the unit action of a unit law. Every star cleaving the ether of space, every planet and every sun then become atoms; for each embodies in itself its synthetic law, cause of its Being. Each is the objective form, the amplitude of vibration of a law which synthesises every possible minor law which may become active in the inner workings of its evolutionary progress. Thus the earth becomes an atom. The materialisation of the law which governs the positive existence of the globe manifests in space the Intensity with which it is endowed. Thus the earth becomes the link in the co-relation of forces whose mighty chain in this case is made of planets and other sidereal bodies. For it is the visible exhibition of the relation which it, as an atomic differentiation, bears to the Parent Atom and to the scale of minor atoms or lesser laws. As law in its subjective state is only able to define itself as an ideal ratio, then everything material becomes the objective definition of this ideality, and we are brought back to the oft repeated assertion that matter is but a state of consciousness.
The law, as an imperative action, is a unit of consciousness of the Universe, just as its objective substantiality (not materialisation) is a unit of the physical consciousness of the brain of man as a thought. It is either a synthetic, that is to say, a complex law, or it is a simple law. In either case it possesses the atomic peculiarity of non-subdivision. For what is it that cannot be divided in an atom? It is its imperative action, that which constitutes it itself, and not its material objectivity. As a material atom it becomes an objective expression of itself as a co-relative force which expression will vary with the association of laws amongst which it is to become objective. An atom in its capacity of substance is the definite manifestation of the act of self-repetition made with the characteristic intensity peculiar to that particular law. Substance is the direct objective of law independent of qualifying ratios. Matter is the peculiar earthly character given to the potential of an atom by the immediate relation under which it is forced to become active; this refers to the effect which a synthetic law must have on those it synthesises. The synthetic law of our earth in order to become objective requires the active co-operation of certain definite laws representing its own latent powers. These bear each one its own immutable ratio to the One Law of All, and by this they are individualised. They have other and different relations to the laws with which they are associated in the unit act of bringing into objective existence the 28synthetic law representing our globe. Through these they acquire an earthly personality. In other words the definite meaning of the planet’s life is expressed by definite ideas written in material letters by the power of minor laws.
The earth is composed of a definite number of elements. From this we argue that the amount of each element represents the intensity with which the elementary laws become objective in order that each one may properly manifest its share in the formation of the earth’s physical consciousness.
And the amount of an element found in the earth’s composition would then denote the intensity of expression of that one law in the formula of the world’s objective life. A material atom is not therefore a vibratory law except by implication. It has really no existence, except as an arbitrary unit of computation by which we may apply the rules of mathematics to the calculation of mass, etc.
The mass of, for example, copper in the earth’s composition represents by its quantity the intensity of the projection of the law of this element’s activity which was required in order that it might explain in the physical plane its significance in the root idea of the planet’s future development, its synthetic law. No copper atom exists but only a definite and visible form of the relation which this element’s law, as a unit of the earth’s consciousness, bears to the other laws necessarily associated with it in order eventually to spell out the synthetic ideal in separate forms of life.
Time, in its three moods of Past, Future, and Present, only exists as the present time for Laws in their subjective state. For these are the direct, though blurred and dwarfed, reflexions of the one ever-present act by which the unconscious maintains consciousness and manifests the Universe. In a subjective universe of Time, Intensity is the fundamental distinction which brings in its train the distinctive qualities of Sound and Colour. While in the objective universe of Space, Distance is the measure of the subjective intensity, and is in fact the only means by which we are able to appreciate objectively innate qualities in Life.
Thus distance and mass are the objective representation of subjective intensity, and because the future and the past are not characteristic of the law, then the fact that the mass of an element is scattered over the globe does not present any difficulty to the mind with reference to the possibility of a law being at the same time in different places. For it is ever present to the World in each and all its elementary depositions, no matter how they be separated from one another. If we place before us various bits of copper these will represent only ratios of intensity to the originial intensity of the law to which copper, in its material form, is due. We consider that every element in the earth’s composition is in the same simply a deposition of intensity at a certain potential. For the purposes of calculation we may say that any given portion of an element contains so many atoms of this element. By this we should mean that the mass of this given portion is to the total mass in the earth as the total intensity of expression of the law is to this portion 29of that total intensity. In this way any portion of a material element bears to another a ratio of pure intensity which we may study objectively under the names of magnetism and electricity. The intensity of each element possesses the distinctive character of the energy of its own law and is visible as relative values of distance, where intensity is measured; and it is visible as finite spaces, or objective forms where the quality of the law is considered. The law as an atom is a point of energy. This is subjective, but, as we have shown in “Psychic Fire”, it becomes necessarily and immediately objectively reversed and reflects itself as a physical illusion. This reflexion is the law in its individuality forming the substance of the universe. The material atom is an after and personal growth bred from definite synthetic association. The law repeats itself, vibrates or asserts itself a definite number of times until its relative value in the synthesis has been expressed as intensity. These various depositions of energetic substance are swept up by Ethereal Pressure and condensed.
Thus the material atom is a fiction, whereas the physical, or atom of substance, is not. Still less so is the atom per sex or parent law which, as a unit point of force, has built the objective element. The world becomes in this way a storehouse of various basic energies, all vibrating with an intensity which is anxious to expand itself in evolution, in order that they may complete the explanation of the full idea enbodied in the Earth’s synthetic Law.
Dark is the night; and through its haunted shadows |
Yet, each a torch we bear – lit or unlighted – |
Were each torch lit? See, thou who vaguely dreamest |
| E. Nesbit. (In the Link.) |
30
Har-dwar; or the Mysteries of the Himalayas
IT was the waters of the Ganges that were flowing down in ten thousand streamlets from the stern bosom and sides of the Himalayas, that met in Nilganga, the mighty stream, the purifier of all sins. On the right and left the craggy banks were overhung by majestic lofty trees, whose shadows, mingled with the transparency of clear waters below, could scarcely render invisible the bed of the holy river, spread over by smooth white shingles, each of which went by the name of Shankārā. The lofty peaks of the Himalayas – Gavarishankar or the Kanchanganga, the abode of eternal snow – shone brightly in the midst of cloudy heavens, an awe-inspiring contrast of light and gloom. The Suraja-Kunda – the sacrificial post for sun-worship on a neighbouring mountain peak – the Bhim Gutta, the Devisthana, the Billishankar, all lay on the right and left and in front and behind, amongst the thick overgrowth of forest trees, half covered with their healthy green. The lovely melody of Himalayan birds, wafted by fresh morning breezes, mingled with the musical mumur of the waters, and the light of the new risen sun bringing out in increasing clearness the scenic beauty of distance, charmed the senses of sight and of hearing, beyond all description. The sweetness of forest blossoms diffused in every wave of wind intoxicated the brain. While enjoying almost to forgetfulness this splendour and freshness of nature, I was gently tapped on my shoulder by a soft finger from behind. I turned round, but saw nobody. A look a few yards round, and I was assured that there was nobody. It might be a tap from the little branch that was near my shoulder, waving to and fro amidst morning breezes. I threw my glance towards the clear waters that flowed quietly on beneath the glorious sun. I stood transfixed before this all-pervading brightness and clearness, when a sweet whisper in my ears from behind made me turn round once more. What! nobody here and yet a whisper. It was fancy that created vague external perceptions during mental relaxation. Was it not an articulate whisper? Did it not say, “Gaze above and not below”? Could it be fancy? It must be so. There was nobody nigh. Perhaps it was the sighing of winds producing peculiar whispers while lost in rapid motion, vibrating in the midst of the thick foliage that was above my head. No! it could not be that. Wind never sighed in the morning while a glorious sun was rising above. Was there some one perched on the tree beneath which I stood, that played these freaks? I looked up amidst the maze of branches, but none was there. What could it be? A tap followed by a whisper, to be accounted for by the movement of the branch and whispering of winds. The sun grew brighter and warmer above. How pleasant it would be to bathe in these clear waters of 31the holy Ganges. I took off my muslin coat and faytta (head garment), and with my dhoti wrapped round me I entered the cool refreshing waters of the holy Ganges. What freshness flowed in this pure stream. As I entered the waters, that were nothing more than the melted snows of the Himalayas, I felt that there was nothing cold and chilly about them, melted snow though they were. I plunged my head beneath the surface of the waters and said my pranayama – Om Bhŭhŭ . . Bhŭrvāha . . . . Swāhā . . . . . . . Wonderful sparks flashed in my brain, and refreshed by this mental purification I looked above the waters and cleared away the liquid streaming from my eyelashes. I opened my eyes and looked upon the grand luminary that was shining above in all his radiant glory. Om Tāt Savitŭhŭ Varenyām. I bowed my head to the holy sun. As I looked up to him my eyes, dazzled by his glorious light, saw everything around me yellow, green, and red. I saw magnificent figures floating in the media that communicated to my vision the presence of that mighty light. The figures drew nearer and nearer, but the nearer they came the less and less definite they grew until they disappeared. One there was among these floating prodigies that approached me, and the nearer it came, unlike the other figures, the more and more definite it grew, assuming all the symmetry of a human being.
What did I see about a couple of feet above the middle of the stream? It looked like my departed father. The figure, tall and slim, with his benevolent expression full of affection for me, was clad in white. It looked at me, stared at me, and I recognised in that glance a meaning look which my father had about him while he was alive. Many a time while living he had, by that look, directed me to the performance of Sandhya ceremony, which I while young used so often to neglect. The meaning of that look was clear to me. I instinctively bent my head down, took the waters of the holy Ganges in the hollow of my palm, and began with Keshavāyanămah and ended with Sa-tât. While engaged in the performance of these mystic ceremonies so well known to Brahmins, my eyes now and then wandered to that awe-inspiring figure and they saw him look more and more contented. My Sandhya over, I looked at him with a degree of confidence, and lo! he smiled. “Father”, said I, “do I see thee here? Say, art not thou so much like my father? Thou smilest, and answerest me not. Art thou displeased with me? Oh! speak to me if thou hast any power of speech.”
The suspense was terrible, and yet the figure smiled all the while. No answer it gave me, but pointed at the pindas (balls of cooked rice) that floated at some distance in the river, borne over the leaves of Butea frondosa. I understood what he meant – he directed me to perform Shradha ceremony.
Immediately I came out of the waters, rolled my coat and faytta into a small bundle, and hiding them amongst the branches of a nimb-tree, went towards Harpedi, where I knew my Tirth Guru was sure to be found. The figure all the while followed me with its aerial motion and stopped at a distance from where my Tirth Guru was sitting. I fell at the feet of my Guru and asked him to make me perform Tirth Tarpana and Shradha 32ceremony immediately. The Guru nodded assent, took out Darbh Grass from his zolly (bag), and twisting a ring of it round my ring finger beckoned me to bathe once more. I did so, and when I came back to him he had everything made ready for the ceremony (sandal-black-Sesamum, white flowers, and balls of cooked rice). I need not enter into the details of all those ceremonies; but the ceremony over, I flung the pindas (balls of cooked rice) into the waters of the holy Ganges, but not one fell therein. The figure of my father, surrounded by several more newly-risen inviting faces, some of them not quite unfamiliar to me, eagerly stretched forth their hands to clutch the rice balls, and each throwing a look of contentment at me vanished, the figure of my father last, well satisfied. So in the end the figures disappeared.
How marvellous! how exactly it tallied with the description in Gurudpurana. I went back to the nimb-tree (Melia Azedirachta), took out the bundle of my clothes, and putting them on went to Dharamsala. My mind was very greatly agitated by the events that had passed before me during the last few hours, and I questioned myself: “Is it possible for the dead to appear in the symmetry of life? Was it not the creation of my fancy that raised up figures whose memory was not yet quite lost to me? If they were not visible existences – nay realities, how could the pindas disappear, and not one fall into the waters to satisfy the hungry fishes? Was there an after life in which the preservation of the very symmetry of figure was possible, though nothing entering into the composition of a living organic life was found therein? Who could solve this mystery?”
The problems of birth, life, death, pre- and post-existence, spiritual identity of the visible and the invisible, relationship of Maya to Brahma (creator as subject and object), Nivraty and Pravrati (desire in relation to passivity and activity), Man and Dash-Indrya (mind and sense organs), swarmed to my half-distracted mind like so many wild hornets, and lost among the rising intensity of curious things which each suggested, forgetfulness seized upon me and I walked on like a somnambulist. When I awoke from this temporary forgetfulness, I found I had lost my way to Dharamsala, and had walked into the midst of jungles, how far I knew not. Not to be able to find my way back was certain death in these thickets of the Himalayas, where hissing snakes or prowling tigers, wolves, or even elephants were sure, one or the other, to make their appearance before a little time passed. I looked up and saw that the sun was just above my head, even though not a single hot beam could penetrate the thick canopy of branches and creepers that completely protected me from above.
I was extremely hungry, having had no food since morning while engaged in Shradha ceremony. It was midday. I was in the midst of a thick jungle beset with every danger of wild beasts and poisonous reptiles, way lost, and none to direct me. Wearied and exhausted as I was, I climbed up a tamarind-tree and perched myself upon a branch which met its fellow at an acute angle, and offered me a convenient seat. I sat there, expecting 33every moment to see something usually seen in the Himalayan jungles. No sound was heard but the cawing of the rooks in the branches of a neighbouring tree. Lo! there shoots forth a nag-sap (cobra serpent), followed by a mangoose. It runs, it hisses, it doubles fo the right and left, the mangoose all the while following its prey with all the activity and effort of a hunting animal. The cobra shoots forth at a furious rate, partly released from the destroying paws of the mangoose, and, what horror! it runs forward towards the tree upon which I am perched and shoots up the stem at its aerial speed. How terrible! it darts towards the branch on which I sit, and a moment more would have made me feel its sharp sting; but when the grim monster was within almost an inch of me, I instinctively loosed hold of the branch, and fell to the ground. A severe fall it was, not less than from a height of ten feet, my elbow bruised amidst the branches, both my knees half broken, and severely wounded against pointed stones; but this was no escape.
A wild-cat jumps somewhere from behind over the mangoose that was making vain attempts to climb the tree, and the serpent, thus free from hunter’s pursuit, crawls down the stem. What a horror it was! I could scarcely get up and run, my lower limbs helpless, myself half stunned by a heavy fall.
The monster moves its slimy tongue like grim death and approaches me. O Prabhu! (Lord), death amidst the Himalayan jungles? The cobra doubles round me, gloating over my helpless condition, and then, with its usual alacrity, twines round my arm, shoulder, and neck, its tongue over my head. If I ever desired to know what death was like, all my curiosity was completely gratified. The monster constricted his coils round my neck more and more, and half choked me. I fainted. Was it to die – to bid adieu to the glorious sun?
Endurance is the crowning quality, |
| J. Russell Lowell. |
Numbers, Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtues
42
Raising the Devil
I HAD been looking in the crystal one evening for a long time without having a vision. Before I left off, I asked the spirit of the crystal, very earnestly, when I could have a vision, for it was so very wearisome to look and to anticipate, and then be disappointed. This message immediately came: –
“Procure a glass vessel a foot deep, flat inside, and six inches square; fill it with water from a fish-pond; let the neck of the vessel be sufficiently large to admit your three fingers. Cut the middle finger of your left hand, and having put a strip of paper round the outside of the middle of the bottle, write with the blood of the finger you have cut, this one name . . . . . Paste this strip of paper round the bottle, and then insert the finger you have cut and two other fingers into the neck, and from it into the water let a drop of blood flow. If you do this, you will see and hear of that which will instruct you in spiritual knowledge, and aid you in all that you desire appertaining to the world.”
Although I thought it could not be good, I did not desire anything evil, and I thought, foolishly, that I could hear, and see, and know what they said, without allowing them to influence me, or without for one moment surrendering myself to their possession. I would not do it again. It was not the power, but the knowledge that I sought. I was at the time in a house with a good many people in it, and, fearing that someone might interrupt me, I locked the door. Before I began I had been obliged to have the glass bottle made to the exact size, and I wrote the name on a vellum band and sealed it on. This I placed on the table, and very soon without any call – I used nothing more than the name on the bottle – the water began to change to a thick, dirty-red liquid, and from this there formed, as the water again became clearer, a spirit more like an animal than even a distorted human figure; it had a tail as long in proportion to its size as is the tail of a mouse to the rest of the animal, and it had peculiarly shaped horns. It increased in size so as to fill the entire bottle, the tips of the horns rising above the water in the neck of the bottle. When I saw its head coming above the water, I thought I should be able to prevent its getting any larger by putting a stopper on the top. I could not find anything to place over it at the moment but a book from the mantelpiece. The instant that I stepped across for the book, the horns of the spirit were visible to me above the bottle. Very quickly you may imagine I was back with the book. I am very strong – as strong, I believe, as most men – I can lift a couple of hundredweight, and now I had occasion to put my strength forth. I tried to press the book on the neck of the bottle with all my might, but I could not move it one inch. My hands and the book in them went up as easily as I could have lifted a baby's hands. I grew desperate. I tore the band off the bottle; I used exorcism. There was no fire in the room, and no light, or I would have immediately burned the band. I could not tear it, and I had no means of destroying it. The spirit all this time was gradually getting out of the bottle.
I could not think what to do. I took the bottle up, threw it down and broke it; the water of course ran all over the carpet, and I thought for a moment that I had got rid of the spirit, but I was mistaken, for from the water, as it lay on the floor, it rose again much larger than before.
I went to the door, but I was afraid to open it; then in an instant I thought he might be only visible to me and not to others, and that if I were with other people 43he would disappear from me, and I tried the door, but could not open it. I forgot that I had locked it. Again I used the form of dismissal and exorcism, but it was of no use. Having done this, I asked him what he wanted. He asked me to test his power by naming anything I desired, and said that if I found that he gave it me and if I would promise him obedience, he would do the same in all other things.
I resolutely told him that I would not – that had I known he was evil and could escape from the bottle I would not have called him; still he did not leave, and I then felt the place to be insufferable, so oppressive as to be almost suffocating. My eyes seemed to burn, I was getting giddy, and appeared to see instead of the one figure a thousand of all shapes and sizes. I still remained with my hand on the lock; the room became confused and dark for one instant only, then all was light, The evil spirit was gone, and I noticed that every drop of water was gone from the surface of the carpet, and that on the white ground which surrounded the pattern was a single red spot. Although unnerved whilst the spirit was present, I was not the least so the moment it was gone, and, on stooping to pick up the small pieces of bottle, I observed round the red spot a circle containing words. Even then, by an impulse I could not control, I was all on fire to know what those words were, and down on my knees I deciphered with much difficulty, “ . . . . . returns blood which is too white for a sacrifice”. The red spot rose above the carpet, the words disappeared, and there only remained a little piece of cold congealed blood: this I removed. In an adjoining room I burnt the band which had been round the bottle, threw away the pieces of bottle, and determined to be more cautious in future.
(in the Spiritualist of July 2, 1880).
An aged saint once fasted long |
| N. H. Willis. |
44
Ecclesiastical Christianity
In 1615 Galileo was brought before the Inquisition at Rome, menaced with torture, compelled to “recant” his discoveries, and imprisoned. The Church had decided geometry was “of the devil;” bishops and priests impressively warned their flocks against every fresh discovery in science; the epithets of “infidel,” “atheist,” and “sorcerer” were among the mildest terms applied to men who endeavoured to teach truths acknowledged now in every school-book, and a passage in the Psalms of David or the Book of Job was supposed to settle the whole of the solar system. To read the work of Kopernik was to “risk damnation,” and his method was solemnly condemned by Luther as well as the pope. When Galileo was released from papal persecution he did not long survive, and died broken-hearted and blind.
In 1629 Vanini was burnt at Toulouse on a charge of Atheism, for his work entitled “Dialogues concerning Nature”.
But the mind of man was not to be crushed by even such tyranny as this, a tyranny which in these days it is almost impossible to realise. The Reformation had begun, and with it the growth of a liberty which has far out-grown ecclesiasticism, and has dealt a death-blow to the spirit which made even Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Beza, and Knox uphold persecution, describe the ancient philosophers as “frogs” and “locusts,” and which has stained Protestantism, like Catholicism, with crime. The reformed churches commenced their career with the deadly error that “salvation” could only be had within their own pale, and a victim to this spirit soon arose. Early in the sixteenth century Michael Servetus, a Spaniard, beheld a spectacle which may be witnessed now – the pope borne aloft above the heads of the people, who strove to kiss even his slipper, fell down before him, and treated him as a God.[1] The sight aroused his indignation, and ere long he stood forth as a reformer far in advance of Luther or of Calvin, one inspired with the beautiful idea that the “eternal and indivisible God lives in all creation,” and that the “spirit of God breathes throughout nature”. He rejected utterly the dark doctrine of total depravity, and rightly held that the genuine idea of Christianity had been obscured at a very early date. In a very short time he was imprisoned, and basely betrayed by his fellow-reformer, John Calvin, first to the merciless Inquisition, and then to the council at Geneva. In 1553 he was roasted alive at the stake, together with his books. The faggots were purposely selected of green wood, and for a whole half-hour – some say far longer – this heroic martyr was bravely silent amid his torture till death came to release his spirit. His last words were, “I have performed no action deserving death; nevertheless, I pray God to forgive my enemies and persecutors. Jesus, thou son of the Eternal God, have compassion on me!” All Europe for a time applauded this crime, except Castillio and Socinius, and these were pursued with invectives as “emissaries of Satan,” by the man whose personal enmity for a reformer who opposed him led him to a revenge which covers his name with infamy.[2]
The Thirty Years’ War in Germany on behalf of religious liberty cost millions of lives, and desolated the land. At the fall of Magdeburg, men, women, and children were slaughtered, and the city was reduced to ashes.
45
In 1655 the “Easter Massacre” of the Vaudois, in La Tour, took place, conducted by the Duke of Savoy, and continued for more than a week, accompanied by great cruelties.
In 1685 the edict of Nantes was revoked by Louis XIV at the instigation of the clergy, and a million of the Huguenots were killed, imprisoned, sent to the galleys, or driven out of France. The persecution of the Protestants continued for a period of half a century. In Languedoc alone 10,000 persons were hanged, burnt, or broken upon the wheel, and at least 100,000 perished from the barbarities inflicted upon them. Women were insulted; numbers were confined in dungeons; knives and red-hot pincers were employed to force the “heretics to recant”, Bossuet and Massillon lauded the revocation as “the work of God,” and on his death the body of Louis was covered with relics of “the true cross”. Du Chayla, the arch-priest, invented the “squeezers,” and Clement XI, in 1703, pronounced “absolute and general remission of sins” to all who joined in “exterminating the cursed heretics,” as Pope Clement VII had done more than two centuries before. Children were torn from their parents by the priests and sent to Catholic schools and nunneries, and immense quantities of Bibles and Testaments were publicly destroyed. If the dying refused unction from the priests, their dead bodies were insulted and thrown into the common sewer. At Porte-des-Carmes between two and three hundred of the Camisards – a helpless company of aged men, women, and children – were put to the sword, and the remainder burnt alive in the mill where they were conducting worship, and in the Upper Cevennes 466 villages and hamlets were reduced to ashes. The few Huguenots who at this period survived, and had failed to make their escape from France, were made galley-slaves for life, and Protestants were sent to the galleys and cut by the lash, so late as 1769. La Barre, indeed, was executed at Abbeville for disrespect to the “Virgin Mary,” in 1766. For seven hundred years, from first to last, the unhappy Vaudois were persecuted by the papacy. No wickedness that the imagination of men could suggest but was practised in this monstrous crusade, which brands the Church responsible for it with lasting infamy.
I have said that the spirit of liberty received a powerful impulse from the Reformation, and from that period its complete development could be only a question of time. But priestcraft still survived in another form, and the Protestant clergy have been guilty of all the bigotry and intolerance which are inevitably attached to a system upheld by law, and professing to hold final truth, which was to be forced upon all. One would have thought that the reformed churches would at least have learnt one great lesson from the terrible history attached to the church of Rome, and that toleration for the religious opinions of others would have been one of their firmest foundation-stones. Such, however, was not the case. Laws in the statute-books of every country existed against heretics from the popular faith, sometimes to burn them, sometimes to exile them, sometimes to take away their civil, or their political, rights. The old war against the growing intellectual freedom of man had become less barbarous, but it still went on.
In 1611 Legat and Wightman were publicly burnt by two English Protestant bishops, and the ministers of the Scotch Kirk were as arrogant as the popes themselves. Through the medium of the elders, the ministers pronounced excommunication and eternal perdition on all refractory members of their flocks, and the smallest disrespect to them was declared to be “prompted by Satan”. The psychic gifts inherent in the Scotch organisation enabled them at times, like many others, to foretell events, and added to their power over the people, who were literally kept in an Egyptian bondage. The terrors of Calvinism were connected with the most common natural occurrences; everything was a sign of the wrath of God and the guilt of the ungodly, and on the Sabbath day it was almost a sin to exist. Mirth 46was carnal; it was a sin for a husband to kiss his wife, for a parent to kiss her child, for an old woman to water her kail. It was a sin for the charitable to assist the starving unorthodox, or, in short, to think or to do anything condemned by the Kirk, and the unruly were imprisoned, fined, beaten, branded, and forced to do penance bare-footed, on all occasions of rebellion to what may be truly termed the Scotch papacy.
In England the Nonconformists to the Protestant Church suffered terribly during a period of at least a hundred years. Some 60,000 are said to have undergone some form of persecution between 1660 and 1668, and no less than 5,000 died in prison. Hampden was anathematised, Bunyan and Fox were imprisoned, and Baxter was persecuted, and the Quakers suffered in England and Scotland alike. The clergy strenuously opposed every enactment made in favor of the Dissenters, and upheld the tyranny of the Stuarts by preaching “passive obedience” and the “divine right of kings”. They upheld the cruelties of Jeffreys and Kirke with indifference, and supported the policy of the reigning sovereign whenever the interests of the church seemed to demand it. During the reign of the Stuarts Presbyterians were everywhere imprisoned, branded, mutilated, scourged, and put in the pillory. And churchmen themselves were compelled to attend their parish church on Sundays, by law.
In America, where a band of the persecuted Nonconformists took refuge, the same spirit was ere long manifested. Catholics and Quakers were proscribed, and the executions in Massachusetts and New England form a dark page in Puritan history. In Maryland it was death to deny the Trinity; in New England it was death to deny any portion of the Old or New Testament to be “the infallible Word of God”. Roger Williams was exiled in 1635 from the latter State for asserting the great principle of intellectual liberty. Cotton Mather, Parris, and others, through whose misguided and cruel fanaticism an old man of eighty was pressed to death, and twenty executions took place, to say nothing of torture and scourgings, were publicly thanked for their zeal by the clergy of Boston and Charlestown.
In 1680 Isaac Orobio was tortured and confined for three years in a dungeon by the Inquisition, at Seville, for infidelity and Judaism.
In Sweden “heretics” were persecuted and exiled.
Throughout Europe the belief in “witchcraft” caused an amount of suffering which it is impossible to conceive. The most ordinary psychological phænomena, insanity, and common diseases, became the objects of the prevailing superstition, and numbers were put to death for no other reason than the excited imagination of themselves or their neighbours. Even those who exercised the benevolent power of “healing” were frightfully tortured before execution, and some were driven mad from the effects of their sufferings. In Geneva, in the sixteenth century, 500 women were executed in three months, and 128 burnt in Geneva and Savoy by a bishop. In Germany between eight and nine thousand were burnt; in France between twelve and thirteen hundred in the provinces, and a large number in Paris; in Switzerland and in Sweden many persons were burnt; in Scotland a large number perished, and the Scotch clergy did their utmost to keep up the superstition. In Leith, in 1664, no less than nine women were burnt alive at one time; and in Spain a large number also suffered, and a woman was burnt in that country so late as 1781. Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the belief in “witchcraft” was universal, and old and young were alike committed to the flames. When the laws were at last repealed in Great Britain, in 1773, the Scotch Presbyterian divines protested against it. It is almost needless to say that the ignorance of the church was one of the main causes of this epidemic credulity, with its terrible results. The study of mathematics, chemistry, physics, psychology, anatomy, and medicine, were all weighted with the ecclesiastical charge of “sorcery” and “dealings with Satan”.
47
Kepler's works were burnt, and his epitome of the Kopernican system prohibited by the Inquisition in 1618; Buffon was condemned; Newton’s discoveries were forbidden to be taught in the University of Salamanca so late as 1771. The hostility to the establishment of the Royal Society in 1662 was headed by an overwhelming body of the clergy, to whom the study of physical science, and the severe and accurate mental training and intellectual expansion it demands, were as alien then as they are now. The knowledge of God’s handiwork in the heavens and the earth, and in man, was accounted by the churches which professed to worship Him as a deadly sin. Everywhere human liberty and human progress were sacrificed to the theology of men.
S. E. G., F.T.S.
From the Diary of a Monomaniac
NOVEMBER 30. It is as I suspected. Alas, I have known it for weeks and for months! I am not a man at all. I am a miserable, brittle pane of glass! O dreadful Truth, how hast thou haunted me day and night, and now thou standest plain and clear before me! First as a fancy thou didst torment me, then as a fear, oft recurring and intensifying; then, as a conviction, full and certain, loading me with shame and despair. How shall I hide this terrible secret of mine? How shall I save myself from the ridicule of all the world? For, oh, if I am detected as to my true nature, will men ever cease to mock me and despise me? I must keep within doors. I must see no one. I will hide myself in my own chamber. No one shall know until, as I suppose will one day be the case, I tumble by some mischance headlong on the floor and am shivered into atoms; and then my disgraceful hypocrisy will be manifested and all the world will discover that I am neither a man nor even any being with flesh and blood and bones, but simply a lifeless Pane of Glass.
Dec. 1. My servant James came several times to my chamber to-day and seemed astonished at my sudden desire for seclusion. I thought he eyed me each time suspiciously. Does he know? Can he guess? Does he see through my secret? Ah, does he see through me myself? Horrid grim joke! There is no humour about it to me. Dr. Bodkin called in the afternoon, but of course I would not receive him; he would have exposed me in a moment, I know, and would have held me up to the ridicule of the world. Thank heaven, no one else has tried to intrude on my miserable solitude.
Dec. 2. Dr. Bodkin called again and insisted on seeing me. By some mysterious providence he did not notice the horrid fact! I kept as far from him as possible, on the dark side of the room. He watched me rather closely and asked me many questions in a suspicious kind of way, but I got through all right and I verily believe he still thinks me a man, with limbs and features, bones, blood and flesh like himself.
Dec. 3. My loneliness palls upon me. I have a good mind to make a clean breast of it and confess openly that I have been shamming – sailing under false colours as it were. What right have I to dress, to live in a house as if I were a man, knowing all the time that I am not a man, but a mere pane of glass? But it is hard now, after all these years of dissimulation, to make a confession and pass in a moment into insignificance and contempt.
Dec. 4. I can write nothing to-day. My perplexity increases. I know not what 48to do. Shall I tell the truth and brave it out? They can but break me to pieces, after all, and that will have to be my end one of these days, sooner or later. Shall I keep my secret as long as I can?
Dec. 6. (Sunday.) From morning to night all yesterday my perplexities haunted me, and this morning I resolved to end them. I have fully made up my mind. I have resolved to put a stop once and for all to this hateful conflict within me between right and wrong. I will tell the truth and shame the devil. That was my decision early this morning, and accordingly I went boldly to church and sat in my own pew in full view of all the congregation. I felt terribly distracted throughout the service, and thought the people stared at me all the time. I was full of fear lest the clergyman should say “Carry it out”; but he did not, and I think he never noticed me. But the people behind made me feel most uncomfortable, because I knew they could see right through me, and whatever could they have thought of me for daring to come and sit amongst them there in church – me, only a pane of window-glass, limbless, undifferentiated? I remained upstairs all the afternoon and watched the people passing the house. Mr. Godfrey, the glazier, smiled as he passed: I shook with fear as he did so. No doubt he spied me out in church this morning. Rodwell, the butcher, went by a little later on with two strangers, one of whom I thought pointed up at me. I started back quickly and caught in the carpet as I did so. Oh, what a narrow escape it was! Had I tripped and fallen it would have been to dash myself against the fender, and I should most assuredly have been broken into fragments. I will have all the fenders taken upstairs into the attic out of the way in case of an accident. John Wilson, my old schoolmate, whom I have not seen for years, and who has been in Australia for a long time, dropped in in the evening. Oh, if he had known the miserable fact when we were at school together! I was obliged to see him this evening, for he walked right into my room without being announced. Several times I was on the point of telling him the truth about myself, but the words stuck in my throat and I could not utter them. Ah, did he see the dreadful fact? Did he go home and mock me? Not a word of suspicion did he breathe, but then John was always so polite. I know he would never have mentioned it, for fear of giving me pain. Pain! indeed, what a miserable pun – unintentional enough. Oh, it was an unspeakable relief to me when Wilson was gone! Solitude is wearisome, but just now company is unbearable.
Dec. 7. The secret is out. Dr. Bodkin came in this morning, and I told him the truth. He took it, as I thought, very strangely. I expected him to be angry with me for my life-long hypocrisy and false pretences. But he was not. He showed neither contempt nor anger. At first he seemed greatly perplexed; then he smiled and tried to pretend I was joking. Of course, I knew well enough that was only his polite way of treating the matter. Then he grew more serious and began to say that I was suffering from a delusion not unknown to him – in fact that I was a monomaniac – that I had taken a fancy into my head which had no foundation in fact – that I did not know what I myself was! He actually declared he could produce books containing accounts of people suffering from exactly similar delusions. In short, he wanted me to believe I was mad! A pretty idea that! I mad! Did any one ever hear of a mad pane of glass? Besides, I can put my thoughts together as rationally as he himself. No doubt men have had delusions and may have even fancied they were panes of glass, but how does that prove that I, who really am a pane of glass, must be a man? Why, the same argument would show that every pane in my window is a monomaniac! I a madman, indeed! Good, very good! But still I honour the doctor. I was not so mad but that I could see through what he meant. He, dear good man, wanted to hide my shame. He saw that what I had told him was true. He knew well enough that I am but a pane of glass, as indeed everyone must see, and he wished to spare me 49the indignity and disgrace of a public avowal, so he thought of this ingenious way out of the difficulty – this pretence that I am a man suffering from monomania – with the fancy that I am a pane of glass. It was kind of him – very kind – and I appreciate his goodness, as I told him to-day; but I would rather brave it out. I have quite determined to play the hypocrite no longer. I will bear the consequences, let the world laugh as it may. I am not a man, and I will not pretend to be, and I will not allow Dr. Bodkin or anyone else to try to persuade me against clear reason and the evidence of my senses that I am a man, when the horrid fact is ever on my thoughts. And so I told Dr. Bodkin. I was quite plain with him; I told him it was no use his trying to make me believe a lie, for I would not. If it pleased Providence to create me a pane of glass and not a man, I was content and would not listen to his well-meant nonsense. At last, when I suppose he saw it was no use trying to deceive me any longer, he admitted that I was right. “Never mind, old fellow,” he said, “it is only a temporary affair after all; we shall soon be able to alter matters. I see you are, as you say, a pane of glass, and it is strange that I never noticed it before; but the fact is, this change did not come over your nature a long time ago, and if you will submit yourself to my course of treatment we will soon turn you into a man again.” I told him I knew he was wrong, as of course he is, for how could a pane of glass turn into a man? But it puzzles me that he was so anxious that I should be led into the fancy that I am a man, for he still seems to think that in course of time I shall become impregnated with that nonsensical idea. However, I promised I would consider as to whether I would consent to his experimenting upon me. He is to come in to-morrow to hear my decision. And now what shall I resolve? In the first place, what will he want to do, I wonder? Is he going to fling me on the ground, and thus by breaking me into atoms put a sudden end to my misery. I don’t know, I am sure, what to say. I distrust him. I must first hear what his proposals are.
Dec. 8. He has been, and another doctor came with him. Firstly, they wished me to see no one, a proposition to which I gladly assented, for the risk of breakage would be very great if a number of people are in and out of my room. This they doubtless thought of, though they were too polite to say so. They next proposed that I should go away to a large house where I should be unknown and unobserved – and, in fact, should be able to hide myself entirely from the outside world. To this I willingly acceded, for it is the very kind of thing which most pleases me. I have resolved not to keep the truth a secret, but it is hard to confess it to those whom I reckoned fellow-men and friends; now I shall avoid all such difficulties as that. I will see no one before I go, and I have specially cautioned James not even to admit poor Wilson, who is sure to pay me another call before he leaves England again. In a very few days I am to start with Dr. Bodkin for my new hiding-place.
Dec. 14. I have reached the place in safety, without even a crack. But oh, the risks that I ran in coming here! They were terrible! Over and over again I made sure I should be shivered. But I escaped. Too tired to-night to write any more as to my new surroundings.
Dec. 15. It has been a strange day. I quickly found out where I was – in a madhouse! What a strange place for me to be stowed away in! But it does not matter in the least; I could not have wished to be in a better place, for here no-one will see me – at least none of my acquaintances. I am amongst such queer creatures, and Dr. Bodkin has fully persuaded them all – kind soul that he is – that I am a monomaniac, and that it is only a delusion of my own imagination that I am a pane of glass! A capital idea of his, for they all seem to be monomaniacs themselves, though not one of them knows it. Each of them is only conscious of the monomanias of the others, and knows or suspects nothing of his own. Poor silly creatures! There is one man who thinks himself shivering with cold, though he sits by the fire wrapped in woollen jackets one on the top of the other 50till the perspiration runs down his face. Another thinks himself the King of the Cannibal Islands, and struts about chattering unearthly gibberish. Another thinks he has committed all sorts of crimes, and is convinced that he has poisoned his father. Another thinks himself a tea-pot. And so on, everyone laughing heartily at the delusions of his fellows, and none of them dreaming that he himself is also mad. I cannot help feeling glad, after all, that I am not a man, to be liable to fall into such a hideous state of insanity. Better be a mere piece of glass than such a despicable object as is everyone of these unhappy beings.
Dec. 27 (Sunday.) I have written nothing for some days, for a strange melancholy has settled down on me. The incessant and pitiful insanity of the human beings who surround me, coupled with the monotony of day after day without any fresh occurrence to change the round of events, has had a most depressing influence upon me. Until to-day nothing has happened to record, nothing has changed. But to-day, although I am still safe here in my welcome hiding-place, a terrible calamity has occurred which gives my thoughts no peace. The snow is on the ground, and this morning some boys who were playing snowball in the street threw one which hit the window of the room in which I now am and broke a pane! Oh, horror! I know only too well what it will be. The glazier will come to-morrow and I shall be puttied in, exposed to the view of every passer-by, and there I shall have to be for years and years – laughed at by all the world. Oh, if I could have remained here, hidden and secluded, I would have been content; but to have my unhappy self held up to the public gaze is more than I can endure. What shall I do? How can I escape? And I thought I was safe! Oh dear, oh dear!
Dec. 28. The glazier has not come. They have mended the hole in the window with brown paper. Oh delicious relief! I am safe.
Dec. 29. The brown paper is still there. Heaven be praised!
Dec. 30. Dr. Bodkin came in and spoke to me for a few minutes. I made sure he was going to measure me to see if I should do for the broken window. He did not, but oh, he has given me my deathblow! He saw the brown paper, and gave orders to have it removed, and the window-pane mended. Oh, horror of horrors! What shall I do? Where can I hide? I know I shall be stuck up there to-morrow in full view of the street. Shall I break myself? Alas, I dare not. I am afraid.
Dec. 31. My anxiety to-day has been almost too great to bear. But the glazier has not come. I hear he is coming to-morrow. Oh, what a new year it will be! Well, I have made up my mind; I will not, I cannot undergo it. Before the bell has struck the hour of twelve I will steal gently to the window of the upper room and unobserved I will plunge into the street, and then I shall break into a thousand pieces, and my anxieties and troubles will be over.
Oh, heavens, the hour of midnight has come! I hear the clock. I will fling down my pen. O God! it will soon be over. At any rate I shall be saved from shame. I go. Farewell, farewell.
51
Theosophical Gleanings or Notes on the "Secret Doctrine"
WE are literally what our signature says: Two Students, nothing more pretentious. If we are also what has been called “communicative learners,” it is because we feel that what have been difficulties to us are probably difficulties to others, and that fellow-students can sometimes lend each other a helping hand over a rough piece of road. In reading the “Secret Doctrine” the student is apt to be confused, even dazed, by the range of erudition, the wealth of illustration, the abundance of digressions, the number of literary allusions. Devas and Daimons, Dhyani Buddhas and Kumaras, Yugas and cycles, satyrs and fakirs, alchemists and adepts, Manus and Monads, whirl round him in dazzling phantasmagoria, and he rises from hours of effort, his only distinct acquirement a headache. We have found the most fruitful system of study is to fix on some one thing, to follow it through all its windings with dogged persistency, steadily hunting it down through the two volumes, disregarding all alluring by-ways and seductive glades, until there lies before us that one thing in its completeness, with every touch given to it from beginning to end, clear, definite, comprehensible. It may be remembered that there was one Proteus who could give the most interesting information if only you could keep your grip on him through all his transformations, until he re-assumed his proper shape and became conversable. So in following the Protean shapes in the “Secret Doctrine,” if you can only “hang on” to the end your reward is sure.
Our first notes will be on the Seven Rounds, our object to trace the Monad in his long pilgrimage from his landing on the First Globe in our Chain for the First Round, till we lose him in the dazzling radiance of his final triumph. A brief introduction, giving the broad outlines of the fundamental principles of Cosmic Evolution, may fitly precede this detailed study, for a grasp of these principles is essential to the full understanding of their working in our Manvantara.
[All references in which only volume and page are given are to the “Secret Doctrine”.]
Everywhere in Nature we see rhythmic alternation, waking and sleeping, day and night, activity and rest, life and death. “As above, so below”; in the Macrocosm as in the Microcosm. So, to the eye of the Esotericist, 52Existence has its day of waking activity, its night of sleeping rest, the Universal Life flows out into the universe of form, ebbs back into formless No-Thing, “Days and Nights of Brahmâ” in the allegorical phrase of the Hindu, the outbreathing and the inbreathing of the illimitable One who is All.
“It is the One Life, eternal, invisible, yet omnipresent, without beginning or end, yet periodical in its regular manifestations, between which periods reigns the dark mystery of non-Being; unconscious, yet absolute consciousness; unrealisable, yet the one self-existent reality; truly, “a chaos to the sense, a Kosmos to the reason”. Its one absolute attribute, which is itself – eternal, ceaseless motion – is called in esoteric parlance the “Great Breath,” which is the perpetual motion of the universe, in the sense of limitless, ever-present Space”
That It must be, we know; else nothing had been nor could be: but before its mystery human thought is helpless, futile – “silence is more reverent than speech”.
A period of activity is a Manvantara; a period of rest a Pralaya; and these succeed each other in endless succession. The “dawn of differentiation” (vol. i. p. 1) is the dawn of the Manvantaric day; thenceforward a ceaseless evolution, till the cycle is complete and rest comes with pralayic night. And here at once arises the student’s first stumbling-block. In the Secret Teaching all things are regarded as of sevenfold aspect, and the same word is often used for each of the subsidiary seven as for the complete thing they make up. The word Manvantara, or Manu-Antara, means literally “between two Manus,” and, as we shall see later, there are Root Manus for Rounds and subsidiary Manus for globes. Hence we have the Minor Manvantara for the life of a single globe, the Major Manvantara for a Round of the seven globes, the Maha- (great) Manvantara for the life of the Kosmos, all which, with other periods, will become plain enough as we proceed: it suffices for the moment to grasp clearly the idea that Manvantara stands for a period of activity, and it is better, at the outset, not to connect with it any definite number of years.
So, again, with the words Manu, Dhyani Buddha, Dhyani Chohan, and others that meet us at every turn in the “Secret Doctrine”. They are generic, not individual, names; thus Manu, the thinker, “is but the personified idea of the ‘Thought Divine’” (vol. i. p. 63), and the word is used for those who stand at the beginning of a new cycle of evolution, whether it be great or small. The student is apt to be bewildered when he has met “Manu” as the head of the seven races, and then comes across “Manu” again in a comparatively subordinate position as the head of a single race; or when, having realised that a “Manvantara” is between two Manus, he learns suddenly that there were fourteen Manus in the Manvantara he is studying. But the seven pairs mark the smaller Manvantaras within the larger. The word Dhyani is synonymous with Deva, a lofty spiritual entity, while Buddha is the Wise One: “Lords of Wisdom” gives something of the idea of Dhyani Buddha, and of such entities are many classes 53or grades. So with Dhyani Chohan, the Lord Deva. While ourselves using the esoteric names in preference, we shall try, at starting, to give the equivalents, as some of the puzzlements of the student arise from his not realising the variety of names, sometimes Greek, sometimes Hindu, sometimes Thibetan, used indifferently to express the same thought. Esoteric philosophy is not identical with exoteric Buddhism or exoteric Brahminism, and our readers will often meet with statements that conflict with, say, the statements of Mr. Rhys Davids. That learned Orientalist deals with the public teachings of one religion, we with the Secret Doctrine that lies at the root of all; and this must be borne in mind when differences – especially differences in numbers – are noted.
As regards the truth or the falsity of the outlines of cosmical evolution in the “Secret Doctrine,” for the average man at the present time no proof is possible, any more than you could prove to him straight off the abstruse mathematical theories that require the existence of fourth dimensional space. “It is thus that things have evolved,” says the Teacher, “and you can find it out for yourself if you will, as you can, raise yourself to our vantage-ground of vision. As you are, you cannot get it first-hand: the simpler parts of our teachings you can test and prove; but this, for the present, is beyond you. Take it as a theory, a hypothesis, or, if you choose, leave it alone, and confine yourself to the terrestrial part of our doctrines.” With this preface, we proceed to
“The One Life, eternal, invisible,” is to manifest in Space and Time. It is the Absolute, spoken of as Sat by the Hindus, as Parabrahm by the Vedantins, as Adi-Buddha by the Buddhists, as Ain-Soph by the Kabbalists, as Absolute Being and non-Being by Hegel and his school. This is that
“Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless and immutable Principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude. It is beyond the range and reach of thought – in the words of Mandukya, ‘unthinkable and unspeakable’ . . . . That Essence which is out of all relation to conditioned existence, and of which conscious existence is a conditioned symbol”
The Causeless Cause, the Rootless Root, Occultism has called It, striving to image the unimaginable. It
“is symbolised in the Secret Doctrine under two aspects. On the one hand, absolute abstract Space, representing bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either exclude from any conception or conceive of by itself. On the other, absolute abstract Motion representing Unconditioned Consciousness.
Even our Western Thinkers have shewn that Consciousness is inconceivable to us apart from change, and motion best symbolises change, its essential characteristic. The latter aspect of the One Reality is also
54
symbolised by the term ‘The Great Breath’, a symbol sufficiently graphic to need no further elucidation”
This is the first fundamental axiom of the Secret Doctrine, which is thus essentially Pantheist in its philosophy.
Having posited the Absolute Life, out of relation, to us unthinkable, we turn to the consideration of the Universal Life as periodical, at the beginning of the Manvantaric period. The Hindus, figuring Parabrahm as a blank circle, have placed a point in the midst of such a circle to symbolise Mulaprakriti, the Root of Substance, called by Subba Row “a sort of veil thrown over” the “unconditioned and absolute Reality”. By the Vedantins the term is applied to an aspect of Parabrahm: “from its (the Logos’) objective standpoint, Parabrahm appears to it as Mulaprakriti” (vol. i. p. 10, note).
At this re-awakening of the periodical life, the first differentiation is the First, or Unmanifested, Logos – to use the accepted Greek term – Dorjechang in the Thibetan. This primary emanation is the Supreme Buddha of the Buddhists, the First Cause, the Unconscious of Hartmann – “a bright ray from” the “darkness” of the One unknown.
“As the Lord of all mysteries he cannot manifest,” and from the First emanates the Second Logos, the manifested, Dorjesempa, poetically called the “diamond heart” of the First, sent into the world of manifestation. This is Purusha-Prakriti, Spirit-Matter, the Life, the Spirit of the Universe. (Compare vol. i. p. 16 and p. 571.) This is the Atman of the Vedantins, the Heavenly Man of the Hermetic philosopher, the creative God of all religions – the Demiourgos, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the four-faced Brahmâ of the Hindus (p. 110). It is the substance whereof all things are to be made, and the life that animates them. Hence “the Occultists . . . . trace every atom in the universe, whether an aggregate or single, to One Unity, or Universal Life”; they “do not recognise that anything in Nature can be inorganic”; they “know of no such thing as dead matter . . . . The ‘wave-motion of living particles’ becomes comprehensible on the theory of a Spiritual One Life, of a universal Vital principle independent of our matter, and manifesting as atomic energy only on our plane of consciousness” (vol. ii. p. 672). “The vital fires are in all things, and not an atom is devoid of them” (vol. ii, p. 267). This Spirit-Matter manifests itself in Kosmos in seven different states: the first and second or sub-physical elemental kingdoms, the third or terrestrial, the fourth or astral, the fifth or that of mind, the sixth or that of spirit, each has its own protyle, whereof are constituted all its phænomena. The seventh state, the highest, is that of the Logos itself (see vol. ii. p. 737). To the Occultist what is called “spirit” and what is called “matter”, the normally intangible and tangible, are but the two poles of the one universal Spirit-Matter, the Life-Substance, the two-faced Unity. The characteristics of matter in each stage – or on each “plane” – can only become known to us as we develop the senses that can apprehend them, when they would be55come as easy of investigation as is the third-stage-matter to us at the present time.
The Kosmic cycle will be – figuring Kosmos as a sphere – from the pole of Spirit round to the pole of Matter, on the descending arc, and from the pole of Matter back to that of Spirit on the ascending. As the Life-Substance is one, the process will be the crystallising and densifying of the ethereal into grossest materiality, and the sublimation and rarefying of that materiality into the ethereal. And so for our immediate Manvantara the progress is figured as through seven globes arranged on four planes: in the three first the “descent into matter”, in the fourth the greatest density and the turning-point, in the three last the re-ascent (see right-hand diagram, vol. i. p. 153). It is Involution and Evolution, the complementary principles of the universe, “an eternal spiral progress into matter with a proportionate obscuration of spirit – though the two are one – followed by an inverse ascent into spirit and the defeat of matter” (vol. ii. p. 732).
If this central conception be clearly grasped by the student, and applied, amid the differences of detail, to every cycle, large or small, the difficulties in the way will be much lightened. It is the key to the general understanding of the evolution of the Kosmos, of the planetary chain, of the globes, of the races, of the individual. One of these correspondences, the evolution of a globe, has never been put more clearly than by a Master:
“There are seven kingdoms. The first group comprises three degrees of elementals, or nascent centres of forces – from the first stage of the differentiation of Mulaprakriti to its third degree – i.e. from full unconsciousness to semi-perception; the second or higher group embraces the kingdoms from vegetable to man; the mineral kingdom thus forming the central or turning-point in the degrees of the ‘Monadic Essence’ – considered as an Evoluting Energy. Three stages in the elemental side; the mineral kingdom; three stages on the objective physical side – these are the seven links of the evolutionary chain. A descent of spirit into matter, equivalent to an ascent in physical evolution; a re-ascent from the deepest depths of materiality (the mineral) towards its status quo ante, with a corresponding dissipation of concrete organisms up to Nirvana – the vanishing point of differentiated matter. Perhaps a simple diagram will aid us (see p. 56).
The line AD represents the gradual obscuration of spirit as it passes into concrete matter; the point D indicates the evolutionary position of the mineral kingdom from its incipient D to its ultimate concretion A; C, B, A, on the left-hand side of the figure, are the three stages of elemental evolution; i.e., the three successive stages passed by the spiritual impulse (through the elementals – of which little is permitted to be said) before they are imprisoned in the most concrete form of matter; and A, B, C, on the right-hand side, are the three stages of organic life – vegetable, animal, human. What is total obscuration of spirit is complete perfection of its polar antithesis, matter; and this idea is conveyed in the lines AD and DA. The arrows show the line of travel of the evolutionary impulse in entering its
56
vortex, and expanding again into the subjectivity of the Absolute. The central thickest line DD, is the Mineral Kingdom”
In this description the student will mark the identity of the master-idea and the variation of application to a smaller evolutionary cycle; unity amid diversity is the key-note of the Esoteric teachings, and if the student can keep his ear attuned to the key-note, he will readily follow the intricacies of the harmony.
So far, then, we have dimly apprehended the Absolute as the One and All, the First Logos as a primal emanation, emanating in turn the Second Logos, wherefrom is evolved the substance and life of the Kosmos, in Esoteric parlance the Third Logos. But for the completion of this “beginning of things”, is needed the differentiation of something more than substance and life: ideation must precede formation. And so, from the Logos “emanate the seven . . . . Dhyani Buddhas, called the Anupadaka, “the parentless”. These Buddhas are the primeval monads from the world of incorporeal being, the Arupa [rupa, form, a, without] world” (vol. i. p. 571). These seven are, collectively, Mahat or Intelligence, the Universal World Soul, Cosmic Ideation, called also Maha-Buddhi (p 16). Collectively Cosmic Ideation or Mahat, they are manifested as seven intelligences, “the primordial seven, the first seven breaths of the Dragon of Wisdom” (Stanza v.). They “produce in their turn” the “fiery whirlwind”, Fohat, the “messenger of their will”; “he is the steed and the thought is the rider”; he is “the potential creative power”, “the personified electric vital power”. On the terrestrial plane he is electricity in the widest sense, the principle 57manifesting in all electric and magnetic phænomena.
“By the action of the manifested Wisdom, or Mahat, represented by these innumerable centres of Spiritual Energy in the Kosmos, the reflexion of the Universal Mind – which is Cosmic Ideation and the intellectual force accompanying such Ideation – becomes objectively the Fohat of the Buddhist esoteric philosopher. Fohat, running along the seven principles of Akasa, acts upon manifested substance or the One Element . . . . and by differentiating it into various centres of Energy, sets in motion the law of Cosmic Evolution, which, in obedience to the Ideation of the Universal Mind, brings into existence all the various states of being in the manifested Solar System”
From each of the Dhyani Buddhas, in the descending line, are thrown out, emanate, seven Bodhisattvas, and thus in unfolding sevenfold evolution are produced centres, so to speak, of formative activity in Kosmos. From such a centre is evolved a “planetary chain”, or ring of seven globes, to be the theatre of the evolution of living things as we know them, the life-impulse having its source in that centre, and from it the evolutionary law its direction. From dawn to dusk of the Planetary Manvantara, presides over all its changing phænomena this mighty and directive Energy, embodied in all forms yet essentially One.
At this point we pass from the Arupa world, the formless, the super-physical, into the world of forms, the reflexion in Space and Time of the One Reality. We will now concentrate our attention on a single planetary chain – naturally on that to which our own earth belongs – a sufficiently complicated evolution to follow, without confusing our thought by bringing in the surrounding chains, to say nothing of the surrounding solar systems.
Note. It is certain that even on an elementary paper such as this some questions will arise in the minds of many who may read it. Some of those questions students will be able to solve by their own efforts; for it must be remembered that in Esotericism, even more than in any other study, no man can do his brother’s thinking for him. Other questions may, however, refuse to be solved even after careful thinking; if such questions are sent to us, to the care of the Editors of Lucifer, 17 Lansdowne Road, Holland Park, W., we will do our best to answer them, or obtain answers for them, and such questions and answers on the preceding paper will be annexed to the following one.
58
Theosophy and Modern Life
THIS article is the first of a series of short papers on the relation of Theosophy to various phases of modern Western life and thought, which the editors have asked me to write for Lucifer. Taking Theosophy mainly in its exoteric aspects, I propose to consider what its bearing and influence should be on those “live” questions which, in a greater or less degree, at present occupy the minds of most thinking men and women in Western Europe. Religion, Education, Socialism, Secularism, Materialism, the emancipation of Woman, the training and culture of children, the relation of the sexes, the reciprocal influences of society upon the individual and of the individual upon society, and other kindred subjects which affect the inner and the outer life of the Occidental world, must all sooner or later be brought within the Theosophical purview. Theosophy as yet is practically and of necessity Oriental in much of its thought and teaching; but, if it is to really influence Western life, and this is part of its great mission, it must do something more than discuss metaphysics or propound philosophical theories. These latter years of the nineteenth century are essentially a transition age. In every department of thought, in science, religion, literature, sociology, and art, men’s thoughts are widening with the process of the suns, and the old order is daily fading and giving place to the new. The changes which are fast coming in Europe will be no mere surface changes; they will go deep down to the very roots of society and will transform the physical, mental, and moral life of the people at large. At present many of the men and women who are touched by a divine discontent with the established order of society, are dimly groping for more light. They see that the changes are inevitable, they recognise fully the anarchy and chaos of our present social, intellectual and moral life, and their hearts and their brains are open to receive any newer ideas which promise a solution of the difficulties of the age. The kingship of the future social, intellectual, and moral world will be with that system of thought which, by the clear exposition of fundamental principles and their direct application to the varying needs of human life, can satisfy these hearts and these brains. Theosophy professes to be that system, and it must make good its claim. This it can only do by showing to the average man and woman that it has in it elements which other systems lack, that it really has within its grasp those fundamental principles which can and will affect not merely a part but the whole of human life. Novalis says that “Philosophy cannot break our bread, but it can give us immortality”; and one of the finest sayings of Jesus was that memorable one, “Man cannot live by bread alone”. But the form in which 59both these teachings are given show that both teachers recognised that bread is necessary to human life. Now Theosophy must bake the bread of humanity, meaning by bread the social life of the people. In every department of thought, in every relation of life, in the home and in society, in the field and in the market-place, in the palace and the slum, in the senate and the church, it must be the moulding and the guiding force. This and nothing less is its mission, and by its accomplished work in this respect will it stand or fall. The claims it makes are too great, too comprehensive, too vast and sweeping in their range for their exponents to be satisfied with less than humanity as a whole for their field of work.
Since I became a member of the Theosophical Society I have often wondered how many of its Fellows really recognise the vast importance, not simply of the philosophy and ideas which they study and assimilate, but of the practical every-day work which the adoption of that philosophy and those ideas involve. Some years ago Benjamin Disraeli, the late Prime Minister of England, in a memorable speech at Oxford, described the age as one in which many young ladies in drawing-rooms prattled of protoplasm and talked unconscious atheism. The saying was cynical and exaggerated, but it contained an element of truth. The generations which are marked, as this is marked, by the questioning, investigating spirit, inevitably produce an order of minds who question and investigate for the mere intellectual pleasure of enquiry, with little or no thought of the duties which enquiry entails. They prattle prettily and discuss daintily, and fancy that prattling and discussion will settle the universe. Not so, however, nor by such as these will Theosophy be made a living and a guiding power. Its first and noblest object, the brotherhood of man, is not to be attained by drawing-room meetings for researches into the mysteries of Devachan or the natural history of the Atlanteans. No third-eye vision, however keen, will compensate for that spiritual blindness which neglects and ignores our poorer and our suffering earthly brethren; and no astral journey to Thibet will atone for the unpaid bodily visits to the slum-dwellers of our Western modern life.
This, then, is the line of thought which I wish to follow out in these articles. I disdain all idea of setting myself up as a mentor to my brother Theosophists. The longer one lives the longer one sees how fatally easy it is to relax one’s energies, to turn aside at obstacles, to falter in the path of duty. None of us is infallible, none of us can do more than submit his own personal ideas and impressions for the criticism and consideration of others. But those of us whose life-work, like that of Annie Besant and myself and many others, has proceeded on certain definite social lines, all focussing, as we believe, at that one central point which is the avowed first object of the Theosophical Society, may be pardoned if we are apt to judge individual action and individual thought by their direction in relation to this centre. This, indeed, as I understand it, is true Theosophy. To strive to attain the Divine Wisdom is good; to use its lambent flame simply for the 60illumination of our own inner being is evil. Well does the Voice of the Silence say: –
Know that the stream of superhuman knowledge and the Deva-Wisdom thou hast won, must, from thyself, the channel of Alaya, be poured forth into another bed.
Know, O Narjol, thou of the Secret Path, its pure fresh waters must be used to sweeter make the Ocean’s bitter waves – that mighty sea of sorrow formed by tears of men.
Now bend thy head and listen well, O Bódhisattva – Compassion speaks and saith: “Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou be saved and hear the whole world cry?”
Divine Wisdom, indeed, for those whose ears are open to the still, sad, music of mankind, and who would make the harmonies of their own lives but the prelude to that grand anthem of humanity whose keynote shall be the sacrifice of self.
The problems of our modern Western life are so various and so complex that the work of their solution seems at times an almost hopeless task, while the strongest faith in our ideals, the most resolute determination to reach them, and the sternest sense of duty, are necessary to save us from despair. But Theosophists, above all people, are those who should be most hopeful and least despairing. They believe they have the key, not merely to the problems of humanity, but to the problems of the universe. Amid all the storms and passions of diverse human interests, of selfish human struggles, they believe they have the power to stand serene because they can pierce behind the veil. But with the greater powers come the wider responsibilities. The higher the veil is lifted the greater become the temptations, the more visible becomes the Dweller on the Threshold; and so the most ceaseless vigilance becomes more and more necessary – a vigilance which shall prevent our onward footsteps being stayed by that refined selfishness which sharpens our own spiritual swords while it suffers the rust to accumulate around the souls of others. Two shapes may the Dweller on the Threshold assume – one, the selfish indulgence of body, the other that more subtle form of selfishness which resigns a bodily gratification for the sake of mental advancement, but which turns that advancement when gained to personal and subjective ends. Of these the latter is by far the more dangerous. Personal ideals without number we may form, we may go far in realising them for ourselves, but they will be worse than useless if they remain our own private possessions, if they are untranslated into the active everyday world of humanity at large.
It is just here that Theosophy and Western modern life must join hands. What we are doing, not for ourselves but for mankind, is the one test question by which each one of us must stand or fall. I am bound to confess that, from my Western standpoint, I see as yet no sufficient answer to this question in the mental and spiritual side of Theosophy, if that side is to be judged by its living, practical results. If the tree is to be judged by its fruits, then there is many an obscure London City missionary who, holding 61what are to us the grossest and most grotesque ideas of man and his destiny, believing to the full in hell-fire and the atoning blood of Christ, is yet, by reason of his unselfish work for the suffering and the poor, nearer to the heart of Buddha than the most acute and learned exponents of the Secret Doctrine who shut themselves up within the narrow circle of their own individuality, or of their own immediate coterie of congenial friends and students. The one great problem of the age is how to realise brotherhood, and this problem cannot be solved by vague spiritual aspirations, however self-satisfying these may be, or by researches into the mysteries of the unknown, however fascinating such a quest. Brotherhood means something, it is no academic term; it means the raising of the fallen and the succouring of the weak – the removal of inequality of condition and the realisation of equal opportunity – the destruction of class privilege, and the abolition of class prejudice and class pride – the reign of justice and of love as between man and man. Never can true brotherhood be realised till the causes which retard its growth be fully learned and fully appreciated. Some months ago I went, for a special purpose, to a society “function”. There were present languid, blasé men, and fashionable, half-naked women blazing with jewels, some of them, to their shame be it said, members of the Theosophical Society, learned no doubt in the seven principles and in the astral plane. Strongly tempted did I feel to rise and deliver my soul, for I knew that not a mile from us were other languid men, but languid with hunger, other half-naked women, but naked for lack of clothes, and that on this hunger and this lack of the one class was based and built the inequality which produced the wealth and the luxury of the other. Rushing to my mind came the noble lines of a noble woman, whose life has been purified by suffering, and who has indeed realised what true brotherhood means:
“If once the people whom our fathers spoiled, |
| The Disciples, by Mrs. Hamilton King. |
To-day, part of humanity tread their daily path on thorns, while others 62step delicately on roses. I would not abolish the roses, but I would destroy the thorns – not merely from the blind material side, but by that spiritual knowledge and action which lie behind the material, and which should be its master and its king.
I have said enough to show my line of thought. I do not hope that all my readers will agree with me in all I have to say on the various phases of our modern life. I only ask them to think. Strong thought, honestly and wisely used, is the moving force of the world, but it must be honest before it can be wise. In this swiftly moving age, its life problems crowd thick and fast upon us. They must be faced, and faced boldly, if we are ever to realise the Sisterhood of Woman, and the Brotherhood of Man.
Sir Edwin Arnold on Japanese Buddhism
IN the course of his present journey round the world, Sir Edwin Arnold was entertained by the Tokyo Club at Yokohama, when the President of the Imperial University presided and proposed the health of the distinguished guest in Japanese. The speech was translated into English as it proceeded by Captain Brinkley, R.A., and in the course of his answer, the author of the Light of Asia bore the following testimony to the Japanese and to the religion of Buddha: –
“What I find here more marvellous to me than Fujisan, lovelier than the embroidered and gilded silks, precious beyond all the daintily carved ivories, more delicate than the cloistered enamels, is that ceaseless grace of the popular manners, that simple joy of life, that universal alacrity to please and be pleased, that almost divine sweetness of disposition which, I frankly believe, places Japan in these respects higher than any other nation. This sounds like exaggeration, and I shall be reproached, perhaps, for praising so warmly a land where the women, who seem to me semi-angelic, enjoy by no means their proper rights, and where feudal laws have still left traces much too deep. But either I am an incompetent observer, or else there is to be met with in all ranks of this country an entirely special charm of demeanor, an exquisite finesse of mutual consideration, a politeness, humble without servility and palpably springing from graceful good will, all of which give a finer atmosphere of life, and render the courtliness of less naturally polished peoples well-nigh a vulgarity. Retain, I beseech you, gentlemen, this national characteristic which you did not import, and can never, alas, export. Old Will Adams, the pilot of Queen Elizabeth, whose name is preserved in a street in this city, and whose grave is on your shores, the first Englishman that ever saw them, wrote of Japan: “This countrie is gouerned with greate civilitie”. So it is still. I cannot express to you the subtle pleasure I have derived from contact with your common people in cities and railway stations, in villages, in tea houses and country roads. I have nowhere passed without learning thousands of finer
63
manners than I knew, and without being instructed in that delicacy of heart, which springs from true goodwill and lies above all precept.
“How did Japan acquire this supreme social refinement? In my ignorance I attribute it to three chief causes – happy mixture of blood which nature and history have blended in your veins, the settled peace of two centuries given you by your renowned secular rulers and the ever softening and ever humanizing influence of that religion about which I at least can never speak without reverence. I must indeed be bold to say that wherever the doctrines of the Great Teacher of India have passed they bring to the people adopting them, or partially adopting them, more or less of embellishment and elevation. Nay, I believe it impossible that the religious tenets of the Buddha should ever enter into the life of any large body of people without stamping on the national character ineffaceable marks of the the placidity of kindliness, the glad bliss and the vast consolations embodied in the faith of Sakya Muni. Nor, believe me, is it ever possible, in spite of the grave authorities which assert it to me, that Buddhism once entering a land should ever depart from it. You will instantly think of India and remind me that the professed Buddhists there are to be numbered by scores or hundreds, but I must answer that all Hindu India is Buddhist in disguise. The sea does not mark the sand more surely with its tokens than Gautama has conquered, changed and crystallized the religious belief of the Brahmins; and so far from encouraging anyone to hope that Buddhism will pass away from Japan or from any other of its homes, I announce my conviction that it will endure to reconcile its sublime declarations with the lofty ethics of Christianity and with the discoveries of Science, and will be for all of you who love and serve the East no enemy but a potent, constant ally. I have refused numerous influential invitations to address the Buddhists of Japan on the topics of “The Light of Asia”, and I beg you tell them for me that this was not from any want of respect or interest, but because I am a learner here and not a teacher. Otherwise I should have said how little it troubles me to find here twelve sects of Buddhism, four of them comparatively modern – the Jodo-shu, the Zen-shu, Shin-shu and Nichi-ren-shu. My slender study of these divergent streams makes me regard them as very much like the four walls of one of your paper houses, from each of which you look towards different quarters, but see one and the same light of Heaven. For, gentlemen, European as well as Japanese, is it not the heavenly light of Love, of Pity, of Renunciation which we see shining in the eighteenth of the forty-eight prayers of Amitabha? ‘If any of living beings of the ten regions who have believed in good with true thought and desire to be born again in my land of peace and joy, and who have, even unto ten times, repeated that thought, if one of these should fail to be born again there, then may I never attain Sam-Buddah, the Perfect Knowledge.’”
The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine; |
| H. E. Hamilton King. |
64
The First Step
THE following are some suggestions for the guidance of the organism, that it may best serve its purpose as the instrument of the higher principles.
It is taken for granted that the general laws of physical life are recognised; that there be sufficient food supply, sufficient exercise, &c. It is proposed merely to suggest an arrangement of these necessities, which should help the higher without distracting the lower principles in us.
Let us start with the morning, and proceed through the day until the next morning.
Rise early, say at seven or before, according to necessities of business and so forth. You have then abundance of time before you, and the mind need not be engaged straight off with the obligations of the coming day. If you have a strong circulation, a cold sponge or shower bath will be beneficial, followed by an active rough towelling; if this may not be practised, through weak circulation or other causes, then friction with a moist towel all over the body will be a good substitute; but whatever course you pursue, arouse yourself thoroughly – become wide awake.
You are now in the best condition for clear thinking; the mind is freed from the details of the previous day and must not be allowed to take up those of the coming one. The higher principles have just retaken possession and are now possibly more capable than at any other time of impressing the physical brain. It will be found upon the authority of many writers, ancient and modern, the late Dr. Anna Kingsford among them, that the clearest and best dreams are experienced just before waking in the morning.
It is not proposed to direct the thinker during the hour he should now spend in silence, and concentration of thought. That he must learn to do for himself, but let him persevere; it is only difficult at first. Having passed his hour, he will probably feel benefited; perhaps have “evolved something from his inner consciousness”, and at least have strengthened control over the lower principles for the coming day, if the time has been wisely spent.
Let him now to breakfast; he will find his palate clear and his stomach refreshed, and ready to receive its load. Whether he make his breakfast off wheatmeal-bread and hot milk, or bury his fangs in a succulent raw steak, is also a matter we leave for the decision of the eater; but whatever be taken let a sound breakfast be made without excess. The reason for this will be seen presently.
The morning which now follows is the best time for work, whether it be reading, writing, or manual labour.
At one o'clock let dinner be taken, and let it also be a substantial meal, of whatever it consists. The afternoon is the best for light activities of any sort, be they mental or muscular; for amusement or otherwise. However, most of us have no choice in this matter.
And now at five or six comes the last necessity for food during the twenty-four hours. Let it consist simply of a glass of warm milk, a cup of chocolate, or a plate of soup. Whatever it be, let it be light and easily assimilated, small in quantity, and not solid. Ample food has already been taken for the requirements of the organism, if the breakfast and dinner have been properly selected.
At half-past ten or eleven when we retire to rest, we do so light and free, after an evening spent in study, in social intercourse, and so forth. Let the last half 65hour, longer if chosen, be spent in silent reverie, the day reviewed and criticised. But the manner of this is also left for each to decide for himself.
The body is now given over to oblivion, as free as possible of all the activities of digestion, assimilation, etc. It is said that the higher principles of the man separate from the body during sound sleep and are free to wander in their own spheres. Be this so, or not, we know that consciousness indraws from the external plane during sound undisturbed sleep, and therefore that those who would enter into closer rapport with this interior state must amongst other things study the perfect rest of the body.
When the process of digestion and assimilation are being carried on fully the higher principles are attracted and unduly chained to it during those hours when they should be free; or, put in the other way, when the interior consciousness – to us unconsciousness – should be free to move in its own realm.
Contrast the sleep of the man, living as proposed, with that of the heavy seven o’clock diner. The almost silent coming and going of the breath of the former, with the heavy breathing of the latter.
Rest for the lower, freedom for the higher principles, and let us hope the latter may impress and ultimately thoroughly control those who will TRY.
This question of body is only one, and the lowest, of those which must be studied and experimented with, by those who mount. Perhaps the highest is that which when answered tells us that all questions propounded for concrete self are futile; and which teaches us, that in the matter just discussed in this article, there is only profit if it be done from the aspect of the body as the impermanent Instrument of the Eternal Self.
“S.”
Our Budget
The timely aid given to Lucifer in answer to our appeal last autumn has placed the paper on what promises to be a sound financial basis. The following figures show the rapid improvement which has taken place.
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loss on the September issue | 30 | 10 | 11 |
| „ „ October „ | 23 | 16 | 7¼ |
| „ „ November „ | 19 | 9 | 1¾ |
| „ „ December „ | 15 | 7 | 6 |
| „ „ January „ | 2 | 1 | 0 |
The last loss is exceptionally low, as a large number of back issues were sold during the month; apart from these, the loss would have touched £8. We think we may fairly congratulate ourselves on these figures; the improvement is due, first, to the diminished cost of production, by avoiding quite unnecessary expenditure; and, secondly, to the energy and devotion thrown into the business at Duke Street by the Countess Wachtmeister, resulting in the growing circulation of the magazine.
Herbert Burrows, 283 Victoria Park Road, N.E., Treasurer of the Lecture Fund, acknowledges the following contributions:
| A Theosophist | £5 | 0 | 0 |
| H. A. V. | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Anon. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| £20 | 0 | 0 |
| Sent to H. P. B. | £200 | 0 | 0 |
| Caroline Marshall | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| A Theosophist | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| £215 | 0 | 0 |
Theosophical Activities
68
England
London. – The Blavatsky Lodge has held its weekly meetings, which grow larger week by week. The Debating Club has met on each Wednesday, and already there is some promise of some of the members developing speaking ability. Lectures have been delivered by Isabel Cooper-Oakley and Annie Besant.
In the East End of London, a Club for Working Women is being founded by the Theosophical Society, and will be opened, probably, next month. Some months ago a gentleman offered Madame Blavatsky £1,000 to open and carry on some institution that should be of real help to some of the more down-trodden of our sisters. Madame Blavatsky declined to accept the gift, as it was impossible for her to personally superintend such an undertaking, but after some discussion, she consented to accept the trust if the actual administration were placed in the hands of Annie Besant and Laura Cooper. This proposal was readily accepted by the friend offering the gift, and steps were taken to find a suitable house. After prolonged travel, and various disappointments, a large house was obtained in the Bow Road; workmen are busily engaged in adapting it to the purpose in view, and it will be opened as a “Club for Working Women, founded by the Theosophical Society”. It is proposed that, to begin with, about a dozen girls, who are orphans and friendless, shall be admitted as inmates, while a club with sitting-room, reading and work-room, shall be opened for working women. A room will be set apart for the use of Committees of Trade Unions, now often driven to public-houses for lack of a suitable office for the transaction of their business. Soon it is intended to open a dining-room for women-workers, where good and cheap food can be obtained in warmth and comfort. Gradually the place will be developed, it is hoped, into a centre of useful activity, for the service of women whose lot in life is often so hard to bear.
Newcastle-on-Tyne. – The inaugural meeting of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Lodge of the Theosophical Society took place, at Hartington Street, on the 6th ult. The 69President-Elect, Mr. F. Bandon Oding, gave a retrospective sketch of the various incidents which led up to the formation of a Theosophical Lodge in Newcastle; after which the official charter of Constitution was read, and the names of the Founding-Members were duly registered on the Rolls of the Lodge. The election of Officers then took place, with the following result: – President, F. Bandon Oding; Vice-President, Alexander Bowie; Secretary, Wm. Burn; Treasurer, Mrs. F. B. Oding; Committee, Miss Harriet Britain, John Wilson, William Green. The first Committee meeting was held on 11th February, when Rules on the model of those in force in the Blavatsky Lodge were drawn up, a few alterations suitable to local exigencies being made. A definite plan of work and study is in course of preparation.
West of England Lodge. – A charter of the Theosophical Society was issued on January 30th to Mrs. Passingham and her Associates, for the purpose of constituting a Lodge at Exmouth, under the above title. The Lodge has an excellent President in the person of Mrs. Passingham, whose work at Cambridge was of a peculiarly difficult, though by no means unsuccessful, nature; consequently, it is to be hoped that, in a new environment, even better results will reward the same ardent labour in the cause of Theosophy.
Mr. A. P. Sinnett lectured, towards the end of February, in the hall of the Royal College for the Blind, before the Upper Norwood Literary and Scientific Society, on “Theosophic Inquiry”. A debate followed the lecture, and so much interest was shown in the subject that it was decided to continue the discussion on another evening. Mr. Sinnett is well known as the first propagandist of Theosophy in this country, and his books have led many into the path of inquiry. He is the President of the London Lodge.
We are very pleased to see Mr. Sinnett’s name appended to No. 15 of the Transactions of the London Lodge, for February. He gives us an excellent paper on “Free-will and Necessity regarded in the light of Reincarnation and Karma”. We should be very glad to welcome a larger work from the same able pen.
Scotland
The reorganization of our Lodge offers a good opportunity for giving some account of our aims and methods, especially to those who have recently joined, and to whom Theosophy is a new world. Great care in the use of words is most essential; often the sign gets substituted for the thing signified; we do not and cannot mentally advert at once to the whole nature of the concept. Thus there is a thought latent in the word which Leibnitz calls the cogitatio cæca or symbolica. Any word thus associated with a cluster of ideas has a tendency to drop some of them, and thus the word no longer suggests any but the most obvious and superficial associations, and old aphorisms full of noble thought become mere sterile dogmas; a portion of the thought covered by the word falls asleep, so far as the mass of mankind are concerned, it may be for centuries.
But language is like an embalmer; so long as the word remains, its meaning may revive, and so that meaning is in perpetual oscillation, constantly lost and as constantly recovered. A proposition remains verbally the same; but to one generation it is “full of sap and fierce with life,” to the next an effete truism. For the mass of mankind the word suggests only a fraction of its meaning, but still the thought is there, like the enchanted lady waiting only the breath of the fairy prince. Thus ancient and priceless thoughts may be recovered by the passionate intuition of 70genius, or the patient plodding of science. I would advise the careful study of a few difficult, but valuable pages in the 2nd vol. of Mill’s Logic on the evil consequences of casting off any of the existing connotations of words.
We, above all, should be careful of this danger, for in the misuse of words lies one of the most fertile sources of quarrel, bigotry, and intolerance, one of the worst foes to real brotherhood. Above all should we avoid taking the popular conception of a word, and using it as though it were the full scientific meaning.
For these reasons I propose to give a little time to carefully explaining some names not popularly well-understood, and I would commence by saying that the key-note of the whole is the absolute unity of all things.
Theosophy is literally divine wisdom, or wisdom-religion. It is not a religion, far less a new religion, or a new sect. It is religion – the abstract conception – that which binds not only all men but all beings, all things in the universe, into one grand whole – the universal law, in fact; and thus it is not only the abstract religion, but the abstract science, whereof every individual religion and every individual science are just concrete examples. Every advance in science shows that scientists are every day approaching nearer to the conception of a universal law. Professor Drummond’s remarkable work, “Natural Law in the Spiritual World”, shows that the same idea is working in exoteric philosophic and religious circles.
But this implies universal brotherhood, and this is Theosophy. Anyone can be a Theosophist. That is to say, any person of moderate intellect, of pure, unselfish life, who finds more joy in helping others than in receiving help, who is ready to sacrifice his own pleasure for the good of others, and who loves Truth, Goodness, and Wisdom, for their own sake and not for the benefits they may confer, is a Theosophist.
But how to find the principles of Theosophy? Let each one seek in his own religion, only obliterate therefrom all denials, all hostile criticism of the faith of others, all intolerance and bigotry; take only the positive teachings, and in these rightly understood you will have Theosophy. Only a part, it may be, of the grand universal religion, and some religions will show numerically more of its precepts than others; but this will be a matter of fact, not of opinion, and the religion which manifests the most truth will be as obvious as one man’s being stronger or older than another. Only remember what a great metaphysician has laid down: Falsehood can only exist where there is denial. The only logical falsehood is to assert that the same thing at the same time is A and is not A, and even this proposition only holds in the limits of space and time. Therefore expunge denial and you expunge falsehood, since falsehood consists of assertion plus denial. Occultism may perhaps be best explained as the rules formulating this Universal Science and Religion, and is theoretical and practical. Theoretical Occultism is within the reach of every one who strives to study the principles on which Theosophy is based, and to make them a guiding power in his life. Practical Occultism consists of rules for self-development, and the principles of that Esoteric Science which has from age to age been handed down by the Master Initiates, and portions of which have been revealed from time to time to chosen persons. Not all, in fact very few, are physically, morally, or intellectually capable of receiving this. Man is an instrument, and in order that the Revealer may use the instrument to full effect, so that the truth imprinted on his brain may be given forth in clearness and fulness, not only must the instrument be a fitting one in construction, but it must be in perfect tune, and that tuning is done by occult rules.
Such being the meaning of Theosophy and Occultism, a disposition manifested by the Master Initiates in the last quarter of this century to partially relax this long silence and to communicate, and make exoteric, portions of the vast stores of learning entrusted to them, led some fifteen years ago to the formation of the Theosophical Society as the vehicle for conveying the learning to such of the mass 71of mankind as were fit to receive it. Not that the Theosophical Society was the origin of Occultism, which in fact is as old as the human race itself. Here in Scotland, as far back as history reaches, we have had an occult school. The name of Michael Scott is well known, and coming to later times, in 1817 a work was published in Edinburgh entitled “The Theory of the Moral and Physical System of the Universe,” by F. M. McNab, a book full of occult learning, the publication of which in that period, so saturated with gross materialism, is a very striking circumstance. In 1884, on the occasion of Colonel Olcott's first visit to Edinburgh, our Scottish Lodge was formed, and though the death of our first president and other circumstances caused a temporary cessation of activity, that period has now passed and the Lodge is once more in full working order and daily growing stronger and more important.
It is natural that we should be asked what reason we have to offer why anyone should join us, or should study or follow the occult rules, and though it is somewhat difficult to formulate for outsiders what to occultists themselves is as clear as day, we may roughly state that by following these rules and making them part of daily life they may both acquire benefits for themselves and confer benefits on others; for themselves, improved physical health invariably follows the due observance of the rules; self-command is gained, and with it knowledge and skill in science or art; material success in trade or profession, and wealth, if desired, may be readily brought within the power of the diligent student. I say deliberately if desired, for probably by the time that this point is reached only one thing will seem desirable to the student, viz., Theosophia, the Divine Wisdom, even as it seemed to King Solomon when the choice was given to him. The student of Occultism may help others also, and this will be his greatest inducement, by solving their difficulties, explaining the meaning of their trials, shedding light in dark places, and in many other ways which will open before him as the riddle of the world grows more clear. To those who desire to get and to give such benefits it will be of great assistance to join the Theosophical Society, for its wide-spread organization will enable them to come in contact with kindred souls in all quarters of the world, and by the tie of brotherhood to claim all the knowledge and all the help in the service of humanity which can be rendered, and the solution of all problems which the wisdom of the East can solve. Also if they be actuated by the unselfish desire to help others, which makes a Theosophist, they will bring their goodness and their love to strengthen the good work, and thus will utilize to the fullest the powers of good that are in them.
In this work every honest worker is welcome who will lay aside prejudice and intolerance. All such are endeavouring to discover the Truth, and as the Truth is one and indivisible, the discovery of a law on any plane of being is a clue to the operation of the same law on every other plane. No better illustration exists of this than in the labours of the Alchemists: they were no crafty impostors, nor greedy seekers for material wealth; they sought for spiritual truths, and the labours of their laboratories were not undertaken to conceal their philosophic research, but because they knew that every spiritual truth cast its reflex, as it were, on the material physical plane; they were certain that every material scientific discovery, read by the light of correspondences, whereof they had the key, indicated a corresponding philosophic or religious truth; hence the chemical discoveries they undoubtedly made, valuable as these were, were insignificant compared with the spiritual truths signified. And the same thing holds now, and hence the occultist can draw valuable lessons from the work of the scientist, the biologist, the spiritualist and every other inquirer, if only he be honest, but rejects as worthless the vanity which prompts such to regard his own science as the final expression of knowledge. When for, instance, the scientist declares there can be nothing higher than the matter which he deals with by microscope and crucible, 72the occultist can readily use his valuable positive work of discovery and cast out the dross of his denial. Therefore we ask the co-operation of all, if only they desire to work unselfishly for pure love of their kind.
It may be asked, how should occult training be begun? and the answer is simple, though hard enough to carry into effect. First, Know thyself, and to this end a knowledge of the seven principles indicated in the “Key to Theosophy”, more fully developed in the “Secret Doctrine”, will be found a great help. Secondly; Command thyself; look on the entity which those seven principles compose as an instrument which you have first to bring into perfect harmony and then to make responsive to the dictates of its highest principles, for each principle answers to the corresponding principle in the universe, from the lowest which has its affinities with the earth from which it was taken, to the Divine soul which, sensitive as the magnetized needle of the compass, responds to and makes manifest in man the vibrations of the Divine Soul of the Universe. This Knowledge and Command form the initial step – this once firmly taken the next step will open plainly before the neophyte; and it is to enable him to take this first step, to guide the halting feet, to show the example of those who have taken it, that these occult and Theosophical societies are formed.
A word as to the constitution of our own Scottish Lodge: its government is vested in a President, Vice-President, and Secretary, and it consists of members, who must also be members of the Theosophical Society, and of associates, who may, but need not, be such. Every member must first have been an associate for six months, unless that time be specially shortened by the President. From associates we ask but two pledges – first, entire secrecy as to the name of any person attending any meeting, the reader of any paper, or the office-bearers of the Lodge. This pledge is partly for our own protection, as many who join our ranks or sympathize with us might incur serious professional risk by being known to be connected with a movement so little understood; also, we wish to avoid any of the vanity which might arise from the reader of a paper having his name and opinions publicly quoted. If his views are true, they will commend themselves without his name; if not true, then no authority can make them better. To the associates themselves, the simple discipline of silence and abstention from the gossiping habit of mentioning names will be very valuable. The second pledge is not to attack or criticize in any hostile spirit the exoteric creed or religion of any member or associate. On this I need say nothing, for it obviously lies at the root of all Theosophy, and who, ever offends against it is no true Theosophist, however learned or gifted, or indeed however pure in life and good in intention. Such is our position, and such our aims and objects. We press no one to join us. Anyone who expects to see miracles worked will not do so; at the same time we know that psychic gifts do exist, and that our country has been in all ages prolific in such. Should any possessors of such gifts join us, we can put them in the way of developing their powers with safety and advantage to themselves and others, and of avoiding the perils and miseries of mediumship or of Dugpaship.
The success and extension of our Lodge hitherto prove that there are true and unselfish workers really in earnest to help, and such only do we desire.
France
We have received an important announcement from a group of our French brothers who are imbued with the true theosophical spirit. The translation runs as follows:
Theosophy, Occult Science, Astral World, Sociology. A Monthly Review.
After a year of existence La Revue Théosophique has ceased publication in the full tide of success. All Theosophists owe a debt of gratitude to the Countess
73
d’Adhémar for the energy she has shown in devoting to Theosophy an organ the interest and worth of which its readers have learned to appreciate.
But Theosophy cannot remain without an organ in France: and this is our reason for starting Le Lotus Bleu (Blue Lotus), which is certain to live for many a year, whatever happens.
The Theosophical Society, which numbers about 200 branches scattered over the whole world, receives its Esotericism from Eastern Teachers or Initiates, who for thousands of years have handed down from one to the other the complete knowledge of the One Truth.
Theosophy is the universal and highest synthesis of all the doctrines which have been borrowed from it by Egypt, the Kabbala, and the schools of the Occident.
The Lotus Bleu is the only organ of the Theosophical Society in France.
It is addressed to all unselfish and honest students who sincerely desire to ascend to the direct and primitive source of Esotericism and to know the direct teaching of Occult Science. It is addressed to all those who thirst for the Unknown and wish to penetrate the Unseen, who, “tired of learning, desire at last to know!”
The Lotus Bleu will publish entire works of the greatest interest, translations of which have never appeared in France, and which have produced a veritable revolution in Thought and Science in England, America, and Germany.
France can no longer be ignorant of the valuable works which bring us to strangest revelations, not dreams or metaphysical speculations, but scientific facts.
These works, commencing with the first number, are, to mention the most important only: –
“The Key to Theosophy,” by H. P. Blavatsky, a book that has so long been waited for by all those who have taken up the preliminary study of Eastern Wisdom, and which answers all questions and points of interrogation: “Black and White Magic,” by Dr. Franz Hartmann, a remarkable work both from a scientific point of view and from its clearness of exposition, as well as by the interest of the subjects treated of. These will be followed by selections from “Isis Unveiled,” and the “Voice of the Silence,” remarkable works in which the Spirit of the Masters is felt; and also articles on practical occult medicine, sociology, &c., &c. By the translations of the most important articles published in India, England, or elsewhere, we shall keep our readers in touch with this great movement, which is practically unknown in France; there will also be original contributions by H. P. Blavatsky, Eugène Inis, and other contributors who are really competent to deal with the questions of which they will treat and are skilled in Occult and Esoteric Science, which includes all sciences and commences where these cease.
The collection of the Lotus Bleu will form the most complete Encyclopedia, its teaching being the most direct and exact, and drawn from the very source of Occultism.
The Lotus Bleu will be published on the 7th of every month, with 72 pages of text.
Subscription, 10 fr. a year. Single copies, 1 fr. All communications to the Editor to be addressed to M. Jean Matthéus, 7, rue Stanislas, Paris; subscriptions, &c., should be sent to M. Bailly, 11, rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris.
The first number will be published March 7th, 1890.
Thus we have another genuine Theosophical magazine heart and soul with us, like the Path, Lucifer, and the Theosophist – when in right hands.
The Society of Altruism
We give our heartiest and most cordial welcome to a new society which has lately been born in France owing to the energy of a brother Theosophist, who has long won our admiration as one of the strongest and most brilliant writers on Theosophy 74and Eastern Philosophy in France. The programme is, beyond everything, practical, and aims at bringing about that social and moral reformation which is so much needed.
As stated in its organ, L’Anti-Egoïste, the object of the Society is devotion to Others and the amelioration of Self, defined in the following programme.
I. Liberty of body, conscience, and speech. Abolition of capital and corporal punishment, duels, cruel sports, and gambling. Protection of children and animals (anti-vaccination and anti-vivisection), of old age and infirmity. Campaign against violence and dogmatism, slavery and exploitation, monopoly and adulteration, hypocrisy and false respectability. The legal and mental emancipation of woman. The rehabilitation of illegitimacy. Equality of workers before the law and in public consideration.
II. Health. The health of the body; and sanitary improvements in dress, schools, workshops, and dwellings. Cremation. Campaign against the abuse of animal food, alcohol and narcotics, and against sexual abuses.
III. Help. Mutual and organised help. Volunteers for charitable works, hospital and prison visiting. Cheap kitchens and free entertainments. The elevation of the artistic standard of the masses, and the beautifying of their surroundings. Campaign against vandalism and useless luxury, against paper charity and the “Chadbandism” of brotherhood. The peaceful reformation of society by the reformation of the individual.
IV. Education. The physical, intellectual, and moral education of both sexes. Free instruction, libraries, lectures, and museums. University reform – modern before dead languages.
V. Organization. League of peace and international arbitration. Free trade, international postal union. The universalisation of authors’ rights; the metric system, weights, measures, coinage, and longitudes. The simplification of languages. The formation of a universal brotherhood, without distinction of sex, race, rank, or opinions.
VI. Evolution. The physical, psychic, and spiritual evolution of man. The bringing together of the saint, thinker, and scholar. The study of the forces in bodies and of the wills in forces. The study of all the philosophies, religions, science and arts, customs and institutions of the human race, with the object of showing that one and the same truth is hidden under apparent differences. The vindication of ancient thought, and the renaissance of Eastern literature.
VII. Unity. The unity of the self in all selves.
May all success attend the “Altruists”, who boldly fight for a programme the spirit of which is progress, and the watchword “Onward!”
The two first numbers of L’Anti-Egoïste contain excellent articles, one entitled “Les Bases de l’Altruisme,” and the other “Théorie de la Vie”. Those of our readers who desire to know more about the society should apply to M. Casse, 2 rue Sarrazin, Nantes.
United States
Brother Bertram Keightley is making quite a stir in Western America, if we may judge from the voluminous notices sent to us from the American papers. Lectures, interviews, discussions, tumble in upon us in bewildering multiplicity. In San Francisco he delivered five lectures, the concluding one on Jan. 10th. On Jan. 12th, he lectured twice, afternoon and evening, at San José. On the 15th and 16th, we find him lecturing at Santa Cruz, and on the 21st, 23rd, and 25th, at Los Angelos. At the latter town he also spoke, at a Nationalist meeting, on Brotherhood, and expressed his sympathy with the views expounded in “Looking Backward”. The lectures dealt with the objects of the Theosophical Society, and 75explained the doctrines of Theosophy with rare clearness and vigour, winning the attention and applause of the critical American audiences. We have received the following report from the Secretary of the Los Angelos Lodge: –
“Mr. Bertram Keightley, during a seven days' sojourn in Los Angelos, California, delivered three public lectures, and on the last Sunday of January addressed about 500 people upon Theosophy and its relation to Nationalism. Every day of his busy week was occupied with private meetings among the Theosophists and their friends, during which he discoursed most graphically upon the evolution of consciousness, the nature of the higher life, the practical application of Theosophy to every-day existence, and the vital need of fraternal co-operation. His first public lecture was upon the theme, ‘The Theosophical Society and Universal Brotherhood,’ in which he emphasized the fact that Theosophy has no creed, but seeks for the Truth in everything; that Truth is universal and cannot be confined by sects and societies; that Brotherhood is the law because the Inner Self is one. In his second lecture he traced the monad in its eternal round, and elucidated many of the obscurities in biology which both science and religion have left hitherto untouched. The last lecture, upon “Karma and Reincarnation”, was a clear exposition of the law of cause and effect as applied to human thought and action. He defined the rationality of Reincarnation as being based upon the fact, that a soul to be perfected must pass through every type of human experience, for which one short span of life is scarcely sufficient. He reinforced his statements by quotations from some of the world’s leading writers, and demonstrated that a belief which has been held by the majority of all races and at all times of known history, cannot be an utter fallacy. Under his auspices was formed the third T. S. Branch of Los Angelos – which has not as yet been christened!
In the interviews with the ubiquitous reporter, Bertram Keightley cleared away endless misconceptions as to the work of the Society and of its Founders, his perfect loyalty and devotion shining in every sentence. There is but one opinion expressed in the reports as to his genial friendliness to all inquirers.
We note with much interest his remarks on the type now developing in America. He says in one interview:
“In America, and especially in California, I have been much impressed by the very marked signs in the development of a new human type, the precursors of the sixth sub-race of our Aryan stock, the appearance of which is predicted and outlined in ‘The Secret Doctrine’. For instance, for every psychic or sensitive I know of in England, I have met fifty or a hundred in this country.”
And again:
“We have in America at this age the beginning of a new race. How different this race is from the old is shown by the success achieved here by faith cures, metaphysical healers, Spiritualists, and others. The success of these things in this country proves that the American has undergone some deep-seated physiological changes, rendering his nature susceptible to finer vibrations and more mystical influences than those of the people of Europe. By the development of this new race we hope to arrive at a psychic stage which will enable us to make scientific tests of the super-physical world which lies everywhere around us.”
MR. BERTRAM KEIGHTLEY, Private Secretary to Mme. Blavatsky, arrived at San Francisco, overland, from Omaha, Saturday Dec. 28th, 1889. He was met at 16th Street Station, Oakland, by a delegation who accompanied him to the city and escorted him to the residence of Dr. J. A. Anderson, where he was entertained during his stay. In the evening an informal reception was held, at which almost every Theosophist in San Francisco and Oakland was present. By his genial and unostentatious manner, Mr. Keightley at once brought himself into sympathetic relationship with all present, and throughout his stay this feeling 76continued to grow and evince itself in hearty co-operation; so that his visit was not only a most pleasurable experience to all concerned, but the impetus given to general interest in Theosophical work has already shown itself in more ways than one.
On Sunday, Dec. 29th. at 2 p.m., at the regular Open Meeting of Golden Gate Lodge, Mr. Keightley delivered a Lecture upon “The Theosophical Society and Universal Brotherhood”, to a crowded house. The plan adopted at this first lecture was carried out at each subsequent one; the lecture occupied about forty minutes, and was followed by questions and answers, for about twenty minutes; at the close an informal conversation ensued. In the evening of the same day, Mr. Keightley repeated this lecture at the Oakland Open Meeting, held by Aurora Branch. There also a crowded house greeted him. Both the San Francisco and Oakland Monday morning papers contained lengthy and correct reports of Mr. Keightley’s lectures. All his lectures were fairly reported by the daily papers, which fact is very gratifying to Theosophists on this coast. The papers were freely used in advertising all lectures, and as a result, the general public attended in large numbers and responded by giving handsomely at all collections taken up to defray incidental expenses.
During the next twelve days Mr. Keightley held daily public and private meetings; on the evening of the 9th of Jan. at the Golden Gate Lodge, a most fruitful gathering took place. Here he gave an account of the methods of Theosophic work carried out in London, New York, and other places he had visited. The result of this meeting was the adoption of a practical scheme of Theosophic work on the Pacific Coast, whereby San Francisco should become a Centre, from which would emanate a continued and steady stream of influence and actual work. A specific plan was at this time adopted, very largely owing to suggestions by Mr. Keightley, toward which a few Theosophists at San Francisco have been working for some time past, and if Mr. Keightley had accomplished nothing more, by his visit to the Pacific Coast, than this, this alone will prove time and work well spent and amply compensated for. But this is only one thing that Mr. Keightley has brought about, by his influence and unselfish spirit of genuine Theosophy; for the impetus given to the Branches of the Coast, and individual Theosophists, will be productive of great results, which will expand and prove one of the most beneficial ever received during the history of the Theosophic movement.
Friday, Jan. 10th, Mr. Keightley delivered his last lecture at San Francisco, upon “The Three Stages of a Theosophist”; a crowded house greeted him and expressed by close attention their hearty appreciation of his efforts to enlighten them. Communications are still coming in from people of all classes, speaking of the great good Mr. Keightley has accomplished both to the community, and to individuals, by his visit to San Francisco, and hoping that he may soon be with us again. The mornings and afternoons of Mr. Keightley’s stay here have been spent in receiving visitors, at 13, Mason Street, which he constituted his head quarters, and making calls in answer to special requests.
On Saturday, Jan. 11th, Mr. Keightley left for San Jose, where he will remain for two days, then going to Gilroy for two days, and on to Santa Cruz for two or three days, then to Stockton, and on to Southern Calcutta. Urgent requests have come in from many Calcutta cities, earnestly begging Mr. Keightley to visit them, and as he desires to do all the work possible during a limited stay on the Coast, he will visit and lecture at as many places as his time will permit. The press of those towns at which he has consented to stop and lecture have printed articles on Theosophy and have freely advertised his coming, bespeaking a cordial reception. Taken altogether, Mr. Keightley’s visit to this Coast is strikingly of the nature of a Theosophical revival.
Allen Griffiths,
Secretary Keightley Pacific Coast Committee.
77
The Address of the Executive Committee of the Pacific Coast
A plan has been perfected among Theosophists of San Francisco and Oakland, whereby it is hoped the object of the Theosophist Society may be realized, and Theosophic work systematically carried on upon the Pacific Coast, with headquarters located at San Francisco, as the point most central and having the largest present available working force.
But this only as a Centre; it is recognized that the work extends all along the Coast, where Theosophists already are, where they are now isolated, and where they are yet to be brought to the light; and while there are some earnest workers here, every worker now in the Society, wherever situated, is earnestly besought to lend his aid in work, time, thought, and money to the Cause.
We have not many years to work; the century is fast closing upon us; great is the mighty wave of Spiritual force now in our favour and with us; it is our privilege to ride upon that wave, and to work with the mighty power of the Great Souls who would and do help because it is their hour. But, so sure as night follows day, the reaction comes, and the work not accomplished now must then be one of greater labour in the face of greater difficulties and without our Leader! This, then, is the time for every earnest Theosophist who has the Great Cause at heart, and not himself, to show by impersonal and unselfish effort in every direction, that he is not unworthy to serve with the Masters in the most Holy Cause.
Few realize how much may be done in this short time, but it must be by concentrated, harmonious, systematic action, and with the determination that overcomes all obstacles. Taking, then, San Francisco as an actual as well as geographical centre, an Executive Committee of members here now at work has been formed, to be joined by one or more members from each Branch, and by members at large, not to take the labour away from any point, or out of the hands of any Branch, but to give aid and counsel to those now in the work, to gain and interest others not only at the centre but over the whole field, and to give direction where needed, that none need be idle, lukewarm, or asleep.
This Executive Committee is organized with a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer, who will also act as Recording Secretary. Five Members will constitute a quorum, and its meetings and business will be held and transacted at the Head Quarters, 13, Mason Street, San Francisco, where a room has been rented at the personal charge of a Theosophist; another has carpeted the same, others have given articles of furniture, some 4,500 leaflets have been contributed to the Committee, and already “Head Quarters Pacific Coast” is an accomplished fact.
The number comprising the Committee shall not be limited, but every earnest, impersonal, unselfish worker, wherever residing, may be utilized in the work.
Those farthest from the centre being the out-posts and single pickets, are asked to report their own work, and the need of work, with suggestions and plans towards the one end.
Briefly, the Committee will systematize the labour, devise ways and means for carrying on Theosophic work, disseminating Theosophic Literature, creating interest and supplying the demand thus created, giving direct personal encouragement to the formation of New Branches, following up those individuals who evince interest, printing leaflets adapted to the questions arising, reprinting those most excellent ones already published in New York, mailing from head-quarters, and interesting others to engage in mailing from their homes, questions and answers on Theosophic points in any and all journals that may be opened to us, and all other plans that may from time to time appear and be utilized. A Register containing names of all persons interested in Theosophy will be kept, and you are requested
78
to collect and forward to the Corresponding Secretary names and addresses of all whom you may know or learn of, stating to what degree they are interested, what lines they have been reading and studying, &c. A Theosophical Library is now open, and will be maintained for the use of the public without charge.
All that is proposed means the expenditure of time and work for those here and at a distance, who may join. It also means money, and, as intimated already, some portion of this necessity is pledged by individual members here agreeing to give a certain sum monthly: you are urgently requested to make this a personal matter; after you have done so, to personally interest all others to give a regular sum monthly, or outright a lump sum, large or small. Do not confine the effort or the asking to members of the Theosophical Society, but present the cause to all liberal-minded friends.
If your Branch is able as a Branch to contribute, it will be well; but if you are your own Treasurer and Collector from others, it will be better, simply because it is your business and not another’s.
If you cannot give a certain sum, try to become responsible for the raising of a definite amount.
Do not feel ashamed of the size of the amount unless you individually know that it should be larger.
Remit all sums to E. B. Rambo, Treasurer, 418 Market Street, San Francisco. All disbursements will be made only after agreement by the Committee in executive session, records of which will be kept and an annual report made to each member.
We whose names are submitted herewith have joined in this first central movement on this Coast, solemnly impressed with its great importance and of our own act. We know we have loyal fellow members near us who, though not named, will second all effort that is impersonal for the Great Cause.
Will you join us, for the same great end, putting your shoulder to one and others, becoming one of the Executive Committee, and allowing your name to go out with the issue of the names of the Committee as constituted?
Will you not take the simple mental pledge, “I will do what I can and all that I can”?
Urgently, then, we ask that you at once communicate with the Corresponding Secretary, Allen Griffiths, 13 Mason Street, San Francisco, California.
| From Golden Gate Lodge, T. S., San Francisco |
Dr. Jeunee A. Anderson, Chairman. Allen Griffiths, Corresponding Secy. E. B. Rambo, Treasurer. L. P. McCarty. |
| From Aurora Branch, T. S., Oakland |
Miss M. A. Walsh. Mrs. Sarah A. Harris, Vice-Chairman. Henry Bowman. Theo. G. Ed. Wollet. |
Allen Griffiths,
Cor. Secy. Ex. Com.
From San Diego, California, Mr. Thomas Docking reports:
At our last regular meeting, held on January 5th, I resigned the Presidential chair, the other Officers also resigning, and the following were duly elected to serve during the next year: President, John F. S. Gray, M.D., Villa Karma, El Cajon; Vice-President, Mrs. A. J. Patterson, M.D.; Secretary and Treasurer, Thos. Docking, M.D. A valuable addition of treasures in the book line has been made to our Library, and many more volumes are being added by the new President.
79
We have established successful open meetings of the Point Loma Lodge, Theosophical Society, every Sunday in room 7, No. 643, at 4 o’clock p.m. All interested are cordially invited.
The Aryan Reserve Fund
We send our heartiest congratulations to our active New York brethren on their new departure. The Path of February informs us that the general object of this Fund is
“To establish in New York a building or suite of rooms at the service all day and every evening of all visiting Theosophists, its own members and enquirers, with a Theosophical Library and Literary Bureau attached, so that such a substantial centre in the metropolis might add enormously to the strength of the movement, give a firmer tone and add a fresh impetus to our beloved Society now just emerged from its youth. Opportunity to meet that immense volume of interest and enquiry that is everywhere observable would result not only in significant augmentation of membership in all branches, but also in fulfilling the wish of every sincerely unselfish Theosophist that the greatest possible number of his fellow members should share in that which he finds is of benefit to himself.”
Subscriptions were at once received amounting to 1,600 dols. Thus we will have headquarters at Adyar, New York, and London; in the latter of these centres we have almost completed our plans and shall shortly commence building.
Editors of “Lucifer.”
I am requested by the members of the Blavatsky Theosophical Society to ask you to give publicity to the following resolution adopted by the Blavatsky Branch of Washington, D.C., February 19, 1890:
“Resolved, That the members of the Blavatsky Theosophical Society of Washington, D.C., in view of the resignation as officer and member, and change of residence from Washington to Denver, Colorado, of our president, Mr. Anthony Higgins, on account of rapidly failing health, deem it fitting and just to record upon the minutes of the Society a hearty indorsement of all his official acts during the time he has been president of this Society, which he founded, and also our appreciation of the rare zeal and ability with which he has defended and advocated the first object of the Theosophical Society, regardless of creed, sex, or colour; and that done, too, both publicly and privately, when every spoken word, owing to consumption of the bronchia, inflicted pain and distress.
“And be it further resolved, That we return him our grateful thanks for the valuable teachings and instructions in Aryan Theosophy we have all received from him, and while sincerely hoping that our loss may be his gain, we wish him success in his journey, and speedy restoration to health.
“ Committee.
Fraternally yours,
W. A. Lavalette,
Librarian of the Blavatsky Theosophical Society of Washington, D.C.
Japan
In the supplement to The Theosophist, for February we read: –
“Colonel Olcott has received from the Rev. Odsu Letsunen, Chief Officer of the Western Hongwanji, Kyoto, a very friendly and appreciative letter, in which allusion is made to his recent Japanese tour. The writer says that the fact that the President ‘has thus greatly aroused the feeling of the people at large is beyond any dispute’. Considering that Mr. Odsu is one of the most distinguished priests
80
in the Japanese Empire, Executive Superintendent over ten thousand temples, it need hardly be said that his evidence upon this point greatly outweighs the opinions of interested missionaries and their Western sympathizers, who have asserted that Colonel Olcott’s lectures ‘fell flat and were a general disappointment to the Japanese’."
"Going To and Fro in the Earth"
SOME person of a mathematical turn of mind has discovered that the multiplication of 987654321 – which you will notice are simply the figures 1 to 9 inclusive, reversed – by 45, gives 44,444,444,445. Reversing the order of the digits and multiplying 123456789 by 45, we get a result equally curious – 5,555,555,505. If we take 123456789 as the multiplicand, and interchanging the figures of 45 take 54, the same reversed, as the multiplier, the result is 6,666,666,606. Returning to the multiplicand 987654321 and taking 54 as the multiplier again we get 53,333,333,334 – all 3’s except the first and last figures, which together read 54, the multiplier. Taking the same multiplicand and 27, the half of 54, as the multiplier, the product is 26,666,666,667, all 6's except the first and last figures, which together read 27, the multiplier. Now interchanging the order of the figures, 27, and using 72 instead as the multiplier, and 987654321 as the multiplicand, we get as a product 71,111,111,112 – all 1’s except the first and last figures, which, together, read 72, the multiplier.
The Evening News prints a story from South Carolina, about a coloured girl named Daisy Robinson, twelve years old, who does not appear to be exactly an ideal inmate for a quiet family. It is asserted that
“the first demonstration was the falling over of a sideboard upon the floor, and a short while after a water-bucket was thrown from a shelf, striking the girl upon the shoulder. Her mother, thinking that the room was haunted, moved into another, when the same agency moved tables over the floor, and dishes, pitchers, smoothing-irons and other household articles could not be kept in their places. Consequently an investigation of the strange power was made. In the girl’s room were a bed, a bureau, a cupboard and a small chair. The household crockeryware – or rather all that was left of it, for it had nearly all been broken – was packed away in a bucket under the bed. For a few minutes the party was silent, awaiting developments, but gradually a general conversation was indulged in upon the subject, each member of the party keeping an eye on Daisy. Suddenly a large, heavy teacup was thrown upon the floor. It spun round a few times and rolled into the fireplace. Cups, plates, saucers, vases, shovel, tongs, candlesticks, kerosene lamps, and fire-dogs leaped into the centre of the room, sometimes being broken into atoms and at other times not being injured at all. The whole room was afterwards examined and was found to be closely sealed above and all around. The floor is tight, and a careful examination from the outside failed to reveal a crack that even a ten-cent piece could have been thrown through.
“Daisy was removed to another room, and the same singular occurrences manifested themselves in the new locality. While Daisy was eating, the bedstead in the room was actually wrenched to pieces by an unseen power. Doctors of
81
medicine and divinity were present at this strange sight, and the crowds that gathered around the house have been so large that a policeman had to be detailed to keep out the throng. As yet not the faintest hint at a solution of the matter has been given.”
The following is quaint enough to reprint. We regret that we cannot acknowledge its source, but the friend who sent it did not add the name of the journal from which it was clipped.
“ ‘Grandma, I like Fosfy.’
“ ‘Fosfy, Joe, what’s that? a new game?’
“ ‘ No, I don't think it is zackly a game, but uncle John called it moonshine, and aunt Ethel is always talking about it, you know.’
“ ‘Oh yes, you mean Theosophy. Well, why do you like it, my dear?’
“ ‘See, gran., there is not rightly time now to get things done. When I ask uncle why he didn't go and hunt bears and tigers, he always says he had something else to do. When I wanted him to take me to the circus the other night, he said, ‘Got no time, my boy. There is not enough time, my boy.’ There never seems enough time here, gran. And I wants lots of time. I want first to be a learned man, like you say father was. Then I want to be a coachman, like Thomas. It’s so jolly when he lets me hold the reins. Then, though of course I like to be a boy best, I should like to be a girl sometimes. Girls get the best of it at parties. All the fellows wanted to dance with Mary Nelson the other night, and got her ices and cake, and she looked so pretty; boys don't look pretty, do they, grandma?’
“ ‘But what has all this to do with Theosophy?’
“ ‘Oh, don’t you see, aunt Ethel say you never really die: you only go for a good long, ever so long sleep, and have jolly dreams, so you don’t seem asleep – and then, when you quite rested, you wake up and begin again, just as you do in the morning, only you can begin something quite fresh every time you have been into the diving-can.’
“ ‘Diving-can?’
“ ‘Yes, that is what she calls it. Queer isn’t it? But is it not awfully jolly? I’ll have time to be a hunter, and a soldier, and a coachman, and a girl, yes, I think I would like to ride in a circus – and when I am sick of one thing I'll go into the diving-can and wake up somebody else. I think Fosfy prime.’ ”
Mr. Macdonald, a Christian missionary, must needs make an attack on Buddhism, and an account of his discomfiture at the hands of Dr. Salzer reaches us in our contemporary The Buddhist. We read:
“Mr. Macdonald's remarks would not have been thought of with a view to refutation, owing to the proverbial reticence of the Hindu mind. A German was, however, present – a German who has made Oriental theology his special study and the consolation in his life of exile, and Mr. Macdonald has found he is not always safe in attacking Oriental systems of thought. Dr. Salzer is a keen combatant who is thoroughly confident of his mettle and prowess. His letters against the puerile and old-world sophistry of the Scotch missionary afford grand reading to their Hindu readers. They show the firm grip which their author has of the subject he writes upon. The brain which has produced them seems to be glowing with the light of the Light of Asia, while the masterly way in which it has marshalled its thought must shed light upon many a dark brain. And altogether Dr. Salzer has completely smashed the Rev. Mr. Macdonald.”
82
"The Talking Image"
TO THE EDITORS OF "LUCIFER”.
Permit me to call attention to the fact that my story entitled “The Talking Image of Urur”, which appeared seriatim in the pages of “Lucifer,” has been entirely disfigured[3] by the editors of that journal, owing perhaps to Madame Blavatsky’s inability to attend to editorial work during her recent illness. The story represents the adventures of a “theosophical Don Quixote” who seeks for wisdom everywhere except in the right place. He joins a “Society for Distribution of Wisdom” in the East; but finds nothing but folly. Finally, in the last chapter he discovers that true wisdom cannot be found anywhere except by the attainment of the knowledge of self. It is, therefore, plain that in the last chapter culminates the gist of the story, and that without that chapter the whole story loses its point; the preceding ones being merely preparatory to that.
Nevertheless, for reasons best known to themselves, the editors of “Lucifer” have left out the entire chapter, all except its closing paragraph. In this emasculated shape the story, instead of being what it otherwise would have been, namely, a forcible illustration of well-known and undeniable truths, is made to appear as if it were merely an uncalled-for satire or burlesque upon the Theosophical Society – a performance which would be perfectly useless and which was never intended, as the external affairs of that society do not interest me in the least.
F. HARTMANN.
The editors of this Journal regret that, in leaving out the concluding chapter of the “Talking Image”, they have gone contrary to the wishes of the author – of which, in truth, they knew nothing – especially as they find upon examining the closing chapter, that it contains the solution of the problems presented in the previous chapters and entirely removes from the story the odium of being supposed to be a burlesque upon the principles of the Theosophical Society, or upon Madame Blavatsky. In his “Talking Image” the author represents the Human Mind in its quality as a living mirror, wherein all kinds of existing ideas are reflected and acted out. He informs us that, “if he has chosen Madame Blavatsky's mind as a representative illustration, it is because her mind is at once the most sensitive and noblest of which he knows”. On this, while thanking Dr. Hartmann for his kind compliment, Madame Blavatsky begs to remark that no such explanations are needed, since she has never looked upon the “Talking Image” in any other light than as expressing the personal opinion of one man, and no more. To this opinion Dr. Hartmann has as much right as she has to her opinion of her friend, the Doctor. And now we hope the “incident” of the “Talking Image” is closed. – [Eds.]
83
A Buddhist Catechism
WE are exceedingly glad to welcome another simple and concise Catechism of Buddhism in the short exposition of Subhâdra Bhikshu. The author, in the preface, says that his Catechism is meant to take a place between the “many comprehensive and critical works on the subject of Buddhism” and the Catechism of our respected President which was “originally intended only for the instruction of Sinhalese children”. It is true that this new Catechism is fuller than Colonel Olcott’s, chiefly owing to the addition of questions and answers on the Sangha, the Brotherhood or Order of Bhikshus or Samanas; but in other respects there is in the main a remarkable resemblance of questions and answers between the two, and both will be popular among precisely the same class of readers. Therefore, although we cannot say that the learned Bhikshu has succeeded in differentiating his Catechism from that of our excellent President, still we welcome its appearance on the principle that we can never have too much of a really good thing.[5] The straightforward sincerity and inherent reasonableness of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism must win it a world-wide respect among all but the veriest bigots. There is burning need for such simple expositions of the World-Religions in our present epoch, and may the day soon dawn when we shall have a series of Catechisms[6] written by men who believe and practice their several religions, and so at last hear what Buddhists, Brahmins, Parsees, Mohammedans, and all other religionists have to say about their various systems, without any pious or literary “middleman” or “sweater” to rob our brethren of their intellect and self-defence.
In the present little volume under review, we notice that in the formula of the Tissarana, Saranam is still translated “refuge”.
According to L. Corneille Wijesinha, one of the ablest English Pali Scholars of Ceylon, “neither Pali etymology nor Buddhistic philosophy justifies the translation”. He contends that the ordinary rendering of “I take my refuge in Buddha” is not correct, but should be “I go to Buddha as my Guide,” for the idea of “‘refuge’, in the sense of a ‘fleeing back’, or a ‘place of shelter’, is quite foreign to true Buddhism, which insists on every man working out his own emancipation”.
Turning over the pages, we come to the question: “What is Nirvana?”
Is it to receive the contemptuous definition of annihilation? Is the Summum bonum of the subtlest metaphysicians and the sublimest ethical philosophers in the world to be so shortly disposed of, and labelled with a predicate which can only be paralleled by the absurdity of Wilson who dubbed Brahma (neuter) the “Supreme Nonentity” (!)?
84
To this momentous question, the writer answers:
“It is a condition of heart[7] and mind in which every earthly craving is extinct; it is the cessation of every passion and desire, of every feeling of ill-will, fear and sorrow. It is a mental[8] state of perfect rest and peace and joy, in the steadfast assurance of deliverance attained from all the imperfections of finite being. It is a condition impossible to be defined in words, or to be conceived by any one still attached to the things of the world. Only he knows what Nirvana is who has realised it in his own heart.”
And in a note he further adds:
“Most Europeans, not excepting many learned men, have very incorrect notions about Nirvana. Nirvana literally means, ‘being extinct,’ ‘gone out,’ like the flame of a lamp blown out by the wind, or gone out for want of oil. This led to the erroneous idea that Nirvana is the same as annihilation. Nirvana signifies on the contrary, a state of supreme moral perfection, impossible to be conceived by any one who still wears the fetters of earthly desires.
“What then is extinct – ‘blown out’ – in Nirvana? Extinct is the lust of life, the craving for existence and enjoyment; extinct are the delusions and allurements of life and its sensations and desires; blown out is the flickering light of self, of individuality (soul)."
With the word “individuality” we are brought face to face with the great bone of contention between the Southern and Northern Churches of Buddhism. First of all let us see whether The Secret Doctrine and Southern Buddhism are agreed upon the term “individuality”, and then whether this answer is altogether logical.
From the following quotation it is evident that the term “individuality” is used in a somewhat different sense from the “Individuality” or Higher Ego of Theosophy.
On page 52, we read:
“What is it, then, in us which is the subject of birth anew?
“The individual will or desire to live which constitutes the essence of our being, and which is reborn after the dissolution of our present material body through the agency of Karma – that is to say, is reincorporated in another form.
“Is not this individual desire of life, or this individuality, identical with what is called the soul?
“No; far from it. The belief in an immortal personal soul – that is, an indestructible, eternal, separate substance which has only a temporary abode in the body – is regarded by Buddhism as a heresy due to ignorance of the true nature of life and living beings. The substance called ‘soul’ by the followers of European religions, is nothing but an aggregate of various higher or lower faculties (Skandhas), and is dissolved after death into its constituent elements. What is re-materialised in a fresh birth is not the soul, but the individuality. This individuality will assume, in accordance to its Karma, a new person – that is, a new set of Skandhas.”
If by “soul,” the Kama-manasic entity is meant, then we have nothing to say against this theory of “soul”-impermanence. As, however, the whole question turns upon an inquiry into the nature of the five Skandhas, it is somewhat disappointing to find no elucidation of this interesting subject.
But why does the Bhikshu, after so completely disposing of the term “soul,” invoke the attention of those “who long for that peace of the heart and satisfaction of the understanding which alone give life its value, and who fail to find these things in the Soulless (?!) dogmas of the various churches”?
Surely on his own premisses, the churches should be commended for this!
Continuing his Catechumenical task, he writes:
“How long does the individuality continue to renew itself in repeated births?
“Until perfect knowledge and Nirvana is attained. Then, and not till then, is that haven of rest attained where there is no more suffering, no more death, birth-renewal or individualism.”
85
What then is this “individuality,” “individualism” or “individual will or desire to live”?
Note 26 informs us that:
“The European student of Buddhism must be repeatedly reminded not to confound ‘the will to live’ – that is, the desire for life, the cleaving to existence – with the ‘conscious will’ or so-called ‘free will’. Conscious will is but a fraction of the whole ‘will to live’ – namely, such portion as passes through the organ of the brain, which is the vehicle of consciousness; but the greater portion of this ‘will to live’ never reaches consciousness in plants and animals, and but imperfectly in men.”
Without stopping to inquire into the correctness of the last statements from the occult standpoint, it is evident that the tanha, or “individuality” here spoken of is not the Individuality of the Vedantins, the silver Sutratma or “Thread Soul,” the God within, than which, it is not too much to say, there is nought higher.
Moreover if it is true that “only he knows what Nirvana is who has realised it in his own heart,” it is evident that there is a somebody or something that knows. And if “Nirvana signifies . . . . .a state of supreme moral perfection impossible to be conceived by any one who still wears the fetters of earthly desires,” it follows that he who is free from such fetters can conceive thereof, and that therefore, again, there is somebody or something that enjoys Nirvana. Hence we conclude with the Secret Doctrine that the Principium Individuationis is, and therefore has been and will be.
The question: “Is man's birth renewal only on this earth?” evokes a very vague and orthodox answer. It runs as follows:
“No; there are countless multitudes of other worlds moving in space, which are peopled with beings superior or inferior to man. In every one of these spheres re-incarnation may take place.”
In this connexion it would be well for the writer to remember that natura non facit saltum and that the monad which at one birth occupied the form of an ant, does not at its next descent inhabit the frame of an elephant, and then take a retrogressive leap into the body of a mullet; but that all proceeds in order, whether it be the series of genus, species, and family for the pure animal, or planet race, subrace, family race, etc., etc., for the human entity.
Not the least interesting answer to those who have had to discuss the question of re-incarnation with sceptics, will be the reply to the question: “How is it that we have no remembrance of our former lives?” It is because:
“We are blinded by earthly illusion, and our eyes are covered by a veil of ignorance, so that we are almost or quite unconscious of our higher nature. We are, in the body, overweighted by fetters from which those who earnestly strive for redemption seek ever to get free.
“In the night we dream, and in our dreams we are at one time kings, and the next beggars or captives: sometimes poor and beset with difficulties, at other times in the full tide of prosperity and darlings of fortune. Nevertheless, it is one and the same self which takes on all these different characters.
“Again: whilst dreaming we do not remember other dreams we have had, but when awake we remember the dreams of many a night. It is the same with our different lives. The same individuality, the same self, is re-born under different forms; each re-incarnation is a dream of the individual will to live, now terrible, now full of joy. As long as we are dreaming one of these dreams of life, we do not remember our former life-dreams. But a Buddha, who has attained deliverance,[9] dreams no longer. He is awakened, and he remembers all his former births. The Arhats, too, possess the gift of remembering many of their former births.”
86
In coming again across the term “individual will to live,” we should like to ask what is the distinction between this “individuality” and the “we” of the following sentence? Is it the “will to live” that dreams (!)?
“Sometimes the good Homer nods heavily”, and when our reverend author tells us that it is not wrong to commit suicide, “so long as no wrong is done anyone thereby” and then immediately adds “but suicide is a very foolish act,” we fear that “nature’s soft nurse” has fallen deeply over his eyes. For being foolish, is it not born Avidya the root of all Nidanas? [10] As the author truly says:
“Suicide violently cuts a thread of life, which, according to the law of Karma, has to be taken up again immediately, and under less favourable conditions than those which the deluded man tried to escape by it.”
To make this, however, agree with occultism, we must translate “immediately” as meaning immediately after the time to which his natural life would have been prolonged.
In conclusion we cannot refrain from quoting two remarkable answers in which the author speaks of the tolerance of Buddhism and of that wherein the system of Gotama differs from other religions.
“Buddhism teaches us to love all men as brethren, without distinction of race, nationality or creed; to respect the convictions of men of other beliefs, and to be careful to avoid all religious controversy. The Buddhist religion is imbued with the purest spirit of perfect toleration. Even where dominant, it has never oppressed or persecuted non-believers, and its success has never been attended with bloodshed. The true Buddhist does not feel hatred, but only pity and compassion for him who will not acknowledge nor listen to the truth, to his own loss and injury only.
“Buddhism teaches the reign of perfect goodness and wisdom without a personal God, continuance of individuality without an immortal soul, eternal happiness without a local heaven, the way of salvation without a Vicarious Saviour, redemption worked out by each one himself without any prayers, sacrifices and penances, without the ministry of ordained priests, without the intercession of saints, without Divine mercy. Finally, it teaches that supreme perfection is attainable even in this life and on this earth.”
The same Catechism, we ought to add, exists in German, under the title, “Buddhistischer Katechisidus”; and we have a strong impression that it is written in the native language of the Bhikshu.
Palmistry
IN “Palmistry and its Practical Uses”[11] by Louise Cotton, we have something on the hand which is original in presentation and practical in teaching. Chapters on Cheirognomy, Cheiromancy, Astral influences, the Divining Rod, etc., in addition to some one hundred Bible references to these subjects, make up collectively a Guide and Text-book which all the hand-maidens of Urania should rejoice in possessing. The work is embellished with diagrams from life of hands containing all the evidence that one can need in regard to the influence or signification of stars, spots, squares, grilles, crosses, triangles, circles, etc., in all, twelve large plates.
Louise Cotton’s book is the result of many years of practical experience, which must be its highest recommendation to all who require something definite, lucid, and reliable on these curious subjects.
87
Theosophical and Mystic Publications
IN THE THEOSOPHIST for January and February the very learned essay on the “Age of Sri Sankarachârya” is continued and concluded. It is a work of high scholarly excellence by the lamented and esteemed Pandit of the Adyar Library. The conclusion arrived at is that the founder of the Adwaita School lived “between the middle of the 4th and the 6th, that is, the 5th century A.C.” There is no doubt that these papers are the most valuable contribution towards settling this important date which have yet appeared. The Pandit also gains a controversial victory in the erudite defence of his views on the Yavanas. O si sic omnes!
The useful review and selection of the utterances of Col. Ingersoll are interesting reading. It is really astonishing to find the great American prophet of Freethought occupying a platform so essentially theosophic in its broad outlines. The ill-chosen title of “Infidel Bob,” however, jars upon the serious reader.
Dr. Henry Pratt continues his articles on Elohistic Teachings. The Doctor is somewhat difficult to follow, and the ordinary reader does not get a very clear view of what he is being taught. The Elohistic and Jehovistic schools seem to have been more important than most of us imagine.
The paper on the “Visit of Apollonius to the Mahatmas of India” gives F. W. Thurston, M.A., the opportunity of selecting some very interesting passages from Philostratus, and discussing the geographical difficulties of the account of the journey recorded on the tablets of Damis, the Guru’s Chela.
We have to congratulate the Kumbakonam T. S. for their excellent translation of the Sarvasaro-Upanishad of Krishna-Yajur-Veda. It would, however, have beem more valuable if some notes had been appended; the different nomenclature of the different schools is very puzzling to Western readers, and a steady head is required to follow the ideas without being led astray by the terms.
It is greatly to be regretted that the review of the “Voice of the Silence” did not fall to a more dignified pen. There are subjects which should be approached bare-headed and not with jesting. Polichinelle does not pantomime in cathedrals.
THE PATH of February opens with a much needed warning against a mistaken eagerness of some students of Theosophy to “sit for Yoga”. True Raj Yoga, the writer says,
“discards those physical motions, postures and recipes, relating solely to the present personality, and directs the student to virtue and altruism as the bases from which to start”.
The question, “Is Karma only punishment,” evokes a carefully thought out answer by Hadji Erinn. In the course of his remarks, he says:
“I cannot agree with the suggestion that punishment and reward should not be used as terms. It is easy to reduce everything to a primordial basis, when one may say that all is the absolute. But such is only the method of those who affirm and deny. They say that there is no evil, there is no death; all is good, all is life. In this way we are reduced to absurdities, inasmuch as we then have no terms to designate very evident things and conditions. As well say there is no gold and no dross, because both are equally matter.”
“Letters that have Helped Me” contains some excellent views on practical chelaship. Harij continues his paper on “Reincarnation and Memory”. He meets the champion objection of non-remembrance of past lives which is clung to with such persistency by the “Give me facts, sir” school, by saying:
“Physical memory is the record of passing events, but it is not the preserver of experience. Physical memory is but the outer husk of experience. Experience relates to feeling and consciousness; memory to time and sense.”
The views expressed in the short paper called “The Allegorical Umbrella,” are, to say the least of it, curious. Altogether, The Path for February is quite up to its high standard of excellence. A picture of Mme. Blavatsky is also included in this number – but we wish it had not been.
88
The five numbers of The Buddhist for January contain much interesting reading and news. The reprint of a pamphlet headed “Buddhist and Christian teaching compared,” under the auspices of the Ceylon Religious Tract Society, gives a Jayasekera an opportunity of scoring some very heavy points off its missionary bishop progenitor. The writer substantiates most conclusively that it is a “most glaring misrepresentation of Buddhism and Christianity”.
To read: the translation of C. H. De Silva from the Ummagga Jataka, showing that Pragna (Wisdom) is the supreme of all the Pâramitas (Transcendental Virtues).
An interesting article on “Killing and the Eating of Flesh” is marred by some very casuistical reasoning of a somewhat theological flavour. The Editor’s note is a relief.
Under the heading “Western Buddhistic Leanings”, the views of the anti-theological philosophers, the mystics and theosophists of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, are briefly passed under review.
D. C. Pedris makes short work of Sir Monier Williams’ Duff lectures, and speaks warmly against the misrepresentations and unfairness of the counsel for Church-vanity and Co. The Boden professor tries to make out that the primary distinction between Buddhism and Christianity (? Judaism) is that the former teaches that marriage is to be abandoned by the truly wise, whereas the latter teaches that “it is not good for man to be alone”. Mr. Pedris mildly confronts the Duff lecturer with the text:
“Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold and shall inherit eternal life”.
Where, then, is the difference, except that the Bhikshus believe their Master’s precepts, and the Christian priests, as a rule, disregard the teachings of their God?
The Golden Era, a high-class illustrated monthly magazine of San Diego Cala. which is especially devoted to the “Artistic and Industrial Progress of the West”, has a “Department of Oriental Literature, Philosophy, Theosophy, and Psychic Phenomena, edited by Jerome Anderson, M.D., F.T.S.” The contributions under this heading are exceedingly interesting.
Miss Kate Field, the distinguished lecturer and journalist, in her new and excellent periodical entitled Kate Field’s Washington, devotes a weekly column, under the title “Echoes from the Orient,” to theosophical subjects.
In the Bibliotheca Platonica there is an excellent paper on “Philosophic Morality”, by Prof. Alexander Wilder, F.T.S.
The Lotus Bleu, the new and now sole organ of the French Theosophical Society l’Hermès, in Paris, is just out. It is an excellent little publication and only costs eight shillings a year. We will notice it in our next.
Light still continues the foremost of “spiritualistic” journals. “Notes by the Way” by “M.A. (Oxon.)” are always written with dignity and are full of interest. Most of the contributors, however, still persist in using the term spiritual when they mean psychic.
Psyche is a new venture inaugurated by Mr. George Chainey. In it Mr. E. Maitland commences an interesting series of “Hermetic Papers”. The general tendency of the effort, however, is psychic.
Editorial Announcements
The promised “Selections from the Gnostic Gospel, the Pistis Sophia”, translated by G. R. S. Mead, and annotated by H. P. B., will be commenced in our next number.
The circulation of LUCIFER has, we are glad to say, increased very rapidly during the last three months, but we have on hand a large quantity of the issues of September, October, and November, which we will sell for distribution at 10s. a dozen (13), the carriage to be paid by the purchaser.
It is found absolutely necessary to raise, in future, the subscription price of LUCIFER, by the addition of postage. At the present time, subscribers obtain it for 15s. a year, post free, and as 2s. 6d. of this goes for postage, they pay for it only 1s. 0½d. per copy, a reduction greater than is made on any other magazine. For the future, the annual subscription will be 17s. 6d., but all subscribers now on the books will be supplied at the old rate until the expiry of their subscriptions.
No. 32 – April 1890
89
The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any opinions, whether religious, philosophical or social, expressed in signed articles.
Kosmic Mind
100
“Wanted, men, |
Crucify the Discoverer
“I am attacked by two very opposite sects – the scientists and the know-nothings. Both laugh at me – calling me ‘the frogs’ dancing master’. Yet I know that I have discovered one of the greatest forces in nature.”
101
Gonthaire
AMAZEMENT, unqualified and illimitable, was the sole expression in the man’s face peering out of the leafy thicket upon the sea. It seemed astounded – to the verge of the power of realisation, to the point where the mind becomes a blank – not at any particular thing, but at all things – at the Universe. Only the ocean – home of mysteries that daze men’s souls – answered that look with comprehension of the intensity of feeling it portrayed. White and still the features were, as if in marble carved, save for the wide-dilated eyes that slowly roved over the shore line of dazzling, snowy beach, and the vast expanse of smooth, slow-heaving waves, and even stared at the rising sun, as if he too were strange. Like carved ebony, about the pale face, lay close curling locks and heavy matted beard and moustache. Rugged boldness and daring were in the lines of the countenance, which, though mature, did not seem to have yet attained to middle-age.
After a long time the man arose slowly to his feet, with cautious movements, indicative of prudent but not fearful desire to avoid possible observation, and turned his gaze inland. From his rapt expression the element of awe faded, leaving it now but one of intense astonishment. It was as if, to a former thought of, “In what new world do I find myself?” had succeeded another, “What strange things are in this world!”
Yet, to accustomed eyes, there was nothing remarkable in the prospect before him. He saw simply the comfortable home of a well-to-do New England farmer, Deacon Azariah G. Perkins. Beyond a meadow pasture, where fat cattle grazed, stood the dwelling – a roomy, two-storey frame structure, with dull red roof, white walls and green shutters at the windows. Climbing roses trailed over the spacious porch on its front, and a wealth of sweet, old-fashioned flowers filled the door-yard before it, on both sides of the white-pebbled walk leading to the gate. To the right, and a little back, was a big frame barn, with a flock of pigeons sunning and preening themselves on the roof; horses and fowls moving about in the yard, and a procession of white ducks marching off, in single file, towards the silvery pool shining in a hollow, a little distance away. On the other side of the house spread an orchard, where the boughs, though gnarled and stunted by the winter gales, were hung thickly with apples, red gleams from which could already be discerned amid the bright green foliage. Still farther off, in various tints of green and gold, lay fields of grass and grain, deepening with distance to a uniform color in the low, verdurous hills that made the horizon line.
102
A gaunt but vigorous-looking young man emerged from the barn, strode down to the pasture fence and, after looking over the cows gathered there at the milking place, lifted up his voice in a mellow, resonant call of “Sookey! Sookey!” that echoed afar.
At sight of him, the man in the thicket dropped quickly down again into the concealment of the bushes, and, sitting there, his wonderment narrowed to and concentrated upon his own personality. The garb of the man at the meadow fence and an involuntary glance at his own clothing suggested to him the startling reflection, “Is it possible I look anything like that?” Upon deliberate examination he concluded that his raiment did bear a startling and, to him, inexplicable general resemblance to that man’s. His shirt was of blue flannel; his trousers of some brown stuff, and he had on square-quartered, low-heeled shoes. He fumbled at his neck and seemed surprised to find there a black silk ’kerchief knotted in front and hanging loosely on his shoulders. About his waist was a leathern belt, with a sheath pendant on one side that seemed made to hold a knife. All these things appeared to be strange and puzzling to him. Hat he had none, but did not seem conscious of the lack. In the course of his explorations about himself, he discovered that he had pockets, and in one of them found some silver and copper coins that greatly excited his curiosity. He also dragged forth a flat, square cake of some black material, which he stared at, smelled, tasted, and promptly hurled from him with an involuntary execration.
Hardly had the thing fallen among the bushes, a couple of rods away, when he heard a man’s voice exclaim, in a tone of pleased surprise: “Plug terbaccer! by thunder!”
Seth Thorne, the deacon’s hired man, had found – lying down in the thicket and contentedly chewing her cud – the vagrant milch cow Sukey, and, having lightly admonished her, with the toe of his boot, that duty required her presence at the milking-place, was just about following her hurried steps homeward, when the piece of “Navy plug” fell at his feet. As a shower of his “fav’rite weakness” was not among Seth’s previous experiences, the unusual happening fired his curiosity at once. Pushing his way a few steps farther through the thick undergrowth, he found himself face to face with the stranger, who, hearing him coming, sprang up to meet him.
“Gosh-all-fish-hooks!” exclaimed Seth, staring at the stranger. “Who be yeu?”
The man drew himself up, with an air of hauteur, ill-comporting with his humble attire, and made reply, but in a strange language that conveyed to Seth’s mind, “no more idee than a crow's chatter”.
“Jesso,” responded Seth. “It sounds int’restin’, but I’ll be shot ef I know the fust thing yeu’re talkin’ abeaout. An’ I’d give tew shillin’ just teu know who you be, where yeu come from, and heow yeu come teu come.”
103
Again a torrent of incomprehensible speech burst from the stranger’s lips. It seemed to Seth, by its tone, though he could not understand a word of it, that, instead of affording any explanations, the man was earnestly, almost fiercely, asking a great many questions.
“There’s a heap of encouragement teu sociality in an untrammelled limber jaw like yeur’n,” he answered at his next opportunity, “and, ef I understand yeu right, yeu’re wantin’ to know a lot of things yeu’reself. I don’t see why I shouldn’t expect yeu teu understand my answers, as well as yeu seem teu expect me teu understand yeu’re questions; so as teu what I suppose yeu’re most likely desirous of knowin’ here’s some of yeu’re own sort of pie. Yeu are neow on Perkins’ knoll, three miles from Adamsport, the which knoll is called after its owner, Deacon Azariah G. Perkins – livin’ below there – one of eour oldest and most respectable citizens, and generally well spoken of for the next General Court. This is We’nsday, the 7th of September, 1887, and the eaour is, by my ‘Waterbury’, nineteen minutes of seven. Ef any greound occurs teu you that I havn’t covered jest mention it and don’t let yeu’re bashfulness cause yeu teu pine in uncertainty abeout any material facts. Only don’t ask me heow yeu come here, as I think I see a glintin’ in yeu’re eye, for abeout thet I know no more’n a coot.”
It would be impossible to say what astounded the stranger most, Seth's fluency of speech, the tongue he spoke, the sight of the watch to which he referred, or his long-continued exercise of winding it – a noisy and mysterious process that seemed interminable. At all events, the combined effect seemed to be to dispel his hauteur and sadly, silently, with a dazed look in his eyes, he shook his head.
“Come,” resumed Seth, after a momentary pause, “yeu look played eout and I guess yeu’re as empty as a last year’s bird’s nest. No odds who yeu be, or where you come from, it’s easy seen yeu’re in need of friendly help, and deown teu the heouse where I’ll take yeu that condition is the best title teu a hearty welcome.”
Without comprehending his words, the stranger seemed to understand his gestures and tone of kindness. For a moment only he appeared to hesitate; then, with a shrug of his shoulders and quick outward movement of his hands, as if saying to himself, “Why need I care for anything that can happen to me now?” he walked along toward the house. As they descended the little knoll together, the hired man had a happy idea for at least getting a point of departure for further acquaintance. Catching his companion’s eye, he tapped his breast with a fore-finger, and uttered, slowly and distinctly, his name:
“Seth Thorne.”
The stranger quickly understood. Drawing himself up with an air of pride, he struck his open palm upon his breast and exclaimed, with all the style of a herald’s proclamation:
“Gonthaire.”
104
The two men went around to the back of the house and entered the dining-room just as the Perkins family were about taking their places at the breakfast-table. Seth did the honours of the occasion as Master of Ceremonies.
“Deacon Azariah G. Perkins,” said he, “allow me teu introduce Mr. Gone There; Mr. Gone There, Deacon Azariah G. Perkins.”
“I am pleased to know you, sir,” said the Deacon heartily, with only a tinge of dialect, so faint as to elude the clutch of type, yet sufficient to stamp him as a representative Yankee, “pleased to know you, and glad you have arrived in time to join us at breakfast. Let me present my family – My wife, Mrs. Mehitable J. Perkins, Mr. Gone There; Mr. Gone There, Mrs. Mehitable J. Perkins.”
The stranger bowed and uttered, in a well modulated voice, some phrases of manifestly courteous meaning.
“Excuse me,” interpolated Mr. Perkins, “but I didn’t just catch what you said. May I trouble you to repeat it in English?”
Gonthaire spoke again; but, of course, not in the tongue requested.
“I guess he’s a foreigner,” mused the Deacon. “Well, no odds; an introduction is only a formality, anyhow, and can’t be too short when a chap is hungry, as I’ve a notion he is, by his looks. Mr. Gone There, this is my daughter, Miss Penelope A. Perkins.”
Until this moment Penelope, standing in the background in shadow, had escaped the stranger’s observation, but upon the mention of her name she stepped forward into the light, confronting him with a graceful old-time curtsey. At sight of her, Gonthaire, to the astonishment of all, uttered a great cry of “Méroflède!”
Then, throwing himself upon his knees before her, he seized her hands, kissing them rapturously, talking all the while faster than an auctioneer.
The girl gave a little scream of surprise rather than alarm, which blended in a chorus of exclamations from the other persons present.
“For the laud’s sake!” ejaculated her mother.
“I vum to gracious!” exclaimed the Deacon.
“Gosh! He’s luney!” declared Seth.
As they all spoke together, they made quite a noise; but above their voices, rapid and clear, Gonthaire poured forth a torrent of words, in an unknown tongue, that seemed to be speeches of supplication, protestations of affection, and outbursts of exuberant joy. Penelope was too much embarrassed to even make an attempt at freeing her hands.
European fashions have made some headway in this country, even in New England; but one that has not, yet, to any considerable extent, commended itself to the practical Yankee mind, is the kissing of a pretty girl’s hands when her lips are little, if any, more difficult to reach. Seth, as he looked on, found the demonstration funny, but incidentally remarked to himself that he doubted if Jared C. Cheever would take that view of it.
105
Perhaps that doubt also occurred to the maiden herself, and added a little to the piquancy of the present situation.
With some difficulty the Deacon succeeded in rescuing his daughter from the unbridled devotion of her headlong lover; a place was made for him at the table on the side opposite Penelope, where he could not get at her hands, and breakfast was commenced.
Gonthaire ate like a starving man, but did not for that cease talking to Penelope. That he could not make himself understood by the others he seemed to have accepted as an incontrovertible fact, but he appeared unable to comprehend why she did not respond to him. By turns he was tender, reproachful, indignant, repentant, conciliatory and ardent, passing through these moods with such rapidity and volubility of speech that Mrs. Perkins wondered his victuals did not sometimes choke him. Even when his mouth was full he could say “Méroflède” in a tone that sounded like a vocal caress.
“Penelope Ann,” said her mother severely, “Jared C. Cheever would be madder’n a wet hen if he could see your goin’s on.”
“Why! Ma!” exclaimed the innocent girl in blank surprise, “I’ve done nothing, and havn’t said a word!”
“Well, his then,” retorted Mrs. Perkins, who felt it demanded by the proprieties that she must put blame upon somewhere. But the next moment her kind heart prompted a pitying thought. “It’s an awful pity his poor head has gone wrong,” she said, commiseratingly, “he’d be a real fine-looking man if he was shaved and fixed up. Hadn’t you better lend him your razor after breakfast, Azariah?”
“H’m! I don’t know about putting a razor in the hands of a man who uses such language and goes on so. But there’s one thing I shall do. I’ll try to find out what asylum he’s from. As soon as you have had your breakfast, Seth, go straight down to Mr. Stockwell and tell him to come up here just as quick as school lets out to-day, or sooner if he can. He’s able to talk most anything, I guess, and maybe he will understand this chap.”
The ensuing forenoon was an exciting one for the Perkins family, not so much because of anything that Gonthaire did as of the infinite possibilities of what he might do.
“It's better,” said Mr. Perkins, “to humour and soothe than to cross him, until his keepers get here, anyway. So, as he seems to take a shine to Penelope Ann, we’ll just put her in charge of him. I'll stay around to see that he don’t act too wild, and Seth had best hang about near the door, and be ready to rush in if he hears any hollerin’. I’d hate to see the poor chap hurt, but – you might as well have a club handy, Seth!”
Never was a man under love’s witchery in fairer way for less deserving a club than was the unsuspecting Gonthaire. To be in the presence of Penelope – or Méroflède, as he persisted in calling her – seemed to fill the measure of his desire for joy. He was content to worship her.
They took him into the parlour and threw open the windows, giving 106upon the porch, and the garden, and the sea. He looked about him with curiosity, then with a deeper feeling. A mischief-making, wandering peddler, not long before, had put Penelope in possession of a bottle of gold paint, and the mantel’s freight – the gypsum twin sheep, the shepherdess, George Washington, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and a big conch shell – glowed with an auriferous glory that seemed to awe and overwhelm Gonthaire.
The girl opened the piano – a new object of wonder to him – and sang for him, playing a simple accompaniment. He was enraptured; so deeply moved that he wept, yet could not bear that she should cease, except to listen to the pleadings of his fervent love. Deacon Perkins sat in a corner, silent, watchful, anxious, but encouraged to hope that Mr. Gone There would be soothed by the music – as he understood lunatics frequently were – and might not become violent.
I. |
| Josiah R. Mallet, F.T.S. |
107
Pistis-Sophia
(Translated and annotated by G. R. S. M., with additional notes by H. P. B.)
IN the present translation and annotation of the Gnostic Gospel Pistis-Sophia, it is proposed to treat this most mystical and interesting treatise in the simplest manner possible. As the text contains much verbiage and many repetitions which are wearisome and of no importance to the main narrative, such passages will be condensed or omitted.
As yet, no translation of Pistis-Sophia exists in English, with the exception of some passages which will be found in The Gnostics and their Remains by the late C. W. King. In France a translation has been attempted in the Encyclopédie Théologique of the Abbé Migne, vol. xxiii. As a reliable version, however, it is worthless, for some of the most important passages, sometimes as many as thirty pages of the original Coptic text, are bodily omitted, and in other respects scant justice is done to the “heretics” by the pious translators, who, at the end of their introduction, discredit their own labours by declaring:
“Le but qui nous a guidés dans cette tentative pénible et ingrate, a été de montrer ce qu’étaient les incompréhensibles et stériles aberrations où s’égaraient aux premiers siècles de l’ère chrétienne les penseurs qui s’écartaient des routes de la vérité.”
The simplest and fairest account of the text, from an exoteric standpoint, is to be found in the interesting and learned work of the late C. W. King, in which he speaks of Pistis-Sophia with the greatest enthusiasm, as the most precious and perfect relic of the followers of the Gnosis. Throughout his work he continually refers to it as the highest authority of Gnosticism still extant. On page 14 of the Second Edition, we read: –
“This treatise, ascribed to Valentinus (I know not on what authority), was discovered by Schwartze in a Coptic MS. preserved in the British Museum[12]. He transcribed the Coptic text and translated it into Latin; both texts and version were published by Petermann in the year 1853[13]. The original is copiously interspersed with Greek words and phrases; in fact, the Coptic was evidently so poor a language as to have no terms of its own to express any but the most materialistic ideas. . . . The authorship of this record is assigned by itself in several places to Philip the Apostle, whom the Saviour bids to sit down and write these things! This circumstance made me at first conclude it to be the lost gospel of Philip quoted by Epiphanius, but the particular anecdote adduced by him from that gospel is not to be discovered anywhere in this. But as the original is full of wide lacunæ, which often fall in very interesting places, as if purposely defaced to escape the eyes of the profane, such an omission is not altogether conclusive against the identity of the two.”
As to the date of the text, there is no certainty, and we must conclude with M. Matter in his Histoire du Gnosticisme, that it is “difficult to make any precise statement,” even so far as to place it, as he does, “between the ends of the second and fifth centuries”.
The present translation is made from the Latin and Greek version of the shortlived German orientalist Maurice G. Schwartze, which was edited and copiously emendated by Petermann. Whenever these scholars disagree, 108the rendering most in keeping with the spirit of this mystical allegory of Initiation is preferred. Coptic scholars are a rarity even outside the T. S.; in fact, as we are informed by one of them, in Europe they may be counted on the fingers of one hand. Therefore, we must take things as we find them, and though we cannot hope to give the exact translation of the original, still, we may promise ourselves a rendering of Pistis-Sophia which will sufficiently inform us of the main ideas of the Gnostic scheme, especially as the original is innocent of elaborate constructions and metaphysical dissertations.
It will greatly add to the clear understanding of the mystic narrative if the reader bears in mind that the term “Jesus” stands for Christos, the glorified Initiate; and that Christos is the typical term for its prototype – the Higher Ego or Manas merged in Atma-Buddhi, and thus becomes one in three. Those unacquainted with the theosophical terminology may be informed that the word Atma means “Universal Spirit”; Buddhi, “Universal Spiritual Soul”; and Manas, the “Universal Mind” – of which only the latter two are individualised in man [14].
[1] [16] It came to pass when Jesus had risen [17] from the dead and passed eleven years speaking with his Disciples, and teaching them only up to the 109Regions [18] of the First Precepts [19] and of the First Mystery, the Mystery within the Veil, within the First Precept, to wit, the Four-and-Twentieth Mystery, and below those (Precepts) which are in the Second Space of the First Mystery, which is before all Mysteries, the Father in the likeness of a Dove [20], that Jesus said to his Disciples: “I am come from that First Mystery, which also is the Last[21], the Four-and-Twentieth Mystery”. Now, the Disciples knew not this Mystery, nor did they understand it, because (as they supposed) there was not anything within that Mystery [22]; but they thought that it, indeed, was the Sum of the Universe and the Head of all things which are, and verily the End of all Ends. For Jesus told them that it comprehends the First Precept [2] and the Five Impressions, and the Great Light, and the Five Supporters, and also all the Treasure of Light.
Moreover, Jesus had not told his Disciples the whole emanation of all the Regions of the Great Invisible and of the Three Triple-Powers, and of the Four-and-Twenty Invisibles [23], and of all their Regions, Æons and Orders, (that is to say) the manner in which the latter, which are also the Projections of the Great Invisible, are distributed.
Nor (had he spoken of) their Ungenerated, Self-generated, and Generated [24], their Light-givers and Unpaired [25], their Rulers and Powers, their Lords and Archangels, their Angels and Decans, their Ministers 110and all the Houses of their Spheres, and all the Orders of each one of them.
Nor had Jesus told his Disciples the whole emanation of the Projections of the Treasure, and their Orders; nor of their [26] Saviours and their Orders; nor what is the Guardian beside each (Projection) of the Treasure of Light; nor the Region of the Saviour of the Twins, [3] who is the Child of the Child [27]; nor in what Regions the Three Amens emanate; nor yet the Region of the Five Trees and Seven Amens, which are also the Seven Voices [28], according to the manner of their emanation.
Nor had Jesus told his Disciples of what type are the Five Supporters and the Region of their emanation; nor of the Five Impressions and the First Precept, in what type they are evolved [29]; but in his teaching he merely stated that such things exist, and had not spoken of the emanation and Order of their Regions. This is the reason why they did not know that there were other Regions within that Mystery.
Moreover, he had not told his Disciples through what Region he passed while he was entering into that Mystery and while he was coming out therefrom; but teaching them, he said (simply): “I am come from that Mystery”. Therefore they thought that it was the End of all Ends [4] and the Sum of the Universe and the whole Pleroma [30].
It came to pass, therefore, when the Disciples were sitting by themselves on the Mount of Olives, speaking these words and rejoicing with great joy and being exceeding glad, saying one to another, “Blessed are we before all men who are on the earth, for the Saviour has revealed these things to us and we have received all fullness [31] and perfection,” that Jesus sat a little removed from them.
It was on the fifteenth day of the moon of the month Tobe [32], the day of the full moon, when the sun had risen in its going, that there came forth after it a great flood of most brilliant light [33] of immeasurable brightness. For it came forth from the Light [33] of Lights from the Last Mystery, [5] to wit, the Four-and-Twentieth Mystery, from the Interiors to the Exteriors, which 111are in the Orders of the Second Space of the First Mystery. Such a flood of Light came upon Jesus and surrounded him entirely.
And the Disciples saw not Jesus because of the great Light with which he was surrounded, or which proceeded from him. For their eyes were darkened because of it. But they gazed upon the Light only, shooting forth great rays of light. Nor were the rays equal to one another, and the Light was of divers modes and various aspect, from the lower to the higher part thereof, each ray more admirable than its fellow in infinite manner, in the great radiance of the immeasurable Light. It stretched from the earth to the heavens. And the Disciples seeing the Light were in great fear and confusion. [6] It came to pass, therefore, when the flood of Light came upon Jesus, that it gradually surrounded him. Then Jesus was carried or soared into the Height, shining greatly with the immeasurable Light. And the Disciples gazed after him, none of them speaking, as long as Jesus was ascending into Heaven. But they remained all in deep silence. These things, then, were done on the fifteenth of the month Tobe, the day of the full moon [34].
It came to pass, therefore, when Jesus ascended into Heaven after the third hour that all the Powers of the Heavens were confused and shaken one with another, they and all their Æons, and Regions, and Orders, and the earth was disturbed, and all the inhabitants thereof. And confusion was upon all men in the World, and also among the Disciples, and all feared that the World was being destroyed. Nor did all the Powers which are in the Heaven cease to be in confusion one with another, even from the third hour of the fifteenth day to the ninth hour of the following day.
And all the Angels and their Archangels and all the Powers of the Height [7] sang hymns [35] in the Interior of Interiors, so that the whole World heard their voice, for they ceased not until the ninth hour of the next day. But the Disciples sat together in fear and were in the greatest possible distress. They feared because of the great confusion, and wept together, saying, “What will be? Surely the Saviour will not destroy all the Regions?” But on the ninth hour of the morrow, the Heavens were opened, and they saw Jesus descending, shining most exceedingly, with immeasurable rays. Nor was the light constant, but of divers modes and various aspects, some rays being more admirable than others in infinite manner. Yet it was light in every part. It was of three degrees, one surpassing the other in infinite manner. The second, which was in the midst, excelled the first which was below it, and the third, the most admirable of all, surpassed the other two.
The first radiance was placed below all like to the light which came upon Jesus [8] before he ascended into the Heavens, and was very regular as to its own peculiar Light. And the three degrees of the Light were of various light and aspect, excelling one another in infinite manner [36].
Now it came to pass, when the Disciples had seen these things, that they feared exceedingly and were troubled. Jesus, therefore, being compassionate and merciful-minded, when he saw his Disciples thus troubled spoke with them, saying: “Have courage; it is I, be not afraid”. And when the Disciples heard these words, they said, “Master! if thou drawest to thyself the radiant light, we shall be able to stand; but if not, our eyes 112become blinded, and we are troubled, and the whole World is also troubled because of thy great Light”. Then Jesus drew to himself the radiance of his Light; and all the Disciples taking heart came to him, and bowed themselves together, beseeching him, and rejoicing with great joy, said unto him, “Rabbi, whither wentest thou? Or on what ministry didst thou go? Or wherefore are all these confusions and shakings?” Then Jesus, in compassion, said unto them: “Rejoice and be glad from this hour, for I am come to the Regions from which I came out. [9] Wherefore, from this day forth, I will speak with you openly, from the beginning of Truth to the end thereof, and I will speak to you face to face, without a parable. From this hour I will hide nothing from you of the things which pertain to the Height and to the Region of Truth. For authority has been given me by the Ineffable, the First Mystery of all Mysteries, to speak with you from the Beginning[37] to the Completion[38], both from the Interiors to the Exteriors, and from the Exteriors to the Interiors. Hearken, therefore, that I may tell you all things.
“It came to pass when I was sitting a little removed from you on the Mount of Olives, reflecting on the Orders (duties?) of my Ministry, for which I was sent, how that it was fulfilled and the last Mystery had not yet sent me my Vesture which I placed in it, until its time should be completed; as the sun rose, the First Mystery, which was from the beginning, on account of which the universe was created and from which also now am I come out [10] (now only, not when they had not yet crucified me), – caused my Vesture of light to be sent me by him, who gave it to me from the very beginning; which, indeed, I laid up with that Mystery until I should begin to speak with the human race, and should reveal to them all things from the beginning of the Truth to the end thereof. Rejoice, therefore, in that this has been given you.
“Moreover, also, I have chosen you from the beginning through the First Mystery. Rejoice, therefore, and be glad, [11] for that after I came forth into the World I brought with me twelve Powers, as I told you from the beginning. I took them from the Twelve Saviours of the Treasure of Light according to the command of the First Mystery. These, therefore, when I came into the world, I cast into the womb of your mothers, which are in your body [39] to-day. For these Powers have been given to you before all the World, in that ye are to save the whole World, and in order that ye may be able to bear the threat of the Rulers of the World, and the calamities thereof; and, moreover, all the dangers and persecutions that must be brought upon you by the Rulers of the Height. Many times have I said that I have brought the Power which is in you from the Twelve Saviours who are in the Treasure of Light, and that ye are not of the World. I also am not of it. For all men who are in the World, have taken their Soul from the Rulers of the Æons [40]. But 113the Power, which is in you, is from me. Of a truth your soul pertains to the Height [41]. I brought twelve Powers from the Saviours of the Treasure of Light, which I took from a portion of the Power which I first received. [12] And when I had entered into the World, I came into the midst of the Rulers of the Sphere, like unto Gabriel the angel of the Æons, nor did the Rulers of the Æons know me, but thought that I was the angel Gabriel [42].
“It came to pass, when I had come into the midst of the Rulers of the Æons, having looked from above into the World of men, I found Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, before she had conceived him. I planted the Power in her, which I had received from the Little Iaô, the Good, who is in the Midst [43], that he should preach before me, and prepare my way, and baptize with water the remission of sins. This Power then is [44] in the body of John. Moreover, in the place of the Soul of the Rulers, appointed to receive it, I found the Soul of the prophet Elias in the Æons of the Sphere[45], and I took him, and receiving his Soul also, brought it to the Virgin of light, and she gave it to her Receivers, who led it to the Sphere of the Rulers and carried it into the womb of Elizabeth. So the Power of the Little Iaô [46], the Good, who is in the Midst, and the Soul of the prophet Elias, are bound together in the body of John the Baptist.
[13] “For which cause, therefore, did ye doubt at that time, when I said unto you; John said, ‘I am not the Christ’: and ye said unto me: ‘it is written in the Scriptures, if the Christ come, Elias comes before him, and will prepare his way’. And I replied: ‘Elias, indeed, is come, and has prepared all things according as it was written; and they have done unto him whatsoever they would’. And when I perceived that you did not understand those things which I spake to you concerning the Soul of Elias, as bound in John the Baptist; I then answered openly and face to face: ‘If ye will receive it, John the Baptist is that Elias who’, I said, ‘was coming’.”
Theosophy for the Profane
119
The Vedantic Philosophy
IT is with a feeling of respect, and with an earnest conviction that Sir M. Monier Williams, K.C.I.E., D.C.L., will, under no circumstances, postpone his attempts to finish the grand object that he has conceived, while undertaking to expose to the European world the practice and principles of Vedantic Philosophy, that I offer my remarks upon the paper read by the Boden Professor of Sanskrit, at a Meeting of the Members and Associates of the Philosophical Society of Great Britain, held at the house of the Society of Arts, John Street, Adelphi, Charing Cross, W.C., on Monday, March 10, 1890.
I am a humble admirer of Truth and its seekers, and, even though my limited knowledge of philology and theology does not at all qualify me to render much help in this scholastic and philosophical undertaking of Sir M. Monier Williams, still, as a young Brahmin, I have the vanity to crave the Professor’s attention to the few suggestions that I have to make in expressing my personal conceptions about the doctrine of Vedantism. And, while I openly declare them as my personal conceptions, I thereby must be clearly understood to mean that the Vedantic Philosophy is not responsible for my conceptions of it, even as much as it is not responsible for what Sir M. M. Williams conceives it to be. It is only responsible when properly conceived. As I confess that I have not studied Sanskrit philology, I shall often during my suggestions request Sir M. M. Williams to see that his translations of the various hymns of Rig Veda and Sutras of Vedanta exactly give the same conception as those of scholars in India do; and while so requesting, I would not ask him to take upon himself any inconvenient methods of demonstration, but simply to send such hymns or Sutras as have entered into his demonstrations and conception of Vedantism, etc., and on the Monism, Pantheism, and Dualism of Brahminical and Zoroastrian philosophers, to India, and compare his translations and conceptions with theirs. I may here suggest that Pandit Gatu Lalaji, of Bombay, Pandit Dwivedi, Dr. H. H. Dhruva, L.L.A., and Shastri Bhutt Bhugwanji Nathooram, of Mandvi, are scholars who would not hesitate to offer their services in this matter.
The opinions that I hold about the various conceptions demonstrated by Sir M. Monier Williams are mentioned below. With regard to the passage: –
“In the present paper I propose to draw the attention of this Society to the principal monistic, pantheistic, and dualistic theories of Indian philosophers – whether Brahmins or Parsis – with the object of pointing out that these theories, although apparently contradictory, are in reality closely connected with each other, as well as with the polytheistic doctrines and practices of modern Hinduism;”
I beg to state that Brahmins and Parsis are not both Indian philosophers, but the former only, the Parsis having their own philosophy, which had perhaps a distinct origin in a distinct country. The Monistic, Pantheistic, and Dualistic Theories are really contradictory, and being antagonistic, have no connexion whatever with each other, any more than with the polytheistic doctrines and practices of so-called modern Hinduism. Any one who knows of the rise of men like Shankara Charya, or Dayananda, in India, to confirm only Monism, and shatter the pseudo-doctrines of Polytheism and Dualism, and hundreds of others, would see 120that they must be contradictory to the true principles of Vedantic Philosophy. Even the worst Monotheists and Dualists in India were compelled to admit that knowledge of the one Eternal (Dnyan), was the highest aim of religious philosophy, and not Bhakti (worship of the Eternal as external to man). See the doctrine of Bhakti, Dnyan, and Vairagya by Madhava himself. He describes these as but three stages for achieving the final subtle conception, which does not at all propound that the spirits of men have a real eternal existence of their own. There is not a word uttered to this effect by Madhava in his whole system of philosophy, as Sir M. M. Williams seems to think, nor by any other Hindu philosophy, however gross and primitive it may have been.
On page 2, the Professor says: –
“I believe I am right in stating that Monism is a term which may be fairly used to express the doctrine that only one Being really exists – or, in other words, that everything is resolvable into one eternal Essence, and into one only”.
I differ from Sir M. M. Williams in my opinion of the Hindu conception of Monism, Pantheism, and Dualism. The term Monism, from the Hindu standpoint, conveys something more than that only one Being really exists. It also conveys that the one Being is also Self-existent and Eternal. Pantheism means that perceivable Creation is self-existent and has no creator, and consequently, as ultimate cause, is creator, who therefore is not unknown. True Hindu philosophy has never conceived Dualism, or the possibility of two co-eternal principles neither of which is the product of the other. The Monism of Vedanta has never conceived that material forms (Maya) are mere modifications, or illusory manifestations, of one All-pervading Spirit. Vedantic philosophy says that Mayic (illusory) forms are illusions in the Eternal Spirit, and not the illusions or manifestations of It. The Vedantic Philosophy develops the conception as to anything which cannot be identified in one Universal spirit, the existence of such a thing is illusory (Maya). Only that is Eternal which can be identified in the Eternal, and must, therefore, be not permitted separation from the Eternal, in envelopes of the illusory. This is the highest point of generalization that can be conceived in religious philosophy. This is the only conception to which any system of religious philosophy must bow down. Vedanta says Brahma is Eternal. Maya (illusory existence) is not Eternal. If it is an existence at all, it is but an illusion. A man in dream makes love to a lady, marries her, becomes the father of a family; but when he awakes, he finds that he is as much a bachelor as he was before he went to sleep. In fact, there was no lady, no marriage, no children, and still he saw them and kissed them. The Vedantic Philosophy had never to stoop down to the mean artifice of conceiving that the existence of Maya (including human mind, desires, emotions, senses, cravings, etc.) emanated from the All-Eternal. It distinctly says, these being illusions, let not the divine Eternal Spirit be confounded with the illusions which may be existing, or may not be existing, even as lady, children, kisses, etc., in the dream of a bachelor.
Even when a man is not in a dream, he sees a piece of rope under the shadow of his table, and, believing it to be a serpent, tries to save himself from it and breaks his leg in jumping to the ladder. Just as the illusion of a serpent in the piece of rope causing fear, subjects a man, even in a conscious state, while his eyes are open, to all the consequences of illusion, may it not be that an illusory conception of the existence of many things equally pervades the Universe? Vedanta says, Conceive that there is something Eternal in thee, feel that thou art all joy, all love, all goodness, infinite; develop that conception in thee till all thy acts become like Its, and all thy delusions will vanish. None but a Brahmin, whose faculties are not enfeebled by alcohol and flesh-eating, can easily develop that conception 121in It, feel it, enjoy it, be absorbed in It, dead to all but It, even as Jesus Christ conceived, felt, and said, I am the Son of my Father (Aham Brahmasmi), I am It. And yet, how many missionaries, the upholders of that mighty doctrine, and its expounders, conceive what Jesus Christ meant, feel it, enjoy it, and are absorbed in him? The Holy Jesus conceived it, felt it, and enjoyed it. He said he was God, and behaved like that mighty Eternal Essence. His crucifixion was an illusion to the world. His pleasure in being crucified, in going back to his Father, I mean his Real Self, was real.
Christian, if thy missionary fails to give thee this conception of thy Saviour, go to a Brahmin on the banks of the Ganges, and he will baptize thee in the real blood of Jesus Christ; the blood which circulates in the Vedantic Philosophy to nourish Eternity, and which circulated in Jesus, even as it now circulates in the heart and brains of thousands of Brahmins in India. Christian, if thou art ashamed to acknowledge thy Lord, hear me, a Brahmin, acknowledge him – a manifestation of Eternal truth, wisdom, and suffering. He did not feel the nails in his flesh. If it were possible for any feeling to be felt, it must have been felt throughout the whole of Eternity; and yet, dear Christian, if your missionary fails to conceive it, a Brahmin feels in Christ a true Vedantist.
Sir M. M. Williams moreover states that pure spirit, according to Vedanta, does not even possess self-consciousness. Vedanta never says that. It distinctly demonstrates by a synthetic system of philosophy that Brahm is Shudha, Budha, Akhanda, Chaitanya (meaning all purity, all knowledge, Eternal consciousness). The term Chaitanya in Sanskrit is more comprehensive even than consciousness in English. The consciousness of the Eternal is far above the consciousness of individual man – the consciousness of the Eternal being everlasting and self-existent, as all his attributes must be. Sir M. M. Williams knows, I believe, the meaning of these three Sanskrit terms, as conveying the idea of all purity, all knowledge, Eternal consciousness. Vedanta Philosophy is not to be demonstrated before such ladies or gentlemen as would be sorry to attend such demonstration at the expense of an evening’s theatrical performance. When these demonstrations are held in India, precautions are always taken to refuse admission to people who, hearing the demonstration in its later stages, without previously knowing the outlines, would jump to dangerous conclusions.
Once upon a time two highway robbers, somehow or other, managed to get admission to such a meeting, while the philosopher was concluding his remarks by saying that “I am the Lord in whom the Creation is, and ye are all in the Lord. There is nothing like mine or thine. It is all ours in Him.” The robbers said among themselves, “How wicked it is of Brahmins to tell us that to steal or rob is sin, while it is all ours in Him”. The same demonstrator was one day travelling in a jungle, and the robbers caught hold of him, asking him to give up everything, because there was no difference in Him. It made but little difference whether the robbers used the property or Himself, when all was theirs in Him. The demonstrator laughed, and said, “Yes, have your way”. They stripped him naked, and told him to sit by the fire that they had kindled, and give them fresh instructions as interesting and as convenient for the sanction and carrying on of their profession as he had done the other day. The Brahmin understood that there was something wrong with them. He laughed once more, and put his right leg in the fire, all the while laughing and talking to them. The robbers were struck to see this process of self-cremation, and asked what did it mean. The Brahmin said: “It means that Eternal Spirit in me cannot burn, but it is this person of illusion that burns – the same person of illusion which I am burning, and which you want to nourish upon this property. My body is not the Eternal Spirit, my feelings, my emotions, 122my human mind, and their cravings and desires are not the Eternal, so why should I nourish them, instead of nourishing the Eternity which is in me, and which is all joy, all purity, all consciousness, all love? Feed ye the illusory, and I will feed my Eternity. Aham Brahmasmi (I am the Lord).” Compare this conception with the conceptions of Jesus – (see John viii, 16) – “I am the Father that sent me”; (19): “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also”.
The above story tells us that where the analysis of human body, soul, passions, mental and moral constitutions are being given, and where each factor is consigned to its respective source, whether in the real and Eternal, or in the illusory, the conceptions involved require unbiased faculties, patience, and perseverance. Dear Christian, I may tell you the enunciation of a proposition in Euclid. You may, or may not, know that it is truth, and yet, when you undergo the process of proving the proposition, you become certain that the enunciation is true. At a later stage, you forget the proof of the proposition, but still you hold that the enunciation is true, even though you may not be able to prove it.
The same is the fact with the Vedantic Philosophy. It gives thee the grand enunciation, “I am the Lord”. In order to conceive it as truth and to be satisfied that it is truth, have recourse to one or two elementary works such as Vicharsagar or Panch Dashi. The line of thought is quite alien to you, yet have patience. Even the proof of an enunciation of a single proposition in Euclid requires patience. You would scarcely be able to grasp the enunciation as truth by your own efforts of logic, but you can by that of Euclid. The same with Vedant Philosophy. “I am the Lord.” The enunciation is short, but the proposition for its proof is more difficult than twelve books of Euclid, and yet it is not impossible to learn it. Give it time, give it thought, give it energy, refer to the logic of master minds that have proved this enunciation, and thou wilt be only too glad to have taken the trouble. To grasp it is really a mighty effort, but is always crowned with success. Thou art even as a blind man left in a dungeon, with dead walls around thee. There is but one door to go out of that huge, dark dungeon; thou art blind, so thou seest it not. Then must thou feel for it. Thou beginnest at any one point of the circumference of the dungeon to feel for the door. Never remove thy hand from the dungeon wall even for a moment. Carefully go on thy round, feeling and feeling the wall. Thou art told that there is a door, an outlet. A happy moment comes, when thou art within an inch of the door – this is the moment for thy deliverance from the illusory, from darkness and evil, to the broad light and glory outside. But, alas! thou feelest a tickling somewhere in thy body. Thou instinctively removest thy hand from the wall to scratch thyself. The door, the outlet for thy deliverance from the illusory, is lost; thy round begins again – a tedious, monotonous round, and thou art lost in darkness of the dungeon once more till thou comest to the door again, perhaps to go to scratch again and lose it. In the cycle of illusory existences, man, thy spirit in the Eternal is enveloped in darkness and illusion. A happy moment has come, when, instead of an animal, thou art man – man, the outlet for thy spirit to get out from the darkness and illusion, to the real and Eternal. Compare John x. 7: “I am the door of the sheep”; and verse 9: “I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved”; and also Matthew xxiv. 30: “And then shall all the tribes of the earth (the lower animals) mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”. But, ah! instead of feeling the outlet for deliverance, thou removest thy hand from it, and goest to feel the nice pleasures of the world and gettest thyself lost in illusion again, instead of finding thy way to Eternity. Thou passest by the outlet. Thou art dead. Lost thy man-form – the outlet. As man thou art given clear perceptions, and intellectual gifts to conceive, feel, and enjoy thy Eternity;
123
to solve the problem of thy life, birth, existence, and death; to prove the enunciation “I am the Lord”. Lose this opportunity as man, feed thy illusion, and thou art lost for ever.
I am often asked by many what would be the good to society, and to the religious, mental, and moral philosophy of the world, of this conception of “I am the Eternal”, “I am the Lord”. I answer to such people: Friends, compare the results of this conception with other conceptions upon which the said philosophies are based. In looking at all the bases in different religions, I find the assertion that man is sinful. He must be good, that he may reap the reward of good. Tell me, friends, upon this line of thought, what is your ideal of goodness. A very good man, and not the Eternal Goodness? Upon this line of thought you will have human aspirations, desire for the reward of your goodness. You will do something to get something in return. Is there nothing nobler and higher in you than such frail aspirations? To do something in order that you may get something. Does not this line of theology and thought promise you anything else as its highest reward than riches, and beauties, and pleasure? All that in Vedant Philosophy is classed among the illusory and non-Eternal. When religion promises you frail things – when the practice of religion is to obtain frail objects and not everlasting existence, do you think the line of thought and principles emanating from this practice and preaching would be as noble as in the case when the Eternal is your ideal? – when you are asked to become like It, in your life and death? Is not Divine Goodness, Greatness, and Forgiveness far above that which we can conceive in an ideal man? Vedanta teaches you to practise good acts, not because you may receive good, but because you may become what is All Good. Is it not different to have good and to be good? Concentrate your line of conduct in the working of the Eternal, and not in that which is not Eternal. Can there be a conception higher and nobler than that? Is it not easier to be awakened to one’s self than to be awakened to something which, though in you, is taught to you as apart from you? Is it not easier to do good and to be good, when it is taught to you that by doing so you are nourishing your own goodness, and not any goodness foreign to you or apart from you? Read carefully what Jesus meant when he said, Matthew xxv. 34:
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (from Eternal Existence). For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. (See my allegory of a blind man in a dungeon.) Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? and thirsty and gave thee drink? etc.: and the king shall answer, and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
See what Jesus means to convey by making man, a sinful man, as one of the least of his (God’s) brethren. Similarly, see in the context what Jesus means to convey by telling us what God would say to a sinner. If this conception was to become general, all that should emanate from God will emanate from man, every man in one – in no illusion, but in It. Be It and not a man, a body of clay, living upon every frail thing, to be decomposed and dissociated by death, and to be associated with illusion.
Sir M. M. Williams translates the terms Dwait and Adwait as duality and non-duality. In the absence of any other accurate term in English, to my knowledge, I would translate it with Professor Dwivedi as separability and inseparability. Dwaita doctrine prevailed at one time among a few ignorant minds in India, when the theory of incarnation was being generally propounded to explain the birth of Krishna, Rama, Parasurama, 124&c.; but the notion, as explained by Sir M. M. Williams, was recognised as a false one, as is decidedly proved on reference to the Puranas, where each incarnation of the Eternal spirit is mentioned as of incomplete attributes, the complete being the only Eternal. It, therefore, must have been impossible for the doctrine of Dualism to have maintained its ground even for a time.
“Ekam eva advityam.” Sir M. M. Williams translates this as, “There is only one Being, no Second”. I would translate it as, “There is only one who is inseparable”.
Sir M. M. Williams translates sat – chit – anand, as existence – thought – joy. Chaitanya, never, never, in Sanskrit, means abstract thought. I would translate it as truth, consciousness, joy. Sachidanand, one in whom the consciousness of truth is joy. Consciousness is different from the faculty of thought, which is intended merely as an instrument for conception. The latter belongs to Maya, the former to Brahma. The Professor also criticises the conception “that this One Eternal Neuter Essence (in the illusion by which it is overspread) is, to the external world and to the human spirit, what yarn is to cloth, what milk is to curds, what clay is to a jar”. Surely cloth must be something made out of yarn, and if it is said to be a cloth, without the previous existence of yarn (or substance from which it could be made, as cotton, &c.), it must be an illusion!
Sir M. M. Williams quotes from Brihada-Aranyaka:
“When there is anything like duality, there one sees another, one smells another, one tastes another, one speaks to another, one hears another, one minds another, one regards another, one forms another,”
and infers from this that the number One, indeed, appears to have assumed the character of a kind of God, in the minds of some Indian thinkers. No Brahmin or European would draw a similar inference from these expressions, or admit that such an inference was ever drawn by any peasant in India. I have never seen the number One, drawn on a board or printed on anything, worshipped in India. The words only convey the conception that, in the absence of Monism, the Eternal Essence has to become both subjective and objective. I believe a Vedantist teaches me the same view. Even Christ, a Vedantist, has preached the same conception (Matthew xxv. 35 to 46).
The German philosopher who believes that he has not a real distinct existence and a unity of his own, but that he is merely a phenomenal manifestation or an aggregate of many manifestations of the one Infinite Being, can be said to have made the nearest approach to the conception of the doctrine of Vedantism. In fact, if he could conceive, while so believing, that Self-conscious and Eternal Existence is the reality in him, and that everything apart from this Eternal Ego is either a non-existence, a non-eternity, or an illusion, he is nothing short of a Vedantist.
Sir M. M. Williams quotes “Na Vastuno Vastu Sidhi”, and translates it as “Nothing is produced out of nothing”. I would translate it as, “It is impossible that something can be produced out of nothing”, or in the actual Vedic interpretation of the word Vastu, substance, “Substance cannot be the outcome of no substance”. This is the real Vedantic conception of it, and this being the translation, if I were Sir M. M. Williams, I would not draw any inference from a wrong translation; and, if I drew any inference from this translation of Sir M. M. Williams as it is, it would not be, “So that if there is a Supreme Creator, he cannot create the external world out of nothing. Hence he evolves all visible nature out of Himself, and all nature is Himself.”
The Boden Professor appears to be under the impression that there is something common or analogous in his idea to the conception of modern scientists, who tell us that all nature is one, and that mind and matter are inseparable. I beg to state that this mind and matter of Sir M. M. Williams’ materialists are something different from the Vedantists’ mind 125and matter. He discards this mind and matter as no manifestation of Brahma, but illusory existences in Brahma, capable of being absorbed into Brahma, when its illusionary character is lost, provided it has any existence at all, and is something capable of being absorbed into Brahma.
I must say it once more, that, in the very face of the conception of Vedantism developing the view that Eternal spirit is the only self-existent essence, and that nothing but itself is Eternal, it is absurd to infer that this view ever was compatible with dualistic or gross polytheistic doctrine and practices. I might as well infer that Christianity and Moslemism are compatible, because they both existed in Europe at the same time, and do now exist. Monism in India has always waged incessant war against dualism and polytheism, even so late as seven years ago, and it is still carried on by Aryasamajists, Prarthana-Samajists, and Brahmos, at this very moment in India.
Monism is the stronghold of Vedantic Philosophy and Brahminical Metaphysics, against which hundreds of doctrines of India, Europe, Persia, and Arabia, have dashed themselves to death, Christianity included, as preached at present. What is conversion to Christianity in India? Converting a few truant, idle, schoolboys, fond of drink, and stylish English-speaking girls; the conversion of ignorant boys to greater ignorance, to alcohol, and not to the words and conceptions of Jesus. I have not seen a single illustration of a Vedantist, who knew what Vedant was, converted to Christianity, upholding the doctrine himself and preaching it, like Shankara or Dayanand, throughout the length and breadth of India, from Himalaya to Cape Comorin, and from Sindh to the remotest Eastern boundaries of Bengal, as the Monism of Vedant is preached. The mind of a Brahmin is not the mind of a fanatic. It is open to every reasonable argument and the most subtle conceptions of Divinity.
A Brahmin can conceive, feel, and enjoy the theory of the self-sacrifice of Ego or Purusha Yaga, for the sake of the creation which was in it. Christ felt the supreme conviction that all that was self-consciousness, eternal existence, and self-existence was divine, and the rest either non-existent, or if existent at all, existent in illusion; and still his missionaries, quite ignorant of his doctrine, force upon him the origin of all that is sinful and wicked. Can sin, with Satan and all his hosts, be created by the All Holy? If Christianity proclaims at the top of its voice that “God said, Let there be light, and there was light,” and assigns a desire for creation to the Eternal Being, does it not at the same time make him responsible for the creation of Satan and all his hosts? Can darkness be the outcome of all that is light, and joy, and glory? Christianity, as understood by Christ, was Vedantism, and, as preached now, is a gross material idea of anthropopathy. The serpent comes and tempts Eve, and she, in her turn, Adam. The tree of knowledge was forbidden to men. Knowledge and conception forbidden by “all that is knowledge and comprehension”! What a ridiculous chain of nonsense, quite in contradiction to what Christ illustrated in his life, birth, crucifixion, and death. With Christ, Vedantic Philosophy was crucified in Europe, but still lives in India, whence it came. He that is glorious in himself does not seek glory in fighting and vanquishing Satan, but in ignoring his very existence.
“For all that take the sword perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of Angels?”
The Old House in the Canongate
134
Theosophical Gleanings or Notes on the "Secret Doctrine"
WE have seen in rough outline the earliest stages of Kosmogenesis, admirably summed up for us in the following brief statement:
“Manvantaric impulse commences with the re-awakening of Kosmic Ideation (the ‘Universal Mind’) concurrently with and parallel to the primary emergence of Kosmic Substance – the latter being the manvantaric vehicle of the former – from its undifferentiated pralayic state. Then Absolute Wisdom mirrors itself in its Ideation; which by a transcendental process, superior to and incomprehensible by human consciousness, results in Kosmic Energy (Fohat). Thrilling through the bosom of inert Substance, Fohat impels it to activity, and guides its primary differentiations on all the seven planes of Kosmic Consciousness. There are thus seven Protyles (as they are now called), while Aryan antiquity called them the seven Prakriti, or Natures, serving, severally, as the relatively homogeneous basis, which in the course of the increasing heterogeneity (in the evolution of the Universe) differentiate into the marvellous complexity presented by phenomena on the planes of perception.”
This primary sevenfold differentiation, as the “light of eternity” rolls outward into objectivity, is repeated at each stage of the further evolution. “By sevens” the building of the Universe proceeds.
“It is that Light which condenses in the forms of the ‘Lords of Being’ – the first and the highest of which are collectively Jivâtma, or Pratyagâtma. From these downwards – formed from the ever-consolidating waves of that light, which becomes on the objective plane gross matter – proceed the numerous hierarchies of the Creative Forces, some formless, others having their own distinctive forms, others, again, the lowest (Elementals), having no form of their own, but assuming every form according to the surrounding conditions. Thus there is but one Absolute Upadhi (basis) in the spiritual sense, on and in which are built for Manvantaric purposes the countless basic centres on which proceed the universal, cyclic, and individual evolutions during the active period.” (Vol. ii, pp. 33, 34.)
These “countless basic centres” are, of course, subordinate to the “seven Laya centres” (Stanza vi.) connected with the Primordial Seven, the Dhyani Buddhas. Just as in the physical universe recognised by 135science, our planets circle round “the sun”, and many such solar systems as our own circle round a central “sun”, and many such aggregated systems perchance again circle round some point central to them all; so Occult Kosmogenesis posits the primordial Seven Centres, the “imperishable Laya Centres” produced by Fohat – “The Great Breath digs through space seven holes into Laya to cause them to circumgyrate during Manvantara” (vol. i p. 147) – and round these are other Laya (or Neutral) Centres, and round these yet others, and others again. The conception of a point central to all, and of secondary points central to divisional masses, and of tertiary points central to subdivisional masses, and so on in descending order, so that, to reverse the idea, each final sub-division has its own centre, and all such centres have their common centre, and all these common centres their common centre, and so on, is one that we know to be true of the visible universe, however dizzy the attempt to realise it may make us. Anyone can figure the idea out with a pair of compasses, by drawing a number of small circles, each with its centre on the circumference of a larger circle, and all the centres of such larger circles on the circumference of a yet larger, extending his Kosmos until he is tired and dizzy; and if he makes them in groups of sevens, and goes on long enough, he will obtain a fairly clear idea of the relation of the basic centre of a planetary chain to one of the primordial Seven Laya Centres.
The planetary chain, evolved from such a subordinate centre, is a cycle of seven globes, and may be figured as situated on the arc of a circle (see Diagram II. vol. i. p. 172), our earth, or any planet visible to us, being at the lowest point of the arc. These globes are, for convenience of reference, called by the names of the letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. The evolution impulse travels from globe A round to globe G, dwelling on each globe and then undergoing suspension, or pralaya; and such a circling, with its seven periods of activity and seven periods of rest, is termed a Round. Seven such Rounds complete the Planetary Cycle, and are followed by the Planetary Pralaya. The observant student will notice that in the diagram the globes are arranged in pairs, with the exception of globe D; so that globes A and G occupy the same plane, as do globes B and F, and globes C and E. There is the descending arc, globes A, B, C; the midway or turning point, globe D; the ascending arc, globes E, F, G. The traveller must descend to win experience and self-consciousness, but his cycle is not complete until he re-ascends to the old position, bearing with him his spoils. But this figuring of the seven globes arranges them but on four, instead of on seven planes, the “four lower planes of Kosmic consciousness”. The Diagram on p. 200 will solve the puzzle, for there the student will observe that the “three higher planes of the septenary Kosmos” belong to “the Divine and Formless World of Spirit”, the Arupa World, spoken of in our last article, which is wholly above all such things as planetary chains.
Fohat, “the active force in Universal Life,” in one aspect Solar Energy, in another Electricity, whether Kosmic, solar, or human (see vol.
136
i. pp. 111, 112), is the “constructive power”, or force, which evolves the planetary chain. The “Wheels” “are the centres of force around which primordial Kosmic matter expands, and, passing through all the six stages of consolidation, becomes spheroidal and ends by being transformed into globes or spheres” (vol. i. p. 116). The student will recognize “this law of vortical movement in primordial matter” and will understand whence the Greek philosophers, initiates for the most part, drew their scientific teachings, teachings which Sir William Thomson echoes in his theories to-day. The details of this evolution are guided, according to the Secret Doctrine, by the beings who dwell on the higher planes, those earlier condensations of the Light spoken of above. The “Builders” – as they are significantly termed – are divided into three classes, our planetary chain being the work of those belonging to the second class, while Humanity itself owes its fashioning to the third (vol. i. pp. 127, 128).
The next point to be grasped is the central idea of the Manvantaric and planetary cycles. Light seems to be thrown on this by two passages especially, although the same thought is glanced at over and over again.
“The Doctrine teaches that, in order to become a divine, fully conscious, God – aye, even the highest – the spiritual primeval Intelligences must pass through the human stage. And when we say human, this does not apply merely to our terrestrial humanity, but to the mortals that inhabit any world . . . . . Each Entity must have won for itself the right of becoming divine, through self-experience. Hegel, the great German thinker, must have known or sensed intuitionally this truth when saying, as he did, that the Unconscious evolved the Universe only ‘in the hope of attaining clear self-consciousness’, of becoming, in other words, Man; for this is also the secret meaning of the usual Puranic phrase about Brahmâ being constantly ‘moved by the desire to create’. This explains also the hidden Kabalistic meaning of the saying: ‘The Breath becomes a stone; the stone, a plant; the plant, an animal; the animal, a man; the man, a spirit; and the spirit, a God’. The Mind-born Sons, the Rishis, the Builders, etc., were all men – of whatever forms and shapes – in other worlds and the preceding Manvantaras . . . . . Every atom in the Universe has the potentiality of self-consciousness in it”
And again:
“A Dhyan Chohan has to become one; he cannot be born, or appear suddenly on the plane of life, as a full-blown angel. The Celestial Hierarchy of the present Manvantara will find itself transferred in the next cycle of life into higher superior worlds, and will make room for a new hierarchy, composed of the elect ones of our mankind”
We have then presented to us the grandiose conception of a Universe evolving upwards, as a whole and in all its parts. Each cycle, minute or vast, is an evolution complete in itself, but forming part of a larger evolution. So each cell in our body has its own circle of activity, its birth, growth, maturity, death; but each cell forms part of a tissue that also is born, grows, matures, dies; and each tissue forms part of an organ that is born, grows, matures, dies; and each organ helps to form a body that passes through similar stages; and so onwards, with races, worlds, systems, 137Kosmos. The consciousness of the cell, for which the leading German scientists now contend, is not the consciousness of the brain of which it forms part, nor that of man the consciousness of the Kosmos; but shall the cell therefore deny consciousness to the brain, or man to the cell?
Let us, then, commence our study of the evolution of the planetary chain and its inhabitants with the idée mère that spirit is to become self-conscious through that evolution, the evolution being guided by intelligences who have already passed through the human experience in a previous Manvantara. The sketch, given in Vol. i. pp 213 – 221, of the seven chief “celestial hierarchies” is a picture of the inhabitants of higher planes in their relationship to terrestrial humanity, which will be more clearly understood at a later stage of our study. The highest, the “formless fiery breaths”, the “divine fire”, are collectively Atma, the universal spirit. The second, “Fire and Æther”, are Atma-Buddhi, Buddhi, the divine soul, being the vehicle of Atma. The third symbolises the intellect, Manas, that with Atma-Buddhi gives Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the Triad. The fourth “are substantial Entities. This is the highest group among the Rupas (atomic forms). It is the nursery of the human, conscious, spiritual souls.” They are the “inner soul of the physical cell”, “the spiritual potency in the physical cell that guides the development of the embryo, and which is the cause of the hereditary transmission of faculties, and all the inherent qualities in man”. The fifth group “is supposed to contain in itself the dual attributes of both the spiritual and physical aspects of the universe”. The sixth and the seventh groups are “conscious ethereal entities”, including Nature-Spirits or Elementals of all kinds, sentient but not always intelligent beings. From the sixth of these groups man has to draw all but his highest principles and his physical body. The question is often asked whether Theosophists regard these “hierarchies” as composed of entities, or as being merely allegorical.
“To this the answer is given as plainly: ‘After due allowance for the imagery of personified powers, we must admit the existence of these Entities, if we would not reject the existence of spiritual humanity within physical mankind. For the hosts of these Sons of Light and “Mind-Born Sons” of the first manifested Ray of the Unknown All, are the very root of spiritual man.’ Unless we want to believe the unphilosophical dogma of a specially created soul for every human birth – a fresh supply of these pouring in daily since ‘Adam’ – we have to admit the occult teachings” (vol. i. p. 106).
The idea, then is, at the commencement of our planetary chain, that there are concerned with it Builders and Planetary Spirits (vol. 1, p. 128) who have existed as men in previous Manvantaras, and who were the elect of that past Humanity; and a host of other entities, who have progressed to a certain point and whose further evolution is to be carried on upon our planetary chain. Man, as we know him, has to be evolved with whatever else may lie before him during the present planetary cycle, and in that evolution these entities are to take part. Now septenary man consists of 138Atma-Buddhi, Manas, and the lower quaternary, and the evolution we have to follow is the wedding of the Monad to the intellectual and vital entities, the making of the complete Man. For Man
“is the product of Nature’s gradual perfecting work, like any other living unit on this earth. But this is only with regard to the human tabernacle. That which lives and thinks in man and survives that frame, the masterpiece of evolution – is the ‘Eternal Pilgrim’, the Protean differentiation in space and time of the One Absolute ‘Unknowable’” (vol. ii, p. 728).
Here let us pause for a moment on this term, Monad. The Monad is Atma-Buddhi. Fohat, we read, “traces spiral lines to unite the sixth to the seventh” (Stanza v).
“The sixth principle in man (Buddhi, the Divine Soul), though a mere breath, in our conceptions, is still something material when compared with divine ‘Spirit’ (Atma) of which it is the carrier or vehicle. Fohat, in his capacity of Divine Love (Eros), the elective Power of affinity and sympathy, is shown allegorically as trying to bring the pure Spirit, the Ray inseparable from the one Absolute, into union with the Soul, the two constituting in man the Monad, and in Nature the first link between the ever unconditioned and the manifested” (Vol. i. p. 119).
Now it is essential not to lose sight of the fact that Atma-Buddhi is One throughout the Universe. It is the life, the soul of the Kosmos, and ours only in that we are parts of the All. A ray, indeed, falls into each, but it is the one “light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world”, and every atom in this world and in all others. In a sense, it becomes individualised, as a drop from the ocean, by its union with the individual, but in its essence it remains part of the whole.
“The Monads are not discrete principles, limited or conditioned, but rays from that one universal absolute Principle” (Vol. ii. p. 167).
It is this Monad which circles round the planetary chain, and whose journey from globe A to globe G makes a Round (Vol. i. pp. 167, 168). Seven times is that journey trodden during the planetary Manvantara.
“The Monad, born of the nature and of the very Essence of the ‘seven’ (its highest principle becoming immediately enshrined in the seventh Kosmic Element), has to perform its septenary gyration throughout the Cycle of Being and Forms, from the highest to the lowest; and then again from man to God” (Vol. i. p. 135).
There is
“a limited number of Monads evolving and growing more and more perfect through their assimilation of many successive personalities, in every new Manvantara . . . . . Although the hosts of more or less progressed Monads are almost incalculable, they are still finite, as is everything else in this Universe of differentiation and finiteness” (Vol. i. p. 171).
It is this Monad which impels to development and progress:
“That which propels onward and forces evolution, i.e., compels the growth and development of Man towards perfection, is (a) the Monad, or that which acts in it unconsciously through a force inherent in itself; and (b) the lower astral body on the personal self. The former, whether imprisoned in a vegetable or an animal body, is endowed with, is indeed
139
itself, that force. Owing to its identity with the All-Force, which, as said, is inherent in the Monad, it is all-potent on the Arupa, or formless plane”
The Monads, in the course of their long pilgrimage, pass through many planetary chains; but as we are here concerned with that chain only of which our earth is part, it must suffice to say briefly as to the Monads which are to incarnate during our planetary Manvantara, that the Secret Doctrine teaches that they arrive on our chain from the chain in which the moon is globe D. (It must be kept in mind that bodies normally visible to us must needs consist of matter able to impress itself upon our retina, i.e., matter belonging to our plane.)
“Now, it must be remembered that the Monads cycling round any septenary chain are divided into seven classes or hierarchies according to their respective stages of evolution, consciousness, and merit” (vol. i. p. 171)
- and these classes reach globe A for their new planetary pilgrimage in orderly succession. When the most advanced class of Monads has finished its seventh Round on globe G of the lunar chain, their activity is suspended for a period of pralayic rest; during their last Round, when the hindermost class has worked through a globe, that globe begins its planetary pralaya, and its life-energies pass “to a new Laya centre, which commences the formation of” the corresponding globe on the earth chain (p. 172). The seven classes of Lunar Monads (Lunar Pitris, in the Hindu phrase) will, then, reach our globe A, one after the other; “having ended their life-cycle on the lunar chain, which is inferior to the terrestrial chain” (p. 179), they come to be incarnated on the latter. On globe A, as on the succeeding globes, the cycle of evolution is sevenfold
- three elemental kingdoms, followed by the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, the human. Let us figure in our minds the arrival of Class I. at the threshold of the lowest of the three elemental kingdoms; working its way through it, it reaches the second elemental kingdom, and as it begins to evolve through the second, Class II. enters the lowest elemental. As Class I. starts through the highest elemental, Class II. begins the mid-elemental, and Class III. enters the lowest. And so continues the evolution step by step, until Class I. has reached the first stage of the germinal condition of potential humanity on globe A, and Class VII. has entered the lowest elemental kingdom on the same globe. Thus globe A finally manifests the seven kingdoms, each occupied by a class of Lunar Monads or Lunar Pitris:
| Lunar Monads, Class I. | have reached the | Potential Human Stage. |
| Lunar Monads, Class II. | have reached the | Animal Stage. |
| Lunar Monads, Class III. | have reached the | Vegetable Stage. |
| Lunar Monads, Class IV. | have reached the | Mineral Stage. |
| Lunar Monads, Class V. | have reached the | Higher Elemental Stage. |
| Lunar Monads, Class VI. | have reached the | Middle Elemental Stage. |
| Lunar Monads, Class VII. | have reached the | Lower Elemental Stage. |
But the student must remember, in using these familiar names of human, 140animal, etc., that all on globe A is of the most ethereal substance, the mere filmy shadows of organisms; slowly, Round after Round, the seventh group of the celestial hierarchy – the Nature forces or spirits of each globe – build into the filmy shadows the grosser matter, condensing, solidifying, stage by stage (see, with reference to globe D, and therefore, by analogy, for each globe, vol. ii. p. 110: “the spirits of the Earth clothed the shadows and expanded them . . . . it is they who give, or build, the physical tabernacle of man”). It must also be remembered that the “Man” of Globe A is irrational, senseless; the Monad cannot impress his substance, filmy as it may be: a long journey lies before the Pilgrim, ere he can become conscious on the material plane; be the matter ever so ethereal, it is not of the Arupa[47] world.
Note. It is certain that even on an elementary paper such as this some questions will arise in the minds of many who may read it. Some of those questions students will be able to solve by their own efforts; for it must be remembered that in Esotericism, even more than in any other study, no man can do his brother’s thinking for him. Other questions may, however, refuse to be solved even after careful thinking; if such questions are sent to us, to the care of the Editors of Lucifer, 17 Lansdowne Road, Holland Park, W., we will do our best to answer them, or obtain answers for them, and such questions and answers on the preceding paper will be annexed to the following one.
From the star-circled dome of Heaven their flight, |
Each love within us is a Christ new-born |
| Mary Frances Wight. |
141
Ecclesiastical Christianity
WE pass onward to a later period.
The antecedents of the French revolution were oppression and imprisonment, much of which had been upheld by ecclesiastical influence, and Louis XIV may be said to have sown the seed of the Reign of Terror. Descartes was compelled to live in exile, and it had been proposed to burn him for “heretical philosophy”, and the Bastille, or some other instrument of Church and State, inflicted grievous injury on almost every thinker in France. The Jesuits presided over the bastilles and galleys, and in them or in the State prisons anyone could be immured without trial or sentence, on the authority of a lettre de cachet. To the last the clergy supported despotism, and when in 1761 the persecutions for heresy were relaxed, they urgently remonstrated against it. At the time of the Revolution, which witnessed horrors similar to those inflicted upon the Huguenots, and in the same places, a century before, their property was estimated at eighty millions, and one-fifth of the land was possessed by the Church, which had grown rich by Protestant spoils.
In Spain, the Inquisition was only abolished in 1820, and that country has never recovered from the paralysing influence of priestly dominion. The Spanish bull-ring attests the degree of her civilisation. Persons are still living who remember the destruction of the convent of Poblet, in which a recently-used torture-chamber was found and a dungeon filled with human bones. In Spanish America millions of the aboriginals were destroyed by the cruelty of the Spaniards, and their land became, in great part, the property of the Roman Church. In 1565 Melendez of Spain massacred the French Protestants in Florida, and 200 were killed, including children and the sick. On the ground mass was afterwards celebrated, and the site of this deed of blood selected for a church. Through treachery Melendez afterwards killed several hundreds more who had been confiding enough to trust to his word of honor. And in later times, at the catastrophe which occurred in the cathedral of Santiago, on the “Feast of the Virgin”, in 1863, the priests kept the large iron gates across the chancel firmly closed in the face of the shrieking people, in order to save the church properties and “sacred relics”. It was the old spirit of the Inquisition in another form, reckless of human lives and happiness alike, when priestcraft and its follies were at stake.
In England, during the incapable reign of George III., the clergy to whom he deferred aided him in the unjust war upon the colonies which met with its righteous retribution, and when English freedom and the liberty of the Press were at stake, Church and State as usual joined forces against the people. Priestley was persecuted in Birmingham; the bishops opposed Catholic emancipation; and the Dissenters suffered anew. Every fresh step in science was met by strenuous opposition. The discovery of vaccination was denounced from the pulpit, and texts of Scripture hurled against the offending Jenner. Combe was accused of “infidelity”. The heaven-sent blessing of chloroform applied by Sir James Simpson in our own century, to the amelioration of sufferings which have indeed been a curse to womanhood in civilized countries, was vehemently resisted as “contrary to Holy Writ”. The abolition of church-rates, and the establishment of State education free from theological errors and sectarian bias, were measures 142which met with the same opposition and the same outcries. At the solemn hour when the last rites were being performed over the remains of the great Von Humboldt, at Berlin, in 1859, the clergy almost entirely absented themselves, and the great facts taught by the study of geology excited a hostility from the Church and the orthodox, which found vent in the expressions of opinion that the science was “a dark art”, and an “awful evasion of the testimony of revelation”. Religious terrorism has cast its dark shadow over truths which only served to reveal the power of the Creator and the grandeur of the methods by which His worlds have been evolved. Railroads, telegraphs, discoveries, accidents, all have formed fertile themes for clerical warnings and anathemas.
The wonderful researches of Darwin, Boucher de Perthes, Huxley, Lubbock, and Lyell are stigmatised by the orthodox as “dangerous”, or “irreligious”; and while attempts are made on the one hand to represent the atomic theory as only a revival of ancient philosophy, just as attempts were made in the sixteenth century to show that the Copernican theory was merely a revival of the Pythagorean doctrine, which had been “thoroughly exploded”, strenuous endeavors are made on the other to overthrow every aspect of evolution except Darwin's facts.
In America, the advocates of the abolition of slavery ran the gauntlet of both lay and clerical persecution. “I can bear testimony,” says John G. Whittier, “to George Thompson’s courage, fidelity, and self-sacrifice in that terrible year when press and pulpit, caucus and legislature, were everywhere hounding on the people against us.” In Boston George Thompson and Lloyd Garrison were denounced by the press and the clergy, and it was there that Garrison was dragged through the streets by the ignorant mob inflamed against him, with a halter round his neck. The church taught that slavery was a divine ordinance because it existed among the ancient Jews, and declared the abolitionists to be “profane” persons, who “fought against God”. The “curse on Ham”, like the “curse on Eve”, must be maintained at all costs. After a thirty years’ struggle, the stain of negro slavery was blotted out in a war which deluged America with blood.
In Italy, forty years ago, the Scriptures were read in secret; and so late as some twenty years since persons have bought some of the New Testaments on sale in Rome at last, in order to tear them up and scatter them on the ground. Bonfires have been made of them even in Ireland. The Index Expurgatorius of 1599 still exists. So also does the theology of Trent. In the teeth of the spirit of religious freedom which is now making itself felt throughout Europe, and which was aided in the results of Sadowa and Sedan, the Æcumenical Council declared, in the summer of 1870, in favor of the pitiable doctrine of papal infallibility, the only result of which is to promote the schism which precedes disintegration, and papal denunciations were once more thundered against the “Satan and his emissaries”, who dared to fight for freedom and to ignore the pope.
The close of the year, however, beheld a swift reply to this last effort of human arrogance to arrest the divine and unchangeable laws of God. The Franco-Prussian war had in the same summer withdrawn the French troops from the papal territory, and late in the autumn Victor Emmanuel, owner of a name of happy augury, entered Rome, once more the capital of United Italy, and the temporal power of the Pope was swept away. The prisons of Naples were a result of the influence of the Vatican, and the cry for liberty and justice was no less a protest against the power of the priest.
In looking back upon the past, it must be remembered that it avails nothing to point to a St. Vincent de Paul, a Fénélon, or a St. Teresa. Among the Pharisees also were a Hillel and a Simeon. There are pure souls in all times attached to systems which they are not strong enough to reform. Visions, voices, and spiritual 143manifestations – “many wonderful works”, are not confined to the records of the Roman Church. The Jews of Pilate’s time had the same belief and experiences with the same inoperative, because subordinated, result. The heralds of a great religious reform are not drawn within the spheres of unenlightened human authority and dictation, but gather round and inspire free human souls, the “heretics” of their age, and send them forth among the people.
Nor, indeed, can the history of ignorance and bigotry be permitted to close here. But a few years ago Rowland Williams was prosecuted for heresy in the ecclesiastical courts; Colenso was inveighed against by innumerable doctors of divinity; Essays and Reviews raised a storm in the clerical world; and Canon Farrar, like Maurice before him, has been convicted of “mischievous error”, and solemnly expostulated with for his brave attempt to lighten the prevailing darkness of theology with Eternal Hope. Meanwhile, ritualism among the clergy advances apace. Youths of weak mental fibre, educated at Oxford, and influenced by subtle dialecticians, who reason like lawyers, but never like men, enter the church, retire to a clergy-house, preach compulsory confession to a priest, i.e., as a “sacrament”, and indite letters on note-paper ornamented with red crosses, and dated “the feast of the blessed St. Chad”. Twelve thousand pounds have recently been wasted in prosecuting a clergyman of the Church of England during a period of twelve years, for lighting candles when not wanted, elevating a paten, wearing a chasuble, biretta, and other garments of a ritualistic persuasion, making the sign of the cross, mixing water with sacramental wine, kissing the prayer-book, and causing a bell to be rung during the consecration of the “elements”.[48] And an English clergyman, who is in favor of reunion with the Roman Church, has not long since openly defended the Marian persecutions, and considers “heresy” on a par with murder and “rebellion”. He has a brother after his own heart in France. M. Veuillot avowed his Ultramontane policy in the Universe thus:
“For my part I frankly avow my regret not only that John Huss was not burnt sooner, but that Luther was not burnt too. And I regret that there has not been some prince sufficiently pious and politic to have made a crusade against Protestants.”
Individuals of this last stamp may be priests by nature, but they are neither men nor Christians. They are not worthy to wipe the dust from off the feet of one of the old martyrs, who many a time might have escaped death and suffering by a word.
It is difficult to conceive how any sane persons, not brought up in their midst, can presume to institute such practices and such beliefs in the name of religion in our time; but what is it at the root of these mental departures? An irrational theology, which has been opposing the work of Jesus of Nazareth for nearly two thousand years, which drives the weak to ecclesiasticism, and the strong to atheism and materialism, and a church which keeps up the system which the foregoing pages have plainly proved to be a deadly one to all that is best and noblest in human nature, by the arm of the law. The State Church will never cease to want a Lord Penzance, or to produce a G. W. Foote, and however estimable and self-144denying individual members of the clergy may be, it is impossible to be much in contact with them without recognizing that they are pledged to ideas which are fatal to human liberty and progress. The abolition of slavery, the temperance and peace movements, were all begun by men outside the Church, and whenever toleration or great social reforms have been established they have, with the rarest exceptions, been forced upon the clergy by the common sense of the people. Churchmen are the persons who monopolize the Universities, uphold sectarian methods of instruction, oppose religious equality and free education, who zealously maintain the Athanasian Creed, who fear truth lest it should “unsettle” those not yet driven to Atheism, and who would fight to the death to maintain the old marriage-service of the Sarum Use, which holds the soul of woman in the curse of a man-made subjection. Whatever intellect they possess is almost always intellect without manhood, an intellect which dares not face large problems, which defers to the conclusions of an earlier age, and which expends its whole force in defence of narrow and dogmatic assertions. And recently this tendency has assumed a darker hue in the Jesuitical attempts to distort historical facts of the plainest kind in order to whitewash the Church of Rome. Truly, it may once more be said: “Ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them”.
Yet the social reforms and scientific discoveries opposed by the churches have done more for the alleviation of suffering, and the advancement of civilization and happiness, than all the almsgiving and the external and superficial methods of assistance which mere charity, without knowledge, could possibly devise. With a mighty voice they speak and condemn the anthropomorphic worship of man.
The recent discussion on the Burials Bill should open the eyes of all not blinded by the mist of superstition still among us, as to the utter incapacity of the average clerical mind to teach practical religion. It is a deplorable fact that clergymen came forward to enter their “solemn protest” against the passing of the Bill as “dishonor done to Almighty God”. Man has indeed made God in his own image! How necessary that Bill was may be shown from the fact that more than one clergyman has declined to read the burial service over a child that had received “heretical baptism” from a Dissenting or “unlawful” minister. The gnat is always strained at, the camel swallowed; the revision of the Articles would create a clerical uproar, while war and prostitution go on without a protest.
Up the lane together, |
| Adamanta. |
A Talk with Sumangala
151
From countless ages of the mazy Past, |
| R. B. H. |
152
The True Brotherhood of the Kingdom of Heaven
IN these days everything is being carefully tested. Mere hearsay does not satisfy thinking men and women. Old notions and old institutions are alike passing through an ordeal of candid sifting. Men wish more than the mere husks of truth. They crave for divine light to dispel the darkness.
We do not wonder, then, that in religion, which deals with man’s higher nature, men should be probing matters to the bottom. Instead of ever harping about one’s creed, they are desirous of testing men’s conduct. Instead of asking about a man's religious belief, they wish to know his mode of living; and every man is becoming more really anxious to live well than to believe some unintelligible doctrine.
The more we study Christ’s words, the more we see how intensely practical he was in all. And it is good for us, when we are unable to worship with our neighbors, to read through a number of the chapters of the Gospels so as to seize hold of Christ’s words and Christ’s meaning. There is no formalism, no creed, no mystery, but practical godliness outcoming in a good life. He placed before men a high nature, which it is possible for men to imitate and come near. He lived out that beautiful character. It was tested by all who saw him; and it can now be tested by us as we read the Gospel story.
Into that story men have introduced strange things according to their own bias. Paul, Peter, John, and James, all differ in their interpretation of the story. They look on Christ’s teaching and life and work from their point of view. And if such men – apostles of the founder of the faith – have not given us the absolutely true interpretation of Christ’s teaching, we are not to wonder that the men of later times, who framed our Confessions and our Catechisms, should have come short in giving the perfect meaning which Christ meant to convey. Now we should approach the subject directly, and study Christ’s own teaching and work as told us in the four gospels. It is not the Christ of Paul, nor the Christ of Peter, nor the Christ of the Church, but the Christ of the Gospels which we have the privilege of studying for ourselves.
Much excellent matter we find given by others; but when there is any discrepancy – however slight – between the story in the gospels and the criticism of that story by anybody – however much inspired – we are privileged to accept what we find directly taught by Christ himself.
And surely that is only reasonable. In ordinary evidence, the direct account of the principal is preferred to any other person’s explanation of that account. Accordingly, here, it is no less our duty than our privilege to examine Christ’s own words and interpret them for ourselves.
In this way we find the gospel story much simpler. There is less creed in it; there is more life. Conduct is the test of genuine belief. We are, in a word, to believe in a practical way. And the more we try to live out the gospel ideal – to imitate the love principle which actuated Christ in all – to believe in his noble work of love, the more will our life be improved and purified, and ennobled. Then Christ will cease to be an abstract being, and become a living reality, our educator in righteousness, the stimulus to good living, the moulder of our conduct, the all-engendering source of love, the master of our being.
153
The strange thing is that too many worry themselves about their faith instead of their conduct. They have somehow been unfortunately taught from their infancy that faith alone is sufficient for salvation, that is enough to save them from sinning. They have got it into their heads that without some mystic acceptance of Christ they can do no good thing at all. And this has a bad effect, in two ways.
In the first place, it makes some, for self-protection’s sake, assume that they have the proper faith, without troubling themselves about their conduct. It never strikes them that a dishonest life, or an impure life, or a slanderous life, or a selfish life, is out of keeping with their self-assumed faith. They are among the elect, and they never mind their conduct. Or if this ever presents itself to them at all, they satisfy themselves that they are at any rate better than Jacob and David, who were men after God’s own heart.
And the other class who are affected by this line of religious teaching are those who are doing good and yet, who never know about it. They have not realized that the true following of Christ is in unselfish, generous, sympathetic work for others. They are doing good work, noble work, work which is the very test of that brotherhood, which is essential for the membership of the kingdom of heaven; and yet they are not aware of it.
These two classes were very pointedly specified by Christ in a reference which he made to the day of judgment, when the test of fitness for his Kingdom would be indicated. One band he blessed for their unselfish, brotherly conduct; the other is cursed for their selfishness and indifference to their fellow-men. He declares that those who are fit to be members of his Kingdom and whom he admits, are those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and visited the sick in a truly sympathetic spirit. These members were not aware of their brotherly natures. Men have done noble actions, deeds of quiet, unobtrusive nobleness, which are unrecorded in earthly records, and which are even forgotten by the generous doers themselves. Yet these deeds were moulders of their character, unconsciously training them for fitness for the kingdom of true brotherhood in Christ. And more than that; Christ declared that a kindness done to a fellow-man is just the same as if it had been done to himself, the representative of mankind, the elder Brother of the race. That is the key to the whole gospel. The training for the kingdom of heaven is living unselfishly, in noble work for Christ, which is tested by practical sympathy and love to one’s fellow-men. A man is fit for the kingdom of heaven, is really in it in this world, when he lives unselfishly and delights in doing so.
Again, Christ characterised the other class, who were excluded from his kingdom, as those who had neglected to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick. Selfishness excludes man from the true brotherhood in Christ. The Master reduces all sins to sins against one’s neighbor; because such selfish work is done against the love principle of Christ’s nature. These men may have believed in Christ in some sort of way: but they had never lived out love to man, which was the embodiment of love to God. If a man does not love his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Such excluded ones, then, had not in them the power of doing good; they were unfit for the kingdom of brotherhood, which is bound together by the practical bond of love. Neglect of attention to the naked, or hungry, or sick, shows unfitness to be one of Christ's members. The man or woman who shirks doing good in society, when conscientiously called upon for the exercise of generosity and help, thereby shows total inability to love what is Christ-like, and total unfitness for true brotherhood.
We are members of society – parts of a great organism – whether we know it or not. If one suffers, all to some extent suffer. If one part of our frame is seriously injured, the rest of the body is more or less affected by 154nerve-sympathy. If one member of humanity be seriously made to suffer by the neglect of one in whom was none of the milk of human kindness, then to some extent all have been touched with the pain:
“Man’s inhumanity to man |
We know some say that this test is by far too simple. What? Is it a simple thing to live an unselfish life? Such men have never tried to walk in love. To be generous and loving is not so easy. Does not cold money calculation or selfish ease too often come in to drain out any of the original rightness of their nature still remaining? Easy to be unselfish! Why that is the most difficult matter on earth. It is just living out Christianity – it is being a Christian.
Others say that a rich man has a better chance of being admitted into the brotherhood, for he has plenty of means at his disposal to do all that Christ declared to be necessary. We think not. We do not see much of that in the world. We really find more willingness to share what one has with others among those whose means are small. Too many of the rich take up the cause of humanity in name only; they do not use their vast means and opportunities of doing good in the cause of right; but too often weary their life out in pampered leisure, sighing to have some work to do for man, and yet never doing it. Wealth so binds itself round the very vitals of the heart, that the heart’s sympathy is stifled, generosity is gone. Moreover, money-giving is only one form of sympathy. The smallest sum, given in proportion to one’s means, is blessed, and glad are we to see so much done in this way for the advancement of man’s temporal good, for the carrying out of that saving of the body as well as of the soul, which characterised the lifework of Christ, the patron of hospitals, and infirmaries, and homes. But the real test of Christianity or fitness for the kingdom of true brotherhood is in doing acts of brotherly kindness, in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and visiting the sick.
It is not in every one’s power even to clothe the naked and feed the hungry, except in a very small way. But all can give a cup of cold water with cheering words, with the true expression of brotherhood, the more tenderly uttered if one is unable to give more. Most have it in their power: all who are not sick, at any rate, are able to visit the sick. They can pour the balm of consolation into the wounded spirit. They can sympathise with distress. They can firmly grasp the hand of the afflicted one with a thrill of divine sympathy. Such men and women, who do this because they cannot help it, not from a sense of duty, but because they delight in doing their best to help others, to relieve others’ pain, to cheer others’ hearts, are really fitting themselves for the true life of unselfishness, which is the test of kinship with God.
“But,” it may be asked, “am I to be ever assisting the ungrateful? the grumbling? the over-exacting? the intensely selfish?” Well, all mankind are to be the recipients of our kindness and brotherly love. Whereever there is an opportunity of doing good, it must be done. Yet strangely Christ said, that “his brethren” – pointing to those of his kingdom – are to be the immediate objects of our care. He says nothing of the rest. Now, an ungrateful person, an ever-grumbling person, an over-exacting person, an intensely selfish person, is not one of Christ’s brethren; therefore that person is not included in at least the immediate sphere of one’s unselfish work. For all that, we must persevere with that class as much as we can. It is hard, hard work. Nothing is more killing than to be tied to absolute selfishness, and not to be able to please at all, however kindly the actions, however noble the sacrifice.
But Christ himself did all he could for Judas Iscariot. Tenderly he dealt with that erring apostle for many a day. He saw the cankerworm of 155self-gratification, and pride, and avarice eating into the vitals of the miserable man, and he admonished him quietly at first, then more pointedly, but always with the object of restoring the wayward one. Till at last, Christ owned himself beaten. He gave in. He left Judas to his devices. He had tried all in his power to restore his disciple, yet ingratitude and selfishness and grumbling possessed the heart of Judas. And Christ left him to his own fate, excluding him from the Kingdom. We, too, must therefore do all in our power to be kind even to the ungrateful and the unworthy, returning even good for evil; till at the last we must give in for the sake of others, who more require our sympathy.
We will, then, best realise this gospel of Christ, which is the gospel of humanity, by living in brotherly kindness. We must do good as we have opportunity, especially to the deserving and the grateful. We are to live honourably and purely to ourselves and our conscience, we are to be generous and kind, we must let no pollution, or slander, or envy enter our minds or issue from our lips – practically living out what the Lord requires of men, “doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly before God” – and our work will be fitting us for the true brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven whether we know it or not; until we realise in the end that our love to man was truly love to God. It is not easy, when meeting so much selfishness and ingratitude to live this out. Yet our Lord cleansed nine out of the ten lepers, who turned out to be ungrateful. At the same time he exposed their meanness. We must persevere, then, feeling that we would like to do more good; and we will find many opportunities of doing so very near our doors.
We cannot picture the nature of those who are excluded from the Kingdom. They have shown practically by their conduct that they are totally unfit for the society of brethren. The divine democracy of which Christ is the spiritual Head is bound together by the everlasting bonds of love for man, by the increasing desire to do the greatest good to the greatest number of the members of the Kingdom. Those who are not among its members have no longer a father’s eye of affection looking on them; they are shrivelled up in their individuality. They live on selfishly, with all the tortures of that terrible condition. The famous authoress, Mrs. Oliphant, once tried to picture the absolute misery of those who lived together in a completely selfish manner – and her pictures are horrible; yet they are most likely true so far. Surfeited self-gratification is a sufficient hell.
The problem of the age is to draw men together into the divine brotherhood, under the recognised leadership of Christ, “The Bright, the Morning Star”. It is our duty to find out the good in man and direct its energies aright. Too many search for the devil in man, and thereby succeed in spreading the evil which we all deplore. We are required to do our endeavor to harmonise the powerful instincts of humanity, which, left to themselves, might act blindly and ruinously, and draw them forth by the magnetic touch of our brotherly life to act gently and usefully for mankind. And just as the electric fluid which cleaves to fragments the forest trees, or scatters to the earth the strongest built towers, has by the God-like intellect of man been made his servant to bind together by telegraph network the nations of the world, and thereby become the most powerful messenger of commercial and social good over the globe; so by the study of human nature the social forces of humanity may yet be turned from being the instruments of hatred and revenge, to be the mighty powers of love and righteousness and good to mankind.
We are all being called upon, in this precarious age, to diffuse as widely as possible every element of good, to draw class and class together by the magnetic power of true brotherhood, in the living out of the love-principle of Christ. The poor must be made to pity as well as respect the rich; and the rich must be made to respect as well as pity the poor. Honest labor 156must be honored as consecrated service. Heroic work in suffering must be borne with patience. There is much noble working underground in the depths of the soul, unsuspected and unseen, except by very few. But such a spirit will have, by its calm bearing, a redeeming power on all around. And as the small seed may be wafted by the winds into the silent glade to spring up and beautify desolation, so by the silent, unobtrusive, yet most powerful and personal teaching of a life, influence may be carried to many a soul which never preacher’s voice could stir.
There is so much that wants doing to bring about the “federation of the world”, that we are apt to despair. Yet let each one do his and her best to further the cause of the universal brotherhood of humanity, which includes all races, creeds, sexes, and colors.
Is it not a lamentable thought that when we come to leave this world of enterprise and work we shall realise that we have missed doing the little that was laid near our hands? Let us live, then, as we would then wish we had done. The great doctrine of unselfishness, living for the good of others, is the final religion for time and for eternity, for this world and the next. Other religions have tried many ways for man to reach the ideal of the race and have failed. Christ alone showed us how to work out our salvation by practically living out that righteousness through love which is the very essence of the divine nature and which is the test of fitness for the true brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven.
And let us close these stray but earnest remarks with this quotation, made by one whose teaching on these lines has done much to leaven the religious thought of the more broadly sympathetic of our countrymen (Professor Momerie): –
“There is, we know, one primitive and sure |
[As we take no responsibility for the opinions expressed by our contributors, but leave to each the duty of speaking the truth as he sees it, it is perhaps hardly necessary to express our dissent from the form in which the writer of the above clothes the great principle of Universal Brotherhood. But we must enter our protest against the undue exaltation of Christ, and against the statement that he “alone” showed the right way. Buddha showed it centuries before Christ, and Buddhism has been far less of a failure than Christianity in the matter of practically inducing brotherhood. – Eds.]
Calling from the mystic distance, |
| Anon. |
157
Bigotry in Ceylon
THE following correspondence will be read with interest and indignation: –
Madame H. P. Blavatsky, London. Editor of Lucifer.
Dear Madame,
From the annexed copies of correspondence you will read that the Anglican Archdeacon of Ceylon has made capital of his position, as Warden of St. Thomas’s College, Colombo, to deal an unjust blow upon me for my religious opinions. I was educated for six years at that school, where I gained some distinctions for which my name was put up on the panels of the library of the College. I quote from the College Magazine: –
1883. A. E. Buultjens – Weerasinhe Prize of Rs. 100 for Classics.
1884. A. E. Buultjens – Weerasinhe Prize of Rs. 100 for Classics.
1883. A. E. Buultjens, English University (Government) Scholarship of £150 a year for four years, for highest marks among candidates in Ceylon competing in the Cambridge Senior Local Examination.
For the above three events my name was empanelled till within the last few months, when my name was removed. There are still the names of other men, and the public removal of my name has created some sensation among the friends and enemies of Buddhism.
While at school, I gained the Bishop of Colombo's Annual Prizes for Religious Knowledge in two successive years. But during my three years' residence at Cambridge University (St. John's College), I was obliged, through conscientious scruples, to give up my adherence to the Christian Faith, as expounded by orthodox clergymen. I laid my scruples before Dean Whittaker, at that time a Don at St. John’s, and obtained exemption from attending the “service” at chapel (which is compulsory for five times in the week).
On my arrival in Ceylon, after graduating as B.A., I inquired into and accepted the teachings of Gautama, Lord Buddha; and six months ago I took up the Headmastership of the Buddhist English School. My coming forward publicly as a Buddhist was the signal for my being consigned into hell by the more charitable (!) of the Christians. This much will explain the letters I annex. I hope you will use your powerful and philanthropic voice in protest against this persecution, which reminds me of the fires kindled at Smithfield, London, in Mary's reign. These missionaries here will kindle ten thousand fires if they have their way.
158
The above is a practical sample of how Archdeacon Miller of Ceylon interprets the “Love your enemies” of Jesus Christ. Do the English public pay to send out to Buddhist countries, missionary teachers of this stamp? Such narrow-minded bigotry will never convert the so-called “heathen”.
Yours faithfully,
A. E. BUULTJENS, B.A., F.T.S.
157
February 15, 1890.
Dear Sir,
It is with great pain I learn that my name has been removed from the panels of the Library of St. Thomas’s College. If it is right on my part to do so,
158
may I ask you to let me know what offence I have committed to justify this pain being inflicted on me?
Your former pupil,
A. E. BUULTJENS.
My dear Buultjens,
It is, alas! easy to answer your question. Your name has been removed from the panels in the Library because you have apostatized from the faith of Christ. The College was founded to maintain and spread that faith, and you, having been baptised into that faith, have now deserted to its enemies. Would you have us retain the name of a traitor among those whom the College delights to honor?
I would have written on the subject of your apostacy, but I scarcely heard of the step you were meditating before you took it, and then I thought it was too late.
(Signed) E. F. MILLER.
We hardly think that the “spiritual pastors and masters” of our home colleges will follow the example of this strange relic of the excommunicating Inquisitor which has been unearthed in modern Lanka; otherwise their panels will speedily be emptied of the names of the best of those whom the “colleges delight to honor”.
How remarkably myopic is your average missionary! Can he not see that he has done more harm to his own propaganda than to the victim of his uncharitableness? How thus can he hope to convert any worthy or intelligent Buddhist, who from his youth is trained in the precepts of tolerance taught by Gautama?
If an Archdeacon, who is presumably one of the highest representatives of the religious system he professes, falls so far behind the practice of his “heathen” brethren, what inducement will there be for the said “heathen” brethren to be converted? But then, you see, a missionary calls the tolerance of the Buddhist “apathetic indifference”; if the Buddhist were as contemptuous as the missionary, he might call the latter’s intolerance, impertinent interference.
As to the conversion of the unworthy and unintelligent, they do more harm than good to real Christianity though they are undoubtedly useful to swell the statistics with a view to home collections. The conversion of a child is no conversion; and his “apostacy” when he arrives at manhood only gives undeniable proof that this is so, and should really give no cause for resentment to the pious child-stealer, if he is really an honest man.
We wonder what Christians would do if their children were taken by Buddhist missionaries and converted?
Bigotry is a superstition bequeathed to us by the Dark Ages, and we can only pity this reverend victim of an unbalanced enthusiasm. But while doing so, it is our duty to protest most emphatically against that real “apathetic indifference” to the good of humanity which permits the existence of such a moral-microbe pest; and we call upon all true theosophists to crush it out wherever it appears.
159
“Civilization: Its Cause and Cure”; and other Essays
It is seldom that we have read a book with so much pleasure. This all too short volume breathes forth a spirit of true devotion to humanity and of harmony with nature. Throughout it is characterized by a forceful and honest style which speaks to all men, while at the same time it maintains the golden mean of a just judgment.
The author sturdily attacks the problem of civilization, and gets right down to the root of this great banyan tree whose branches ever return to the maternal soil from which they first drew life. Every page of Mr. Carpenter’s book is interesting, every paragraph goes home. It is a protest against the insufficiency of modern theories; a protest against the taking of custom for truth. Perhaps the peculiar charm of these essays is that they are so far from that verbiage and vain repetition which are the mere tinsel of literary pagentry, and also from those crabbed ink-horn terms and technicalities of which we have sometimes too much. For our author, civilization is Man; Man is the one thing of which we can ever know the reality with any approximation to truth.
In the essay entitled “Modern Science – a Criticism,” Mr. Carpenter reviews the theories that obtain in the scientific world of to-day, and shows how insufficient they are to bear the test of actuality. All these theories are arrived at by a process of eliminating the facts, by a process of G. C. M., in which the selfhood of the various phenomena is destroyed, and a purely artificial and arbitrary basis of so-called facts is chosen on which to raise the card-castle of hypothesis. So the premisses being false, in that the actuality of the real facts has been neglected, the apparently logical theory is as useful as making a chain and then finding that there is no staple to support it, or as real as the trick of the Indian juggler who threw a rope into the air and then climbed up it. After passing in review the fundamental hypotheses of modern science and conclusively proving their insufficiency, he says:
“Having created these absurdities by the method of ‘personification of abstractions’ or the ‘reification of concepts’, it seriously and in all good faith tries to understand them; having dressed up its own Mumbo Jumbo (which it once jeered at religion for doing) it piously shuts its eyes and endeavors to believe in it.”
Two instances will be sufficient to show the justice of the writer’s revolt against the claim that modern science is exact in her conclusions about things in themselves.
Quoting the following passage from Maxwell’s “Theory of Heat”: –
“But as soon as we have been made familiar with the most prominent features of these different conditions of matter, the most scientific course of study is in the reverse order, beginning with gases, on account of the greater simplicity of their laws, then advancing to liquids, the more complex laws of which are much more imperfectly known, and concluding with the little that has been hitherto discovered about the constitution of solid bodies.”
Mr. Carpenter proceeds to put it in plain words and turn the light of actuality upon it in the following manner: –
“That is to say that Science finds it easier to work among gases – which are invisible, and which we can know little about – than among solids, which we are familiar with and
160
which we can easily handle! This seems a strange conclusion, but it will be found to represent a common procedure of Science – the truth probably being that the laws of gases are not one whit simpler than the laws of liquids and solids, but that on account of our knowing so much less about gases it is easier for us to feign laws in their case than in the case of solids, and less easy for our errors to be detected.”
Again, in speaking of astronomy the most exact science, he says: –
“What then is the path of the moon? No one knows; we have not the faintest idea – the word itself ceases to have any assignable meaning. It is true that if we agree to ignore the perturbations produced by the sun – as in fact we do ignore perturbations produced by the planets and other bodies – and if we agree to ignore the motion of the earth, and the flight of the solar system through space, and even the movement of any centre round which that may be speeding, we may then say that the moon moves in an ellipse. But this has evidently nothing to do with actual facts. The moon does not move in an ellipse – not even ‘relatively to the earth’ – and probably never has done and never will do........... Now does it not seem curious that astronomy – the study of the heavenly bodies, which are the most distant from us of all bodies, and most difficult to observe – should yet be the most perfect of all sciences? Yet the reason is obvious. Astronomy is the most perfect science because we know least about it – because our ignorance of the actual phenomena is most profound.”
In the next essay “The Science of the Future – a Fore-cast”, from the biological consideration “organism is made by function as well as environment”, he proceeds to question: “What then is the function of Man?” What the meaning of the word “I”? And suggests an answer in a magnificent passage which concludes as follows: –
“Does there not exist in truth, as we have already hinted, an inner illumination – of which what we call light in the outer world is the partial expression and manifestation – by which we can ultimately see things as they are, beholding all creation, the animals, the angels, the plants, the figures of our friends and all the ranks and races of the human kind, in their true being and order – not by any local act of perception, but by a cosmical intuition and presence, identifying ourselves with what we see? Does there not exist a perfected sense of Hearing – as of the morning stars singing together – an understanding of the words that are spoken all through the universe, the hidden meaning of all things, the word which is creation itself – a profound and far pervading sense, of which our ordinary sense of sound is only the first novitiate and initiation? Do we not become aware of an inner sense of health and holiness – the translation and final outcome of the external sense of taste – which has power to determine for us absolutely and without any ado, without argument and without denial, which is good and appropriate to be done or suffered in every case that can arise?
“And so on; it is not necessary to say more. If there are such powers in man, then there is indeed an exact science possible.”
Pure Theosophy; the purest Occultism, say you! Yes, of the purest; each page carries home to the Theosophical reader the conviction that here is a comrade, here a fellow-worker, and of the most excellent.
Do you want a book to lend a friend who has a prejudice against the word Theosophy and its nomenclature? Then bid him read Edward Carpenter's “Civilization”. Do you want a simple statement of the problem and a safe direction to the method of its solution; a book that will speak in clearest tones to you and render intelligible and imperative the “Key to Theosophy” and the “Secret Doctrine”? Then read “Civilization”. What matters it whether the book calls the Science of Life Theosophy or not? It proves by logic and review of the facts that there is such a Science and that this Science alone can throw light on the murky darkness of our present ignorance.
Briefly, this volume of 150 pages should be on every Theosophist’s book shelves, and its ideas in every Theosophist’s mind and heart.
We present our most respectful homage to the author.
161
Theosophical Activities
The Recording Secretary reports an enthusiastic welcome to the President-Founder on his return; telegrams and letters of greeting poured in upon him. The Colonel accompanied two Japanese gentlemen who had been appointed by their Government to study Indian Agriculture and Horticulture, to the Salem Agricultural Show, of which he was appointed one of the Judges by the Madras Government. He afterwards delivered a lecture to an appreciative audience on Scientific Agriculture.
A crematorium is to be established in the grounds at Adyar.
Our active Bombay brethren have already issued three numbers of “The Theosophical Tract Series”. The titles are “A True Theosophist”, “The Science of Life”, and “Know Thyself”, and the substance is reprinted from our magazines. The publisher is our esteemed brother Jhonghie Khorshedji Daji. Copies can be obtained from Radhabai Atmaram Sagoon, 135, Kalbaderie Road, Bombay, price one anna each, or for distribution at cost price. This is an excellent departure and we cordially wish it every success.
The manager of the Theosophist writes: “I have great pleasure in informing you that Dr. J. Bowles Daly, LL.D., late of the Illustrated London News, and an eminent author, and E. Douglas Fawcett, Esq., late of the (London) Daily Telegraph, one of the cleverest writers of the day on Philosophy and Metaphysics, have joined the Editorial staff of the Theosophist. Colonel Olcott retains the editorship. Madame Blavatsky’s writings will occasionally appear, and arrangements have been made for a monthly letter from London, giving the latest news about the spread of Eastern Philosophical and Occult ideas throughout the Western world.”
The Outlook
165
“The Colombo Theosophical Convention” has put the Ceylon Section on a strong working basis, directed by native energy. The President-Founder, while in the island, opened a Girls’ School under the “Women’s Educational Society”, which has been inaugurated and is flourishing under the auspices of our Sinhalese lady members. The Buddhist has since reported the opening of another girls’ school under the same auspices.
166
Our Sinhalese brothers send us a notice drawing attention to the Buddhist, a weekly English paper published at Colombo. Among its contributors are the High Priest Sumangala (one of the greatest living scholars in Pali and Sanscrit, and the most prominent leader of the Southern Church), His Royal Highness Chandrdat, Prince of Siam, Sir Edwin Arnold, Mr. A. P. Sinnett, Madame H. P. Blavatsky, Colonel H. S. Olcott, Dr. Franz Hartmann, Mudaliyar L. Corneille Wijesinha, and other great writers on its special subjects. It contains translations from the Pali, and articles explaining the true position of Buddhism and defending it from the attacks of its enemies, together with discussions of various points of the religion, and correspondence on subjects of interest to the Buddhists of the Southern Church. It is the organ of the Ceylon Section of the T. S. The subscription is Rs. 3 per annum in Ceylon or India, and 10s. per annum or its equivalent for other countries. Address: H. Dhammapala, Manager of The Buddhist, 61, Maliban Street, Colombo, Ceylon.
Japan.
The following communication has been received by the President from “The Ladies’ Association”, Shimochaya Macni, Nagoya, Japan: –
“Since you left this land half a year has already passed; during that short space what Japanese Buddhists have done is indeed wonderful. I thank you most respectfully for your kind exertions in arousing the Japanese Buddhists from their slumber: and they have formed a great many organizations in the interest of that beautiful and rational religion.
“But all what they have done is for men, while there is nothing for the other sex.
“We now determined to organize the Ladies’ Association and to establish a Girls’ School here at Nagoya, which you visited, for the purpose of producing good mothers, educated sisters, and cultivated daughters, for the sake of our beloved Nippon. And a magazine, named ‘The Moral Friend’, is also to be published by our Association once a month. We have already induced 2 Princesses, 5 Marquesses, 5 Countesses, 8 Viscountesses, 7 Baronesses, and many famous Buddhist priests, celebrated scholars, &c., to become honorary members, while common members are daily increasing in number. We are very glad to see that the time of restoring this beautiful religion to its former condition is near at hand.
“May I ask you to allow yourself to become an honorary member of our Ladies’ Association, also Mr. Dammapala; and to give us your advice about the best method of educating women.
“Praying for your increasing prosperity and happiness, and trusting to be favored with a reply in the affirmative,
“Yours very truly,
“M. Oka, Manager.”
(The Theosophist.)
British Section Council
At a meeting of the above Council, held at 17 Lansdowne Road on the 26th ult., the following business was done: –
1. Address of the British Section to the American Convention.
167
2. Address of the British Section to the General Council, meeting at Adyar, India.
3. Prospective plans relative to the organization and work of the Section.
The Section was represented in Council by the officers and proxies as follows: –
| Delegates of Blavatsky Lodge | Countess Wachtmeister. Isabel Cooper-Oakley. W. Kingsland. Herbert Burrows. Count Bubna. |
| Cambridge Lodge | G. F. Rogers, President. |
| Dublin Lodge | G. R. S. Mead, Proxy. |
| Scottish Lodge | Mrs. Gordon, Proxy, |
| Liverpool Lodge | Miss L. Cooper, Proxy. |
| Newcastle Lodge | Baroness de Pallandt, Proxy. |
| West of England Lodge | A. W. Cobbold, Proxy. |
The Addresses of the Section to the General Council at Adyar, and to the American Convention, were adopted as read. They embodied the Activities of the Section during the past year, mentioning chiefly the publications of the T.P.S.; the work of the Corresponding Groups; and the progress of the Lodges; and concluded with some suggestions for the future working of the Section, and the expression of our fraternal regard and good wishes for our Fellow-Theosophists in the East and West.
A scheme for the establishment of permanent British Headquarters in London was laid before the Council by Annie Besant, and was received with full sympathy; the official sanction of the Council being given for its execution as speedily as circumstances may permit.
W. R. Old,
Gen. Sec. British Section, T.S.
A successful lecture was delivered by Annie Besant, F.T.S., in the Portman Rooms, Baker Street, on March 25th, on “The Sphinx of Theosophy”. We are glad to be able to able to add that some adhesions to the Society followed the lecture.
At a lecture delivered by an anonymous “Orientalist”, who indulged in wild abuse of the Theosophical Society and of its founders, J. T. Campbell, F.T.S., effectively exposed the unworthy tactics of the lecturer. Our brother created so good an impression that a lecture hall has been offered to him without charge, to deliver a lecture in favor of Theosophy.
On Friday, April 25th, a lecture on “The Soundness of Theosophy” will be delivered at South Place Chapel, Finsbury (near Moorgate Station, Underground Railway), by Herbert Burrows, in answer to two addresses on the Intellectual and Moral Unsoundness of Theosophy, which were lately given by Dr. Stanton Coit.
168
The chair will be taken at 8 p.m. by Annie Besant. All London Theosophists should make a point of attending and of bringing their friends. Admission free.
The pamphlet by Annie Besant, entitled “Why I became a Theosophist,” has met with such wide approval, that we now have an “Adyar Edition” printed by the Theosophist, and an American reprint from the “Aryan Press”. Moreover, it has been translated into French, under the title “Pourquoi je devins Théosophe”, by Mme. Camille Lemaître, and we hear that translations into other languages are in hand.
The Liverpool Lodge reports that
“At our General Business Meeting recently held, the following officers were appointed: – President, Mr. S. G. P. Coryn; Vice-President, Mr. C. Savage; Secretary, Mr. R. Hill; Treasurer, Mr. Joseph Gardner. Mrs. Londini retires from office through bad health, and much to our regret. We all have in her a warm friend and worker.”
Theosophy in Sheffield. – On March 29th, Herbert Burrows, F.T.S., delivered a lecture in Sheffield on “Theosophy: its Meaning and Teachings”. The Cutlers’ Hall was hired, and the town well placarded with striking posters by a very earnest Sheffield Theosophist, Mr. C. Y. Barker, and the result of his efforts was very satisfactory. The hall was crowded with an audience which comprised Christians, Atheists, Materialists, Secularists, Spiritualists, Clairvoyants, Mesmerists, &c., and a number of people had to be turned away from the doors owing to want of room. The chair was taken by Mr. Frank Dallaway, who was able to announce that a good Theosophical library had been formed in the town by Mr. Barker, and that Lucifer could be found in the municipal Free Library. There was but little opposition to the lecture, and the audience, by their questions, showed themselves very eager for knowledge. The vote of thanks to Mr. Burrows was moved by an opponent and seconded by a gentleman who announced himself as a strong theologian, but who wished to express his obligations to the lecturer for the clear and lucid manner in which he had treated his subject.
Newcastle-on-Tyne. – Annie Besant, F.T.S., lectured to a large audience on “What is Theosophy?” at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on March 30th. In the evening she met the members of the Lodge at a brother’s house, and an interesting conference on matters Theosophical took place.
The Secret Doctrine and Voice of the Silence have inspired our brother Theosophist, R. Machell, with the subjects of two magnificent pictures, which are to be sent in to this year’s Academy.
“The Birth of a Planet” is a large canvas 7 × 6, personifying the birth of a new planet from an old, just as the earth is described as the child of the moon in the Secret Doctrine. The whole conception is replete with mystic significance. In the foreground the mother planet is shown in a female figure, whose face, radiant with an expression of self-sacrificing love, portrays the pouring out of the life principle into the new planetary centre. The latter is shown by a younger female figure sporting in the waves of space with all the happy vigor of youth. The whole picture is suffused with aureoles and radiances of prismatic hues, and in the glory of the background, typifying the solar orb, is the shadow of the Caduceus of three serpents, whose intertwined bodies form the lemniscate.[50] Four circles of various 169radiance can be discerned to the right of the picture, which, with the glories of the sun, the father, of the mother planet and of the child complete the mystic seven.
The second picture is explained by the legend:
“That beam is thy life-guide and thy true Self, the Watcher and the silent Thinker, the victim of thy lower Self”.[51]
In the foreground is the figure of a maiden draped in Grecian robes of a light green hue, with a kerchief of the same color binding her hair. There is a look of expectancy in her rapt gaze, as if she were straining her ear to catch the longed-for “Voice”. Behind is an imposing and majestic figure of passionless mien, who with the right hand holds the maiden’s palm and with the left points onward. The aura of the angelic figure is marvellously worked out, and thrown into relief by the jagged rocks and crags which hem in the valley through which the “pilgrim” treads.
These are not the first mystic works from the brush of our gifted fellow-Theosophist. He has already exhibited a large canvas entitled the “Dweller on the Threshold” at the Spanish Exhibition, and is now showing it at Oldham. It will be a pity if these beautiful tributes to Theosophy pass out of Theosophic hands.
Our esteemed brother, Mr. F. J. Allan, has retired from office as Secretary to the Dublin Lodge Theosophical Society in favor of Claude F. Wright. Mr. Allen is compelled to this action mainly on account of other important work hitherto partially neglected through stress of Theosophical business. We congratulate the Dublin Lodge on the results of fourteen months’ hard work done for Theosophy by Mr. Allan, and we must trust in Mr. Wright, the new Secretary, to fill his place with equal advantage.
Our active brothers at Madrid have issued a pretty volume entitled “Theosophia”, containing translations of some of the most important articles in our literature, suited to beginners. The pamphlet “Qué es la Theosophia” has been sent to every university, library, and club in Spain; thousands have been distributed.
Theosophy in Sweden is making rapid strides, thanks to the untiring efforts of our Swedish brothers and sisters. The Stockholm Lodge has now 100 members enrolled, and is, next to the Blavatsky Lodge, the most active in Europe. The Lending Library is in constant requisition, and the Theosophical receptions held weekly by Madame Amélie Cederschiöld are numerously attended by those who are anxious to gain some insight into Theosophy. The enquirers are becoming so eager for more knowledge that Miss Ellen Bergman has also an evening which she devotes to answering questions, and teaching those who know less than herself.
The Swedes are not fickle, but faithful and true to any cause which they have at heart; and we may, therefore, look with all hope to a grand future for Theosophy in our country.
170
The following list of Lodges is a striking proof of the spread of Theosophy in the United States.
American Branches: Theosophical Societies.
| Place | Name | Date of charter | President | Secretary | Address |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis | Arjuna Theosophical Society | 1882 | Albert J. Stiles | Elliott B. Page | P. O. Box 659 |
| New York | Aryan T. S. | 1883 | William Q. Judge | Dr. Horace A. Loomis | P. O. Box 2659 |
| Chicago | Chicago T. S. | 1884 | Stanley B. Sexton | Miss Gertrude A. Piper | 34 Walton Place |
| San Francisco | Golden Gate Lodge | 1885 | Dr. Jerome A. Anderson | Dr. Allen Griffiths | Room 5, 13 Mason Street |
| Los Angeles | Los Angeles T. S. | 1885 | Dr. C. W. Bush | Miss Louise A. Off | Collado Street, Station F. |
| Malden | Malden T. S. | 1885 | Sylvester Baxter | Frank S. Collins | 97 Dexter Street |
| Boston | Boston T. S. | 1886 | Arthur B. Griggs | Robert Crosbie | 55 South Street |
| Cincinnati | Cincinnati T. S. | 1886 | Robert Hosea | Miss Annie Laws | 100 Dayton Street |
| Chicago | Ramayana T. S. | 1887 | Dr. W. P. Phelon | Edwin J. Blood | 463 S. Leavitt Street |
| Minneapolis | Ishwara T. S. | 1887 | Dr. J. W. B. La Pierre | James Taylor | 75 S. Ninth Street |
| Philadelphia | Krishna T. S. | 1887 | Edward H. Sanborn | John J. L. Houston | 902 Walnut Street |
| St. Louis | Pranava T. S. | 1887 | Wm. H. Cornell | Wm. Throckmorton | 500 N. Commercial Street |
| Omaha | Vedanta T. S. | 1888 | Dr. J. M. Borglum | T. Richard Prater | 205 Sheeley Block |
| Grand Island, Neb. | Nirvana T. S. | 1888 | L. D. Proper | Nathan Platt | |
| San Diego, Cal. | Point Loma Lodge | 1888 | Dr. John F. S. Gray | Mrs. Anne J. Patterson | 643 Sixth Street |
| Bridgeport, Conn. | Varuna T. S. | 1888 | Dr. E. Kirchgessner | Miss Emma L. Shannon | 59 William Street |
| Cleveland | Dharma T. S. | 1888 | Wm. E. Gates | Mrs. D. E. Gates | 714 Harkness Avenue |
| Decorah, Iowa | Isis Lodge | 1888 | Miss Therese Asseln | Miss Clara Reum | Box 901 |
| Milwaukee | Brahmana T. S. | 1888 | Mrs. Julia Ford | Mrs. Alice M. Wyman | 421 Milwaukee Street |
| Los Angeles | Satwa Lodge | 1889 | Samuel Calhoun | Mrs. Angie F. Shaw | Box 132 |
| Brooklyn | Brooklyn T. S. | 1889 | Col. H. N. Hooper | John C. Tredway | 72 Lafayette Avenue |
| Santa Cruz, Calif. | Bandhu T. S. | 1889 | Dr. W. W. Gamble | Mrs. Mary H. Bowman | |
| Washington, D.C. | Blavatsky T. S. | 1889 | Chas. O. Pierson | Geo. H. Baldwin | 123 First Street, N.W. |
| San Jose, Cal. | Excelsior T. S. | 1889 | Mrs. P. D. Hale | Mrs. P. M. Gassett | 351 N. Third Street |
| San Diego, Cal. | Gautama T. S. | 1889 | Geo. H. Stebbins | Mrs. V. M. Beane | Box 1258 |
| Kansas City | Kansas City T. S. | 1889 | Hon. Henry N. Ess | Chancy P. Fairman | 1328 Grand Avenue |
| Fort Wayne | Light T. S. | 1889 | (Private) | ||
| Oakland, Cal. | Aurora Lodge | 1889 | Miss Marie A. Walsh | Henry Bowman | 630 Ninth Street |
| Tacoma, W. T. | Narada T. S. | 1890 | Rev. W. E. Copeland | John H. Scotford | 744 St. Helen’s Avenue |
| Stockton, Cal. | Stockton T. S. | 1890 | |||
| Gilroy, Cal. | Oriental Club | 1890 | |||
| Muskegon, Mich. | Muskegon T. S. | 1890 | |||
| Los Angeles | Sakti T. S. | 1890 | Dr. George Mohn | Mrs. Julia B. Taylor. | |
| San Diego, Cal. | Upasana T. S. | 1890 | Sidney Thomas | Abbott B. Clark | P. O. Box 1200 |
171
Bertram Keightley is still doing yeoman service on the Pacific coast. It is difficult to imagine where he gets the time to deliver so many lectures and addresses, and also to be at the continual service of the ubiquitous interviewer.
The Sakti T. S., the third in Los Angeles, Calif, has offered the following tribute to Bro. Bertram Keightley.
“It was with deepest regret we saw our friend and brother Mr. Bertram Keightley leave Los Angeles.
“The few days he spent here won him a warm place in many hearts.
“The work he did here, which gave fresh impetus to the cause he loves so well, cannot now be estimated; the future alone can demonstrate the effect of his effort.
“While all the members of the Branches are sensible of the debt we owe Mr. Keightley, the Sakti, the new Branch for which he was sponsor, have a deeper consciousness of fellowship, a greater gratitude, an impulse to earnest effort, that they may be worthy of what to them is an honor, that the Sakti, the first Branch organized by Mr. Keightley, may stand the ‘test of Theosophic interest’, and be Theosophists, not merely members of the T. S.
“The satisfaction of those who have the interest of the cause at heart was increased by the respect Mr. Keighley inspired among those not in sympathy with Theosophy.
“The masterly way in which he presented so metaphysical a subject, as well as his logical reasoning, could not but command admiration and convince even the skeptical of his perfect familiarity with his theme. The readiness and clearness with which he answered all inquiries intelligent enough to merit consideration, and to many that were not he gave courteous replies, never failing in patience under any provocation, won for Mr. Keighley golden opinions. While we feel this a feeble acknowledgment of Mr. Keightley’s labors here, and no measure of our obligation, we are glad to show our appreciation of what he has done for Theosophy in Los Angeles.
“By order of Sakti Branch.
“Julia B. Taylor, Secretary.”
The Aryan T. S. is very active. The Theosophical Forum is edited by Bro. Fullerton, who freely devotes his entire time and abilities to the work of the Society; at the headquarters in 132, Nassau Street, there is the circulating library founded and kept up by a member of the branch; the meetings are all public, and the number of persons present each Tuesday night seldom falls below fifty; the Aryan Press was founded by a generous donation made by one of its members; the Tract Scheme began in this Branch and now includes sixty-six workers; one of its members has just given an order to the Path to donate two copies of the Key to Theosophy to each of the members of the Branch for distribution.
“The Library of the Aryan T. S. now numbers over 300 books, and they circulate freely among its members.”
That Theosophy is spreading rapidly in the United States is evidenced by the fact that in one week the General Secretary’s office issued forty new diplomas.
172
Theosophical and Mystic Publications
THE THEOSOPHIST for March is an excellent number. Foremost of all, the article of E. D. Fawcett entitled a “Talk with Sumangala”, which is reprinted in our present number, is to be remarked. The importance of the result of this remarkable interview with the venerable High Priest of Southern Buddhism cannot be over estimated. The editorial for this month is called “The Outlook”, and is from the pen of our venerable President, whom we are sincerely glad to welcome back to the editorial chair. Perhaps the outlook may not appear very bright to an outsider, owing to the out-spokenness of the Colonel, who faithfully represents the bad as well as the good. The long list of “Activities” in the “Supplement”, however, will speedily remove this impression. Dr. Henry Pratt continues his series of “Elohistic Teachings” giving us a thoughtful paper entitled “Through the Human to the Divine”. “A Chat on the Roof” is amusing. It is sad to read of the state of affairs which has led to the inauguration of the “Temperance Movement in Japan”. The “so-called civilizing influence of foreign countries” is gradually substituting beer, wine and spirits for the mild national beverage Sáké, which is brewed from rice and tastes somewhat like Malaga wine. The writer of this article, F. Sawai, says:
“That we have so many Japanese who sink into habits of intemperance, is chiefly attributable to the decline of Buddhism, or to the corrupt use of the Doctrine in our society, and so at this time the new propounders of True Buddhism, or the members of the Shin-Shu Sect, must perform their duty in regard to the improvement of morality in the nation; and at present, the proposers of our Temperance Association mostly consist of the followers of Lord Buddha, and we believe that to them is chiefly due the progress of temperance in this country.”
“Christian Theosophy” is the title of a paper on an excellent lecture, by the Rev. G. W. Allen, upon “The Relation of Christianity to Theosophy”. The paper concludes with these words
“(The ideas of Mr. Allen) speak for themselves, and demonstrate the possibility of an intimate union between Theosophy and the higher Christianity or true religion of Jesus . . . . The little that has come down to us of his teaching consists of his ethical maxims. We know, however, that he had a ‘secret doctrine’, which he taught only to his more intimate disciples, and it would be strange, indeed, if that secret doctrine should not have been Theosophy in its philosophical fulness.”
We are glad to see the name of Rama Prasad appended to an article on “The Prophecy of the Bhâgavata as to the future Rulers of India”. In the ninth and twelfth books of the Purana a list of kings “who it is said, will rule in India after Parikshit, in the Kaliyuga”, is given. The verification of this prophecy is worked out in a remarkable manner by the learned writer.
A long review on “The Guide of the Perplexed” of Maimonides, by E. D. F., is also exceedingly interesting.
The March Path opens with No. XV. of “Letters that have helped me”, containing some useful reflections on sex. “Theosophy in daily life” is the title of a practical paper, by Alexander Fullerton, in which he urges that it is the duty of a theosophist to protect the individual rights of a community by the suppression of aggressive impertinence and selfishness. “I can never believe,” he says,
“that the social ideal of Theosophy is where the public-spirited are speechless and muscleless in the presence of outrage, and where the selfish are given full liberty to trample everybody else into the mud. . . . A man has a bundle on the seat while passengers are standing. Are they to allow that invasion of the right of others, the appropriation to himself of property not his? By no means. If allowed to do so, he will do it again, and become a nuisance through life.”
We are 173familiar with the teaching, “If a man smite thee on one cheek, turn to him the other also,” and we have heard of “non-resistance to evil”. But we think that brother Fullerton has succeeded in showing that the meaning is, that although evil should not be returned for evil, yet “inaction” is sometimes as culpable as wrong action, especially when the rights of the community are concerned. Katherine Hillard follows with a well written paper on “Apparent failure”, in which she treats of “the deceptiveness of that illusion which we call success, or of that other illusion which we call failure”, with appropriate quotations from Browning and Walt. Whitman. Jas. M. Pryse contributes a thoughtful article on “The impossibility of a unitary rule of conduct in the manifested world of duality”.
“Take, for an instance, he writes, “the doctrine of Karma. It includes both free-will and pre-destination, the ‘pairs of opposites’ for that subject. For if each individual reaps only the effects of causes set in motion by himself, and thus may create his own future, he evidently has perfect freedom of will, and his destiny is held in his own hands. But, again, since each thought and motive he has is the result of preceding thoughts and motives, and there again of others, he is evidently proceeding inevitably upon a line marked out in the beginning.”
The first number of Le Lotus Bleu, our new organ in France, after the address to the reader which was published in last month's “Activitie”, starts with an interesting article, by Eugène Nus, on the “Unknowable”, which concludes with the words:
“Therefore, like that honest ‘Chauvin’ who professed, though perhaps a little rashly, that the impossible is not French, let us maintain until the new order of things, that in proportion as our curiosity is legitimate . . . the unknowable is not human.”
Under the title “Letters on Theosophy” we have Louis Dramard alive once more among us. What Theosophy might now have been in France had Dramard lived, is for those who knew him to say. Those who had not this good fortune may, in some measure, learn his worth from these letters, which breathe a spirit of true Theosophy. The rest of the number is taken up with translations from the “Key to Theosophy”, “Black and White Magic”, and “Esoteric Buddhism”, agreeably to one of the main objects of the magazine, which is to place these important books before the French public. There is no doubt that the Lotus Bleu will thus supply a long felt want.
The February number, of the Buddhist contains an interesting translation from the Umagga Játaka and also rendering of the Tela-Katha-Gatha, a small poem of Pali stanzas, which may be attributed to the Elizabethan age of Ceylon Literature. The article “Western Buddhistic Leanings” by the editor, A. J. Buultjens, is concluded. He traces these leanings in the Cartesian schools, and in the system of Spinoza; in Glanvil’s “Scepsis Scientifica”, a very rare work, and in the writings of Hobbes, Giordamo Bruno, and Thomas Campanella. There are also full accounts of E. D. Fawcett’s taking the Pansil or Five Precepts, and of the “Colombo Theosophical Convention”. The later numbers were unfortunately received too late for notice.
The Problem of Life is a new magazine, published monthly, at San Francisco, and edited by W. J. Colville, F.T.S.. It contains papers of interest, especially the editorials and articles on Nationalism. But its notices of “Meta-physical” and “Christian science” healing, and advertisements about the “Summerland” make it somewhat a mixture.
The Buddhist Ray, published by Philangi Dasa at Santa Cruz Cala., U.S.A., is still bravely battling for the teachings of Gautama. The most interesting contribution is a translation from the Pali, entitled “The Dying Rahat's Sermon”.
The first number of The Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society has been published by the T.P.S. It is the first instalment of a long promised treat to students of the Secret Doctrine, being discussions on the stanzas of the “Book of Dzyan” contained in that work. Additional explanations of the Kosmogenesis of the Esoteric Philosophy are given by H. P. B. herself. The discussions were taken down in shorthand, and are edited under the immediate supervision of the author of the Secret Doctrine. An appendix is added to No. I., containing several very interesting discussions on dreams, which throw quite a new light on this curious subject: the 174occult teaching on the point is fully dealt with and many interesting facts are brought forward. In outward appearance No. I. of The Transactions is of the same size as the T.P.S. pamphlets; it contains sixty-four pages, and its artistic light blue cover is very pleasing and attractive. The price for non-subscribers is 1s. 6d. Enough matter remains for five more numbers on the same subject; but as it has to be very carefully revised and edited, and as only one or two of the hardest worked members of the Lodge are competent to undertake the task, they cannot be brought out very rapidly.
Rule No. 16 of The Transactions of the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society, contains an excellent paper on “Faith”, by “Pilgrim”. It treats of right “Faith” as the highest reason, and demonstrates its necessity by quoting from Herbert Spencer’s “First Principles”, as showing “how the ultimate ideas which Science has evolved naturally lead up to the wider conclusions of the Divine Science in which they are embraced”. In a short space “Pilgrim” touches on the great teachings of Theosophy in a masterly manner, and leads up to the rational and noble ethics of Brotherhood as taught in the Precepts of the Voice of the Silence. Speaking of the “Path”, the writer says:
“To few of us can human language even dimly picture what the stages and perils of the journey are, but what human language can do has been done in the ‘Voice of the Silence’”.
The name of Hübbe-Schleiden is so well known in Germany, that anything written by the learned professor is sure of receiving respectful attention, and the title of his newly issued pamphlet. “Jesus, a Buddhist?” will by itself arouse curiosity. Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden opens with some sentences from Schopenhauer, in which the great philosopher expresses his belief in the Hindu origin of the New Testament; and after calling the reader's attention to two works by Rudolf Seydel, “The Gospel of Jesus in its relation to the wisdom and teaching of Buddha”, and “The Buddha-Legend and the Gospel Life of Jesus”, our author proceeds to lay down three main points for consideration: the recorded facts, the doctrinal form, the doctrine itself. He draws from the close similarity prevailing the conclusion that Jesus was essentially a Buddhist, in fact an incarnation of Buddha, the “Buddha of compassionate love”, whose coming was prophesied of by the Asian saint. Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden builds up his argument well, from the demonstration of the similarity of the life-histories to the proof of the identity of the teachings. The second part of the tract is the “solution of the problem”, the explanation of the astounding likeness. Since Buddhism is five centuries older than Christianity, no question can arise as to which was the original and which the copy; and the springing of Christianity from the Buddhistic fount is easily shown, the question of the title being changed to the affirmation, “Jesus, a Buddhist”. The idea is not a new one, however, it has been hinted at by various writers, and may be found in Isis Unveiled, II, 123, and the statement accompanied by several other hints from esoteric traditions and teachings. Nevertheless, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's pamphlet in an excellent addition to all these proofs.
We regret that pressure of space precludes mention of many other publications of merit which have been received. It is also unfortunate that the Theosophist, Path, and Lotus Bleu, reach us just as we are going to press, so that we are forced to be a month behindhand in our notices of them.
175
Our Budget
We have received altogether, up to April 11th, the following sums for the establishment of the European Headquarters of the Theosophical Society.
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Theosophist | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Caroline Marshall | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Anon | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| G. R. S. Mead | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Edith A. Bowring | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Kate E. Mills | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Harriette Raphael | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| C. M. Johnston | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| W. G. Wratton | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| R. H. | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A Theosophist | 200 | 0 | 0 |
| Jessie Connah | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| E. A. Thomas | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| J. (Halifax) | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| B. E. Edwards | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| M. U. Moore | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| E. A. Seale | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Two Friends | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| S. H. Old | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Old Clothes | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| R. Stapley | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Emma E. Pinnock | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Count Bubna | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| T. W. Wilson | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| A Donor | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| G. Ouseley | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| E. H. T. | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| R. de T. Sneyd | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| O. H. Duffel | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Colonel and Mrs. Gordon | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| – Johnston | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| F. T. S. | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| H. Kenneth Austin | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| G. C. Beresford | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Surplus of Lecture | 3 | 1 | 6 |
Friends who intend to contribute a brick to the structure will “give doubly if they give at once”. The work has begun, and it is desirable to complete it without incurring debt.
Mrs. Malcolm – £2 0s. 0d.
If, in any case, provincial Theosophists are of opinion that a lecture in their neighborhood would be of service to Theosophy, they are requested to communicate with Herbert Burrows, 283, Victoria Park Road, London, N.E., to whom all contributions for the Lecture Fund should be forwarded. The local expenses of lectures, halls, printing, etc., should, if possible, be borne by local Theosophists, but the personal expenses of the lecturer will be paid from the Lecture Fund.
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| J. A. Edwards | 0 | 16 | 4 |
| Batavia | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Satwa T.S. | 0 | 8 | 2 |
| O. R. | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Peter C. Mander | 0 | 5 | 3 |
| S. A. G. Barrett | 1 | 0 | 10 |
| Four Melbourne Friends | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Mrs. Gordon | 2 | 0 | 0 |
176
Charles Francis Powell
It is with feeling of great sadness that we have to announce the death of Charles Francis Powell, F.T.S., at the age of 47.
On February 9th, the following telegram was received at Adgar:
“Brother Powell died peacefully, ten hours ago, of bilious diarrhœa”.
In repeating the sad news to our President, our veteran brother Mr. V. Cooppoosawmy Iyer, District Munsiff (Judge) of Ambasamudram, in the Tinnerelly District of Madras Presidency, after detailing the circumstances concludes with these words:
“Thus quietly and without a pang did a good soul put off its mortal coil. There was no distortion whatever in the face. On the contrary, there was an air of serene calm which made a deep impression on us all.”
The body was cremated; the last services being rendered by the sorrowing members of the Branch, who all have a deep respect and affection for our departed brother. The Taluq magistrate and many Brahmans walked in the procession, thus giving the event almost the character of a Brahman ceremony. The ashes were sent to Adyar, and the unconsumed portion of the bones were buried under the channel of the river Tambraparni, as is the custom among Brahmans.
Charles Francis Powell sacrificed everything that the world holds dear for the one great cause; he was untiring in visiting the Indian branches and in lecturing and organising. During a six months stay in Ceylon, he founded seven new Branches, and had just crossed over into Southern India for work among the branches there, when his useful existence was stayed by a fatal attack of dysentery.
As the Path says:
“He contributed his time, his efforts, and at last his life, to the great cause of Theosophy. Who could do more?”
Editorial Announcements
We much regret that, in consequence of the great pressure on our space, we are compelled to hold over several articles that are in type.
The circulation of Lucifer has, we are glad to say, increased very rapidly during the last three months, but we have on hand a large quantity of the issues of September, October, and November, which we will sell for distribution at 10s. a dozen (13), the carriage to be paid by the purchaser.
It is found absolutely necessary to raise, in future, the subscription price of Lucifer, by the addition of postage. At the present time, subscribers obtain it for 15s. a year, post free, and as 2s. 6d. of this goes for postage, they pay for it only 1s. 0½d. per copy, a reduction greater than is made on any other magazine. For the future, the annual subscription will be 17s. 6d., but all subscribers now on the books will be supplied at the old rate until the expiry of their subscriptions. The increase in price does not apply to members of the Theosophical Society.
No. 33 – May 1890
177
The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any opinions, whether religions, philosophical or social, expressed in signed articles.
[H. P. B. being too ill to write her usual editorial, the following unpublished article, written by her more than two years ago, is selected to take its place.
Thoughts on the Elementals
188
Restrain, O ignorant man, thy desire of wealth, and become a hater of it in body, understanding, and mind; let the riches thou possessest be acquired by thy own good actions, with those gratify thy soul.
The boy so long delights in his play, the youth so long pursues his beloved, the old so long brood over melancholy thoughts, that no man meditates on the supreme being.
Who is thy wife, and who is thy son? How great and wonderful is this world: whose thou art, and whence thou comest? Meditate on this, my brother, and again on this.
Be not proud of wealth, and attendants, and youth, since time destroys all of them in the twinkling of an eye; check thy attachment to all these illusions, like Maya; fix thy heart on the foot of Brahma, and thou wilt soon know him.
As a drop of water moves in the leaf of the Lotus: thus or more slippery, is human life. The company of the virtuous endures here but for a moment: that is the vehicle to bear thee over land and ocean.
189
Gonthaire
MR. DANIEL STOCKWELL, the old school teacher, arrived in good time to sit down with the Perkins’ family and their puzzling guest, at dinner, which meal was, in common country fashion, partaken of at noon, or a little afterward. He had given his scholars a half-holiday. Upon entering the parlor he laid down a volume of Schopenhauer that he had been carrying and Gonthaire soon thereafter casually picked it up. It seemed to surprise him even more than the piano had, not as an abstruse work in difficult language, as Schopenhauer is apt to impress most persons, but just as a book. He turned it over and over, inspecting curiously its paper, print, and binding, evidently understanding what it was, but lost in wonder and admiration at the style of it. Possession of it appeared to establish the old teacher in his reverential regard as a man of learning.
And, indeed, Mr. Stockwell deserved to be so respected. An old bachelor, singularly free from ambition and acquisitiveness, the only object of his life had been to learn. For more than thirty years he had taught the district school, cheerfully content with the humble employment since it gave him means sufficient to live and buy his books, and leisure enough for study and meditation. More than this he had not desired. The learning of several languages had been a necessity of his studious life, compelled by his desire to read books that were not translated into English, but for languages other than as mere vehicles for ideas he cared nothing and naught was more remote from his purposes than any intent to ever use them for conversation. Hence it was that while he knew much of foreign tongues, particularly such as were rare, and those mostly in their older forms, it was hard for him to catch their sense when spoken, or to frame in them his own thoughts.
Yet, by continued and determined effort to understand the speech of Gonthaire, he made surprising headway in it. As a whole, he knew it to be a language no longer commonly spoken in any land, but as it was uttered slowly and distinctly he caught in it words that he recognized as ancient forms of French, others that were Latin, some that he had a mere nodding acquaintance with, German, and not a few that were familiar as Gaelic and Celtic roots. Piecing these together and eking them out with quick apprehension, for he had a goodly wit in the solving of linguistic puzzles, he was not long in coming to an understanding of the stranger’s speech, sufficient at least for practical purposes and of so much as he understood, he jotted down a translation.
190
“What in thunder does he say?” at length demanded the deacon, whose impatient curiosity would brook restraint no longer.
“He demands to know”, answered the schoolmaster, smiling, “who hath bereft him of his good grey stallion? and robbed him of his knightly armor? and taken from him his trusty sword, and battle-axe, and dagger, and his golden chain?”
“Well! Dern my skin!”
“And when you have answered him those easy questions, he fain would be informed by what damnable arts of sorcery he hath been brought hither? and how the noble lady Méroflède, his beloved mistress, hath been so enchanted that she hath forgotten him and the speech of her people, and hath learned a strange tongue and marvellous magic in music?”
The amazement of the Perkins’ family was overwhelming, but soon a glow of righteous suspicion lighted up the Deacon’s mind and prompted him to declare stoutly:
“Whatever robbin’ he may have suffered, before Seth found him in the bushes, of course I know nothin’ of, but it’s my candid opinion that he never owned any grey stallion in his life; and as for armor, and battle-axes and the other jiggers he talks about, all that he knows of them he has doubtless picked up around some circus. The queer name he has given to our Penelope Ann, and his outlandish goin’s on with her, are enough to satisfy my mind that he is crazy as a loon, and I do hope and pray that Jared C. Cheever, if he drops in this evenin’ – as he mostly does – will take that considerate view instead of impulsively lammin’ him.”
“It is not about a circus that he would pick up his strange speech”, replied Mr. Stockwell, with a smile, “and if there is justifiable apprehension of Jared’s violence, I hope he may not come until I have learned the stranger’s story at least. Pray be patient, and quiet, while I endeavour to do so.”
Again he listened to Gonthaire, causing him to speak slowly, often writing down strange words and calling a halt while he studied upon them and seemed to search his memory. At length he said to the Deacon:
“A stranger story than his, hath no man told for true, and the wonder of it to me is, even more than the ancient tongue in which he tells it, that he talks of historical personages and events of long ago, as of matters within his personal knowledge.”
“You don’t say so! Just as I supposed. I knew from the first that he was cracked. Thinks he’s Julius Cæsar, or Queen Elizabeth, may be; like as not.”
“Oh! no. Not so bad as that. At least hear his story. This is what he says, as nearly as I can make it out.” And he read: –
“Gonthaire am I; lord of Seurremont and liege of Gontran, King of Burgundy. Aforetime was my royal master Chilperic, King of Neustria, but his faithless queen, the base-born Frédégonde, when she compassed his assassination, did plan my death as needful to her peace, fearing my loyalty 191to him. Then fled I, with my men-at-arms, to Gontran’s court and he was pleased to shelter me. Her right to Neustria’s throne he cared not to dispute, but when she would have claimed me as her vassal, hoping so to get me in her power and glut her hate, he stoutly said her ‘Nay’. Therefore do I, in grateful love and loyalty, serve him unquestioningly. When the pretender Gondovald was, by the patrician Mammolus, at Avignon, betrayed to us, my hands did slay him, in my master’s service, and doing so did well. But there was one named Chlodebert, a partisan of his, who thought to avenge him upon me and, seeking occasion, took me unawares and fell upon me, from an ambush, he and his men, to slay me. Surely, though they were five to one, in fair fight they had not vanquished me, for I am Gonthaire; but as we fought, the coward knave did use on me some crafty sorcerer’s evil spell, and thenceforth knew I naught until this morning I awoke in this strange land and this ignoble guise. Harm from their weapons have I none, but hard bestead in every other way am I; for arms, and gear, and friends, and home, and love are all reft from me. Yea, even love, for though our tender passion had such magic power that it hath linked her destiny with mine and brought my Méroflède’s form to this enchanted shore, my name and memory of my being are, by the accursed enchanter’s art, from her sweet soul expunged, and my dear love now looks upon me with a stranger’s sight.”
“Well! I’ll be gol-derned”! gasped Seth.
“Laws sakes! Ef it don't sound just like play-actin”, exclaimed Mrs. Perkins.
Penelope Ann said nothing, but looked very pityingly at the hapless stranger. Of course, she reflected, it was no concern of hers, but the lady Méroflède – whoever she might be – was to be envied for having a lover who loved her so.
“Now, see here, Dan’l Stockwell”, broke forth the Deacon, in an argumentative tone, “that story won’t hold water at all. It don’t stand to reason that there could have been any such goin’s on as he speaks of, in any part of the world, without the Boston Advertiser taking some notice of ’em, and I’ll take my solemn oath that no reports of such proceedings have appeared in its columns within thirty years past.”
“Thirty years! Why, man alive; didn’t I tell you that the events to which he refers occurred thirteen hundred years ago?”
“Oh! pshaw! That settles it. Find out, if you can, what asylum he has escaped from and we’ll send for them to come and take him back.”
Plainly, the deacon was disgusted, and without more ado he and Seth went away to their farm work, which had been rather neglected that day, while Mrs. Perkins returned to her household duties. Penelope was still retained in the parlour, to continue her soothing impersonation of the lady Méroflède. Aside from the spicy novelty of such enthusiastically passionate adoration – which she had a guilty consciousness of receiving under false pretences – the girl began to find her rôle rather monotonous. Mr.
192
Stockwell kept Gonthaire talking constantly, but did not trouble himself with interpreting to her much of what was said, and in the course of two or three hours she commenced to yawn slyly behind her hand and to wish for an opportunity to say something herself.
At supper, the school-teacher said, with mischievous gravity:
“I don’t wish to make you uneasy, Mr. Perkins, but I think our friend is inclined to vehemently suspect you of being the vile enchanter who has worked him woe.”
“Great Scott! What makes him think that?”
“Your more than Orientally barbaric display of boundless wealth.”
“What!”
“Those massive gold ornaments on the mantel carry conviction to his mind that their possessor must be either a great king – which he sees you are not, as you have no court, retainers, army, and so on – or else a powerful enchanter, to whom the making of gold is but one of his most trivial and harmless cantrips.”
Penelope and her mother chuckled, but the Deacon, with a look of stern determination on his face, arose from his place and silently left the dining-room. In a few moments he returned, bearing in each hand one of the gilded sheep, and, standing at the table facing Gonthaire, brought them together with a violent smash, strewing the supper with the fragments of their thin, fragile, gypsum bodies.
Gonthaire sank back in his chair, white and actually trembling. When he could control his agitation, he spoke very earnestly and appealingly to the teacher who, with difficulty maintaining his gravity, reported to the Deacon.
“That”, he says, “knocks him out – or words to that effect. He recognizes that no one but a most mighty magician could smash up gold in such fashion and he fully comprehends the awful significance of your warning that it is quite within your power to smash up him and the unhappy lady Méroflède, even as you smashed the gold sheep, if you take a notion to do so. But he humbly supplicates you to be merciful to her, whatever infernal fate you may have in store for him.”
Deacon Perkins sank down upon his seat and groaned. He could not have believed it possible, before, that an unbalanced mind might be capable of such fantastic and ingenious perversions.
“When you’ve had your supper, Seth,” he said determinedly, “hitch right up and go over for Dr. Butler, as quick as you can. I shall not attempt to get through the night under the same roof with this critter, unless I’ve got medical backing.”
Shortly after supper Jared C. Cheever called – “as he mostly did” in the evenings. Jared was a very spry, wide-awake young man, “clerking it” in an Adamsport store to get experience upon which to go into business for himself as soon as Penelope and he should be married, which they would be soon – with the full consent of all concerned. He brought news of the 193wreck, in the preceding night’s gale, of the three-masted schooner Penguin from Liverpool. Of all aboard her, only two men – the mate and one of the sailors – had reached the shore alive, they having floated in, clinging to pieces of the wreck. They were still at Adamsport, not much hurt, but pretty badly shaken up. After thorough discussion of that wreck and of others recalled to remembrance by it, Jared received in return the Perkins’ quota of news, to wit, all about the crazy foreigner, Mr. Gone There, to whom he had already been introduced. It was deemed best to guard against possible surprises, by telling him a good deal concerning the man’s strange hallucination about Penelope, though naturally, stress upon such points as might have stirred his jealousy, if he had any, was rather evaded. He looked as if he did not approve of it, but said little. For a long time he silently watched the stranger and listened to his queer talk with the teacher, vainly trying to catch even a word of it – but committed himself to no expression of opinion.
Happily the warning symbolized by the fate of the two gold sheep had put a damper upon Gonthaire. He was afraid of angering the enchanter by manifesting his ardent love for Méroflède and resolutely restrained himself – all the while secretly scheming how he might rescue her and flee with her safely, or at least find some other powerful magician to advise him. Consequently, Jared saw nothing to excite him, as he might have seen had he come over earlier in the day.
When Dr. Butler – short, stout, red-faced and positive – arrived, he brought with him, from Seth’s representations, a pre-disposition to adjudge the man insane and was, of course, quickly satisfied that such was the fact.
“There’s no doubt it”, he said jocularly, “that he is, as his name suggests, ‘gone there’”, and he tapped his forehead significantly. “But it is too late to do anything about sending him away to-night. I hardly think his mania is violent, or likely to take a homicidal turn before morning; still, we may as well guard against the possibility of his sloshing around with an axe, or something of that sort, by giving him a potion that will make him sleep like a log until morning. Then, upon some pretext, you can get him over to Adamsport and into the constable’s hands, to be put where he belongs.”
After some discussion of ways and means for getting the potion where it would do most good, an ingenious plan was suggested, by Mrs. Perkins. A tray of glasses, filled with acidulous currant wine, was brought in and passed around to the company by Penelope. All partook of the so-called refreshment, with an air of enjoyment. Even Dr. Butler did so, though – remembering that he had tasted that home product once before – he was not able to wholly repress an initial shudder. Perhaps Gonthaire noticed that his wine was bitter and druggy, but he made no sign of so doing. Gall and aloes he would have taken from Méroflède’s hand and drunk with rapture. He sank upon one knee before her, touched his glass to the one she held, and drank the treacherous liquid to the dregs.
194
In half an hour Seth and Jared carried him up to the guest chamber and put him to bed. He would sleep, the doctor said, until nine or ten o’clock the next day, if undisturbed.
“I’ve got to drive over this way pretty early to-morrow”, said Jared to his prospective father-in-law, “and I’ll get Squire Allen to come along to make eout the commitment, ef he sees fittin’, by the time the chap wakes up.”
Deacon Perkins heartily thanked him for his volunteered aid, and went to bed feeling that the load on his mind had been, at least partly, lifted off; but his slumbers were far from sound, for he could not quite expel from his memory Dr. Butler’s sprightly conceit of the stranger “sloshing around with an axe”.
True to his promise, Jared re-appeared, only a little after “sum-up”, bringing with him the Squire and also two strangers – roughly dressed, sturdy, honest-looking fellows – whom he introduced as John Dolby, mate, and Joe Brittain, able seaman; survivors of the Penguin. In response to the big unspoken query in Deacon Perkins’ countenance, the young man explained: –
“Well, Deacon; the long and short of it is just this. I made up my mind last that that chap in bed upstairs is a fraud and that he’s playing the Perkin’s family for all there is in his game – whatever it may be. I looked at his manners, outlandish; at his clothes, sailor cut; at his hands, tar. That settled it. I had dropped on him. And I’ve brought these two men over to identify and expose him if he is what I think, one of the men of the wrecked schooner Penguin, washed ashore and sailing under false colors. The Squire will have a commitment to make eout, I guess, and I’d bet a big apple on its being to the county jail. Neow, let’s go upstairs and see if these men know him.”
He led the way, beckoning to the two sailor-men who followed him closely. Nobody interfered or protested. He was going about the affair in that authoritative business-like fashion which seldom meets with opposition except from very deeply antagonized interests, and none such were here. The other members of the party – which, by this time, had been increased by the arrivals of the schoolmaster and the doctor – went upstairs behind the sailors.
With little noise they all filed into the big room where the man lay tranquilly sleeping, and gathered about his bed. He was lying upon his back, his big left arm thrown up around his head, his broad shaggy breast bared, and the morning light full upon his face.
“That’s him!” exclaimed the sailor, at once.
“Who?” demanded Jared C. Cheever.
“Why, who should it be, but my messmate, Darby Dixon.”
“You are sure of it?”
“Sure! Would I be likely to know a marlin-spike if I was to see one?
195
or think it was a bloomin' church organ? Why me and him has sailed seven v’yages together.”
“There can be no possible doubt about it, sir”, added the mate corroboratively. “That is the man who signed the Penguin's articles as Darby Dixon. And I don't think he’ll deny it, sir; if so be as he is in his right mind.” So saying he laid a hand upon the sleeper’s shoulder and gave him a shake, calling, “Hi! Darby! Wake up! Roll out!”
The man opened his eyes and stared around, with a dazed expression, at the eight men’s faces watching him; then suddenly the light of recognition flashed over his countenance and he uttered a joyous shout of:
“What! Joe! Alive! And you too, Mr. Dolby!”
He made a bound from the bed to the floor, throwing his arms about the necks of his comrades and cried, in a voice trembling with emotion, while the tears welled up in his eyes:
“Thank God you’re alive, shipmates! I thought all but me had gone down with the old hooker!”
Then he shook hands energetically and effusively with both men and wound up his demonstration by asking “a quid of ’baccy” from Joe, who was fortunately able to accommodate him.
The voice of Deacon Azariah G. Perkins, in its severest tones, smote upon his ears, demanding:
“Is that the best excuse you can offer, sir, for the impudent deception you have practised here?”
“I! I practise any deception! What the devil’s the matter with you, old man?” retorted Darby, in surprise.
“Oho! You can talk English now glibly enough, even profanely; but yesterday you made out that you couldn’t understand a word of it.”
“I did! Yesterday! Why, man, I was wrecked last night.”
“No, Darby”, interposed Joe, “It wor the night afore last that she went down.”
“Then where have I been since? and how did I get here?”
“You’ve been right here”, replied the deacon, “passing yourself off for a Mr. Gone There –”
“Liege of Gontram, King of Burgundy”, interpolated the schoolmaster, smiling.
The man rubbed his brow thoughtfully and a troubled expression swept over his face. “It seems to me”, he said slowly, “as if I’d had a dream, something like that; but I can’t remember it.”
“Oh! Ah!” sneered the deacon, sarcastically. “Dreamed it, eh? Did you dream also of making love to Penelope Ann, and calling her the lady May Roflaid? The which you did in the most violent and outlandish fashion.”
“Gentlemen”, protested the man, speaking very earnestly and with manifest sincerity; “I seem to have been out of my head, for I hope I may go straight to Davy Jones’s locker this minute, if I know a word of what 196you’re talking about, barrin’ that I feel as if I’d had a dream – but I can’t think now what it was. As for my making love to any lady, or any other woman, even in a foreign port, beknownst to myself – why, here’s my messmate Joe Brittan, who has sailed seven v’yages with me, and he’ll tell you I ain’t that sort of a man. He’ll tell you that many’s the time he hisself has said to me, that I didn’t have no notion of a sailorman’s natural privileges; and I’ve answered him that there weren’t any woman in the world for me but my little Polly – God bless her! – who is safe and snug at home in Liverpool, with the baby on her knee this blessed minute. Ain’t that so, Joe?”
“Right you are, shipmate; true as preachin’”, asseverated Joe solemnly.
“The last thing I remember”, continued Darby, “was when she struck and went down, and I went with her; and when I came up I grabbed hold of a spar or something floating, but hadn’t strength enough left to keep it, and as the waves tore it from me, something fetched me a stunning crack alongside the head and thinks I ‘I’m a goner, sure’; and the next I know’d I waked up here in bed, just now, with all of you about me. And that’s the ghastly, ghostly, frozen truth, so help me God, as sure as my name’s Darby Dixon.”
The good-hearted Deacon’s severity vanished completely, for the man’s sincerity and honesty were fully apparent to him, as to every one present. Cordially he grasped Darby’s hand and, heartily shaking it, said:
“I believe you, my man. You were out of your head a little, and I don’t wonder at it, but even if you were, you acted the gentleman, did no harm at all, and we’ll just call it all a dream that you unconsciously acted out, like a sleep-walker. But you’re all right now, and mighty glad we all are of it.”
Dr. Butler offered scientific corroboration of the Deacon’s view of the matter. He gave it as his opinion that:
“The exposure, exhaustion and overwhelming sense of deadly peril during the wreck, and then that blow on the head, gave him such a mental shock that, when he was cast ashore and regained animal life – after a considerable period of suspended animation no doubt – he had temporarily lost control of his reasoning faculties, and all that remained of his mind, for the time being, were fragments of memory, that wove themselves into vivid hallucinations of actual existence. The memories were unquestionably those of stories he had read, or heard, and it is rather fortunate that they happened to be of a kind that he could act out so unobjectionably in a New England home.”
The schoolmaster, standing modestly in the background, smiled but said nothing.
“I quite agree with you, Dr. Butler”, remarked Squire Allen, “and am heartily glad that, instead of having to commit an unfortunate man to an asylum, or a rogue to jail, I enjoy the pleasure of witnessing the natural 197restoration to himself of one who is evidently a very honest and excellent fellow.”
Jared C. Cheever was none the less pleased than any of the others, with the happy turn of events and said so frankly. Indeed he felt that he deserved a good deal of the credit for it, Dr. Butler having suggested that it was do doubt largely in consequence of the mental shock engineered by him that the man’s senses had been restored. Deacon Perkins’s hospitality insisted that the entire party should breakfast with him and, descending to the parlour floor, they broke up into groups, conversing, while the table was set by Mrs. Perkins and her daughter.
Penelope Ann, standing by the oven, waiting for the biscuits to brown, thought dreamily:
“Of course, the poor fellow was crazy, but he did act real natural, just as a man in his senses might act if he had been raised that way and it was the fashion of the country he lived in. And I do suppose there was a time, somewhere, when men did go on so to the ladies they were in love with. Heigh-ho! Jared C. Cheever is awful nice, and will make a real good husband I do allow, if he don’t set up to be too masterful – but – it must have been pleasant to live when ladies were loved as Gonthaire loved Méroflède.'
Out on the porch, the old schoolmaster drew aside with him the squire and the doctor and, holding a coat lappel of each, said, in a confidential tone, to them:
“Hasn’t it occurred to you as somewhat strange, that the temporary suspension of his reasoning faculties should have endowed the man now known as Darby Dixon, with knowledge of a language that has not, in its concrete form as spoken by him, been anywhere the common speech of men within a thousand years?”
“H’m; ah! Well; yes”, the doctor assented hesitatingly, “it would be rather extraordinary – if true.”
“That he did speak such a tongue is true, I assure you, upon my honor, for knowing the basic words of several languages to some extent, I made out to hold considerable conversation in it with him.”
“Oh! He no doubt picked it up somewhere, while going about the world as a sailor”, suggested the Squire, indifferently.
“Let me remind you that it is not now a common speech anywhere. I doubt if there is one living, even among all the most learned men in the world, who can to-day speak it so fluently as this rude sailor did yesterday. Hence, I fail to surmise where he might have picked it up.”
“Well, I don’t see that it is a matter of any consequence, anyhow.”
“No? Perhaps not. Are you aware, Squire, that hundreds of millions of men believe in the re-incarnation of human souls, at intervals of from twelve to fifteen hundred years, and that the experiences of such corporeal personalities – successively suffered in all races and conditions of existence – are necessary steps for the elevation and perfection of the true indivi198duality, the immortal Ego? If that should be true, it might fetch it round just about right now, in point of time, for the soul that thirteen hundred years ago inhabited the body of the Gallic lord Gonthaire, to turn up again as the English sailor Darby Dixon.”
“In which latter personality, if I understand you rightly”, said the doctor, “it is possible – under such extraordinary conditions as may, for the time being, suppress the distinctively personal consciousness – for the Ego’s memories of its existence in the former personality to be temporarily awakened and vivified to seeming present reality. That is your idea, isn’t it?”
“I have not said that it is my idea, exactly; but it seems to me a working hypothesis, worthy of serious consideration.”
“A preposterous and outrageous notion, Mr. Stockwell”, exclaimed the Squire indignantly; “preposterous and outrageous! Utterly at variance with what we have been taught to believe of the future state and, consequently, must be wrong.”
One
WHEN we come to analyse and define the meaning of the word One we are confronted with apparently contradictory attributes of the term, for while One has a signification of separate individuality it means also the aggregation of quantity. One means sole, only, and yet unity implies harmonious plurality. Swedenborg says there is no such thing as One merely; the idea only arising from the unity of many things which form or seem to form a One. Absolutely, One is not a real quality of finite things, and is not imaginable. Indivisibility is applied by chemistry to the elements, but obviously in a merely theoretical manner, for not even an atom of an element is so minute as to have no parts. To have no parts would involve having no magnitude, like a mathematical point, which is also hypothetical, and can have no corporeal existence. The symbol 1 is used in mathematics, but it is a symbol of the supernatural, as surely as the symbol of the fourth or the nth power. One is not, strictly speaking, a number at all, but applies in its true sense to the Infinite, and therefore the unknowable on the natural plane. This truth receives embodiment or recognition, consciously or unconsciously agreed upon, in games of cards, in most of which the ace is not the lowest, but the highest in value, actually transcending not only all the numbers, but the very Kings and Queens. One transcends number as spirit transcends matter – or further it transcends number as the Divine transcends spirit. There can be only one One. That is, the Divine is not only One but the only One. Swedenborg puts it that “in Him infinites are distinctly one”. And because oneness implies this sort of plurality, the idea of a trinity, and even of many divinities, has found a place in men’s minds. The conception starts from a truth though it wanders into error. Almost every heresy will lead us to the common soil of truth, if we track out its roots. If there had 199not been some stratum of verity for it to start from, it could not have flourished. So, paradoxical as it seems, the roots of the Upas tree of “Gods many” are sustained by the immutable underlying truth that God is the only One. All phenomenals are items of a series, while the Divine is the unique. In man there is, apparently derived from a remote past, a widespread, a universal tendency, almost an instinct, to worship the unique in some form. It is just as conspicuous in the selfish man as in the unselfish, in the religious man as in the atheist, in the nomad as in the civilized modern. The essentials of this devotion to the unique glimmer through all the ruling passions and guiding principles of human life, however protean the outward aspects. Those who in early time, or now in uncivilized countries, thought or still think that but one sun or one moon exists, have adored and still adore the sun and moon. On the other hand those who know that there are many suns and moons, those who worship themselves and are civilized, try to think, and not without success, that there is a uniqueness about that Self-God. They strive to be cleverer than others, to be sharper in business, to accumulate more money, to cultivate a more handsome exterior skin, and so on, Self is their God and so must be unique. In this case, of course, the heresy is not in the worship of uniqueness but in its appropriation. It is not wrong to excel, unless the motive of excellence is to exalt Self with the adorable quality of uniqueness. It would be easy to trace out the divers distortions of the worship of the unique in a thousand other forms, even down to the curious passion for collecting rarities and curiosities. And here again all the evil is in motives. There is no harm in being the possessor of a Mulready envelope, an orange cowrie, or a bath-white butterfly, unless the acquisition of these rarities is allowed to imbue the Self with the essential attributes of Divinity. The very same act may be evil to one, good to another, according to the motive. But even as we use the word “God”, while the Divine is incapable of being expressed in natural terms, so too while, strictly, One applies only to the infinite, it has a general though somewhat loose meaning on the phenomenal plane. It has in fact a sort of appearance of existence, just as a wave has an appearance of onward motion, though really there is none but only a series of successive upheavals and depressions. Further, while it is necessary, owing to the exigencies of the human mental organization, to assume that undulations are actually onward movement, so it is equally necessary, while we are on this plane, to hypothesize the existence of One in finites. But if, instead of recognizing the hypothetical character of this conception of unity, we come to look upon it as really and strictly applicable to finites, then arise such heresies as those alluded to above.
One has its poetry, derived doubtless from its ultra-naturalness. How many a poem has been prompted by the idea of the “first” or the “last” of a series of events or things. And all the beauty and sentiment is surely derived from the symbolism of the Divine suggested by the bare idea of uniqueness. The “first night” has been woven into the very grandest of English sonnets by Blanco White. The “last man” has been immortalized by Montgomery. Such topics owe their charm to their really sacred associations, their symbolism of the only One – the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. In one of our grandest blank verse poems the author, perhaps unconscious of the inspired significance of his thoughts, imagines at the commencement of his meditations that “the bell strikes one”. Greatness, sentiment, solemnity, and every attribute of the Divine are suggested in the comprehensive idea of unity, which reaches downward to the unimaginable limits of indivisibility, and upward to the all-embracing inclusion of absolute infinity.
200
Some of the Follies and Fallacies connected with "Spiritualism"
THE movement known as Modern Spiritualism, and which during the last forty years has made such a revolution in the world of thought, has given our sceptical age the kind of proof needed to reanimate the fast dying beliefs of humanity in an after life. In the first years of its advent, the powerful physical phenomena shattered the scientific belief in there being nothing in the universe but Matter and Force, and introduced a new factor, namely – Spirit. So far, Spiritualism has done immense good. Whether it be a movement caused by high and lofty Spirits, or owe its origin to the efforts of the Adept Guardians of humanity, its results so far have, in my opinion, been beneficial.
But as a second phase of the Movement, developed later from the utterances of the Communicating Intelligences, and from inferences deduced from the phenomena taken as a whole, a philosophy has been built, and it is here that its weakness lies, here that many follies and fallacies have crept in, which, I think, are mainly the cause of its not obtaining wider acceptance amongst the educated classes. Not on the other hand that its philosophy is not immensely in advance of the religious teachings of the day; with all its illogical sequences Spiritualism may be credited with chasing into the limbo of obscurity some of the most repugnant doctrines of orthodoxy, such as eternal punishment, literal hell fire, universal depravity, and the installation of the tribal Jewish God as the Creator of the universe. So far it has done great good to humanity. But when it endeavors to reconstruct and build up a consistent spiritual philosophy worthy of our enlightened age, and of what we know of the glorious and stupendous universe of which our earth is but as an atom – then we see its weakness. Now, I have investigated Spiritualism for seventeen years. I am a fervent believer in its Higher Phenomena, and I wish for no better name than that of Spiritualist; nor will I ever leave the ranks of those whom I love and respect, though deeper Occult studies have made me also an Occultist. But, seeing the follies and fallacies daily growing up and obscuring this glorious Truth; knowing as I do how they stand in the way of its acceptance by the educated classes, I feel that in the interests of the cause itself they should be exposed; and, if so, the task had better be done by one who loves the cause and who has worked so long in the ranks, than by an outsider. The wick of Truth burns brighter when trimmed by honest criticism, and I consider that the one great duty of all spiritual students in this age, is to keep the Truth pure, and not to allow a Movement commencing as a revelation from a higher plane to dwindle down into a methodistical sect. There have been so many revelations. Often those who guard this Planet sought to lift man a step higher, and ever the forgers, the politicians and the ignorant have come in, polluted the pure stream, thus turning Spiritual Truth into its opposite. We must strive not to let this again occur. For these reasons I have taken upon myself the present unthankful task. In our Society[52] we have always hoped and encouraged the idea, that sooner or later all earnest students, whether Occultists, Spiritualists, or Theosophists, would unite in one grand 201brotherhood, for teaching our race. Before this dream can be realized, however, the follies and fallacies of the Movement must be cleared away; then all will recognize Truth as one indivisible unity, and may unite in the maxim: “In essential things unity; in non-essential, liberty; in all, charity”.
With these preliminary remarks, let us to our task. In the present series of articles I will confine myself to the Movement in the United Kingdom, and after showing the follies and fallacies under consideration which are growing around it here, trust to conclude my series with an article on the Higher Phenomena and truer phases of the subject.
I will briefly pass over the first few years of Spiritualism in England. It was a time of powerful physical phenomena, intense earnestness and of great and unjust persecution. The Davenports, Mrs. Marshall, and Mr. Home were the great mediums of those days. The reality of the physical phenomena is so generally accepted now that they need no description. There were no varied schools of philosophy in those days, no two interpretations. People, whether materialists or orthodox Christians, when they became convinced that the phenomena occurred, at once accepted the received theory and the explanations given by the Intelligences themselves, viz., that the phenomena were entirely produced by departed human spirits. The battle in those times was over the reality of the phenomena, not over their Causes; the world generally denying their existence and dividing Spiritualists into but two classes, dupes and knaves. This was a time when intense conviction on the one side, and bitter scepticism on the other obtained. This was before it paid to simulate phenomena; therefore the tricksters had not appeared, neither had rival editors commenced to carve out the movement into sects, nor so-called trance speakers, with one-sixth foreign influence and five-sixths of their own brains, commenced to form their utterances into creeds.
We pass on then from this period to the next when such evidences of the seeds of corruption began to appear. To detail these at length and to give a correct account of them, I propose to glance through the literature and journals of the time, for in them may be found a fair sample and reflection of the movement in its various phases. To do this the most convenient way is to take them seriatim. The oldest and the widest circulated paper is the Medium and Daybreak. It was the first weekly paper of the Cause in England and dates from 1870, therefore we will give it precedence.
The weekly issue of the Medium and Daybreak commenced on April 8th, 1870, and the following lines occurred in its leader: –
“I make my début entirely uninfluenced by preconceived notions on any point. . . . I can thus be the faithful servant of truth and humanity without bias in regard to isms and persons.”
Would that this glorious programme had been carried out! Very peculiar are the headings of some of the earlier articles in the paper. I will quote a few: –
“Herne carried two miles”, and “Williams carried through ceiling”.
In the issue for June 23rd, 1871, we are told that “Mr. Williams was levitated, a heavy fall was heard in the room above, and in less than two minutes Mr. Williams was outside the doors.”
On December 5th, 1873, we read that “Mr. Blank was carried from Mr. Guppy’s house, 1, Morland Villas, Highbury, to 29, Kingsdown Road, Holloway – one mile and a half.”
In the issue for Nov. 23rd, 1873, we read in large type: “Remarkable and Instantaneous Transference of a sceptical gentleman from within a locked room to a distance of a mile and a half.”
On Feb. 6th, 1874 we are informed that “Mrs. Hollis and her spirit guide ‘Ski’ were photographed by Mr. Hudson, the proof being sent home, 202and being looked for it was found to have disappeared. ‘Ski’ stated that he had sent it to Mr. Plimpton of Ohio, U.S.A. He afterwards returned the envelope which was written in a crabbed hand, such as ‘Ski’ usually wrote on a slate”. “A baby carried by spirits” (March 13).
We do not live in such startling times as these, the paper for the last few years being more devoted to vegetarianism, fruit growing, phrenology, and inspirational lectures. How are the mighty fallen!
We also come upon such headings as the following: –
“How to push the Medium” (Jan. 30th, 1874). “Spiritualism in the Money Market” (Feb. 20th, 1874). “Shall Spirits become our Bankers?” “The System of Deposit Account” (May 14th, 1875). “The Physical Requirements of the Movement”; “Why the Spiritual Institution needs Money” (July 2nd, 1875). “The Appeal for Physical Requirements” (July 16th). “Mediumship and Money”.
Very early articles had appeared on organization, the first on Oct. 7th, 1870, but in 1874 a movement began to unite Spiritualists in one big association to be called the British National Association. From the first the editor of the Medium was bitterly opposed to this effort, and many articles were written on the matter, such as: “Where the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered together”; “Letter to the Council from the Editor” (April 9th, 1875). These dissensions were much to be deplored, and from them many of the troubles of later times have arisen. The B.N.A.S. and its successor, the Spiritualist Alliance, may be credited with rescuing Spiritualism out of its illogical and chaotic condition and putting it before the world in a sensible and reasonable light.
In consequence of the attacks of the Medium, the B.N.A.S. started another paper called the Spiritualist, as their organ. But dissensions again arose between the Society and the Editor, so that the Association had to issue a paper of its own, Light, an admirably conducted journal, to which every true Spiritualist will wish success.
It has been said that professional Mediumship has degraded the Cause, but the squabbles of rival editors and journals have done far more to weaken it than any vagaries of professional Mediums, who with all their faults have succeeded in convincing the public of the reality of the phenomena, and who have been more often sinned against than sinning.
The following lectures contain the most illogical statements: –
“The Forms of Spirits” (March 13th); “Concerning the Spirit World and what Men know thereof”; “The Location of the Spirit Spheres” (July 24th, 1874); “Social States in Spiritual Life” (Tappan); “The Social and Political Government of Spiritual Life” (Aug. 13th, 1875)
and especially Mrs. Tappan on “Marriage in Spiritual Life”, in which she states that there is one eternal marriage, consisting of the two Souls in affinity, whether they have come together on earth or not, and that Spiritual love knows no change or end.
The whole of the teaching in these trance discourses and also in the books of the time, viz., “The Arcana of Spiritualism”, and Hudson Tuttle’s and Andrew J. Davis’ works, all broadly teach that the Spirit Spheres are formed by Spiritual emanations from the Mundane Spheres, that these spheres circle the earth something in the shape of Saturn’s rings, that the Spirit of man grows with his body and rises from it at death as an Essence from the grosser matter left behind; though how this is to be harmonized with the teaching found in the Two Worlds that life is immortal from the moment of conception, passes understanding; as surely little or any Spiritual part has then been built up to go alone.
However, our simple Spiritualists often despise logic and leap over difficulties, which to minds formed of baser clay, seem insuperable. The Spirit, from the moment of conception, was immortal, no change, no reincarnation, either on this earth or on another. Wonderful! The chance 203meeting of two persons of opposite sexes, the passing infatuation of a moment, creates an immortal Angel out of matter. Theologians! close your Bibles, and let the Jewish God confess himself outdone. Here is a miracle of miracles. Let us reverently bow our heads before the Omnipotence of Man, be mute and pass on.
The Vedantic Philosophy
SIR M. M. WILLIAMS translates Ekam evaadvityam, as “there is only one Being no Second”. I would translate it “there is only one in-separable being”. The Vedantic Theory having propounded that other existences, if there are any at all, are illusory, and not having taken upon itself the responsibility of proving or disproving either the existence or non-existence of other existences, but that of the Eternal, has most judiciously avoided every error of a dualistic theory, which seems to me as existing typically in Christianity, where the existence of Satan is admitted, and its Creation not explained. If Christianity admits, that Satan – evil – something contradictory to the essence of God exists, Christianity has to admit that the origin of evil, being not in the eternal purity, must have a separate existence of its own. It is either co-existent with Eternal purity, or evolved from it at a certain stage. Christianity also, as it looks upon the Eternal Principle as something creating with a desire and design, involves upon the Eternal Being and His theory, the explanation of all evil; and while attempting to explain it, must take recourse to that given by Zoraster and no other. Here it is clear, that in developing the Conception of Good and Evil, it has fallen short even of the theory, so intelligently propounded by Zoraster, a theory which is the nearest approach to clearness and truth, and only explained in all its completeness, by its sister Philosophy Vedantism.
Sir M. M. Williams on the same page says something about modern Vedantism. Really speaking there is nothing like old and new Vedantism, as Christians have old and new Testaments. As I have so often attempted to explain above that Vedantism totally ignores the Association of the Conception of Brahma with the Illusory, I need not write anything more about this misunderstanding; and as I have also mentioned before the doctrine of Madhava, I need not speak again about that misunderstanding which also occurs.
Page 7. In this page I find several hymns from Rig-Veda are mentioned as “thus translatable’. Putting aside the question of “how they are translatable”, I would think it most desirable to find out how their translations must run, in accordance with my suggestions, and the Conception developed in Vedant Philosophy.
Judging from Sir M. M. William’s point of view, and as to how they are translatable, I may say, that Rig Veda, being so compendious, any one hymn from it, cannot develop the whole and entire conception of Vedantic Philosophy which is but the essence of Rig-Veda. I therefore deem it quite unnecessary to request Sir M. M. Williams to investigate more about the meaning of words. I would only request him to seek the line of 204thoughts, because it is thoughts that the European nations want, and not the words conveying them.
Prakriti is not mentioned in Vedantism as a producer, in the sense Sir M. M. Williams mentions, but as the form of existence; and may therefore be attached as a belonging of Purusha, even though Vedantism does not assert so in any distinct terms, nor does it similarly assert that the material world has an eternal existence.
Linga and Yoni have not the gross physical meaning which Sir M. M. Williams is given to think. This is an idea bred in the imagination of certain Western Orientalists, and is perfectly foreign to the mind of the Vedantist. It is as absurd as for a Vedantist to argue that the Cross in the minds of Christians falls under the same unspiritual explanation.
Page 9. Just as the metal gold assumes the name of bangle, spoon, or ring with a distinct assumed form, but becomes nothing else but gold when melted, so Eternal Spirit as Christ or as Chrishna, is nothing else but Eternal Spirit. I do not expect a Brahmin to conceive anything more than this, and I wish a Christian could conceive as much, to understand the real doctrine of Christ, the Eternal Spirit. It was this clearness of head that enabled my Brahmins at Benares to join me in my prayers, when I explained to them that while praying to Christ they were invoking upon themselves the Consciousness of the Eternal and not the supposed deliverance from all sins as Christianity, as it now stands, misunderstood and misconstructed by the missionaries, preaches. They were surprised to learn that the Mahatma Christ was such a great Vedantist to the extent that he offered himself on the Cross, as Purusha Yaga, and were still more surprised to learn that the supposed followers of Christ, the so-called Christians, were the followers of his name and not his doctrine, because they believe that Vedantism is something alien to what Christ taught, and what he suffered for. Christ the Eternal Brahma felt no birth – no death. He felt in Him His Eternity only. Let missionaries teach what they may, a Brahmin know, what Christ the Vedantist, the Mahatma, the Jivanmukta, meant to teach. A Brahmin without the least hesitation or shame, proclaims he is the follower of Christ, the Mahatma-Vedantist-Jivanmukta, and how ridiculous is it that Christians are ashamed to proclaim themselves Vedantists. May true Christianity warmly grasp the hand which Vedantism extends in friendship, and let both know that they are the Same. Vedantism longs to embrace her only offspring Christianity, so much disfigured in Europe. The mother wants her offspring to be as beautiful as she is, and remove the scars, which misconception has inflicted upon her superb beauty. Let the daughter know her mother, and not forget her. Let there be no enmity between the parent and her offspring. Let illusion vanish. Let Christianity be as Christ preached it.
Sir M. M. Williams mentions in the last paragraph, while referring to the Bible that
“we are nowhere told, either in the Bible or Prayer Book, that having created material germs on the one hand, and the spirits of men on the other, He willed to endow these two distinct creations with an eternal, independent, separate existence, and an independent capacity for self-evolution”.
I believe it is said so in more than one place. The theory of creation that is mentioned to start with in the Bible, distinctly asserts that God willed the Creation desired in the words, let there be such or such a creation and it was created, man is created; and it also tells us the curious story of Adam, Eve, and Satan, and the forbidden tree, and God forbidding Adam to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and Adam by the will with which God endowed him, or created him with, eats the fruit against the will of God.
While closing my remarks upon the paper by Sir M. M. Williams, I need refer but to one paragraph.
Page 11. Sir M. M. Williams says,
“nor need I add that the various
205
Monistic, Pantheistic, and Dualistic theories, briefly indicated by me in this paper, are utterly at variance with the Christian Doctrine of a Personal, Eternal, and Infinite being, existing and working outside man, and outside the material universe, which He Himself has created, and controlling both, and in the case of human beings, working not only outside man, but in and through him.”
I can say with every degree of certainty that in my opinion from the Vedantic standpoint in view, Sir M. M. Williams has completely failed in carrying out his object of demonstrating (if it be his object) that the various Monistic, Pantheistic, and Dualistic theories, are utterly at variance with the Christian Doctrine. The doctrine preached by Christ and rudely outlined here and there in the Bible, was that doctrine of Monism, which existed thousands of years before Christ, in the far East – in India, and which is demonstrated clearly in the Vedantic Philosophy, and that the preaching of Christianity as it now stands, misunderstood and misconstructed by the missionaries,, embodies not only the germs, but the grown-up plants of Dualism and Pantheism, so much so, that a God who does not desire (because desire is a craving according to Vedantism), is spoken of as one who has a desire, and who designs, and who creates – quite apart from the Vedantic conception of a Nir-guna-Brahma, God above all desires – Self-conscious Eternal Spirit. If Christianity admits that God creates, I say he is a Creator of all the evils or else whence Satan and all his hosts. And if Satan is removed from the so-called Christian scheme, Jesus the Saviour must also disappear, for there would then be no Devil from which to save men.
Vedantism says that it is blasphemy to say, that God creates with a desire. It says the Creation is in It. Any man with clear mental faculty would see the difference between the two conceptions, given by the phrases “God creates” and “Creation is in God”.
In the end, I beg to convey to Sir Monier Monier Williams my thanks for the immense trouble which he has taken in attempting to develop the conception of Vedantism, in this European world, and I am quite certain if he persists in his attempts, he is fully qualified, not only to conceive the conception, but to propagate it, and thus render a very great service to the mental, moral, and religious philosophy of the European world, which indeed is a world full of earnestness, and stands very greatly in need of the Vedantic conception of Eternal Brahma, which would open a new line of thought in this 19th Century, and in this country.
Set not thy affections on foe or friend; on a son, or a relation; on war or on peace; bear an equal mind towards all: if thou desirest it, thou wilt soon be like Vishnu.
Day and night, evening and morn, winter and spring, depart and return! Time sports, age passes on, desire and the wind continue unrestrained.
When the body is tottering, the head grey, and the mouth toothless; when the smooth stick trembles in the hand which it supports, yet the vessel of covetousness remains unemptied.
So soon born, so soon dead! so long lying in thy mother’s womb! so great crimes are committed in the world! How then, O man, canst thou live here below with complacency?
206
Egoity
THROUGHOUT the world, numbers of honest intelligent men, reasoning logically from their premises, have been stranded on Materialism.
True they stand upon a rock, in proud isolation, and, if their position were eternally tenable, they would have a right to refuse our pity and to demand our admiration.
But, according to the order of nature “Man cannot live by bread alone,” and, spiritually, their rock is utterly unproductive; consequently, however perfectly the human animal may be evolved, the sympathies, subjectivity, and ideation, which constitute a real manhood must, under such conditions, perish of sheer starvation. It is the truth – the whole truth and nothing but the truth – which can suffice for us, and it is because Theosophists think the premises of Materialism are only a part of the truth that they venture to question the conclusions of Materialists.
The crucial problem is this. Is man, essentially, an Intelligence evolved by physical forces? or is he an Individuality, which assumes the human form, and which will survive when that personality is resolved into its physical elements?
But first: What is a personality? Surely not the mere animal, but, rather, the synthesis of physical consciousness.
Every one feels that he is a Controller of forces which, within certain limits, are made to express his Will. Now where a limit exists, there must be a distinction. That which is within the bounds cannot be without them, and though our senses may be too obtuse to recognise the actual line of demarcation, the “I” can perceive the resistance of the “Not I”, so soon as the point is reached where it becomes effective. This experience being corroborated by that of others is something that we may well take cognisance of, and no fear of being thought “too superstitious” should deter us from the admission of a truth, however destructive it may be of our most cherished theories.
We have, then, a reasonably clear demonstration that there is a distinction of Persons, over and above our material organisms, and may proceed to inquire if such Persons are single or dual existences. If there is, as most people believe, a quality in man, our denial of it will not alter the fact, and there is no merit in, merely, differing from our neighbors. Our business is to observe facts, to apply such tests as are available, and to consider the evidence we can obtain in a candid and rational manner.
The study, however, is beset with difficulties. Physical faculties can experimentalise only on material forms; consequently an essential Being must always elude their observation. So, for anyone to insist on having tangible evidence of intangible Existence, is as wise as saying he will not believe that a thing is black until he has seen that it is white. It is, in fact, demanding evidence which, if producible, would be utterly destructive of the possibility contended for; and this can be neither fair nor reasonable.
If essential Being does exist, it is only by pure deduction that we can obtain more than an intuition of it. Anyone therefore who will not cultivate his deductive faculty cannot possibly obtain a perception of what Theosophists maintain to be his Higher Self. He wilfully blinds the eye which Nature has provided for him, and must not complain if he cannot see things which are evident to others.
207
So far as Science can trace it, what we call life begins by the blending of two forces in a cell. The female absorbs the male, and thereby attains the power of vital evolution.
It is a long time before our senses can determine the nature of the new Incarnation, but, from the first, its form has been determined, and it can be nothing but that. This predestination is not inherent in matter. The protoplasm which is absorbed would enter, indifferently, into any form. It has no care whether it develops a man or a mouse. It is restricted to the plane of animal life, but on that it has conditional freedom. Here, therefore, we see the manifestation of a force which no inherent property of matter will account for.
Heredity can impart racial and parental characteristics, but, within them, there is a Being which never was and never can be anything but itself. At our earliest possibility of observation this force always appears. It controls matter, and, therefore, cannot be derived from it. Though correlated to other forces it is not identical with them. It is positive within its own limits but only relative beyond them. It dominates all the forces which exhibit vital phenomena, and imparts to the matter it has appropriated a quality which distinguishes it from all other matter. If then we term this force “Egoity” we have a better warrant for our classification than scientists have for most of those which they have adopted.
When Egoity has organised its habitation and matured its faculties we find it capable of observation and volition. By means of muscular contractility, sensations are transmitted through the delicate machinery which has been created, and end in molecular changes in the cerebrum. So far Physicists can trace the operation; but is it reasonable to assert that a mere change in the position of matter is Knowledge, or that muscular vibrations constitute Reason? Does such a theory account for what actually occurs? I write the word Devil, and a Gipsy, reading it, imagines a good Spirit, a Christian, an evil one, yet the material mutations, in both cases, were identical. How, then, were the ideas so different? Must not something have occurred beyond the range of physical observation, and are we not obliged to postulate a Knower, a Thinker, before we can understand the phenomenon?
Again, at different times the same occurrence produces different emotions in the same individual. How do we account for that?
Surely, the muscular contractions being indistinguishable, if Will were but the reaction of matter, there should be no difference in the result. How, then, are we to account for the discrepancy, if we deny the existence of a Willer? True, we can find no physical trace of such a Being; but because we have carried our observations to the utmost and have seen nothing but molecular mutation, are we to assume that the Finite has comprehended the Infinite, and that there is nothing further for it to learn; nothing that is learnable by it?
If this evidence seem inconclusive, there is still another argument which can be adduced; our power to commit suicide.
There is a universal law that nothing in Nature is self-destructive. Whenever a change is effected in the form of matter, that change is due to the action of some Agent, inimical to the existing form or possessing a superior attraction for one of its constituents, and this results in the dissolution of the Egoity, as, for instance, in the oxidation of a metal. Nothing therefore can ever be identical with the force which destroys it.
Now only two sorts of life are possible; the mortal and the immortal, and clearly that which is the one cannot be the other. If, then, these two kinds of life exist, at the same time, in the same person, a dual Egoity must be admitted for him.
There is not the least doubt that our physical life is mortal; nor will it be disputed that we can terminate it at will; or, in other words, our Egoity 208can so use its potency as to sever its connection with matter. If, then, nothing is self-destructive, the true Egoity cannot be identical with that, the personality, which it destroys, and so our vital duality is demonstrated; while, if there are but two sorts of life, the one which has power to destroy the other must be immortal.
There can be no collusion in the transaction. To the last the physical life endeavors to repair the injury inflicted on it, and to prolong its own duration; but the Egoity sternly refuses to continue the cohabitation of their tenement and, being the dominant force, its Will is certain to prevail.
Consequently, if he adopted the materialistic theory, a Theosophist would find himself obliged to prove that his Being is anomalous, and out of harmony with universal law. As he is unable to do this he is quite logical in believing that he is, essentially, an Egoity which is distinct from and superior to physical life; consequently there is no reason why he should not survive the destruction of his carnal personality.
This leads us to another and most important consideration.
As we have seen, the Egoity appropriates matter and compels its correlated forces to express that which constitutes its true manhood.
Now is it possible to imagine that this Egoity did not possess its special characteristics before it imparted them?
If not, surely possession implies a Possessor; that is an anterior Individuality endowed with Will and Reason.
Such being the case the logical inference is that this anterior Existence was in some form.
That form could not be its present one, for we know, at that time, it had not even commenced its evolution.
Clearly, then, the Egoity can clothe itself in different forms, at different times, and under different conditions.
Now we have no conception of any form except as a limitation of space by matter, so, unless, our Reason is utterly at fault we are constrained to believe that the anterior form of the Egoity must have been a physical one, analogous to the present human body, but differentiated to harmonise with then existing conditions.
Theosophists, therefore make a sound deduction, from well authenticated premises, when they conclude that a man’s present Personality is only one of a long series of incarnations, through which his Individuality must pass before it can acquire the experience and purity which fit it for the higher sphere of spiritual life. Consequently a birth is not a début on the physical stage, but a re-entry in a new character.
The interval of negative existence which lies between two positive parts is an unknown quantity, but its duration is not very important.
If any object to these conclusions, there are but two courses open to them.
They may assert that each soul is a special creation by God; or they may assume that the same act which propagates the body procreates, simultaneously, the Soul.
The first accuses the Creator of being an accessory, before the fact, in every fertile rape and adultery that is committed. This is so repugnant to our feelings of propriety and reverence that we may at once put it aside as untenable.
The second conjecture is more plausible. Animal life begins by the interaction of two principles under determined conditions. The result is a reproduction of the racial form and of many of the characteristics of the parents. The child is long dependent on the vegetativeness of the mother; she being merely as a seed-bed to her offspring. Even after the fission has occurred, there is a close analogy between the young plant and the young animal; the great difference being that the plant is rooted in the earth, the animal in its own stomach.
209
Theosophists frankly accept this essential unity of life; nay, comparing animal with animal, they admit that as regards physical and mental endowments no radical difference is discoverable.
If, then, we regard only physical phenomena the position of Materialists is unassailable. Man is only a more intelligent animal; the perfection of physical faculties is his highest Being; and the dissolution of the body is the annihilation of the Soul.
The weakness of this theory lies in its incompleteness. It ignores what most of us esteem as our higher life, and it does not account for much that we know does exist, though our senses are baffled in their quest of it.
No one, for instance, has ever seen or handled an idea. Yet, before any physical object could appear, the idea of it must have been matured; the law of it must have been perfected.
Then, who is not conscious of an Individuality absolutely his own; a will which can determine the period of its incarnation; and can cast off the body as we discard unsuitable clothing when it becomes too offensive to us.
The roots of this life are our thoughts, which ramify through Infinity, draw sustenance from Divine Ideation, and build up the Spiritual Man by assimulating the eternal substance of Truth.
Theosophists believe that this Egoity has a choice between good and evil. That it elects an Ideal which it endeavors to become now, and which it will be, hereafter.
If this Divinity is essential Truth, manifested by universal Love, the human monad may attain the divine joy of perfect harmony with All and cease to feel the wilfulness which creates the discord of Individuality.
On the other hand, if the ideal is a perfected physical self, the possibilities of the Egoity are limited to physical life and must end when the sum of its incarnations is completed.
It is therefore, only a potential immortality that Theosophy assures us. All, however, can realize it who will to work out their own salvation, by living for the good of others.
Can any creed offer higher motives or demand greater purity of purpose?
The Astral In London
Viscountess Maidstone writes to us (Pall Mall Gazette) as follows with regard to an occurrence which took place on the evening of the performance last week, at Westminster Town Hall, of Sophocles’ Antigone, in which Lady Maidstone took the title part: –
Coming out of my dressing-room, I saw Mr. H. standing against the wall, opposite the door of the dressing-room. I went up, putting my hand out, and said, “How do you do, Mr. H.? I am so pleased to see you here.” He made no reply, shook his head, and turned away. Knowing him to be a peculiar man, but never doubting that it was he (being a person of such strong individuality that he couldn’t well be mistaken), I thought, “How funny!” and, hurrying on behind the scenes, I gave the matter no further thought. The following day a friend called, and in the course of conversation said, “You will be sorry to hear poor H. is dead”. “Impossible”, I replied; “I saw him and spoke to him at the play last night”. “I can only tell you”, was the answer, “that he died on Thursday last” (the day before the performance) “and is to be buried to-morrow.”
“The fact”, adds Lady Maidstone, “of the Antigone being entirely based on the solemn rites of the sepulture, make the facts curiously significant.”
210
Theosophical Gleanings or Notes on the "Secret Doctrine"
WE have seen the “Pilgrim” start on his long Manvantaric journey, with its forty-nine “stations”, at each of which he performs manifold gyrations; for each stage of matter through which he has to pass – elemental, mineral, vegetable, animal – has its sub-stages, and sub-sub-stages, and so on through many sub-divisions, through each of which our Pilgrim must patiently work his way. At the end of the first Round we shall find our seven classes describable under the same headings as were used at the end of the first Globe in Lucifer p. 139, only each class will have then completed a stage, instead of a sub-stage. The intelligent student will have noted that this course of evolution implies that Class I travels with seven-fold rapidity as compared with Class VII; and this is so. Class I has been through the seven stages during the period in which Class VII has only accomplished its passage through the first; Class VII taking as long to pass through a sub-stage as Class I takes to pass through a stage.
When the evolution on Globe A has exhausted its first impulse, and the state described in Lucifer p. 139 has been reached, Globe A passes into Pralaya, and all life-manifestation sleeps.
Pausing here for a moment, let us take a bird’s-eye view of the country over which our Pilgrim has to pass, for an occasional glimpse of the whole makes more intelligible the details of the part. The Monad “shot down by the law of Evolution into the lowest form of matter” (vol. i, p. 246), climbs upward during three-and-a-half Rounds, i.e., till it reaches the midway Globe, Globe D, for the fourth time. During all this time “matter” is solidifying into what we know as matter, but “all this, up to the Third Round, is formless, as matter, and senseless, as consciousness” (vol. i, p. 247). Not till the midway point is touched has matter reached material perfection, and physical man reached completion. Meanwhile, on higher planes, a correlative evolution is proceeding, preparing the Inner Self as this the Outer. The “conscious, rational, individual soul (Manas) ‘the principle or the intelligence of the Elohim’” (vol. i, p. 247) must become fitted for the dwelling a-preparing for it. And so
“the Occult Doctrine teaches that while the Monad is cycling on downward into matter, these very Elohim – or Pitris, the lower Dhyan-Chohans – are evolving pari passu with it on a higher and more spiritual plane, descending
211
also relatively into matter on their own plane of consciousness, when, after having reached a certain point [that is, the midway point, on Globe D, in the fourth Round], they will meet the incarnating senseless Monad, encased in the lowest matter, and blending the two potencies, Spirit and Matter, the union will produce that terrestrial symbol of the ‘Heavenly Man’ in space – perfect man”
These “lower Dhyan-Chohans”, who are the future intellectual principle in man, are variously spoken of as Manasa-Dhyanis, Solar Devas, Agnishwatta Pitris (vol. i, p. 181), the Hierarchy of Flames, the Sons of the Fire, the Kumaras, the “fashioners of the Inner Man” (vol. i, 86, 87). It is some of these who are
“destined to incarnate as the Egos of the forthcoming crop of mankind. The human Ego is neither Atman nor Buddhi, but the higher Manas: the intellectual fruition and the efflorescence of the intellectual self-conscious Egotism – in the higher spiritual sense. The ancient works refer to it as Karana Sarira on the plane of Sutratma, which is the golden thread on which, like beads, the various personalities of this higher Ego are strung”
Thus in Perfect Man we have a “union” of “three streams” (vol. i, p. 181), the Monadic, the Intellectual, the Physical: it is the evolution of the Physical, brooded over by the Monadic, that we study in the first three and a-half Rounds; the Physical, building up by the Nature forces (see Lucifer, p. 140), the Monadic, the Lunar Monads or Pitris.
The most developed of these Monads, our Class I, are they
“whose function it is to pass in the First Round through the whole triple cycle of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms in their most ethereal, filmy, and rudimentary forms, in order to clothe themselves in, and assimilate, the nature of the newly-formed chain. They are those who first reach the human form (if there can be any form in the realm of the almost subjective) on globe A in the First Round. It is they, therefore, who lead and represent the human element during the Second and Third Rounds, and finally evolve their shadows at the beginning of the Fourth Round for the second class, or those who come behind them”
“The Monads of Class II reach the incipient human stage only in the Second Round” (vol. i, p. 173), and the Monads of Class III only in the Third Round. In the middle of the Fourth Round “the ‘door’ into the human kingdom closes” (vol. i, p. 173), and those Monads which, at this point, are “still occupying animal forms” “will not become men at all during this Manvantara” (vol. i, p. 182) – with an exception for which we need not here pause. There remains only to note in this general survey of the Pilgrim’s Path, that the matter of which the globes and their inhabitants were composed during the first Three Rounds may fitly be termed “astral”, the word astral implying “starry, shining, or pellucid, in various and numerous degrees, from a quite filmy to a viscid state” (vol. ii, p. 251). In each Round matter becomes more substantial than it was in the preceding Round. So also does each globe pass from filmy to viscid during its period 212of activity in each Round, and with each Round, the viscid becomes more and more solid; until, in the fourth Round, each globe touches its acme of solidity, and Globe D, our earth, being the midmost, reaches the densest solidity at the middle point of its active period in Round IV – the midway point of Manvantaric evolution. “Every Round (on the descending scale) is but a repetition in a more concrete form of the Round which preceded it, as every globe – down to our fourth sphere (the actual earth) – is a grosser and more material copy of the more shadowy sphere which precedes it in their successive order, on the three higher planes” (vol. i, p. 232). “Every Round, as well as every subsequent globe, from A to G, having been, and still having to be, the arena of the same evolution, only repeated each time on a more solid material basis” (vol. ii, p. 256).
Such is the general outline of the evolution: let us now return to our detail.
We have seen Pralaya follow the period of manifestation on Globe A. When the dawn again begins to break, Globe B becomes the sphere of evolution, and on this globe, in regular succession, Class I to VII renew their pilgrimage. Class I passes swiftly through the six preliminary stages till it reaches the potential human, and wins in this a further step of progress. The other classes evolve, each more slowly than the one above it, in regular order. When the “life-impulse” is once more exhausted and the dusk of pralaya is descending on Globe B, we may describe the condition as: –
| Class I | have reached the | Potential Human | Stage 2. |
| Class II | have reached the | Animal | Stage 2. |
| Class III | have reached the | Vegetable | Stage 2. |
| Class IV | have reached the | Mineral | Stage 2. |
| Class V | have reached the | Higher Elem. | Stage 2. |
| Class VI | have reached the | Middle | Stage 2. |
| Class VII | have reached the | Lower | Stage 2. |
Once more after Pralaya comes Manvantaric dawn, and Globe C becomes the station of the Pilgrim. Here Class I passes swiftly from elemental up to potential human, and adds the third stage to those already acquired. And so on, through Globes D, E, F, G, until when Pralaya comes to Globe G, Class I has reached what we may call Germ-Humanity, with a Rupa, however filmy and unsubstantial, the development of this First “Principle” or “Sheath” of Septenary man being the outcome of the First Round. And now, for Class I the experience of the sub-human groups is complete. In no subsequent Round do these Monads traverse the sub-human kingdoms: they have finished with the elemental, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal kingdoms, and henceforth their pilgrimage is only in the human.
It is very difficult to represent the progress made during the First Round, without falling into gross inacurracy, and yet one would fain convey 213some definite idea, not too erroneous, of the evolutional stages. It is clear, from all we know of nature, that there are no sharp dividing classes between her kingdoms, and that one passes into another by insensible gradations. Bearing this in mind, in order to correct the sharp contrasts that seem to be implied in the use of numerals, if we take an evolving life as passing say from mineral to vegetable, we may figure it to ourselves as the increasing of the vegetable element and the decreasing of the mineral; and if we divide it into seven parts, the pure mineral would be mineral 7, and the pure vegetable would be vegetable 7, while transitional stages might be figured as mineral 6vegetable 1, mineral 5vegetable 2, and so on, the evoluting vegetable replacing the retrograding mineral. Taking this nomenclature, clumsy as it is, as at least suggesting if not expressing a truth, we may then draw up the following table, as descriptive of the state of each globe in turn before Pralaya during Round I, and of the Monadic and Physical progress. The horizontal lines give the evolution: read vertically the condition of the globe is suggested.
| Lunar Pitris. | Globe A. | Globe B. | Globe C. | Globe D. | Globe E. | Globe F. | Globe G. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man 1 | man 2 | man 3 | man 4 | man 5 | man 6 | man 7 |
| 2 | Animal | animal 6 man 1 | animal 5 man 2 | animal 4 man 3 | animal 3 man 4 | animal 2 man 5 | animal 1 man 6 |
| 3 | Vegetable | vegetable 6 animal 1 | vegetable 5 animal 2 | vegetable 4 animal 3 | vegetable 3 animal 4 | vegetable 2 animal 5 | vegetable 1 animal 6 |
| 4 | Mineral | mineral 6 vegetable 1 | mineral 5 vegetable 2 | mineral 4 vegetable 3 | mineral 3 vegetable 4 | mineral 2 vegetable 5 | mineral 1 vegetable 6 |
| 5 | Higher Elemental | H. E. 6 mineral 1 | H. E. 5 mineral 2 | H. E. 4 mineral 3 | H. E. 3 mineral 4 | H. E. 2 mineral 5 | H. E. 1 mineral 6 |
| 6 | Middle Elemental | M. E. 6 H. E. 1 | M. E. 5 H. E. 2 | M. E. 4 H. E. 3 | M. E. 3 H. E. 4 | M. E. 2 H. E. 5 | M. E. 1 H. E. 6 |
| 7 | Lower Elemental | L. E. 6 M. E. 1 | L. E. 5 M. E. 2 | L. E. 4 M. E. 3 | L. E. 3 M. E. 4 | L. E. 2 M. E. 5 | L. E. 1 M. E. 6 |
A similar treatment of Rounds 2 and 3 will show the position of each Class throughout and at the end of the sevenfold period of activity; and we may regard the classes at the point they have reached on Globe G as the seed which is to spring up on Globe A of the succeeding Round. Thus Class II, commencing the Potential Human Stage at the beginning of Round II, completes it at the close; and so, in their relative measures, with each Class. If the student works out these successive stages he will find that on Globe D in the fourth Round, Class V is “inzoonised” (animal), Class VI is “inherbised” (vegetable), Class VII is “inmetallised” (mineral). The stages of the evolution of Man in the Rounds that are of the past are marked for us by a Teacher:
“Man in the First Round and First Race on Globe D, our Earth, was
214
an ethereal being (a lunar Dhyani as man), non-intelligent but superspiritual; and correspondingly, on the law of analogy, in the First Race of the Fourth Round. In each of the subsequent races and sub-races . . . . he grows more and more into an encased or incarnate being, but still preponderatingly ethereal. . . .
“II Round. He (Man) is still gigantic and ethereal but growing firmer and more condensed in body, a more physical man. Yet still less intelligent than spiritual, for mind is a slower and more difficult evolution than is the physical frame. . . .
“III Round. He has now a perfectly concrete or compacted body, at first the form of a giant-ape, and now more intelligent, or rather cunning, than spiritual. For, on the downward arc, he has now reached a point where his primordial spirituality is eclipsed and overshadowed by nascent mentality. In the last half of the Third Round his gigantic stature decreases, and his body improves in texture, and he becomes a more rational being, though still more an ape than a Deva. . . . (all this is almost exactly repeated in the third Root-Race of the Fourth Round).
“IV Round. Intellect has an enormous development in this Round. The (hitherto) dumb races acquire our (present) human speech on this globe, on which from the Fourth Race, language is perfected and knowledge increases. At this half-way point of the Fourth Round (as of the Fourth Root, or Atlantean, Race) humanity passes the axial point of the minor Manvantara cycle. . . . the world teeming with the results of intellectual activity and spiritual decrease”
The product of each Round, as a Round, is the perfect evolution of one of the principles of Septenary Man, so that when the Manvantara is over Septenary Man will stand perfect and complete. We are in the Fourth Round, the Round during which the lowest point is touched, and to which appropriately belongs the evolution of the Kamic principle. The next Round, the Fifth, will see the development of Manas, the Sixth the manifestation of Buddhi, the Seventh that of Atma.
Let the student also note that as with the Rounds so with the Races on a single globe, each Race develops specially one principle, so that as the close of the smaller cycle of the globe in a single Round, the globe humanity shall touch its relative completion in the Seventh Race, its smaller cycle thus repeating the cycle of wider sweep of the Round. The Fourth Race, the Atlantean, developed the Kamic principle with its accompanying grossness of matter, the separation of the sexes having taken place in the Third Race; we are of the Fifth Race, and are developing the Manasic principle, as witness the widespread intellectuality, the immense strides of mentality. The Sixth Race will unveil the lamp of Buddhi, and from the Seventh the flame of Atma will shine brightly forth.
The cycle is repeated on a yet smaller scale in the individual man, the microcosm: his physical body is builded up, sex is perfected, his passions develop and hold sway, and then his intellect attains supremacy. In intra-215uterine life, yet once again, we trace growth along the same lines: at the commencement of the third month it becomes possible to distinguish sex (Gray); the convolutions of the brain, which are connected with intellect, begin to appear about the beginning of the fifth month (Longet, quoted by Dalton); development is sufficiently complete for independent external life by the seventh. And then? Well does the “Secret Doctrine” say:
“On strict analogy, the cycle of Seven Rounds in their work of the gradual formation of man throughout every kingdom of nature, are repeated on a microscopical scale in the first seven months of gestation of a future human being. Let the student think over and work out this analogy. As the seven months old unborn baby, though quite ready, yet needs two months more in which to acquire strength and consolidate; so man, having perfected his evolution during seven Rounds, remains two periods more in the womb of Mother-Nature before he is born, or rather re-born a Dhyani, still more perfect than he was before he launched forth as a Monad on the newly-built chain of worlds”
We shall best progress now by concentrating our attention on one of the smaller cycles of evolution, that of our own earth, Globe D, during its period of activity in the Fourth Round. By studying the development of the first five of the Seven Races, light will also be thrown backward on the Kosmic evolution we have been considering, and we shall find the Macrocosm become more intelligible as we grow more familiar with the Microcosm.
Note. These papers commenced in the March number. If any reader finds any point obscure, he or she is invited to send to the writers the question to which answer is desired. If such questions are sent to us, to the care of the Editor of Lucifer, 17 Lansdowne Road, Holland Park, W., we will do our best to answer them or to obtain answers to them.
“What good our growing if we bear but leaves; |
| S. |
The Letters of Johann Caspar Lavater
217
On the State of the Soul after Death
Highly revered Maria, of all Russias,
Deign to absolve me from the obligation of giving you the title of “Majesty”, with which the world honors you, but which does not accord with the sanctity of the theme chosen by me for my correspondence with you. I crave this liberty in order to have the opportunity of speaking in all sincerity and with all freedom.
You want to know some of my thoughts about the state of the soul after death. However small is the knowledge of even the wisest and most learned of us – since none of those who were translated to these (to us) unknown realms, has returned thence[53] – nevertheless a thinking man, the disciple of Him who came on earth from a (to us) hidden world, can say 218on the subject as much as is necessary in order to encourage, quiet, and warn us.
For this once I will limit myself to the exposition of a few more general ideas concerning the proposed subject.
I believe that as regards the state of a soul separated from its material body, its faculty of thinking and feeling must be entirely different from the state and faculty in which it found itself at the time when it was incarnated in, and united with, its material body. This difference must be at least as great as the one that exists between a newly-born babe and the still concealed fœtus in the mother’s womb.
We are bound by matter, and the organs of our sensations are the instruments for the manifestations of our ideas and the aspirations of our soul.
According to the difference which exists between the telescope, the microscope, and the spectacles, which help our eyes to perceive objects examined by us by the help of these media, so do the objects appear different. Our organs of sense are just as telescopes, microscopes, and spectacles for our present life. I believe that the objective world disappears entirely from the eyes of the Soul unfettered by matter, in the same way as it eludes our senses during sleep.
Either the world which the soul preconceives in its material existence, must appear still more perfect to the soul when it is unfettered from its material surroundings; for if it remained a certain time without a spiritual body, then the material world would disappear from it. Or, as the soul is clothed in a spiritual body which has exuded from the material form, in such a case it appears to me very probable that this new body of the soul must inevitably change all its sensations.
It is also very probable that with unclean spirits, their spiritual body remains for a certain time imperfect and little developed; therefore, to such (evil) souls the world must appear as through a dark glass.
In pursuing on earth a certain object, acting in a certain sense, the soul, finding itself in constant struggle with its material tendencies, gets through the same purified, and acquires further riches by developing in itself organs which are the most necessary and correspond best to its nature, character, requirements, and strength.
Thus the pure soul works out already here on earth the faculties of its spiritual body and organs which will be necessary for its existence subsequently after the death of the material body. By the means of which (organs) it will have to continue its existence and manifest its sensations.
This spiritual body of the soul, corresponding to its inner nature, can make it pure, loving, and capable of a variety of the most lofty outbursts of feeling, and the purest enjoyment and activity.
All that may be said of the state of the soul after death will be ever found based on the undeniable and general truth, “As man has sown, so shall he reap”: and there is no other axiom as simple and as clear, as suggestive as it is applicable to all cases.
There exists one more general law in nature concerning the state of the 219soul after the death of the body, a law closely bound and even identical with the above axiom; a law pertaining to all the worlds, all the states, as well to the physical, i.e., Material world as to the Spiritual, objective, visible, and abstract. “The like unites with the like”, like objects mutually attract each other, unless they find themselves under the influence of causes which separate them.
All the teachings about the state of the soul after death rest on this simple rule, which rule embraces in itself all that which is called judgment, punishment, blessing, and curse.
In other words, if thou has sown good in thyself and around thyself, thou shalt belong to the congregation of those who have also sown good in themselves and around themselves. Thou shalt aspire after the friendship of those to whom thou hast been similar in the means of sowing good.
Every incarnated soul which is liberated, by the death of the body, from the fetters of matter will appear such as it is in reality.
All the seductions and allurements which had prevented it from fathoming its own nature, from learning its own strength and weakness, its mistakes and errors, will disappear and the soul will feel an irrepressible, inner attraction to souls similar to itself, and to remove itself from those which are alien to it.
Its own inner weight, as though obedient to the law of gravity, will carry the soul into fathomless abysses (so at least it will seem to it). This; or else like a spark flying upward owing to its natural lightness, the soul will rapidly ascend into the radiant, ethereal and imponderable spheres.
The soul decides for itself its own weight by its inner impulses; its inner contents direct it upward, downward or sideways; its moral, religious character gives it certain longings and directions peculiar to itself.
The good one will ascend to the good; the necessity for good which he feels will attract him to them.
The wicked one will precipitate himself hurriedly to the wicked: the fall of gross, blasphemous and infidel souls to souls like their own, will occur instantaneously, as rapidly as the fall of a heavy mass into an abyss when that which supports it is removed. For this once enough.
Zürich VIII. 1798.
Second letter
The requirements of the human spirit during its period of imprisonment in the material body remain the same subsequently when it is delivered from the flesh.
Its highest bliss will consist in trying to find the possibility of satisfying its spiritual aspirations.
Its damnation will consist in the impossibility of realizing its material aspirations in a world less material than the world it quitted.
Damnation consists in such unsatisfied desires.
The realization thereof is the highest bliss.
I would like to say to every man and woman:
“Study well your motives and call them by their right names! Put yourself the question: ‘Are they applicable to a less material world? Are they realizable in it? Do they
220
really consist in requirements which a reasonable and immortal spirit may honestly follow, desiring their satisfaction, without feeling thereat a burning shame in the presence of such reasonable and immortal spirits as he is himself?’”
The necessity felt by the soul to satisfy the spiritual impulses of its immortal sisters, and to give them an opportunity of profiting by the pure enjoyments of life; to breathe into them a conviction in the continuation of their existence after death, thus participating in the accomplishment of the great plan traced by the highest Wisdom and Love; the success obtained by such a noble activity worthy of a man, and also the ceaseless longing for good; all this forms the qualities of the soul which give it the right to be received into the highest spheres, to enter into the circle of the loftiest, purest and noblest spirits.
When we, highly revered Sovereign, have once received the conviction that the most natural and at the same time unavoidable necessity which is born in the immortal soul, the necessity in God and an impulse to approach Him the closer, and to resemble in everything the father of the invisible spirits, begins to predominate in us – O then, we need not fear in the least for our future existence, because the veil concealing from us the face of God is removed for ever.
That which removed us from Him and prevented us from finding in Him enjoyment – i.e., our material body – is now thrown off. The veil which concealed from us the Holy of the Holies is rent by reason of the death of our matter. The Adored Being, whom we loved above all, acquires all the force of radiant beauty, a free ingress into our soul thirsting for joy and love.
The soul, in which the love for the Adored Being has firmly rooted itself after efforts to approach the Incomparable, resembles Him in the might of His beneficent love for humanity. Such a soul, separating itself from the body, without, of course, avoiding a certain progression, ascends rapidly and easily to the object of its highest adoration and infinite love to the one Holy and all-productive source in which it (the Soul) will find the consummation of all its aspirations.
As no weak or diseased eye can look at the sun, likewise no unclean spirit still clothed with the mists of matter, the material propensities of which have not abandoned it even at the moment of its separation from the body, is able to bear the sight of the most brilliant sun of the spirits of this mysterious centre, a centre which spreads around itself that radiant light which begets in finite beings the consciousness of their infinitude.
No one knows better than you, Sovereign Lady, that the good are attracted by the good, that lofty souls alone know how to enjoy the presence of other elect souls.
He who knows life and men, who has been often placed under the necessity of suffering the presence of flatterers, of men without honor, cowards, weak, ever ready to attribute importance to the most insignificant word or smallest hint of those whose favor they are seeking; of these hypocrites who craftily attempt to penetrate into the thoughts of others in order to interpret them afterwards in their own way; he must also know that these gross and base souls are cowed by one single word, firm and full of dignity, by a single severe glance, which makes them deeply feel that they are recognized and valued at their worth.
221
O! how unbearable becomes for them the presence of an honest man
No hypocritical soul can feel itself happy at the contact of an honest and energetic soul in the act of searching it. Every unclean soul, liberated from its body, must in virtue of its own matter hasten, as though goaded by an irresistible force, to remove itself from every bright and pure being, in order to conceal, as much as possible, from the latter its numerous vices, which it is unable to conceal either from itself or from others.
Even if it were not said in the Scriptures “The pure alone can see God”, even then all the above would be in the order of things. An unclean soul can neither enter into any relations with, nor feel any attraction to a pure soul. A soul which fears light, can certainly not be attracted to the source of light. Light destroying darkness, must of course become for it an all-devouring fire.
What are the souls then, highly revered Sovereign Lady, whom we may call unclean? I believe those in whom the aspiration to purification, correction and perfection, has not become a paramount feeling. Methinks that to this class we ought to add every selfish, vain and avaricious soul; those souls which have not learned to subject themselves to the lofty principle of self-sacrifice; those who have chosen their own selves as the objects of all their aspirations; those which look upon themselves as the aim, and all that surround them, as means to attain their desires; and those finally which would serve simultaneously two quite different masters.
Such souls, after quitting their bodies, must find themselves in a state worthy of all pity, in a state of terrible contemplation of themselves, or, in other words, of feeling profound contempt for themselves; and on the strength of their own selfishness will be inevitably attracted into the dreadful company of pitiful and selfish souls, and, rejected by the universe, condemn themselves to eternal damnation.
Selfishness begets moral uncleanliness, and that brings in its train suffering; every human soul carries in itself something which ever opposes selfishness, something opposite to it, pure and holy, and this is an innate, moral feeling.
Without this feeling man would be incapable of any moral feeling or of any respect or contempt of himself; he would conceive neither of Paradise nor of Hell. This divine light which shines in him makes for him darkness unbearable; therefore tender souls which are the most imbued with moral feeling find themselves condemned to still greater and more acute sufferings if that moral feeling becomes subjected in them to selfishness.
It is from the sympathy and harmony that exist in man between himself and his inner tendencies that depend his purity, his aspiration to let into himself the light – his bliss, his heavens, his God! God will appear to that man in His similitude with him who knows how to love. God will appear as the highest love in the plurality of loving images. The degree of his bliss and his capacity of making others happy is subject to the degree of love that reigns in him. He who loves unselfishly will remain in unceasing harmony with the source of love, as with all those who drink from the same source.
Let us then preserve in ourselves, Sovereign Lady, love in all its purity and our efforts will approach us to the most loving souls. Let us purify ourselves daily from the impurities of selfishness, and then, whether we 222leave this world to-day or to-morrow, restoring to the earth our mortal envelope, our souls will ascend with the rapidity of lighting to the prototype of all the loving ones, and we will be joined to Him in ineffable bliss.
Neither I nor any other mortal can know what will become of our soul after the death of the body; meanwhile I am profoundly convinced that pure love must impart to our spirit, once it is liberated from its body, a limitless freedom and widen our existence. Love must give to it (Spirit) the possibility of an incessant enjoyment of God, and will present it with an infinite capacity of rendering happy those who are capable of tasting the highest bliss. O, how ineffable is the freedom of spirits released from the bonds of their body. With what a radiant flight will be the ascension of those who love! What an endless knowledge, what a force of intercourse with others, becomes their bliss! What light in all their being! What life informs it! Radiant streams of bliss are poured to meet him (the Spirit) from every side in order to satisfy his lofty aspirations! Innumerable hosts of loving beings extend their arms to him! Harmonious voices emanate from these brilliant choirs, telling him:
“Spirit of our Spirit, Heart of our Heart! Love outpouring from the source of love! Loving soul! Thou belongest to us and to all of us, and we all are thine! Each of us is thine, and thou belongest to each of us! Our God is Love and God is our love! We are full of God and our love has found bliss in our mutual bliss.”
Is it possible that you, highly venerated Sovereign Lady, your noble and excellent Imperial Consort so inclined to good, and I after you, shall not each use all our efforts in order to prepare ourselves for the enjoyment of love by our acts, prayers, and sufferings, in order not to lose sight of Love, the God, and also of the Man who bowed his head on Golgotha.
Zürich, 18 ☉ viii., 1798.
As the bee, injuring not the flower, its color, or scent, flies away taking the nectar; so let the wise man dwell upon the earth.
Like a beautiful flower, full of color but without scent, the fine words of him who does not act accordingly are fruitless.
One may conquer a thousand thousand men in battle, but him who conquers himself alone is the greatest victor.
Never in this world does hatred cease by hatred; hatred ceases only by love. This is an old rule.
Not by birth does one become low caste, not by birth does one become a Brahman; by his actions alone a man becomes low caste, by his actions alone a man becomes a Brahman.
223
Doubts
I SIT by my study window on a fair spring evening; before me lies smooth lawn and grass land, fringed and dotted with trees, the shadows of whose still leafless branches, cast by the sinking sun, stretch far across the bright green turf. Under the trees grow primroses, hyacinths, anemones, bluebells, and other flowers. Behind the house a garden; within it the carefully guarded promise of flower and fruit and vegetable. The silence is broken only by the sigh of a gentle breeze in the trees, and the songs of various birds.
“A refined and elevating surrounding,” will be the verdict of those who are asked to consider it.
What is its cost? Its price is the blood of the innocent; the conditions of its maintenance, endless and ruthless war.
Let us inquire further. Within a hazel copse, at a small distance, is a burrow; in it dwells a colony of rabbits, perhaps half-a-dozen. They are creatures sensitive to pain, nervous, with ear and eye and nostril quick to give the alarm, with delicate tongue that distinguishes the poisonous herb, and permits it not to be eaten. Already the does are big with young, nay, already have young in many cases; before the autumn they will have brought into existence several “sixes” or “eights” of young ones. The oldest of these in turn will have bred; our small colony will have sent out many branches. There will not be less than eighty rabbits probably in my grounds. Their habit is to gnaw, nibble, and destroy leaf, stem, and flower; to burrow in the ground, and scratch it into little holes and heaps.
Overhead in the trees dwell numerous squirrels; they live on nuts and fruit and the young shoots of trees. In the spring they often gnaw the rind from the leading shoots, either to exercise their teeth on something soft, or for the sappy pulp: the tree is often deformed, sometimes killed.
The birds I have already mentioned; their habits are too well known to need description. With the artificial abundance of fruits and seeds produced by man, they also increase in numbers very rapidly.
Now you know the secret of smooth lawn, and delicate flower, of symmetrical tree, and promise of fruit: it is the continuous and systematic suppression and slaying of all these creatures. Our peaceful scene is brought about by the arbitrary displacement of one form of life, to replace it by another.
It is only by the “right” of being the most powerful and intelligent animal that man thus ousts every other living being that interferes with his plans.
Annexing the plain, the hill, the water, for his food supply, or for his pleasure ground, all living creatures that come in conflict with him for the possession of these are doomed.
The apparently innocent bread we eat is won by a war everlastingly waged by steel-jawed trap or gun, by poison, by exclusion from feeding grounds and slow starvation.
What then of many of us who begin to see
“ . . . . one changeless Life in all the lives, |
What of our efforts at renunciation and abnegation of self for others, and how harmonise our lives with the given facts? Hard questions truly!
224
Yet let us not scheme to evade answering them. He who sits here and meditates, who strives to be one
“Whose equal heart holds the same gentleness |
so far as he is concerned in this “fair” scene for selfish gratification is a tyrant, a mere human butcher. To many of us our life begins to appear as a long record of oft-repeated habitual crime, the sin of being concrete self. Our every action seems tinged with blood, sometimes animal, sometimes human animal, but always blood.
Only by a consciousness of continual effort to strive towards the emancipation of all other entities from this concrete state, as well as oneself, does life seemed justified. Only so far as our “refined and elevating surrounding” truly works for that end, and stimulates to effort, or gives opportunity to the completest manifestation of life here, viz., man, to rise and free himself from all surrounding, can many of us feel its cost in blood justified. And we may then be able to say, “O, humble fellow beings whom we love, we offer you as an oblation, together with ourselves, for your kind and for ours; that being freed we may return and help you.”
A miserable sophisticated argument perhaps, and one which is offered with misgivings. A long way round perhaps, a futile effort, because, maybe, wrongly made, and coming dangerously near to bloody sacrifice and all its attendant horrors.
We live now in such complicated surroundings, so far from that simple state which suffices for the highest of human life, that we are glad to try and utilize these conditions, fettered as we are. In endeavoring to do so, intelligence in us will often be marred by the lower desiring self, leading us into sophistries, and to false conclusions and illusive aspects of things. Yet, though we flounder on through almost endless mazes, if we are honest with ourselves, these will at length be passed.
Who would not walk out and leave all behind him, and seek the Eternal Peace, unencumbered except by the bread and water and blanket of existence, if, at the very first step, he did not find himself held by innumerable ties of duty to kin, to employed, or employer? Happy is he who can steer with steady hand and clear eye past all these rocks and eddies; who works ever in full conscious remembrance of the One, the Real, whose finite thought he is, both as mind and body, and yet with whom he knows himself to be identified – when the thing thought of, the thought, and the thinker, shall be combined in One.
Think not, you who read this, that it does not apply to you; you live under precisely similar conditions. Only the external husk is changed for you.
S.
Habit at first is but a silken thread, |
| Anon. |
225
Ecclesiastical Christianity
THE English church, however, in fact, is one only in name, and two of the three distinct parties into which she is now severed, and which are held together by threads, are pledged as irrevocably to the past as the Ultramontane party among the Catholics, and must hasten her approaching dissolution.
The follies of the present, like the crimes of the past, are a just result of that system of ecclesiasticism which has been a curse to the world, and of which both Roman and Protestant churches stand guilty at this hour. The record of those crimes is far from being set forth in these pages, but the near future will bring them all into a searching light. They are no light ones. They were committed with every circumstance of deliberate and cold-blooded cruelty; they were committed in the face of the pure religion Christ gave to the world; they were committed by those who professed to be the guardians of that religion; and they sacrificed the noblest among men. But for their firmness, civilisation would have been arrested, and the hypocrisy and fear engendered in those who lacked the courage to avow their opinions have inflicted a deep injury on our race.
Such is the history of the “divinely-inspired” and “miraculously-sustained churches”, and the Christianity of men.
When one thinks of the innocent men and women, some of them reformers and workers for humanity of the most heroic type, – fastened to stakes in every country in Europe, and burnt alive, not seldom, by a slow fire, and sometimes after torture – who yielded up their souls in a crisis of bodily and often mental agony which no words can ever describe, the heart sinks at the long and awful story of human suffering! That innocent blood, though it has been shed in the past, has been crying to heaven from those days to these, and the hour of the Church is at hand. Such tortures as she inflicted were unknown, except in rare instances, even in the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome, and while history lasts she will stand condemned, as sin must ever be. The power of a priesthood which has never understood the truths of the Spirit, and which has forgotten those principles of fraternity which are the basis of all that is living in religion, is rapidly on the wane. And as within forty years after the crucifixion of Christ one stone was not left upon another in the temple at Jerusalem, so in forty years from the coming year[54] there shall not be left, in a spiritual sense, one stone upon another within the churches of to-day.
Well has a modern writer declared:
“If it be true Christianity to dive with a passionate charity into the darkest recesses of misery and vice, to irrigate every quarter of the earth with the fertilising stream of an almost boundless benevolence, and to include all the sections of humanity in the circle of an intense and efficacious sympathy; if it be true Christianity to destroy or weaken the barriers which have separated class from class and nation from nation, to free war from its harshest elements, and to make a consciousness of essential equality and of a genuine fraternity dominate over all accidental differences; if it be above all true Christianity to cultivate a love of truth for its own sake, a spirit of candor and of tolerance towards those with whom we differ, then never since the days of the apostles has it been so vigorous as at present, and the decline of dogmatic systems and of Clerical influence, has been a measure, if not a cause, of its advance.”
226
Most true. We ask, which is the truest Christian, Lloyd Garrison, the free-religionist, flying down the streets of Boston from a mob which the Church had helped to incite, because he was the fearless advocate of righteousness and justice, or the Ritualist who cuts a hole in a woman's apron because some “sacramental wine” has been upset upon it, licks up fallen crumbs of bread, and prates of “heresy” over a child’s coffin? This so-called orthodoxy, this travesty of religion, kept up at the expense of millions of human lives in the past and millions of money in the present, which moulds the minds of the young when they are helpless, and builds more on a text or a passage from the Fathers than on the laws of the universe which it ignores, which has degraded even the very central light of immortality by hideous superstitions and horrors – has done more to dishonor the work of truth than Atheism itself. Yet that work still lives and grows as the great inspiring power and the very breath of reform in every age. God’s greatest teachers have ever been either persecuted or poor; they have never been divines or theologians; they have been without titles, or mitres, or sceptres; they have learned to love truth for its own sake, to wear the “crown of thorns”, and to disregard popularity and the opinions of men. And the only church of Christ, preserving the only true “succession”, has been the church of the martyrs for truth and liberty and reform.
Intellect alone has never been a light to man as a great moral motive-power, else Greece or Rome of old would have inspired the world, and not Judæa. It has been given through chosen instruments in advance of their age, who strenuously upheld the truths breathed into them from a higher sphere with heroic courage, and were as strenuously opposed. Not in the Parthenon, not in the Forum, have echoed the voices which have moved mankind, but by the hill-side of Bethany, over the lonely plains of India, in the deserts of Arabia – from the prison-walls, the criminal's dock, above the curses of the mob. Intellect is powerless without spiritual strength and inspiration, the strongest, the most unconquerable, and divinest force in man. And those great appeals to the human soul require renewal and illumination from age to age, or they fall to the level of the earthly thoughts of men. Especially is this true of the long-obscured light of Christianity.
It was one of the dark sayings of Jesus, which probably none around him understood, that “strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”. What life? The immortal life of the kingdom of heaven, which he also taught us was within us, and which recoils from the gross life of the world. Some have indeed entered it through the earthly martyrdom which he foretold would be the fate of his disciples, and which has been the fate of some of his truest followers in every age, outcasts of the churches though they were, and the terrors of human cruelty have only served to make the faithful spirit strong. “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;” in other words, who shared the martyr fate of Christ, and testified to truth at the price of their lives; who, like him, came down to perform some heroic mission for which suffering and oppressed humanity cried out, and which could only be accomplished in the mortal form. Men are redeemed and guided by these noble Christ-inspirations, and his spirit has been shared by every strong and true worker in behalf of righteousness and justice on this globe. Wherever one has sacrificed himself for human welfare, there has been the presence of Christ; in the market-place, with its awful pile of wood; in the mediæval dungeon; in the torture-chambers of the priests; in the prisons of Rome and Naples; by the emancipator of the slave and of woman; by the spiritual teacher and the messenger of truth; and as the cry of “heretic”, “sorcerer”, “infidel”, “impostor”, has been raised, he, who knew what it was to say, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful – even unto death”, has drawn 227near to the soul in anguish and welcomed his servant unto victory! The “sign of the Son of Man” has been the cross. Who dares to deny that a noble life exalts and beautifies the spirit of man? – that volume in which every action and every prevailing thought is recorded, and which becomes in each his rewarding or his accusing angel? None but those who teach the deadly error that a life of sin may be condoned by faith in the Jewish idea of a sacrifice to appease a Creator’s wrath, and who understand nothing of the nature of the spirit either here or hereafter. And these have persecuted, and persecute still, those led of the spirit; because as the Prophet of Nazareth said: “These things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me”.
And now – approaching on this land, there appears the hour of destiny! Shall we welcome the light which has arisen to chase away the errors of the past, to illuminate the Scripture page, to explain the eternal principles of man’s being, to point out to him The Pathway so clearly that it can no longer be misunderstood? Or shall we sink down into that materialism of church or science, apart and opposed and yet akin, which deals only with the external aspects of sacred writings or of nature, and is utterly blind to the spirit and powers within? Not long will the balance of probabilities and possibilities stand even, for within a very short time, it must incline to the one or the other. Let us hope that many souls, at this crucial period, may awake to the knowledge of a true religion of life, and thus become a leaven for good amid those who are struggling with and involved in the ignorance, poverty, distress, vice, and senseless fashions and follies of our age.
The Brotherhood of Man is the Gospel preached by Nazarene and Indian sage, and creates the life of lives! ‘Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me’ – the Christ-Spirit of Love – and in that divine balance both priests and creeds are ‘weighed and found wanting’. If light streams in upon the dark places of the earth, the wretched dens where womanhood is desecrated, and manhood flung in the dust, where childhood is like old age, and old age is a living death, and not only these, but the abodes of selfish luxury, and the gambling markets which thrive on the ruin of others, it will come, not from the pulpit, where platitudes and errors have so long been uttered, but from the voices which speak as none have spoken before, of the “reaping” and the “sowing”, and of the Law which deals out destruction to men, organisations, and nations which violate fraternal feeling. Turning from the dark past towards the future, who will not do his utmost to hasten the dawn of a brighter day?
Friends all, nay, more than Friends, |
| W. K. |
228
"A Vision in a Slum"
OLD Martha had been sent upon an errand by her employers to the West-end house of the firm for which she worked. She had been detained until the shops in the fashionable quarter of the town were all shut, and the streets looked dull and deserted; for the night was cold, and snow fell at intervals in gusty showers. But the thinly clad and hungry woman seemed to be in no hurry to quit the dreary pavement. She had turned into a large square, and stood, with half-a-dozen other loiterers, near the steps of a grand house, the door of which was thrown wide open. Every few minutes a carriage drove up to the curb-stone, and elegantly dressed women passed into the hall and out of sight. The ladies did not interest Martha. And she saw too many fine dresses in the course of her daily labor to care to look at these. But evidently there was something in the house that attracted her attention, and kept her peering into the brightly-lighted space. Something that kept her gaze riveted, and made her unconscious, for the time, that she was wet, cold, and dinnerless. These people who were passing her, all unnoticed, had gathered to a feast; in the old woman’s garret was the bottom crust of her last stale loaf, too dry and hard for the poor old teeth to bite, but capable of being soaked in a little weak tea, if she had been able to afford such a luxury just now, which she was not, being behindhand with her rent owing to illness. Why then did the silly old soul stand staring at the large white rug stretched before the blazing fire, as if such a vision of comfort and luxury had never before met her eyes? The fact was that that rug had bewitched the woman. She thought of the nights she had shivered through since winter set in, in her fireless home, till an almost insane longing to possess that soft, warm, pure white rug took hold of her. How she would roll her aching old limbs in its soft embrace. How little she would care that she had gone supperless to bed, if only, for once, she might shut out the piercing cold that blew in upon her from the hole in the roof. Wild thoughts of rushing into the house and imploring the tall footman, who stood so carelessly on the coveted treasure, to give it to her, or lend it to her just for a few short weeks, flew through her brain.
She knew, in a dim way, that the man had no power to give her the thing she longed for. But, oh! it was so bitterly cold, the nights were so cruelly long, when every muscle and nerve were tortured with pain, that she could not reason, she could only make wild plans that she had no courage to carry out. At last, the voice and touch of a policeman who had been watching her, roused her from her dream, and she “moved on” as the guardian of the law requested.
Martha had made a plan to walk the long miles that divided her East-end slum from the West-end house to which she had been sent, that she might save the ’bus fare that had been given her, so it was past midnight when she reached her garret. The house was dark and quiet, but a late watcher, a neighborly body, had kept the kettle over a few smouldering embers, that she might give Martha the chance of making a cup of tea, if she were so minded. A cracked teapot receiving the contents of the steaming kettle deceived the kindly neighbor, and enabled Martha to make a hearty supper of crust soaked in hot water, after which frugal fare she felt both revived and warmed, and threw herself, still thinking of the warm, white rug, upon her bed.
229
But sleep did not come quickly to the weary woman, who had walked farther than her feeble health warranted, and now ached all over. The wind whistled, and the bright stars shone through the roof. The moon looking in through the curtainless window-pane shed a divine radiance through the bare room. The unaccustomed glimpse into the fairyland of wealth and plenty upon which she had that evening feasted her longing eyes set her thinking. Into her mind came thoughts of her bitter childhood, when a cruel and drunken father had kept her in a state of continual terror, more for the gentle, frightened mother, whom she idolized, than for herself. Memories of the temptations of her girlhood, the struggles of early womanhood, thronged through her brain. The old questionings awoke that had so often perplexed her in younger days, why some seemed born to toil and suffering, while others had all, and more than all, that heart could desire. Then the thought of the warm, white rug came back again, and in imagination she threw it over her narrow bed, and warmed her trembling limbs beneath its soft luxuriance, till tired nature asserted its just dominion, and the weary, toilworn woman slept.
But hers was no dreamless sleep. The question of the brain had been too eager, and the longing of the soul to pierce the mystery of fate was to be satisfied. Away, far away, from the mean garret Martha travelled on the light wings of sleep. Travelled through ages, through distant lands, till she found herself living in a warm and pleasant clime, where fragrant scents filled the air, and soft breezes kissed the cheek; found herself living in a gorgeous palace, surrounded by obsequious courtiers, attended by willing slaves; saw herself young, strong, and beautiful; loved, flattered, and spoiled. Into her own heart she looked till she knew herself as she was in those distant days. Proud of her wealth, vain of her beauty, not unconscious of the splendid talents with which nature had gifted her; and yet withal buried deep beneath the accumulation of pride, vanity, and conceit she saw a divine spark of human sympathy which united her to her fellow men. And as she watched this spark, almost in wonder to see it there, she saw it quiver with a heavenly longing that it might fitly love and nobly serve its suffering brothers. Then she saw how the heavenly powers noted the loving aspiration, and saw, too, how her fate was sealed. Long she watched her former self, the bright, happy princess. Almost anxiously she saw how day by day flew by in light enjoyment, and no step was taken to relieve the burdens of her fellow men. Years rolled on and she saw herself passing beyond the view of earthly existence into the heaven of men that is entered through the portals of Death. Then a curious thing happened. Martha lost sight of her princess-self, but she entered into the little spark that had quivered with the divine longing for loving service. Quite to the centre of its beating heart she looked till she knew it was seeking a home where it could learn the secret of the needs of men. She saw it pass over the mansions of the wealthy. She knew it peeped into many a cottage of the poor. She felt it single out the heart of her gentle, loving, mother, from there to take its flight once more to earth-life, to learn by bitter experience how to enter with loving sympathy and helpful reverence into the woes of her struggling brothers.
When the morning dawned and Martha awoke she knew that the question of the mystery of the diverse fortunes of men had received its answer in her vision of the night.
230
Pistis-Sophia
(Translated, and annotated by G. R. S. M., with additional notes by H. P. B.)
AS perhaps many of our readers are unfamiliar with the general scheme of the Gnosis, and as the Pistis-Sophia presupposes a thorough knowledge of the outlines of this scheme, we are compelled to depart somewhat from our original plan and insert a résumé of this sublime system. It is somewhat invidious to select any particular school, but perhaps that of Valentinus who flourished at the beginning of the second century a.d., will best serve our purpose.
The following is translated from the Refutation of All Heresies[55] attributed to Hippolytus, Bishop of Ostia (Portus), who was put to death a.d. 222. There is, however, doubt as to the identification and date of this writer; but, be that as it may, he is the fairest and most accurate of all the Church Fathers and his Refutation is one of the most reliable chronicles of the Gnostic period that we possess.[56]
After a most interesting review of the Pythagorean and Platonic systems of numbers and a comparison between these systems and that of Valentinus, in order to prove that the teaching of the latter was from the former philosophers and not of Christ, our author continues: –
“For them, the beginning of all things is the Monad,[57] ingenerable, imperishable, incomprehensible, inconceptible, the creator and cause of the generation of all things that are generated.[58] This Monad is called by them the Father. Now as to its nature there is a difference of opinion among them; for some declare that the Father is devoid of femininity and without a syzygy (consort, pair, or sakti) and solitary; whereas others think that it is impossible that from a single male principle, the generation of all things should be, and so they are compelled to add to the Father of All, in order that it[59] may be a Father, the syzygy Silence (Sigê). But as to whether Silence is a syzygy or not, let them settle this dispute among themselves.[60]
“In the beginning, says (Valentinus), naught was that was generated. The Father alone was, ungenerated, without space (or region), time, counsellor, or any other essence (or attribute) capable of being conceived by any means. It was alone, solitary, and at rest, itself in itself, alone. But since it had the power of creating (emanating rather), it seemed good to it
231
at length to generate and produce that which was most beautiful and most perfect in itself, for it loved not solitude. For Love, said (Valentinus), was all, but Love is not Love if there is nothing to be loved.
“Therefore, the Father, solitary as it was, emanated and generated Mind and Truth, the Duad, which is the Lady and Beginning and Mother of all the Æons which they reckon in the Pleroma. And Mind and Truth, having emanated from the Father, possessing the power of generation like their parent, in imitation of the Father, emanated themselves also the Logos and Life.[61] And the Logos and Life emanate Man and the Assembly (ekklesia, Church). But Mind and Truth, when they saw that their own generations had become generators in their turn, gave thanks to the Father of All and offered it Ten Æons, the perfect number. For, said he, Mind and Truth could not offer the Father a more perfect number than this. For it was necessary that the Father which was perfect, should be worshipped with a perfect number, and the Ten is perfect because it is the first number of the plurality of digits. But the Father was more perfect still, because being itself ingenerable, alone through one and the first syzygy, Mind and Truth, it was able to emanate all the roots of all things which are.
“[30] And when the Logos and Life also saw that Mind and Truth had celebrated the Father of All (All-Father) with a perfect number. The Logos together with Life wished to worship their own father and mother, Mind and Truth. But since Mind and Truth were generable and had not their own fatherhood perfect, viz., the quality of being themselves parentless, the Logos and Life do not worship their own father Mind with a perfect, but with an imperfect number, and offer their parents Twelve Æons.
“Now, the following are the first roots of the Æons according to Valentinus: Mind and Truth, the Logos and Life, Man and the Assembly; Ten from Mind and Truth, and Twelve from the Logos and Life; eight-and-twenty in all.[62] These are called by the following names: Bythius and Mixis, Agêratus and Henôsis, Autophyês and Hêdonê, Akinêtus and Synkrâsis, Monogenês and Makaria. These are the Ten Æons, which some derive from Mind and Truth, and others from the Logos and Life. Some again derive the Twelve of which we have been speaking from Man and the Assembly, and others from the Logos and Life; and the names they give these Twelve are – Paraklêtus and Pistis, Patrikus and Elpis, Mêtrikus and Agapê, Aênûs (Aeinous) and Synesis, Ekklesiastikus and Makariotês, Thelêtus and Sophia.[63]
“Now, the twelfth of these Twelve, and the youngest of the eight-and-232twenty Æons, Sophia by name, a female Æon, beholding the multitude and power of the Æons which had generated, returned to the depth of the Father and perceived that all the rest of the Æons, being in their nature generated, generated through a syzygy. But the Father alone generated without a syzygy. She, therefore, desired to imitate the Father and generate by herself without her syzygy, in order that she might perform a work not inferior to that of the Father, being ignorant that the ungenerable, as it is fundamentally the beginning and root, and the deep and depth of all, could generate alone, whereas Sophia being generated and produced after many, could not possess the power of the ungenerated. For in the ungenerated, he said, are all things together, whereas in the generated the feminine has the power of emanating the essence, while the masculine has the power of informing the essence emanated by the feminine. Sophia, therefore, emanated the only thing which she could, viz., a formless and uninformed (unwrought) essence. This is what, he said, Moses said: ‘The earth was invisible and unformed.’[64] This is, he said, the good and Celestial Jerusalem, into which God promised to lead the sons of Israel, saying: ‘I will lead you into a land flowing with milk and honey.’[65]
“[31] And so ignorance having been produced through Sophia, within, in the Pleroma, and formlessness also by the generation (production) of Sophia, tumult arose in the Pleroma lest the generations (progeny) of the Æons should in like manner become formless and imperfect, and destruction in no long time seize on the Æons. All the Æons, therefore, betook themselves to praying to the Father to stop the sorrowing Sophia. For she was bewailing and groaning because of the Abortion generated by herself; for thus they call it. Therefore, the Father taking pity on the tears of Sophia and giving ear to the prayers of the Æons, ordered an additional emanation. For it was not himself that emanated, but Mind and Truth which (emanated) the Christos and Holy Spirit for the informing and differentiation of the Abortion and for the consolation and appeasing of the complaints of Sophia. So that together with the Christos and the Holy Spirit there are thirty Æons.[66] Now, some of them think that she (the Holy Spirit) is the thirtieth Æon, while others maintain that Sigê co-exists with the Father, and that the Æons should be reckoned together with them. The Christos and Holy Spirit then, being after-emanated by Mind and Truth, immediately separated this formless Abortion of Sophia, which was generated by her alone without her syzygy, from the universal Æons, lest the perfect Æons seeing it should be thrown into confusion by its formlessness. In order then that the Abortion should not appear to the perfect Æons in all its formlessness, the Father again emanated additionally one Æon, the Staurus (Cross or Stock), which having become great, in as much as it was from the great and perfect Father, having been projected into the custody and stockade of the Æons, became the Hôrus (Boundary) of the Plerôma (Completion) having within itself all
233
the Thirty Æons together.[67] Now, it is called the Boundary, because it bounds the Hysterêma (Incompletion, Inferiority) without, from the Pleroma; again, it is called the Participator, because it partakes of the Hysterêma, and the Stake (or Stock), because it is fixed, without inclination and incapable of change (lit: without repentance)[68], so that nothing of the Hysterêma should approach the Æons within the Pleroma.
“Without, then, this Boundary, Stake or Participator, is what they call the Ogdoad,[69] which is the Sophia-Without the Pleroma, which the Christos, who was an after-emanation of Mind and Truth, formed and fashioned into a perfect Æon, by no means inferior to those within the Pleroma. When then Sophia-Without had been fashioned, the Christos and Holy Spirit, emanated from Mind and Truth, as they could not in like manner remain outside the Pleroma, ascended from her whom they had informed, to Mind and Truth within the Boundary, glorifying the Father together with the rest of the Æons.
“[32] When, then, there was, so to speak, a unity of peace and concord among all the Æons within the Pleroma, it seemed good to them, not only that they should have magnified the Father by their syzygies, but also that they should magnify him by the offering of fit fruits. All the Thirty Æons accordingly agreed to emanate one Æon as the common fruit of the Pleroma, as the sign of their unity, unanimity and peace. Now the only common emanation of all the Æons for the Father is that which they call the Common Fruit of the Pleroma.[70] Thus it was done within the Pleroma.
“So the Common Fruit of the Pleroma was emanated, viz., Jesus (for this was its name), the great High Priest (or Pontifex).[71] Now the Sophia without the Pleroma, missing the Christos who had informed her, and the Holy Spirit, was thrown into great alarm, lest she should perish, now that he who had informed and strengthened her, was removed. So she mourned and was in great distress, pondering who was her informer (fashioner); what the Holy Spirit; whither they had departed; who prevented them from being with her; and who envied the beautiful and blessed spectacle thereof. In these sufferings she betook herself to prayer and beseeching him who had abandoned her.[72] And as she prayed the Christos within the Pleroma and all the other Æons took pity on her, and
234
sent out from the Pleroma the Common Fruit of the Pleroma, the syzygy of Sophia-Without and the corrector of her sufferings which she suffered, seeking for the Christos. So the Fruit becoming without the Pleroma and finding her in the first four afflictions, viz., fear, grief, helplessness and need (entreaty or prayer), set right her sufferings; but in doing so he perceived that it was not meet that those affections (or afflictions) which were of the Æons (or eternal) and peculiar to Sophia, should be destroyed, nor on the other hand that Sophia should be in such afflictions as fear, grief, supplications and distress. Accordingly, as he was so great an Æon and the progeny of the whole Pleroma, he made her afflictions depart from her, and transformed them into substantial essences. And fear he made a soulish (animal) essence; grief, a material; distress, a dæmonial; and conversion (i.e. a turning to any one for help) and prayer and supplication he made the path of return (way up),[73] and repentance and the power of the soulish essence which is called ‘right’. The Demiurge was made of fear. And this is the meaning of the scripture, he said, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (Sophia)’.[74] For this (fear) was the beginning of Sophia’s woes. For she was first in fear, then in grief, then in distress and thus betook herself to prayer and supplication. Now the soulish (animal) essence, he said, was fiery and was called the Place of the Middle (or Mean), and the Hebdomad[75] and the Ancient of Days; of this essence was the Demiurge.
“Now the power of fire, he said, was twofold. For there is a fire which is all-devouring and which cannot be quenched and . . . . [a lacuna occurs here unfortunately]. From this kind of fire then, the soul is a mortal thing, being a sort of mean; for it is the Hebdomad and Pause. It is, however, below the Ogdoad,[76] where is Sophia . . . . and the Common Fruit of the Pleroma, but it is above the Hyle (Matter) of which is the Demiurge.[77] If, therefore, it (the soul) is assimilated with the above, viz., the Ogdoad, it becomes immortal and passes to the Ogdoad, which is, according to Valentinus, the Celestial Jerusalem, but if it is assimilated with Hyle, that is with material qualities, it will be destroyed and perish.[78]
“[33] As, therefore, the first and greatest power arose from the soulish essence . . . . [a lacuna occurs here] the image Diabolus, the ruler of this world: whereas Beelzebub is of the essence of the Dæmons which are bred of doubt (incapacity or distress), Sophia energizing from above, from the Ogdoad unto the Hebdomad. The Demiurge, they said, knows nothing at all, but is mindless and foolish, according to them, and he knows not what he does or operates. And as he knows not what he does, Sophia operates and strengthens all, and when she does so, he imagines that he is making the foundation of the world of himself: wherefore he began to say: ‘I am God and besides me there is no other’.[79]
[34] “The Valentinian Tetractys,[80] then, is the ‘Source containing the roots of sempiternal (lit. ever-flowing) nature’, and Sophia that from which the soulish and material foundation (creation) was constituted. And Sophia is called Spirit; the Demiurge, Soul; Diabolus, the Ruler of this world; and Beelzebul, the (Ruler) of Dæmons. Such are their teachings.
“Moreover, there is a mathematical side to their doctrines; and they make the Thirty Æons in the Pleroma emanate again other Æons by
235
analogy, so that the Pleroma should be collected in a perfect number. For like as the Pythagoreans divided into twelve, and thirty, and sixty;[81] so also they sub-divide the contents of the Pleroma. The numbers of the Ogdoad also are sub-divided; and Sophia who, according to them, is the Mother of All Living, and the Common Fruit of the Pleroma, emanated Seventy Logoi,[82] which are celestial Messengers (angels), dwelling in Jerusalem, which is above in the Heavens. For this (mundane) Jerusalem is the Sophia without, and the Common Fruit of the Pleroma is her spouse. Moreover, it was the Demiurge who is the emanator of souls; for he is the essence of souls. According to them, the former is Abraham, and the latter the children of Abraham[83]. The Demiurge then, made bodies for the souls from the material (hylic) and diabolical essence. This is as it was said: ‘And God shaped man, taking dirt from the earth, and breathed into his face (or appearance) the breath of life: and man became a living soul.’[84] This is, according to them, the inner man, the soulish (principle), dwelling in the material body, which is material, perishable, imperfect, fashioned from the diabolical essence. The latter is the material man, according to them, as it were an inn or habitation, at one time of the soul alone, at another of the soul and Dæmons, at another of the soul and Logoi, which are the Logoi from above scattered from the Common Fruit of the Pleroma and Sophia into this world, dwelling in a Choïc body (i.e. the body of “dirt” or “slime” above mentioned), whenever the Dæmons do not cohabit with the soul. This, he said, was what was written in the scripture: ‘For this cause I bow my knees unto the God and Father and Lord of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that God may grant you that the Christos may dwell in your inner man’,[85] that is the soulish and not the corporeal (man), ‘that ye may be strong to know, what is the depth’, that is to say, the Father of All, ‘and the breadth’, which is the Stake, the Boundary of the Pleroma, ‘or length’, (or height), which means the Pleroma of the Æons. Therefore, he said: ‘the soulish (animal) man does not perceive those things which are of the Spirit of God; for he is foolish’.[86] Now foolishness, he said, is the power of the Demiurge: for he was foolish and mindless and thought that he himself was fabricating the world, being ignorant that it was Sophia, the Mother, the Ogdoad,[87] who operated all for the constitution of the world for him not knowing.
“[35] All the prophets, therefore, and law babbled[88] under the
236
inspiration of the Demiurge, foolish know-nothings (inspired by) a foolish God, according to him. For which cause, said he, the Saviour said: ‘All who came before me are thieves and robbers’, [89] and the Apostle: ‘the mystery which was not known to former generations’. [90] For none of the prophets, he said, spake about these things of which we speak; for they were not known: all things [a lacuna occurs here], inasmuch indeed as they were babbled forth under the inspiration of the Demiurge alone. When, therefore, the creation (or constitution) came to an end, and the manifestation of the Sons of God, that is of the Demiurge, had thereafter to take place – the manifestation that had been hidden and in which, he said, the soulish man had been concealed, having a veil over his heart – when, therefore, the veil had to be raised and these mysteries were to be perceived, Jesus was born through Mary the Virgin, according to what was written: ‘the Holy Spirit (Ghost) shall come upon thee’, the Spirit is Sophia, ‘and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee’, the Highest is the Demiurge, ‘for that which shall be born from thee shall be called holy’. [91] For he was not born from the Highest alone, as those who were constituted according to Adam, were constituted from the highest alone, that is the Demiurge. But Jesus the new man was born of the Holy Spirit, that is of Sophia and the Demiurge, in order that the Demiurge might make up the moulding and arrangement of his body, but the Holy Spirit provide the essence thereof, and he might be the celestial Logos from the Ogdoad, born through Mary.
“Now concerning this tenet there is a great questioning among them and it is the cause of schisms and dissension. Hence their doctrine is divided into two schools, of which one is called the Eastern and the other the Italian. Now the Italian school maintains that the body of Jesus was soulish (animal), and it was because of this that the Spirit descended as a dove at his baptism, that is, the Logos of his Mother the Sophia-Above, and approached his soulish principle and awoke him from the dead. [92] This is that which was spoken, he said: ‘he who aroused Christos from the dead, will vivify also your mortal bodies’, [93] that is to say, your soulish (bodies). For it is the ‘slime’ that came under the curse, ‘for earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt return’. [94] The Eastern school, on the other hand, declares that the body of the Saviour was spiritual: for the Holy Spirit, that is to say, Sophia and the power of the Highest, the demiurgic art, came upon Mary, in order that that which had been given by the Spirit to Mary, might be fashioned.
“[36] Moreover, he goes on to say, as the failures which pertain to the Æons which are within, had been rectified, and also those that pertain to the Ogdoad, viz., the Sophia-Without, so also those which pertained to the Hebdomad. (For the Demiurge was taught by Sophia, that he was not the one only God, as he imagined, and that there were no others besides himself, as he supposed; and so being instructed by Sophia, he understood that there was a higher. For he was instructed, and initiated, and taught by her the great mystery of the Father of the Æons, and he told it to no one; this is, he said, what he (the Demiurge) spoke to Moses: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and the name of God I have not declared unto them’,[95] that is I have not spoken nor revealed the mystery, ‘Who is God’, but I have kept in secret with myself the mystery which I heard from Sophia). Since, therefore, the higher (mis-deeds or failures) had been corrected, by the same sequence it was necessary that those of our lower plane should also be set right. For this cause was born Jesus the Saviour, through Mary, in order that the failures (or mistakes) here should be set right; just as the Christos, who was after-emanated by
237
Mind and Truth, set right the sufferings of Sophia-Without, that is of the Abortion. And so again the Saviour, born through Mary, came to set right the sufferings of the soul. There are, therefore, three Christs, viz., he who was after-emanated by Mind and Truth together with the Holy Spirit; and the Common Fruit of the Pleroma, the syzygy of the Sophia-Without, who is also called the Holy Spirit inferior to the first; and the third, he who was born through Mary for the correction of our human constitution.”
Our author was right in comparing the Valentinian system with those of Pythagoras and Plato and in declaring that it had a mathematical basis. The Gnosis at all times and in all countries has been based on natural laws, and the different branches of mathematical science are simply the methods of expressing these laws. To vindicate these sublime systems of antiquity, and to prove that they were based on something more than “supertitious imagination”, some figures will now be given, and some hints to their explanation attempted. It must, however, be remembered that as such figures are infinite, and that the permutations and combinations of their properties, correspondences and qualities are equally infinite, no more than the roughest possible outline can be given in a short paper. As, however, in the sequel, reference will often be made to these figures, it is necessary for the reader to be put into possession of their general scheme at the beginning of our undertaking. It is hoped that by these figures students will be given the clearest possible proof that, as Plato said, “The Deity geometrizes”.
First the • (Point), the Monad, Bythus (the Deep), the unknown and unknowable Father. Then the △ (Triangle), Bythus and the first emanated pair or Duad, 238Nous (Mind) and its syzygy Aletheia (Truth). Then the □ (Square), the dual Duad, Tetractys or Quaternary, two males ∥, the Logos (Word) and Anthrôpos (Man), two females, their syzygies, = Zoê (Life) and Ekklesia (the Church or Assembly), Seven in all. The Triangle the Potentiality of Spirit, the Square the Potentiality of Matter; the Vertical Straight Line the Potency of Spirit, and the Horizontal the Potency of Matter. Next comes the Pentagram ⛤, the Pentad, the mysterious symbol of the Manasâputras or Sons of Wisdom, which together with their syzygies make 10, or the Decad; and last of all, the Hexalpha or interlaced Triangles ✡ the Hexad, which with their syzygies make 12, or the Dodecad. Such are the Contents of the Pleroma or Completion, the Ideas in the Divine Mind, 28 in all, for Bythus or the Father is not reckoned, as it is the Root of all. The two small circles within the Pleroma are the syzygy Christos-Pneuma (Christ and the Holy Spirit); these are after-emanations, and, as such, from one aspect, typify the descent of Spirit to inform and evolve Matter, which essentially proceeds from the same source; and from another, the descent or incarnation of the Kumâras or the Higher Egos of Humanity.
The Circle of the Pleroma is bounded by a circumference emanated from Bythus (the Point), this is called the Horus (Boundary), Staurus (Stock, Stake, or Cross) and Metaecheus (Participator); it shuts off the Pleroma (or Completion) from the Hysterêma (the Inferiority or Incompletion), the larger from the smaller Circle, the Unmanifested from the Manifested. Within the Circle of the Hysterêma is the Square of primordial Matter, or Chaos, emanated by Sophia, called the Ektrôma (or Abortion). Above this is a Triangle, primordial Spirit, called the Common Fruit of the Pleroma, or Jesus, for to all below the Pleroma it appears as a unity. Notice how the Triangle and Square of the Hysterêma are a reflection of the Triangle and Square of the Pleroma. Finally, the plane of the paper, enclosing and penetrating all, is Sigê (Silence)[96].
In all the figures except Fig. 8 the great Hermetic axiom, “As above, so below”, is triumphantly shown forth, as also the idea of the Syzygy, pair or opposite. Let us begin with Fig. 8, remembering that the Point produces the Line; the Line the Superficies; and the Superficies the Solid.
In this figure we have a symbol of Fire or Spirit. The vertical line, in the centre of the figure, is the subtlest Fire; this gradually falls into the shape of triangles, their vertical angles growing less and less acute, as their bases expand and at the same time rise to higher planes. Six planes or bases in all, and six triangles, with the point the seventh. The seventh figure generated from the point is the right-angled triangle, the most perfect. The more acute the angle the subtler the Fire, until it finally reaches the right angle, the balance or turning-point of all angles.
Now let us take the central point of the whole figure and join it with the extremities of the bases of the triangles; we shall then find that with the point again we have a second series of Seven, viz., the point, two acute-angled, one right-angled, two obtuse-angled triangles, and the horizontal diameter of the Figure. These are the Rûpa Planes, the first septenary being the seven fiery Logoi, the second septenary the seven Globes on the four lower planes of the great septenate, &c., &c. Notice again the series of quadrilaterals formed by the intersection of the bases and sides of the triangles, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10, the perfect number. Therefore starting from our perpendicular, or Spirit, we arrive by a series of angles through every variety of acuteness to the right-angled triangle, and pass from it through every variety of obtuseness to the horizontal diameter, Matter.
This great fact may be more plainly seen in Figs. 11 – 18, where the same series is traced in rectangular quadrilaterals, of which the balance or turning-point is the Square. Of course it must be remembered that only the perfect types are given, the intermediate types being infinite. For instance, to get from Fig. 11 to Fig. 12 an infinity of points are required; from Fig. 12 to Fig. 13 an infinity of lines; from 239Fig. 13 to Fig. 14 an infinity of intermediate figures, &c., seven infinities and seven eternities in all.
In these figures also it should be noticed that the Vertical has expanded and again decreased into the Horizontal, but in doing so has changed its direction, in other words the wheel has turned. In one of the following papers it is hoped to show the generation of the Svastica and its connection with these figures.
Having now obtained our most perfect triangular figure, viz., the right-angled Triangle, let us proceed to trace the operations of a pair of these. In the series of figures 1-8, we notice the triangle of Spirit with its apex upward and the triangle of Matter with its apex downward. Let those who wish to understand the two Circles surrounding these triangles and gradually involving into one another until finally they became one (Fig. 7), remember the Caduceus, and think over what is said in the Secret Doctrine (vol. i. pp. 550 et seqq.), about the “lemniscate”, and also about the development of a germ-cell (vol. ii, pp. 117 et seqq.).
These Triangles produce Squares by their intersection, and we get the following series of Points generated, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36 and 49, which is 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, 62 and 72.
Thus are the Forty nine Fires generated.
At the fourth stage the primal type of the spindle (X) is repeated, but as a duality; in the two succeeding figures this duality is repeated but on a smaller and smaller scale until in Fig. 8, it disappears entirely.
Let us now combine our previous figures and we obtain Fig. 9. All is generated from the Point (the First Logos). Thus from it we have six descending triangles and six spheres of matter, which together with the point make seven. So also with the fainter triangles and circles of spirit which ascend. And yet the two points of departure are essentially one in nature. The horizontal diameter is neither dark nor light, neither spirit nor matter, as is also the greatest circumscribing circle.
Fig. 10 is an amplification of Fig. 7. It is the Pyramid unfolded, and the “Four-faced Brahm”, the “four Maharahjas,” etc., and all the quaternaries; it is also the expansion of the Tetractys. Notice the two series of three Squares each and the Point in the centre, seven in all. Notice also that the Square of Twelve Fires is bounded by Triangles of Ten. The representation of the Pythagorean Tetractys was a triangle containing ten Yods.
Our figure being a perfect type, if the corners are folded to the central point, the Fires, or syzygies, coincide, and this process can be repeated until the whole figure disappears in the Point. But in nature the type is imperfect, and the Fires are at unequal distances, so that in folding over the four corners, the Solid Pyramid is formed, its spiritual axis and its material basal diameters varying with the proportion of spirit and matter in any manifestation.
Fig. 7 will give us all our pairs, and initiate us into the mystery of Reflection. Thus we have 2 ones, 2 twos, 2 threes, 2 fours, 2 fives, 2 sixes, but only one seven. Here then we have all the mysterious gnostic numbers; from 1 to 7, then 8, or the Ogdoad, 10 or the Decad, and 12 or the Dodecad.
Much more, indeed, might be written; but, perhaps, enough has already been said to direct the attention of students to the mystery of the Forty-nine Fires, and give them a key to the comprehension of the hitherto hopeless obscurity of the Gnostic writers in the eyes of the moderns.
There are eight original mountains, and seven seas – Brahma, Indra, the Sun, and Kisdra. These are permanent, not thou, not I, not this or that people. What, therefore, should occasion our sorrow?
In thee, in me, in every other, Vishnu resides; in vain art thou angry with me, not bearing my approach; this is perfectly true, all must be esteemed equal; be not, therefore, proud of a magnificent palace.
Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close: then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of some kindly thing done for others, some goodly strength or knowledge gained for yourselves.
Concerning Devachan
The Meaning of Separated Life
246
If all is All, then all must be |
| R. B. H. |
247
Seven-Eared Wheat
AN acquaintance of mine in the city, an elderly gentleman, has related to me the following account of an incident that happened to him during one of the earlier days of his existence. I may add that he is a gentleman of position, looked up to and respected in business, and in every way his word is to be relied on. The tale runs as follows:
“When I was a boy I can recollect perfectly well my aunt coming to me one day relating how she had been present at a very interesting ceremony which had just taken place at the house of a friend of hers, Sir John Malcolm. This gentleman, who had just returned from his travels in Egypt, had brought back with him many interesting souvenirs of the East; but perhaps the most attractive of all his collection was that of a real (I was about to say live, but just stopped myself), genuine mummy, and my aunt had been invited amongst others to be present at the ceremony of unrolling this Egyptian lady (I believe it was of the female sex). The ceremony passed off without any hitch, but the most interesting part culminated at the point when there was nothing more to unroll. When this stage was reached the onlookers found nothing extraordinary except that the hand of the deceased was seen to contain something which subsequent examination proved to be wheat, dried up and very parched wheat of the East. A small quantity of this was distributed to the friends present, and much to my delight my aunt presented me with her share of this interesting cereal.
“As soon as I had satisfied my admiration and wonder by gazing at and pondering over these few grains of wheat, the idea naturally presented itself to me if I could get it to germinate and grow. This idea I very soon carried out, planting it in a suitable place. To my great delight in due time this wheat began to sprout and grow; and, to make a long tale short, when it was fully grown I found on enquiry that it was the famous seven-eared wheat of Egypt which we read of in ancient records, and the existence of which is doubted in the present materialistic age. Yes, there was the central ear, sturdy and upright, with its six fellow ears placed equidistantly around it on the same stem, a sight which we never see now-a-days; but truly enough there it was, and it became the talk and marvel of all who beheld it. It was wonderful to think that these few grains should have contained within them the germs of life these many thousands of years, only awaiting for suitable conditions to germinate.
“I obtained from subsequent sowing more seed, which I gave to a neighboring farmer, who planted a row of it in the ground with the rest of his wheat; but unfortunately this seed was placed in a damp place; it rotted and was spoiled, and thus all my efforts to propagate were fruitless. Nevertheless the fact remains, and can be testified to by many, that there is such a thing as the seven-eared wheat of the East, and that they had been amongst the privileged ones to testify to its genuineness and antiquity.”
248
There is no peace except where I am, saith the Lord – |
| Edward Carpenter. |
Dream Knowledge
ONE day in the year 1881 I was ransacking my brains to find out the name of a mineral substance shown to me, which I could not identify, and yet I felt I knew what it was. I had called on a chemist at Forest Gate, and he had showed me some crystalline substance in a scrap of paper, believed he said to be a secret preparation, in use at some dyeing factory. The paper contained a handful of dirty crystals, which had apparently been once colorless and clear, but were then broken up almost to powder and mixed with much dust and foreign matter: they looked like the refuse from a drawer long in use for storing them. The chemist could 249not make out what they were. I must here point out, that both the chemist, and I as a medical man, had alike been trained to recognise a very large number of crystals, minerals, and artificially prepared salts, and perhaps could identify a hundred of such all colorless. I was annoyed that I failed to recognize these crystals, and I went direct to London to a well-known professional chemist, and showed them to him; he was also unable to say even after a scrutiny with a magnifying glass what they were, but he said they seemed familiar also to him: it was arranged that he should subject the substance to analysis, and I promised to call on him again next day.
I worried myself about these crystals all the evening and went to bed still pondering over the problem; I soon dropped off to sleep however. Sometime in the night I awoke from a dream, in the course of which a man whose appearance I did not recognise, came up to me and said, “Your crystals are only Sulphate of Soda”. I roused myself up thoroughly to make sure of remembering the dream next day, and then went to sleep again until morning.
The afternoon following, I went to my friend the chemist and said to him, “I dreamed last night that the crystals we spoke of were only Sulphate of Soda”, and he answered: “My assistant tested them last night and they are Sulphate of Soda and – dust”. I can only add that I had felt assured of the truth of the dream assertion, and experienced therefore no surprise when it was corroborated by the analyst: of course sulphate of soda is so common a salt to doctors, that in a clean state and with the crystals perfect – that is not crushed up, and unmixed with any other salt, any medical man or chemist ought to recognise them, being transparent colorless oblique prisms.
Regarding the operation of the law of Karma on beasts and other animals, there are numerous instances on record in our Shastras to show that a man can, by his Karma, become a beast in some future incarnation, and thus enjoy (?) the fruits of his Karma in that state. Some of our Hindu Occultists hold, therefore, that beasts in general have no Karma; it is only those among them which enjoy or suffer that have been men in some previous births. For if a man becomes very sensual, selfish, and materialistic, his higher principles remain, so to say, passive, while his lower ones become very active and strong by his Ahankaram being centred in them. After his death, therefore, these lower principles are not dispersed into their natural elements, but go to form the body, life and soul of a beast, whose class or species is determined by the prevailing passions and desires of the dead man. Thus a very cunning man becomes a fox; a ferocious one, a tiger; a great meat-eater, a vulture, and so on. Man is the Pindandam (microcosm), and every Jiva in the lower kingdoms symbolizes something within him. If he, therefore, centres his Ahankaram on any of his lower propensities, he cannot but become attracted to that which is the symbol of such propensities in him.
To become an animal is often but a step towards soul death, and gradual degradation brings on annihilation in some form or other. In connexion with 250the above, readers are requested to study some occult teachings, or rather very suggestive hints, in the Theosophist for July 1886.
Berhampur, Bengal.
In reply to the above correspondence, we cannot do better than quote from the “Five years of Theosophy”, (p. 536), signed H. P. Blavatsky, to which we would refer our readers for fuller details.
“(The Hindu doctrine of Metempsychosis) has a basis of truth; and, in fact, it is an axiomatic truth, but only in reference to human atoms and emanations, and that not only after a man’s death, but during the whole period of his life. The esoteric meaning of the laws of Manu (sec. XII, 3, and XII, 54 and 55), of the verses asserting that ‘every act, either mental, verbal or corporeal, bears good or evil fruit (Karma)’, that ‘the various transmigrations of men (not souls) through the highest middle and lowest stages are produced by their actions’, and again that ‘a Brahman-killer enters the body of a dog, bear, ass, camel, goat, sheep, bird, etc.’, bears no reference to the human Ego, but only to the atoms of his body, his lower triad and his fluidic emanations. It is all very well for the Brahmans to distort, in their own interest, the real meaning contained in these laws, but the words as quoted never meant what they were made to yield later on. The Brahmans applied them selfishly to themselves, whereas by ‘Brahman’, man's seventh principle, his immortal monad, and the essence of the personal Ego, were allegorically meant. He who kills or extinguishes in himself the light of Parabrahm, i.e., severs his personal Ego from the Atman, and thus kills the future Devachanee, becomes a ‘Brahman-killer’. Instead of facilitating, through a virtuous life and spiritual aspirations, the union of the Buddhi and the Manas, he condemns, by his own evil acts, every atom of his lower principles to become attracted and drawn in virtue of the magnetic affinity, thus created by his passions, into the bodies of lower animals. This is the real meaning of the doctrine of Metempsychosis. It is not that such amalgamation of human particles with animal or even vegetable atoms can carry in it any idea of personal punishment per se, for of course it does not. But it is a cause, the effects of which may manifest themselves throughout succeeding rebirths, unless the personality is annihilated. Otherwise, from cause to effect, every effect becoming in its turn a cause, they will run along the cycle of re-births, the once given impulse expending itself only at the threshold of Pralaya.”
It is needless, then, to add that the Eastern Philosophy countenances no belief in the transmigration of a man into any animal. Nature ever strives forward; according to the poetical expression of Eliphas Lévi: “The caterpillar becomes a butterfly, but the butterfly will never return to its primal state of a larva”. [Ed.]
[Ed.]
251
WE have received a short pamphlet entitled “Earth to Earth, Burial or Cremation by Fire”, by a Hygienic Physician, Nichols and Co., Hygienic Publishers, 23, Oxford Street. With regard to the first title it is proposed to bring in a Bill, embodying the following provisions:
“1. For burial in immediate and direct contact with the earth as the only legal mode of disposing of a dead body by burial.
“2. For a limitation of time beyond which it should be illegal to keep a dead body unburied, say seventy-two hours, unless there is no appearance of the signs of decomposition.
“3. For the illegality of strong coffins, brick graves and vaults, and of all contrivances having for their effect to retard dissolution, and to confer on the dead a tenure, practically illimitable, of the soil which is necessary to the purposes of the living.”
Cremation is then strongly advocated, the arguments being evidently addressed to the orthodox, who are the greatest opponents of rational reform in this direction; the writer is probably already assured of the vote of the heretics, who have proverbially initiated every step in progress, the world over.
In proving the permissibility of cremation on biblical grounds, our “Hygienic Physician” very pertinently puts the following conundrum to his orthodox objectors who maintain that “the resurrection of the body is thereby imperilled”; “What of martyrs burned for Christ’s sake – are they raised?”
As well remarked by the writer, there are occult reasons why cremation should be an imperative necessity, and all Theosophists should gladly welcome and hasten the day when this “purification by fire” will be an accomplished fact.
Hiero-Salem
253
Cultus Arborum
THIS small volume of a hundred pages professes to be “a descriptive account of Phallic Tree Worship” and is privately printed. A book on Phallicism privately printed is surely a bait sufficiently tempting for the lover of “curious literature”; we fear however that literary incubi will find too much about Tree Worship and too little about Phallicism to delay them long over the present exposition. We hope that the purity of treatment displayed in the Cultus Arborum sounds the death warrant of the old-school phallicism which reached its apex of absurdity in the dictum of Inman, that all straight lines were male, and all curved lines female, thus exhausting the subject and infecting all nature with the exhalation of his diseased imagination.
The Cultus Arborum is a very handy compilation of the myths, legends and customs which centre round Tree Worship. In fact the book deals almost entirely with a recital of the exoteric and superstitious aspects of dendrolatry, and if any reasons are adduced for this almost universal cult, they are confined entirely to the primæval-man and nature-cult theories, and to the “first principles of a natural theology”.
It may be here interesting to quote what the author of the Secret Doctrine[97] has to say on Phallicists in general, and on Tree Worship in particular.
“Whether viewed as a metaphysical or a physical symbol, the Tree and Serpent, jointly, or separately, have never been so degraded by antiquity as they are now, in this our age of the breaking of idols, not for truth’s sake, but to glorify the more gross matter. The revelations and interpretations in ‘The Rivers of Life’ would have astounded the worshippers of the Tree and Serpent in the days of archaic Chaldean and Egyptian wisdom; and even the early Saivas would have recoiled in horror at the theories and suggestions of the author of the said work..............
Symbologists and Orientalists .... if told that the mode of procreation, which the whole world of being has now in common on earth, is but a passing phase, a physical means of furnishing the conditions to, and producing the phenomena of life, which will alter with this, and disappear with the next Root-Race – would laugh at such a superstitious and unscientific idea...........The universe of living beings, of all those which procreate their species, is the living witness to the various modes of procreation in the evolution of animal, and human species and races; and the naturalist ought to sense this truth intuitionally, even though he is yet unable to demonstrate it. And how could he indeed, with the present mode of thought? The landmarks of the archaic history of the past are few and scarce, and those that men of science come across are mistaken for finger-posts of our little era.
Even so-called ‘Universal’ (?) history embraces but a tiny field in the almost boundless space of the unexplored regions of our latest, fifth Root-Race. Hence, every fresh sign-post, every new glyph of the hoary past that is discovered, is added to the old stock of information, to be interpreted on the same lines of pre-existing conceptions, and without any reference to the special cycle of thought which that particular glyph may belong to. How can Truth ever come to light if this method is never changed?”
That Tree symbology is capable of a lofty and sublime interpretation instead of the debasing and material signification in which “Phallicists” love to wallow with complacent grunting, is evident by the sequel of the above passage.
“In the beginning of their joint existence as a glyph of Immortal Being, the Tree and Serpent were divine imagery, truly. The Tree was reversed, and its roots were generated in
254
Heaven and grew out of the Rootless Root of all-being. Its trunk grew and developed, crossing the planes of Pleroma, it shot out crossways its luxuriant branches, first on the plane of hardly differentiated matter, and then downward till they touched the terrestrial plane. Thus, the Asvattha, tree of Life and Being, whose destruction alone leads to immortality, is said in the Bhagavatgita to grow with its roots above and its branches below (ch. xv). The roots represent the Supreme Being, or First Cause, the logos; but one has to go beyond these roots to unite oneself with Krishna, who, says Arjuna (xi), is greater than Brahman, and First Cause......................the indestructible, that which is, that which is not, and what is beyond them. Its boughs are Hiranyagharba (Brahmâ or Brahman in its highest manifestation, say Sridhara or Madhusûdana), the highest Dhyan Chohans or Devas. The Vedas are its leaves. He only who goes beyond the roots shall never return, i.e., shall reincarnate no more during this ‘age’ of Brahmâ.
It is only when its pure boughs had touched the terrestrial mud of the garden of Eden, of our Adamic race, that this Tree got soiled by the contact and lost its pristine purity: and that the Serpent of Eternity – the heaven-born logos – was finally degraded.”
It is to be regretted that the anonymous author of Cultus Arborum has omitted from his lists, and reading, the one book which throws any real light on this interesting subject.
Theosophical Activities
Dr. Bowles Daly has delivered an effective lecture in the Theosophical Hall, Colombo, on Buddhism and Christianity. Dr. Daly said, we learn from the Buddhist, that
“he worked as a clergyman for some time, in the East End of London. He found that the spiritual wants of the people were not met by the doctrines of Christianity. The churches for the most part were filled by singing and ritualistic services; doles of food and coal tickets were given by some to procure good congregations.............Dr. Daly stated that he renounced Christianity and came to the East to study Oriental religions – particularly Buddhism – because the philosophy of Buddha appeals more to common sense than the docrine of vicarious sacrifice, the keynote of the religion of Christ. The backbone of Christianity is to throw all sins on the shoulders of the Founder, and sneak into heaven in a cowardly manner. The lecturer did not think this method either honest or manly. He would rather suffer for his own sins than purchase eternal happiness by so contemptible a method. But in Buddhism we find the excellent law of Karma. If one lives a bad life here, he takes a lower seat in the next; therefore to secure a higher seat he should live a good life, cultivate the gifts he has, and finally secure Nirvana.”
The lecture was listened to with much pleasure and attention.
Discoursing on Karma, the high priest Sumangala said that
“Gautama condemned three doctrines as errors. It is false to say (1) that all events are ruled by the Karma of previous existences alone, or (2) that events occur solely by the providence of a Creator, or (3) by chance. For (1) would go against the doctrine of Free will: Fatalism. (2) would throw the responsibility of crimes on a God: Anthropomorphism (3) would make men indifferent to exertion: Materialism.”
Dr. Bowles Daly has visited and lectured at Wellawatta, at Panadura, and at Bentota. At the first-named place is a Buddhist Girls' School, which has been named, at Dr. Daly’s suggestion, the “Blavatsky School for Girls”.
255
“Later advices (24th January) confirm what was said last month about the gratifying effect of Colonel Olcott’s tour in Japan. Mr. Konin Kobayashi, a well-known priest of the Hongwanji temple, at Nagoya, writes in high spirits about the present state of the public mind about Buddhism.
“‘It is incredible,’ he says, ‘how many associations have sprung up to promote the interest of our beloved Buddhist religion. Not only this, but a great many papers and magazines have appeared as Buddhist advocates! Truly, considering the short period of but a year, what our brethren have done to the good of our country is quite astonishing, We can't hesitate to ascribe this great blessing to you. I, representing the Yamato Minzoku of 40,000,000, thank you with all my heart. Pray accept my best thanks. At the time you visited our country Christians and superstitious fellows tried to cause false reports to be spread, and even they went so far as to say that your visit was only for the sake of money and fame. It is true that one of our missionaries, called Cashday, staying at Shidsu Oka, declared publicly just before your arrival that there is no religionist by the name of Colonel Olcott. But the sound of salutation to you at Kobe Minato exposed his lie. He was impeached, blamed, and attacked by his Japanese fellow Christians. Members began to desert him gradually, and he is left behind with the nickname of “the greatest liar in the world”. Even the incredulity of Nippon Jin began to lose faith in Christianity on the whole. It has now become a general opinion that Christianity is against and antagonistic to our nationality, and detrimental to our country.
“‘It was just three years ago that we organized a Society called Hon Kyokwai here at Nagoya. It has been advancing favorably under the presidency of Prof. Nanjo, and now is standing upon a solid foundation, having about 5,000 members. The magazine regularly published in our Society goes to as many readers as 4,500. It surely helps to stimulate them to improve their virtue and purify their own hearts. Indeed the condition of all Buddhist associations is very encouraging. A few days ago a great religious meeting was held here, the most celebrated priest from each sect being present; very interesting speeches were delivered. President Nanjo gave a lecture too. It was a quite remarkable thing that we could see them working hand in hand; the animosity hitherto too prevalent between all sects being turned away and pacified. I am very glad to say that we can hereafter work together. We can see our great work accomplished much sooner, I am sure, because unity is strength. Moreover, a Buddhist Ladies’ Association is to be started as a sister of our Society, with the purpose of producing good mothers and wise sisters.’”
On April 25th, South Place Chapel, Finsbury, was comfortably filled for Herbert Burrows’ lecture on “The Soundness of Theosophy”. The lecture was an admirable one, and was listened to with great attention. At the close many questions were asked and answered, and a long discussion ensued.
J. T. Campbell, F.T.S., lectured in the Assembly Rooms, Mile End, on May 4th, on Theosophy and its detractors.
The American “Tract Mailing Scheme” has now taken form here in England, and will soon be disseminating Theosophical leaflets in this country. The sums of £10 and £5 have already been given by friends for the purchase of tracts, and it is hoped that all those who sympathize in this work will either contribute in time or money to keep in activity what may possibly prove a most valuable centre of Theosophical work. A committee is formed to carry out the plan, headed by 256Mrs. Gordon, 7, Nevern Road, Earl's Court, S.W., to whom all communications should be addressed.
On Friday, April 18th, a new Lodge was opened at Brixton, under the presidency of H. A. W. Coryn. After some discussion it was decided to adopt the title of the “Philaletheian Lodge of the Theosophical Society” for the new centre. For the present, the Lodge meets in a room of the Bedford Road Liberal Club, one minute’s walk from the Clapham Road station, every alternate Friday, at 8.30 p.m. The next meeting is on May 23rd. Members of the Society and enquirers are cordially invited to these meetings, and it is hoped that the presence and collaboration of our London members will prove their practical sympathy with the new effort of their brother Theosophists.
Theosophical Activities in Sweden
When the thought of constituting a branch of the Theosophical Society in Stockholm arose in the minds of some of its present members, nobody could have imagined that this idea would be embraced with so much interest that the number of the members would, in little more than a year, increase to nearly 100. Those members belong to different classes, trades, and professions. We have physicians, lawyers, officers, and soldiers represented among us. Several Freemasons have also joined the lodge, one of them belonging to the highest degree of the order. Besides our ordinary meetings twice a month, one member of the council has given monthly receptions, crowded with both Theosophists and non-Theosophists. Theosophical topics have been very eagerly discussed and new acquaintances have been formed. In order to facilitate the work of our President, who alone hitherto had the charge of the lodge, a committee, consisting of five persons, has been nominated to criticise and examine books and translations, and judge of their suitableness for our pamphlets or for discussion. The committee seems to work with great interest and zeal. At our ordinary meetings articles written by members and translations have been read, and such subjects as Karma, Reincarnation, Devachan, and the difference between Theosophy and the teachings of the so-called Christian Church, have been discussed. A great number of these translations have been inserted in our pamphlets, whereof the thirteenth has just appeared, containing “Practical Theosophy” and “The Valley of the Quest”.
Our lodge is consequently improving, thanks to the increasing numbers of its members and the activity of its work. We have, therefore, every reason to look hopefully to the future. A more tranquil period will, however, soon approach, people leaving town during June-September, the “dead season” of our country, and all meetings will be suspended during those months.
A. C.
Our Letter from America
While a generally healthful activity prevails throughout the Theosophical Society in the United States, it offers little, just at the present time, to justify specialised remark. The membership of the organization increases numerically steadily, and with marked acceleration in the rate of growth. All the branches are larger than they were six months ago, and in a very considerable number of them – as, for instance, “Brooklyn”, N.Y.; “Aurora”, Oakland, Cal.; and “Gautama”, San Diego, Cal. – the increase of membership during the past year has been from 100 to 300 per cent. In this, perhaps, the Society is only demonstrating the accepted fact that the growth of an order is like the accumulation of a fortune – the more one has the easier it is to get more. The second hundred are less difficult to gain than the first fifty, whether of dollars or adherents. But it is also 257very apparent that the influence of example is a less potent factor in the enlargement of Theosophic fields of endeavor, in this country, than the weight of popular interest in, and sympathy with, Theosophic knowledge and principles. The relaxation of the old established creed-limitations and the liberalization of thought, even among the diametrically opposed schools of Materialists and Christian dogmatists, have been so marked here, that people at large have commenced to think for themselves with a freedom that but a few years since was almost unknown. And the more they think the more inevitably they come to accept the truths of the Wisdom-religion. Ample evidence is afforded that there are many thousands of persons in these United States, who, although not as yet enrolled upon the lists of the Theosophical Society, are truly Theosophists at heart. Other affiliations they still nominally have, sects and creeds yet retain some hold upon them, but their faces are turned toward the light, their feet set upon the path that leads to its source. Of inestimable service in spreading the knowledge necessary to give proper direction to this tendency has been the “Tract Scheme” put in operation at the office of the General Secretary. The admirable simplicity and effectiveness of the system have by this time had full demonstration. Seventy-four persons have taken active and persistent share in the work of distribution, and by far the larger part of the 130,000 leaflets experimentally printed at the outset have already been circulated in such a way that their perusal has been pretty well assured. Considerable sums have been invested by others in tracts and copies of the “Wilkesbarre Letters”, which they have put in the hands of friends and acquaintances, outside the “tract scheme”, and no less than 337 dollars have been contributed to defray expenses by those who could better spare cash than time or labor to aid the work. While Theosophic interest grew almost wholly by the local activity of the Theosophical Society Branches and was dependent upon them, it practically existed only in their respective circumscribed spheres, and its slow spread from each might be likened to the growth of new plants in a small circle about a parent stem, from the seeds dropped by it. But under this new method of systematic sowing of seed the field is covered with growing grain, from which an early and abundant harvest may be confidently predicted. Much general interest is felt in the coming Convention of the American section of the Theosophical Society which is held in Chicago, April 27th and 28th, and the importance of its proceedings and the character of the papers already known to have been prepared for that occasion, are deemed sufficient warrant for the issue of an extraordinarily large number of the reports, for use as “campaign documents”. One of the ablest papers furnished in advance for the printers is by Dr. Jerome A. Anderson, of San Francisco, upon “Materialism, Agnosticism, and Theosophy”. A discussion has been going on in the Aryan Theosophical Society (New York) upon the accuracy and correct significance of certain terms of necessarily common employment in Theosophical literature, especially “principles”. The conclusion arrived at is that “sheaths” or “vehicles” would be more correct. This branch, by the way, was recently incorporated under the laws of the State of New York, and already possesses a fund of over $1,000, deposited in a savings bank, as a foundation upon which earnest and sanguine members see, with eyes of faith, a stately Society building, slowly but surely emerging from its present subjective to an objective condition.
New York, April 18th, 1890.
The Golden Gate Lodge of San Francisco
“The Golden Gate Lodge of San Francisco has been unusually active in Theosophical Society work during the last two months. Mr. Bertram Keightley has spoken at the regular Sunday open meetings to large audiences, and the public press has teemed with Theosophical notices and reports. In fact, the Pacific coast has been alive with interest in Theosophy at many points. Six Charters in
258
California have been applied for since the beginning of 1890, an Executive Committee formed to systematically carry on general Theosophical Society work of all kinds, print and disseminate Theosophical Society literature, form new Theosophical Society centres, organise new Branches, etc. The headquarters of the Executive Committee are already established at 13, Mason Street, San Francisco. Quite a large Theosophical Library is open to the general public without charge, and on some days twenty persons call for books and Theosophical Society information. Subscriptions are taken for Theosophical books and magazines.”
The American Convention
We have very great pleasure in publishing extracts from the following private letter of Bertram Keightley which has just been received as we are going to press: –
My dear H. P. B.,
“The Convention has been a splendid success; mainly I think owing to the new life and spirit of work which the E. S. has infused into the Society. The papers I send herewith will tell you about the Convention itself; but I want you to know how many sincere expressions of devotion to yourself and the Masters I have been charged to transmit. I cannot remember all the names, but mention especially (here follow names). There are just dozens of others, and the vote to you (cabled by Judge) was most enthusiastic. This is, in the opinion of every one present, especially of Judge and Buck, much the best and most successful Convention we have held here, and the promise for the future is very gratifying.
“There were crowds of visitors present at the open meetings. . . . One thing is plain; Theosophy has got real solid hold here in America, a hold that nothing can shake. The tone of the Press is quite changed from ridicule and abuse to respectful attention, if not active interest; and above all many members are beginning to work in real earnest.
“One thing struck me much: it is the cordial feeling of comradeship and brotherhood that animated the Convention. Everyone seemed to fraternize with everyone else, and the ball was kept rolling all the time.
“Dr. Anderson of San Francisco asked me, in the name of all the Branches on the Coast, and especially from the E. S. members, to convey to you the heartiest and most cordial expressions of their gratitude and devotion.
“The work is progressing there apace and they have organized a Lecture Bureau and are going to work up the smaller towns and by degrees spread a network of Branches all over the country. I think they will succeed, as the soil and people form a regular hot-bed for Theosophy, and it takes root there and spreads like wild fire.
Theosophical Activities (editorial conclusion)
With such accounts pouring in upon us, of which the above is but a single specimen, we are fairly at a loss to understand the spirit which prompts some people to make it their chief business to reiterate on every opportunity such baseless slanders as that “In India Theosophy is ‘in articulo mortis’; in America it has been ‘killed outright’ by ridicule and exposure of its pretences; and here in this country (England), its autopsy is being held, its obsequies are imminent, and its funeral oration already prepared”. What good, we wonder, can come of such wholesale and unscrupulous misrepresentation? What worthy object served thereby? Do such misguided and shortsighted individuals imagine that they can 259thus deceive the public with impunity? We hardly think so; for when the public learns the truth, which it can hardly fail to do, such denunciations will be simply called lies.
In our next issue a full account of the Convention will appear.
"Going To and Fro in the Earth"
NUMBERS are the oddest things! Take 37. If 37 be multiplied in turn by each of the figures in the arithmetical progression 3, 6, 9, . . . 27, each product is composed of a triple repetition of one figure: –
| 37 | 37 | 37 | 37 | 37 | 37 | 37 | 37 | 37 |
| 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 27 |
| 111 | 222 | 333 | 444 | 555 | 666 | 777 | 888 | 999 |
Another oddity is 142,857. Multiply this by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and every product will consist only of the figures 142,857, beginning with a different one each time, and then following in sequence. We have 142,857; 285,714; 428,571; 571,428; 714,285; 857,142. When we multiply it by 7 we obtain 999,999. With 8 for a multiplier the product is 1,142,856, and taking the one from the beginning and adding it to the 6 at the end, we recover 142,857.
An American brother sends us the following:
One of the most wonderful discoveries in science that have been made within the last year or two is the fact that a beam of light produces sound, says the American Art Journal. A beam of sunlight is thrown through a lens on a glass vessel that contains lampblack, colored silk or worsted, or other substances. A disk having slits or openings cut in it, is made to revolve swiftly in this beam of light, so as to cut it up, thus making alternate flashes of light and shadow. On putting the ear to the glass vessel, strange sounds are heard so long as the flashing beam is falling on the vessel.
Recently, a more wonderful discovery has been made. A beam of sunlight is made to pass through a prism, so as to produce what is called the solar spectrum, or rainbow. The disk is turned, and the colored light of the rainbow is made to break through it. Now place the ear to the vessel containing the silk, wool, or other material. As the colored lights of the spectrum fall upon it, sounds will be given by different parts of the spectrum, and there will be silence in other parts.
For instance, if the vessel contains red worsted, and the green light flashes upon it, loud sounds will be given. Only feeble sounds will be heard when the red and blue parts of the rainbow fall upon the vessel, and other colors make no sound at all. Green silks give sound best in red light. Every kind of material gives more or less sound in different colors, and utters no sound in others. The discovery is a strange one, and it is thought more wonderful things will come from it.
Mr. Keely is still at work, and is obtaining some remarkable results, judging from a report which reaches us from “the other side”. He gave a wonderful exhibition, at New York, before Professor Leidy, president of the Philadelphia 260Academy of Natural Sciences, and three or four others, of his “sympathetic transmitter”, which is thus described in the Philadelphia Inquirer by a witness of the experiments: –
“There was a cupboard about thirty inches high, on which stood a cylinder of what looked like bronze, fitted with a concentric series of upright tubes one half inch in diameter, also of the same metal, surrounded at its base with a series of graduated horizontal rods, solid and evidently of some resonant metal, and capped by a bell-shaped metal cup, in which appeared to be several tuning forks about four inches long, set parallel to each other. The cupboard door was open. Inside it appeared a curious-looking harp and a glass ball, to which Keely put his ear every now and then to see whether he had hit the proper ‘sympathetic chord’ on the resonant rods and on the harp-like instrument.
“In front of the cylinder above mentioned was a brass spindle, which was set in motion by a cord wound around it and suddenly pulled. The cylinder was connected by a ‘silver and platinum’ wire to a copper weight on which was placed a metal dish, and in the dish a magnetic needle. When the spindle had been set spinning, says the reporter: –
“Mr. Keely began striking the strings of the harp, and tentatively seeking with the other hand a responsive chord among the resonant rods on top of the cupboard. When what he called ‘B flat’ was touched on both rod and harp-string, the magnetic needle gave a shiver, distinctly visible to everybody, and began slowly to revolve from left to right. In a half minute it was going so fast as to be almost invisible. Keely didn’t go near to it, but sat by the cupboard with his hands in his pockets. The spindle revolved all the while, and the echoes of the note came from the cupboard.
“Mr. Keely said that the force already generated was sufficient to keep the needle revolving at the rate of 120 revolutions a second for fourteen weeks.
“When the observers had done admiring this production of motive force out of nothing, Mr. Keely took two glass jars filled with water. In one he put a hollow copper globe loaded with nails, weighing altogether five pounds and six ounces, and in the other three brass balls of somewhat less weight. Wire connexions were made from the brass tops of these glass jars to the cylinder on his motive apparatus. The spindle was whirled again and Keely again sounded the harp and the resonant bars. From this point the report continues: –
“‘What are you doing now?’ asked Dr. Leidy.
“‘I am trying’, said Keely, ‘to get the mass chord of that copper sphere full of nails’. The search for the mass chord continued on the ‘harp’ and the resonant rods. A deep, clear note resounded from both at the same time, and at the instant it broke on the ear the heavy copper globe quivered as it lay at the bottom of the water, rolled over, and reluctantly, as it were, abandoning the ties by which gravity held it to the bottom of the jar, floated, at first slowly and then more swiftly and steadily, to the top of the jar, against which it impinged with an audible concussion. Dr. Leidy was asked this question:
“‘Doctor, is it true that this unknown force, or what is here maintained as such, has actually before our eyes overcome the force of gravity with which we are all familiar?’ And the answer, slowly, deliberately, was: ‘I see no escape from that conclusion’.
“In a similar manner the three brass balls were made to rise to the surface and then descend half way and remain stationary at that point. There was more of the same sort, including the transmission of the force by a silk thread from one room to another.
“When it was all over, Dr. Leidy seems to have given the alleged discovery a
261
rather startling endorsement. Here is the concluding sentence (quoting him) of the Inquirer's letter: –
“‘You may announce to the world, on my authority, that John E. W. Keely has discovered a new and wonderful force.’”
The following paragraph is being widely circulated in America: –
“. . . . The Inter Ocean recalls a prophecy printed by the Bavarian Allgemeine Zeitung, in August, 1857, from a hermit, who said that Germany would have three Emperors in one year before the end of the century, which was verified to the letter. He missed one, at least, in the number of United States Presidents that were to die by assassination, which was remarkably close, to say the least. He said that when the twentieth century opened, Manhattan Island and the whole of New York City would be submerged. Cuba will break in two, and the west half find a watery resting place.”
The American Convention
AS we are going to press we hear of the unqualified success of the Chicago Theosophical Convention. Only one press cutting has as yet reached us – the following important leader from the Inter-Ocean:
Whatever aims at the discovery or expression of truth merits the candid and unprejudiced consideration of reasoning men. Individual dissent from a declared opinion does not carry with it the right to cast ridicule upon that opinion; nor are all things that we cannot indorse deserving of our contempt. When a new idea is born into the world or an old one revised it behoves just and intelligent minds to view it with care lest an essential truth be lost to human enjoyment. There is just now meeting in this city a society that has engaged the serious attention of some excellent minds, though its principles seem not to be in accord with what the great majority of the civilised world accepts as the theory of life. Not altogether well understood by many who have attempted to discredit it, theosophy has gradually developed such strength in the last fifteen years that it can no longer be treated as a fad at which the unthinking may jest and gibe. Only grounds as reasonable and as logical as its own will serve as the basis of opposition, and they who are inclined to look upon the theosophist as in some way allied to the atheist, the infidel, and the materialist, will at least have to combat him differently. Particularly at this time, when there is a great mental unrest throughout the world, when the uncertainty of many things long accepted as matters of faith perplexes the intelligence, and when men and nations are feverous with the strong desire of knowing, does theosophy seem to offer an inviting field for intellectual and moral experiment. There is so much in it that is purely rational, it exerts a peculiar fascination upon the inquiring mind; and we are apt to fall into sympathy with the philosophy that stimulates our faculties and sends them exploring new avenues that feed thought and delight fancy.
Theosophy is popularly supposed to be but another name for Buddhism; it is really, to use the term of one of its supporters, “the philosophical re-incarnation” of that archaic religion, by which we are to understand that it is upon a higher, more advanced plane. It was explained by one of the speakers in the first day’s session of the Theosophist Convention that there is nothing inconsistent with pure religion in the philosophy in which representatives of all prime faiths have been able to find consolation, its cardinal principles being indeed the very founda262tion of the Christian religion, as many contend. But, in the discussion of new problems, we are obliged to accept the premises, and in considering theosophy we must accept the definition of the term given by professed theosophists. One of the society says of it: “Its cardinal doctrine is the absolute equality of human rights and the universal obligation to respect them. If my neighbor’s possessions – of feeling, property, happiness, what not – are as much to be regarded as are mine, and if I feel that, I shall not invade them. If I perceive the true fraternity of man, if I am in accord with the law of sympathy it evokes, if I realize that the richest pleasure comes from giving rather than receiving food, I shall not be passively unaggressive, I shall be actively beneficent. In other words, I shall be a true philanthropist. And in being this I shall have gained the highest reach of happiness to self, for ‘he that loseth his life, the same shall save it’. You say that this is a Christian text? Very well; it is also the epitome of theosophy.”
Theosophy insists that we can be only that which we have willed to be and that no power above will thwart or divert us from the course of action to which we set ourselves. Hence it urges the putting away of selfishness as the first step toward giving power of development to the divinity within us. It postulates that the origin of all evil toward God, toward man, or toward self is self-love, a self-love so strong that it sacrifices everything rather than its own indulgence. To achieve Karma, for such is the name of the doctrine of pure justice, is to regenerate the world, a task too great for one life, man’s development requiring more than his natural years; hence the theory of re-incarnation enters into the theosophic philosophy. The followers of this church believe not merely that a man must be born again, but that he must be born many times again, passing through a gradual process of change from the lowest to the highest condition, the last change of all seeming to be a vanishing point. Whatever may be the individual opinion of the merits of theosophy it has for a time re-entered the thoughts of men as a moral science, and must be dealt with courageously and wisely. It may not be whiffed away by scorn, by contumely, or by laughter. It is not a fad; it is an absolute philosophy, however much of untruth may attach to it. Only philosophically can it be reduced to its proper place in the province of thought, if reduced it is to be.
Our Budget
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Already Acknowledged | 298 | 18 | 6 |
| Count Bubna £5 5s., not £5 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Subtotal | 299 | 3 | 6 |
| Subscriptions received to May 8th: | |||
| H. A. V. | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| W. Kingsland | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| A. A. | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Edge | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A. J. Wilson | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Hel | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| Major Hand | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| A Theosophist | 250 | 0 | 0 |
| Y. | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| S. | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Mrs. E. Wilkinson | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Mme. de Neufville | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| T. Green | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| G. C. B. | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| E. F. Williams | 0 | 10 | 6 |
| Irish F. T. S. | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Caroline Marshall | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| L. J. W. | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| A. Friend | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| W. Q. B. | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Robert Roy | 15 | 15 | 0 |
| A friend, per Mme. Blavatsky | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| T. H. Wright | 2 | 10 | 0 |
| R. Boyinton | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| W. Wynn Westcott | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 760 | 7 | 0 |
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Y. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Jerome P. Ruders | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| American Friend | 2 | 0 | 0 |
263
Theosophical and Mystic Publications
THE THEOSOPHIST for April, after an interesting paper by H. S. O. on the history of the Buddhist Monastic Order in Lanka (Ceylon), with reference to the elevation of H. Sumangala Thero to the dignity and authority of Maha Nayaka (High Priest) of the Low Country of Ceylon, gives a very carefully written paper by E. O. Fawcett on “Psychology and Neo-materialism”. It sounds like the grinding of the flints of neophilosophy into powder, and we hope that E. D. F. will some day mix this powder with the water of wisdom and construct a graceful edifice for wearied travellers with flint-cut feet to sojourn in. The first instalment of a paper on “Will and its relation to Conscience”, by Ikbal Kishen Sharga, promises well. Rama Prasad concludes his article on the “Prophecy of the Bhâgavata as to the future Rulers of India”. According to his interpretation of the prophecy the rule of the Mannas, or English, will cease in a.c. 2127. The translation of the “Neralamba-Upanishad of the Sukla-Yajur-Veda” is concluded; its high philosophical excellence is evidenced in the following catechumenical couplet. “What is Naraka (hell)? It is the association with that which brings about this mundane existence which is Asat (false)”. In No. VI. of “Elohistic teachings”, Dr. Henry Pratt gives a paper on the Christiani and Chrestiani, but we do not think that the Gnostics would have quite agreed with all he says. The paper by P. R. Venkatarama Iyer, on the “Symbolism in ‘Yagna’”, is perhaps the most interesting of all for students of esoteric philosophy. “Yagna” means sacrifice, and our brother shows how the famous Animal, Vulture, Rajasuya, Horse and Nara Sacrifices, are the “killing-out” of lower qualities, the passions and the rest.
The Path starts its fifth year with the April number. Long life to our contemporary and may its shadow never diminish! The first paper is by Alexander Fullerton who advocates in a most practical manner that Theosophy should be popularized. We next come to an engraving of the Head Quarters at Adyar which will no doubt be gazed at with great pleasure and interest by all the readers of The Path, and also with a feeling of regret that a place of which we have all heard so much is so far away. The article by Dr. Buck on the practical and ethical conduct of a Theosophist is as excellent as all that comes from his pen. Two other papers to be noticed are “Responsibility for Right and Wrong Action”, and “Means to the End”.
Le Lotus Bleu continues its useful task of translating the “Key to Theosophy” and “Magic White and Black”. Louis Dramard’s letters are continued, and the paper on the “Planetary Chain” by Guymiot sketches very clearly the general idea of the subject. There is no doubt that the Lotus Bleu is working on very practical lines and that it will do much towards placing the fundamental concepts of Theosophy before the French public. But to do that it will have to abstain from retranslating old articles about Spiritism which have gone the round of all the Spiritualistic papers fifteen years ago. Theosophists are not interested in, nor are they concerned with, materialized spooks – be they even Katie King herself of Scientific-Spiritualistic memory.
The Buddhist, vol. ii, Nos. 13-16, contains much interesting reading, especially the translations from the Pali Scriptures. In the conclusion of his article on “Nirvana”, D. C. Pedris, F.T.S. protests indignantly against the fallacy that Gautama’s teachings “tended towards the most fatal and heretical Doctrine of a complete negation of Existence hereafter”. A list of twenty-one Branches of the Ceylon Section T.S. is printed and from the activities published everybody must be convinced that our Buddhist brothers are rapidly learning the secret of that “Self-help” which alone can make Theosophy succeed. In Nos. 15 and 16, Dr. J. Bowles Daly’s name figures prominently; our Ceylon members evidently pressed him into service as soon as his feet touched 264the historic shores of Lanka. The addresses of Dr. Daly are characterized by a useful simplicity of style and breathe forth a very practical spirit, his speeches being illustrated by incidents and anecdotes drawn from a long personal experience with the awful misery of the East End of our great Metropolis, and of the incapability of the State Church to grapple with it. Articles are still being written on the “Eating of Flesh” and we fear that casuistry is prominent in some of the arguments. For instance, to prove that Gautama allowed meat eating for his Bhikshus, the following text is quoted: – “I permit the use of flesh and fish when it is free from three objections, namely, that the killing of the animal has not been seen, has not been heard of, has not been suspected”. Now leaving out of the question the authenticity of the teaching, we object to the casuistical interpretation that a Bhikshu can eat meat if he does not suspect that it has been killed “to provide meat for him”. Unless the Bhikshu is an idiot, he must know that an animal has been killed – and that it matters not whether especially for him or not; if he eats it, he countenances “killing”. Meat is not killed for any particular person nowadays. In the great slaughterhouses of Chicago, animals are done to death by hundreds of thousands amidst the most revolting surroundings; they are slaughtered for meat-eating humanity, and every unit of this whole is responsible for his share, vicarious or otherwise, of this wholesale butchery. But why do our Buddhist brothers lay such stress on the texts? surely they are not Christians, and in so doing they directly disobey the teachings of the Tathagata. Let common reason guide us in this, and while avoiding extremes and urging a forced vegetarianism on laymen, still guard ourselves from countenancing the animalism of the present exaggerated form of carnivorism.
The Theosophical Forum is an excellent little pamphlet of twelve pages under the direction of W. Q. Judge, General Secretary of the American Section T. S. It consists of answers to questions which are often of a most searching and difficult nature, and of answers which reflect much credit on the editor and his staff. Copies are distributed to all members of the T. S. in the United States and may also be purchased at The Path Office and at 2, Duke Street, Adelphi. Eleven numbers have already been issued and we can confidently promise our readers an intellectual treat in their perusal.
Editorial Announcements
We received from the President-Founder, just in time for this month’s issue, an interesting article on the famous “Barisal Gun”. Unfortunately, on our reposting it to our printers, the postman delivered it in a wrong letter-box, and it did not reach their hands until it was too late to set it up. It will appear in our next.
It is found absolutely necessary to raise, in future, the subscription price of Lucifer, by the addition of postage. At the present time, subscribers obtain it for 15s. a year, post free, and as 2s. 6d. of this goes for postage, they pay for it only 1s. 0½d. per copy, a reduction greater than is made on any other magazine. For the future, the annual subscription will be 17s. 6d., but all subscribers now on the books will be supplied at the old rate until the expiry of their subscriptions. The increase in price does not apply to members of the Theosophical Society.
No. 34 – June 1890
265
The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any opinions, whether religious, philosophical or social, expressed in signed articles.
Black Magic in Science
Hermetic Notes
278
Har-dwar; or the Mysteries of the Himalayas
WHEN I came to my senses, I found myself in a cavern upon a bed of dry leaves, a block of wood burning a little way from my feet, myself wondering that a spark from the log had not set the dry leaves on fire and myself as well. I threw a glance around me, but nobody was there. Was the cavern inhabited? It must have been so. At the entrance I could see a bed of Rama Tulasi (Basillicum album), evidently the result of human attention. None but a man would have lighted the fire near my feet – prepared the rude bed upon which I lay; the man perhaps away for a while to look to the necessities of his forest life. I was not left long in suspense. Human footsteps rustled in the dry leaves in leisurely motion, and before a minute passed I saw in front of me the figure of a Bava Yogi, all smeared with ashes. What a joy it was to look at that glorious forehead! The eyes scarcely moving or wandering about, the index of a concentrative mind given up to abstractions. I was not allowed to amuse myself long over that passive expression, for the Yogi, to my great surprise, accosting me by my name, asked me in a melodious voice, “Child, how do you feel? Will you eat something after your eighty-four hours’ sleep?” “Eighty-four hours’ sleep!” echoed I, “And where was I all the while? Upon this bed and near this fire! Please say where am I now? How far away from Har-dwar? Who saved me from death? Was I not locked in the embrace of death – my knees broken, a cobra twined round my neck, myself fainting?” And without waiting for his answer to any of these inquiries, I went on putting him a dozen more, and then stopped out of sheer exhaustion.
The Yogi felt much interested by these series of questions, and answered me with a smile on his lips, “How do you say; you were locked in the embrace of death? Is the savior of your life, the same thing as death?”
“What!” said I, “a serpent twined round my neck the savior of my life!”
“Listen, child!” said he, “I saw thee in Brahmaranya, in the vicinity of Har-dwar, as thou layest senseless, with a cobra twined round thy neck, hissing at a panther that was prowling round thee to feed on thy flesh. Had it not been for the serpent thou would long since have been converted into the tissues of a wild panther. As I passed by thee, I saw the danger of thy position and I brought thee down safe into this my cavern.” “How”, said I, “could you save me from my danger? Were not you afraid of the panther and the serpent? Oh! I have to thank you as the savior of my life, if I am really alive and this is no post-mortem dream.”
“Afraid! dream!” ejaculated he, “I might as well be afraid of myself and believe I am dreaming, even though it is but a very few years since I have felt the line of demarcation between dream and wakefulness. What people call dream in sleep, I call the dawn of wakefulness, and what they call wakefulness I call a dream. And again, why should I be afraid of 10,000 serpents and tigers, if I breathe in them and they in me? Now here in my cavern you are for the last eighty-four hours, seventy miles away from Har-dwar, since I picked you up.”
“Am I seventy miles away from Har-dwar? And how many days did 279it take you to bring me here, in this thick Himalayan forest? Surely there is no railway here?”
“How many days?” said he, “and why not moments? It would have taken me an equal time to bring you here whether from Har-dwar or from the other end of the world. But stop this prattling. Do not you feel inclined to eat something? Say! what would you have?”
I was confused beyond all description by the curious and mysterious answers that he gave me, and yet I could not make up my mind not to believe him. I requested him to give me something to eat which would appease my hunger and do me good. He went into a corner of the cavern and brought me a few roots, the like of which I never in my life had seen before. He peeled them for me, and gave me to eat, saying they would give perfect nourishment both to my body and mind. I need not enter into any further details of this my repast, save that I liked it. My meal over, I begged of him to give me some water to drink, and this, too, he gave me in a cup of leaves. How sweet and refreshing the drink was! Could it be the leaves that made it so?
After this simple but substantial repast was over, I felt very much refreshed, and the intense curiosity that the Yogi had excited within me by his mysterious ways of speaking and the marvellous things that he said, stimulated me to put him further questions.
“May I ask you, Guru Maharaja”, said I, “whether you were serious when you said to me that you brought me here from Har-dwar in a few moments, and that you were not at all afraid of wild beasts and poisonous reptiles? I cannot comprehend at all what you desire me to understand, by saying you breathe in them and they in you.”
“Child”, said he, “to give you a clear idea of these my expressions, means to expect one who does not know anything about elementary numerals to follow higher mathematics through all their complexities. Would not one of your ancestors who knew nothing about electricity, have been surprised to hear you say that you had means to communicate with your friends at the Antipodes, even as you are at a loss to comprehend how I could save you from danger and bring you here? A serpent! A panther! And what are they? Why do they exist? Are they meaningless creations? Are they not the results and fulfilments of grand laws working to exhibit the relations of Maya (Illusion), to Para-Brahma (Eternal Existence); and of spirit to matter? Before Newton propounded the law of gravitation, working amidst suns, and moons, and stars, did it not bind man, animals, and their belongings in this planet to the earth, and the respective Creations in each of the innumerable planets to them? Did apples then not fall to the ground because man did not inquire why? Did earth not revolve because man could not reconcile at first the idea of the revolution of the earth, with the fixity of the polar star? Oh rigidity of human mind! It can comprehend at last the perpetual motions and changes of positions of innumerable bodies through space, each millions of tons in weight, and would not pause to reflect, before not believing, how a boy a few quarters in weight could be brought to this, my cave, from Har-dwar. The laws that bind spirit to matter, to living organic existences, to light, heat, electricity, and magnetism, and numerous other manifestations of visible or invisible forces, known or unknown to science, do exist and do work, without caring a jot whether the objects they act upon feel their influence or not. When you put a stone in a sling and aim at a bird, does the stone know that it is under the influence of the combined forces of thy will, arm, and gravitation, or the resultant of these combined forces, when let loose, and though it strikes the bird, has it any power to perceive the aim for which it was let loose? So are these panthers and serpents, even thyself in a state of forgetfulness. They are so many living things, existing and evolving under the influence of certain definite laws as mere objective beings, work280ing their aim, but knowing it not with the same degree of lucidity. Living a life, but feeling it not with the same degree of consciousness. The only difference between you and the stone, or the panther and the serpent, is that they are objective creations, with no power to perceive their subject, while you, though objective, have in you a highly evolved germ of consciousness, to see thy subject – feel its identity in that germ, to assimilate thyself to it, to get over the forgetfulness, during which thy consciousness of the real is lost in the force and feeling of the unreal. However, I do not want to encourage in you a blind faith in my words. I have an aim in bringing you here, which would be far from fulfilled, if I went on talking to you in a language, which though a language of conviction to me, would not be the same to you, a child of the 19th century to begin with. Suffice it for you to know, that the fruit of the tree of knowledge is not forbidden, nor if eaten, brings any curse upon one who gets filled with it. And I am no Mara, if I tell you that as soon as you are better, I shall expect you to speak out to me your resolution, whether you seriously desire to eat the ripe fruit of the tree of knowledge; and your leaving home and coming to Har-dway with a view to know better about yourself, was based upon no wavering curiosity. In the meantime, I will see that you enjoy your new surroundings, and that you may not feel lonely and wanting in anything, you will have a companion with you, who will look to your comforts. She will soon be here. I leave you for the present, but shall see you again, when you are prepared to give me a decisive answer, whether you really mean to study in these forests, instead of desiring to go back to your home in Valod. I knew your father, when he was alive.”
So saying, he left me abruptly, in a state of intense perplexity and curiosity of mind, to wait for a “she” in that cave, in a Himalayan forest. Who she was, whether young or old, I could scarcely imagine.
Left to myself, alone, I began seriously to wonder whether this was no dream. Was I in some place of enchantment? The Bava Yogi accosts me by my name; says he brought me here from my dangerous position near Har-dwar, in a few minutes; knows why I left home and came to Hardwar; knew my father, when he was alive – the father whose likeness I saw above the waters of Nilganga at Har-dwar. Surely all this is too much to believe! Who would awake me from this dream? The log at my feet burns brighter and brighter as the heat of the sun raises violent breezes in these shady forests. The log cracks and emits sparks in response to the more free supply of air, and one of these sparks falls on the toe of my left foot. It settles there and I get up to brush it off, to alleviate the smart it caused me. The pain makes me feel it is not quite a dream, even though it may be something like it. The wind blows more and more violently. I hear the tremendous rustle made by the waving of innumerable branches in that thick forest which drowned the melody of forest birds. Oh, how ominous that noise is, deep in its solemnity, and terrifying in its fierce whistling! Half afraid lest a few sparks more would set my rude bed on fire, weak as I was, necessity compelled me to no longer mind the injury to my knee; but to get up, and remove my bed to a tolerably safe distance from the fire. While engaged in this busy process for personal safety and comfort, I hear a tremendous crash near the entrance of the cave, the whole cave shaking as if in an earthquake. Issuing from the cave, I see the trunk of a full-grown Shekta (Cassia Taura), which had grown on the left side of the cave, lying uprooted, by the fierce winds. I said to myself: “It is terrible to be alone, in these storms, and to hear no human voice, but the howling of the winds, now and then modified into groans and moans. Who is that she, who comes not yet?”
“Here I am, guest”, answered a female voice, from behind, peeping over my shoulder and saying, “Guruji has sent me here to make you as happy and comfortable as the provisions in our cave and the flowers and 281fruits of our garden, can make you. You are but to ask, and you will have it. I am at your service till Guru Maharaja returns.”
Never did I hear words issue out of prettier lips, and with such sweetness and charm about them. A silver bell would not ring with more sweetness and harmony. Her stately figure corresponded exactly with the length of the syllables which she uttered, and if beauty was to be seen in a forest, a beauty to be my companion before the Bava Yogi returned, I could not have aspired to the company of a lovelier being. But how was she there? She, who would have graced a royal palace of the most powerful of the Oriental monarchs, the color and softness of whose skin reminded me of Champaka flowers? She in a forest, clad in white garments (Val-kal) prepared out of the barks of trees, her figure exhibiting more of a pious life, than a life ordinarily presupposed on the part of earthly beauties! The dimples on her cheeks where I almost imagined the light of the sun was reflected as if by a concave lens, showed that the skin was as transparent as china. How rosy and tender must be the flesh that lay covered beneath such skin! The little mouth, rimmed with thin lips, put to shame the little flower of lotus, which she bore in her breast. The lips scarcely parted till she, half enjoying my bewilderment at her charms, opened them, saying, “Guest, the wind is high, and the dust raised by them, has half-blinded my eyes; let us go into the cave! Guruji has instructed me to take care of you during your illness and to stay in this solitary place; and it would be a miserable failure of my duties to start with, if I let you stand thus, exposed to these forest winds.”
She said this, and I was bewildered the more at those charms, that spoke twice, now that, as the little mouth was open for a minute, I could see there two strings of pearls, one above the other, which I could scarcely make up my mind to call by the name of teeth. Could there be gelatine and carbonate and phosphate of lime in them?
I answered falteringly, “This place is no longer a solitude to me. Now I would find any dark corner in this thick, extensive and ominous forest, peopled with innumerable charms and comforts, now that I know so sacred and superb a beauty as yourself, is a denizen in this forest.”
Let no man think that sudden in a minute |
| “St. Paul.” E. Myers. |
282
A Conscious Universe
THE most mysterious power in Nature is without doubt that which we call Consciousness. It is quite distinct from Knowledge, as is evident when we examine into the silent activities of Nature. For we can trace its presence in the interaction of material atoms having no apparent knowledge of, and yet acting accordingly to, definite and innate impulses. The main sweep of evolution in Nature must be the progress of some conscious power, because we find affinity to be the directing agent, and for this to act there must be a consciousness of some kind in the action. In man we have every atom of his physical body alive with intrinsic feelings which direct and change their mutual combinations, often into seeming inharmony, but always with a general prescience of a common end to be attained. In fact a great deal of the mystery which shrouds the necessarily superficial conclusions of science would fade away could we but bring the full meaning of this occult power to our actual knowledge. The present essay proposes to attempt this; and while so doing no claim is made to any special originality of thought, but merely to re-set truths of an older age in modern ideas.
Let us begin with a definition of Consciousness and then proceed to explain its meaning and raison d’être.
To the thorough sceptic this definition will hardly seem to advance us much, for he will at once ask what is meant by Truth and where is it to be found? To answer this question we must plunge into the profound depths of metaphysical conception which we find in the bygone wisdom of the East, and notably in the Wisdom Religion. We must force our way through labyrinths of speculation until we reach the apex of thought, where the Infinite resolves into the details of a Universal Mind. To do this, we bind the changing forces of the intellect firmly together with a chain forged by modern science and called the correlation of forces; and we then behold the Universe as a mighty Unit of manifestation. The logic of cause and effect necessitates a cause to this manifestation; while the attribute of universality with which it is endowed requires that both Cause and Effect should be one and the same essence. From this we argue that the one as cause differs from the other as effect in the same way that the appearance of a thing differs from the thing in itself. To us this glorious universe of Life is real, and we must assert that if it is but so in appearance, its cause must of necessity be a Reality. The appearance of 283that which is real, is that of Truth, and here then we come upon that verity which figures in our definition.
It is One, it is All, and is the cause of the All manifesting as a universe.
Much has been said by other writers about this mysterious cause, but, at the risk of being accused of repetition, we must tackle the mystery once more. In the first place we will place it in its proper relation to its manifestation, and, to be brief, we say that in a world of change that which is the Reality can never alter. This at once forces upon us the conception of a Truth which never changes and a universe whose genesis is change. The first, therefore, is to us passive, and because passive, latent. The latter is the former in its active state. But, because Truth is ever the same, its activity is only an appearance as the positive assertion of latent power. In our daily experiences we find that the external aspects of things are masks, covering the real springs of Life. So it is with the Universe taken as a whole, as well as with its countless component forms; it and all are but the outward appearance behind which lies the ever passive Truth.
There is a popular saying which bids us seek Truth at the bottom of a well, hinting in this homely way at the impenetrable mystery which hangs around it. Philosophy by boldly approaching it discovers it to be a tangible darkness before which the mind shrinks, crushed out of self-recognition by finding it outside the circle of life altogether.
How does the Reality become the matrix of the Universe? To this question there is but one possible answer, namely:
A conception of what this means may be had by referring to our own minds and considering the production of a thought. For this purpose we must clear the mind of all consciousness and reduce it to a blank. In this way the Thinker annihilates, for himself, the world. Let now an idea waken into activity the mental coil, and we bring out of a seeming nothingness an embodied thought. This appearance in the mind of form in the shape of the complete mental representation of an idea, furnishes us with a good example of the appearance of the Reality as a formal universe. The Thinker is undisturbed, unchanged, and unmanifested; it and the Reality resemble each other in this respect, and both render visible that which was latent power. The mind is the same mind unchanged in potential; the Truth by its manifestation is still unchanged in truthfulness. Unchangeable, it must be passive or latent; because passive, it is non-existent from the point of view of a living being; and because of these characteristics it is not its manifestation. Yet because it is all, the manifested Universe is it. Because it is One so is its appearance. It is Truth of which the appearance is an apparent Truth from whence it is evident that the only possible result of manifestation must be an active consciousness of self as Truth apparent to itself which, as representing a universal unit means, ABSTRACT CONSCIOUSNESS, which is the characteristic both of the mind of man and of the reality which lies behind the Universe.
284
We have now reached to the foundation of Life, and we will pause to assure our footing. In the first instance we were led to the conception of the Universe as a Unit of manifestation by the representations of science in its law of co-relation of forces. Metaphysics then became our guide and showed us the ultimate character of this Unit to be a universal consciousness. Falling again under the hand of science we shall combine the metaphysical with the God of matter “Energy”, and call it the Substance of the Universe. It is this capacity, this power to manifest, that we must now inquire into. Abstract Consciousness forms the occult basis of phenomenal existence, and gives us a clear conception of an ideal pantheism in the pervading influence of a universal conscience which permeates, with its passive substratum of potentiality, every possible form or shape, from the ethereal beings of the ideal plane, to the gross materials which make the heavenly bodies and densify into worlds. We now require the natural basis of life, and the appearance having been established, we ask what is the natural form which it takes?
This we find in the following chain of reasons. The appearance is the change of truth from its passive to its active realisation. Change from a homogeneous infinity of rest results in absolute motion. Therefore the act of appearance of the One Reality is absolute motion. Per contra, as absolute motion is only the apparent activity of Truth, all life is simply an illusion. As positive power veils with its activity its source, absolute motion must be the garment of Truth. But this latter being non-existent to life, can only be clothed in its appearance which we, have seen to be Abstract Consciousness. Therefore Abstract Consciousness is shrouded in absolute motion and the two together are to each other as a Universal Soul and its manifestation. They form by their union the phenomenal universe, lying behind the manifestation of finite forms as their foundation, cause and sustainer.
Abstract Consciousness pervades with its appearance of reality every object we can see or touch. It does so through the power of motion. But we have still left undefined the spring of life. If we can say that it is made up of conscious motion, we have not thereby defined the impulse which shall free this spring and set it in movement. What we require is that same vitality which materialist thinkers of known ability have so skilfully been compelled to vouch for in the article of the April number of Lucifer entitled “Kosmic Mind”. It is the impulse to life, in the sense that it gives the first start to activities which, once in motion, develop the vitality of the laws within them. As a universal power, it is the same for every manifestation, from a God to a stone. In the beginning the predetermined intention on the part of the Reality to appear, was the impulse which brought its appearance into being. We are obliged to predicate this much of a manifestation which exhibits the power of reason in the shape of man, whose reasoning potencies all help to make up the grand total or unit of manifestation. In other words this means that beyond the latent cause, or 285one with it, there is a reason which we must call the Reason of reasons. Lying as it does outside the circle of life, it has no possible form and can never be appreciated in itself by a positive reason. But we may explain an appearance and thus get at the character of the dynamic power which lies in a first Cause. This we have shown to be the Self-realising-Self, which the development of our thesis permits us now to call a positive activity sprung from an impulse to self-consciousness. This is the form in which the Reason of Reasons appears. The Reality of this supreme reason appears as abstract consciousness active with absolute motion. In this impulse to self-consciousness we have the Germ of Life. In its simplest form of activity, life is just an effort to manifest itself to itself, careless and indifferent to anything outside of its own magic circle of self-dom. When latent, the germ has drifted into the unknowable realm beyond the manifested plane and lies “perdu” as the Reason of reasons. But when positive it becomes the foundation of every appearance of reality though distinct from the appearance itself. It is the Reason of reasons ever endeavoring to realize its own meaning and, in its purity and singleness of purpose, resembles, when active, the flashing of a crystal looking-glass in which the act of reflection is one and universally the same, while the expansion of consciousness and energy which immediately follows (in scientific language we might say “exudes from the germ”), differs with every change of life. The Will of Man owes the power which lies at its disposal, and which at the same time is the self which disposes of this power, to this impulse to the self-realisation of an abstract consciousness. This is that which comes to life in him as a consciousness of Self or “I am I”, and is common to him as a man, an animal, a vegetable, a mineral, an atom of matter or an angelic Spirit. It is evidently first apparent as a blind force seeking the light of self-perception and from this it arises that we are often puzzled by the appearance of an apparently unintelligent energy, known to us as the law of necessity usurping the control of the Universe.
Man, as a personified Will disposes of a certain amount of vitality which we may regard as abstract and as existing in itself. It is latent as the Reason of Life. It is active as the initial impulse to life. And as an impulse it merges into its manifestation as conscious activity. This Abstract Power represents the aggregate of atomic impulses to self-manifestation in the physical body, each of which atoms, as will be shown in a future essay, is a concentrated idea possessing many possible interpretations. So that if we, by some mechanical means, were to increase the sensitiveness of the nerves, fibres, etc. of the body, we should become more emotional, because our potential of sensibility would be heightened by the presence of a stronger impulse to conscious activity.
The world of matter, with its successively developed four kingdoms of manifestation, is in all its many phases of activity an atomic evolution. The whole world and all upon it represents a unit of manifestation which 286possesses a unit impulse towards the production of self. This determination to self-realisation is in its unit power the collective impulses of every atom; and as these change in obedience to the germ of life within them, and as their change is in the direction of the manifestation of self-consciousness, we are able to see why evolution has successively risen in the scale of conscious life; and we are able also from the same data to postulate a corresponding change in the Grand Impulse to Life which synthesizes our globe. And this change in the synthetic impulse must also affect, in a reflex manner, the general aspect of the earth and earthly life, bringing them together in their diversity of manifestation to a general level of conscious development, each degree of nature maintaining of course its own particular kind of consciousness.
The more extended the consciousness, the greater will be its impulse to realization and this is true both of natural and animal consciousness. But in Man the impulses to action are synthesized within by an Ego which we may call the Thinker. To this, the real Ego, the acquisition of Knowledge comes in the shape of an increased impulse to self-realisation which re-acts on his inner being as increase of conscious life with all the attendant advantages which may be derived from the enlargement of the perceptive faculties. Knowledge enlightens the mind in a specific manner but, as we have shown, it also has the effect of increasing our vitality so that, as in many cases, the mind may actually consume the body.
Invigorating our perceptive powers and enlarging and deepening our intellectual faculties will result in putting back the threshold of consciousness, and will, at the same time, increase the vitality of the real Ego.
The changes and occurrences which happen to us in our daily life, furnish us with barometric readings of the state of pressure of the life impulse. These as occurrences are the operation of vitality as a blind and unintelligent power whose one effort is manifestation or “to acquire light”. But when these same occurrences are looked at as accomplished facts, the energy of manifestation becomes a conscious one, which, by manipulating our own consciousness, we may also regulate, and thus indirectly effect the after-mentioned barometric pressure of the vital system.
We have now explained the full meaning of our definition of consciousness. And to sum up what we have said we find that Active Truth is subdivided into three principal acts. The first is the appearance of the activity, or Consciousness. The second is the activity of the appearance, or Motion. The third is the impulse to this appearance and to its activity. It is the Creative Logos, the Reason of reasons, the source of consciousness born from the contemplation of Truth by itself, and of an activity conceived in the depths of the Unknown. In another essay we will trace the progress of this Universal Consciousness from its ethereal unity of essence through its successive condensations, until it reaches the degree of life which manifests as world-stuff on the physical plane.
The Barisal Gun
292
Edison
ONE of the leading minds of the day is, beyond dispute, that of Thomas A. Edison, whose inventive powers have dispelled for ever the secrets of the darkness and the silence, and rendered it possible for the fugitive personalities of men to speak even after death – a more agreeable and faithful perpetuation of their memory than the cold and expressionless tombstone. This arch-magician of inventive science captures and imprisons sound upon an innocent looking disc, where it remains in profoundest silence until some controlling will sets it free – a modern Ariel, to fly at the bidding of the master to the uttermost ends of the earth, in the dulcet tones of beloved voices long, perhaps, hushed in their last sleep, or in the strains of musical instruments which once were deftly manipulated by skilled fingers long since crumbled into dust. Here, indeed, is an annihilation of time and space, all brought about, after intense study and repeated trials and experiments, by the unremitting labors of one man’s brain and fingers. Such an inventive genius as that possessed by Edison, is a diamond of the purest water, and the mind which it sways, as with the wand of a magician, radiates in potent and penetrative clearness like an electric beacon set on high.
Mr. Edison does not court, but rather avoids, that admiring notice the public is prone to thrust upon those who transcend, in their own especial way, the common level. Nevertheless, one so distinguished by nature, as he is, above the mediocre majority, becomes a sort of public luminary, and thus passes measurably out of his own possession into that of the admiring world. It is impossible to read the smallest or most meagre accounts of him without being struck with the qualities of brilliant clearness, penetration, and subtle directness of mind he displays. He is said by his friend, George Parsons Lathrop, who gives us in Harper's Magazine for February, a charming account of the inventor in private life, to possess marvellous powers of mentral concentration, “a ready and absolute control of his mental forces” – passing with rapid transition from subject to subject without loss of momentum and power. –
“This explains, in part, his ability to carry in his mind all the minutiæ of numerous and diverse problems simultaneously; and to do an immense amount of intellectual labor and mechanical manipulation without breaking down. He does everything with the least amount of friction. He never stands in his own light nor deprives others of theirs. He is a centre of illumination, and his mind moves with the celerity and certainty of an electric current in the opening and closing of a circuit. The directness and unaffected simplicity of his mental operations are extended and applied to his bearing, his speech, dress, and manner of life. Owning now a luxurious home at Llewellyn Park, in Orange, New Jersey, he permits no social engagements to interrupt his main occupation; and he never seems happier than when work in his vast, well-appointed laboratory has kept him up all night, and his breakfast is brought to him there, to be eaten from a bench littered with parts of machines.”
What a delightful picture of cheerful, vigorous labor giving positive physical enjoyment, which it always does where the body harmonizes with the higher mind in the love of labor for the sake of its splendid triumphs, and its uses.
293
To those of us who look beneath the surface of life by that light the teachings of Theosophy have thrown upon the human subject, Edison will stand out prominently as one of the most remarkable products of evolution through repeated incarnations that the present century has been blest with. According to our belief these peerless gifts of his had their beginning in some former life, were spiritually intensified in the fruitional rest of Devachan, and are now shedding the light of a glorious culmination of genius on the earth plane once more. One is continually struck with certain evidences of spiritual power in this brilliant personality. It is seen especially in that quality of self-concentration, which his friend describes as “literally startling”, in his mental directness of purpose, his wonderful acumen, the certainty with which he pursues his experiments, sure of arriving at what he sees (with the third eye?) hidden behind the veils of Nature; vague adumbrations, until his daring and skilful brain slowly draws them forth, and his strong hand at length clutches, and transforms them by the aid of machinery into tangible facts of daily occurrence for the benefit of millions. The processes of such a mind viewed abstractly, without reference to the personality in which it is enshrined, are superbly magnificent. Such a mind literally glows with a light which is not of earth; but yet it is given to earth, at a time of great spiritual darkness, as if once more to reveal the transcendent powers of Spirit which may be manifested through one imperfect and limited personality, when that personality is fitted by evolution to receive them.
Edison is one of those characteristic products of American nationality, which force their way through all obstacles, from the lowest rung of the social ladder to the very highest. Nothing can arrest these strong souls. They come from Devachan ready armed for the battle of life, and encased in the protective mail of that undaunted resolution, and fearless faith which overcome all opposition. They have a certain work to do, and they chafe within until it be accomplished, literally burning their way with an ardor which electrifies and sets on fire all who come near. Their work and their life are for humanity when humanity sorely needs it, and although the labor requisite to achieve their mission be of appalling dimensions, it fails to daunt their cheerful, indomitable courage. In the history of their lives we can trace them steadily making their way upwards to the eminence they are destined to reach, until at length the magnificent sum total of the life challenges remark, and the genius descended from heaven is recognized by the acclamations of the million.
Edison never had more than two months of schooling; but he had excellent tuition and training at home from a mother well qualified to give it. “Before he was ten years of age he had read several standard works of history and literature, and at twelve he was wrestling with Newton’s Principia.” At twelve he commenced selling newspapers to passengers on the Grand Trunk Railway. It was not long before his masterly mind began to display its powers by certain enterprising strokes of business in his humble calling, which would never have occurred to a mind less gifted. It is astonishing how even the small events as well as the great, and the most insignificant as well as important personages, all seem to fall in helpfully in the life of one born to success, as Edison appears to have been. The life is ready prepared by previous Karma, and the innate genius almost leaps to its end. An apparent leap – to the spectator, when all is over, and one forgets the strenuous efforts put forth to bound from point to point – for Edison’s labors to achieve success have been enormous. But in such lives one seems to trace easily the bright Karma which must have been laid up in a former life, besides the treasures of good work amassed in the present.
Not contented with the small profits derived from selling newspapers, the enterprising boy set up a newspaper of his own; which he wrote, set 294up in type, printed, and published himself. “The Grand Trunk Herald” was its title, and he sold a few hundred copies a week at three cents each. In the same “caboose” car where he produced his “Grand Trunk Herald,” he began his first scientific experiments with a “small make-shift chemical laboratory”. – “His newspaper selling enterprise soon throve to such an extent that he had to employ four boy assistants, and he was able to turn into the exchequer of his parents about five hundred dollars a year.” Meantime he was studying and qualifying to become a telegraph operator, stealing time from his other work. In a few years he secured his first engagement at Indianapolis. From this starting point his inventive faculties began to germinate, and soon bore fruit in the shape of an automatic recorder. –
“It was that same rude automatic recorder,” says Edison, – “that indirectly – yet not by accident, but by logical deduction – led me long afterwards to invent the phonograph. I’ll tell you how this came about. After thinking over this matter a great deal, I came to the point where, in 1877, I had worked out satisfactorily an instrument which would not only record telegrams by indenting a strip of paper with dots and dashes of the Morse code, but would also repeat a message any number of times at any rate of speed required. I was then experimenting with the telephone also, and my mind was filled with theories of sound vibrations and their transmission by diaphragms. Naturally enough the idea occurred to me: If the indentations on paper could be made to give forth again the click of the instrument, why could not the vibrations of a diaphragm be recorded and similarly reproduced? I rigged up an instrument hastily, and pulled a strip of paper through it, at the same time shouting, ‘Halloo!’ Then the paper was pulled through again, my friend Batchelor and I listening breathlessly. We heard a distinct sound, which a strong imagination might have translated into the original ‘Halloo!’ That was enough to lead me to a further experiment. But Batchelor was sceptical, and bet me a barrel of apples that I couldn’t make the thing go. I made a drawing of a model, and took it to Mr. Kruesi, at that time engaged on piecework for me, but now assistant general manager of our machine shop at Schenectady. I marked it four dollars, and told him it was a talking machine. He grinned, thinking it was a joke; but set to work, and soon had the model ready. I arranged some tin foil on it, and spoke into the machine. Kruesi looked on, and was still grinning. But when I arranged the machine for transmission, and we both heard a distinct sound from it, he nearly fell down in his fright. I was a little scared myself, I must admit. I won that barrel of apples from Batchelor though, and was mighty glad to get it.”
It is interesting to note that ideas relative to the same subjects appear to hover for years in the mental atmosphere, ere they take tangible form through some individual able to give them permanent existence on a lower plane. Since Edison’s invention of the phonograph, it appears the idea had been given forth by various persons, more as a dream in the region of the fanciful, – a fact unknown, be it said, to the inventor, whose mind thus received the idea at first hand. Thus it happens that coming events photograph themselves upon receptive minds by the light of intuition, which is really spiritual insight. The eye of the Spirit reads in the astral light what might be, is to be, and eventually becomes in material life. It is said Edison dreams during sleep of his inventions. His emancipated soul works while its earthly vehicle rests, and even if the complicated machinery he has devised during sleep, evaporates into thin air when he awakes, it is more than likely these dream-ideas are destined to become embodied in a tangible shape, by dint of hard work, some day or other.
The following is an interesting anecdote illustrating an idea which Mr. Edison’s friend and biographer calls “ideal dreaming”. –
“One day at dinner he suddenly spoke, as if out of a deep reverie, saying
295
what a great thing it would be if a man could have all the component atoms of himself under complete control, detachable and adjustable at will. ‘For instance,’ he explained, ‘then I could say to one particular atom in me – call it atom No. 4,320 – “Go and be a part of a rose for awhile.” All the atoms could be sent off to become parts of different minerals, plants, and other substances. Then, if by just pressing a little push button they could be called together again, they would bring back their experiences while they were part of those different substances, and I should have the benefit of the knowledge.’”
Theosophists would be reminded by this of the power of the Adept to make himself infinitely small, or infinitely great. Perhaps he had been thinking of the labour attending the bringing forth and putting into working shape the inventive ideas with which his mind teams, and the ease with which they might be produced were his powers exercised upon a higher plane – did he possess, for instance, the power of the Adept to deal with diaphanous, or ethereal matter. Could he but know by a sort of personal experience, or consciousness, how the roses, or the minerals live whilst still in this body, what a vast amount of knowledge, what stores of hidden wisdom would be poured into his brain to enable him to master the intricacies and difficulties attending the successful manipulation of elements and substances essential to his work. A day-dream founded upon fact – the higher Ego flashing a ray of spiritual insight into the lower Manas, or mind open to its rays. Genius, as it is called, is the Higher Self in manifestation – be it displayed in what form soever of mental superiority it may take. It is the divine heritage, the God within, showing the strength of its foothold in man. It is an indication of the human entity’s stage of spiritual progression; of the work the soul has accomplished in former lives. Mr. Lathrop says –
“In this large imaginative aspect of his mind Edison reminds me of men having creative musical, or poetic, or artistic, genius. The mingled abstraction and fire in their faces and eyes are noticeable in his, at times when he emerges from some private room in the laboratory where he has been engaged in deep inventive work.”
Behold here the humble but harmonious and well-controlled form of human clay, transfigured[98] by the intense ardor of the supernal and immortal powers of the God within.
Not yet the Spiritual Adept who creates or combines substances upon the plane of diaphanous matter, Edison reaches his end by his magnificent powers of invention in the locale of machinery – by mechanical science illustrating in visible, tangible shapes the infinite potencies enshrined in dense matter: drawing them forth with a magical command; moulding, training, and leading them obedient to the subtle action of mechanism to produce the effects his intuitive genius has seen to be possible. This power of the human mind to overcome the stubborn materials opposed to its creative will on the plane of matter, is infinitely grand, and the contemplation of its successful results, encourages, as well as excites that noble enthusiasm of labor by which man transforms his abode from a rude wilderness into a home of luxury and beauty: a world which gives back to him, at every step, a picture of the God-like, creative powers he has inherited. Powers to be brought forth through labor, for here, on earth, the eternal Spirit is shrouded, gyved, and manacled; embedded in clay; blind, and deaf to those myriad sounds, colors, forms, and possible combinations of atoms, which were he to see, to hear, and to know by the use of his psychic senses and faculties, would render the labors of invention unnecessary. From the use of these faculties must unnecessarily ensue an external change in his abode which would strike our present day minds as most extraordinary. It would be difficult to imagine our earth wearing a different aspect from that to which we are accustomed; with its surface seamed, scored, and excavated to make it yield up its hidden treasures, and produce at our insatiable, relentless demands, more and more of sensuous comforts and luxuries. Were all our 296monstrous as well as delicate, and subtle machinery which vibrates and palpitates around us like some gigantic life, with sighs[99], groans and shrieks as of a monster in pain – were all this gone, we should be at a great loss to imagine what sort of a life we could possibly lead. Yet this will be the case in that far-off cycle to which humanity is advancing by snail-like steps of evolution. The life and doings of that “Coming Race” which Bulwer Lytton wrote of, as inhabiting the centres of the earth, producing everything and performing the most stupendous deeds by means of “Vril” – would be gross in comparison with the life of those spiritual beings we shall by that time (those of us who do not fail by the way) have evolved into – a more marvellous change than that of the chrysalis into the butterfly, we being now, comparatively, in that chrysalis state.
Our great workers, our men of genius, every individual who feels the divine fire within, and gives it expression even in the humblest deeds of duty well performed, harmonising every atom of his being to the ‘God within,’ is most certainly making the best steps he can at present towards that sublime climax of human perfection, and aiding in the momentum upwards of the whole human race. And here from the ranks of this army of workers, we may, I trust without offence, applaud with the admiring enthusiasm of loving and sympathetic brethren, the noble achievements of our brother Edison.
This slight sketch cannot be better ended than by the following extract from Mr. Lathrop’s most appreciative account of his friend’s superlative excellencies. –
“The above remark about the atoms recalls a statement which he once made to me regarding his conception of matter. ‘I do not believe,’ he said, ‘that matter is inert, acted upon by an outside force. To me it seems that every atom is possessed by a certain amount of primitive intelligence. Look at the thousand ways in which atoms of hydrogen combine with those of other elements, forming the most diverse substances. Do you mean to say that they do this without intelligence? Atoms in harmonious and useful relation assume beautiful or interesting shapes and colors, or give forth a pleasant perfume, as if expressing their satisfaction. In sickness, death, decomposition, or filth, the disagreement of the component atoms immediately makes itself felt by bad odors. Gathered together in certain forms, the atoms constitute animals of the lower orders. Finally they combine in man, who represents the total intelligence of all the atoms.”
“But where does this intelligence come from originally?” I asked.
“From some power greater than ourselves.”
Here speaks the ‘spiritual man,’ who knows truth intuitively; who sees by a superior prescience into the inward workings of things, and has never needed a teacher to point it out. He brought it here when he again assumed the flesh – it is innate from germs quickened long ago. Such persons have a magnetic affinity for the teachings of Theosophy – they cannot resist them. Without cavil, without hesitation, they step with the utmost ease into our Temple of Wisdom, as into a home long familiar to them.
An Astral Prophet
301
The Follies and Fallacies connected with “Spiritualism”
I NOW turn to the correspondence in Light in reference to Re-incarnation, which shews in a most painful manner the intense bigotry of the simple Spiritualist on this subject. I will quote from some of the many hostile letters. One in speaking of the wretched Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana, continues, “the aching craze to live ends and life glides into sinless, stirless, rest. The desire for life then is a craze. I plead guilty to that craze. Nirvana is not life; it is death and annihilation. It is a sickly and ignoble dream.” And again, “the doctrine of Nirvana is a strange and unnatural one . . . . The contemplation of a dreary series of re-incarnations is enough to sicken anyone out of existence.” If the writer thinks this series of re-incarnations tiring, how much more tiring must be the eternal existence of the earthly personality! The difficulty of finding any logical philosophy to explain the enigmas of Spirit life without re-incarnation is shewn in a lecture delivered before the Spiritualist Alliance. Quoting from writings received mediumistically, the lecturer says substantially that spirit bodies have forms similar to earth bodies. There are mountains, valleys and landscapes which were it not for Spirits’ will-power would be as great obstacles to travel as those on earth. They have books and collections of records. The Chinese writing resembles theirs more than any other kind. Asked to give an example or sketch of one of these written forms, the Spirit answered: “I would, but I may not”.
There are idiots in the Spirit world, but none hopelessly so. This may be true, seeing that the unseen world is recruited from humanity. I trust that some of our leaders and writers may not gravitate to this condition after death. They do seem near the confines of it now. Occupations are of a similar character to those of earth. Asked if they accumulated wealth:
302
“No. It is a sort of commonwealth.” Here is good news for our Socialists. If they cannot have things their own way here, ’tis but a little while and a Socialistic Paradise awaits them. The opponents of Re-incarnation are fond of exhibiting its difficulties in a ludicrous light. They are ever talking of the mixed relationships the doctrine brings about; but they forget the vast intervals of time between each incarnation, and having imbedded in their minds the notion that earthly relationships are eternal they talk glibly of loss of memory and of annihilation of the personality. Let them consider a moment what would eternity be if all these relationships were everlasting, if the petty personalities of earth lingered on for ever unchanged. Can we not see that even in this short life we change, we tire? Because two people are drawn together by a youthful fascination and are married by a priest, is that union to hold good a million years hence? In the writer’s opinion it would be well if half the present unions could be annulled before this present life were over. Surely the most strait laced moralist will allow death to grant a decree of divorce and not make marriage eternal! Will any contend that a woman with half-a-dozen children feels so acutely the death of her own mother, an old lady of eighty, as she would have done if her parent had died while she was a girl? Will the human being born a million years ago, when in the Spirit world have the same idea of its relationship to its parent as it had on earth? All changes, all passes away. Then our objectors, horror stricken, say we strike at the holiest affections of human nature. But what they do not realize is that behind all this there is a permanent individuality. That all these affections and desires are but an outward expression of certain innate qualities of the individuality, and that the actions caused by these leave a permanent impression on the Ego. The attraction of one being to another of the opposite sex may vanish, but this love faculty will broaden out to a higher and more universal kind of love. The half animal affection for two or three children will develop into a love for the whole race. As in material evolution, the personality withers, but the race grows more and more.
In the early days of my investigations I attended many séances, especially the promiscuous séances held by London societies. These I believe to do little or no good. I belonged to the Marylebone Association of Inquirers into Spiritualism for about twelve years, and I do not think that the whole of that time one really good physical phenomena was obtained. Heaps of so-called trance speaking, table tiltings, a few raps now and then; but I never knew a case when a table moved without contact, or when the trance speaking revealed any really important fact or test. I have seen good clairvoyance sometimes, and that is the most that can be said.
It is amusing to see that the sitters generally expect certain phenomena from their regular medium, and if I myself, or any other occasional sitter, happened to be influenced they would try all they could to stop it; the regular medium goes through his regular performance, and it is not considered good behavior to let any new phenomena be introduced to interfere with him. This is absurd on the face of it. Perhaps the medium is full of religious notions, and begins to propound some curious theory concerning Christ. If a control through a stranger controverts this, it is thought to be an undeveloped spirit, and the influence is checked. Another curious thing is that any spirit calling himself a relative is believed in at once, but if a spirit purports to be one of the great departed he is told he is a deceiver. Let me not be mistaken here. I have myself attacked those who too readily believe that the mighty dead come back; but I know that there is no more evidence for the one than the other. I have had both through my own mediumship, and know this to be so. Therefore the whole of this kind of phenomena wants careful study before any theory can be propounded with any probability of its accounting for the facts. While 303considering this question of High Controls, I may mention that a gentleman has given in the Medium a series of “Historical Controls”. One of the greatest wonders of the age is that scarcely any of our great folks die, however ignorant of or opposed to Spiritualism they may have been, but in a few days they come back again to talk to this gentleman. The list is too long to quote. Suffice it to say that Lord Beaconsfield and Dean Stanley are amongst the number.
Some Spiritualists are very fond of holding circles to elevate and instruct undeveloped Spirits. I have often been amused to hear most ignorant people, fresh from their workshops and trades, while sitting at evening séances, deliver long lectures and advice to such spirits as Thomas Paine, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Shelley, whom these worthies thought must be degraded spirits, because, I suppose, they preached heretical doctrines. A gentleman also informed me that Byron had become a regular frequenter of his home circle; at first he was very low but (no doubt through the highly moral influence at this said circle) he was gradually rising. Is not this enough to make the grand old poet come back in propria persona? As he once said of his critics, he knew a trick or two would turn their flanks; and I would that he could come amongst us, if but for an hour, to pulverize such humbug and conceit. Another absurdity is the utterances of many so called trance-mediums on science. I will give one or two quotations from the Medium. It is gravely stated that human spirits have returned from Jupiter, whereas Jupiter is well known to be incapable of supporting animal life. Another communication states that there are no males on Venus.[100] It is extremely difficult if such be the case to understand how the race is kept up. In another article the earth is stated to be formed in layers like an onion with a comparatively small central mass which being reflected on the sky produces the appearance which we call the moon. Having now reached the ultimate of absurdity, I will go on to another phase of the subject.
There seems a great amount of folly attached to so-called Healing. I believe firmly in Mesmeric healing and in Clairvoyant diagnoses and descriptions, and in the power of the human will whether assisted by Spirits or not. There is however, a great deal of waving of hands and passes being made for a few moments by so-called healers and people declaring that they feel better; but I have never seen any real result obtained thus. I myself am a great sufferer from severe headache, and several prominent healers have tried to cure me but have never produced the least effect. What then shall we say when people say they can cure cancers, tumors, etc.? I know a case of a friend of mine in which an attempt was made to cure cancer with, I regret to say, not the slightest result. I have been often relieved by my own Guide from these attacks in a mysterious way, and by an Indian Spirit making passes over me, but never by these so-called healers.
There is a policy pursued by editors which I protest against. When a medium has been found tricking, and a false wig and white robes are found on him, our editors are fond of saying that the medium is blameless, that it is all deceiving spirits, that they brought these things into the séance room. I do not believe this for one moment. My own experience of mortals and spirits is that I would far rather trust the latter than the former, and I hope my Theosophical friends will forgive me for saying so. Whether I am exceptionally blessed I do not know; but whereas in my life I have been the victim of attacks from all quarters, and often the most venomous of these have come from people who prate the most of love, brotherhood, 304Christ-like spirituality, and the like, I have found the greatest help and kindness from the unseen side. Whether they are human spirits, or influences from Devachan, or some ray from the Mahatmas, or from my own Higher Self, or from all together, I have yet to find out; but whatever the influence calling itself my guide is, it has proved better than any earthly friend to me. Even while I write this I feel how impossible it is to express the love I have seen displayed, and it seems to me too sacred a matter to reveal to the world. There is another difficulty editors put in the way of investigators getting at the real truth. They will curtail and winnow out all the (to them) objectionable features of the phenomena or communications sent to them before they publish the same. This is with a view of making Spiritualism respectable and in touch with fashionable society and its peculiar code of right and wrong. So far has this gone that the young giant, far from looking like the Titan he is, is made to appear more like the weak-kneed monster of pantomine, easily conquered by any child warrior. The Mephistopheles of our time, raised by such a clatter of spells and enchantments, and dubbed by the clergy as the Anti-Christ of the latter days, sits down soberly attired in clerical garb, a very sanctimonious Stiggins. This is deplorable. Surely the unseen did not break in upon our Materialism to prop up society creeds and moralities. To me at least it has come in a different garb. I see in it a power which, unless again stifled by priestcraft, will revolutionise the world, not by violence, but by occult influence. It shall indeed thoroughly purge the floor and burn the chaff with fire unquenchable. It shall burn into social customs till we know what is vice, what virtue, not what society and the Church think to be so. It shall teach the selfish, whether rich or poor: “Ye must be born again”. It shall teach the religious that there is no black magic so black as that raised up by the prayers and denunciations of bigotry. It will show who are the real criminals, the really degraded, the real projectors of crimes and vices. How often these will be found amongst the pious, the respectable, and the well-esteemed in this world! Disraeli says: “Ideas rule the world”. Do not let us seek to cover up these new inspirations in the old worn-out garments of theology. Let us bring back Spiritualism to its primal meaning – the Science of Spirit. Let us hew down the overgrowths about it. Let us have no amalgam of Christianity, no masculine deity, no devotional services, no creedal limitations, mixed with it. Let us come back again to the solid rock of phenomenal facts which have been such a blessing to our age. When we have done this, and when all Spiritual students are content with being certain only about facts which they know and phenomena that they have proved, and cease to dogmatise on the theories which they have each built upon these facts; when they are content to work upward slowly, proving each step as they go, and not after a few weeks’ investigation coming forward to expound the whole mystery of the universe; when they are content with truth alone, and do not each wish to make themselves leaders and fashioners of new sects; then we shall see the day when Spiritualists and Theosophists will join hand in hand, and the hoary wisdom of the East and the science of the West shall be blended in the one grand crucible of Truth, in which shall be produced that Divine Life Elixir which shall be for the healing of the Nations, and which shall confer upon us the priceless gift of Immortality.
Editors' Note . – We have gone out of our way to publish Mr. Tindall’s “Fallacies”, purely out of desire to oblige one whom we regarded as a friend. As every reader will see, his denunciations of certain “spiritualistic” aspects are still less fitted for Lucifer than are his rather muddled 305up and very unfriendly criticisms of what he pleases to call “The weak points in Theosophy”, in the Agnostic Journal. Our critic is hard to please, however; and instead of recognising our courtesy, Mr. Tindall has taken us to task for mutilating his last article. This mutilation, let us say at once, consisted in cutting out two-thirds of his paper, which were only personal attacks against the Medium and Daybreak, its editor, and other Spiritualists. Mr. Tindall should surely understand that we cannot permit Lucifer to be used as a medium for such personalities. He complains that by so doing we have “greatly weakened . . . . the powerful criticism I (he) had intended”. But even the little we have left seems to have called forth a counter-criticism of his “Follies and Fallacies” in Light, which has some very pointed things to say about their author. The editor of Light calls this paper “curiously inaccurate”, and we say that if it is half as inaccurate as are his “Weak Points in Theosophy”, written probably as an offset to our “annihilation” of his article – then it would be inaccurate, indeed. Thus, we are told by the editor of Light that it is “almost unkind to quote” from his article. That
We might pursue the criticism, but it is not worth while. “Minds formed of baser clay”, and the general tone of comment on a subject with which the writer is obviously imperfectly acquainted, are tempting. But no good end is gained by attempting to controvert statements such as those made by Mr. Tyndall. They are doubtless made in all sincerity, but without knowledge of facts. And we do not war with such criticism. We only protest against it, lest it should be regarded as true.
This is precisely what we, Theosophists, say of Mr. Tindall’s denunciation of the “Weak points in Theosophy”, in which there is no “knowledge of facts” whatever. But we shudder to think what would have been our mutual critic's fate, had we not mutilated his “powerful criticism” on Spiritualism! As it is, we are afraid our friend has placed himself between two stools, and has now to make the best he can of his uncomfortable position.
Theosophical Gleanings or Notes on the "Secret Doctrine"
WE now fix our attention on the lowest of the four planes on which is our planetary chain, on the terrestrial; and we commence the study of the evolution of globe D, our Earth, during its period of activity in the Fourth Round. Let us glance at the broad outlines ere we fill in the details.
When for the fourth time globe D begins its period of activity, it has reached very considerable solidity as compared with its state during the previous Rounds, and it continues to densify until it reaches the mid-most period of its life, the lowest point of its cycle. Be it noted also that this lowest point of the fourth globe on the Fourth Round, is the lowest point also of the whole planetary chain, its deepest sinking into matter. That 306point once passed, life begins its upward climb, never again to sink so low during the Manvantaric cycle.
“Our Earth . . . . has to live . . . . through seven Rounds. During the first three, it forms and consolidates; during the fourth it settles and hardens; during the last three it gradually returns to its first ethereal form”
.
Seven Races of Men are to be evolved for the indwelling of the “Eternal Pilgrim”; these, in their physical frames – like their globe – densifying during the evolution of three and a-half Races, touching their densest point midway in the Fourth Race, and climbing up towards spirit during the latter three and a-half.
“They commence with the ethereal and end with the spiritual on the double line of physical and moral evolution – from the beginning of the terrestrial round to its close”
. Man, we are told,
“in his gradual consolidation, developed pari passu with the earth.............. For the earth was in a comparatively ethereal condition before it reached its last consolidated state; the archaic teachings, moreover, telling us that, during the middle period of the Lemuro-Atlantean Race, three and a-half Races after the genesis of man, the earth, man, and everything in the globe was of a still grosser and more material nature............. The cycles that intervened since then, have already carried us onward, on the opposite ascending arc, some steps towards our dematerialisation, as the Spiritualists would say”
. During this sinking from the ethereal to the grossly material, the Races evolve the lower Quaternary; Manas evolves fully only in the Fifth Race; Buddhi will appear fully only in the Sixth, and Atma will be revealed fully only in the Seventh. (The word “fully” is used only in a relative sense, relative to the Fourth Round. The perfect manifestation of Atma belongs to the Seventh Race in the Seventh Round.)
These Seven Races are spoken of as Root Races;
“Each Root Race has seven sub-races. Each sub-race has, in its turn, seven ramifications, which may be called branch, or family, races. The little tribes, shoots, and offshoots of the last-named are countless”
. A family race of our Fifth Race has an average life of about 30,000 years, giving approximately 210,000 to each of our sub-races, and 1,470,000 to our Race. But this is only a rough computation of the time during which it may be said to be in possession of the earth; for Races, sub-races, and family races overlap each other’s existences, some of the Third and Fourth Races yet surviving, although our Fifth Race has swayed the destinies of Humanity for some 1,000,000 years (consult vol. ii, p. 435).
It may perhaps be wise to here remind the student of a pitfall into which he may unwarily stumble. Occasionally he will come across the statement that “the human race” has existed on earth for 18,000,000 years. But he will blunder if he takes this as giving the date of the appearance of the First Race. It is the date of the midpoint of the 307Third Race, when Manas first entered some of the human shells and made them Men (vol. ii, pp. 254, 255). Before this “the Inner Man was not”, as the Stanza has it, and without this Man is not truly man. Beyond that 18,000,000 years “man, or his filmy image, may have existed for 300 million years, for all we know” (vol. ii, p. 251), evolving through the First and the Second Races and the first half of the Third.
The physical conformation of the earth varies as the Races successively evolve. As there are Seven Races in the evolution of Humanity, so are there Seven Continents in the physical evolution of the globe. The first of these seven, “the first terra firma on which the first Race was evolved”, is “the Imperishable Sacred Land”, called imperishable because it
“is stated never to have shared the fate of the other continents; because it is the only one whose destiny it is to last from the beginning to the end of the Manvantara throughout each Round”
. The whole earth was then “one vast watery desert” save for this land at the North Pole, “which crowns the North Pole like a skull-cap” and
“is the only one which prevails during the whole Manvantara of our Round. All the central continents will emerge from the sea-bottom many times in turn, but this land will never change”
.
“If, then, the teaching is understood correctly, the first continent which came into existence capped over the whole North Pole like one unbroken crust, and remains so to this day, beyond that inland sea which seemed like an unreachable mirage to the few Arctic travellers who perceived it”
. [The student will find himself rewarded if he endeavors to trace the connexion between this land, and Mount Meru, and the “Solitary Watcher”.] The Second Continent is the Hyperborean, stretching southward and westward from the North Pole, comprising the north of Asia and Europe (vol. ii, p. 7). It embraced Greenland, Spitzbergen, Sweden, Norway, and the adjoining lands (p. 775).
“During the Second Race more land emerged from under the waters as a continuation of the ‘head’ from the neck. Beginning on both hemispheres, on the line above the most Northern part of Spitzbergen, on Mercator’s Projection, on our side, it may have included, on the American side, the localities that are now occupied by Baffins Bay and the neighboring islands and promontories. There it hardly reached, southward, the 70th degree of latitude; here it formed the horse-shoe continent of which the commentary speaks; of the two ends of which one included Greenland with a prolongation which crossed the 50th degree a little south-west; and the other Kamschatka; the two ends being united by what is now the Northern fringe of the coasts of Eastern and Western Siberia. This broke asunder and disappeared”
. This portion of the earth had then no winter, and enjoyed an almost tropical climate. It was the “Land of the Eternal Sun”, and portions left of it still yield to the geologist fossilised remnants of its former flora, fossils which bear witness to the time when Greenland bore the Magnolia and Walnut tree, and was the dwelling of the Second 308Race (vol. ii, pp. 11, 12). The Third Continent is Lemuria, in which was the “Sacred Himavat”, the Himalayan range, which then rose above the sea. It stretched across the Indian Ocean to Australia, and northward included the remaining parts of the Second Continent, Sweden and Norway, Eastern and Western Siberia and Kamschatka;
“it included the whole area of space from the foot of the Himalayas, which separated it from the inland sea rolling its waves over what is now Thibet, Mongolia, and the great desert of Schamo (Gobi); from Chittagong, westward to Hardwar, and eastward to Assam. From thence it stretched south across what is known to us as Southern India, Ceylon and Sumatra; then, embracing on its way as we go south, Madagascar on its right hand and Australia and Tasmania on its left, it ran down to within a few degrees of the Antarctic Circle; when from Australia, an inland region on the Mother Continent in those ages, it extended far into the Pacific Ocean, not only beyond Rapa-nui (Teapy, or Easter Island) which now lies in latitude 26 S. and longitude 110 W.”
On the Atlantic side, Lemuria
“extended in the shape of a horseshoe past Madagascar, round ‘South Africa’ (then a mere fragment in process of formation) through the Atlantic up to Norway. The great English freshwater deposit called the Wealden – which every geologist remarks as the mouth of a former great river – is the bed of the main stream which drained Northern Lemuria in the Secondary Age.”
The Eastern portion of this
“gigantic continent . . . . has now wholly disappeared beneath the waters of the Pacific, leaving here and there only some of its highland tops which are now islands”
. Here dwelt the Lemurian Race, and on some of the fragments which yet remain dwell their deteriorated descendants to-day. The Fourth Continent is Atlantis, of which Plato’s island was a remnant (vol. ii, p. 7). It was
“a large continent, first divided, and then broken later on into seven peninsulas and islands............. It covered the whole of the North and South Atlantic regions, as well as portions of the North and South Pacific and had islands even in the Indian Ocean (relics of Lemuria)”
.
“The Atlantic portion of Lemuria was the geological basis of what is generally known as Atlantis. The latter, indeed, must be regarded rather as a development of the Atlantic prolongation of Lemuria, than as an entirely new mass of land upheaved to meet the special requirements of the Fourth Root Race”
. The
“continent was formed by the coalescence of many islands and peninsulas which were upheaved in the ordinary course of time, and became ultimately the true home of the great Race known as the Atlantean”
. The Fifth Continent was America in point of time, but Europe and Asia Minor have received the name, since they were almost co-equal with America, and it is on them that the Fifth Race has arisen (p. 8). A mass of facts gathered from scientific text books in support of the existence of the Third and Fourth Continents, will be found in the “Secret Doctrine”.
On each of these Continents its Race is evolved in seven different 309groups, each group at its own centre, the seven groups forming the collective “Man” (see vol. ii, p. 177, 249). The relics of the Third Round, “projected into objectivity when terrestrial activity recommences”, yield the “rough material” for the lower kingdoms (p. 731): while the Dhyan Chohanic impulse is “the inherent and necessary law of development”, lying “behind all minor agencies” – such as natural and sexual selection, correlation of growth, etc. – which impels to progress (p. 738). The Laurentian, Cambrian, and Silurian systems of geology contain the relics of the Third Round in their fossilised animals (p. 712); this will not seem surprising to the reader who remembers that “during the interim from one Round to another the globe and everything on it remain in statu quo” (note on p. 713).
When the earth awakes from its pralayic sleep to tread its fourth cycle, the mineral kingdom is thus formed, and the vegetable is partly evolved ere Man appears:
“Arrived on our earth at the commencement of the Fourth in the present series of life-cycles and races, Man is the first form that appears thereon, being preceded only by the mineral and vegetable kingdoms – even the latter having to develop and continue its further evolution through man”
. This Round is the especial Round of Humanity, so to speak.
“Its Humanity develops only in the Fourth – our present round. Up to this Fourth Life-Cycle, it is referred to as ‘humanity’ only for lack of a more appropriate term. Like the grub which becomes chrysalis and butterfly, Man, or rather that which becomes Man, passes through all the forms and kingdoms during the First Round and through all the human shapes during the two following Rounds”
.
And here let the student note how his path may be smoothed by remembering the correspondences between the planetary and the terrestrial life-cycles: for the first three-and-a-half Races, as for the first three-and-a-half Rounds, man is “man” only by courtesy and by destiny. The Fourth Race, like the Fourth Round, shows man as “man”. He also is forming and consolidating during the first three Races, with his globe, repeating on the small cycle the evolution of the large; during the Fourth Race he and it settle and harden; during the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Races, he and it gradually return to the ethereal form. Thus by knowing what we are told as to the Rounds, we could well-nigh work out for ourselves the stages in the Races, these little Wheels revolving like the large.
In studying the evolution of Man on globe D it must ever be kept in mind that it is the one of the central truths of occult teaching that man's life is not confined to this world. As was well put in an article in the Theosophist of October, 1882:
“The evolution of man is not a process carried out on this planet alone. It is a result to which many worlds in different conditions of material and spiritual development have contributed”
. If this thought be realised, with all that it implies, the original failure of Earth to evolve him, and the gradual building up of Man, 310as we know him, by the progressing entities who, as Man, are to progress further, will become intelligible. The “Lunar Pitris” who project their chhayas for the mould of his physical form, are but one set of these entities, and build themselves thus into man; the “Lords of the Flame” who bring the gift of Manas are but the Principles which become the re-incarnating Ego of Man; they seek, as man, their further progress. Earth alone cannot build man: the Pitris alone cannot complete him; the Sons of Mind alone cannot clothe him. All these must unite to evolve him, because man is one of the stages of the Universal Evolution of Life: all must be growing towards, passing through, or growing from the stage we know as “human”; and as the chemical elements might be poetically figured as combining first to form the simple mineral, then additional ones entering in to form the vegetable, then others again entering to produce the animal, so the varied life-forms of our universe enter one after another into the making of Man, until he stands, the perfect septenary, to progress upwards ever, in higher and higher stages of evolving life.
Strange were the throes of Mother Earth through millions of years, ere yet she was ready to be the home of the human race. “From her own bosom” she evolved strange monsters, formed of the relics of the previous Rounds, monsters which writhed and fought in those dim formless ages, when earth was well-nigh as Chaos, and nature had but a’prentice hand. Her efforts were a failure when she strove to produce man. No fit dwelling could she make for the Eternal Pilgrim, for him who needed more the physical coat of skin. An inclination of the earth’s axis caused a deluge, and all the monstrous forms were swept away from an earth now ready for
“In the first beginnings of [human] life, the only dry land was on the Right End of the sphere where it is motionless [the North Pole]. The whole earth was one vast watery desert, and the waters were tepid . . . . There man was born on the seven zones of the immortal, the indestructible of the Manvantara” (vol. ii, p. 400).
So says one of “the Commentaries” of the coming of Man. Here appeared the primordial human group, “born” under the Sun (vol. ii, p. 29), dwellings for the Monads awaiting incarnation. These dwellings, however, were but the astral forms, the chhayas, or shadows of the Lunar Pitris, projected by the latter to serve as the mould, so to speak, of physical man. It was
“a luminous incorporeal form, over which, like the molten brass round the clay model of the sculptor, the physical frame of his body was built by, through, and from the lower forms and types of animal terrestrial life”
. These first men
“were then simply the images, the astral doubles, of their Fathers, who were the pioneers, or the most progressed entities from a preceding though lower sphere, the shell of which
311
is now our moon” (vol. ii. 115).
They were the seven primordial men, evolved by the seven Pitris, mindless, mere shells; for the “Solar Angels”, the Lords of the Flame, elsewhere called the Agnishwatta, the Kumaras, “would not yet create”, i.e., the time had not yet come for Manas to incarnate in the human form. In the Hindu nomenclature the Lunar Pitris who project their shadows are the Barhishad, full of creative fire; the Agnishwatta, who are without this creative fire but who hold in reserve the gift of Manas, the Spiritual Flame, are those who at first refuse to join in “the making of man”.
“Yet it is they alone who could complete man, i.e., make of him a self-conscious, almost a divine being – a God on earth. The Barhishad, though possessed of creative fire, were devoid of the higher Mahat-mic element. Being on a level with the lower principles – those which precede gross objective matter – they could only give birth to the outer man, or rather to the model of the physical, the astral man. Thus, though we see them intrusted with the task by Brahmâ (the collective Mahat or universal Divine Mind), the ‘mystery of creation’ is repeated on Earth, only in an inverted sense, as in a mirror. It is those who are unable to create the spiritual immortal man, who project the senseless model (the Astral) of the physical Being”
.
Thus we see formed this first quasi-human race, an ethereal sexless form, into which the “earth-spirits” before spoken of are to build the atoms of the more substantial body of the future. It is the commencement of the physical evolution of the present Round on our globe, the Monad brooding over the senseless shell, the form that was “like a roof with no walls, nor pillars to rest upon” (Commentary, quoted vol. ii, p. 57), and on which it could have “no hold”. This was all “the Fathers”, the Lunar Pitris, could do towards the making of man: they could fashion the “body of illusion”, they could project the form, they could mould the shape: but not theirs to give the indwelling Mind that should inform the helpless shell, that Spark that hangs from the Flame, without which man’s bodily frame is dark as the brute’s, without which the Eternal Pilgrim could not enter the dwelling made for his reception.
Questions and Answers
We have received the following questions, and append them with replies.
Q. On page 211 of Lucifer you say: “It is some of these (Manasa Dhyanis) who are destined to incarnate as the Egos of the forthcoming crop of humanity.” What would be the nature of this incarnation? Do you mean as an entirely separate and new race, having no connection with the race of Egos at present incarnated and evolving; or blending into one-ness with them, as the Higher Ego may be conjoined with the lower? Or, in other words, are these our higher Egos, already destined to incarnate in our future personalities?
A. The incarnation is the passing of Manas into the Quaternary evolved for its reception; you will understand this when it is reached in the 312account of the Fourth Round, and then the remaining part of this question will not need answering.
Q. After passing through the middle globe D, is not the process carried out upon the ascending scale up to G, that of etherealising, or spiritualising matter; so that each globe and its inhabitants return into the “filmy, viscid, or pellucid” condition of matter?
A. Certainly, the process is carried on up to G, as has been stated in the definition of a Round; the inhabitants climb the ascending arc, but each globe passes into sleep until its period of activity recurs in the succeeding Round, and when its seventh period is over it dies. See the account given of the moon on page 172.
Q. Does man retain, in the rounds succeeding the present, a recollection of the human personalities he has passed through during this round (the 4th); or are they for ever obliterated during the Pralaya? – for it is evident that the higher he ascends in evolution, the more completely does the human identity become obliterated.
A. We cannot venture on categorical statements as to the succeeding Rounds, but we may remind X. Y. Z. that at a certain stage of development the individual, even now, can recall his past. Identity does not become obliterated, but rather accentuated, with progress; “separateness” is lessened, but individuality persists.
Q. During the Pralayas, are the Egos passing through our chain of globes, supposed to be in Devachan – or what sort of condition would theirs be?
A. Devachan is the subjective state of the Ego between its incarnations, and has nothing to do with Pralaya, a word applied to the rest-period of globes, systems, or universes. We are not able to say what is the condition of the Egos, though there are those who know.
Q. Does the aggregate consciousness of all the cells in the human body constitute the consciousness we know as men, and is “The Unknowable” but the sum total of all the consciousnesses in it?
A. “Consciousness” is far more than the aggregate consciousness of the cells of the physical frame, though each cell is conscious on its own plane. In man consciousness rises to self-consciousness, and we have Manas, which, as you must see, if you read these articles, is something far other than the outcome of the body. If we could answer the second part of your question fully “the Unknowable” would be “the Known”. See answer to N. D. K.
Q. Is the term “Parabrahm” or the “Absolute” applied to the state of the “One Life” during a Maha-Pralaya only when all things are merged into homogeneous unity; or is the same term also applicable to any essence or principle during a Maha-Manvantara when the one life or ultimate reality is differentiated and presents various aspects? The word “absolute” is very often used in the “Secret Doctrine”, but nothing like a clear explanation of the term is given. It would be much better to know what idea or ideas are meant to be conveyed by this word. (1)
It is said that “Parabrahm is without any relation to manifested being”. It is only during a Maha-Pralaya that all “relation” would cease, but during a Manvantara, all the various differentiations from the grossest to the highest must be related or connected one with the other, otherwise there would be no Universe. (2) However much for the sake of metaphysical disquisition it be argued that “Parabrahm is out of all relation to conditioned existence”, such an argument could only be held correct if the term “Parabrahm” were restricted to the state of the unknowable essence of all things during Pralaya only. If it were asserted that the same Parabrahmic essence of the Pralaya state exists somewhere even during the Manvantaras, then Parabrahm would at once come into “relation” directly with its nearest emanations and indirectly with all the remoter ones. (3)
A Maha-Manvantara, and a Maha-Pralaya are two forms or aspects of the
313
“Be-ness or One Reality”. These two are the necessary conditions of the Life of the “Reality” for the one could not be without the other. A Manvantara and a Pralaya are indissolubly linked and the “Reality” which is at the root of both, cannot but be in “relation” with both and the differentiations thereof. (4)
“Parabrahm” has been defined to be “an eternal and periodical law, which causes an active and creative force (the logos) to emanate from the ever concealed and incomprehensible One Principle at the beginning of every Maha-Manvantara” (Key, page 62). Here the “Eternal Law” and the “One Principle” appear as if they were different, but in reality they must be one, the “law” being a form of the existence of the “Principle”, and Parabrahm may be explained as the One Principle, whose law of existence or nature is such that it is continually subject to periods of activity and rest, and that in the beginning of its periods of activity it emits first of all a creative force (the Logos) which develops the Universe. The contention urged here is, that in whatever light the One Primal Reality may be viewed, the force of logic points to the conclusion that this “Reality” is in “relation” with the various manifestations of the Universe. By merely naming it as the “Absolute” we cannot break up the relation between it and its emanations, or reflections, if you please. Either the Absolute ceases to be the Absolute during a Manvantara; or if it is asserted to exist as the Absolute, it is in direct and indirect “relation” with its manifestations. The Universe is said to come into existence by “the Eternal Reality” casting a periodical reflection of itself on the Infinite Spatial depths” (Key, page 84).
Is the Reality anything different from the “Spatial depths” or Space? If not, and if space or the Eternal Substance which fills it, is the only reality, what is it that casts the reflection? From what quarter does the reflection come, and upon what does it fall? (5)
It is important to know whether during a Maha-Manvantara there is anywhere in Infinity anything like the Maha Pralayic state of the Reality, or whether there is all along some sort or other of differentiation or manifestation going on in every point of space. (6)
At the dawn of a Manvantara, the first differentiation is said to be the “Unmanifested or Impersonal Logos”. This in its turn emanates the second Logos. The first or unmanifested is said not to be able to manifest as it is the “lord of the mysteries”, but we understand nothing by this vague expression. What is the function of the Unmanifested Logos, and wherein does it differ from the second Logos. (7) The Hindus call both the unmanifested and the manifested Logos – “Ishwar” only.
The second Logos is said to be spirit-matter or Purusha Prakriti. At page 15, vol. 1, it is explained that cosmic ideation (spirit) and cosmic substance (matter) are two aspects of Parabrahm, (8) and Fohat links these two. Fohat is said to be the dynamic energy of cosmic ideation – the animating principle electrifying every atom of life. Now whence comes this Fohat? Is it spirit, or is it matter, or is it both. (9)
At page 16, a summary is given to make the statements of the previous page “clearer”. It is as follows:
(1) The Absolute or Parabrahm.
(2) The unmanifested Logos.
(3) The second Logos, or Spirit-matter, Life.
(4) Cosmic Ideation, Mahat or intelligence, the Universal World Soul, the Cosmic Noumenon of matter.
The fourth and last enumeration is most confusing. If Cosmic Ideation at p. 15 stands for spirit, why is it mentioned here as different from the 2nd Logos, and what has become of cosmic substance, and Fohat in this “clearer” summary? and what is meant by calling the 2nd Logos spirit-matter and apart from Cosmic Ideation ? (10) The great difficulty of every student of the Eastern doctrine is, that the root ideas remain as confused as ever in spite of the constant reading and collating of the different passages; and unless something like a clear exposition is given by the talented author of the “Secret Doctrine” in as plain language as possible, without reference to any system of philosophy or religion, the majority of the readers must despair of understanding the secret doctrine at all.
It would need knowledge far greater than any human or Dhyan Chohanic knowledge, let alone our poor little store, to answer categorically all the difficulties of N. D. K. If an ant tried to explain to a brother ant the mental process of Newton, he would probably make rather a poor job 314of it; but an ant is millions of millions of times nearer to a man than is man to the One Reality. We can only throw out two or three hints, and suggest to our correspondent that while we may dimly sense the Absolute we cannot apprehend, much less comprehend, it, and that, while we are forced to acknowledge it by the reason, any attempt to explain it involves us in hopeless self-contradictions. This is acknowledged in every philosophy, and is a hopeless difficulty, common to all, and lying in the very nature of things. As well said by Dean Mansel:
“The Absolute cannot be conceived as conscious, neither can it be conceived as unconscious; it cannot be conceived as complex, neither can it be conceived as simple; it cannot be conceived by difference, neither can it be conceived by absence of difference; it cannot be identified with the universe, neither can it be distinguished from it”.
What is this but to say that “the Absolute” cannot be an object of thought at all, and that to attempt to reason about it is to become absurd?
(1.) Every student of philosophy knows that no “clear explanation of the term” can be given. When we say “Unknowable” we confess our inability to explain.
(2.) “One with the other” yes, but not with the Absolute. Absolute implies without relation; all that has relation is relative.
(3.) Parabrahm, the Absolute and the Infinite, cannot exist somewhere, the use of these localised phrases is entirely out of place. Nor can it have “nearest” or furthest.
(4.) See (2.) The One Life is un-conditioned. The terms Manvantara and Maha-Pralaya must be thought of in relation to the manifested universe, not as conditioning the unconditionable. You would do well to note how cautiously guarded are all the phrases used of “Be-ness” in the “Secret Doctrine”.
(5.) You are using a poetical phrase – which adumbrates a truth impossible to express definitely, since our language is too clumsy – as though you were dealing with a looking-glass from a furniture-shop. In metaphysics you are in the realm of mind, not in that of extension, and you must try to accommodate yourself to its conditions; you might as well ask whether thought is square or round, as ask “from what quarter does the reflection come?”
(6.) We are told of periodically succeeding out-breathing and in-breathing; not of simultaneous out-breathing and in-breathing. How could these co-exist?
(7.) They differ in the one being unmanifested, the other manifested. And see (2) and (3) on p. 16.
(8.) Not cosmic but pre-cosmic as aspects: Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti are the Vedantin terms.
(9.) On “whence comes Fohat” see Lucifer, p. 56, line 4 from bottom, et seq. Fohat is both “spirit” and “matter,” though not of our plane.
(10.) The summary seems to us to be very clear: of course, since it only carries us to Mahat it does not include Fohat, any more than a genealogical tree when it stops at a man includes his grandson. You apparently forget that “Spirit” and “Matter” are two aspects of substance in manifestation, and that, united in the 2nd Logos, they differentiate further in the succeeding stage. Surely patient thinking will enable you to understand the “Secret Doctrine”. The most abstruse of subjects cannot be made as simple as a primer, and each student must do his own thinking. Personally, when a tangle seemed hopeless, we have found that resolute patient thinking has unravelled it. But we can only suggest to others the method of unravelling for themselves: we cannot straighten the tangle for them.
315
Pistis-Sophia
[It is thought that it will greatly aid the reader and a key be given to students of Esoteric Philosophy by anticipating the following passage:
[247] . . . . And when Andrew had said these words, the Spirit of the Saviour was moved in him, and he cried out and said: “How long shall I bear with you, how long shall I suffer you! Do ye still not know and are ye ignorant? Knew ye not, and do ye not understand, that ye are all Angels, and all Archangels, and Gods and Lords, and all Rulers, and all the great Invisibles [248], and all those who pertain to the Midst and to the Region of the Light, and all the great Projections of the Right, and all their Glory. That ye are from all, of your selves and in your selves in turn, from one Mass, and one Matter and one Essence. And that ye are all from one Mixture; and by the command of the First Mystery, the Mixture is a necessity, until all the great Projections of Light and all their Glory have cleansed it. And they have been cleansing it not of themselves, but of necessity, according to the dispensation of one and the same Ineffable. Neither have they at all undergone sufferings, nor changes in the Regions, nor have they stript themselves at all, nor poured themselves (1) into various bodies, nor have they been in any tribulation.]
1 Metangizein – to pour from one vessel into another: metangismos was the technical term for metempsychosis or reincarnation among the Pythagoreans. C. W. King, however, translates this passage: “nor transformed themselves into various figures”; but somata are animal bodies and nothing else, and metangizein and metangismos are technical words, used only in connexion with the Pythagorean metempsychosis, and frequently employed in Pistis-Sophia by Schwartze to denote reincarnation. It is, therefore, difficult to understand how the author of The Gnostics and their Remains missed the correct translation.
Augustine (Hær. 58), copying from Philaster, gives the name of Metangismonitæ to a certain sect of Heretics who, he avers, asserted that the Son was in the Father, as one vessel (angeion) in another. There is, however, no evidence to support this statement.
“AFTER these things, moreover, I looked down into the World of Men, and found Mary who is called my Mother after the body of Matter (Hyle); I spoke to her, moreover, in the form of Gabriel, (1) and when she had turned herself into the Height (sc. Pleroma) towards me, I implanted in her the first Power which I received from Barbêlô, (2) the Body which I
316
wore in the Height. And instead of a Soul, I implanted in her the Power [14], which I received from the Great Sabbaoth, the Good, (3) who is in the Region of the Right. (4) And the twelve Powers of the Twelve Saviours (5) of the Treasure of Light, which I received from the twelve Deacons (Ministers), who are in the Midst, (6) I brought into the Sphere of the Rulers, and the Decans (7) of the Rulers and their Ministers thought them the souls of the Rulers: and the Ministers conducted them. I bound them in the body of your mothers. And when your time was full, they brought you forth into the World, no Soul of the Rulers being in you. And ye have received your portion of the Power which the last Supporter breathed into the Mixture ( Kerosmos, see Table I.), which was blended with all the Invisibles, and Rulers, and Æons; once only was it blended with the World of Destruction, which is the Mixture: this (Power) I brought out from Myself, (sc. the Four-and-Twentieth Mystery) from the beginning, and infused it into the First Precept; and the First Precept infused a portion thereof into the Great Light; and the Great Light infused a portion of that which it received, into the Five Supporters; and the last Supporter received that portion and infused it into the Mixture. (8) [15] Such is the manner of all things which are in this Mixture, as I have told you.
(1) In the system of Justinus (Philosophumena, v, 26), the first triad is described as consisting of two male principles and one feminine. The first male is called the Good and is attributed with universal foreknowledge: the second, the Elohim, is the father (collective) of all the creation or generation, without foreknowledge and blind. The third, the feminine principle, is also without foreknowledge, two-minded or undecided, bi-corporate or of two bodies, being figured as a virgin above and a viper below (astronomically the Virgo-Scorpio of the ancient Zodiacs), and her name is Eden or Israel. And mutual desire arose in the Elohim and Eden, and from this union were born twenty-four Angels, twelve called Paternal and twelve Maternal. Among the twelve Paternal is Gabriel. The twelve are, of course, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, &c., according to the key used. In the Talmud and the Kabala, Eden is called “The Garden of Delight”, and held by the Church Fathers to figure Yoni after the commission of the first sin. The Gnostics, on the contrary, always explain the term in its most spiritual and metaphysical sense, treating of its cosmogonical and theogonical signification and ignoring its material and physiological explanation.
In the Adversum Celsum (vi, 30), Origen with much verbiage and contempt treats of the “accursed diagram” of the Ophites, which his Gnostic opponent Celsus had referred to. In it, Gabriel is the fourth of the “seven ruling Daimons”, for we read: “Moreover, Celsus asserted that the ‘fourth had the form of an eagle’; the diagram representing him as Gabriel the eagle-like.” In ancient Astrology, Gabriel was said to rule over the sign Taurus and the Moon.
Now, the Egyptians, according to Plutarch (De Isid et Osir.) assigned to the moon a male and a female nature (phusin arsenothelun). During the Lunus-Luna festival, at the Vernal Equinox, when the sun was in the sign Taurus, the men sacrificed to Lunus and the women to Luna, each sex assuming the dress of the other. The Bull (Taurus), moreover, among all the ancients was the symbol of generation, 317and in the symbolism of the Mithraic Mysteries, the Initiate plunges a sword or scimitar into the throat of a prostrate Bull. Compare this with the Voice of the Silence (pp, 11 and 12):
“Before that path is entered, thou must destroy thy lunar body, cleanse thy mind-body and make clean thy heart............
“Before the ‘Mystic Power’ can make of thee a God, Lanoo, thou must have gained the faculty to stay thy lunar form at will.”
When we collate all this with what is told us in the Secret Doctrine of the Pitris and their work in the formation of the lower man, and of the bi-sexual or androgynous nature of the early races, we shall understand why the Angel Gabriel the Daimon of the Moon, and the ruler of the sign Taurus, appeared to Mary at her conception; the Annunciation will resolve itself into far simpler terms than the accepted solution, and we shall have learnt something of the mysteries of the astral body.
(2) In explaining this term, it will be interesting to see first of all what the other Gnostic systems say of Barbelo and then to examine the statements in Pistis-Sophia.
We learn from Irenæus, Contra Haereses, that the Innominable Father was manifested to this “never-aging Æon in a virginal form” by the emanation of four beings, whose name expressed thought and life; and that she, at the sight thereof, conceived and gave birth to three like beings.
Compare this with: –
“(Then) the three (triangle) fall into the Four (quarternary). The radiant essence becomes Seven inside, Seven outside. The Luminous Egg (Hiranyagharba), which in itself is Three (the triple hypostases of Brahmâ, or Vishnu, the three ‘Avasthas’), curdles and spreads in milk-white curds throughout the depths of Mother, the Root that grows in the Ocean of Life.” (S. D. vol. i, 66).
According to Epiphanius, one of the Ophite schools taught that Barbelo was an emanation of the Father, and the Mother of Ialdabaoth (or according to some of Sabaoth), which is to say that Barbelo was identical with Sophia Achamoth, or Pistis-Sophia. She dwelt in the Eighth Heaven above: while her son insolently possessed himself of the Seventh and caused his mother much lamentation. This idea is the common property of all the Gnostic systems, the terms varying, the idea remaining constant. She is further said to constantly appear to the Archons, or Rulers, in a beautiful form, so that she may collect again her scattered power, stolen from her by the Demiurge, his Gods, Angels, and Daimons.
According to Irenæus again, the ascent of souls terminated in the upper Region “where is Barbelo the Mother of the Living (or Lives).”
Pistis-Sophia informs us that Barbelo is one of the Triad of the Invisibles, Agrammachamareg, Barbelo and Bdellê, in the Region of the Left (See Table I.), where is the Thirteenth Æon (pag. 359). She is twice called the Power (dynamis) of the Invisible God; she is also the Mother of Pistis-Sophia and twenty-three other Emanations (pagg, 49, 361). The Region of the Left is apparently called the Hyle (Matter) of Barbelo (pag. 128).
Again, from Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses (26, 11, 3), we learn that one of the names of the Valentinians was Barbélitæ, and we are inclined to think with M. E. Amélineau in his Essai sur le Gnosticisme Egyptien (Paris, 1887), that it was the name of the highest degree of their Initiation, in which the Adept became a perfect Pneumatic, or Illuminatus, a son of Immortality. The Hebrew derivation would give the meaning, Son or Daughter of God. We know, on the other hand, that with the Gnostics and especially the Docetæ (Illusionists), who held that Jesus, the man, was entirely distinct from Christos, the Principle, and denied the facts of the miraculous conception, incarnation, death, and resurrection – the mother of Jesus, the man, was considered as low, as the mother of Christos, the Principle, was held in veneration by them. The latter was the “Holy Ghost” and regarded as female 318by their schools. When we consider, however, that esoterically there are seven aspects of the Sophia (the seven planes of wisdom), it will be easy to see that both the Church Fathers, unintentionally, and the Gnostics, intentionally, only give one out of the seven aspects.
(3) In Pistis-Sophia there are three Sabaoths, that is to say three aspects of the power or principle hidden in this name. (1) The Great Sabaoth the Good, the “father” of the “soul” of Jesus (pagg. 14, 193): (2) The Little Sabaoth, the Good, called in the Kosmos Zeus (Jupiter) (pag. 371), one of the Planetary Rulers: and (3) Sabaoth Adamas, Ruler over six of the twelve Archons (pag. 360), and also in the Lower World, one of the Archons which have the punishment of Souls, whose “Receiver”, or subordinate, presents the Cup of Oblivion to reincarnating souls.
In some of the schools, it was taught that he who wished to be “Perfect” must ascend through the realms of the Rulers, and finally place his foot on the head of Sabaoth; and thus attain the Eighth Heaven where dwelt Barbelo. Sabaoth was said to have woman's hair, and was figured by some as an ass, by others as a swine. Here we should call to mind the red ass of Typhon in the Egyptian Mysteries; the descent of Bacchus to Hades on an ass in the “Frogs” of Aristophanes (a burlesque on the Eleusinian Mysteries); the “Golden Ass” of Apuleius, and last but not least the entrance of “Jesus” into “Jerusalem” (the mundane Jerusalem, in other words, physical existence, see Lucifer vi, 235) on an “ass.” In every case these terms are from the Mysteries and none but the “Perfect” knew their secret meaning. To the multitude they have ever remained “abracadabra” and will remain so for all but the most determined students.
Origen (Adv. Cels, vi, 31) gives the formulæ of prayers recited by the Defunct, or Pneumatic, to the Planetary Rulers. These were probably part of the secrets of their outer initiation, and used by the Bishop of Auch to show that he knew their secrets even better than Celsus himself. The passage referring to Sabaoth runs as follows:
“They next come to Sabaoth, to whom they think the following should be addressed: ‘O Governor of the fifth realm, powerful Sabaoth, defender of the law of thy creation, which is liberated by grace, through the help of a more powerful Pentad, admit me, seeing the faultless symbol of thy art, preserved by a stamp of an image, a body liberated by a Pentad. Let grace be with me O Father, let grace be with me’.”
(4) Perhaps it will not be without interest if, in explanation of this term, we translate a few lines from the Quinque Libri adversus Haereses (Migne, η. 5, col. 500, 501) of Irenæus, who was, perhaps, the bitterest of all the opponents of the Gnosis. The “holy” Father shall teach us the Knowledge he strove so vigorously to crush out of existence.
In speaking of the Italian school of the Valentinians, Irenæus writes: –
“They declare that the Demiurge, having fashioned the Cosmos, made the Choïc (Material) Man also, but not from this dry Earth, but from the invisible Essence, from the fluid and unsettled portion of the Hyle, and that he breathed into him the Psychic (or astral Man). And this is the Man which is born according to the image and likeness (sc. the Chhaya), the Hylic being according to the image, resembling but not of the same Essence with the God (the Pitris), while the Psychic Man was in the likeness: whence also his Essence, being from a spiritual emanation, is called a spirit of Life. It was afterwards they say that the Coat of Skin clothed him, which they declare is the body of flesh perceived by the senses. ............so that they derive the Soul from the Demiurge, the Body from the Earth (Choos), and the Fleshly Covering from the Hyle; but the Spiritual Man (Anthrôpos) from the Mother of Achamoth (i.e., from Sophia-Above or Within, the Mother of Sophia-Without, or Pistis-Sophia). “Of these three, they say that the Hylic, which
319
they also call the Left, must of necessity perish, in as much as it has in it no breath of incorruptibility; but the Psychic, which they designate the Right, being in the middle of the Spiritual and Hylic, goes in whatsoever direction it may incline itself; whereas the Spiritual (Manas) has been sent forth, in order that, by being united with the Psychic here (i.e., emanating Kama-Manas), it might take Form and be instructed together with it (the Psychic or Kama-Rûpa) by sharing in its existence or by conversion with it [anastrophê]).”
In the Pistis-Sophia the plane immediately below or inferior to the Treasure of Light is divided into three main Lokas or Sub-planes, the Right, the Left and the Middle.
The duty of the Rulers of the Right is the forming, fashioning or building of all lower Spheres or Planes of existence, by bringing down the Light out of its Treasury and causing it to return thither again, thus in another sense, accomplishing the salvation of such souls as are fit to ascend to a higher plane. The Rulers of the Midst have the Guardianship of Human Souls. The Left called also the Region of Righteousness, is the Loka or condition towards which all penitent souls tend, for it is here that the conflict between the principles of Light and Hyle, (i.e., differentiation) first commences. From the words in italics in the preceding paragraph, we can see the type of Brahmâ, Vishnu and Shiva, the Hindu Trimurti or Trinity, revealing itself; the ideas of Creation, Preservation, and Destruction or Regeneration being very clearly shown forth.
In the System of Valentinus (Lucifer, vi. 234), we read of “the power of the psychic or soulish essence which is called ‘Right’”. Sabaoth also who dwells in the Right is an aspect of the Demiurge and the Creator of Souls.
Before proceeding further, it is necessary to give a provisionary table of the Planes and Lokas according to the Pistis-Sophia.
Vide S. D. I., 200.
(5) The Twelve Saviours are part of the contents of the Treasure of Light and are identical with the Dodecad of the Valentinian Pleroma (Lucifer, vi, 231. 237). The twelve Deacons are of course a manifestation of the primordial type of the Dodecad of the Pleroma on a Loka of another plane.
(6) In the Valentinian System the Mesŏtês, or Middle Region, is above the highest Heaven but below the Pleroma. It is especially the place of the Psychics, 320as the Pleroma is of the Pneumatics. This is the proper place of Sophia-Achamoth, the Sophia-Without or Pistis-Sophia, who desiring the Light, falls from the Ogdoad into the Heptad, the highest Loka or Sub-plane of which is ruled by the Demiurge, the Self-willed One of the Pistis-Sophia. When she gains the Pleroma, the Demiurge will be exalted to the Middle Region. In other words when the Lower-Manas shall have become one with the Higher, those Kamic elements which follow the higher and impress themselves permanently in it, will be purified.
(7) Over the Sphere (see Table I) Ieu, [the Overseer (episkopos or bishop) of the Light, also called the First Man (primus homo) who is one of the 6 great Rulers of the Right], sets 5 great Rulers, or Archons, formed of the Light-powers of the Right; these are the Planetary Rulers, Saturn, Mars, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, Below it are placed 360 other powers, or Decans; below them again, in the Region of the Air and corresponding in number, are 360 other Archons with 5 Rulers again over them. The lower 365 refuse to believe in the mysteries of Light and entice souls to sin. This apparent duality is a common characteristic of the Gnosis. Everything in nature is bad or good according to the nature and motive of man; at each moment of life, every man can choose the Left or Right.
These numbers 360 and 365 occur in the systems of Bardesanes and Basilides and in the Æonology of other schools; sometimes they form part of the contents of the Pleroma.
Matter in treating of the Gnostic schools of Egypt (Tom. ii, 34), tells us that the Tutelar Genii of each day were invoked against the nefast power of Typhon, the Egyptian Ahriman. These composed the third series of the gods of the Egyptian Pantheon.
“These gods”, he says, “are as little known by name, as the 360 Intelligences which made up the Abraxas of Basilides. The ancients classed them under the generic term Daemons. These Daemons, were grouped in classes round the Cosmic Deities, as they were called; that is to say, the gods which governed the visible world; they were its agents (Cosmocratores), just as their chiefs were those of the Super-celestial gods. Commissioned as they were to maintain the communication between the two worlds, they presided at the descent of souls from the higher regions to the inferior zone, and communicated to them during the present existence of trial and expiation, the gifts of divine life. They divided among themselves the 36 parts of the human body, and after their earthly career was finished, guided the souls in their return to the Supreme Being.”
(8) Although it is impossible at present to give a complete and detailed table of the almost interminable synonyms of the terms, used in the scheme of the Pistis-Sophia, we are compelled, at the risk of being thought tedious, to give some explanation of the strange nomenclature which meets us at every step.
Below the Last Mystery in the Upper World which we are inclined to make correspond with the Treasure or Pleroma, come the Great Light of the Impression (or Mark) of Light, divided into 5 Impressions of Light; the First Precept (or Statute), divided into 7 Mysteries; the Great Light of Lights; the 5 Great Supporters (or Helpers), which conduct the Powers of Light into the lower regions, or planes; and last of all the Region of the Inheritance of Light, where redeemed souls will dwell.
Here we have 7 elements or principles and it is curious to remark how the 5 Impressions (Charagmai; in some systems Charactêres), or ideas, are repeated as the 5 Supporters, and the Great Light of the Impression of Light as the Great Light of Lights.
Other Supporters (parastatai) are mentioned as belonging to the Middle Region, 15 in number, whose names are quoted from a Coptic papyrus in the Bodleian, in 321the work of M. E. Amélineau already mentioned (p. 252). This papyrus contains three treatises apparently of the same school as the Pistis-Sophia, entitled “The Mystery of the Letters of the Alphabet”, “The Book of the Gnosis of the Divine Invisible”, and “The Book of the Great Logos according to the Mystery.”
These repeated Fives and combinations of Five are according to the type of the Pentad, as shown in the Chart of the Valentinian Pleroma (Lucifer, vi, 237). Five is the number of man; for of the perfect Septenary, the Triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, is to average humanity a unity.
“Rejoice, therefore, in that the time is come that I should put on my Vesture (1).
“Lo! I have put on my vesture and all power has been given me by the First Mystery. Yet a little while and I will tell you every Mystery and every Completion; henceforth from this hour I will conceal naught from you, but in Perfectness will I perfect you in all Completion, and all Perfectioning and every Mystery [16], which indeed are the End of all Ends, and the Completion of all Completions, and the Wisdom ( gnosis) of all Wisdoms, which are in my Vesture. Hearken! I will tell you all things which have befallen me.
“It came to pass, when the sun had risen in the places of the East, a great flood of light descended, in which was my Vesture, which I placed in the Four-and-Twentieth Mystery. And I found the Mystery on my Vesture, written in Five Words, which pertain to the Height. ZAMA ZAMA ÔZZA RACHAMA ÔZAI (2). And this is the interpretation thereof: ‘The Mystery which is without in the World, because of which the Universe was made, is all Evolution and all Progress; it projected all emanations and all things therein. Because of it every Mystery exists and the Regions thereof. Come to us (3), for we are thy fellow members. We are all one with thee. We are one and the same, and thou art one and the same. That is the First Mystery [17], which was from the beginning in the Ineffable before it came forth therefrom; and its Name is all of us.
“‘Now, therefore, we all live together for thee at the last Limit (4), which also is the last Mystery from the Interiors. That also is a part of us. Now, therefore, we have sent thee thy Vesture, which indeed is thine from the beginning, which thou didst place in the last Limit, which also is the last Mystery from the Interiors, until its time should be fulfilled according to the command of the First Mystery. Lo! its time being now completed, I will give it thee. Come to us! For we (5) all stand by thee to clothe thee with the First Mystery, and all its glory by command of the same, because that the First Mystery, coming into manifestation, gave us two Vestures to clothe thee, besides the one, which we have sent thee, since thou art worthy of them and art prior to us and came into being before us. For this cause, therefore, the First Mystery sent for thee through us the Mystery of all its Glory, two Vestures. The first thereof is the whole glory of all the Names of the Mysteries and all the Projections of the
322
Orders of the Spaces of the Ineffable. [18] And the second Vesture therein is the whole Glory of the Name of all the Mysteries and all the Projections, which are in the Orders of the two Spaces of the First Mystery. And in this Vesture, which we have now sent thee, is the Glory of the name of the Mystery, the Revealer, which is the First Precept, and the Mystery of the five Marks, and the Mystery of the great Legate of the Ineffable, which Mystery is the Great Light; and also the Mystery of the five Leaders, who are also the five Supporters. There is also in that Vesture the Glory of the Name of the Mystery of all the Orders of the Projections of the Treasure of Light, and also their Saviours, and also the Orders of (their) Orders, which are the seven Amens and the seven Voices, and also the five Trees, and also the three Amens, and also the Saviour of the Twins, which are the Child of the Child, and also the Mystery of the nine Keepers of the Three Gates of the Treasure of Light. There is also therein all the Glory of the Name, which is on the Right, and of those who are in the Midst; Moreover there is therein all the Glory of the Name of the great Invisible [19], who is the great Forefather, and also the Mystery of the three Triple Powers (6), and also the Mystery of the whole Region of them, and also the Mystery of all their Invisibles and of all that turn (7) in the Thirteenth of the Æons, and the Name of the twelve Æons, and of all their Archons, Archangels, Angels and all that turn therein; and every Mystery of the Name of all that turn in the Fate, and all in the Heavens, and in the Sphere, and also of their Firmaments and of all that are in them, and of all their Regions. (8)
“‘Behold, therefore, we have sent thee this Vesture, which no one has known from the First Precept downwards, because the radiance of its Light had been hidden therein, nor did the Spheres and all the Regions downward form the First Precept (know it). Make haste, therefore, clothe thyself with this Vesture. Come to us; for ever, until the time appointed by the Ineffable was fulfilled, we have been in need of thee, to clothe thee with the two Vestures by the command of the First Mystery. Lo, then, that time is fulfilled. Come, therefore, to us quickly that we may put them on thee, until thou fulfillest every Ministry of the Perfections of the First Mystery, appointed by the Ineffable. Come to us quickly, we will put them upon thee according to the command of the First Mystery; for the time that yet remains is very short. Thou art coming to us and wilt leave the World. Come, therefore; quickly shalt thou receive all thy glory, the glory of the First Mystery.’”
(1) It is curious and interesting to learn what occult ideas the Gnostics had of these Bodies or Vestures; for instance, in speaking of the Docetæ, a generic name including those schools which maintained that the Body of the Adept was only an appearance or, in other words, a Mayavi-rupa, the author of the Philosophumena (viii, 10) informs us that they explained the mystery-drama of the Jesus as follows:
323
“He went and washed in the Jordan (the mystic ‘River’ which stopped the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt ‘which is the body’ [v, 7]), and in doing so received the Type and Impression, in the water, of the body born from the Virgin, in order that when the Ruler (Archon) condemned his own (sc. the Ruler’s) image (plasma, i.e. the body) to death, viz., to the Cross (stauros; vide ‘Lucifer’, vi, 232 et seqq.), this Soul of his (Jesus’) being nourished in the body, might not after putting off the body, and nailing it to the tree and by its means triumphing over the Principalities and Authorities, be found naked, but might put on the body, which had been impressed in the water when he was baptized, instead of the fleshly body.”
The deep occult significance of this passage scarcely needs any pointing out to the student, the whole mystery of “Birth” and “Baptism” is contained therein. Those alone who have bathed in the Cosmic stream will fully comprehend.
(2) Compare the Secret Doctrine, vol. ii, 580:
“The five words (Panchadasa) of Brahmâ have become with the Gnostics the ‘Five Words’ written upon the akâsic (shining) garment of Jesus at his glorification: the words ΖΑΜΑ ΖΑΜΑ ΩΖΖΑ ΡΑΧΑΜΑ ΩΖΑΙ, translated by the Orientalists, ‘the robe, the glorious robe of my strength’. These words were, in their turn, the anagrammatic blind of the five mystic powers represented on the robe of the ‘resurrected’ Initiate after his last trial of three days’ trance; the five becoming seven only after his death, when the Adept became the full Christos, the full Krishna-Vishnu, i.e., merged in Nirvana.”
(3) Compare the Secret Doctrine (vol. i, Stanzas v and vi, and pages 130, 131), where the Great Day “Be with us” is described as:
“that day when man, freeing himself from the trammels of ignorance, and recognizing fully the non-separateness of the Ego within his personality – erroneously regarded as his own – from the Universal Ego (Anima Supra-Mundi), merges thereby into the One Essence to become not only one ‘with us’ (the manifested universal lives which are ‘ONE’ Life), but that very life itself.”
In the Egyptian mysteries we also find the Day “Come to us” mentioned, and explained as “the day, when Osiris said to the Sun ‘Come’” (“Book of the Dead”, xvii, 34,42). For a full explanation, read also “Secret Doctrine”, pp. 134, 135.
(4) This corresponds to the Horos or Stauros of the Valentinian System. The Pistis-Sophia, however, is far richer in its esotericism, and there are many Limits or Laya centres (see Secret Doctrine passim), corresponding to each plane and subplane, even as there are several Pleromas. Compare also (ibid.) what is said about the Ring “Pass not”, and the Dhyani-pâsa or “Rope of the Gods”.
(5) Notice the change of number.
(6) Two mystery names of the three Triple Powers are mentioned (pag. 361), viz., Ipsantachounchaīnchoucheôch and Chaīnchôôôch; a Power emanates from the former upon Mars and from the latter upon Mercury. In the same context, we are told that a Power from the Great Invisible resides in Saturn and from Pistis-Sophia, daughter of Barbelo, in Venus.
(7) Or dwell: sc. the “Wheels” (cf. S. D.).
(8) For the Regions, etc., see Table I.
N.B. – With regard to the figures published in the last paper, it should be clearly understood that there is no up nor down, no top nor bottom, in reality. It has, however, been suggested that Fig. 8 would be preferable if reversed, so that the Point should be at the top.
The Hittites
328
The Letters of Johann Caspar Lavater
THE external conditions in which a soul, after leaving its body, will find itself placed, depend on its own internal state; to wit, all will appear to it in consonance with its own nature. The good will see everything that is good, the wicked will attract naught but the wicked. The loving souls will find themselves surrounded with loving spirits; the souls which hated will approach the fiends of Hate. Every soul will be reflected in Spirits akin to itself.
A virtuous soul will become better in the midst of the most perfect Beings which it will find itself able to approach. A pure soul will become more pure still through the sole fact of its incessant contemplation of Spirits still purer and more radiant than itself. A loving soul will become more loving.............
Likewise, the vicious soul will become more corrupted through its contact with other wicked Beings. For if we find even on earth nothing more contagious and attractive than vice and virtue, hate and love; it stands only to reason that beyond the threshold of terrestrial life, every moral and religious perfectibility becomes inevitably still more attractive as every immoral and unclean feeling, more contagious.
You, most revered Sovereign, will become the most loving in the midst of Beings full of love.
All the remnants of vanity, selfishness, and neglect of the kingdom of God and His pre-ordinations will be engulfed, without leaving a trace, by this feeling of love, if it only predominates in us, this attribute which will find itself ceaselessly being purified in such relationship and touch with pure and loving Spirits.
Rising by the power of that love in us, a love which we can develop so broadly when still on earth; purifying ourselves through contact with the love of those pure Beings which radiate on us the beams of their light, we will thereby only prepare and train ourselves gradually to the direct contemplation of the most Perfect Love in the hereafter, lest by being too strongly dazzled we should be thrown back and thus prevented from fully enjoying it.
But, highly revered Sovereign, how may a weak mortal, and how dare he attempt to explain to himself the nature of the contemplation of this embodiment of Love! Canst Thou, O inexhaustible Mercy, visibly
329
approach him, who from Thee alone draws love and that without appalling and blinding him?
I believe that at first He will approach us invisible and unrecognized.
Has not He acted ever in this way? Who, more than Christ sought to remain unrecognized? Who manifested in Himself the unsolved riddle of the unknown as He did? Who knew better to remain unrecognized, than He, in whose full power it was to manifest Himself; He before whom all Heaven bowed; aye, He came to us under the guise of a modest carpenter and preserved till death the personality of a Nazarene, appearing at first in an incognizable form. He manifested Himself only subsequently.
I surmise that He will always preserve this mode of action, so well according with His nature, His wisdom and His love. Is it not as a gardener that He appeared to Mary while she was seeking for Him, despairing of ever finding whom she sought? Unrecognized at first, He allowed her to know Him only a few minutes later.
Equally unbeknown He approached His two disciples, who full of Him went in search of their Master. He journeyed along with them for some considerable time. Their hearts burned within them with a sacred fire; they felt the presence of a higher and a more divinely pure Being, but they did not recognize Him, “For their eyes were holden that they should not know him”; and they were opened only when He “brake” the bread, and also when they saw Him the same evening in Jerusalem. The same happened at the Sea of Tiberias, and when, radiant in all His glory, He appeared to Saul.
How lofty and identical are all the words and manifestations of our Lord! . . . .
All follows an uninterrupted sequence which moves us on incessantly forward, bringing us nearer and nearer the goal; but that goal is not, however, the final one. Christ is the middle point, the chief motor, at times visible, at others invisible, in this great divine drama so strikingly simple and at the same time so terribly complicated; a drama which seems to never end, though it seemed complete and finished a thousand times over.
In the life-drama of each of us who follows and bows before Him, He always appears at first unrecognized, Can Love refuse to manifest to him who adores It and which It loves – during the moment he most needs it?
Yes; O most humane of man, Thou shalt manifest Thyself to men in the form that is the most human. Thou shalt appear to the loving Soul I now address. Thou shalt appear also to me, at first as unrecognized, but forthwith Thou shalt make Thyself known. We shall see Thee innumerable times ever different yet ever the same; even more perfect in proportion as our soul will be perfecting itself and – never for the last time! . . .
Let us then soar as frequently as we can toward this enchanting ideal, which, God permitting, I will try to explain more fully in my next letter, thus endeavoring to make it more realistic to You. This must now be done through the means of a communication from a departed Soul.
Johann Caspar Lavater.
In my last, I had promised you Highly Revered Sovereign Lady, to send you the letter of a dead man to a living friend of his. I did so in order that you should be offered the means of understanding the better my conceptions with regard to the post mortem condition of a Christian after the death of his body. I now take the liberty of enclosing the promised document in my present letter, for your inspection. You have to judge
330
it from the standpoint already indicated by me; and to kindly give all your attention to the main subject rather than to the secondary details; though even these, as I have reasons to suppose, bear the stamp of truth upon them.
For a clearer understanding of all that I shall have occasion to submit to you in the future in this form, I deem it necessary to add to it as a general conclusion a conviction of mine. And this is, that quite independently of the universal and immutable law of condemnation and the highest bliss, every spirit, coordinately with his personal character,[101] not only moral and religious, but also individual and social, experiences after his terrestrial death, sorrows, and joys quite different from what other spirits do, and appertaining to himself only. A universal law is determined by the personality of every distinct being; i.e., it will produce in its particular applications different effects, as the same beam shining through colored glass regulates its direction and intensity of light in accordance with the degree and quality of the color of the glass, its protuberances and defects. Thus, I take the following for an unconditioned axiom:
Notwithstanding that all spirits from the highest to the lowest and most suffering, are subject to the same simple law of affinity with, or repulsion from, the most perfect Love; nevertheless, it is the personal and separate character of each of them which places him in conditions of bliss or suffering entirely its own. Every one among them suffers independently and quite differently from the others, and enjoys a bliss which belongs to no other. The material and the spiritual worlds, God and Christ, appear to each in a form in which they appear to none other but himself.
Each Spirit has its own standpoint, personal to himself. God talks with each in a tongue comprehensible only to him. He communes with each separately, and grants to him a bliss which he alone is able to feel.
This idea, of the truth of which I feel firmly convinced, serves as a basic one in all the subsequent letters from disembodied spirits to their friends on earth.
I will remain quite content if my explanations will help you to understand how each Spirit, developing his personal character and ennobling his personality,[102] may prepare himself for joys and blissfulness entirely his own, as best fitted and peculiar to him.
Nothing is sooner forgotten, as nothing is pursued with less steadiness than our conception of the bliss best fitted for us, or the possibility of preparing oneself to enjoy it. Therefore, do I feel sure, that you, wise Sovereign Lady, so worthy of respect, will not deem vain this, my earnest prayer, that you should give your fullest and attentive consideration to the above idea, and that you should fathom it for the sake of Your own edification and personal elevation to God. God has placed Himself and the whole Universe in the heart of every man!
Thus, each man represents a separate mirror reflecting the Universe and its Creator. Let us endeavor then, highly reverenced Sovereign, to preserve this mirror in us, in the greatest purity, that God should see in it at every hour, the reflection of Himself and of his divine creation.
331
The Letter of a Defunct to His Friend on Earth
At last, my beloved one, I am permitted to partially satisfy our mutual desire and to communicate to thee something of my present condition. I can tell thee very little, this once. All depends on the way thou shalt profit by my advices.
I am aware how great is thy desire to learn something of my present state, as of that of the disembodied Spirits in general; but it is no greater than my own wish to let thee know all that can possibly be revealed.
In him who loved in the material world, the faculty of loving increases enormously as soon as he becomes a denizen of the immaterial world. Together with such love, the desire to notify those on earth whom he loves, and to let them know all that is permitted to be said upon the subject, increases in him in the highest degree.
First of all I have to explain to thee how, without touching pen or paper, I have the possibility of writing, and of conversing with thee in a tongue quite terrestrial and human, which tongue in my present normal state I can no longer comprehend. This alone must serve to throw a ray of light on the idea, concerning the way thou hast to conceive our actual and normal conditions.
Imagine then, that my present state differs from the one that preceded, almost as much as the state of the butterfly carrying itself about in the air, differs from the state it was in while a grub. I now represent just such a grub, transformed, freed and having survived already two transformations. We soar over the heads of the good, as butterflies circle round sweet-smelling flowers. Invisible to you mortals, visible but to the very few, at any rate, our light radiates softly around the head of every good, loving, and true Christian.[103]
[The idea of the luminous aura that surrounds the heads of Saints is based on this verity. Akin to this light, the light supernal is attracted to it, as it is only through the former that beatitude is possible.]
No unclean Spirit will ever dare, nor could he if he would, approach this light.
Plunging into the light that surrounds the heads of good and pious persons, we acquire the faculty of perceiving their Selves. We see the Self as it is, in reality.
Every ray that emanates from it becomes for us a word, often a whole discourse.
We reply to its thoughts, but the man is not aware that it is we, who answer him. We stimulate in him ideas, which without our influence could otherwise never have entered his head, though the receptive faculty and predisposition to accept them is the heirloom of his Soul.[104]
Thus a highly worthy man, and one capable of receiving light becomes in this manner an obedient and useful agent for the spirit to whom he is sympathetic and to whom he is anxious to impart his divine light.[105]
332
I have found such a self, or rather a man, possessing around him the required light, whom I can approach, and through whose instrumentality I now can talk with thee. Without his means I should have found it impossible to enter into any relations with thee, human, oral, visible, or subjective; in short, I should have been unable to write to thee.
But through this means thou shalt receive anonymous letters from a man quite unknown to thee, but who feels a powerful attraction to hidden and spiritual subjects.
I soar over, and light upon him, almost as the holiest of spirits lighted upon the holiest of men after His baptism.[106]
I influence him, I suggest in him thoughts. He writes them under my inspiration; I guide him by the light of my rays.
With a light touch I cause the chords of his soul to vibrate, in unison with our two individualities. He writes but that which I desire him to write. I write through him, and all my thoughts become his thoughts. He becomes happier, freer, more animated, and richer in ideas.
It seems to him that he lives and floats in a more radiant and blissful space. He moves on lightly as a friend led arm in arm by another friend, and all this culminates in thy receiving from me a letter. He who writes considers himself free, and he is indeed so. No compulsion is felt by, or weighs over him – he is free, as are free two friends going arm in arm, yet mutually leading each other.
Thou must feel, however, that my spirit is inter-related with thine, since thou assimilatest that which I tell thee; thou comprehendest my innermost thoughts. For this once, enough. The day on which I dictated for thee this letter is called by you on earth – 15, ix, 1798.
Editor’s Note. – We are sorry to see that in this case, as invariably as in almost all such cases of “Spirit-writing”, the latter is so far inferior to what the “medium”, if at all intellectual, might write himself. Those who read Lavater’s works, and are acquainted with his keen intellect and the beauty of his style, will feel surprised that he should send such a meagre “Spirit” production to a highly intellectual Princess – as food for religious thought! The several letters from the venerable Makariozenagath – as the “Spirit” signs his other epistles – are, however, more in consonance with Lavater’s style, religious gush notwithstanding.
Head-Quarters Building Fund
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Already acknowledged | 760 | 7 | 0 |
| A. M. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Xifré | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| F. Montaliu | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| N. 142 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Satwa | 3 | 3 | |
| E. Adams | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A. Fullerton for M. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 786 | 10 | 3 |
Mistaken Notions on the "Secret Doctrine"
335
Capital Punishment
Having read with much interest in “Theosophical Siftings” the article by Dr. Franz Hartmann on “Capital Punishment”, I venture to ask your opinion on the subject. I have long been sure that it is both useless and wrong to put murderers to death – convinced by the same reasons which Dr. Hartmann puts so cogently. Moreover, I have often maintained that since two wrongs do not make a right, matters cannot be mended by killing the man who has taken the life of another. Hence I feel that should I be called to serve on a jury in such a trial, I must either declare my views at the outset, which might result in the choice of a “hanging” juryman in my place, or serve with the intention of not convicting the accused of wilful murder, no matter how guilty he might be proved. If that course were only to result in keeping the criminal in custody for the rest of his natural life, my conscience would be clear; but, as it might easily set him again at liberty, I feel in a dilemma. Will you kindly say in your next issue what your opinion is, and help perhaps more than one.
[Editorial reply on capital punishment]
335
Seven Eared Wheat
Mr. Gardner’s letter is the first piece of real evidence we have respecting the mummy wheat, which some time ago occupied the attention of botanists. The whole subject has been thrashed out, and in fact, is thus described in the most popular encyclopædia at my disposal:
“No good evidence of its origin has been adduced; in fact it is as good as proved to be impossible; and the same variety
336
has long been in general cultivation in Egypt and neighboring countries. The spike is compound, a distinguishing character by which it is readily known, but which is not altogether permanent.”
The interesting part of the matter is the number of ears of the wheat in Pharaoh’s dream (Genesis xli, 5); the features are exactly those which we may expect to find in Egypt. The corn is exactly of the ordinary Egyptian sort, in which six ears are always beneath one – the one central ear. If any other sort of wheat had been described, it would indeed have been a miracle. The wheat described is the ordinary wheat of Egypt; even a mighty king like Pharaoh could have scarcely been able to dream of wheat he was never likely to have seen. The shebolim שבלים of Pharaoh’s dream must not be confused with the alummem אלמים sheaves or bundles of Genesis xxxvii, 5. The story gets spoilt by being decanted into the language of the British ploughman.
Cruelty to Animals
Can any explanation be given, compatible with justice, as to why animals should suffer such terrible agonies as in a recent fire in the South of England, which destroyed some stables with sixteen horses? Such incidents are not uncommon. These poor creatures have none of the consolation arising from the powerful instinct possessing almost all human beings, with regard to the temporary nature of, and also the surviving torture and destruction, and therefore suffer the more acutely, their consciousness being centred in the present moment. I have read allusions to this subject, but in no case has any clear and intelligible explanation been given, compatible with that justice which is the corner-stone of Theosophy. Transmigration is rejected, and even if it were true, it would not furnish a valid reason why creatures deprived of higher principles should thus suffer, since responsibility ceases with such a severance. And on the other hand, if we once admit the possibility of useless or undeserved suffering, we open the door to what would undermine the philosophic views of Karma so gladly accepted by thinking persons who have been saddened by realising the varied vicissitudes of life, and the tragic fate of countless human beings, year after year. Why should a harmless creature be burnt alive, or vivisected? Whatever light, in the plainest language, can be thrown on the mystery of pain in the animal world, would be thankfully accepted by many, as well as by
[Editorial reply on cruelty to animals]
337
THERE are several useful lessons which may be gathered from “A Lover of the Beautiful”.[107] One of these is that he who is bent upon becoming a philosopher in the true sense of the word should not marry; his great pursuit should be to him his only love, and its law, as revealed to him, his only field of activity.
Another lesson is, that we cannot take in hand another nature, and train and mould it to our own ideal. Each nature being, from the standpoint of many of the readers of Lucifer, the outcome of the complicated moulding and kneading of untold ages of experiences, pleasures, and sufferings, it cannot in our short lifetime entirely change its characteristics.
The heroine of this tale, nurtured and trained upon love, marries, as it were through misconception, a man of middle age, a philosopher and idealist, who hopes to raise her to his own great altitudes, which to her seem utterly cold-blooded and lifeless; from this standpoint he marries her, and he fails disastrously.
But the story must be read in order to be comprehended. It is more useful for what it suggests than what it works out. It is quite possible the writer did not intend the lessons we gather, but the story being a possible and a natural one, these are the two most prominent lessons we have gleaned from it. It is to be especially recommended to the young; to those who, bent upon a lifelong pursuit of divine philosophy, may thus save themselves from the pursuit of various false ideals.
“S”.
Once more we welcome a volume from the pen of the gifted author of “Light through the Crannies” and once again we may congratulate the public, and Mrs. Emily E. Reader, on good work well and gracefully performed.
In “Echoes of Thought” we have a volume of pretty poems, and a most happily chosen title, for the “Echoes” remind us of a fair and peaceful valley with the bright sunlight dancing over its fruitful fields, and the pure breezes of heaven making all glad within; while by the “Thoughts” we are drawn to lift our eyes upwards and contemplate the grandeur and sublimity of the towering mountains, which have given the “echoes” birth.
Where so many charming verses greet us it is difficult to single out any for especial notice, but perhaps from De Profundis may best be gathered the key note of the whole: –
“Out of darkness into sunlight, |
338
“A Voice from Hades” will be a great favorite with lovers of truth profound wedded to musical rhyme. Space forbids more than the quotation of the closing verse of this elegant little poem: –
“Oh! soul, wilt thou listen? ’Tis not for thee, |
Echoes of Thought from Baby-land will be not the least welcome portion of the tasteful volume of which it forms a part, and the slightly comic touches will call up many a smile upon the lips of tender mothers.
“The Pilgrims”, by Mr. Charles Fox, is best described by the words on the title page as “An Allegory of the Soul, a Progress from the Earthly to the Heavenly State” conveyed in slightly veiled satire on the common life of average humanity and the institutions of civilisation. Current religions, and the churches connected therewith, are the special targets for Mr. Fox’s shafts of ridicule. From the Preface and closing words of this book, we see that its author at least, means well.
X.
The Biology of Daily Life
The somewhat modest title of this unpretending-looking volume, containing little over one hundred pages, gives not the smallest indication of the series of startling shocks which await our unprepared minds as we carefully follow the author's able presentation of his subject. Shocks, that is, if we have hitherto taken for granted that our doctors are our best friends, their science unimpeachable, and the familiar “druggist’s” shop a necessary accompaniment of our present daily and social life.
For we rise from reading Mr. Nevill’s work with the bewildering conviction that, granting his hypotheses – an attempt to give a few of which, will be made – to be correct, the conclusions he draws therefrom, if practically carried out, will lead in due course, to a complete revolution of medical science, and an almost total disappearance of chemists’ shops – nay, even to that of the medical profession itself as it now stands constituted! Granting that these statements appear extravagant and even ridiculous, we maintain, nevertheless, that a careful study of Mr. Nevill’s work will go far to convince every unprejudiced mind that there is indeed no escape from the deductions to be drawn from his arguments – if they are based upon careful and correct experiment and investigation.
As, however, it is almost impossible within the limits of a short review, to do anything like full justice to the subject matter of this clear and well-written text-book on the Science of Health, we will endeavour briefly to present – in due order – a few of the hypotheses given by Mr. Nevill, commending to all who would judge of its merits fairly and fully for themselves a careful study of his work; therein they will find facts and arguments marshalled with singular ability and judgment, inasmuch as Mr. Nevill lays many of our best known biologists and chemists under contribution; Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Klein, and Koch being the first names out of many others that occur to us, whose works are quoted from by the author. Mr. Nevill clears the way for the understanding of the line of argument he adopts, by 339giving some passages from Herbert Spencer's “Synthetic Philosophy” on the scope of Biology. This, he says, he does for two reasons: –
1. “To present the reader with the fullest and clearest explanation obtainable, of the meaning of the words ‘Biology’ and ‘Biological’.”
2. “To show what are those principles or conclusions of this science, which Herbert Spencer takes as fundamental or axiomatic, in constructing his system.”
And, he further gives, as the cause which led him, in the first instance, to the writing of his book, the following: –
“Last March, a German professor of Chemistry wrote to me from a town in Saxony, asking for an ' exhaustive and impartial' account of the system of Mr. Joseph Wallace. This set me to try and explain so far as I could (keeping carefully to the outside of the system itself) the connexion between Wallace's discoveries, and generally accepted scientific teaching in Chemistry and Biology.”
Here we have, of course, the “motif” of the work undertaken by Mr. Nevill. He commences with a short chapter upon “The Law of Interchange”, a term he gives to the mutual dependence of the three kingdoms – animal, vegetable, and mineral; an acknowledged portion of which law he declares to be, that “Animals draw directly or indirectly their whole sustenance from the organized matter which plants have elaborated”. This theory he very ably discusses for several pages, demonstrating at the same time the fallacy – so common in medical works – of treating biological processes from the standpoint of chemistry, and pointing out that the very existence of an organism depending, as it does, upon its power of assimilation, it necessarily follows that a distinction, based upon marked difference in the mode of assimilation must be a most important distinction. Such is, in fact, the distinction between the vegetable and animal organisms described by Mr. Nevill in his chapter on the “Law of Interchange”. The corollary of all this being, to quote his own words, that: –
“No substance can be received into the animal body, as a portion of its true structure, if presented to that body in an unorganised state; and, further, the more closely the food (as candidate for assimilation into the animal organism) can be presented to that animal organism in the exact state of organisation in which it existed in the vegetable structure, the more fully will the law of interchange be fulfilled.”
Again, “all chemical processes”, he says, “disorganise the tissues of plants or animals”; and the following will be found most significant, in this connection:
“If we attend to the full meaning of the teachings of eminent writers on medical jurisprudence, to the medical evidence in trials for poisoning, as well as to the experience of the vast army of medical practitioners, in any standard summary, we shall find a complete agreement upon one point. We may express this in the short maxim, ALL MEDICINES ARE DRUGS; or, more accurately, all the mineral and most of the vegetable medicines in common use are veritable drugs, i.e., they do not pass entirely out of the system.”
This theory is elaborated in Chap. iii. where Mr. Nevill deals fully with the drug question, and is occupied principally in pointing out the difference between “a true medicine” and a “drug”. He says further: –
“All drugging is detrimental in two ways”: “First, it puts foreign, and therefore disease-producing material, into the texture of the body; and by so doing it also, secondly, strikes at the most fundamental law of organic life, viz., the law of continuous change. This law may be expressed thus: The existence of any organism depends upon its being able to maintain a process of change, in continuous adjustment with its surroundings. (See Herbert Spencer and other writers on Biology, passim.) Drugs are essentially intractable, and do not lend themselves to a process of change. In their mildest and least harmful forms, they obstruct and dam the river of the water of physical life. But this is at the best. No language can convey an adequate notion of the miseries which drugs (whether introduced under the guise of food, drink, or medicine) have brought upon mankind.”
This, it must be admitted, is strong language, but, if justified and borne out by facts 340– hardly, we should be inclined to say, strong enough. In Chap. iv, the “germ” theory is dealt with in a masterly manner, the general tenor of the arguments being that the much-maligned Bacteria are not the causes, but the concomitants of death; that they play the same part as the vultures, which, from their presence around a corpse so immediately after death, might suggest that they had killed the animal they were devouring. A discussion on red and white corpuscles and on Huxley’s “protoplasm theory” follows; and then, having demolished the theories of others Mr. Nevill proceeds to construct his own. In Chap. vii. we find an account of “the origin of diseases” and a four-fold classification of them as adopted by Mr. Wallace; of these we give merely the headings.
“First Form. – Simple inflammatory form, a ' fermentation’ caused by leucocytes.
"Second Form. – The same (first form) complicated by drugging, or any hindrance to Nature’s efforts at expulsion, thereby compelling a reabsorption.
“Third Form. – The same (first form) complicated by stimulants of the Fusel oil type
“Fourth Form. – The gouty habit.”
Mr. Nevill then concludes his remarkable little book with these most significant words: –
“ . . . How much of that strange restlessness, combined with a still more strange narrowness, and even crampedness of mind – like the fixed unfixedness of a monomaniac's ideas, which characterizes so much of what passes for scientific speculation – may be very easily explained as due to drugged brains. . . . The general truth, that a drugged organism cannot heal itself, has been taught us, in the fact, acknowledged by every honest medical man, that no truly organic disease is curable.
“But have we not had more than enough of that wretched lesson? Cannot we now turn to the converse truth, that no limit can be set to the curability of disease – organic as well as functional – in an undrugged and rightly-fed body?
“To this fact I can testify, from my own observation and practice. But once the fact is fully grasped, and when the study of these general truths, as illustrated throughout the living world, has woven into the conceptions of things, then we shall realize something of the enormous mischiefs which the disregard of nature’s clear teaching has caused, and (happier and more useful result) the limitless advantages of attending to this teaching.”
We most heartily concur with Mr. Nevill in wishing that this happy state of things may speedily come about. Any system that will help us towards a return to simpler diet, and healthier modes of life – “pure living and high thinking” – cannot but meet with a careful attention and study, at the hands of all true Theosophists.
A. C.
341
Theosophical Activities
The President has issued a memorandum calling attention to the success which is attending the propaganda of Theosophy, and announcing a course of weekly lectures to be delivered at Adyar on Saturdays. E. Douglas Fawcett is to give a course of nine fortnightly lectures on “The Problem of the Universe in relation to Modern Thought”, reviewing the Western system of philosophy, investigating the genesis and evolution of the human mind, and showing the bearing of Theosophical teaching on these vast questions. The platform will be occupied on the alternate Saturdays by Dr. J. Bowles Daly, Mr. Richard Harte, and Colonel Olcott.
The General Council Meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, which was fixed for May, 1890, has been postponed to December, the delegates from the Northern and Eastern Sections being unable to travel on account of the excessive heat in India, which is said to be exceptionally severe.
In referring to the Wesak festival, which has become a Government holiday through the energy of the Theosophical Society, for “on the full moon day of the month of Wesak (May 3rd) 2,434 years ago was born Prince Siddhartha, Maya's Son, the Buddha of the present Kalpa” – the editor of the Buddhist, while reviewing the past year, says:
“The past year has been one of great encouragement. Ten new branches of the Theosophical Society have been formed and incorporated. Several schools have been opened for Buddhist boys. The Women’s Educational Society have opened three schools; the numbers of members have increased to 1,800. The noble order of the Sangha have displayed greater energy and activity in joining with our Society in the work of strengthening the people in their ancient philosophy. Buddhist officials under Government, holding the high native ranks of Mudaliyar and Ratemahatmaya, have been bolder in coming forward and working openly and honestly for the cause of their ancient religion. The noble example of strict impartiality set by the Governor of this Island, though it has aroused the indignation of Christians, has enabled the subjects of this land to profess their national creed without fear of persecution. The missionary spirit is being roused throughout the country – and a closer spiritual union is spreading among the nations who accept the Dharma of Buddha as the guide of their life to Nirvana.”
Out of the many notices of the Branches in Ceylon and their activity, perhaps it will be interesting to select the following:
“The Moggaliputta Theosophical Society, Dikwella, is doing good work. They opened a Boys’ School on the 23rd of March last. In commemoration whereof they gave alms to the poor, fed the Buddhist Bikshus, and three days were spent in doing good work. The 1st day’s almsgiving was in memory of our late beloved brother Powell; the 2nd day’s was in commemoration of the Theosophical Society; and the 3rd was the people’s day.”
We are glad to be able to report great progress with our Head Quarters, for we determined not to await the completion of the necessary sum ere commencing operations. The large room which will be utilised as a reading-room, and, on 342Thursdays, for the meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge, is finished, and now only needs its furniture. For that it will have to wait a little, for we do not intend to run into debt, and all the necessary building must be done before we begin furnishing. In this way the shells will all be complete and paid for, and the rest must be done as funds permit.
The room which is being built for the work of the Esoteric section is almost complete; this is being made to open out of H. P. Blavatsky’s study, so that the Head of the Section may have the work done there under her immediate supervision. What was the double dining-room of the house is now the study and library of H. P. Blavatsky, while the old drawing-room is being divided into drawing-room and secretaries’ writing-room. In this way every inch of space is being utilised. Each member of the staff has a private room – though some are rather small – furnished to serve as bedroom and workroom.
It is hoped that residence at Head Quarters may be possible by the middle of July, and all are looking forward to this concentration of work as of the greatest help to the cause. At present so much time is lost in travelling from one place to another, but in future all the regular staff will be within touch of each other, and of their head.
We are hoping that sufficient funds will quickly be sent in, so that we may bring the work to a conclusion. Some Theosophists have helped most liberally, but a large number have done absolutely nothing, and that is not as it should be. Within the next few weeks the necessary fund ought to be completed, and will be completed if each member feels his or her duty as the few have felt, and discharged, theirs.
After the middle of July all correspondence addressed to Mme. Blavatsky, or to any member of the staff, must be directed to 19 Avenue Road, Regent’s Park, London, N.W.
The Theosophical Publication Society is cosmopolitan in its constitution, and international in its field of action. It was originally formed in 1888, (under the name of the T. P. S.) for the purpose of supplying those who were already students of Theosophy and the occult sciences, with literature on these subjects in a cheap and available form, and at the same time awakening the general public to a sense of the absorbing interest and immense importance of Theosophy. With this double purpose in view, the Theosophical Publication Society has issued from time to time, and as frequently as possible, original essays explanatory of Theosophy, as well as reprints of articles of value buried in the back numbers of magazines. In the year 1889, the second volume of the Theosophical Publication Society took the name of the “Theosophical Siftings”, and in June of the same year a lending library was formed for the use and benefit of the subscribers to the said journal. Now, in 1890, the number of books in this lending library have augmented to 254 volumes, amongst them being many rare and valuable works on Theosophy and Occultism. Catalogues are sent post free to any address on receipt of 1d. stamp, on application to Countess Constance Wachtmeister, Manager of the Theosophical Publication Society,
Brighton. – Mr. Kingsland’s work during the past few weeks has resulted in the formation of a new Branch of the Society in this town. The inaugural meeting was held on Sunday the 1st June, when it was decided to call the new Branch “The Brighton Lodge of the Theosophical Society”. Mr. Edward Ellis, M.A. was elected President, and Mr. W. Siebenhaar, Secretary and Treasurer. The rules of the new Lodge were then considered and passed, being substantially the same as those adopted by the Blavatsky and other Lodges. Mr. Kingsland, in presenting the Charter of Incorporation on behalf of the Council of the Theosophical Society, referred to the early history of the Society and its small beginnings in 3431875, and to its subsequent growth and progress as being far more extensive than that which had been originally contemplated by the founders. This he attributed to the wide and varied interests which are included in the principles of Theosophy, so that whether a man is attracted by one aspect of the subject or another, whether he study it from a scientific point of view, or from a philosophical, or metaphysical standpoint, or from its relation to social problems or to religion, he cannot fail to find an answer to many problems which he has hitherto perhaps regarded as insoluble; presenting as it does a rational view of human life and progress, and collecting under one system all the isolated and apparently contradictory phases of human experience and evolution. Subsequently it was arranged to form a lending library for the use of members of the Lodge, and of others who might be interested in the subject, and to hold meetings of the Lodge on the first Sunday of each month to study and discuss the “Key to Theosophy.”
Dublin Lodge
It is curious for an observer to note the effect that the present disturbance in religious thought has upon the little country once known as the “Isle of Saints”. Curious, inasmuch as no nation in the world is at once so religious, so mystical, so intelligent, or so superstitious; endowed withal with a reckless “trust in God” that finds its expression in every sort of wildness, of idea and act, and so long as all are of the same creed, the Devil, the Priest, and the Virgin, are found to be equally subjects for humor; but let an Irishman once believe that you seriously discredit the traditions of his Religion, and on that score at least, you can get no more fun out of him. The sappers and miners of the Theosophical Society – Spiritualism and Materialism – have left their mark here as in all other countries, though in a far less degree; and the effect has been amongst the masses, only to tighten the knot of their own religion; and, while generally it has been the habit to start “making one’s sowl” about the age of forty, many seeing their brothers and sisters slipping away from the truth, have become religious devotees long before the time had arrived for them to turn their attention to “spiritual matters”. Hence, Freedom’s pioneers in this land have perhaps somewhat helped bigotry; but anything which will make persons think of their “sowl” is deserving of praise. It will be readily understood, therefore, that the Theosophical Society here has to work upon somewhat delicate grounds; but bit by bit our Lodge is gaining more and more standing room. With the educated classes, the very novelty of a place in Dublin where persons can meet to discuss matters religious, philosophic, and scientific, with absolute freedom and each from his own standpoint, is attracting like magic. Some attend for the purpose of saving (because worth saving) the “set of liberal but benighted young persons” whilst others assist us because they consider that such tolerance and liberal-mindedness is worthy of support. Amongst a nation of orators, it is needless to say that there is little lack of rhetorical ability. At our public meetings speech after speech follow in brilliant succession, and the flow of discussion is often sustained until a late hour. There is seldom now a smaller attendance than forty-five persons; the last meeting numbered fifty, and we anticipate between sixty and seventy people next night, (June 4th), the last of the session, when a debate will be held on “Theosophy and Socialism”, to be opened by a paper on the subject by Mr. E. A. Neale. Our Lodge will then close its public meetings until the 1st of October, when it will re-open with a conversazione, to which all visitors who have favored us with their attendance during the past session will be invited. The midsummer general meeting will be held toward the end of June, and at this, the sections into which the lodge divided itself for study this session, viz, “Secret Doctrine”, “Socialism”, 344“Hypnotism”, “Positivism” will present their reports. Among the well-to-do classes, Theosophy is becoming more and more known and talked about. No doubt many fear to even allow themselves to think about such heretical doctrines, but these are persons who, if their intellect once asserted itself would outshine all in their work for the cause. Some time must yet elapse ere Roman Catholicism amongst the masses can be uprooted; but when the time does come, the Theosophical Society will have a band of workers now undreamed of.
Claude F. Wright, Sec.
Theosophical Activities: America and Sweden
Our brother, W. Q. Judge, is organising a system by which valuable and interesting papers, read at a Branch meeting, may be circulated among the other Branches, “particularly among those weak in membership or in capacity for originating discussion”.
“He believes that the result of an organised and regular system of circulation will be three-fold: 1st, to greatly extend the range of the best and newest Theosophical thought; 2nd, to supply weak Branches with interesting matter for instruction and debate; 3rd, to promote the attractiveness in Branch meetings which will make them sought by intelligent outsiders, thus giving the Branches a status in their communities, and tending to increase both their growth and influence. Having secured the consent of the Executive Committee to the plan, he now proposes to print from time to time on the Aryan press a selected paper, and mail a copy to each Branch. The number of papers issued, will depend upon the amount of attention he and his aids can spare from the constantly-increasing work of the office, and also upon the funds placed at his disposal by the Branches and individuals. While no certain periodicity can be pledged, it is thought that a bi-weekly issue will prove practicable.”
Mrs. Annie Wolf, President of the Krishna Branch of the Theosophical Society, in Philadelphia, is reported in the Oakland Daily Evening Tribune as being “a voluminous writer on Theosophical and Metaphysical topics, and is a very pleasing speaker”. She gave a successful lecture on the “Ethics of Theosophy” a short time ago, and pleaded for earnestness and practical work. Mrs. Wolf is at present in England.
The Convention was called to order in the Assembly room of Palmer House, Chicago, at 10.30, April 27th, by William Q. Judge as General Secretary. Dr. J. D. Buck was elected, temporary chairman, and Elliott B. Page, Assistant Secretary. On a ballot Dr. Buck was elected permanent chairman of the Convention. The delegates and proxies were received. All Theosophical Branches in the United States were represented except two. Many members were present from distant parts of the country who were not delegates to the Convention. They showed the greatest interest in the matter, and many of them were new members taken into the Society since the last Convention. One of the delegates, Dr. Anderson, came especially for the Convention all the way from California, others arrived from Wisconsin, and still others from so far south as Kansas City. Brother A. B. Griggs, President of the Boston Theosophical Society, brought with him the new Branch pamphlet, which is an excellent model for Branches to use. It contains the Epitome of Theosophy. A copy was given to each person present, and was read with interest. Brother Bertram Keightley was received as delegate from England and representative of H. P. Blavatsky. The General Secretary then read his Report, which was accepted; and he then read communications to the Convention from the following foreign Branches and Sections: Great Britain, Russia, Greece, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Liverpool, and West of England.
345
In the afternoon, a very large and intelligent audience was present, completely filling the room. Dr. Buck read his address, in which he showed that the world had never done anything for Theosophy, but that the latter, being the manifestation of divinity in man, and thus at the bottom of all the great world religions, had done everything for the world.
A communication was then read from H. P. Blavatsky by Brother B. Keightley, who was received with enthusiastic applause. In this letter, she reviewed the work done, and the progress made by the Theosophical Society in India, England and America. Concluding this congratulatory review, she continued:
“What of the coming year? and first a word of warning. As the preparation for the new cycle proceeds, as the forerunners of the new sub-race make their appearance on the American continent, the latent psychic and occult powers in man are beginning to germinate and grow. Hence the rapid spread of such movements as Christian Science, Mind Cure, Metaphysical Healing, Spiritual Healing, and so forth. All these movements represent nothing but different phases of the exercise of those growing powers, as yet misunderstood, and, therefore, but too often ignorantly misused. Understand, once for all, that there is nothing ‘spiritual’ or ‘divine’ in any of these manifestations. The cures effected by them are due simply to the unconscious exercise of occult power on the lower planes of nature, usually of Prana – or life-currents”.
Continuing, the letter asserted that the claim that these cures are effected by a healing process to the mind, means simply conscious or unconscious interference with the free mental action of the person treated, and that this is simply “Black Magic”. After dilating upon the dangers in this direction, the letter refers to modern movements. Thus she writes; “The Nationalist movement is applied Theosophy”. In conclusion she said;
“What I said last year remains true to-day, that is, that ethics of Theosophy are more important than any divulgement of psychic laws and facts. The latter relate wholly to the material and evanescent part of the septenary man, but the ethics sink into and take hold of the real man – the re-incarnating Ego. We are outwardly creatures of but a day; within we are eternal. Learn, then, well the doctrines of Karma and Re-incarnation, and teach, practice, and promulgate that system of life and thought which alone can save the coming races. Do not work merely for the Theosophical Society, but through it for humanity. May Theosophy grow more and more a living power in the lives of each one of our members, and may the coming year be yet more full of good work and healthy progress than the one just closing, is the wish of your humble co-worker and fellow-member.”
Mrs. M. M. Phelon of the Ramayana Theosophical Society, Chicago, then read a paper entitled “The Narrow Path”. Dr. Buck then asked that Mr. Judge speak on Karma and Re-incarnation, and, the audience calling for him, he explained them at length.
In the evening, about 150 of the delegates and members re-assembled, and proceedings began by an excellent paper from Dr. Anderson, of San Francisco, entitled “Materialism, Agnosticism, and Theosophy”. Brother A. B. Griggs, moved the following resolutions, which were carried unanimously: –
Resolved. That this Convention deplores the absence, as it does the late severe sickness, of Madame H. P. Blavatsky, but needs no assurance that her thought is, and ever will be, with the cause of Theosophy and its workers in America.
Resolved. That this Convention desires to express its allegiance and earnest loyalty to her as benefactor and guide, and recognises that through her efforts has come to it, and to the world, one of the mightiest impulses towards truth that have ever transformed despair into aspiration and hope.
Resolved. That the substance of these resolutions be at once cabled to Madame Blavatsky by the general secretary.
346
Brother B. Keightley then read a paper upon “Practical Theosophy in Daily Life”, particularly intended for members. He thought it was commonly believed that Theosophy is unpractical and hazy, too addicted to metaphysics and useless speculation: urged that all who desire to become real Theosophists begin by realising it on the inner planes of being, Karma being kept in view, and then in dealings with others; advocated organised co-operation, and illustrated it in cases of Branch members and those at large; warmly endorsed the Tract Mailing Scheme; urged support to Theosophical magazines, now published at a loss; mentioned that sixty per cent of the subscribers to Lucifer were non-Theosophists, and argued that seeing a magazine in a branch library is not a substitute for personal support of it, nor gives chance for close study; advised effort and unselfish work by Branches as such; favored open meetings; set forth the duty of Theosophical instruction to children, and made clear their Karmic claim to it.
After the adjournment at nine o’clock, about fifty members met in the private rooms of the Palmer House for interchange of views and facts. There were also meetings of the Esoteric Section at different times, and much earnestness was shown.
On the second day the delegates reassembled at 9.45. Dr. Buck took the chair. The Chairman read a paper on the “Pursuit of Pleasure”. The following papers were then read by title, there not being time to read them in full: “Self is the Lord of Self”, from California; “Theosophy, a Promoter of Altruism”, by Mary B. Horton; “Re-incarnation”, by Ch. L. H. Michelsen; “Hints to students of Theosophy”, by Dr. T. Docking; and “What think ye of Christ?” by Elizabeth A. Kingsbury. All of the General Secretary’s recommendations were then adopted, except that one suspending the initiation ceremony, and that was laid on the table until next Convention. A committee to submit amendments to the Constitution was appointed; being William Q. Judge, R. A. Parker, and A. B. Griggs. A vote of confidence in H. P. Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott, and William Q. Judge was then passed, and also a vote of thanks to Alexander Fullerton for his services. Brother Griggs then presented the new pamphlet of the Boston Theosophical Society which had been circulated in the Convention. Short addresses were given by Drs. Phelon, La Pierre, and Buck. The Convention then went into Executive Session, and elected the following members of Council for a year: General A. Doubleday, Elliott B. Page, Mrs. S. A. Harris, Judge O’Rourke, Allen Griffiths, R. A. Parker, Mrs. Phelon, W. S. Wing, Donald Nicholson, Lillie A. Long, Alexander Fullerton, John M. Wheeler, Dr. R. J. Nunn, George M. Stearns, A. O. Robinson, George E. Wright, Dr. Buck, John H. Scotford, Dr. Ammi Brown, W. Throckmorton, Dr. Q. J. Winsor, Louise A. Off, Mrs. Brainard, Mrs. Wyman, and and Mrs. Gestefeld. On motion the Assistant Secretary cast the vote of the Convention for William Q. Judge as General Secretary and Treasurer. The new Executive Committee elected is, A. Fullerton, E. A. Neresheimer, Dr. Buck, A. B. Griggs, Dr. La Pierre, and General A. Doubleday.
An animated talk arose here upon Brother Griggs inviting the Convention of 1891 to Boston, he declaring Tremont Temple could probably be filled; but so many wanted Chicago that it was adopted. The newspapers took advantage of this discussion and said there was strife, but such was not the case, as all was harmonious, and in this matter quite full of humor. The question of a delegate to India arose, and Brother S. Thomas stated that he would perhaps go there, and the Convention directed the Executive Committee to give him credentials as delegate in case he should be able to go. The Convention then adjourned at 1 p.m. sine die.
A telegram of greeting was received from H. P. Blavatsky just after adjournment.
347
The utmost harmony reigned during all the meetings, and great interest was shown.
Bertram Keightley's Lectures. – Bertram Keightley reached Omaha, Nebraska, on March 31st, but was much broken down from overwork and his recent illness in California, and was laid up until April 6th. On the evening of that date he lectured in Unity Church upon a “General view of Theosophy”; on the 8th he again lectured on “Reincarnation”; and on the 9th visited Lincoln, Nebraska, where he held three meetings, and returned to Omaha to give a farewell lecture on “Karma”. Arriving at Sioux City, Iowa, during his stay there he gave three public lectures and three “parlor talks”, to use an Americanism. The lectures were entitled, “Theosophy and the Theosophical Society”; “Karma and Reincarnation”; and the “Theosophic Conception of Evolution”. Branches have subsequently been founded at Lincoln and Sioux City. Since then Mr. Keightley has given numerous lectures, both public and private, at Cincinnati, Chicago, Muskegon, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, etc.; in fact his later activity is quite on a par with his unflagging energy before his illness. There is no doubt that the tour of our brother, Bertram Keightley, has been an unqualified success, and that he has given quite a fresh impetus to Theosophy in the United States.
We greatly regret to announce the death, by accidental drowning, of E. D. Walker, F.T.S., author of one of our most invaluable works, “Reincarnation”, a member of the Aryan Theosophical Society, New York City. This regret is intensified because, as is reported, Mr. Walker was compiling material for a companion work on “Karma”.
Since our last letter to Lucifer, nothing of great importance has occurred in our Lodge.
On the 19th of April the President had a large reception in his home for the members of the Theosophical Society and several other persons; and the Corresponding Secretary’s last reception for the season was on May 18th.
A very lively and interesting discussion was held at one of our monthly meetings on an article written by one of our younger members, entitled, “Selfishness the Curse of Mankind.” On this occasion a member of the Council expressed his sympathies with the ideas of Edward Bellamy, referring to the views proclaimed in the said article. The grand ideas of this author on Socialism have so many analogies with Theosophy that they are sure to be embraced with the greatest interest.
Many translations have of late been made by members. One, “The voice of the Silence”, has just been sent to us. At our meetings different translations have been read, e.g., “The Dweller of the Threshold” and “Esoteric Christianity.” In our last two publications, Mrs. Annie Besant’s brilliant article, “Theosophy for the profane”, has been inserted, among others.
We have had the pleasure of receiving many valuable books for our Lending Library, which is open to members during the whole summer.
348
"Going To and Fro in the Earth"
The Rev. J. B. Bartlett has the following in The Boys' Own Paper.
“Take a strip of paper of any convenient length and breadth, bend it into a ring, giving it a half twist on the way, and uniting the ends with gum. It will then appear as above. Now if you divide this ring lengthwise along the dotted line, what result will follow? At first sight it certainly looks as if you would produce two similar rings. Take a pair of scissors, and try! You will find, when you have cut through the length of the ring, that instead of having two you still possess one ring or band, but twice the length of the original one, and with a double twist or “kink” in it difficult to describe. On repeating the cut, you will, however, obtain two bands, curiously linked together, and inseparable. The experiment may be varied, with equally unforeseen consequences, either by commencing the first cut at a distance from the edge of the ring equal to one-third of its breadth, and continuing twice round until the band is divided, or by giving the paper an entire twist before gumming.
“A little consideration will perhaps enable you to account for these singular results, the strangeness of which, I may add, has been thought to afford some sort of illustration of what is called the fourth dimensions – a condition of existence other than ours, with regard to which men of abstract science have recently indulged in some remarkable speculations bearing on the nature of the spiritual world.
“For the information of those to whom such speculations are new I will briefly explain that what we know as space is contained in three dimensions – viz., length, breadth, and heighth; and by these three dimensions all our movements are circumscribed. But it is conceivable that another race of beings may exist who can move and see in a fourth direction (which we may describe as inwardness, but which is only known to us in theory). Such a condition of existence, although supernatural to us, yet may be normal and natural to spiritual beings. At any rate, the possibility of this fourth dimension has become a matter of speculation to certain able mathematicians, and the subject has even a religious value, as affording an answer to those who deny the existence of anything which is outside the sphere of sense and experience, by showing that the supernatural is not necessarily opposed to the convictions of the highest scientific minds.”
But why should Mr. Bartlett speak of the supernatural? Actions on planes other than our own are as natural as are ours on our plane. A bee might as well regard a man as supernatural.
In a Catechism published some years for the instruction of young children, the following extraordinarily immoral teaching occurs; we print it, capitals and all, exactly as it stands:
Q. If animals were possessed of a small share of reason in addition to instinct, would they be more serviceable to man?
349
A. No. they would not. on the contrary they would be dangerous.
Q. Why would they be dangerous?
A. For example, the horse is sometimes treated with great cruelty; if he were possessed of reason he would be conscious of his own strength, and might, while smarting under pain, trample under his feet the person who used him ill.
Q. Then what does this teach us?
A. That GOD, the SUPREME GOVERNOR of the world, has done all things well.
That “God, the Supreme Governor”, deliberately plans this withholding of reason to make cruelty safe is, truly, admirable doctrine to instil into the mind of a child.
The scientific mind loves to weigh the evidences in the scales of truth, and as we trust that the majority of our readers are possessed of this quality, we print the following evidence for and against the “compassing sea and land” fraternity.
In the Christian Age of May 14th, we read:
“Buddhism. – Buddhism does not mean to give up the fight for life or surrender to Christianity without a struggle. In Ceylon it is especially active, and there is in that island a positive ‘revival’ of Buddhism, stimulated in part by the Theosophists. The priests copy the plans of the missionaries, and strive to counteract them by education and by the use of the press. They have been trying to wile away children from mission schools. The latest movement among them is a proposed Hindu-Buddhist college, to counteract missionary colleges. They circulate the publications of the Buddhist Tract Society, the Buddhist Aid Association, and the Buddhist Theosophical Society. What forms of error these publications spread may be inferred from a sentence from a criticism of an English book. It begins by stating that “it is majestically true that Buddhism does not acknowledge the existence of an eternal and unchangeable personal[109] God”. Buddhism is atheistic. In spite of this freshly awakened opposition, the work of the Lord prospers. Not long ago four Buddhist priests embraced Christianity. Native Christians have increased seventy per cent, during the last ten years. As one sign of progress, it may be mentioned that the circulation of Christian literature this year has been the largest ever known.”
In the Theosophist of May. Dr. J. Bowles Daly, in writing on “The Situation in Ceylon”, says: “The proportion of Christians to the whole population in Ceylon is not above 9 per cent, after centuries of missionary enterprise.”
From the above figures, we deduce that ten years ago the percentage of Christians on the population was about 5·3. If we subtract the English and European residents and eliminate the paper-converts, we come down to a reduced “one or two gathered together”, and are forced to the conclusion that the enormous sums of money expended on the Ceylon Missions have benefited no one but the “cloth”. We wonder, with great wonderment, how long the shadows of a “personal god” and a “physical Christ” will be taken for the “light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
The evidence of the connexion between sound and colour is accumulating. We now learn that M. Pedrous, a physician at Nantes, France, sees the colour of sounds, and states that human voices are red, blue, black, tan, slate, and all other colors.
The following paragraph is of interest:
“There is said to be a Mexican plant which induces a sleep similar to, if not identical with, the hypnotic state. It is called by the natives, ‘the herb of prophecy’, and under its influence the patient
350
is rendered insensible to ordinary things, but answers questions, and obeys commands. It is not stated whether the influence is obtained from an infusion of the herb, or simply by contact with its leaves and branches.”
From all sides items of news about hypnotism are coming in, and there is no doubt that it will play a larger and larger part in modern life as time goes on. We read in the Weekly Despatch:
“A new element in the law is that evolved in a case just concluded in Toledo where a man charged with forgery interposed the defence that the act was committed under the hypnotic influence of a woman who was co-defendant. His acquittal is not probably conclusive evidence that the court and jury regarded his position as tenable, but it is nevertheless a fact that this strange influence may be used with most disastrous results to the individual and greatly to the profit of the person who possesses it. It has been suggested more than once that it might be the agency for the detection of crime, and there is little reason to doubt that it may be made the agency for the commission of the most serious offences.”
The “influence of the moon” is scoffed at in Western lands, despite the fact that the tides are governed by it, that lunar periods mark the recurrence of many physiological phenomena, and that meat exposed to the moonlight rapidly becomes putrid. In the West Indies many cases are known in which a person, who has accidentally allowed the rays of the moon to fall on him while asleep, has found one side of his face distorted and discolored in the morning. The same danger is well known on every steamer which enters the tropics, especially in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Despite all this it is “superstitious” in England, to avoid sleeping under the moon-rays.
A “Society of the Friends of Truth” has been founded at Athens, and has made the following regulations for the conduct of its members:
“1. This Society has been formed for the purpose of creating the habit of telling the Truth on every occasion.
“2. Every member of the Society is supposed to aim at the formation of this habit. He therefore undertakes to speak at all times, and everywhere, nothing but the pure Truth.
“3. As this is a difficult task in every day life, this Society shall enforce the following method in order to facilitate it.
“4. Each member keeps a diary of all the occasions in which he either was compelled to tell a lie, or succeeded in telling the truth amidst difficulties.
“5. In the weekly meetings of the Society, each member reads a summary of his diary, and then follows a discussion as to how in future lies may be avoided, and Truth spoken in spite of all difficulties.
“6. The meeting must never be longer than one hundred minutes. The duration of speech is limited to five minutes. Three members constitute a quorum.”
The members will find it difficult to carry out this programme amid the hypocrisies of conventional society, but if they even approach their ideal, progress towards purity will be made. The secretary is B. Doudoumiss, 17 Canning Square, Athens.
351
Theosophical and Mystic Publications
THE THEOSOPHIST for May opens with a second contribution on “The Barisal Gun”, by H. S. O., followed by “Kosmic Mind”, by H. P. B., both of which articles are familiar to our readers. “Striking Home” is the first contribution to an interesting story which, if we mistake not, deals with the “black” side of Mesmerism. By far the most interesting paper for lovers of Aryan philosophy, however, is Part IV of the translation of “Vedanthavarthikam”, by B. P. Narasimmiah, F.T.S.; the paper will well repay the closest possible study, and will fully maintain the reputation of The Theosophist which it has so justly earned in this department. The annotation is very full and useful. “Sorcery in Science”, from the pen of the late Dr. Anna Kingsford, deals with the horrors of vivisection, and tortures the finer feelings of the sensitive reader by a recital of the fiendish barbarity with which the traitors to true Science have done to death the suffering brute creation. A very useful little paper also is “The Seven Grades of Progress in Vedant.” This is followed by the continuation of “Will and its Relation to Conscience”, by Ikbal Kishen Shargha. The last paper is by Dr. Bowles Daly on “The Situation in Ceylon”.
THE PATH for May opens with a charming little child story by Mrs. J. Campbell Ver Planck, the end of which brings us face to face with a photograph of Colonel H. S. Olcott. The majority of the articles are of that practical nature which marks the contributions to The Path, as may be seen by some of the titles; “Closed or Open Lodges”, “Hypnotism – Mesmerism”, and “Theosophy in Daily Life”. In a paper, entitled “Misleading Terms”, our brothers “go for” the loose expressions “Soul” and “Principle”; we thought, however, that the “Key to Theosophy” had settled the matter. The most powerful paper is “Man's origin”, by “N”, a study from the “Secret Doctrine.” “Occultism: what is it?” and “One of the Signs of the Times” are both interesting contributions.
The Buddhist, Vol. II, numbers 17 – 20 contains very interesting matter, both original, translated, and reprinted. The journal is improving with each week, and the larger space given to activities is a conclusive proof of the work going on in Ceylon, under the auspices of the Theosophical Society. It would be interesting to see the statistics of the Buddhist Boys' and Girls’ Schools founded since the advent of the Society, for a new one seems to spring up every week.
The Theosophical Forum, Number 11. continues its useful work of answering all sorts and conditions of questions on theosophical subjects. We get answers to questions on the word “Om”, on the “vital electric currents or agents of unconscious mind”, on the “relation of the Theosophical Society to Nationalist Clubs, Woman Suffrage, labor organisations, etc.”, on the number of the Tatwas, on unmerited trials, etc., etc. The answers are invariably marked by good common sense, and cannot fail to give a healthy tone to the investigations of our U. S. Lodges.
The Progressive Thinker, of Chicago, a weekly paper, gives more than a quarter of its space to a lecture by Professor Alexander Wilder on “Serpent Symbols in Religion”. The essay is a scholarly production, and well worth perusal.
Number 4 of L’Anti Egoïste contains a very careful study on Capital Punishment.
The Tocsin is a monthly journal published at 9 Finsbury Chambers, 88 London Wall, E.C., dealing with medical and allied subjects. That it is of a very heterodox, and therefore progressive character, may be seen by the fact that it opens its pages to articles on Dreams, Mesmerism, Presentiments, Second 352Sight, Somnambulic Clairvoyance, and Spiritualism.
Theosophical Siftings, Vol. III, number 5. Vivisection, an excellent and convincing pamphlet on a subject that appeals strongly to every Theosophist: it is high time that the claims of our animal friends upon our kindness and consideration should at least save them from the cruel tortures of the dissecting room. The perusal of the horrors performed in the name of science should awaken in all Theosophists an active sympathy on behalf of the helpless brutes.
Theosophical Siftings, Vol. III, number 6. “Theosophy and Modern World Problems”, and the “Rosicrucians”. The former of these papers is from the pen of Mr. J. W. Brodie-Innes, and is a clear exposition of what, from his point of view, Theosophy “is not”. From the point of view, however, of many Theosophists, Mr. Brodie-Innes is lamentably in error; and it is, in any case, much to be regretted that he should identify his own individual views with Theosophy, and write as though he had authority to narrow down Theosophy to fit his idiosyncrasies. No member of the Theosophical Society has a right to commit the Society to any special views on politics or sociology. The remaining paper, “The Rosicrucians”, is a concise and carefully written résumé of the known history and teachings of that great and powerful secret society of which one hears so much but really knows so little; this paper is of peculiar interest, as the great-grandfather of the writer was no less a personage than “Imperator” of the great Fraternitas.
In the May magazines we note, for the guidance of our readers, the following articles:
In The Journal of Mental Science there is an intelligent and appreciative review of “The Philosophy of Hypnotism”, by Carl du Prel, translated from the German by C. C. Massey; a review of “An Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism”, by Dr. R. von Krafft Ebing, translated from the German by Charles G. Chaddock, M.D.; and lastly a review of “Die Rolle des suggestions bei gewissen Erscheinungen der Hysteria und des Hypnotismus, Kritisches und Experimentelles”, Von Dr. Armand Haeckel, Jena, 1888.
The Dublin Review gives a thirty paged article on “Recent Works on Primitive Buddhism”, by Ph. Collinet; also an article entitled “Cremation and Christianity”, where the object of cremation is discovered to be “the desire to remove or undermine one by one the external props which buttress up religious belief in the human mind”.
The Calcutta Review has an “Introduction to the Study of Hinduism”, and the “Future of Indian Agriculture”.
The Atlantic Monthly has an article on “Augury”.
The Asiatic Quarterly asks “Would India gain by the extinction of European Government?” and discourses on “Education in India”.
The Antiquary contains an article on “Holy Wells: their legends and superstitions”.
All the Year Round relates “Spanish Fables and Ghost Stories”.
We are advised of the approaching publication of Fate and Fortune, a monthly magazine devoted to Astrology and kindred sciences, the first number of which is to appear not later than July 1st. The editor, writing under the nom de plume of “Sepharial”, is well-known in the Astrological world, and we are assured that he intends making the magazine everything that could be desired by an intelligent and truth-seeking, if curious and mystical, public. The whole of its pages will be open to the discussion and illustration of astral and other occult matters. The magazine is to be published by Foulsham and Co., 4 Pilgrim Street, Ludgate Circus, E.C. Price 3d. Subscription: 3s. 6d. post free for twelve months.
No. 35 – July 1890
353
The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any opinions, whether religious, philosophical or social, expressed in signed articles.
Diagnoses and Palliatives
364
Will-Power
Nothing can resist the will of man, when he knows what is true and wills what is good.
To will evil is to will death. A perverse will is the beginning of suicide.
We can and should accept evil as the means to good, but we must never will it or practise it, otherwise we should demolish with one hand what we erect with the other. A good intention never justifies bad means. When it submits to them it corrects them, and condemns them while it makes use of them.
To earn the right to possess permanently, we must will long and patiently.
The more numerous the obstacles which are surmounted by the will, the stronger the will becomes. It is for this reason that Christ has exalted poverty and suffering.
To affirm and will what ought to be is to create; to affirm and will what should not be is to destroy.
To do nothing is as fatal as to commit evil, and it is more cowardly.
Sloth is the most unpardonable of the deadly sins.
To suffer is to labor. A great misfortune properly endured is a progress accomplished. Those who suffer much live more truly than those who undergo no trials.
Can the Church be Reformed?
The Origin of Man
376
Musings
WHO knows what a day may bring forth? Last night the rush of the tempest, to-day the sun with warm kiss swells the sleeping buds. The morrow may again bring the eternal bow shining in the Heavens. We sow our life in the spring. Now is the harvest. Let us haste to gather in; “the time is short”, but “in due season we shall reap if we faint not”. “Arise! this is not your rest”, let Psyche stretch forth her wings and rise above transitory things. Let us sow beside waters where the dew of the spirit may fall; “be strong and of good courage”. Do we not “desire a better country, that is a Heavenly”? the fatherland. Last night the wind was awake on the hills; a fitful, sighing wind, that rose and fell, and was hushed to sleep again with a weird melancholy, born of its own stillness, like a plaintive note struck on a long closed spinet. The sun went down like a low fire, burning at the verge of the world. Inside, the shutters rattled and shook, and down the wide chimney moaned the hollow voices of wandering spirits entreating to enter, some sobbing, some singing. “Whew-w-w!” whistled the wind through the empty keyholes, gradually louder and louder, till it died off in a soft chromatic cadence through the gloom of the passages. A handful of rain was flung against the window. The cloud, hurried by the wind, had no more rain in it. In the dead of 377night, in the midst of sleep, a voice whispered softly in the ear, “Listen!” Again the spirit of air playing on the great Æolian harp. The low plaint moaned in little gasps that ran round the room. Light footfalls passed and repassed. A hand seemed to be moving everything. All the orchestra again at work, with lips to the keyhole in a quick succession of airy touches. The sighing calmed the mind, and lulled to sleep again. Towards dawn, awake again, the eerie voices hushed to whispers. A shaft of light through the closed blind threw a spray of ivy in a delicate grey shadow upon the pale green walls. The sky, still charged with wind, and the silvery light of a planet lingering towards its setting. A thousand miles of cloudland, coming up from the horizon and passing overhead without a sound. The wind works with such powerful ease, laying on her colors broadly with such a ready brush. Masses of sunlit vapor bearing down the alchemy of the skies to the very breast of earth.
All things in nature bear a beautiful analogy to the powers deep-rooted in Humanity. Lie and listen to the whispering wind. What would one not give to have freedom such as that? Why may we not? Only perfect purity of life can attain to perfect freedom. “When the former things are passed away, and all things have become new.” When sin shall be no more, “At evening time it shall be light”. Then “give to the wind thy fears. Hope and be undismayed.” A time will come when the shadows fall apart, and the sweet west wind will play through the windows of the heart, which are opened to the day. “For the night is far spent, and the day is at hand.” Then shall we find the philosopher’s stone, the elixir of life which is within. It shall disclose to us the crystal well of purity, the only water worth drawing from. Humanity, like a tired child, will creep back to lie down by the quiet waters of the crystal stream of life. Then only will humanity turn towards Divinity. Can good be, yet no giver? The stream may flow on, yet whence its source? surely from that deep well of hidden force, flows the diviner stream in man.
“Peace! let me sleep in thy shadow; be still.” The din of sleepless Babylon moans on. The restless waves thunder without ceasing on the surf-beaten shore. Humanity’s frail bark is ever dashed upon the shores of time, but deep down in the glassy depths no motion thrills through the ocean’s bosom. To be still, to have that mental calm which is the ideal symbol of nature, which will help us to take cheerfully the tempest with the sunbeam. How shall we get it? We must look within. It is the vestal fire burning ever on the altar of the soul. We must learn to walk through the world, living the internal mental life. To be calm like nature, without fear. To watch with equanimity the shadow creep over the sundial of life, this is reality, all the rest is but illusion. The life of the world is a stormy unrest, mental life is true happiness, the only thing that is so – all the rest is old and grey and a weariness.
The great mountains rear their crests into the filmy sky. Lying in solitary grandeur under the solemn hush of evening, one lonely peak 378towers far up until it seems to touch the starry vault. “We may not travel upwards side by side.” The higher the mental scale, the deeper, the more profound the loneliness. It is like the solitude of death, which we must face alone. To be brave, above all things to be true, is isolation, for it fixes an impassable gulf betwixt the world and the heart, which must from thenceforth furnish its own guests. To dare to be single-hearted, to have one aim in living, and that purity of heart and brotherhood of spirit. To maintain virtue of mind as well as of body. To live on patiently, knowing that one day our “eyes shall behold the King in his beauty”. To “pray without ceasing” in the inner sense, having the mind’s high aspirations attuned to the spiritual life, soaring, reaching ever upwards. As the towering mountain peak is capped with snow so shall we be crowned with the radiant coronal of life. “Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is.” When the long bright day dies slowly over the sea, watch by the light of the first lone star. Pray by the upward aspirations it draws into itself. Listen: when amongst the throng of hurrying footsteps in the din of a great city there may come the velvet footfall of peace! Let the door of the heart be ever on the latch, in the morning as in the evening.
The giant oak stretches forth his branches to the tireless voice of the storm. A tree is such a perfect thing, so complete its shape, its structure, its living breathing life, the birds that shelter in its branches. If we would be strong and lasting as the oak we must be patient and endure. Hold firm alike through the storm as through the sunshine, through adversity as through prosperity. Fix our heart roots deep down into these things which will endure. Which are not of this world, and therefore not ephemera.
The lotus lolls upon the heaving bosom of the stream. Emblem of spiritual and physical nature, containing in its closed cup the perfect flowers, which when evolved they one day will become. Her long, lithe stalk reaches down through the water and embraces old mother earth. “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley,” symbols of perfect purity. So sings Solomon to his higher self. Purer yet, and purer let us strive to grow in heart, until we too can sing “Lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear upon the earth and the voice of the dove is heard in our land”. Let us not tear the close-shut petals open, but trust to time to reveal the perfect calyces of gold. Strive to attain the higher self “until the dawn break and the shadows flee away”. Then only can we sing with Solomon, “My beloved is mine and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies”.
The light of the bright world dies with the setting sun. The lustrous rays from the young moon’s golden shell pour upon the dark world beneath. “Reflect the sunshine and thou shalt be bright.” The night hath a thousand eyes, and the day has but one. Learn of the gentle Queen of Night; she sways the tides and the heart of thee, the mystic sad capricious moon; her radiance is reflected from the King of day, the fire of life, the life-giving 379principle, the generator of vitality. “Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.”
“He giveth his beloved sleep.” Wearied eyelids droop o’er heavy eyes. Bruised feet, with sandals loosed, may rest at last. The wandering wind ceases his even-song, and folds close his filmy wings. All things are hushed. Lo, health, new powers to the sick and the weary, Rest! “He giveth his beloved sleep!” oft-times or “ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken”. Borne into dreamland “o’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone; and with the morn those angel voices smile, which I have loved long since, and lost awhile”.
Modern Apostles and Pseudo-Messiahs
383
The Grand Paradox
THE very interesting article entitled “the Ego and the Unmanifested Being” in the February number of Lucifer has led me to venture to place before the readers of this magazine certain considerations on the subject of the One Essence, which are not quite in accordance with the views expressed by the author of the above article, but which seem to me nevertheless worthy of consideration.
The conception of the One Essence, which the mind endeavors to bring into a more or less definite compass, is in its very nature quite beyond our comprehension; still we must explain to ourselves in some way or other what we mean by the “Unknowable” in order that we may start fairly on the development of that which lies in the “Knowable”. Therefore I will endeavor to explain what seems to me to be meant by the idea expressed as the One Essence, the One Reality, the Truth, which, 384as the Divine Unmanifested One, lies at the back of all manifestation as its root and afterwards its Cause; trusting that should my argument be deemed insufficient others will correct me.
In the first place, whence comes the idea of this unmanifested subsistence? Do we not obtain it as a reflexion cast from the idea which our Reason gives to us of a Finite One embracing the Universe as a whole? I use the word Finite instead of the more general term Infinite, because, though we may call the Supreme Idea the Infinite One as having neither beginning nor end, yet if we call it One we distinctly realise the Universe as a definite and comprehensive unity whether manifest or otherwise. So that in explaining this idea we admit that our first conception of the existence of a basis of universal Truth for the visible universe, is due to an opposing conception called up out of Space by the force of the ideal conception of a Finite Universal Unity. I see in fact that that which is universal can be finite as One, and yet universal; because the One is all-embracing. I acknowledge the existence of a fundamental opposition of ideas as a logical fact. The Universe exists as One, but there must necessarily have been first a something which in itself was all-pervading and attributeless, because infinite, and which acquired the quality of existence as one.
The mind having furnished me with a reflexion of itself in the infinite space, as shown by the conception of an infinite essence, a One Reality, or an unmanifested unity of latent Power, recognizes in this picture of the “Unthinkable” the mystery of its birth, and starts on its development of the Causes and Effects of positive existence from the shadow cast by the impenetrable veil of non-manifestation. “There is One unmanifested Essence which is the source of manifestation and the complete Truth” – thus conceiving, the Mind begins to develop positive consequences. The next question is the relation which exists between that which manifests and the manifestation, or the Essence and its appearance.
That this Essence is homogeneous and universal is a logical necessity to the finite comprehension of this relationship. But while I admit this to be the case, I do not forget that this description of an Essence carries no comprehensible meaning which the mind may attach to the Essence itself, but only refers to its relation to that which the mind may grasp, namely the manifestation. Thus when talking of the Essence, I am really referring to the position, in my idea of the Universe, which the First Cause occupies to Infinity.
To proceed then, we say that a homogeneous and universal Essence manifests; and it is evident that, because of these two qualities, which are indeed the negation of finalities, manifestation can only be movement (change) in the unmanifest from negative rest to positive Life. Thus the unmanifested one manifests as motion.
Since the homogeneous moves it must do so as a whole; and therefore since the One Truth manifests, or moves, it discloses itself in all its Unity.
385
The first effect then which the mind appreciates is the reflexion of its negative ideal in space as positive power, which, being movement, is definite; and which, being the manifestation of Truth, may be called complete self-consciousness. From this I draw the definition of that underlying and connecting force by which finalities exist as a universe, and I call it universal Self-Consciousness, or Truth in motion.
Thus the unmanifested manifests as motion which, because it is the essence of Truth, is Truth’s self in motion; and because it is active Essence or Truth producing an effect, is consciousness.
This self-conscious unity, this perfection of homogeneous power active, is the First Cause of positive Life, and itself is the effect of a yet anterior Cause, or the mystery of non-being.
The next question which the mind tries to resolve is: “Why does Truth manifest itself? Can Perfection be perfected?” In order to answer this question we must inquire into the real meaning to be attached to this kind of Perfection. Is not this First Perfection the perfect consciousness of the Unity of Truth, and the infinite power of this Unity? No effects are as yet produced by this power, or at least the Mind – for it is with mental conceptions which we have to deal – can appreciate none until it changes from the contemplation of Unity to that of its details. Perfect in its infinite power, is it necessarily conscious of its finite perfections? But let us seek the solution of this point by defining the difference between Consciousness and Knowledge. I hold that the first is indefinite Knowledge, and that this is a fit definition of universal unity, to which it corresponds as a definition containing a paradox. For a unit which is universal is similar to Knowledge which is indefinite. Have we not daily examples of what we call indefinable conceptions, or inexplicable certainties, of which we are conscious but which, because we cannot explain them, we must admit that we do not know? On the other hand what is Knowledge? I define it as Definite consciousness. Thus while the perfection of the Unmanifested consists for us in the Manifestation of an indefinite consciousness or Power of Truth, and while the Perfection of the Manifested One, the First Cause, consists in the True and perfect consciousness of Self as One Infinite homogeneous Power, the perfection of self-knowledge on the other hand is absolutely wanting, as absolutely indeed as the completeness of its Perfection, and it is this perfection and its attainment which I conclude to be the object of evolution. I am, therefore, unable to agree with the author of the article in question that “Absolute is not ‘essentially result’”, for I most decidedly think that it is.
Now I will enter into another, and I think necessary, consideration, namely, the relation of the Essence to its movement, and eventually to the phenomenal world.
It has been said that there is a gulf fixed between the Essence and its Manifestation. I think this way of looking at it is misleading. Let me 386explain by an example the relation which I consider lies between the essence and its motion, and therefore between the unmanifested reality, and every finite manifestation of itself, from the mighty universe to the atom of chemistry.
Let Matter and Motion exemplify my meaning. Matter I define as concentrated energy. Motion is free Energy, or Matter in its subjective condition. In order to explain the relationship between subject and object, essence and the phenomenal world, let this way of looking at Matter be conceded as correct. Then it is evident that Matter and Energy are one; and yet that Energy is not Matter, though Matter is Energy. Thus Energy is the cause of Matter, and Matter the effect of Energy; and the cause is not the same as the effect, though the effect is the cause, when in a condition of non-manifestation. Thus the Essence of the One Reality is the cause of every and all manifestation. It is the cause only as a reflexion of itself, just as we have seen the finite mind calling out of space the infinite ideal of unmanifested subsistence. Therefore it manifests itself to the extent of its finite reflexion, cast into space by the activities of Formal Life.
Its effect either as absolute motion which is the Manifested One, or as the finite activities of the phenomenal world, is not the thing in itself, any more than the effect of an action is the original action, or One is the same as part of one. But the cause is the effect in active and positive manifestation.
Thus the Universe, and its contents from first to last, consists of degrees of consciousness. As a whole it represents the conscious Life of Truth; the units composing this whole representing merely partial and finite consciousness. And the microcosm, the reflexion, and consequently the inverted image of this Mighty Unit of Self-Consciousness, is also a reflecting and conscious Ego.
There is therefore no gulf between essence and phenomena in my opinion; for though I admit that the latter is not the former, yet the former is the latter; the phenomena being the positive expression of a latent effect hid within the homogeneous unity of the First Cause.
Thus to sum up the results of our arguments, we have the Grand Paradox: The Perfect perfectible and the Unmanifest manifesting as phenomena without being itself manifested. We have these phenomena formed of the very essence of Truth itself, and yet not one of them represents that to which its existence is due. Truly has it been said that existence is an illusion.
Astrology as a Science
392
Pistis-Sophia
“IT came to pass, therefore, when I saw the Mystery of all these Words in my Vesture, that, in that very hour, I clothed myself therewith. And I became the brightest possible Light, and soared towards the Height, and came to the Gate of the Firmament. And all the Gates of the Firmament were shaken, one above the other, in turn, and all were thrown open together. And all the Rulers, Authorities, and Angels therein were disturbed together, on account of my great Light. And gazing on the Vesture of Light, with which I was clothed, they saw the Mystery, above which were their names, and feared exceedingly; [21] and all their Chains, with which they were bound, were loosed; and each one ceased in his Order; and all, bowing themselves before me, worshipped me, saying: ‘How has the Lord of the Universe changed us without our knowing’? And they all sang Hymns together in the Interior of Interiors. Yet they did not see myself, but only saw the Light.
“And having left that Region, I ascended into the First Sphere, shining
393
with the greatest possible Light, forty and nine[110] times exceeding the splendour, with which I shone in the Firmament.
“And when I had come to the Gate of the First Sphere, its Gates were shaken and opened together of their own accord. So I entered into the Houses of the Sphere, and all its Rulers and all that turn therein, saw the great Light. And gazing on my Vesture, they saw the Mystery of their own Name therein, and were the more confused – [and did even as they of the Firmament].[111]
“[22] And having left that Region, I came to the Gate of the Second Sphere, which is the Fate.[112] [And its Gates were opened, and its Rulers and they which turn therein, did even as they before them, my Light being forty and nine times greater than in the Sphere.]
“[23] Thence, ascending to the great Æons of the Rulers, I came to their Veils and Gates, clad in the most resplendent Light. These also were thrown into confusion, one above the other, in turn. And I entered to the Æons, clad in the greatest possible Light, forty and nine times greater than that, with which I shone in the House of the Fate. And all their Angels, Æons, Archangels, Rulers, Gods, Lords, Authorities, Tyrants, Powers, Sparks, Light-givers, Unpaired, Invisibles, Forefathers, and Triple Powers,[113] saw me, being the most radiant, limitless Light. And they were thrown into confusion, one above the other, in turn. And great fear fell upon them, when they saw my great Light. [24] And their great confusion and fear reached to the Region of the Great, Invisible Forefather (1) also, and of the three great Triple-Powers. And because of the great fear of their confusion, the Great Forefather himself, and the three Triple-Powers, ceased not to run hither and thither, in their Regions, because of the great fear in which they were, and, at the same time, they threw into confusion all their Æons, and all their Spheres and Orderings, fearing and being greatly troubled, because of my great Light, far different from the Light I had when living (lit. turning) on the Earth of Men, when the shining Vesture came upon me. For (the Earth) could not bear the Light, such as it is in its reality, else would the World be resolved and all, who dwell therein, together. But, in the Twelve Æons, my Light was greater than in the World among you, eight thousand and seven hundred times (2).
“It came to pass, when all who turn in the Twelve Æons, saw the great Light, that they were confused, one above the other, in turn, and ran hither and thither in the Æons; and all the Æons, and Heavens, and their whole Ordering, were shaken, because of the great fear, which was in them [25] because they knew not the mystery, which was done (3).
394
“And Adamas, the Great Tyrant (4), and all the Tyrants, which are in all the Æons, began to fight vainly againt the Light. And they knew not, with what they fought, because they saw no one but only the most exceeding Light. But when they began to fight against the Light, they all lost courage, one with the other, in turn, and falling down in the Æons, became dead like the dwellers in the Earth, who are bereft of all breath. And I took a third part from the Power of all of them, lest they should prevail in their evil doings; and lest – if perchance the men who are in the World, should invoke them in their Mysteries, which the transgressing angels brought down from above, for these magical rites are from those angels – (such evil practices) should be accomplished. And I changed both the Fate and Sphere, which are their Lords, and made them turned for six months towards the left, and for six months aspecting the right, accomplishing their influences [26] for, by the command of the First Precept and of the First Mystery (5), Ieu (6), the Watcher (or Overseer) of the Light, had placed them, facing the left, for all time, accomplishing their Influences and Actions.”
And when he had said these things to his disciples, he added: “He that has ears to hear let him hear”.
Now when Mary (7) had heard these words, which the Saviour said, having gazed into the sky with amazement,[114] for the space of one hour, she said: “Master, give commandment to me to speak openly”. And Jesus answered with compassion, and said to her: “Speak openly, Mary, thou blessed one, whom I will perfect in all Mysteries, which pertain to the Height, thou, whose Heart is set on the Kingdom of the Heavens, more than the Hearts of all thy Brethren”.
Then said Mary to the Saviour: [27] “Thou sayest the words, ‘He that has ears to hear, let him hear’, in order that we may understand thy conversation. Hear, therefore, my Master, I will speak the words openly, which thou saidest, to wit: ‘I have taken away a third part in the Power of the Rulers of all the Æons, and have changed the Fate and Sphere, for thou didst deprive them of their power, and of their Ordainers of the Hour,[115] and Diviners, and those who show the men of the World all future things, so that they should not be able from this hour to foretell what should come to pass’. Concerning these words, my Master, the Power, which was in Esaias, the Prophet, spake as follows, and set it forth in a spiritual Parable, at the time, when he spake concerning the vision of Egypt: [28] ‘Where, then, O Egypt, where are thy Diviners and Ordainers of the Hour; where those whom they summon from the earth, and those whom they call from themselves? Let them, then, show thee the deeds, which the Lord Sabaoth will accomplish!’ Thus, then, before
395
thou camest, was the Power of the Prophet Esaias prophesying for thee, that thou shouldest take away the Power of the Rulers of the Æons, and shouldest change their Sphere and Fate, that they should not know anything thenceforth, from that hour. Of this very thing he said: ‘Ye shall not, therefore, know what the Lord Sabaoth shall do’: that is, no Ruler shall know the things, which thou wilt do henceforth, from this hour; which Rulers indeed are Egypt, (8) since they are the ineffectual Hyle, of which (the Power) in Esaias at that time prophesied, saying: ‘Ye shall not, therefore, know henceforth, from this hour, what the Lord Sabaoth will do’, (to wit) concerning the power of Light, which thou didst take from Sabaoth, the Good, who is in the Region of the Right, which (Power) is in thy hylic body to-day.[116] For this cause, therefore, O Jesus, my Master, thou didst say to us: ‘He that has ears to hear, let him hear!’ For thou wouldest known whose Heart is earnestly set on the Kingdom of the Heavens.”
And when Mary had ceased he said: “Well done, Mary, since thou art blessed before all women [29] who are on the Earth, for thou shalt be the Completion (Pleroma) of all Completions, and Limit of all Limits.”
Now when Mary heard the Saviour say these words, she rejoiced greatly, and came to Jesus, and bowed herself before him, and adored his feet, saying: “Master, hear me, and I will ask thee this word, for thou hast not yet spoken with us concerning the Regions into which thou didst go.”
And Jesus answered and said unto Mary: “Speak openly, and fear not; all things, which thou seekest, I will reveal to thee”. And she said: “Master, will all those, who know the Mystery of the Magic of the Rulers of all the Æons, and of those of the Fate and of the Sphere, as the Transgressing Angels taught them (if they invoke them in their Mysteries, which are evil Magic Rites for the hindering of good deeds), will they accomplish their ends now at the present time, or not?”
And Jesus answered, and said to Mary: “They will not accomplish them, like as they accomplished them from the beginning, because I have taken the third part of their Power. But they will be in error (9) in the eyes of those, who know the Mysteries of the Magic of the Thirteenth Æon. (For the latter) will accomplish them finely, and exactly, [30] because I have not taken away their Power in that Region, according to the command of the First Mystery.”
And Mary said: “Master, surely the Ordainers of the Hour, and Diviners, will not show to men what will come to pass, henceforth, from this time?” And Jesus answered, and said unto her: “If the Ordainers of the Hour chance upon the Fate, and the Sphere, turned towards the left, according to their first emanation, their words come to pass, and they will say what ought to be done; but if they meet with the Fate, or Sphere, turned towards the right, they will not obtain any truth, since I
396
have changed their Influences, their Four and Three Angles, and their Eight Configurations (10); for these had remained turned to the left from the beginning. But now I have turned them six months to the left and six months to the right. Whosoever, therefore, shall chance upon their Number, since the time when I changed them, so that for six months they aspect their left hand Parts, and for six their right hand Paths, [31] – whosoever shall observe them in this way, he shall know their Influences exactly, and shall announce all things, which they shall do. Likewise, also, the Diviners, if they invoke the Name of the Rulers, so that they light upon them when looking towards the left. All things, concerning which they shall ask their Decans, shall be told them exactly. But if the Diviners invoke their Names, looking towards the right, they will not hear them, as aspecting a different Configuration from their first position, in which Ieu placed them, for some of their Names are turned to the left, and some to the right. If, then, they thus invoke them, they will receive no truth, but they (the Decans) will throw them into confusion, and threaten them with threatening, because they know not that they are turned to the right.”
[32] Now when Jesus had finished speaking, Philip sat and wrote all the words, which he had said (11).
And Philip having asked, and received, permission to speak, said unto Jesus: “Master, on account of what Mystery, has thou changed them, and didst thou this unto them for the Salvation of the World, or not?”
And Jesus answered: [33] “I have changed their Path for the Salvation of all souls. Amên, Amên, I say unto you, had I not changed their Path, they would have destroyed the host of Souls; the Rulers also of the Æons, and of the Fate, and Sphere, and all their Regions, and Heavens, and Æons, would have spent much time, without being resolved (or set free); moreover also, the Souls would have continued a long time without this Region (the Kosmos), and the Number of perfected Souls, which will be recorded in the Inheritance of the Height by the Mystery, and will be in the Treasure of Light, would have been delayed in its completion. For this cause, therefore, I changed their Path, that they might be disturbed, and, in their confusion, lose the power, which is in the Hyle of their World, which they make into Souls, in order that both themselves, and the whole of their Power, might be quickly purified, and conveyed to (or evolved into) those, who are to be saved, and that those who are not to be saved, might be quickly resolved.”
And Mary said unto Jesus: [34] “Master, how is it that the Souls would have delayed outside this Region, and how will they purify them (the Æons, &c.,) quickly?”
And Jesus answered, and said to Mary: “Before I had revealed (my) Message to all the Rulers of the Æons, and of the Fate, and Sphere, they had been all bound by their own Chains, Spheres, and Seals, in the way, in which Ieu, the Overseer of the Light, bound them from the beginning:
397
each of them was remaining in his own Order, and each walked in his own Course. And when the time of the Number of Melchisedec, the great Receiver of the Light (12), had arrived [35], he kept coming into the midst of the Æons, and Rulers bound in the Sphere, and Fate, and took away their pure Light, for he took it from them, by throwing them into confusion. And he urged on their Partisan (Spoudastên), who is over them, to turn their Circles quickly, and took away their Power, both the Breath of their Mouth, and the Tears of their Eyes, and also the Sweat of their Bodies. And Melchisedec, the Receiver of Light, purified those Powers, that he might carry their Light into the Treasure of Light, and the Ministers (Leitourgoi) of all the Rulers (of the Æons) collected the Hyle of the rest of them, and the Ministers of all the Rulers of the Fate, and of the Sphere, which are below the Æons, received it, that they might make thence the Soul of men, and cattle, and reptiles, and beasts, and birds, and send it into the world of men. The Receivers of the Sun, and of the Moon, also, – when they had observed the Heavens, so that they might see the Figures of the Paths of the Æons, and the Figures of the Fate, and the Sphere, and that he (Melchisedec) had taken away the Power of their Light from them (the Æons), – also prepared themselves to scatter it (the Light), until they should give it to the Receivers of Melchisedec. [36] (So) they carried the pure Light and their (the Æons’) hylic Evacuation (fæcem) into the Sphere, which is below the Æons (13), that they might make thence the Soul of men, reptiles, cattle, beasts, and birds, according to the Circle of the Rulers of that Sphere, and according to all the Figures of their revolution, and cast them into the World of Men, and that the Souls might be made in that Region, according to the manner, which I have already told you. These things, therefore, they were accomplishing constantly, before their Power began to lessen, and weaken, in them, and they became languid, and powerless. But when they became powerless, so that their Light began to cease, and their Kingdom to be resolved, and the Universe to quickly continue (or complete) its evolution (eveheretur); then, when they knew this by the circumstances, and the Number of his Reckoning (Psêphou) was accomplished, Melchisedec, the Receiver, began to come again, that he might enter into the midst of all the Rulers of the Æons, and of the Fate and Sphere, and disturbed them, in order to requicken their Circles. [37] Forthwith, they are compressed, that they may cast out their Power from themselves, from the Breath of their Mouth, from the Tears of their Eyes, and from the Sweat of their Bodies, and Melchisedec, the Receiver of Light, purified them (ea? the Bodies!) perserveringly, and bore their Light into the Treasure of Light; and all the Rulers of the Æons, and the Rulers of the Fate and Sphere, surrounded the Hyle of their Evacuation (or error), that they might devour it, and not allow it to go so that Souls might be made in the World. They, therefore, devoured their Hyle, in order that they might not become powerless, and languid, and their Power cease in them, and their Kingdom be dissolved;
398
but that they might linger, so as to delay the completion of the Number of perfected Souls, which will be in the Treasure of Light. Such things, then, they continued doing for two Circles.”
([38-42] Pagg. 23-26 are repeated with some slight variations, the most interesting being: “For this cause, therefore, I said unto you: ‘I have shortened their Times, because of my Elect’ (Cf. Matth. xxiv, 22; Mark xiii, 20). Otherwise, no Soul could have been saved. But I have shortened their Times and Periods, because of the perfect number of Souls, which will receive the Mystery, which indeed are the Elect; for had I not done so, no hylic Soul could have been saved, but they would have perished in the Fire, which is in the Flesh of the Rulers.”) (14.)
(1) The Great Invisible Forefather stands at the head of the Hierarchies of the Left, the Region of Righteousness, and of the Thirteenth Æon. The great Power (or Dynamis) of this Invisible Deity is Barbelo, and next to it come the three Triple-Powers (cf. pagg. 19, 23, 41, and 183.) As we proceed, it will be seen how the Type of the Pleroma is impressed upon all the Planes and Lokas. In other words, as the States of Consciousness change, the Appearances of things change with them, while the Things in themselves, or Types, remain the same. See the Chart of the Valentinian Pleroma (Lucifer, No. 33, p. 237).
(2) Eight thousand and seven hundred times: octies millies et septies centies (S). Setting aside the poor latinity of septies centies, it is difficult to relate this number with the previous “forty and nine times.” The translation is evidently at fault, for we find in the notes “centies (. . . . decies millies P.).” This emendation, however, only seems to make matters worse. The translation in Migne is “huit fois mille fois et sept fois cent fois”, and, as usual, no comment or elucidation is offered. The probable solution of the difficulty is that, whatever the correct translation may be, it is either a vague expression meaning “many thousand times”, just as in Latin the number of the Sacred Cycle, 600, became a loose term for any large number, or that it is a deliberate “blind”.
(3) Truly Avidya, or Ignorance (Nescience rather), is the root of all Nidanas, or the Concatenation of Cause and Effect (see S. D. sub voce,)
(4) Adamas. On pag. 360, we read that six of the Twelve Æons are ruled by Sabaoth Adamas, and six by Iabraoth. These Twelve Æons, in order to extend their power, persist in the Mystery of Intercourse. In this, however, they are opposed by Ieu, the Father of the Father of Jesus, and thus Iabraoth and his Rulers are converted to the Mysteries of Light, Ieu, therefore, exalts them to a higher Region and brings them into a pure Air, into the Light of the Sun, amid the Region of the Midst, and of the Invisible Deity. Sabaoth Adamas and his Rulers, however, will not abstain from the Mystery of Intercourse; Ieu, accordingly, confines them in the Sphere (of Fate?), in number 1800 (360 × 5) and above them 360 other Rulers, and above these again 5 great Rulers. Using the astronomical key, Ieu is the Spiritual Sun, the father of the Physical Sun, which again is the father of the “inter-mercurial planet”. See Secret Doctrine II, 28, and Part I Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge, p. 40.
The above description is taken from the fourth book or division of the Pistis399Sophia, which, R. A. Lipsius thinks, “has probably got by accident into the place where we now read it in the manuscript. It presents a simpler and older form of Gnostic doctrine, and was the work perhaps of a different author.” However that may be, and as our effort is to understand the ideas of the Pistis-Sophia, it will be sufficient to remark that the above description is given by Jesus to his disciples when he had brought them, in their Initiation, “into the Middle Region of the Air, in the Paths of the Way of the Midst, which is below the Sphere”, and that, by analogy, it helps greatly the understanding of the “Conversion of the Rulers”, which follows.
A hint to the explanation of the word “Tyrant” is given on pag. 76, where it speaks of “All the Tyrant Deities, which had not yet given up the purity of their Light.” Compare also pagg. 25, 137, and 154, and also Lucifer, No. 34, p. 318, note (3).
In the Gnosis of the Ophites, the term “Adamas” is of frequent occurrence, and in Philosophumena x, 9, we read that; “The Naaseni (a School of the Ophites) call Anthropos (the Man), the First Principle of the Universe (Archen Universorum), and also the Son of Man, and divide it into three. For in it, they say, is an Intelligent, a Psychic and a Choic (Physical) Principle. And they call it Adamas, and think that the knowledge, which has it (Adamas) for its object, is the beginning of our being able to know Deity.” From the above it is evident there are three Adamantes, of which our Adamas is the lowest.
In connection with these “Tyrant Deities, which had not yet given up the purity of their Light”, and from which Jesus took a “third part of their Power”, and in explanation of what follows in the text, students should compare Stanza vi, sloka 5, of the Secret Doctrine (vol. i, pp. 191 et seqq.), “At the fourth (Round, or revolution of life and being around ‘the seven smaller wheels’), the sons are told to create their images. One-third refuses. Two (thirds) obey.”
(5) The First Mystery. Jesus, who proceeds from the First Mystery (his Father), bears also himself the name of the First Mystery. The Hierarchy of the Emanations in the Treasure of Light, according to the first three books, consists of the Ineffable, called also the Deity of Truth, and the Inward of the Inward, and also of the Limbs (or Words) on the one hand, and on the other of the Mysteries of the Ineffable. At the head of all Mysteries stands the Mystery of the Ineffable or the First Mystery, called also the Only (Unicum) Word (or Logos) of the Ineffable. From this emanates the Only Mystery of the First Mystery, and thence Three, Five, and Twelve other Mysteries.
(6) Ieu is called the Father of the Father of Jesus, the Father of Jesus being the Great Sabaoth, the Good (see Lucifer, No. 34, p. 318, note 3). The Region of Ieu is the Right, and the titles of this Principle are the Overseer of the Light, the First Man, the Legate of the First Statute (Cf. loc. cit. p. 320, note 8), and the Guardian of the Veil. See also note 3 supra. Seeing also that, in the fourth book, the Ineffable, to which Jesus addresses all invocations, is called the Father of all Fatherhood, we have three Fathers of Jesus, viz., the Ineffable, Ieu, and the Great Sabaoth. For a further comprehension of these three “Fathers”, and three “Lives”, read Isis Unveiled, vol. ii, pp. 227 et seqq.
(7) Mary, called also Mariham and Maria Magdalena (pag. 182), must not be confounded with Mary, the corporeal Mother of Jesus. This Mary is by far the most intuitive (pneumatic), and the most prominent interlocutor of all the disciples.
From the Philosophumena, v. 7, we learn that the School of the Naaseni claimed to have received their teachings from Mariamne, to whom “James, the brother of the Lord” had originally imparted them. Origen also (Adv. Celsum, v. 62) speaks of a Gnostic school, which derived its teachings from Mariamne.
Those who are curious to analyse the controversies on the three Marys, viz., Mary Magdalene, Mary the sister of Martha, and “la femme pécheresse”, as to whether they were three different personages or one and the same individual, 400should refer to the list of authorities in “Migne”, vol. xxiv, col. 541 and 542. Esoterically, however, Mary the Mother, Mary the sister of Martha and Mary Magdalene correspond to Buddhi, Manas, and the lower Manas.
(8) Egypt. This passage is somewhat obscure, especially the last sentence, “Quae eadem sunt Ægyptus” (S.), which grammatically must refer to its antecedent, “the things which thou wilt do”. If, however, it is so construed, despair will seize upon our readers. We have, therefore, restored the idea of the Gnostic writer by a study of passages in the Philosophumena, of which the following is an example: – “This, said he, is what was written: ‘I have said, ye are all Gods, and children of the Highest, if ye shall hasten to flee out of Egypt, and crossing the Red Sea come into the Wilderness', that is, from the Intercourse (mixis) below, to that of Jerusalem Above; ‘but if ye again return to Egypt’, that is, to the Intercourse below, ‘ye die like men’ (Ps. 82, 6). For he said, all the inferior generation is mortal, whereas all that is generated above is immortal. For of Water[117] alone and Spirit, the Spiritual (Man) is generated, and not the Carnal. The Lower (Man), on the contrary, is Carnal: this is, said he, what was written: ‘What is born of the Flesh is Flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit’. This is, according to them, the Spiritual generation. This, he said, is the Great Jordan, which, flowing down, and hindering the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt (that is from the lower Intercourse; for Egypt is the body, according to them), was turned back, and made to flow upward by Jesus” (v. § Naaseni).
(9) But they will be in error: “Sed facient culpam in his . . .” (S.): “Mais ils feront la faute en ceux . . . .” (Migne), a mere echo of Schwartze, as usual! The passage before us is of the greatest possible interest, as showing the attitude of the Schools of Initiation to the Astrology of the Profane, and as containing the hint that the “Influence of the Stars” had to do with the Physical or Hylic Man alone', whereas, those who knew the mysteries of the Thirteenth Æon, i.e., the Psychics (see Table I), were superior to such Influences.
(10) Their Four and Three Angles. These are terms of the occult system of Astrology, founded on the type of the Triad and Quaternary, and correspond to the three higher and four lower principles, making seven in all. In exoteric astrology they stand for the usual Trine and Square, the Eight Configurations being 
.
(11) Philip. “Epiphanius mentions (26, 8) as books made use of by the Gnostics (the Ophites) the small and great Questionings of Mary, and (26, 13) a Gospel of Philip. Renan has recently (Marc Aurèle, p. 120, sqq.) endeavoured to identify these Questionings of Mary with the book Pistis-Sophia . . . . That moreover which Epiphanius tells us of the contents of this Gospel of Philip agrees right well with the whole tone and range of thought in the Pistis-Sophia” (Lipsius in Smith and Wace, Dict. of Christ. Biog., vol. iv, p. 413). The passage, however, quoted by Epiphanius, is not to be found in Pistis-Sophia, nor is the substance of the Questionings of the same nature as the Interlocution of Mary, in our text; therefore we must conclude, either that the pages missing from the Coptic MS. may contain the passage referred to, or, what is far more probable, that there existed different Commentaries on the original Oral Traditions.
(12) Melchisedec. In Philosophumena vii, 36, we find mention of the “Melchisedeciani”, who, the author says, owed the foundation of their School to Theodotus, a banker. The main feature of their teaching was that the Christos descended on the man, Jesus, at his Baptism, but that Melchisedec was a heavenly power, higher than the Christos. That which the Christos was to do for men, Melchisedec did for Angels. This Melchisedec was without Father, or Mother, or descent, whose 401beginning and end were incomprehensible. See also Philaster (Haer. 52), Pseudo- Tertullian (24), Epiphanius (55), and Eusebius (Hist. Ecc. v, 28), as quoted by Salmon (Smith and Wace, vol. iii, 888.)
From the Pistis-Sophia (pagg. 292, 327-9, 337, 365), we learn that the three chie Deities of the Right, are Ieu, Zorokothora Melchisedec, and the Great Sabaoth, the Good. The office of Melchisedec, and of his Receivers, is to deprive the Rulers of their Light-Powers, and carry the Light back into the Treasure. For the occult significance of “Melchisedec” compare Secret Doctrine, I, 208 and 265, on the “Great Sacrifice” and “Silent Watcher”.
(13) Schwartze’s translation is here almost hopeless, while Petermann’s note makes the obscurity denser. Migne coolly omits it entirely, and Köstlin, in his digest (Baur und Zeller's Theologische Jahrbücher, 1854, pp. 1-104 and 187-196), makes the Receivers of the Sun and Moon responsible for another set of Souls.
(14) Flesh of the Rulers. That is to say, that the kama-manasic Entity would perish in the lower kosmic forces.
Theosophy in Spain
IT is certainly not an easy task to write about the birth and development of Theosophy in Spain, for the interest in it felt by our brother Theosophists must necessarily be somewhat forced, in that many of them know our country only by name, and consequently cannot adequately realise – as they might wish to do – the struggle which we have had to sustain here; a struggle which has not indeed even commenced, one may say; but which, we have a presentiment, will become formidable when the masses of the people, forgetting barren political questions and paltry personal interests, awake at last from the lethargy brought about by ecclesiasticism and the excessive reaction produced by past centuries – to a comprehension of, and an interest in, Theosophy; the day when they grasp the true import and grandeur of the sublime beliefs which we hold, and which alone can regenerate this ancient land of Spain, whose past is so fair! Two formidable difficulties at once present themselves, difficulties which must be surmounted. These are, firstly, religious fanaticism, and secondly, a profound indifference to all metaphysical, or even ordinary moral questions. This indifference in a people naturally so devout and simple in their customs, so capable of embracing high ideals – as history proves – so warmhearted and sincere, points to a unique cause, the long and complete sway obtained by clericalism over Spain; five centuries of fanaticism and intolerance on the one hand, and on the other the occupation of the country by the Moors, who, it is true, left as a legacy many of their virtues behind them; but also many of their vices, which are not easy to obliterate. The reader must also take into account an important fact, one too often forgotten in treating of the question: the fact that Spain has not known the religious struggles which deluged Europe with blood principally during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, but which, in return, hastened moral progress and finally enabled Europe to throw off the yoke of Roman intolerance and dogmatism. The very essence of the Reformation, the right of free thought, could find no development in Spain – stifled as it was in the very beginning by the Inquisition which, according to the defenders of the Holy Office, 402ever constitutes one of its glories, as an act of patriotism towards the country! The Moors, who refused to accept Christian baptism, were put to death or banished from the country. The Jews suffered in like manner. Catholicism was all powerful, and remained so, up to the day when the Inquisition was abolished. The inevitable result of all this being that the natural reaction has brought about materialism and indifference in religious questions. The country is divided as follows: the masses, who believe but little in the miracles as taught by the Church – except in some mountainous provinces in the north of the Peninsula, where the clergy are sufficiently powerful to put a stop to all progress. These still hold a fanatic and turbulent population, always ready to plunge Spain into the horrors of a civil war, under pretext of defending religion against the attacks of infidelity and freethought. The people everywhere, all over the country are altogether ignorant and without instruction, and quite content to go through the mechanical exercises of devotion, and narrow routine prescribed by their religion, without seeking for the essential spirit of what they are taught to believe; the men of science, when not ultramontanes, are nearly all materialists. The upper classes count for little in intellectual movements, and take, with but few exceptions, no part in the moral questions which occupy the attention not only of thinkers, but of all those whose hearts are open to noble aspirations and influences, and for whom altruism is not an impossible Utopia. This callous indifference to all that touches upon elevating and ennobling subjects, is nowhere more strongly accentuated than in the higher classes in Madrid. Their intelligence is a commonly accepted fact, but their apathy is most grievous. Talk to them of horses, bulls, of theatres and the rest, and on these topics they are at home, they know their ground, and here they are the equals of the most cultivated and refined societies in Europe; but do not attempt to engage their attention with any subject less superficial – they will not listen to you. To amuse themselves, this is both their duty and their pleasure, those delights which appeal most to the lowest side of human nature, being most in favor! If this description seems to the reader somewhat exaggerated, it may be confirmed by any sincere and truthful person who has lived at Madrid, and has been into the society to which the name of “le monde” is given. True it is that the special vices of this society are common to all countries, with slight variations, and we must not omit to recognize, on the other hand, their many good qualities – as, for instance, their contempt for money, their generosity, courage, and above all a complete absence of that class pride, which renders association with them so pleasant to strangers. One may safely assert that nowhere in Europe, or anywhere else, unless it be among the old families of Spanish origin in South America, does one find a society more simple, and easy to get on with, than in Spain, where hospitality “comes naturally”. Foreigners who have not taken with them pre-conceived, and generally false ideas (for our country is one of the least known in Europe), know well that Spaniards can be fast and true friends. Naturally there are always exceptions to every rule. The love of country is, above all, extraordinarily developed in Spain. What society here lacks, is intellectual culture; this is only too true, and is a very real evil. People read very little, except on matters relating to politics, which absorb every one. Few persons know English – especially in the higher class – but if they read in that language at all, it is on sport and the light fashionable literature of the day. Leave this limited circle, and you will pass for one possessed of great learning, and become at once a solitary being, an “original”. Outside this circle, in the world where the immense majority live, nothing has power to interest or arouse. In other respects people are very impressionable, especially in Madrid. But it would take an event of extraordinary and overwhelming interest to in any way attract their atten403tion, even for a month. Under these conditions one can easily see in what position Spanish Theosophists find themselves, especially when one takes into account their number. It is true that no one had ever heard of Theosophy in Spain until a year or so ago; and indeed one does not mention it, except to those who one supposes have already heard of this great movement. Certainly Spanish Theosophists do not lack courage, and they are ardent workers in the cause; but the inculcation of it necessarily takes a form peculiar to each country. To speak of Theosophy in Madrid, seems to every Madrilene, admitting that he knows what it means, something inconceivable, impossible. Theosophy is so strange, so new, and, in addition, comes to us from foreigners; and for most people the strange even if not actually unknown, is suspected; especially in religious matters, and among the so-called “bien pensants”. There are, nevertheless, thousands of unconscious Theosophists; but they dare not break with tradition, and what can one say to them! One must have to venture on this step a profound conviction, an abiding faith, in Theosophic doctrines; and that a man does not acquire without study (which they refuse), followed by deep reflection and aided by natural intuition. You tell them that Theosophy demands no blind faith, preaches no miracles; and you appeal to their reason – in default of spirituality – and obtain, in nine cases out of ten, this answer: “We do not want a new religion, we have already our own, which amply suffices for those who have faith”. “But”, you reply, “Theosophy is not a religion in the sense you mean, neither is it Spiritualism, nor magic, etc.” Whereupon they at once accuse you of rejecting the inexplicable, the “mysterious unknown” of all religions, and of accepting Theosophy openmouthed, which simply bristles with mysteries.
The spirit of Catholicism, pushed to an extreme, which has reigned for so many centuries in the country, has produced a re-action in favor of a fatalistic materialism and of a despairing indifference a hundred times worse than the former. However, the little handful of Theosophists in Madrid do not altogether despair. They strive, with the means at their disposal, as best they can, untiringly and with patience; seizing every occasion that offers itself, however small, to sow the good seed – awaiting calmly and humbly yet joyfully – for the ripening; knowing well that the inflexible law of Karma will accomplish the fruitage of their labors. They do not ignore the gravity of the situation, the immense difficulties which meet them, or the fact that the moral condition of the country little fits it to receive the good seed of Theosophic truth; but paltry and personal considerations disappear before the Cause – that Cause which is everything, and for which they will work while breath is left them. They are obliged to proceed with great caution, and it may be but slowly, to work; for they know well that any mistake in the initial stage would prove most disastrous, and would retard the acceptation of Theosophy for many years. Discussions have to be avoided as much as possible; they take a very personal form in this country – the real point at issue being too often lost sight of. Avoiding these discussions as far as is possible, we must try to prove:
1st. – That Theosophy is not a religion (being itself the Synthesis of all religions, and human knowledge.)
2nd. – That it is not the principal aim of Theosophy – as its enemies continually assert – to upset Christianity.
3rd. – That the members of the Theosophical Society as such, are not Buddhists.
4th. – That Theosophy is neither a branch of Spiritualism, nor of Free Masonry. A programme which in the present state of Spain will require years to establish!
Several elementary works – articles from The Path, and from other Theosophical magazines, have been translated into Spanish and distributed by thousands throughout Spain and her colonies; the “Key to Theosophy” 404is in process of being translated, and will be published as soon as possible – It is indeed a most excellent work, and indispensable for all who would learn what Theosophy really is; it will prove invaluable to us.
Theosophists in Spain are yet but a handful, still they feel that the day is not far distant when their ranks will be very largely increased; in any case, they have sown the seed, and those who come after them will find the principal difficulties already overcome. Theosophy is in the air, in Spain as elsewhere, possibly even more so in Spain, though in a nascent and as yet indefinite form; for the country is striving towards that intellectual, moral, and spiritual progress, from which it has been cut off for so many centuries; and this progress Theosophy alone can ensure. Spain is in the full process of Reformation, if only certain Theosophists born but yesterday are reckoned, while for their part, the Cause can count on their unwearied devotion and energy in the carrying out of their Theosophic duty.
There is no doubt but that Theosophy would have had a far greater number of adherents here, had we implored, in the first instance, the help of the Free Masons and Spiritualists, and incorporated their sectarian beliefs with those of Theosophy; but we knew that the former are a bugbear to the majority of people in this country, who condemn them severely as lacking the good name and high standing that their foreign brothers possess – and as to the latter, they are but of recent growth. Besides which, we felt that Theosophy must be revealed alone, pure, and free from all influences which could but compromise it, and retard its growth here in the first instance. We must gradually inculcate its sublime beliefs – showing, little by little, that it is indeed the great synthesis of all knowledge – both philosophical and scientific – and that only in this sense can Free Masonry and Spiritualism alike, find a place therein, as the wave forms a part of the ocean. On this understanding we can welcome them, but in the meantime we must in serving the cause, avoid all contact which could injure it. Let us work then, each in his appointed place, with all our might – with unshaken faith – awaiting with patience and certainty the result of our labors. The conflict we know will be fierce – mais la lutte, c’est la vie!
(From our Madrid correspondent.)
Light Through the Crannies
THE Oak tree said to the Bramble: “Why dost thou trail thy branches along the ground and stretch thy arms above the sod as though thou wouldst embrace it? Behold! he who would be worthy in the eyes of the Lord spreadeth forth his arms toward Heaven and darteth his roots into earth and draweth out nourishment therefrom. Yea, he stretcheth his branches towards the sky, and the rain and the dew nourish him; but thou hidest low in the shadow and raisest not thy head.”
Then said the Bramble: “Lo, I am little and of small account, and my trailing branches are more nearly allied to Earth than to the Sun and his broad over-arching Heaven. Therefore, love I to smell the fragrance of the rain mount from her bosom, and I cry to the great mother of whom I receive my daily food: ‘Thou art fair. Yea, altogether lovely. It is thy voice that speaks by the wood-dove, which mounts in the nightingale’s song and descends in the melody of the lark.’ So I gather up my store of thorny leaves and spread my tender blossoms over my face, and when the petals of 405my flowers have fallen, I renew my fairness in the bloom of my fruitage. So that the eye of God may rest upon me, as on one who does her best to make the world a place of beauty and the heart of man glad because I render unto him the full reward of my labor. And if he is refreshed thereby and blesses me, I am blessed indeed.”
Then said the Oak: “Thou art of small discernment and hast a narrow manner of reasoning. How can God be pleased with thy frail blossoms, seeing that they fade and let their petals fall in a few brief hours? How can man bless thee by eating of thy fruit, seeing it gratifies his fleshly taste only for a moment?”
And the Bramble answered: “I do my best. Thou hast no cause for complaint. Truly thy sturdy limbs will stretch towards Heaven long after mine have filled the cinder bed with dried-up ashes. Yet shall my memory and my children live like me the merry life of sweet content.”
Then said the Oak: “Truly, this is the very thing that chafes me so. Wherefore shouldst thou be so well content, when man eats of thy fruit and treads thee down into the earth, sparing not to burn thee as his fuel when he is cold? Thou shouldst be full of indignation at his injustice and spread out thy prickly leaves to tear at him when he would gather victual off thee. Wherefore dost thou think thy spines and thorns were given thee, but to rend the hand of him who comes to rob thee?”
And the Bramble answered: “Yea, so I do. For God who gave me life supplied my stems with that which should protect my offspring from attack, that my place might not be forgotten, but remembered as species by man. Therefore to God I render thanks and trail my lowly branches on the earth.”
And the Oak said: “Thou art too meek. Thy foolish content savors of sloth and idleness. Bestir thyself, spread thy branches upward. Yea, till they rest on me and climb by me towards a higher place. Thy clinging to the earth makes thee so mean that all thy neighbors scorn thee and the creature of the forest treads thee down without compunction.”
Then said the Bramble: “Yea, he treads me down, but rise I not again and what hurt seest thou upon me for his treading? There is no harm hath happened to my branches but that my heart with right good will hath mended. Therefore, kind neighbor, do not grudge that which is my due, a placid conscience. For ’tis better to be hurt a little than be over proud. ’Tis better to be crushed than crush a foe.”
And the Oak said: “Thy mean, poor spirit frets me. Hast thou not any courage left in thee that thou so humbly fawnest on the foot of thy oppressor? Wherefore should man come and pluck off thy hope of fair posterity, to gratify his palate? Yea, that only, since he needs thee not for nourishment while wheat and barley flourish in his fields.”
Then cried the Bramble bitterly: “What have I to do with thee, thou preacher to hot-headed malcontents? Hold up thine head to Heaven and court the lightning’s flash. Send out thy branches and defy the wind. Gather thy strength of limb from the deep ducts of Mother Nature. Yet though thou be high as Hermon and wider than Charybdis, yet shall the wild swine feed beneath thy shadow upon thy cherished fruit. Yea, and grub at thy roots with their long snouts as striving to do thee hurt and cast thy pride upon the earth, of which thou art.”
Then said the Oak: “Darest thou twit me thus with my misfortune? Surely it is no fault of mine that loathsome things shelter themselves beneath my shadow, or seek to do me evil, for having all my vigor drawn upward by the sun? Surely I cannot keep my fruit from harm, although the loss thereof is pain unto me?”
Then said the Bramble: “Truly thou frettest with but little cause, for if thy head is pressing Heavenwards, what matter is it that thy root be desecrated by these unclean creatures?”
Then said the Oak: “Art thou so blind that thou wilt not perceive that 406my earth-nourished filaments supply me with vigor for the upward striving, and if by any chance they were withdrawn from earth then would my topmost branches fade and shrink under the warmth and sunshine which now are helping me in my strong efforts to gain a wider view?”
Then said the Bramble: “Truly, then, thou hast good need to make much of thy earth-hidden fibres, for never saw I trunk of finer growth, or more aspiring branches. Thou art so fair and graceful that if I could envy anyone then would I envy thee.”
And the Oak answered: “Thou art mean and low, yet thy tongue hath a broad flavor of eloquence lying under it and thy wit pleaseth me well. Therefore be not so tender of thyself, nor hug thine independence to thy heart so closely, and then thou shalt lap thy branches around my trunk, and look out merrily beyond this grovelling, mean existence to which thou art attached.”
Then said the Bramble: “Nay, my lord, for if I raised my branches from the earth, then would the swine feed also under me, and I should be uprooted from the earth, seeing that my roots burrow not deeply under ground like yours. And this thou offerest me in kindliness should thus destroy me.”
And the Oak said: “I have spread my favors out to thee in vain. Thy insolence is more than I can bear. Therefore lay thy ill-nurtured face upon the earth, a fit environment for worms and slugs, and though thou diest supplicating pity, yet will I answer thee only with scorn, because this day thou hast rejected all my overtures of friendliness.”
Then said the Bramble: “Thou and I are not of kin, yet God created both, and though thou hast failed to make me discontent, and art therefore indignant, yet will I pray thee that thou forbear to think so highly of the unattainable, and leave with scorn that true but lowlier knowledge which is free unto thee.”
And saying thus, the Bramble’s tender blossoms sent out a flood of delicate fragrance, so that the Oak tree drank it in thirstily and cried: “Thou hast much virtue in thy secret cells of perfume, for all thou art so mean and poor in spirit that thou wilt not let the world judge of thy comeliness.”
And the Bramble answered, “Told I thee not that He who made thee made me also, and He hath given to thee a wide reaching intellect, and to me a lowly heart. Therefore, let us not question of His working, but take that part He hath assigned us with grudging, for by dissatisfaction no creature ever yet was righted, but by content many reach Holiness.”
And the Oak answered, “Thou hast the voice of wisdom. How many years have I sought for this by spreading my branches skyward in humble petition. Yet never have I gathered from the rain or the wind half the knowledge that lies hidden in thy bosom, for thou leanest upon the arm of God and art content while I strove to gather vigor and perfect greatness, and yet thirsted for more and more as one that hath no strength.”
And the Bramble answered, “Thy striving must be well for thee, since God implanted it at thy life-centre. If thou moderate thy gasp of vision He will strengthen it. Yet because I have other work to do than gossip of these things, or try to teach others wiser than myself, my tongue shall rest.” And saying thus, the Bramble shook the dew from off her leaves, and gathered perfume in her honey cells.
E. E. Reader.
407
Theosophical Gleanings or Notes on the "Secret Doctrine"
WE have seen the inferior Pitris who possess an astral body within an ethereal form, projecting that astral – their chhaya – to form the mould for physical man, the “delicate model for the Nature Spirits of Matter to work upon” (vol. i, p. 225). We have seen the Monad descending and brooding over the senseless shell – the “Double Dragon” as it is sometimes called – as Atma-Buddhi (see the Commentaries, as quoted in vol. ii, p. 57). We may regard this First Race, the “Sons of Yoga,” as possessing but the Linga Sarira, the astral body, of man: “The Breath (human Monad) needed a form: the Fathers gave it” (Sloka, 17). The grosser body was moulded by the Earth forces through the first Three Races, growing denser and more compact as the ages revolved. Prana, the life-principle, the “electric fire”, came to it from the Sun: “the spirit of the Earth called to his help the Solar Fire . . . . the Breath needed the Spirit of Life: the Solar Lhas breathed it into its form” (Slokas, 16, 17). The Commentary has the same thought: “They were the shadows of the shadows of the Lords. They expanded. The Spirits of the Earth clothed them; the Solar Lhas warmed them” (vol. ii, p. 109). This gift of physical life, of electric fire, by the Sun must not be confused with the higher gift of the “Solar Angels”, who bring Manas to the making of man. We are here wholly on the physical plane, and are concerned only with the building up of the Quaternary. When the “Solar Lhas” had “warmed them”, “the Breaths had life, but had no understanding”, and so they continued till the Third Race. Nor was even speech found among the First Race, mindless as it was on our plane (vol. ii, p. 198). “The Monads which informed these empty shells remained as unconscious as when separated from their previous incomplete forms and vehicles” (vol. ii, p. 80), and to an unconscious Monad and a mindless shell no speech was possible. (The reader is asked to remember here that the Monads are not “separate” entities, but rays from the One Universal Monad, which are conceived of by us as “separate” only because of our “avidya” or ignorance.)
The Second Race, born under Brihaspati (Jupiter) on the Hyperborean Continent, reproduced itself so far as the early portion of it was concerned 408– like so many other forms of early physical life – by budding, or gemmation, followed by expansion. Those who have seen the process, say in the Hydra, will understand how naturally from a form so much less solid than the Hydra, such gemmation would occur. It is universal in the early jelly-like forms of living things, and in more highly developed and more complex forms it is still preserved in the earliest stages of their existence. The egg from which the human fœtus is to be developed has its mulberry stage, and everywhere we find fission among the primitive stages of living things. The idea of this universal form of reproduction as being that by which the Second Race appeared seems ludicrous only because people think of it as applying to the complex organism we know as “man”. But the beings of the Second Race preceded “man” by many a million years: they were on the path of evolution towards man, but those boneless viscid indeterminate forms had nothing of what we call human about them, although they were the seed out of which thousands of millenniums later man was to evolve. They were of “homogeneous substance”, with “structureless albumen body” (vol. ii, p. 164), the very type for such reproduction, and in fact such beings, without organs, could only thus reproduce their kind. The physical form had to evolve gradually “from its ethereal, or what would now be called protoplasmic model”, and this primeval humanity, we are told, “had at first an ethereal – or, if so preferred, a huge filamentoid, jelly-like, form, evolved by Gods or natural ‘forces’, which grew, condensed throughout millions of ages, and became gigantic in its physical impulse and tendency, until it settled into the huge physical form of the Fourth Race Man” (vol. ii, pp. 150, 151). Perhaps those who have ignorantly laughed at the “Secret Doctrine” will explain what method of reproduction, save fission or gemmation, was available for these jelly-like structureless creatures. Mindless still they were, but the first faint dawn of a yet far-off consciousness appeared in them, for we read of their endowment “with the first primitive and weak spark (the germ of intelligence)” (vol. ii, p. 165), and of their making “chant-like sounds, composed of vowels alone” (p. 198).
As the Second Race was evolving, the First Race was disappearing before conditions unsuited for its continued existence: “when the Race became old, the old waters mixed with the fresher waters . . . . .the outer of the First became the inner of the Second” (Sloka 21). The “men” of the First Race melted away, were absorbed into the firmer, though still viscid forms of the Second Race, becoming the lower principles of the evolving bodies (vol. ii, p. 121). The later Second Race, progeny of those produced by the First Race, are spoken of as “Sweat born” in the Commentary (vol. ii, p. 117), a poetical phrase for a form of reproduction which marks a step forward in evolution, but which may best be described in those with whom it was the characteristic type, the First Division of the Third Root Race.
409
The Third Race, which was to become really human, was evolved on the vast continent of Lemuria, the third of the great continents of the globe, and was significantly born under Lohitanga, the fiery-bodied Venus, or Sukra (vol. ii, p. 29). As the physical shape condensed and hardened, it was no longer capable of gemmation: hence in the later Second and in the early Third Race reproduction consisted of the extrusion of a viscid cell, which by the process familiar to us as cell division without separation, grew into an oviform ball, developing – as does the spore of the plant – outside the body of the parent, into the mature form. As the Third Race evolved, the spore-like cell, or “drop”, acquired the characteristic properties of the animal egg, such as we still find among oviparous animals, and the developing Humanity, from being sexless or asexual, became gradually bisexual or hermaphrodite, evolving organs, hardening in tissue and producing bones, passing in fact through what the modern scientist would call the reptilian and avian stages. The change to oviparous reproduction and to the growth of the endo-skeleton, marked during the two earlier divisions of the Third Race, leads on to the complete separation of the sexes in the third division, there being developed first “beings in which the one sex predominated over the other, and finally distinct men and women” (vol. ii, p. 132). In fact the Races passed, during millions of years, along the path of development now swiftly trodden by man in the early months of intra-uterine life: the cell gemmation, the cell multiplication, the asexual fœtal form, the growth of bones, the stage of hermaphroditism, the separation of the sexes. All these are familiar to every student of physiology: very strange, very wonderful, veiled in mystery as to causes although obvious as to effects; but no more strange, no more wonderful, no more mysterious, in the evolving Races than in the evolving individual. Nor is it irrational to speak of the Races as “human”. True, “men, during the First and Second Races, were not physical beings, but merely rudiments of the future men” (vol. ii, p. 108). But are not the germ cell, the sexless embryo, the hermaphrodite fœtus, rightly described as human in that their goal is Perfect Man? Why then shall not the early stages of Humanity in the womb of Nature be recognised for what they are, and why should they not be named by their end, by the triumph towards which they are working, the building up of Man?
With this separation of the sexes comes the critical point of evolution: man has become “opposite polar forces, an equilibrized compound of Spirit and Matter, of the positive and the negative, of the male and the female” (vol. ii, p. 84). He has now reached his human form, though it be yet “gigantic and ape-like”: he has evolved “the vehicle of desire, or Kama Rupa” (vol. ii, p. 116), taking on, in his progress, animal passions and physical organs, thus entering the field of struggle in which he is to “become as Gods, knowing good and evil”, thus acquiring the knowledge without which 410perfection cannot be. Out of the sinlessness of unconsciousness, through the soil and the mire of evil, onwards into perfect righteousness, such was the path marked out for the feet of man. In this Third Race began the battle, some 18,000,000 years ago. For now the Quaternary is complete: the physical body has taken its shape moulded on the Linga Sarira; Prana vivifies it, Kama fires it, Kama the gift of Suchi, the Sun, the “Drainer of Waters” (Sloka 17), the last thing that the lower Powers could bestow on evolving man. Over this now perfected fleshly tabernacle still brooded the “Divine Pilgrim”, awaiting the last touch which should unite the Quaternary with the Duad, the incoming of the Ego, that with one hand should cling to Atma-Buddhi, the Higher Self, with the other touch the Lower Self, and so knit the sundered together. This is the work of the “Fire Dhyanis”, the “Solar Pitris”, the Agnishwatta. The Esotericist speaks of these as the Heart of the Dhyan-Chohanic Body (vol. ii, p. 91), and they are the three classes of the Arupa Pitris, intellectual and spiritual, while the remaining four classes were corporeal, material and devoid of intellect (pp. 93 and 91). These are the “one third of the Dhyanis” who were “doomed by the law of Karma and evolution to be reborn (or incarnated) on earth” (p. 93). Some, if not all of them, are alluded to as “failures” among the Dhyan Chohans: but “as these ‘failures’ are too far progressed and spiritualised to be thrown back forcibly from Dhyan Chohanship into the vortex of a new primordial evolution through the lower kingdoms”, they “do not pass through the three kingdoms as do the lower Pitris; nor do they incarnate in man until the Third Root Race” (vol. i, p. 188). Elsewhere they are spoken of as “the Fifth Hierarchy – the mysterious beings that preside over the constellation Capricornus, Makara, or Crocodile”, whose task it is “to inform the empty and ethereal animal form and make of it the Rational Man” (vol. i, p. 233). Yet again, they are “the celestial ‘Ancestors’ (Entities from preceding worlds, called in India the Sishta)” who “step in on this our plane, as the Pitris had stepped in before them, for the formation of the physical or animal-man, and incarnate in the latter” (vol. i, p. 248).
The gradual entrance on the scene of these Manasic entities is described in the 24th Sloka:
“The Sons of Wisdom, the Sons of Night, ready for rebirth, came down; they saw the vile forms of the First Third; ‘we can choose’, said the Lords, ‘we have wisdom’. Some entered the chhaya. Some projected the Spark. Some deferred till the Fourth. From their own Rupa they filled the Kama. Those who entered became Arhats. Those who received but a spark remained destitute of knowledge; the spark burned low. The Third remained mindless. Their Jivas were not ready. These were set apart among the Seven. They became narrow-headed. The Third were ready. ‘In these shall we dwell’, said the Lords of the Flame”
Here the student must note the phrases, “some entered”, “some projected the spark”. We are in the early part of the Third Race. Ere yet the sexes were separated, the incarnating “Sons of Wisdom” who 411“entered” produced by Kriyasakti the “Sons of the Fire-Mist” or the “Sons of Will and Yoga”. Of these the first is the “Initiator”, the “Great Sacrifice”, of whom here we cannot speak; and in these incarnated the highest Dhyanis “to form the nursery for future human adepts” (consult vol. i, p. 207). Kriyasakti is “the mysterious power of thought which enables it to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own inherent energy. The ancients held that any idea will manifest itself externally, if one’s attention (and will) is deeply concentrated upon it; similarly an intense volition will be followed by the desired result” (vol. ii, p. 173). The men thus formed are apart from the course of human evolution; set apart ere yet the struggle had begun. They take no share save as guides, helpers, teachers, in the onward march; in past Manvantaras they had fought their fight; and they incarnate anew to help others, not to progress themselves.
On the other hand, the men of the Third Race who only received the projected spark, as they were scarcely ready, are the average humanity (vol. ii. 167), now fighting its way upward; while the third section, who were “not ready”, the most backward of the Third Race, “became narrow-headed” and are now the lowest human races, the Australian, the Bushmen, the least evolved South Sea Islanders. Of these the Australians are the only pure and direct descendants, the rest being mixed (vol. ii. p. 199, note).
With evolving ages came the separation of the sexes, and still many of the “Lords of the Flame” held back from incarnation and many of the men were still left mindless. They dwelt among the rapidly increasing lower animals, and in their senselessness they prostituted their newly-evolved sexual powers, mating with the brutes around them, and breeding monsters, “a dumb race to keep the shame untold” (Sloka 32). Then they who had held back from incarnation saw the evil: “The Amanasa [without Manas] have defiled our future abodes. This is Karma. Let us dwell in the others. Let us teach them better lest worse should happen.” “Then all men became endowed with Manas. They saw the sin of the Mindless” (Slokas 34, 35).
This incarnation of the “Lords of the Flame” marks the true beginning of Man, who is now the complete septenary – although the higher Triad is still latent, the full unfolding of Manas belonging to the Fifth Race, of Buddhi to the Sixth, and of Atma to the Seventh – and who has become an intellectual self-conscious being. In the early sub-races of the Third, man’s language “was only a slight improvement on the various sounds in Nature, on the cry of gigantic insects and of the first animals”, but in the latest Third articulate speech was developed, monosyllabic only, but still articulate, something more than mere emotional cries (vol. ii. p. 198). This was the speech of “the ‘golden-colored’ yellow-complexioned men, after their separation into sexes and the full awakening of their minds”. The yellow color here spoken of is “the color of the first solid 412human race, which appeared after the middle of the Third Root Race – after its fall into generation” (vol. ii. p. 250); but the present yellow races (except the Australians) are descended from the early branches of the Fourth Root Race, and are of mixed Lemuro-Atlantean descent (vol. ii. p. 199, note).
With the appearance of intellectual life came “material progress”. Ruled and taught by the “Sons of Will and Yoga”, the Lemurians built cities and founded the earliest civilisation, a civilisation whelmed under a flood, the memory of which gave rise to the world-wide traditions of a universal deluge.
Two Students of the E. S.
Q. The lower Quaternary is evolved in the first four races, Manas in the fifth race. Now, what is the position of Buddhi towards the present humanity? During the sixth race I can understand that it will incarnate in some way in Manas, as manasa-putra now does in the lower quaternary.
But what of the manasa-putras who are now undergoing incarnation in us, ourselves in fact; are we as manasa-putras at present unfitted to receive Buddhi, and only now preparing for its reception, as the lower quaternary did for manasa-putra?
If this be the case we are “Buddhiless”, as the early races were “mindless”.
Is this what it is to become “Dwija” – twice-born, when a Buddhi takes possession and illuminates Manas?
A. The lower Quaternary is evolved during the first three Races, the physical body not being regarded as a “principle” in the real sense of the term. The Monad – Atma-Buddhi – as has been so fully explained, broods over this evolving Quaternary, but cannot come into contact with it until Manas enters and draws them into connexion. This month’s article will, perhaps, make this clearer to you. Buddhi is latent in present humanity, but you cannot speak of it as “incarnating” in Manas: Manas is not fleshly. Further, Manas aspires towards Buddhi, Buddhi does not stoop to Manas. Buddhi will become active during the Sixth Race, but you do not seem to understand that the Monad is Atma-Buddhi.
If you refer to p. 167, vol. ii, “Secret Doctrine”, you will see that it distinctly states that “those who were half ready”, who received but a spark, constitute average humanity. Therefore it is incorrect to say that we are the Manasaputras. We are the Pitris and received a spark from the Manasaputras. Those in whom the Manasaputras, as such, incarnate, do not belong to our average humanity. Dwija means an initiated one – or a being whose Higher Ego is active; the initiated Brahmins of old were called Dwijas.
413
The First Step
A FEW remarks as to articles of diet which are best adapted for the mode of living suggested in a previous number of Lucifer, may not be without use. These remarks can only be made from the standpoint of a non-flesh eater, as the writer has well-nigh forgotten the experiences of flesh diet.
We must start clearly remembering our motive. It is to have a body the efficient instrument of the higher mind – efficiently found in all respects, and as economically as possible. By economy is meant a careful use of the forces used for assimilation, which if taxed heavily must draw upon and disturb other centres of force. We have also to consider another point: the attraction of the mind brought about by food through taste, smell, &c.
Starting, then, by asking ourselves what is necessary to sustain life, we find that with the normally constituted individual, a sufficiency, differing in the case of each individual, of wheatmeal bread, oat bread, rye bread, with a little boiled vegetable, or ripe fruit, or the simple equivalents of these in other products, and water, constitute all we need. All beyond, to be plain, is mere complication, dragging the mind down into useless considerations of cookery and taste gratification. He whose mind is set fixedly on high things, who bends not, and who is not stirred by anything external to his great subjects of thought, might eat things highly seasoned, sweet, or “enticing” in a multitude of ways, and stimulating, day by day if necessary, without retaining any memory of these, or having his mind crossed by any thought about them, until the time came for him to satisfy his necessities with them. Not so with him who makes his first unsteady wavering efforts at attaining a higher stage of consciousness. He needs to support his purpose with every prop he can devise for himself; these props are themselves the outcome of his effort. What then of his food? He cannot afford to have his mind distracted continually, at his stage of growth, by it. He therefore arranges that it be the simplest in flavor, and vary as little as possible, having regard to health: nourishing, but not unduly stimulating, not too bulky, nor too concentrated. Having little flavor, his food leaves no lasting impression on his mind; being about the same, meal after meal from day to day, he does not catch himself unconsciously meditating on his dinner. He feels hunger when his body aches for food, not when taste prompts. Such mildly tasted articles of diet are found amongst the grains, vegetables, and fruits, prepared as simply as possible. Grain seems to be in the most convenient form for assimilation when used as bread: it then contains about fifty per cent of water. Both fruit and vegetables containing from seventy-five to ninety-three per cent of water are too bulky to reckon upon as sustaining articles; they are invaluable on account of their corrective qualities. A large meal, consisting chiefly of vegetables and fruit, is possibly a losing transaction for the body; having then to deal with so much water and crude fibre for so little return. It would certainly be loss to our aspirant, who would find his thinking power dulled and lessened by it for twenty-four hours. Not so with a moderate meal of well-baked wheat bread (made from the meal if possible, not flour) and a little stewed ripe fruit without sugar or spices or a well boiled plain vegetable. It will satisfy all the requirements as to nourishment, bulk, and ease of assimilation.
Where the taste is not stimulated, indigestion is not courted. For we then eat slowly and not too much.
414
“A dreary and monotonous diet”, some of my readers will say. “A remark the outcome of clinging to sense”, I can reply, “and a sign that this article is not for them yet”.
He who steadfastly progresses towards the Great Solitude, the Great Silence, does not see in anything that helps him thither either dreariness or monotony.
As to body, he does nothing of himself, or for himself, but all of and for the Self.
S.
A Mysterious Story
IT was a close shave of losing the money! –
I was home from Turkey on a six months leave; and deciding to take back with me some present or other for the Sultan’s favorite wife, I thought, after racking my brains as to what I should get for her, of having a box of choice confectionery made up, each sweetmeat to be wrapped firstly in gold, and then in silver paper. It was a funny idea, I daresay, but it brought me a return which I little expected, and which, as I’ll show, I narrowly escaped losing the benefit of.
So I went to one of the biggest firms in London, and ordered the tasty and tasteful packet to be made at a cost of twenty pounds. You may say what you please about its being a wicked waste of money – perhaps it was – and no doubt I could have spent its value on a much more useful article, or to a better purpose; but the whim took possession of me, and I yielded to it, particularly as the Turks have such a sweet tooth; moreover, it’s done now, and can’t be undone.
Well, it was finished, and a beautiful piece of work it was. The box was composed of rare and inlaid woods, with gold and silver satin linings, whilst inside lay the most delicious sweets, each of which was singly wrapped in folds of gold and silver paper; and I was soon upon my journey back to Constantinople, proud in the possession of my prize.
I arrived in the city in due course, and in a few days was in audience with the Sultan; when, before taking my leave of him – having discussed various matters, naval and military – I handed His Majesty the little trophy I had brought from England for his dearest spouse. He merely bowed in acknowledgment, and I was in the open air once more, relieved of the burden which had often been a trouble to me during the voyage.
Well, I didn’t think much more of the matter – save once or twice picturing in my mind’s eye the favorite of the harem opening the casket curiously, unrolling the luscious “goodies” from their gold and silver wrappings, and then gratefully munching them, with a smile and a thought for me, perhaps; and I heard nothing of the incident until about a month afterwards, when one of His Majesty’s servants entered my chamber, and, handing me a plain deal box of about six inches square, departed, saying not a word, except that he had been sent with the parcel by His Mightiness Sultan of all the Turks.
When this vassal of few words had gone, I opened the box cautiously, being unable to make out the meaning of so strange and paltry looking a present and its mysterious bearer. Fumbling within it for something tangible, I at last drew out a bundle of gold and silver papers – “nothing more”, as Poe says in “The Raven.”
What could it mean? I asked myself. The papers were actually those in which my sweetmeats had been rolled! Then, with the suddenness of a flash of 415lightning, I remembered my gift to the Sultan’s wife! Had I insulted His Majesty, or his favorite, and he had shown his resentment of it in this manner? I thought a thousand different things, but without an answer to them all. I accused myself, and felt the blame, of being one of the biggest fools in creation; but that afforded no solution to the mystery, nor any satisfaction to my perplexity. At length, drawing a long breath, and comforting myself as well as I could that the problem was beyond my powers to divine, I threw the rough wooden box into my waste paper basket, and, simply crumbling up the shining papers in my hand, they followed suit.
Then I turned in my easy chair again, and tried once more to unravel the secret of so curious an incident; the silent, quickly departing visitor who brought the article – the thing itself of plain, coarsely-cut deal, stuffed with gold and silver papers – and nothing else. What did it mean, what did it threaten? I thought and thought again and again, but to no purpose; till at last, baffled and wearied of the subject, I set to my day’s work by an effort, determined to banish the matter from my mind, if that were possible.
And I was successful to an extent, for it hardly troubled me during the rest of the day; so, after despatching my usual business, I went out to dinner, and to a dance for the evening.
The excitement and pleasure of a naval ball gave little opportunity for the intrusion of that morning’s incident into my mind, and I returned home early on the next morning inclined for sleep and nothing else, as you may believe; so that I didn’t ponder over the subject then.
I went to bed, and soundly snored – as I always do – having given instructions to my servant to arouse me at nine o’clock.
I must have slept until about eight o’clock, when I awoke – not to a complete sense of everything around me, as one generally does, but in a kind of dose, half sensible and half unconscious – and as I lay with my eyes closed, I fell into a curious dreamy train of thought. Suddenly the subject of that deal box came into my mind! There, in the room below – and in the waste paper basket, just as I had thrown it – I could see it as plainly as if I stood looking at it; whilst just by its side lay the crumpled gold and silver papers.
I opened my eyes, startled at the reality of my imagination. But even then I couldn’t shake it from my thoughts. I could see that box distinctly; and the papers strewn around it seemed to shine with an uncommon lustre, as though some strong reflected light were thrown upon them and the floor of the room, which, in my fancy, I could see as plainly as though I stood within it.
I was now aroused to a complete sense of what and where I was; but so possessed was I with the picture of that haunting box and the crumpled papers, that I even pinched myself to know if I were really dreaming. Even then I couldn’t kill the phantom of my brain.
I looked at the clock on the bedroom wall. It had just gone eight; and, even as I looked, the hands seemed pointing downwards to the room below, whilst every stroke of the pendulum seemed saying, Box! Box! Box!
Was my mind unhinged? Surely I was sober on the night before, and my family had never shown the slightest traces of hereditary madness. I was growing desperate; my forehead throbbed, for still that box lay palpably before my eyes.
I heard sounds below. Someone was walking about the room. It must be my servant, cleaning out the apartment, I thought; and even as I did, I saw the fellow – as though I stood beside him – moving the furniture about and dusting it; till suddenly he bent, and picking up the box, with the gold and silver papers in it, he held them in his hands!
My brain was wildly throbbing now – why, I know not, and never could tell – but I seemed to be held by some mysterious spell.
416
The sounds below continued, and seemed, in my fancy, to be growing louder and louder. I looked again at the clock – it was a quarter past eight – but no sooner had my gaze rested on the hands than they appeared to instantly turn downwards again, and to point straight, straight below, whilst the pendulum seemed to beat out more loudly than before, Box! Box! at every swing!
This was intolerable; I could stand it no longer. “Curse the box”, I said; “the Devil’s in it.” Far from that being the case, however, as good a genius as ever graced an Arabian Night must have prompted me – and I sprang from my bed.
The clock now seemed to clash discordantly and wildly loud, as if it warned me to make haste. Make haste. For what? I couldn’t tell; but an uncontrollable impulse seemed to urge me to be quick.
I rushed down the stairs, and, bursting into the room below, I saw my servant standing near the mantel-piece. The waste paper basket was in his hands – he grasped the box and the glittering papers – and in another second both were on the fire!
I rushed forward to stay his arm – yelling like an Indian as I did so – but it was too late! I looked wildly at the shining papers; the fire was licking around them; the smoke was blackening them, and in a moment they would disappear in flame and ashes!
A thought took hold of me as I stood gazing in mute astonishment; then, like a madman, in my frenzy I darted to the fire, fell upon my knees, and plucked the smouldering papers out!
You laugh, do you, and think that I was a fool to indulge in such extraordinary antics? – No doubt you do, but wait until I’ve told my tale – then let him laugh who wins, as the proverb has it.
Dismissing the fellow from the room – aghast and speechless at the conduct of his master, who he thought, was mad, as he afterwards told me – I knelt upon the floor, and slowly unfolded the pieces of glistening tinsel one after another. And what do you think greeted my startled, scarcely-believing eyes? A bank note for a hundred pounds unrolled from each of the shining papers. Who now has the right to laugh?
My fingers trembled as they revealed such an unexpected recognition of my trifling gift of a month before. I wandered to my room again as in a dream. The secret of that rough-cut box was told!
A narrow escape? I should think it was. In another moment a small fortune would have vanished in the flames! What set me thinking, in my dose, and influenced me to awake and rush down stairs, will ever remain a mystery, at least in this life; though I believe that we shall see less dimly “through the glass” in another. But there the fact remains; I felt an irresistible impulsion to act as I have related.
As to my servant, I presented him with a good round sum for his luck in not having thrown the papers on the fire sooner than he did, singular as my reason may appear for doing so. Had he emptied the contents of that waste paper basket earlier – but never mind, he didn’t, and I am all the richer for it.
Yes, I can assure you, strange as it may be, the first thing that suggests itself to my mind, whenever I want to make a lady a present, is a box of sweets – and the memory of my adventure always reminds me that we can never tell when and how an action on our own part may be recognized; that it may be returned in two-fold, and at a time when we thought it quite forgotten. There is the scorched old box, and there are the edge-burnt bits of tinsel, in the honored place of all my furniture. They may look anything but attractive but in my own eyes they are beautiful. A memento of the times gone by, and the history of a curious tale, lie silently but yet eloquently in that empty box without the sweets.
417
Remarkable Instances of Suspended Animation
ON reading an old work called the Wonderful Magazine I was struck by the record of some remarkable instances of different persons who remained a considerable time under water without being suffocated, and I thought it might not be uninteresting to record such instances for the readers of Lucifer; when read in conjunction with the excellent work by Patanjali on the Yoga Philosophy they are especially interesting, as I conceive that they are admirable examples of what a person is capable of undergoing as regards suspended animation. They are as follows: –
Doctor Joel Langelot, in communicating this extraordinary account to the secretaries of the Academy of Sciences in Germany says –
“I have seen at Tronningholm, where the queen of Sweden has a magnificent palace, a gardener about sixty-five years of age, and still pretty vigorous, who, eighteen years before, was imprudent enough to venture on some thin ice in order to assist a man who was drowning, so that he himself fell into the water eight ells deep in that part, and remained full sixteen hours under the ice, his body being in an erect position, before the place was discovered where he was.
“This man informed me that all his limbs first became stiff with cold and that he had afterwards lost all sensation till he felt his head struck violently with a crook by those who were searching for him; that as soon as he had been taken out of the water, a great bubble of air issued out of his mouth, which without doubt had kept him from being suffocated, and that his ears were filled with water; that they began by wrapping him up exactly from head to foot in a sheet, and that in this condition they warmed him gradually before a gentle fire, the Swedes knowing by experience that drowned persons are not recoverable when exposed too soon to the open air.
“M. Tilasius, keeper of the Royal Library of Stockholm informed me of a still more extraordinary fact in a note under his own hand which I have subjoined to these observations. It is concerning a woman of his acquaintance who had continued three days under water, and whose life notwithstanding was saved much the same way as the gardener’s.
“But what was lately told me by Mr. Burman on his return to Stockholm from his journey to West Gothland seems quite incredible. He says, that having by chance been to hear a funeral sermon on the death of an old gentleman of seventy, by name Lawrence Jona of the town of Boness and parish of Pithoria, the rector had assured the assembly that this person, having fallen at the age of seventeen into the water, was not drawn out till seven weeks after, and yet had the good fortune to be brought to life again in the same way as is practised in such cases in Sweden.
“How must it be conceived that a man deprived of respiration could have preserved heat and vital spirit after so long a time in frozen water, which in Sweden abounds with nitre, as I myself have experienced, I confess, that notwithstanding the example we have of insects and some birds that remain in a torpid state during the winter, I can hardly believe the fact possible. Let it therefore be your business, gentlemen, you who make a particular profession of investigating and pointing out Nature in her operations, to judge of this; and you will sensibly oblige me to let me know some time or other what you think of this phenomenon. Your decision may perhaps be of singular service to a great number of persons.”
418
Another note of Mr. Tilasius, Royal Librarian of Stockholm, says:
“A woman of the province of Dalia in Sweden, by name Margaret Lasdotter, fell three different times of her life into water; the first time when she was yet very young she remained three days under water, but the two other times she had more speedy assistance. This woman died, aged 75, in 1672.”
“Dr. Langelot, in regard to drowned persons, relates three very extraordinary facts: He first speaks of a man who remained sixteen hours under water, his body erect and rigid from cold, and from whose mouth there issued a large bubble of air, as soon as he was taken out of the water; secondly of a woman who continued three days under water; and thirdly, of another man who had been seven weeks under water. He afterwards says that these three drowned persons, in whom neither motion nor sensation were perceptible, had notwithstanding been restored to life by the precaution that was taken of wrapping them up from head to foot in a sheet and warming them by a gradual heat, the Swedes having learnt by experience that those who have been for sometime under water are suffocated on being exposed too soon after they are taken out to a free circulating air; and Dr. Langelot concludes his account by exhorting the learned to communicate their observations to him on this phenomenon, and to explain how they conceive a man could live without respiration and preserve his natural heat in frozen and very nitrous waters such as those of Sweden.”
The above instances are interesting and worthy of note, and should be considered in recalling the accounts we have from India of the entombment of Yogis under the earth for extended periods, thus also illustrating the powers of endurance of the human frame. I should like one of our esteemed editors to throw if possible some light upon the subject, and would like to enquire whether the consciousness of such persons was not in a state equivalent to that of a dreamer or of one in Devachan; only I presume that in the case of suspended animation being undertaken knowingly by a Yogi, that he would be conscious during the whole of the time, whereas in the case of another person who was accidentally placed in such a position that their consciousness would pass into a state equivalent to that of a Devachanee. I would also like to enquire whether the nitre in the water was a factor in the case.
Evolution - A Problem
422
Sir Monier Williams and Eastern Religions
88, Onslow Gardens, S.W., June 24th, 1890.
Sir, – My attention has been drawn to two recent articles on the Vedantic philosophy, published in Lucifer (one in the April and one in the May number), and signed U. L. Desai, F.T.S.
I am not a Theosophist myself, and am not a subscriber to Lucifer, but I presume that the principles of Theosophy – whatever may be the true definition of that term – are inconsistent with literary dishonesty.
I request, therefore, that you will take the earliest opportunity of expressing in your Magazine your condemnation of Mr. Desai’s conduct in founding his two articles – no doubt published by you in ignorance of the circumstances – on a rough, uncorrected proof (marked in large capital letters PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL) of a still unpublished paper of mine, which will hereafter appear in the Journal of the “Victoria Institute”.
I may add that this uncorrected private proof was given to Mr. Desai and a few
423
others confidentially, with the sole object of helping them to join more conveniently in the discussion which followed on the delivery of a paper, to which, as it appeared in the proof, I was not bound to adhere, and in point of fact did not adhere.
Monier Monier-Williams,
Boden Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Oxford.
1a, Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C., June 17th, 1890.
The Editor, Lucifer.
Sir, – This Society held a meeting of its Members – which was attended by some visitors as guests – on the 10th March. On that occasion one of its Members delivered an address, some rough proof copies of which were printed off for the use of those wishing to take part in the discussion. I send you the first leaf of one of these proof copies, and ask your attention to the first three lines in large printing, at the top of the first page.
I am informed by the author of the address that one of those who – I know – came as a guest to our meeting has written two articles upon the address and that these articles have appeared in Lucifer. I would point out that the author of the articles in Lucifer has disregarded the following facts: –
1. That he came as a guest to our meeting.
2. That he quoted from an “unrevised proof” (so marked in large letters).
3. That he made use of a document marked in large letters “PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL”.
I am sure you will acknowledge that such acts merit your most severe condemnation.
The Editor of the Society’s Transactions.
P.S. – The articles in Lucifer greatly misrepresent the author of the address, being founded on an “unrevised proof”, the corrections of which are great to bring it into accordance with the words uttered by its author.
We have received the following in reply to our letter of enquiry: –
With reference to your letter of the 26th instant, I beg to remark that no scholar could ever be supposed to understand that a discussion on any philosophical subject, and particularly one that embraces the religions of the Hindus and Parsis, and the Vedantic System, could ever be of a “private and confidential nature”. Moreover, as Sir Monier-Williams, at the close of this particular meeting, said that as he could not hear then what I was objecting (he being a little deaf), he would be glad to receive my views in a written communication, so that he might make a commentary upon them – this surely relieved me from the responsibility of regarding the meeting as of a private and confidential nature. And, indeed, even if I had not received this invitation, I could never have dreamed that a discussion of this nature was to be so regarded, seeing that it was not only open to nearly all my Hindu and Parsi brethren, but to others who were not members of that particular Society.
If it be the opinion of Sir Monier-Williams, after his long career as an Oriental scholar, that Oriental philosophy should be lectured upon in private and confidential meetings, I can only say that I regard such a method as positively injurious to the giving of true conceptions of these philosophies to the earnest
424
European world, a world which is fond of truth and open commentaries, and not of mysteries and uncorrected proofs.
In conclusion, I may add that no true Hindu or Parsi likes to see his philosophy misunderstood; or to hear misconceptions of it presented to a European public, especially through the medium of an important Society.
(We regret if our correspondent has done Sir Monier-Williams any injustice, but we were not aware, until we received the above letters, that the meeting which gave rise to his articles was a private one. We took it for granted that it was one to which the Press were admitted in the ordinary way, and that the Professor’s discourse and the discussion thereon were intended for the instruction of the public. Had we seen the circular before printing Mr. Desai’s comments, we should not have published the article, however unfair we might think it to privately misrepresent great religions and deny to their adherents the right of correction. We can readily understand that our friend Mr. Desai could not imagine that the circular was to be regarded as private after the meeting, and can only express regret for the very natural error into which he fell. – [Eds.])
A Glimpse of the "Fourth Dimension"
Will some one kindly explain a little more fully than is done by the Rev. J. B. Bartlett, in the quotation from the “Boy’s Own Paper” in the last number of Lucifer, what is the connection between the experiment with a twisted piece of paper, and the much involved question of the fourth dimension? There is much food for reflection in the said remarks, but so far as one can see there is less than nothing of any scientific value. For instance, the twist in the paper which causes an illusive idea as to what will happen when it is cut, is very suggestive of the mental twist which is productive of so many illusive ideas in respect to the so called supernatural. The analogy may be carried into the fifth, sixth, or seventh “dimension” according to individual fancy. In the meanwhile, and for lesser minds, a “two-dimensional” explanation will perhaps suffice. It is as follows: – Cut the strip of paper in half down the centre before you join the ends, you will then find that all that you accomplish in joining the ends as directed, is to unite one end of one half to one end of the other half, instead of to its own “alter ego”. Result: – A continuous strip, instead of two separate pieces. One may indeed trace some sort of analogy here, as to what may occur when we have a clear perception of four dimensional space; for undoubtedly we shall then find that much of the idea of separateness, produced by the aforesaid mental twist, has proved itself to be – an illusion!
The Third Eye
The subject of the Third Eye is brought before the World in a popular manner by the Trustees of the British Museum. In the newly published “Guide to the galleries of the Departments of Geology and Palæontology”, 8vo, 1890, price 6d., we have pictures on pages 64, 65, 69, and 70. We find illustrations of the Frontal aspect of the cranium of Mastodonsaurus giganteus (Jæger) Lower Keuper, Würtemberg, the frontal aspect of cranium of Capitosaurus robustus (Meyer) Lower 425Keuper, Würtemberg. Frontal aspect of cranium of Metopias diagnosticus (Meyer) Lower Keuper, Würtemberg. Frontal aspect of skull of Archegosaurus Decheni (Goldfuss) Lower Permian, Saarbrück. Frontal aspect of cranium of Actinodon atirostris (Jordan sp.) Permian, Saarbrück. All these show the parietal foramen, transmitting the third eye.
It is scarcely necessary to say that the teachings of the Secret Doctrine will now become as cheap and common as last year’s tomatoes. We find:
“What sages would have died to learn |
Now, at least, it is to be hoped that the assailants of theosophical teaching have no excuse whatever for their real or affected ignorance.
Keely's Discoveries
THIS is a collection in pamphlet form of articles which have from time to time appeared in various papers in America. It does not seem to really demand or command very much attention, except as being a record of the various phases of the Keely controversy. To those who are interested in Keely’s discoveries it will prove a useful little collection as showing what has been done, more especially as the opinion of Professor Leidy is appended to it. What seems to be missing is that, though Professor Leidy records his opinion, there is no statement in this little pamphlet of the grounds upon which he formed his opinion. It shows the “sweet reasonableness” of Keely’s theories by drawing an analogy with electricity and its production, and also disposes of the charge against Keely of preserving secrecy with regard to his discoveries by showing that such secrecy has never really existed. Professor Leidy’s opinion has, however, done Mr. Keely a real service, for a Mr. Ward has been induced by the opinion and advice of Professor Leidy to hand over to Mr. Keely the sum of $5,000 wherewith to conduct his experiments, and has further secured to him by will a sufficient sum of money to render Mr. Keely independent of external assistance. Certain pertinent questions as to the amount of, and the liberation of, the energy of Mr. Keely’s force are put forward and answered satisfactorily, for the detractors of Mr. Keely ever appear to be under the impression that “sympathetic vibration” is a force governed by physico-mechanical laws only. Mr. Keely has entered a realm of nature which is governed by its own laws alone, and the greatest of Mr. Keely’s difficulties has been that he has been forced to discover every step that he has taken by careful and dangerous experiment, and has had no assistance in his discoveries save his own intellect and his discoveries themselves. One of these questions had relation to the cost of production of the force, and this the pamphlet answers by saying, that after the first cost of the machine the force is inexhaustible and entirely without cost of production. It is here that Lucifer is especially concerned. The force being universal is the property of all men alike, and the segregation of it for his own purposes by any one individual is a sin against the Brotherhood of Man. Much more would this be the case if this force is to be used 426as a weapon of offence against men themselves. Thus, from our standpoint, the Karma of such segregation would be very heavy, and it is with great interest that we are watching the various phases of Mr. Keely’s failure and success.
Christ and Krishna
The small octavo volume under review, consisting of 144 pages, is a reprint of certain articles which appeared in the National Reformer. In the first place every praise should be given to the author for his conspicuous industry in collating authorities, and for his manifest fairness in weighing the evidence in the scales of rationalism. But the Theosophist requires something more than this in treating of such subjects as have had the greatest effect on the world's history. The great world-truths shrouded in the veils of mythology are living powers, and the dissection of their dead outer forms can never reveal the life within.
We, therefore, regret that the writer never takes a loftier flight in his investigation than the solar-myth theory. True enough that every myth is susceptible of an astronomical explanation, but truer still that the great heart of antiquity beat in response to a deeper inspiration.
Much space again is devoted to the speculations of Professor Weber, who preposterously claims that Greece was the instructress of India – of India, the most tenaciously conservative of all countries! The question that ever arises with the Western student who is not imbued with the patronizing benevolence of Western scholarship with regard to all things Eastern, is – in what estimation do the Hindu pandits themselves, who speak Sanskrit, hold the great self-made Western authorities on their ancestral scriptures? Even those pandits who are most imbued with Western education, shake their heads with a smile when such authority is hurled at their heads.
It was not, however, to be expected that more than a comparative criticism of myths according to the present accepted scientific definition was to be attempted, and within these limits Mr. Robertson has done excellent work, and put the matter in the fairest and clearest light yet attained by the modern system of scholarship. In this respect Mr. Robertson is at his best in the conclusion, where he sums up the position with a frank disinterestedness which is admirable.
Nicholas Flamel
The full title of this curious old book is “Nicholas Flamel; His exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures, which he caused to be painted upon an Arch in St. Innocents Churchyard in Paris: Concerning both the Theory and Practise of the Philosopher’s Stone”. Which, we are informed, is “faithfully and religiously done into English out of the French Copy, by Eirenæus Orandus, quiest, Vera veris enodanus”.
The figures are interspersed in the letterpress in all the quaint originality of mediæval woodcuts, and a page of figures familiar to the modern student by their reproduction in Lévi’s works, faces the title page. Alchemistical bibliophiles are well acquainted with the strange story of Nicholas Flamel and Pernelle (or whatever else be the right orthography of the lady's name), his wife, about whom, however, more has been written in France than elsewhere, so that we find, even so far back 427as 1761, the Abbé Villain, with the Gallic “Scientific” mania thus early upon him, writing an “Histoire Critique de Nicolas Flamel et de Pernelle sa Femme, par M. L. V., Paris”. The present reprint is prefaced with a sensible foreword by Dr. W. Wynn Westcott. In this preface the doctor tells us that Flamel
“in 1357 had unexpectedly offered to him for a trifle of two florins a curious old Book, which he at once purchased. This slight event fixed the whole course of his life . . . .
“In the (present) fac-simile Reprint – Flamel describes the ‘Book of Abraham’ and its mystic contents; and then he describes and illustrates the meanings both theological and Alchemical of the Design and Hieroglyphics – which designs are alike capable of Revealing and Reveiling the Secrets of Transmutation.
“The Frontispiece with its seven designs shows the three pictures of the 7th, 14th, and 21st pages, with the four pictures on the 4th and 5th pages of the ‘Book of Abraham’, and they are more instructive than the pictures of Flamel himself – which without this description are nearly valueless, their Religious meaning being so much more obvious than any other. Their special peculiarity consists of the colors allotted to the several parts, which it is not possible to reproduce.”
We heartily concur also with Mr. Fryar in his notice “to the subscribers”, when he writes:
“Whatever grounds may exist for believing that by Alchemy was meant the actual transmutation of the baser metals into gold and silver, it must be obvious to any who have carefully read upon the subject, that Theologically, Man was the subject, and his perfection by the attainment of spiritual consciousness, the object of Alchemy”.
To those, then, who subscribe to this view more than to any others we cordially recommend Flamel’s book, and can promise the serious student many places where the veil is nearly parted.
Eclectic Medicals
The first Conference of the British Association of Eclectics and Medical Botanists has issued a report of its proceedings, in which it appears a strong protest was made against “the claims recently set up by the duly qualified and registered medical men of this kingdom to make the practice of medicine a close monopoly”. Mr. J. P. Dowling, the President of the Association, in a very able and inspiring address, referred to this attitude of the Apothecaries' Society towards Medical Botanists as “intolerable assumption and arrogance”. In his opinion the “State-protected mineralists”, who claim a monopoly of public support, have usurped a power to which they have no more right, electively, than the herbalists. During the dinner which followed, the learned President, who is an ardent Theosophist, enlivened the chat with some curious speculations on the inner life of plants, ideas and facts drawn from his study of Theosophy. Finally the following resolution was carried: “That an Association of Eclectics and Medical Botanists be, and hereby is, formed for the purposes of Protection and Defence in respect of the Rights and Liberties of those who practice Eclectic and Botanic Medicine, and for the promotion of such other objects as accord therewith, and that the name of the said Association be known as ‘The British Association of Eclectics and Medical Botanists’.” The meeting was in all respects a great success, members having come at short notice from all parts of England.
The Theosophical Society in Europe
429
British Section: Council Meeting
At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the British Section Council, held at 17, Lansdowne Road, on the 2nd inst., Annie Besant in the chair, the following Agenda was considered: –
1. To consider the necessitous question of amalgamating the British and Continental Lodges of the T. S., to form a European Section, under the Presidency of H. P. Blavatsky, on the instance of letters received from the active Lodges on the Continent.
2. To receive, read, and if desirable to adopt, a motion made by Wm. Kingsland, for the better representation of the Section.
Letters from the British Lodges to the effect of the first motion were read by the Secretary, and others from the Continental Lodges, addressed to H. P. B., were read by G. R. S. Mead, who explained that circumstances had arisen which made the proposal for amalgamation most imperative; and several reasons were adduced in favor of the Continental Lodges being directed from a European Centre and not from an Asiatic one as at present; stress was laid especially on the delay in obtaining Charters, and Diplomas, and answers to pressing questions; the latter being, as an absolute fact, invariably directed to H. P. B.
After some discussion, it was proposed by Dr. Keightley that a requisition, embodying the following views, be drawn up and addressed to the President of the Society: –
“The Continental Lodges and unattached members having made an appeal to H. P. B. that they may place themselves directly under her authority, the British Section joins in their demand that the constitutional powers, at present exercised by Colonel H. S. Olcott in Europe, shall be transferred to H. P. B. and her Advisory Council, already appointed to exercise part of such functions in the United Kingdom.”
This motion was seconded by A. W. Cobbold, and carried unanimously. Mr. Kingsland and Dr. Keightley were appointed to draw up the requisition. Mr. Kingsland then moved that for the better representation and more efficient working of the British Section, each Lodge should have a permanent representative in London, who might go by the title of Corresponding Secretary to the Lodge, and should be a person duly qualified to advise the Lodge on all matters of Theosophical teaching and of internal government. In addition to this, the Corresponding Secretary should be a permanent proxy for the Lodge on the Council of the Section, as it is not often that the provincial Lodges can send their President or delegate, and much delay and confusion occur in finding a proxy. It is not intended, however, that the Corresponding Secretary should take the place of the delegates provided for under the rules of the Section, but that he should be the recognized proxy in the event of the ordinary delegates not being able to attend. This would not involve the alteration of any rules at present, but if adopted by all the Lodges, it might be found advisable to alter the Rules at the General Meeting in October so as to give an ex-officio seat on the Council of the Section to the Corresponding Secretaries, in addition to that held by the President of each Lodge. This was seconded by Mr. F. L. Gardner, and carried without dissent.
To cover a difficulty which had arisen, and which was not provided for by the Rules of the Section, Dr. Keightley proposed that the disbursement of the moneys 430of the Section should rest with a responsible committee consisting of the Secretary, Treasurer, and one Member of the Council, Mr. A. W. Cobbold being nominated as such, seconded by G. R. S. Mead, and carried unanimously.
In reference to an appeal for a donation from the British Section to the Head Quarters at Adyar made by the President-Founder to the Secretary of the Section, it was proposed by Mr. Mead that as the funds of the Section would not at present permit of such donation being made, the Secretary should be directed to ask Colonel Olcott to devote some part of the Permanent Fund to meet the deficiency at Adyar. This was seconded by F. L. Gardner, and carried unanimously.
The following persons were present on the Council.
H. P. Blavatsky, Representative President. Blavatsky Lodge: Annie Besant, President; Countess Wachtmeister, Mrs. Gordon, Herbert Burrows, Bertram Keightley, delegates. Brighton Lodge: Wm. Kingsland, proxy. Brixton Lodge: A. J. Campbell, delegate. Cambridge Lodge: Dr. Keightley, proxy. Dublin Lodge: C. F. Wright, proxy. Liverpool Lodge: Miss L. M. Cooper, proxy. Newcastle Lodge: Baroness de Pallandt, proxy. Scottish Lodge: G. R. S. Mead, proxy. West of England Lodge: A. W. Cobbold, proxy. F. L. Gardner, treasurer, W. R. Old, general secretary.
We append the following from the Secretaries of the British Section.
Representations have been made to Madame Blavatsky by many Theosophists in Europe to the effect that it would give general satisfaction if she were formally recognised as the President of the Society in Europe. Some convenience would attach to this arrangement, especially now that a commodious lecture room has been built in the grounds of the house where the Head Quarters of H. P. B. and her staff have just been established. This centre might very properly be regarded for the present as the Head Quarters of the whole Society in Europe; and now that many European branches of the Society have been formed, by persons having no actual acquaintance with the Head Quarters of the Society at Adyar, Madras, nor with Colonel Olcott, the President of the whole Society, it may be found more agreeable for the officers of such branches to correspond with a European rather than with an Indian central office.
These and other considerations have induced Madame Blavatsky to acquiesce in the proposed organisation. She is willing to be regarded as President of the European Division of the Theosophical Society, and will give whatever advice, countenance and assistance may be required to any European branches which intimate their desire to fall in with the arrangement. She does not intend however to encumber the European Division with any fresh code of new rules, nor to attempt the almost impracticable task of forming a representative council for its administration; subject to the well-understood principles of the Society, the Branches will in the future as in the past be responsible for the conduct of their own affairs. But, insofar as they may require touch with some central Head Quarters of the Society, in order that they may continue to feel themselves part of the great Theosophical movement as set on foot by Madame Blavatsky, in the first instance, she is willing, as regards the European branches, to constitute herself their chief. She is also willing to guarantee to all branches accepting her as chief, that true identification with the original impulse out of which the present Theosophical Society arose, which it is the aspiration of all branches correctly apprehending the purpose of their organisation to maintain.
As H. P. Blavatsky is the first to cordially recognise Colonel Olcott as President-Founder of the whole Society, it is in some measure with the view of relieving
431
him from responsibilities which it is impossible for him to discharge conveniently at a great distance from Europe, that she now takes over the duty of dealing with the affairs of the European Branches and Members, as far as they may require any official sanction or guidance in the proceedings.
In carrying out this idea, Madame Blavatsky is enabled to state that she has the sympathy and approval of the following Presidents of European Branches: – Mr. A. P. Sinnett of the London Lodge, &c. &c.; M. A. Arnould of the Hermes Lodge, Paris; Dr. G. Zander of the Swedish Theosophical Society, Stockholm; M. E. Coulomb of the Société Altruiste, Nantes; M. Otho Alexander of the Corfu Theosophical Society; Count José Xifré of the Spanish Theosophical Society, Madrid; Gustav Zorn of the Odessa Group; and all the Presidents of the Lodges of the British Section.
As related above, there will be no formally constituted Representative Council of the European Division, but in the transaction of any business that may arise, Madame Blavatsky will always seek the advice and counsel of the heads of branches who may be within reach, and of other leading Theosophists on whose judgment and discretion she may rely.
Archd. Keightley.
General Secretaries of the
British Section Theosophical Society.
Theosophical Activities: The East
The Headquarters’ Staff has been increased by the addition of Mr. S. E. Gopalacharlu, F.T.S., son of the late Pandit N. Bashyacharia; he will act as Recording Secretary and Treasurer vice Mr. T. Vijia Raghava Charlu, who has become the Manager of the Theosophist and Book Depôt.
The Theosophist Offices have been removed from the Main Building at Headquarters to the West Bungalow, which was repaired and neatly fitted up for the purpose at private cost. This leaves the old office free for the exclusive use of the Recording Secretary, Theosophical Society, and prevents all confusion between the two departments of Headquarters’ work.
At the unanimous request of the leading Branches to the Ceylon Section, Dr. J. Bowles Daly, F.T.S., is hereby detailed for duty in that Island as General Secretary of the Ceylon Section, and as such will represent the President-Founder and, in the absence of the latter from the Island, exercise the regular executive powers and fulfil the duties reserved to the President-Founder under the Constitution and Bye-Laws of the Ceylon Section.
Theosophical Activities: England
On Thursday, July 3rd, 1890, the new meeting room of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society was inaugurated with a crowded meeting, the chair being 432occupied by Annie Besant, at whose side sat Madame H. P. Blavatsky. Every seat, every inch of standing room, was occupied, and a number of late arrivals found themselves compelled to tand outside the windows and follow the proceedings as best they could.
In opening the proceedings, Mrs. Besant mentioned that the new Room had been erected by voluntary subscriptions in connexion with the new Head Quarters of the Theosophical Society in Europe, at 19, Avenue Road, which will shortly be ready for occupation. Referring to the work already accomplished by the Theosophical Society, she emphasised the hope that the Hall would become a centre of Theosophical activity in all directions, a real home for all earnest members of the Society, where they will always be sure to find a cordial welcome, sympathetic companionship, and help and advice in their difficulties. Having alluded to the presence of representative visitors from America, Sweden, Belgium, and Spain, Mrs. Besant declared the Hall duly opened, concluding with the wish that it may prove a true centre of Brotherhood and study, and therefore of progress, where many will learn a truth that otherwise might have been hidden from them, and so enter upon that path of upward progress which it is the one aim of Theosophy to open to every child of man.
Mr. A. P. Sinnett (who was very cordially received) pointed to the inauguration of the new Hall as marking an epoch in the history of Theosophy in Europe, since this hall is the first building in Europe that has been erected specially to promote its study. After showing the paramount importance of individual exertion in causing the advance of Humanity, the speaker referred to the rapidly coming future when the hall now inaugurated would be looked back to as the centre and starting point of a movement of universal importance. Having enlarged upon this topic and pointed out the bearing of Theosophy upon human progress, Mr. Sinnett then spoke at some length upon an important question of the immediate future: the question, namely, whether the great oncoming spiritual evolution of Humanity shall be worked out in hostility to, or in conjunction with, the religions that already exist in the world. The speaker expressed great hopes that the latter would be the case, and pointed to various recent utterances of religious teachers as showing the awakening of a larger and truer insight into the needs of mankind. Such a solution, he asserted, would not only be in itself most desirable, but, from the Theosophical standpoint, should be the hearty wish of everyone desirous of helping human progress. The real task set before us, the speaker defined to be the work of purifying the intellectual conceptions of the world in regard to the laws which govern the spiritual progress of mankind. In concluding his address, which was several times interrupted by applause, Mr. Sinnett spoke of the very great pleasure it gave him to be present on an occasion of so much importance at the side of Madame Blavatsky, with whom he had been so closely associated for the last eleven years.
“It was in 1879”, he said, “that I first had the pleasure of knowing her, and from that time to this the influence she has brought into my life has been one of ever growing and increasing force, one which can never come to an end. I only wish for all of you that the advantage you have gained in knowing her may lead to as much interior contentment with its results as has ensued in my own case, and I do not think that on an occasion of this kind, in a hall the existence of which is due to her influence and her energy, that I should like to put on the top of that wish anything of less importance, anything which is less calculated to move my own feelings and, I hope, to evoke a response from yours.”
Mr. Sinnett sat down amid loud cheers.
Mrs. Besant then called upon Mrs. Wolff, of Philadelphia, to speak as representing the American Branches of the Theosophical Society.
Mrs. Wolff's address dealt principally with the difficulties which have had 433to be overcome in America, owing to misunderstanding of the real nature of Theosophy and the true purposes of the Society. She dwelt at some length on the fact that many persons had joined the Society influenced by idle curiosity, or a desire to witness marvellous phenomena, but concluded by stating that matters were now on a sounder basis, and that the Society was growing in real strength and devotion.
The Spanish delegate, on being called upon, not knowing English, employed as spokesman Mr. Mead, who said:
Mrs. Besant, Ladies and Gentlemen, – Perhaps Spain is one of the most difficult countries in Europe for the introduction of Theosophy in an organised manner. Most of you are aware that at this moment in Spain there exists an extreme clericalism with an equally extreme materialism. The bark of Theosophy has to be steered between this Scylla and Charybdis, and the tiller requires careful management. If Spanish Theosophists had been willing to ally themselves with the Freemasons and Spiritualists, they would speedily have had a large Theosophical Society in that country on paper, but would certainly not have had a solid movement directed by real conviction of the great truths of Theosophy. We have, therefore, judged it better to refrain from any combination with existing societies for the present, until Spain has learnt in some measure what Theosophy is. To this end thousands of pamphlets have been printed and distributed among the universities, schools, libraries and clubs of Spain and her Colonies. And though we shall have to wait for the harvest of the corn which will sprout from this seed, we shall eventually establish Theosophy in Spain on a foundation which can never be shaken; for the Spanish people are serious with regard to things which they hold sacred, and are loyal to a high ideal, as their past history has proven. I can, therefore, give you every hope that though Theosophy will spread slowly in Spain, it will spread surely; and we need not be too anxious about this, for Theosophy is for all time.
The President called on Mme. de Neufville, as representing Holland and Belgium, and that lady said:
Mrs. Besant, Ladies, and Gentlemen, – I have the pleasure to inform you that, although the Members of the Theosophical Society in Holland and Belgium are as yet but a handful, they have not been idle. We have already translations of important articles in Theosophical journals and also of extracts from Theosophical works. These are being printed and will be widely distributed. Moreover efforts are being made, not without success, to get articles on Theosophical subjects into the public papers. Of the future we have every hope; for when once a centre is organized in Europe, whereby the scattered members and Lodges on the Continent can be put en rapport with each other, and help given to the efforts of individual members, Holland and Belgium will be found capable of responding to the call of the Theosophical Society, perhaps even more than other Continental countries. In the first place, the English language in which the major part of modern Theosophical literature is written, is widely understood in these countries; and where there is an ignorance of English, existing works and translations in French can supply the lack of any native literature on the subject. We have, therefore, great hopes that with the help of our English and French brethren, we shall soon have a distinct activity in the Netherlands, which will speedily grow into a strong Theosophical movement, and give the world a new proof of this well known industry and seriousness of your friends the Dutch people.
The President then called on one of the visitors from Sweden, Mdme. Cedersshiöld, who said:
Mrs. Besant, Ladies, and Gentlemen, – I have the great pleasure of informing you that although Theosophy was not known in Sweden two years ago, we have now a large and very active Lodge at Stockholm, numbering
434
upwards of one hundred members. Many translations of Theosophical works have been and are being made into Swedish, and although the Press of the country is severely silent about us, we are surely and steadily spreading Theosophical ideas by means of individual effort, which is by no means the least practical method to pursue. Visitors to Sweden may now see familiar Theosophical works on our bookstalls, and we have every reason to be satisfied with the victory Theosophy has so far gained in that country. For when it is remembered that the first adherents to Theosophy in Sweden had to depend on their knowledge of a foreign language for their information on the subject, we may have very great hopes that now that we have translations of some of our best works on Theosophy, a rapid spread of Theosophical opinions will ensue. Moreover, seeing that the mind of the Swede is serious, and his heart faithful to a cause which he once espouses, in such a soil it cannot be but that Theosophy should take deep root, and I hope the time is not far distant when your Swedish brethren will be able to return your courteous invitation to your beautiful new Headquarters by welcoming in their turn some of you to a Swedish Headquarters of the Theosophical Society.
Mrs. Besant then called upon Mr. Bertram Keightley to give some account of his work in America, and the progress of the movement there.
Mr. Keightley began by defending the American Theosophists against the criticisms implied in Mrs. Wolff’s address. Speaking of Theosophy in that country, he said that America presented the most fertile of fields for the seed of Theosophy, partly owing to the general and rapid breaking up of the old dogmatic sectarian barriers, and partly owing to the changes in the physiological organization of the people, caused by the intermingling of all the families of the European stock in preparation for the appearance of a new Sub-race. The influence of these causes is seen in the very rapid growth of the movement in America since 1886, and especially during the last twelve months, in which the Society has nearly doubled in numbers, both of Branches and members. Mr. Keightley then gave some account of his tour, referring especially to the great activity in Theosophical thought manifested on the Pacific Slope, and in conclusion stated that what had left the strongest impression of all upon his mind was the reality and closeness of the link which the Theosophical Brotherhood establishes between persons of different nationalities, habits, and views of life. He said that landing in America, without the slightest personal acquaintance with any one except Mr. Judge, he had felt himself throughout his stay as much at home, as much living with his own people, his own blood relations, as if he had remained at his own home – 17, Lansdowne Road.
Mrs. Besant, in her concluding address, said that, in listening to the speeches which had been delivered, she had found herself repeating again and again Mr. Sinnett’s words about the great importance of this meeting as a starting point for new progress.
“Where men and women are gathered together, made brothers and sisters by one great ideal, by one common hope, there where the thought is founded on Truth, where the intellectual basis is sound, so that the emotion will be guided along the right road, where such is the case there is not only hope, but certainty of a change in the World’s aspect; for the forces that work for change are the forces at once of intellect and of enthusiasm, and where those are joined together as an animating spirit, progress is the inevitable result. . . . . For so many, many years in the past she, who, though her voice be silent to-night, is the inspiring spirit of this gathering and of the Theosophical movement – (loud applause) – seemed to struggle in vain; for so many years those who chose her and who sent her to bear their message saw her met only with difficulty, difficulty almost impossible to overcome; but at least to-night we may say to her that this Hall is some fruit of the work that has been so bravely and so patiently performed – (hear, hear,) – and that here at least is a plat435form that none can touch, a centre where none can interfere, where she can give those instructions that she alone is fitted to give in Theosophy, and where she will always find pupils anxious to listen to the teaching and to take advantage of this great opportunity that has come to us all. And we would fain hope that from this meeting some slight echo, at least, may sound in that far-off land to which all our eyes and all our thoughts are turned, telling those who have sent her hither that we are not unmindful of the opportunity, that we are not indifferent to or careless of the message; that at least there is one here and one there, at least there are some present in this room to-night, who hope that in days to come and even now their feet may be set in the path that the Masters have travelled before them, and that in time, no matter after how long a struggle, or how many lives may intervene, there may be some who, starting here, may pass onwards through the centuries, until they too shall reach that crown which at present has only come to a few of our race.”
After pointing backwards to the successive Theosophical efforts which have closed previous centuries, the speaker alluded to the special responsibility falling upon everyone there on an occasion like the present, in that a choice was now laid before them which could not but have an incalculably great influence on the whole series of their lives to come. Referring to the strange position of the Theosophical Society, warmly welcomed by a few, treated with scorn and contempt by the many, hated with the intensest bitterness by others, she pointed out that the life of the Theosophist must be one of struggle, as are all lives in any way worthy to be lived, but above all that of the Theosophist. Between the hosts of materialism on one hand, and of those who turn the things of the spirit into things of sense, and degrade all that is loftiest into the crudest thoughts of anthropomorphic religion, stand the Theosophists, equally opposed to both. But there is this difference between them and all other armies, that the enemies of to-day will be the friends of to-morrow, for in every human being around him, friend or foe, hostile or loving, the Theosophist recognises a brother.
“On each member of the Society falls a special duty, the duty nowhere in his or her life to be ever ashamed of acknowledging the Society to which they belong, always ready to own frankly the faith that is in them, never, coward-like, shrinking from a confession that perhaps may be the very word wanted by the stranger to lead him also into the path of thought and progress. Also on each falls the duty that the life shall be worthy of the creed, for no enemy can injure us provided we are true to that which we believe. (Loud cheers.) If we are frank in our speech and noble in our lives, our lives will preach Theosophy far more eloquently than any tongue can possibly do. To each of us living amongst many anxious to prove that Theosophy is no better than any other religion, to us there comes especially the duty to show that the higher creed means nobler life, and that the light which has shone on us from the East is a light which means service to Humanity as well as intellectual vision of the unseen.”
Passing on, Mrs. Besant emphasised the necessity for honest hard work in the cause of Theosophy and concluded by extending a cordial invitation to all present to attend the regular meetings of the Society in the new Hall.
“To-night”, she said, “we only say to you that everyone who has tried what Theosophy means has found it to be a light and a help and a strengthener. Those of you who know little of it have no right to judge it, and we only ask that before you judge you will endeavor to learn, that you will put aside prejudice and listen to the voice of reason and of thought. We ask none of you to accept before you have investigated, but we also warn you not to reject unheard, lest in rejection of that which you do not know, you may have rejected the most precious jewel which mortal can find within his reach.” (Loud and continued applause.)
436
After a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Machell for his services in decorating the panels of the Hall with appropriate emblematic paintings, the proceedings terminated amid enthusiastic congratulations to Madame Blavatsky.
A full report of the proceedings will be issued as the next number of the “Theosophical Siftings”.
A course of discussions on “Theosophy in Relation to the Problems of Modern Life” commenced on July 10th in the New Hall, with an address by Herbert Burrows, dealing with the general aspect of Theosophy towards social problems. (This address will shortly be issued as a pamphlet in the T. P. S. series.) On July 17th the discussion will be on “Education”, to be followed by: July 24th, “Woman in Antiquity”; July 31st, “Woman in Modern Society (civil and economic)”; Aug. 7th, “Woman in Modern Society (in the family)”; Aug. 14th, 21st, 28th, “Capital and Labor”; Sept. 4th, “Philanthropy”; Sept. 11th, “Treatment of Criminals and Lunatics”; Sept. 18th, “Treatment of Animals (Vivisection, etc.)”; Sept. 25th, “Theosophy and Ecclesiasticism”. The discussions are held on Thursdays, at 8.30 p.m.
In October, a series of papers will be commenced, dealing with Theosophy “from the root up”. A syllabus of the course will shortly be issued to members.
Cards of admittance to these Lodge meetings can be obtained from any member of the Lodge.
It has been found that the continual influx of visitors to Mdme. Blavatsky seriously interferes with the work carried on at Headquarters. It has therefore been decided that on moving to Avenue Road she will receive only on Monday and Friday evenings.
A meeting for enquirers is held every Monday evening at the rooms of the British Section, 7, Duke Street, Strand, at 7.30 p.m. On Tuesdays, at 8.30 p.m., there is a meeting at 345 Mile End Road, E. On Fridays, at 8.30 p.m., the Brixton Lodge meets at the Ferndale Liberal Club, Bedford Road (close to Clapham Road Station, L.C.D.R.).
In the East End of London. – The progress of Theosophy in our Modern Babylon, enormous as it has been within the last few years, has yet wanted a centre in the poorer districts of our ever widening circle of distress; a centre through which might be reached some of Nature’s sadder children, and by means of which some of the concretions of ignorance might be removed – thus allowing a few rays of Truth to lighten, in some measure, the darkness of the shadow. More than once have the more earnest of our workers tried to carry a little of the truths they had learned, into these districts, and not wholly without success; but it remained for one of our East-End brethren themselves, to really lay the foundation stone of Theosophic activity there.
Brother Chapman is not one of those to be overcome by ordinary or even extraordinary difficulties. Theosophists, as a rule, have the name for being gifted with a peculiar talent for turning apparent stumbling-blocks into stepping stones for more rapid progress; but our brother seems to have an extra share of the faculty. In the absence of more fitting place for holding meetings, he has turned a shed at the back of his shop (which until lately was used by him as an engine-house for conducting electrical experiments) into a small hall: which, painted, whitewashed, furnished, and fitted up most artistically, is to be used as a library. It is called the Theosophical Lending Library (345, Mile End Road, E.), and is lighted by electricity and gas.
The room was crowded on the night of the inaugural meeting, the 24th ult., the chair being taken by Annie Besant, who opened the meeting with an address, 437delivered with all her usual vigor. She gave a sketch of the Society’s work from the time of its creation to the present year, and showed that by and through Theosophy alone it was possible to lift the world out of the terrible mire of pain and misery into which it had fallen through sin and ignorance. Messrs. Old and Mead and Mrs. Cooper-Oakley then spoke, each taking one of three objects of the Society as the subject of his or her discourse. These were followed by a speech from Herbert Burrows, in which he gave his reasons for joining the Society; after which Mr. Kingsland said a few words, and the meeting terminated with a short summing up by Annie Besant.
It will hardly be necessary for us to call upon those of our members who can to assist Mr. Chapman in his hard work. The rooms will be open every Tuesday evening, from 8.30, for the purpose of answering questions by enquirers, and Theosophists should attend. Those who have books and pamphlets to spare, would do well to present them to the library.
The Tract Mailing Scheme
The distribution of Theosophical leaflets by post and hand has been steadily progressing during the past month. Our plan has been to take certain Societies and professional men in the first instance, and notices are being inserted in “Light” and other journals, to the effect that all applying to me will receive leaflets post free. Our funds are too precarious to enable us to follow the lead of our American brothers in their wide distribution, but we must hope that those interested will send to my address a few shillings or half-penny stamps to help on the movement. It must advance the cause of Theosophy and raise it in the eyes of the public, for the leaflets show the practical side of it, and how its teachings are applied to the necessities of our daily moral life. Such crude ideas are now abroad in connexion with the subject that the more people we can reach with even so small a part of our literature as that contained in the leaflets, the more will a reasonable view of our philosophy gain ground. Therefore, any friends who will send us help will be doing the cause a real benefit, and we may be sure some of our seed will fall on good soil.
Alice Gordon,
7, Nevern Road, Earl’s Court, S.W.
Theosophical Activities: Birmingham and Lending Libraries
Birmingham. – The “Metropolis of the Midlands” is slow to adopt new forms of thought, even though it may be dissatisfied with those it has long since outgrown or worn threadbare. In this, the Radical city shows itself to have something of a Conservative mind; and though its motto is “Forward”, it yet proceeds with caution. Theosophy is new to it, as to most other English centres of education and industry, and the formation of a Birmingham Lodge of the Theosophical Society is hard work all along the road. But the activity of Mr. Kenneth Austin and his colleagues has so far succeeded in forming the required nucleus of the Lodge; and a large room, in a central position, has been secured for two years, where the Members will meet for the discussion and study of Theosophic teachings. Members will have free access to the room throughout the day, and a library, started by a donation of books from the Countess Wachtmeister, will be at their disposal. Such facilities for open discussion of so vital a subject, and for quiet reading and study, should not fail to attract a large membership from among the sincere and intelligent in “the workshop of the world”. Communications should be addressed to S. H. Old, 102, Hall Road, Handsworth, Birmingham.
Lending Libraries. – We are glad to announce that the proposed Library of the Brighton Lodge has been opened and is under the care of the Secretary, Mr. W. Siebenhaar.
438
A Library has also been started at Bradford, under the direction of Mr. T. H. Pattinson. If non refert quam multos sed quam bonos libros legas, or quality not quantity in books, is advice to be followed, we are of opinion that our Theosophical Libraries have all the elements wherewith to turn out successful students.
Theosophical and Mystic Publications
THE THEOSOPHIST for June opens with an excellent paper, on Bellamy's “Looking Backward”, by E. Douglas Fawcett. The “conclusion of the whole matter” is summed up as follows: –
“The merits of ‘Looking Backward’ are so patent as to require little or no indication. It cannot be said to have burst like a novel stroke of genius on the world, seeing that its ideas of an organised industrial army and of a thorough-going communistic Socialism, were already familiar enough. But its really admirable grasp of detail, and forcible presentation of an economic issue in a lucid and popular garb, stamp it as a work of signal ability and usefulness. Defects in its exposition there certainly are. The question of Population – that burning topic of socialist and economic discussions generally – is ignored in a manner which detracts in no small measure from the comprehensiveness of the administrative scheme. Utopian, moreover, to a degree is the moral atmosphere of the so miraculously re-organised United States; no provision having been made for the necessary vicious and selfish elements, that Ahriman of individual ‘vileness’ which runs pari passu with the Ormuzd of individual ‘virtue’ in any progressive civilization. And – the really vicious element apart – it is not stated how far the communistic form of politics can itself rest permanent.”
Dr. Daly next introduces us to the interior and contents of “The Oriental Library at Adyar”. When will the happy day come for our pandit F.F.T.S. to project its treasures into the world in the form of translations!
“Francis Annesley” contributes a very kind-hearted paper on the “Enthusiasm of Neophytes”.
The Kumbakonam T.S. next gives us a translation of the “Varaha Upanishad of Krishna-Yajur Veda”; the translation is capital. Brahmagyanis is given as synonymous with Theosophists, and Brahmagyana, Brahmic Wisdom, with Theosophy. In the sentence, “He who obtains murchi cures all diseases”, murchi is annotated as: –
“Either controlling of breath as applied to mind, or the consolidation of mercury, when mercury through its combination with some herb or drugs, loses its fluctuation and impurity and becomes fit to be taken as medicine, which, when taken by men, leads to many psychic developments. The first (viz., breath) refers to the achievements performed by Yogis through Prana Yama, while the second (viz., the consolidation of mercury) enables the Yogis to attain the same through the taking in of the consolidated mercury.”
This is most exceedingly misleading and far from instructive, if not positively dangerous; for any one putting such recommendations into practice, would speedily be landed in the abysses of Hatha Yog. The Consolidation of Mercury means in reality the Concentration of the Mind, Dharana, that “intense and perfect concentration of the mind upon some one interior object,” spoken of in the Voice of the Silence. This practice is the initial stage of Raj Yog, which alone can teach the science of self. “The Ideal Life” by Dr. Henry Pratt is concluded. “How to study Hinduism” is an interesting paper on the Hindu Scriptures, explaining how many and of what kind they are, translated from the Telugu of Mr. G. Sriramamurthy, F.T.S. In one place he says: –
“Thus does Veda prescribe both the Karma (ritual) and Brahma (spiritual) Codes. That part which establishes the ritual is called the Veda, and that which treats of the spiritual, the Upanishad or Vedantam.”
The paper on “Simon Magus”, by Jules Dionel, is translated from La Revue Théosophique; but what on earth is the meaning of “Each one of us, of either sex – for we are Eons – may be the Simon of a Helen and, changing parts, the Helen of a Simon”. (!) Is the “lost sheep” to have sex? Or what?
439
THE PATH for June commences with a paper by Alexander Fullerton on a subject that often appears in its pages, viz., “Theosophy in Daily Life”. Brother Fullerton has evidently carried a notebook. “Notes on Devachan” are continued: but surely the “holy abode of Arhats – possessed by the Bodhisatwas”, is not Devachan in the theosophical sense of the word! Would Arhats dally in a “fool’s paradise”? We think not. “The wise ones tarry not in pleasure-grounds” of Maya. “Brotherhood and Sex”, by Harij, endeavors to put the marriage question on a sensible footing. William Brehon, in “Much Reading, Little Thought”, would confine the training of a youth in Theosophical literature to the Bhagavad-Gita, Upanishads and Secret Doctrine. We are afraid, however, that his pupils would be few in number. Brother Brehon’s argument is right in theory; in practice, however, the majority of minds in this age avoid thinking for themselves, so that surface-literature is a necessity, if they are not to be entirely starved. We see that the controversy on the “Seven-fold Constitution of man” has at last laid the “Key” under contribution. “Remembering the Experiences of the Ego in sleep” starts with the sensible words: –
“To many it seems puzzling that we do not remember the experiences of the Higher Self (? Ego) in sleep. But as long as we ask ‘why does not the lower self remember these experiences’, we shall never have an answer. There is a contradiction in the question, because the lower self, never having had the experiences it is required to remember, could not at any time recollect them.”
Le Lotus Bleu completes its first volume in continuing its most useful work of translation. Isis Unveiled, The Key, and Magic White and Black are all laid under contribution. The article on the “Finer Forces of Nature” of Rama Prasad, by J. L., is concluded.
The Buddhist (May 16 and 23). Extremely interesting is the column headed “The To Kalon of Buddhism”. A. D. J. cuts the ground from under the “annihilationists” by quoting from the Milindaprasna:
“‘What think you, great king, if in a great conflagration certain flames vanish out of sight, can you point out the whereabouts of any of those flames?’ ‘Impossible, my Lord’, answers the royal opponent, ‘as the flame is become invisible’. ‘Likewise then, O king, is the state of our Blessed Lord, who entered into Paranirvana on the dissolution of the Skhandas, who has surmounted the mountain rock of Reincarnation. He cannot be pointed out. But with respect to this body of Dharma which is clothed with most egregious attributes, he can be shown, and this law was preached by the Lord.’ On page 382 we find the King insisting that because Nirvana is not felt by the five senses, it has no existence. Here is then a hard nut for the annihilationists to crack. The great Thera pronounces that, ‘Nirvana is, and it is perceptible to the Manas, the candidate who walks reverently in the Noble Eight-fold Path sees and perceives the Sinless, Stirless Nirvana, with the eye of Manas, when he has attained to the Rahathood’. Mark, my friends, that ‘to see and perceive’ is to know, and to know is to become one with the knowledge.”
Other interesting articles to be noticed are “Parabawa Sutta”, “Citations from the teachings of Gautama Buddha”, and “Love” by J. K. Daji. Says the latter:
“Love working on the fourth plane may be distinguished as animal love or irrational selfishness; that on the fifth (Manas), as human love or polished selfishness; that on the sixth (Buddhi), as angelic love or brotherhood; that on the seventh (Atma), as love divine”.
Theosophical Siftings, Vol. III, No. 7. Price sixpence. Have Animals Souls? by H. P. Blavatsky, and The Astral Light, by Louise A. Off. The former of these papers is vigorous and interesting. The author pleads for the “brutes” against the attacks of their meat-eating, vivisecting “elder brother”, and clearly proves that the “animal” possesses a share with man of the one Universal Soul. This article would be a useful one to lend to a “Christian” friend that he might learn the real views of his “Master” upon this most interesting and vital subject. The remaining paper, “The Astral Light”, is a concise and well-timed summary of Theosophical and Occult teachings regarding this mysterious agent, the reflecting mirror of the Universe.
Science and the Secret Doctrine
440
Our Budget
We have to acknowledge the following further subscriptions for the Building Fund: –
| Contributor | £ | s. | d. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Already acknowledged | 786 | 10 | 3 |
| R. B. Holt | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| A. P. Sinnett | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| K. E. Mills | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| J. L. Hope | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Pluj-deh | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| P. W. B. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| R. Machell | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| No. 121 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| No. 123 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Mackenzie | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| W. L. L. | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Art Student | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Thos. Williams | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Zonolosa | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| A Theosophist | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| H. L. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 931 | 3 | 3 |
Errata
In Nizida’s article, printed in our last number, the following corrections should be made: –
Page 295, line 32, should read, “Behold here the humble but harmonious and well-controlled form of human clay, transfigured”.
Page 295, line 52, read “unnecessarily” for “necessarily”.
Page 296, line 2, for “signs” read “sighs”.
No. 36 – August 1890
441
The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any opinions, whether religious, philosophical or social, expressed in signed articles.
Progress and Culture
The Sphinx of Theosophy
The Atlanteans
467
The Esotericism of the New Testament
IN considering this subject we may divide it broadly into two sections: (1) The external, documentary, and historical evidence of the authenticity and authority of the various books, and the value of their claim to be what they are represented to be. (2) The esoteric meaning of the teachings themselves, and their connexion with the ancient “Mysteries”, the Secret Doctrine, or Wisdom Religion.
The first part of the enquiry is one which has occupied the attention of many of our most learned scholars in the present century – not to go any further back. In Germany especially criticism and investigation have been carried out in a most exhaustive manner. Anyone, however, who attempts to analyse this mass of criticism in order to discover the truth has before him a task which may very well occupy the rest of his life-time. It is indeed a hopeless task, as those who have tried it know full well. Many persons will attempt it when first they become so fully aware of the inconsistencies of the Bible records and claims that they can no longer, with any show of reason, hold on to beliefs which they once accepted as dogmatically and infallibly true. Many struggle on with this task for years, and in the end become Atheists, Agnostics, Materialists – anything rather than Christians.
468
One cannot advance very far in a critical analysis of the New Testament without coming to the conclusion that much of it is spurious, unauthenticated, and unhistorical. When we have come to this conclusion we have three courses open to us. We may accept broadly the life and teachings of Christ as a historical fact, and endeavor to compromise between the doctrines of the Church and the ethics of Christ. This is what some critics have endeavored to do, as, for instance, Renan, W. R. Greg, and Matthew Arnold. In the second place we may reject altogether the historical value of the book, and everything that claims to be supernatural and superhuman therein; in which case we shall probably go over to pure Materialism, or – what is quite as likely – to the Devil (metaphorically). In the third place – and this is the peculiar privilege of the Theosophist – we may trace in these same books and teachings unreliable, mutilated, and unhistorical as they are, the same occult doctrine and method as we know to have been contained in the ancient “Mysteries”; the one source and essence of every exoteric religion. This belongs more particularly to the second division of our subject, but we must not pass by the first as being altogether unworthy of consideration and study.
Considerable light can be thrown upon the historical portion of the subject from occult sources, which do not appear to have been available to modern critics. We have many scattered fragments of such information in “Isis Unveiled” and the “Secret Doctrine”, as well as in other Theosophical works; and it should be our endeavor, in the first place, to collect these so as to form as consistent a theory as possible respecting the way in which the New Testament came to be what it is now, and the value of that part of the narrative which professes to be historical. If we cannot altogether settle questions as to authenticity, we should at least go over the ground, and note the points which are doubtful, and more especially those upon which light can be thrown from occult sources. In this connexion there appears to be much to be learnt from the “Book of Enoch” (vide the “Secret Doctrine”, vol. ii, page 529). We shall also have to compare certain events in the life of Jesus with similar events said to have taken place in the lives of other great teachers. Whatever position, therefore, we may take up in respect to the New Testament, we should be able to give our reason for doing so from evidence available to those with whom we may meet in controversy, and therefore, in the first part of our enquiry we should endeavor to formulate and consolidate as much as possible the external evidence bearing upon our conclusions.
The second division of our subject will naturally bear a very close relation to the first, for we shall seek to confirm our conclusions by evidence drawn from the internal or esoteric character of the teachings attributed to Christ. If we can succeed in tracing an esoteric meaning analogous to other esoteric teachings with which we are familiar, it will go very far to confirm the documentary evidence we may have been able to trace as to the derivation of these teachings from the “Ancient Secret Doctrine”.
469
Here again we shall hope to elucidate many points which have no meaning for the ordinary reader, simply because, whatever knowledge he may have of the ancient religions, myths, and legends, that knowledge is purely exoteric, and confined to the dead letter meaning.
Modern criticism, dealing merely with the dead-letter of the sacred books of all ages, including the Bible, has shown these to be a mass of grotesque, incongruous, unscientific, and often repulsive and grossly immoral legends, with not the slightest claim to historical verity. It is no wonder that men turn from religion to science, from supernaturalism to materialism, under the pressure of modern criticism. They have no choice save to reject entirely the claims of the Bible, or to patch up some sort of a compromise as best they may; endeavoring to retain the deep-rooted idea of a personal Jehovah, and to amalgamate this in some way with a historical Christ.
But Theosophists have another alternative. While accepting in the fullest manner all legitimate scientific and historical criticism of the mere text or narrative, they do not thereby feel compelled to throw the book away as utterly worthless. Neither are they obliged to apologise for the inconsistencies thereof, nor to compromise with the dogmas which have been built up by the Church, or to form a patchwork interpretation, each according to his own predilections or fancy.
It is almost like repeating a truism to say that dogmatic religion and the authority of the Church are crumbling rapidly to dust. Now it has been more than once asserted that the object and mission of Theosophy at the present time, its raison d’être at this particular crisis of the world’s history, is due to this very fact. The crumbling edifice of ecclesiastical religion threatens in its fall to carry with it all that remains of faith in the higher spiritual nature and destiny of humanity, and the work of Theosophy is to replace the old religion of dogma and priestcraft by a far nobler and truer spirituality than the world has known for many ages. This is not to be done by wholesale destruction of ancient sacred books and traditions, but by a revival of the spirit thereof, by making the hidden truth shine once more through the dead-letter. This is the work we have now before us in connexion with the New Testament. We must show that it contains the same Divine Wisdom which we have learnt to recognise from other sources.
W. K.
The Mote and the Beam
478
Cling to the flying hours and yet |
| W. Gosse. |
479
Talismanic Magic
WHICH of our readers has not heard at some time or another of the alleged influence of a Talisman, and who is there amongst us who is not ready and anxious to try his or her hand at obtaining such an instrument in order to possess some occult power? I am afraid that we must curb our impatience and permit any such signs and wonders to attach themselves to us of their own free will, as we progress upon the Path that has been trodden by those who have gone before us. The way is long and weary, and many are the heart burnings that we have to suffer in order to reach the much sought for goal. But we are told on reliable authority that there is only one way to attain self-liberation, and that is by self-renunciation. We are also told that Spiritual and Psychic gifts are only hand-maids of one’s progress, that come naturally as we mount the ladder of knowledge: that they are simply the natural appanages of the Chela’s advancement, not to be sought after for the sake of the power to work apparent miracles, but simply as aids to assist in the great work of Spiritual liberation and Self-freedom.
In answering the question, “What is a Talisman?” I cannot do better than quote an extract from “Isis Unveiled”, Vol. i, p. 462:
“A Talisman – in itself perhaps a worthless bit of metal, a scrap of paper, or a shred of any fabric – has nevertheless been imbued by the influence of that greatest of all magnets, the human will, with a potency for good or ill just as recognisable and as real in its effects as the subtle property which the iron acquires by contact with a physical magnet”.
Again in Christian’s celebrated work on magic we find the following in chapter xi –
“Another Doctor – ‘Theophrastus Paracelsus’ – revived in the sixteenth century the ancient doctrine of Talismans, which he is alleged to have employed successfully in the treatment of disease and accidents that fall to the human lot. This medical teaching inspired by the Kabala, or the secret tradition of the Jewish Rabbis, shews itself as having been borrowed from the ancient occult sciences of Chaldea and Egypt. The Talisman of which the name (Tsilmenaia) signifies an image, a figure, was the engraving of some emblem or symbol upon metals sacred to the Spirits of the Seven Planets. This Magical Work had to be executed on a certain day and hour before fixed upon; with sufficient firmness of will to draw down upon the Talisman the beneficent influence of the Planet to which the invocation was addressed for whatever purpose one wished, whether for health, or for any other supernatural protection. We owe to the celebrated Paracelsus the most complete explanation of their Secrets, of which many persons of standing and rank admit the truthfulness, in fact quite as much as those of the Agnus Dei, of the medals spoken of as being miraculous, and of the objects which possess a similar virtue by being the relics of the Saints.”
Christian then goes into details as to the making of these famous Talismans, also giving their objects and special applications; but one must not forget that the whole of the efficiency of a Talisman lies not only in its being made at a suitable time and place, but in the main fact that the person who makes it has a suitable will of sufficient power and efficacy.
I do not doubt that nearly all of us have read Sir Walter Scott’s famous novel “The Talisman”, in which the Saracen Monarch cures the English King and others of their ailments and illnesses by the power of his Talisman, which is described in that fine tale of chivalry as being
“a small silken bag
480
made of network twisted with silver, the contents of which the by-standers could not discover; being immersed in a cup of water he continued to watch it in silence during the space of five minutes; it seemed to the spectators as if some effervescence took place during the operation, but if so it instantly subsided;”
this apparently was all that was requisite to form the draught, and the cure rapidly followed. At the end of this charming history we find it stated that this Talisman is still in existence, having been bequeathed by the Earl of Huntingdon to a brave Scottish Knight, Sir Mungo of the Lee, who still possesses it. But in a work, The Picture of Scotland, we have a different account; according to the Editor, Mr. R. Chambers, the author of Waverley obtained the materials for his work from the following narrative, which I think will be perused with interest by many of our readers to whom probably it is new matter: –
“One of the most remarkable charms now or very lately in use in Lanarkshire for the cure of illnesses in cattle, is a Talisman of great antiquity, still preserved at Lee, a gentleman’s house in that country, and popularly known as the Lee Penny. The following is the account of how it came into his possession. Simon Locard of Lee accompanied the good Sir James Douglas to Palestine (in the xiv century) bearing the heart of King Robert Bruce enclosed in a locked case, on which account his name was changed to Lockhart, and he obtained for his armorial bearings a heart attached to a lock. Engaging in the Wars of the Holy Sepulchre, this hero, who at the death of Douglas in Spain became the leader of the Mission, had the good fortune to make a Saracen of rank his prisoner. The lady of the Warrior came to pay his ransom and was counting out the money, when she happened to drop from her purse a small jewel, which she immediately hastened to pick up with an air of careful solicitude. Lockhart eagerly enquired the nature of the jewel, and learning that it was a medicatory Talisman, refused to deliver up his captive unless it were added to the sum previously stipulated. The lady was obliged to comply, and Simon brought it home to Scotland, where it has ever since continued in the possession of his descendants, perhaps the only existing memorial of the Crusades in this country. It is called the Lee Penny on account of its being set in the centre of an old English silver coin. Triangular in shape, it measures about the third of an inch each way and is of a dark red color, but perfectly transparent. The nature of the stone cannot be determined by lapidaries, being apparently different in all respects from any known in this quarter of the world. To the edge of the coin a small silver chain has been attached and the whole is deposited in a gold box which the Empress Maria Theresa presented to the father of the late Count Lockhart.
“The Lee Penny did not lose its Talismanic property on being transferred to a country of Christians. On the contrary it has been all along, even till the present day, remarkable for medical virtue. It is especially sovereign in the diseases of horned cattle. The mode of administering it is this: – Holding it by the chain, it is three times plumped down into a quantity of water, and once drawn round – three dips and. a sweil, as the country people express it – and the cattle or others affected drinking this water, the cure is speedy and effectual. Even at this day, rife as the gospel is now said or supposed to be, people sometimes come from great distances with vessels which they fill with water charmed in the manner described, and which they take home in order to administer to their bestial. In the reign of Charles I the people of Newcastle being afflicted with the plague sent for and obtained a loan of the Lee Penny, leaving the sum of £6,000 sterling in its place as a pledge. They found it so effectual, or were impressed with so high an opinion of its virtues, that they proposed to keep it and forfeit the money; but the Laird of Lee would not consent to part with so venerable and so gifted an heirloom. The laird of that time was a High Cavalier, and one of the charges brought against him by the party
481
whom he had to oppose, was that he effected cures by means of necromancy. One other remarkable instance of its efficacy is recorded. About the beginning of the last century, Lady Baird of Saughton Hall having been bit by a mad dog, and exhibiting all the symptoms of hydrophobia, her husband obtained a loan of the Talisman; and she having drank and bathed in water which it had sanctified, got completely better. That this transaction really took place seems indubitable, for an ancient female member of the Lee family, who died lately, remembered hearing the laird who lent the Penny to Lady Baird describe how he and his dame had been invited to Saughton Hall and splendidly entertained in gratitude for the use of the Talisman. Being now visited by an incredible number of persons whose curiosity has been excited respecting it, Sir Charles M’Donald Lockhart, the present proprietor, has adopted the idea of keeping an album in which their names are recorded.”
The editor then goes on to discredit the whole history, suggesting that something else than the charm of the Talisman must have been the cause of the cures; also suggesting that the testimony was possibly defective, every circumstance unfavorable to the superstition being suppressed. I do not myself see that these are very strong reasons or cogent arguments to put forward, as we might just as reasonably say that probably there were no unfavorable circumstances in the case to report; it does not necessarily follow that there must be unfavorable circumstances in events of this kind. It is always thus amongst the materialists; any reason rather than the occult one is acceptable to their minds, and the more phenomena you give them the more they require. As an ounce of fact is worth a pound of reason, I may state here that I myself know personally of an instance somewhat similar to that given above, in which a cure was effected by similar occult means; and as this is a personal matter, I may as well say that there was no other factor at work in the case except the occult one, and that the testimony is in no way defective; also there were no circumstances unfavorable to the case to report, but it was a bona fide cure of a disease, purely by occult agency.
I should like some of our Scotch brethren, or other well-read contributors, to throw, if possible, some light upon the above narrative, especially where it bears upon Sir Walter Scott’s work; whether he really was inspired by the history, as Mr. R. Chambers suggests; also where the Jewel in question now is, and whether it is still in operation at the present day, as the work from which the above is extracted is an old one.
F. L. Gardner, F.T.S.
Mesmerism
“Let me tell you this – in such knowledge as you have of this science which you call Mesmerism, you Western peoples have gone far wrong. Even in such little knowledge as you have of it there is great error, and in the despising of the science by the great majority you are more wrong still. For how has it descended to you Westerns? – from some hint of Paracelsus caught up and developed by some few charlatans and medicos besides. But in the East, what is its history? a continuous handing down of the unbroken tradition from the time when men worked what you call miracles of curing by the laying on of hands, exorcised devils, as they called it, performed much by the means of this same magnetic influence which, as your poet Shakspere says, is unknown to your philosophy. It is from these Eastern sources that it has been my fortune to receive the tradition, of which to the best of my belief the only exponent in Europe has been the Abbé Faria, a vulgar poseur.”
The Occult Side of some Everyday Habits
489
Pistis-Sophia
(Translated and annotated by G. R. S. M., with additional notes by H. P. B.)
“AFTER this, I came into the Height, to the Veils of the Thirteenth Æon.[120] And its Veils were drawn together of their own accord, and opened for me. And having entered the Thirteenth of the Æons, I found Pistis-Sophia (1) below the Thirteenth Æon, alone, none of them turning near her. But she was sitting in that Region grieving and mourning, because they had not brought her to the Thirteenth Æon, her proper Region in the Height. She was grieving also because of the vexations, which the Self-willed One caused her, which is one of those Three Triple-Powers,[121] [43] whose Mystery I will tell you, if I shall come to speak of their Emanation.[122]
“And when Pistis-Sophia saw me, changed into the most brilliant Light, she was in great perturbation; and gazing into the Light of my Vesture, she saw the Mystery of her own Name (2) therein, and the whole Splendour of her Mystery, in as much as she had been in the Beginning in the Region of the Height, in the Thirteenth Æon. So she began to sing to the Light, which is in the Height, which she saw in the Veil of the Treasure of Light. And it came to pass that, when she continued singing to the Light, which is in the Height, that all the Rulers looked on, being in the presence of the Two Great Triple-Powers and of her Invisible, paired with her, and of the Two-and-Twenty Invisible Projections,[123] since Pistis-Sophia, and her Syzygy, and the Two-and-Twenty other Projections made up the Four-and-Twenty Projections which the Great Invisible Forefather, [124] and the Two Great Triple-Powers emanated.”
And when Jesus had said these things to his Disciples, Mary came forward and said: “Master, I have heard thee say that Pistis-Sophia also was among the Four-and-Twenty Projections. How then was she not in their Region? For thou hast said: [44] ‘I found her below the Thirteenth Æon’.”
And Jesus answered, and said unto his Disciples: “When Pistis-Sophia was in the Thirteenth of the Æons, in the Region of all her Sisters, the
490
Invisibles, which are themselves the Four-and-Twenty Projections of the Great Invisible – by the command of the First Mystery, she looked into the Height and saw the Light of the Veil of the Treasure of Light. And she desired to go into that Region, but could not come into it. (Nevertheless) she ceased doing the Mystery of the Thirteenth Æon, and began to sing to the Light of the Height, which she saw in the Light of the Veil of the Treasure of Light. And when she began to sing, the Rulers, which are in the Twelve Æons, to wit, all those which are in the lower part, held her in detestation, because she ceased in their Mysteries, and wished to go into the Height, to be above them. And the Great Triple Power, the Self-willed One, which is the third Triple-Power, and turns itself in the Thirteenth Æon, the disobedient one, which refused to project the whole Purity of its Power, and to present a pure Light, at the time when the Rulers gave their Purity, [45] wishing to be Lord over all the Thirteenth Æon, and the Æons below it – this Great Self-willed Triple-Power followed the Twelve Æons in their rage and hate, and projected from itself a great Power with the appearance of a Lion,[125] and emitted also from its Hyle another multitude of Hylic Projections, very violent, and sent them into the Lower Regions, to the Parts of Chaos, that they might lay in wait for Pistis-Sophia there, and take away her Power, for that owing to her desire to go to the Height, she was held in detestation by the Rulers, which stand, or remain, in their Mystery, which they do, and also by all the Guardians who are at the Gate of the Æons.
“After this, by the Statute of the First Statute,[126] the Great Self-willed Triple Power kept persecuting Pistis-Sophia in the Thirteenth Æon, that she might gaze upon the Lower Parts, and so see its Power of Light in that Region, which has the appearance of a Lion, and desire it, and come into that Region, so that they might take away her Light. So it came to pass that, after this, she looked from above, and saw the Power of Light in the Lower Parts, and knew not that it pertained to the Triple-Power, the Self-willed One, but imagined that it was from the Light, which she saw in the Beginning in the Height, which is from the Veil of the Treasure of Light; and she thought within herself: ‘I will come into that Region without my Syzygy,[127] to take the Light, which the Æons of Light[128] have procreated for me, that I may come to the Light of Lights, which is in the Height of Heights.’
“Thus pondering, she went forth from her own Region of the
491
Thirteenth Æon, and entered[129] into the Twelve Æons. And the Rulers of the Æons kept pursuing her, and were enraged against her, for that she thought to enter into the Greatness. And issuing from the Twelve Æons, she came into the Regions of Chaos, and drew near to the Power of Light with the appearance of a Lion, in order that it might devour her. [47] And all the Hylic Projections of the Self-willed One surrounded her. And the great Power of Light with the appearance of a Lion devoured the Powers of Light in Sophia; and (also) purified (or expelled) her Light and Hyle and devoured them. (Thus then) they cast her forth into Chaos. And in Chaos was the Ruler with the appearance of a Lion, of which the one-half is Flame, and the other half Mist, which is Ialdabaoth (3), of which I have spoken to you many times. Now when this was done Sophia was most exceedingly weakened. And the Power of Light with the appearance of a Lion endeavoured further to remove utterly the remaining Powers of Light in Sophia as well. And all the Hylic Powers of the Self-willed One surrounded her at the same time, and cast her down. But she, crying out exceedingly, called to the Light of Lights, which she saw in the Beginning, trusting in it, and recited this Repentance[130] as follows: –
“Preserve me, O Light, for evil thoughts have come upon me. I have gazed, O Light, into the Lower Parts. I have seen the Light in that Region, [48] thinking that I should come thither to take that Light. And having issued forth, I am turned about in the Mist [131] of the Lower Chaos. Nor have I been able to soar forth, to come into my own Region, because that I am cast down in all the Projections of the Self-willed One, and the Power with the appearance of a Lion has taken away my Light. I have cried for help, but my voice has not ascended in the Mist. And I have looked into the Height, that the Light, in which I have trusted, might aid me. And when I had looked into the Height, I saw all the Rulers of the many Æons. And gazing on me, they rejoice over me, although I do them no ill. But they hated me without a cause. And the Projections of the Self-willed One, which were afflicting me unjustly, when they saw the Rulers of the Æons rejoicing over me, understood that they would not bring me any help, and had confidence. And the Light, which I had not received from them, they took from me. Now, therefore, O Light of Truth, [132] thou knowest that I did these things in my Foolishness,[133] thinking that the Light with the appearance of a Lion pertained to thee. The sin which I have committed is clear before thee. Let me no more be
492
in want, for I have trusted in thy Light, even from the Beginning. Suffer me no more, O Lord, Light of Powers, to lack my Light. For it is because of thy inducement and Light, that I am thus cast down. And shame has covered me. [49] And because of thy Light, I am a stranger to my Brethren,[134] the Invisibles, and also to the Great Projections of Barbelo. [135] These things have happened to me, O Light, because I have envied thy Dwelling. And the wrath of the Self-willed One, which did not listen to thy command, to cast its own Power out of its Projection, has come upon me, because I was in its Æon, not doing its Mystery. And all the Rulers of the Æons were making sport at me. And I am in that Region, lamenting, seeking thy Light, which I saw in the Height. And all the Guardians of the Gate of the Æons, which hold to their (the Æons’) Mystery, kept seeking me and mocking at me. But I kept gazing into the Height, upwards, to thee, O Light, and trusted in thee. Now, therefore, O Light of Lights, Thou art cast down [136] in the Mist of Chaos. If, therefore, thou wilt come to preserve me, great is thy mercy; hear me in truth, and preserve me. Free me from the Hyle of this Mist, that I may not be immersed therein, that I may be freed from the Projections of the Self-willed Deity, which cast me down, and from their evils; let not this Mist devour me, nor this Power with the appearance of a Lion. Let it not devour the whole of my Power entirely, nor let this Chaos hide it. [50] Hear me, O Light, for thy mercy is good, and look upon me, according to the abundance of the mercy of thy Light. Turn not now thy face from me, for I am exceedingly tormented. Haste thee, hear me, and preserve my Power. Preserve me because of the Rulers, which hate me; for thou knowest my affliction, and my torment, and my broken Power, which they have taken away from me. They who have set me in all these evils, are in thy presence. Deal with them according to thy will. My Power looks forth from the midst of Chaos and Darkness. I have waited for my Syzygy, that it might come and fight for me, and it came not. And I had waited that it might come and give me strength, and I found it not. And when I sought for Light, they gave me Mist: and when I sought for my Power, they gave me Hyle. Now, therefore, Light of Lights, the Projections of the Self-willed One have brought Mist and Hyle upon me. Let snares be set for them, and let them be ensnared. Recompense them, and let them stumble,[137] that they may not come into the Region of their own Self-willed One. Let them remain in Darkness, so that they may not see the Light. Let them behold Chaos for all time, and look not into the Height. Bring upon them their punishment, and let thy judgment seize upon them. [51] Let them not come into their own Region, to their Self-willed Deity henceforth from this
493
hour. For their Deity is impious, and thought that it had done these evils itself, not knowing that had I had not been humbled by thy Statute, it would not have prevailed against me; but when thou hadst humbled me, it pursued me the more and its Projections added grief to my humiliation, and took away the Power of my Light, and began again to be hostile to me, and afflicted me exceedingly to take away all my Light. On account of these things, therefore, in which they have set me, let them not ascend into the Thirteenth Æon, the Region of Righteousness. And let them not be counted in the Lot of those, who purify themselves and their Light, nor of those who will repent quickly, that they may quickly receive the Mystery in the Light. Now, therefore, O Light, that which is in thee, is with me; I sing thy name in glory. May my Hymn please thee, even as the excellent Mystery, which pertains to the Gates of Light,[138] which they, who have repented, will tell of, and will purify its Light. Now, therefore, let all Hyle (pl.) rejoice. [52] Seek ye all the Light. The Power of your Soul shall live, for the Light has heard the Hyle (pl.), nor will it leave any, without purging them. Let all Souls and Hyle (pl.), the Æons and Hyle (pl.) of all therein, praise the Lord, for the Deity will free their Soul from all Hyle, and they shall prepare a City in the Light. And all Souls, which it shall free, shall dwell in that City, that they may have a Lot therein. And the Souls of them, who shall undertake the Mystery, shall be in that Region. And they, who have undertaken the Mystery in his Name, shall be in the City”.
And when Jesus had spoken these words, he said: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” And Mary coming forward again, said: “Master, my Dweller in the Light[139] hath ears, and I hear in my Power of Light, and thy Spirit, which is with me, is sober (or free from passion) for me. [53] Hear, therefore, I will speak concerning the Repentance, which Pistis-Sophia made, and all that befell her, which thy Power of Light prophesied concerning her, at that time, through the Prophet David, in the sixty-ninth Psalm, ‘Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul.’ [54, 55] This is the solution of the Mystery of the Repentance of Pistis-Sophia. [56, 57] [And Jesus commended Mary for her interpretation, and narrates the Second Repentance of Sophia. [58] And Peter starting forward, cried out:] “Master, we will not suffer this woman to thus take our place from us, and allow none of us to speak.” And Jesus answered and said to his Disciples: “Let him, in whom the Power of his Spirit is in ebullition, to understand what I say, come forward to speak. (Speak), then, Peter: I see thy Power in thee, understanding the solution of the Mystery of the Repentance, which Pistis-Sophia uttered”. [And Peter gave the interpretation thereof by reciting the seventy-first Psalm of
494
David, (v.v. 1-13), ‘ O God, my God, I have trusted in thee; let me not be afflicted with shame for ever.’ [59,60] And Jesus commended Peter and said:] “amên, amên, I say unto you, I will perfect you in all Completion, from the Mysteries of the Exterior to the Mysteries of the Interior, and I will fill you with the Spirit: for they shall call you Pneumatics,[140] perfected in all Completion. Amên, amên, I say unto you, I will give you all the Mysteries of all the Regions of my Father,[141] and of all the Regions of the First Mystery, that what ye receive on Earth, may be taken to the Light of the Height, and what ye reject on Earth, may be rejected in the Kingdom of my Father in the Heavens.”
[61, 62] [Jesus then declares the Third Repentance of Sophia, which is explained by Martha, who is of a “perceptive Spirit”, from the seventieth Psalm. And Jesus commended Martha and said:] “Moreover Pistis-Sophia proceeded to utter her Fourth Repentance, before the Power with the appearance of a Lion, and all the Hylic Projections which are with it, which the Self-willed One sent into Chaos, compressed her again. [63] She recited, therefore, this Repentance as follows: ‘O Light, in whom I have trusted, hear my Repentance, and let my voice come into thy Dwelling-place. Turn not thy Image of Light from me, but regard me for they are oppressing me. Haste thee, preserve me, at the time, when I shall cry to thee, for my time vanishes as vapour, and I am become as Hyle. They have taken away my Light, and my Power is dried up. I have forgotten my Mystery, which I performed in the Beginning. Because of the uproar of the fear and power of the Self-willed One, my Power has failed me. I am become like a separated Daemon (idios daimôn) dwelling in Hyle, in which there is no Light, and I am become like the Counterfeit of the Spirit, (5) which is in the Hylic Body, in which there is no Power of Light; and I am become like as a Decan alone in the Air. (6) The Projections of the Self-willed One compressed me mightily. And my Syzygy said to itself: “Instead of the Light, which was in her, they have filled her with Chaos”. I have devoured the Sweat of my own Hyle, and the Anguish of the Tears of the Hyle of my Eyes (7), that they, who afflict me, might not take what remains. [64] All these things, O Light, have been done to me by thy Statute and Order; and it is thy Statute that I am therein. Thy Statute brought me to the Lower Region, and I am come thither, like as a Power of Chaos. And my Power has waxed cold in me. But thou, O Lord, thou art Light for ever, and thou dost visit the afflicted at all times. Now, therefore, O Light, arise, seek my Power and Soul. Thy Statute is accomplished, which thou didst decree for me in my afflictions. My Time is such that thou mayest seek my Power and Soul. This is the Time, which thou didst decree for seeking me, in that thy Preservers[142] have sought
495
the Power in my Soul, because my Number is perfected, and that they may keep its Hyle also. Then, indeed, shall all the Rulers of the Hylic Æons fear the Mystery of thy Light, so that others shall put on the Purity of their own Light, because the Lord shall seek the Power of your[143] Soul. He has revealed his own Mystery, because he is about to regard the Repentance of those, who turn in the Lower Regions, nor has he disregarded their Repentance. This, then, is that Mystery, which is made the Type of the Race, which has to be generated, and the Race, which has to be generated, will hymn to the Height, because the Light has gazed upon it, from the Height of its Light: [65] it will gaze into every Hyle, that it may hear the groaning of the bound, and free the Power of the Souls, whose Power they have bound, and place its Name in the Soul, and its Mystery in the Power.”
[ 66 ] And John came forward and having adored the Breast[144] of Jesus, asked and received permission to speak; and explained the Repentance by the one hundred and first Psalm.
(1) Pistis-Sophia. The reader should carefully study the recital of the “Fall” of Sophia, as told in Philosophumena (Lucifer vi. 33, p. 231, et seqq.), and compare it with the allegorical drama of the text which follows. It will be noticed, in the note on page 231, that the first and last of the female Æons of the Dodecad, are respectively Pistis and Sophia. The Soul was the one subject, and the knowledge of the Soul the one object of all the ancient Mysteries. In the “Fall” of Pistis-Sophia, and her rescue by her Syzygy, Jesus, we see the ever-enacted drama of the suffering and ignorant Personality, which can only be saved by the immortal Individuality, or rather by its own yearning towards it. In reading this portion of the Pistis-Sophia, the mysterious Duality of the Manas should always be remembered, and this key applied to every line.
As Wisdom was the end of the Gnosis, so the pivot of the whole Gnostic teaching was the so-called “Sophia-Mythus.” For whether we interpret the allegory from the macro- or from the micro-cosmic standpoint, it is always the evolution of Mind, that the Initiates of old have sought to teach us. The emanation and evolution of Mahat in cosmogenesis, and of Manas in anthropogenesis, was ever the study of the One Science. The dwelling of Sophia was in the Midst, between the Upper and Lower Worlds, in the Ogdoad. Below was the Hebdomad or Seven Spheres, governed by seven Hierarchies of Rulers. Truly hath “Wisdom built for herself a House, and rested it on Seven Pillars” ( Proverbs, ix, 1.); and again: “She is on the lofty Heights; she stands in the midst of the Paths, for she taketh her seat by the Gates of the Powerful Ones (the Rulers), she tarrieth at the Entrances” (Ibid. viii, 2), Moreover, Sophia was the Mediatrix between the Upper and Lower Region, and at the same time projected the Types or Ideas of the Pleroma into the Universe. Now, why should Sophia, who was originally of a Pneumatic or Spiritual Essence, be in the Middle Space, an exile from her true Dwelling? Such was the great mystery which the Gnosis endeavoured to solve. Seeing again that this “Fall of the Soul” from its original purity involved it in suffering 496and misery, the object that the Gnostic teachers had ever before them, was identical with the problem of “Sorrow,” which Gautama Sakyamuni set himself to resolve. Moreover, the solution of the two systems was identical in that they traced the Cause of Sorrow to Ignorance, and to remove this, pointed out the Path to Self-Knowledge. The Mind was to instruct the Mind: “self-analysing reflection” was to be the Way. The Material Mind ( Kama-Manas ) was to be purified, and so become one with the Spiritual Mind ( Buddhi-Manas ). In the nomenclature of the Gnosis, this was expressed by the Redemption of Sophia by the Christos, who delivered her from her ignorance ( agnoia ) and sufferings. It is not then surprising that we should find Sophia, whether regarded as a unity, or as a duality, or again as cosmic mind, possessed of many names. Among these may be mentioned the Mother, or All-Mother, Mother of the Living or Shining Mother; The Power Above; The Holy Spirit (all from the macrocosmic standpoint); and again She of the Left-hand, as opposed to Christos, He of the Right-hand; The Man-woman; Prouneikos or the Lustful-one; Matrix; Paradise; Eden; Achamoth; the Virgin; Barbelo; Daughter of Light: Merciful Mother; Consort of the Masculine One; Revelant of the Perfect Mysteries; Perfect Mercy; Revelant of the Mysteries of the whole Magnitude; Hidden Mother; She who knows the Mysteries of the Elect; The Holy Dove, which has given birth to the two Twins; Ennoia; Ruler; and The Lost or Wandering Sheep, Helena. In the Valentinian System, Sophia gives birth to the Christos “with a Shadow.” The above terms are taken from Smith and Wace’s Dictionary of Christian Biography, art., “Sophia,” where we read:
“In the Syriac text of the Acts published by Dr. Wright (Apocryphal Acts of Apostles, pp. 238-245) we find the beautiful Hymn of the Soul, which has been sent down from her heavenly home to fetch the pearl guarded by the serpent, but has forgotten here below her heavenly mission till she is reminded of it by a letter from ‘the father, the mother and the brother,’ performs her task, receives back again her glorious dress, and returns to her old home.”
(2) Name. The Name, which is no name, but a Sound, or rather Motion. The mystery of the Logos, Verbum and Vach has ever been concealed in the mystery Names. These Names, in whatever tongue, or among whatever people, all represent permutations of the “Ineffable Name.”
In this connection, the following passage from the Pistis-Sophia (pagg. 378, 379) is of great interest. Jesus, in explaining the Mystery of the Light of his Father, the Baptisms of Smoke and of the Spirit of the Holy Light, and the Spiritual Anointing, to his Disciples continues:
“Nothing, then, is more excellent than these Mysteries, into which ye inquire, unless it be the Mystery of the Seven Voices, and their Nine-and-forty Powers and Numberings (psephon), nor is any name more excellent than all of them, the Name, in which are all Names, and all Lights and all Powers. He, therefore, who shall depart out of the Body of Hyle[145] knowing that Name, no Smoke,[146] nor Authority, nor Ruler of the Sphere of Fate, nor Angel, nor Archangel, nor Power, shall be able to prevent that Soul; nay, if on quitting the World, a man shall speak that Name to the Fire, it shall be extinguished, and the Mist shall withdraw. And if he shall speak it to the Daemons and the Receivers of the Outer Mist (Darkness), and to its Rulers, Authorities, and Powers, all shall perish, so that their Flame is consumed, and they cry out, ‘Thou are hallowed, the sanctified one, thou blessed one, of all them who are holy.’ And if they shall speak that Name to the Receivers of Evil Condemnations, and their Authorities and all their powers, and also to Barbelo and the Invisible Deity, and the Three Triple-Powers, forthwith all will collapse in those regions, so that they
497
shall be compelled to dissolve and perish, and cry out: ‘O Light of every Light, which is in the infinite Lights, remember us also, and cleanse us.’”
With regard to this passage, it is remarked in the Secret Doctrine (II, 570):
“It is easy to see what this Light and Name are: the Light of Initiation and the name of the “Fire-Self,” which is no name, no action, but a Spiritual, ever-living Power, higher even than the “Invisible God,” as this Power is Itself.
Compare also the Secret Doctrine, sub. voc., Oeaohoo, I, 68, 71, 72, 93 ( Oi-Ha-Hoo ); Mantrika-Sakti, I, 293; Kwan-Yin, I, 136; Kuan-Yin-Tien, I, 137, 138; Logos, II, 25; Hermes, II, 541, 542; Mystic names and attributes, I, 352; Aditi-Vâch, I, 431; Vâch, Savitri, the mother of the gods and of all living, II, 128; Vâch, Devasena, II, 199; and The melodious cow, II, 418.
(3) Ildabaôth or Ialdabaôth is identical with the Fetahil of the Codex Nazaraeus, the Demiurge of the Valentinian system ( Lucifer, vi, 33), the Proarchos of the Barbelitæ (Irenaeus, I, xxix, 4), the Great Archôn of Basilides and the Elohim of Justinus, &c. Ildabaoth (the Child of Chaos) was the son of Sophia (Achamôth) in Gnostic Cosmogenesis, in other words, the Chief of the Creative Forces and the representative of one of the classes of Pitris. If we regard the Sophia-Above (Lucifer, vi, 33, pp. 231, et seqq.) as the Akâsa, and the Sophia-Below (Achamôth) as its lower or material planes, we shall be able to understand why Ildabaoth, the material creator, was identified with Jehovah and Saturn, and so follow out the following allegory from Irenaeus (I, xxiii-xxviii). Ildabaoth the child of the Mother, Sophia, generates a son of himself, without the assistance of any mother, and his son a son in his turn, and he another, and so on until there are six sons generated, one from another. Now these immediately commenced to strive with their father for the mastery; and he in despair and rage gazed into the “purgations of matter” below; and through them begot another son, Ophiomorphos, the serpent-formed, the spirit of all that is basest in matter. Then being puffed up with pride, he stretched himself over his highest sphere, and proclaimed aloud: “I am Father and God, and there is none above me.” On this, his mother cried out: “Lie not, Ildabaoth, for the Father of All, the First Anthrôpos (man), is above thee, and so is Anthrôpôs, the Son of Athrôpos.” And Ildabaoth to prevent his sons attending to the voice, proposed that they should fashion a man. So the six of them made a gigantic man, who lay on the earth and writhed like a worm (the man of the first rounds and races). And they brought him to his father Ildabaoth, who breathed into him the “Breath of Life”, and thus emptied himself of his creative power. And Sophia aided the design, so that she might regain the Light-powers of Ildabaoth. Forthwith the man, having the divine spark, aspired to the Heavenly Man, from whom it came. At this Ildabaoth grew jealous, and generated Eve (Lilith) to deprive Adam of his Light-powers. And the six “Stellars”, empassioned of her beauty, begot sons through her. Thereupon Sophia sent the serpent (intelligence) to make Adam and Eve transgress the precepts of Ildabaoth, who in rage, cast them down out of Paradise into the World, together with the serpent (fourth round and fourth race). At the same time, she deprived them of their Light-power, that it might not come under the “curse” as well. And the serpent reduced the world-powers under its sway, and generated six sons, who continually oppose the human race, through which their father (the serpent) was cast down. Now Adam and Eve in the beginning, had pure spiritual bodies, which gradually became grosser and grosser. Their spirit too became languid, for they had naught but the breath of the lower world, which Ildabaoth had breathed into them. In the end, however, Sophia gave them back their Light-power and they awoke to the knowledge that they were naked.
This suggestive allegory, wherein the creature became higher than the creator, can only be understood by remembering the identity of essence of that which is 498evolved, with that from which it is evolved. Compare: “I have clothed myself in thee, and thou art my Vahan to the Day ‘Be with us’, when thou shalt rebecome myself and others, thyself and me” ( Secret Doctrine, I, Stanza vii, Sloka 7). In this cycle of emanation that which is above becomes that which is below, so that we find in Pistis-Sophia that Ildabaoth is finally spoken of as residing in the “Great Chaos which is the Outer Mist”, where, with his Forty-nine Daemons, he tortures wicked souls (pag. 382). Moreover, the resemblance between Ildabaoth and Sabaoth Adamas (Lucifer, vi, 35, p. 398, note 4) is so close, that they are evidently to be regarded as aspects of the same power; the peculiar richness of the terminology of the Pistis-Sophia renders such correspondences a necessity.
In the Chart of the Ophites of which Origen speaks in his Contra Celsum, there are two septenates of Planetary Rulers, a superior and inferior Hebdomad. Ildabaoth is the first of the Superior Group, and Michael-Ophiomorphos at the head of the inferior. Now this Michael is called the “Lion-like”, and is the son of Ildabaoth who is also represented as lion-headed. In the formula of prayers for the “Defunct”, the Soul, after having crossed the Rampart of Wickedness (phragmon kakias), the dominion of Ophiomorphos, or our terrestrial plane, arrives at the Gates of Ildabaoth and utters the following adulatory address, which in truth seems little applicable to the nature of Ildabaoth.
“O thou, who art born to rule with boldness, Ialdabaôth, first and seventh, O ruler, subsistent Logos of a pure mind, perfect work for Son and Father, bringing to thee the token of Life (marked) with the stamp of the type, I open the gate, which thou hast closed to thy Æon, the world, and pass by thy authority again in freedom. May grace be with me; Yea, may it be, father.”
(4) Each of the Thirteen Repentances of Sophia is explained by a portion of Scripture, which though bearing a family likeness to the authorized texts, still differs essentially in spirit and frequently in terms. As, however, the reproduction of these Psalms would be too long a labour, we can only refer the student to them, hoping that the comparison of the orthodox text with the Elegies of Sophia will give him a clue to the right understanding of the mystery hymns, known and misunderstood as the Psalms of David. Moreover, seeing that the elegies, prayers, hymns, songs or repentances of Pistis-Sophia are mostly reiterated repetitions, some of them will be omitted and others shortened.
(5) The Counterfeit of the Spirit (Antimimon pneumatos) is one of the principles in the formation of the Soul, in which fabrication, each of the five Planetary Rulers has his share. This work is completed by administering to the Soul the Drought of Forgetfulness, or Lethe-potion, which is brewed from the Sperm of Evil, and incites men to all material lusts; this is the evil genius of man, a sort of spiritual substance surrounding the Soul.
(6) Decan alone in the Air. Compare pag. 107, “I am like as Hyle, which is sunken; they have driven me hither and thither, like as a Daemon in the Air.” The Middle Region of the Air is spoken of as in the Paths of the Way of the Midst, which is below the Sphere. For the term Decan, see Lucifer, vi, 34, p. 320, note 7.
(7) The Tears . . . of my Eyes. M. E. Amélineau in his Essai sur le Gnosticisme Egyptien, p. 303, in tracing this idea through Egyptian imagery, writes as follows.
“Among the invocations addressed to the sun, or rather in the enumeration of his various transformations, we read the following: ‘He who creates the water, which issues from his interior, the image of the body of Remi, the weeper’. ‘Tears play an important part in the Egyptian religion’, says M. Naville, in explaining this text, ‘and especially in that which concerns creation’. He then quotes several examples taken from unpublished texts from the tomb of Rameses IV, which we borrow from him. In one of these the God is prayed to as the ‘weeper’ and
499
asked to give life to the ‘king’: ‘O weeper, thou powerful one, high in the realms of Aukert, give life to the King’. . . . He also receives this invocation: ‘O thou, he who forms himself by his tears, who hears himself his own words, who reanimates his soul, reanimate the soul of the King’. Finally in a famous text known as the text of the four races, men are thus addressed: ‘Ye are a tear of my eye in your name of Retu, that is to say in your name of men’. . . . This doctrine is still more clearly affirmed in a magic papyrus translated by Dr. Birch, where the tears of different Gods are represented as the matter from which issue flowers, incense, bees, water, salt, &c. ‘When Horus weeps’, says the papyrus, ‘the water which falls from his eyes, grows into plants, which produce a sweet perfume. When Su and Tefnut weep greatly, and water falls from their eyes, it changes into plants which produce incense. . . . When the sun weeps a second time, and lets water fall from his eyes, it changes into bees, which work. . . . When the sun Ra becomes feeble, the perspiration falls from his limbs, and changes into a liquid . ... his blood changes to salt. When the sun becomes feeble, he sweats, water falls from his mouth and changes into plants’.”
Compare also the “Sweat-born” of the Secret Doctrine.
Theosophical Gleanings or Notes on the "Secret Doctrine"
WE have taken a bird’s-eye view of the life-cycle of the Third Race: we must now study its evolution in fuller detail. The Third Race divides itself naturally into three main groups, under which are classified the seven sub-races and their innumerable divisions. The first of these groups takes its rise in those spoken of last month as those into whom the “Lords of the Flame” “entered”, ere yet the differentiation into sexes had come about. These, with the progeny produced by Kriyasakti – the “Sons of the Fire-Mist”, or the “Sons of Will and Yoga” – make up the first and highest group. It is the men of this group who are alluded to in the traditions of every nation as “demigods”, “heroes”, and “rishis”, &c. To this group belong “the seven Rishis” of the Hindu allegory (vol. ii, p. 78), the sons of Vasishta-Daksha. It includes Nirmanakayas from other Manvantaras, whom we see, “in all the Puranas, reappearing on this globe, in the third Manvantara, as Kings, Rishis, and heroes” (vol. ii, p. 94). “They sacrificed themselves for the good and salvation of the Monads which were waiting for their turn, and which otherwise would have had to linger for countless ages in irresponsible, animal-like, though in appearance human, forms” (vol. ii, p. 94). These 500are “that third and holy race”, consisting of those men who are spoken of as at the zenith of the race, who were “towering giants of godly strength and beauty, and the depositaries of all the mysteries of heaven and earth”. . . . “The chief gods and heroes of the Fourth and Fifth Races, as of later antiquity, are the deified images of these men of the Third” (vol. ii, pp. 171, 172). This group is said to have inhabited
“an island, which for its unparalleled beauty had no rival in the world. . . . This word, which is no word, has travelled once round the globe, and still lingers as a far-off dying echo in the hearts of some privileged men. The hierophants of all the Sacerdotal Colleges were aware of the existence of this island; but ‘the word’ was known only to the Java Alim (Maha Chohan in another tongue), or chief lord of every college, and was passed to his successor only at the moment of death. . . . There was no communication with the fair island by sea, but subterranean passages, known only to the chiefs, communicated with it in all directions” (vol. ii, p. 220).
Over against this loftiest group of the Third Race comes the lowest group, that of the “mindless”, sometimes spoken of as “the eighth race”, because it went so far astray from the field of humanity, “the animal man” (vol. i, p. 650). We spoke of these on p. 411 of last month’s Lucifer, and we need only note in this connexion that the semi-human group was reinforced by later crossings of Lemurians and Atlanteans with these semi-human tribes, and that Esoteric Ethnology ascribes this origin for Tasmanians, Australians, Andaman Islanders, a hair-covered mountain tribe in China, the wild men of Borneo, the Veddahs of Ceylon, the Bushmen, Negritos, and some others (see vol. ii, pp. 195, 196, with the footnotes).
It is to this group, in some of its lowest ramifications, that the Secret Doctrine ascribes the origin of the anthropoids.
“It is in the suddenly arrested evolution of certain sub-races, and their forced and violent diversion into the purely animal line by artificial cross-breeding, truly analogous to the hybridization which we have now learned to utilise in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, that we have to look for the origin of the anthropoids. In these red-haired and hair-covered monsters, the fruit of the unnatural connexion between men and animals, the ‘Lords of Wisdom’ did not incarnate, as we see. Thus by a long series of transformations due to unnatural cross-breeding (unnatural ‘sexual selection’), originated in due course of time the lowest specimens of humanity; while further bestiality and the fruit of their first animal efforts of reproduction begat a species which developed into mammalian apes ages later. The Commentary explains that the apes are the only species, among the animals, which has gradually and with every generation and variety tended more and more to return to the original type of its male forefather – the dark gigantic Lemurian and Atlantean” (vol. ii. pp. 200, 201, and footnote).
As this question of relationship between man and the ape is one on which Esoteric and Exoteric Science seem to come sharply into conflict, it may be well to 501delay on it for a moment. And first we must point out that no scientist speaks of man as “descended from the ape”. That is a popular misconception. Darwin and his followers allege that “man” and the apes are descended from a common ancestor, that man “is the co-descendant with other mammals of a common progenitor” (“Descent of Man,” p. 607, ed. 1875). Against this general statement Esoteric Science has nothing to say, but – different as he was from the “man” of the present – Esoteric Science speaks of that common progenitor as “man”, having in view the chief product evolved from him (see Lucifer, p. 409). Speaking of man in the Third Round, “almost exactly repeated in the third Root-Race of the Fourth Round”, a Mahatma describes him as in “the form of a giant-ape, and now more intelligent, or rather cunning, than spiritual”. In the last half “his gigantic stature decreases and his body improves in texture, and he becomes a more rational being, though still more an ape than a Deva” (vol. 1. pp. 188, 189). This “giant-ape” is the “common progenitor”. Further, the Mahatma says:
“The human fœtus follows now in its transformations all the forms that the physical frame of man had assumed throughout the three Kalpas (Rounds), during the tentative efforts at plastic formation around the Monad by senseless, because imperfect matter, in her blind wanderings. In the present age the physical embryo is a plant, a reptile, an animal, before it finally becomes man” (vol. 1, p. 184).
On the details of the evolution there is clashing enough between the Eastern and the Western teachings; but as all the details are confessedly matter of hypothesis in the West, as the leading evolutionists are at issue about them, and as new theories are being constantly put forward, the West cannot claim to dogmatise here over the East. All that Western Science lays down as essential, in order to explain undeniable facts, is the unity of origin of all mammals: all else is admittedly doubtful. The Eastern Science lays down the same postulate, and also traces, as it alleges with full knowledge, the details of the further evolution. And those who note how in point after point Western Science is approaching doctrines long taught by the Esoteric, will be content to possess their souls in patience amid the clash of warring tongues, waiting until fuller knowledge has brought about greater harmony. The fundamental difference between the Esoteric and the Exoteric Science is not on the physical but on the mental evolution of man. They may join hands on the giant-ape form, and the cunning of the common progenitor: but to the Esotericist the mind is an informing principle; to the Scientist it is but a product of the brain.
“Man is certainly no special creation, and he is the product of Nature’s gradual perfective work, like any other living unit on this earth. But this is only with regard to the human tabernacle. That which lives and thinks in man and survives that frame, the masterpiece of evolution, is the ‘Eternal Pilgrim’, the Protean differentiation in space and time of the One Absolute ‘Unknowable’” (vol. ii, p. 728).
The remaining group, consisting of “the last sub-races of the Third 502Root-Race” (vol. ii, p. 765), is midway between the highest and the lowest, and, as the stock of our humanity, is of special interest to us. They were the “ancestors of the Atlanteans, . . . ape-like, intellectually senseless giants” (vol. i, p. 191), whose very senselessness made possible such an off-shoot as the third group, and who were rescued from general degradation by their endowment with Manas. These were the first sexual, physical men, the date of whose appearance on our globe is put by the Esoteric Chronology 18,000,000 years ago. They are the root of our physical Humanity, of which the Fourth Race, the Atlantean, may be regarded as the trunk. Physical changes in the globe accompanied the changes in man, and the period of warfare began. Differentiation into sex meant struggle in lieu of harmony, and all physical nature sympathised in the altered conditions.
“The eternal spring became constant change and seasons succeeded. Cold forced men to build shelters and devise clothing. Then man appealed to the superior Fathers. The Nirmanakayas of the Nagas, the wise Serpents and Dragons of Light came, and the precursors of the Enlightened. Divine kings descended and taught men sciences and arts, for men could live no longer in the first land, which had become a white frozen corpse”
It was under the guidance of this Highest Group of the Third Race that the later Third, or Lemurians, developed their civilization. They,
“under the guidance of their divine Rulers, built large cities, cultivated arts and sciences, and knew astronomy, architecture, and mathematics to perfection. This primeval civilization did not, as one may think, immediately follow their physiological transformation. Between the final evolution and the first city built many hundred thousands of years had passed. Yet, we find the Lemurians in their sixth sub-race building their first rock-cities out of stone and lava. One of such great cities of primitive structure was built entirely of lava, some thirty miles west from where Easter Island now stretches its narrow piece of sterile ground, and was entirely destroyed by a series of volcanic eruptions. The oldest remains of Cyclopean buildings were all the handiwork of the Lemurians of the last sub-races; and an occultist shows therefore no wonder on learning that the stone relics, found on the small piece of land called Eastern Island by Captain Cook, are ‘very much like the walls of the Temple of Pachacamac or the Ruins of Tia-Kuanuco in Peru’, and that they are in the Cyclopean style” (vol. ii, p. 317).
Thus civilization slowly grew up among the Lemurians; some, we are told, led a “nomadic and patriarchal life”, some builded cities and progressed in the arts and sciences; Easter Island belonged to the earliest civilisation of the Third Race”, and the strange statues there felt the touch of Lemurian hands. It is interesting to note that, approaching the subject from an entirely distinct point of view, Haeckel places primitive man in Lemuria:
“Probably Southern Asia itself was not the earliest cradle of the human race; but Lemuria, a continent that lay to the south of Asia, and sank later on beneath the
503
surface of the Indian Ocean” (“The Pedigree of Man,” p. 73, Eng. Trans., 1883).
It is to the Lemurians that must be referred the many traditions of the “one-eyed Cyclopes”; the “one eye” is the Wisdom Eye, the Third Eye, the Eye of Siva, which was in full activity at that period of human history, the two front eyes being fully developed only at the beginning of the Fourth Race (see vol. ii, p. 769). The mythological three Cyclopes, sons of Heaven and Earth, are the last three sub-races of the Third Race.
As the centuries rolled slowly on, the Lemurians gradually drifted apart into two well-defined and marked classes, the Sons of Darkness and the Sons of Light, between whom bitter antagonism was developed. As the decay of the race proceeded, the division became more and more marked, and simultaneously with the decay of the Third appeared the rising of the Fourth Race. Emerging from the ocean westwards and northwards were the beginnings of a new continent, the Atlantis of the coming Race, and as the Northern Lemurians spread westwards the first sub-race of the Fourth, the Lemuro-Atlanteans, were gradually evolved and spread from the Atlantic portion of Lemuria over the new land; losing, as time went on the characteristics of the parent stock, and developing the pure Atlantean type.
“The Atlantic portion of Lemuria was the geological basis of what is generally known as Atlantis. The latter, indeed, must be regarded rather as a development of the Atlantic prolongation of Lemuria, than as an entirely new mass of land upheaved to meet the special requirements of the Fourth Root-Race. Just as in the case of Race-evolution, so in that of the shifting and re-shifting of continental masses, no hard and fast line can be drawn where a new order ends and another begins. Continuity in natural processes is never broken. Thus the Fourth Race Atlanteans were developed from a nucleus of Northern Lemurian Third Race men, centred, roughly speaking, toward a point of land in what is now the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Their continent was formed by the coalescence of many islands and peninsulas which were upheaved in the ordinary course of time and became ultimately the true home of the great Race known as the Atlantean” (vol. ii, pp. 333, 334).
Some of these Lemuro-Atlanteans, we are told, intermarried with the mindless race, and so entered on a path of rapid physical and psychical degeneration. Meanwhile vast seismic changes were in progress: the continent of Lemuria had broken up into smaller continents, and its immense extent “which once had reigned supreme over the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans now consisted of huge islands which were gradually disappearing one after the other, until the final convulsion engulfed the last remains of it” (vol. ii, p. 327). Volcanic action was the chief feature in this destruction, volcanic fires breaking up the continent and causing vast chasms, into which rushed the sea, submerging the scathed and ruined land. There can be no doubt that the traditions of a universal deluge found in the islands of Polynesia – the mountain tops of the highest Lemurian ranges – 504have their origin in these gigantic cataclysms, which separated these islands from the rest of the habitable world.[147]
“The sinking and transformation of Lemuria beginning nearly at the Arctic Circle (Norway), the Third Race ended its career in Lanka, or rather on that which became Lanka with the Atlanteans. The small remnant now known as Ceylon is the Northern highland of ancient Lanka” (vol. ii, p. 332).
Of this race there remained only the “animal men”, a few scattered remnants that had escaped here and there, the Lemuro-Atlantean stock, and the Highest Group, that the earth-convulsions could not touch. The human stock, or seed, in the Hindu allegory, is saved by Vaivasvata Manu;
“Lemuria is said to have perished about 700,000 years before the commencement of what is now called the Tertiary Age (the Eocene), and it is during this deluge also – an actual geological deluge this time – that Vaivasvata Manu is again shewn as saving mankind (allegorically it is mankind, or a portion of it, the Fourth Race, which is saved); so also he saves the Fifth. Race during the destruction of the last Atlanteans” (vol. ii, p. 313).
This Vaivasvata Manu “figures as a generic character, under various circumstances and events” (vol. ii, p. 145), for he is “the primitive Root-Manu of our fourth human wave (the reader must always remember that Manu is not a man, but collective humanity)”; further, the name is applied as a racial term to the Root-Manu of the Fourth Root-Race, thus denoting one of the Minor Manus (vol. ii, p. 309). His varied appearances on the scene in Exoteric traditions and allegories need not therefore disturb the student.
Questions and Answers
Q. Are our Monads an emanation of the Holy Spirit? By that I mean the totality of Gods, who form the Absolute, the One.
A. We should avoid the term “Holy Spirit”, because it conveys the idea of a Personal God. The Monads are sparks from the one Fire, the Universal Life (see Lucifer, p. 138).
Q. The entities that collectively form Atma, Buddhi, Mahat, are they these Monads? are our Higher Selves spiritual hierarchies, of whom we are only the reflection, the emanation?
A. The Monad is Atma-Buddhi (see Lucifer, p. 138). Mahat is Kosmic Ideation (see Lucifer, pp. 56, 57). If you mean Manas, Manas is not the Monad, as you must surely see if you have read the “Gleanings” with any attention (note specially pp. 311 and 410). Certainly our Higher Selves are a Spiritual Hierarchy, but you cannot call the lower quaternary an emanation from them. The building up of this has been very carefully described step by step.
505
3. Ought any difference to be made between the Divine Ego and the Monad? May we not say that the Divine Ego is the resultant of the friction of our lives and of our experiences, and that this Ego is the real individual, since the Monad is given us from the universal reservoir and is therefore impersonal?
4. The Ego is the Manas, and as our lives give it experience it is partly their resultant; but note that it is an independent entity, existing before incarnation. Do not confuse the Ego with the “Higher Self”, which is Buddhi. The Ego is the individual, and you rightly say that the Monad is impersonal.
Notes on Theosophy and Education
508
Right and Wrong
“Do not misunderstand me. It is not the function of the artist to preach morality, to inculcate virtue. The laws of art are proper to itself. And they are the laws of beauty. But the beautiful is of the intellect, not of the senses, which merely supply the artist with his raw material. The eyes are only instruments of vision through which the soul looks. Æsthetic enjoyment is the reflection of an inner light or splendor from our reason upon material objects. The end of the intellect, let me repeat, is truth.’ And in words which, though not Plato’s, to whom they are often attributed, are as admirable as hackneyed, the ‘beautiful is the splendor of the true’. Banish the ideal from the life of men, and by the operation of the inexorable law, Corruptio optimi pessima, men will sink below the level of the lower animals, and will love the abnormal, the monstrous, the deformed, for its own sake. Such is the natural fruit of that philosophy which rejects the only rational conceptions of Right and Wrong, and degrades to the region of molecular physics, conceptions properly appertaining to the domain of the organic and spiritual. Examples are not far to seek. And they are the sure signs of a decadent and effete civilization.”
509
Death of Subba Row
It is with the deepest possible regret and sorrow that we have to announce the “death” of our learned and gifted brother, T. Subba Row, B.A., B.L., on June 24th, at the early age of 33 years. There are few members of the Theosophical Society who have not heard of Subba Row, the great Vedantin scholar; few readers of the Secret Doctrine who are not familiar with his name, as the talented author of the Lectures on the Bhagavad Gita. And yet, with the exception of these lectures and his contributions to the pages of the Theosophist, as remarked in the latter journal, he has left scarcely any literary monument of his extraordinary ability.
“Our great Vedantin,” writes Colonel Olcott, “was of the Niyogi caste of the Smartha (Advaita) Brahmans”, and practised as a Vakil (Pleader) of the High Court. Strangely enough he showed little promise in early years of his extraordinary philosophical ability, and it was not until he made the acquaintance of H.P.B., H.S.O., and Damodar, in 1882, that he began to devote himself to metaphysics and Occultism.
“It was then as though a store house of occult experience, long forgotten, had suddenly opened to him . . . his stored-up knowledge of Sanskrit literature came back to him . . . and if you would recite any verse of Gita, Brahma-Sutras, or Upanishads, he could at once tell you whence it was taken, and in what connection employed.”
The cause of his death was a mysterious cutaneous disease which resulted in a terrible outbreak of boils, of so painful a nature that all sleep was denied to the sufferer. Karma has mysterious ways of working out its ends, which to the profane must remain for ever unfathomable. We can only feel profound regret that such Karma has reached one by whose death Madras has been deprived of a giant-intellect, and India has lost one of her best scholars.
May his next rebirth be speedy and his life-span longer, and, above all, may he be reborn in Aryavarta still.
“Sit tibi terra levis.”
“Marriage, Morality, and Christianity”
“. . . Many people condone in young men a course of conduct with regard to the other sex which is incompatible with strict morality. . . . This dissoluteness is pardoned principally because of supposed physical
510
necessities. . . . It is not possible that the health of one class should necessitate the ruin of another, and in consequence it is our first duty to turn a deaf ear to such an essentially immoral doctrine, no matter how strongly society may have established or law protected it. . . . It is the duty of unmarried men who do not wish to live a life of infamy to practice such continence in respect to all women as they would were the female society in which they moved made up exclusively of their own mothers and sisters.”
“A more rational mode of life should be adopted, which would include abstinence from alcoholic drinks, from excess in eating, and from flesh meat, on the one hand, and recourse to physical labor on the other. I am not speaking of gymnastics, or any of those occupations which may be fitly described as playing at work; I mean the genuine toil that fatigues.”
“. . . Conjugal infidelity has become more common and is considered less reprehensible” (than in former years). . . . “The origin of this evil is twofold: It is due, in the first place, to a natural instinct; and in the second, to the elevation of this instinct to a place to which it does not rightly belong. . . . The evil can only be remedied . . . by educating men and women . . . to see in their animal passions foes to be conquered rather than friends to be encouraged.”
“Fashionable dress to-day, the course of reading, plays, music, dances, luscious food, all the elements of our modern life, in a word, from the pictures on the little boxes of sweet-meats up to the novel, the tale, and the poem, contribute to fan (this) sensuality into a strong consuming flame, with the result that sexual vices and diseases have come to be the normal conditions of the period of tender youth, and often continue into the riper age of full-blown manhood”. . . . “The truth is that the whole affair has been exalted by poets and romancers to an undue importance. . . . People set it before them and strive after them, because their idea of life is as vulgar and brutish as that other conception frequently met with in the lower stages of development, which sees in luscious and abundant food an end worthy of man’s best efforts. Now this is not right and should not be done. And in order to avoid doing it, it is only needful to realise the fact that whatever truly deserves to be held up as a worthy object of man’s striving and working . . . is far above and beyond the sphere of personal enjoyment.”
“It is a most extraordinary thing, when you come to think of it: Malthusian theories can be broached and propagated; prostitution may be fostered and thrive (I cannot call by any other name such unions of the sexes as have not the birth of children for their object and justification); millions of children may be allowed to die every year of hunger and want; millions upon millions of human beings may be butchered in war; the State may strain every nerve to increase and perfect the means of killing the people, and look upon this as the main aim and object of its existence; all these things may be done under our eyes without striking us as in any way dangerous to humanity; but let some one hint at the necessity of our curbing our passions, and immediately the cry is raised that the human race is in danger. . . . Chastity and celibacy, it is urged, cannot constitute the ideal of humanity, because chastity would annihilate the race which strove to realise it, and humanity cannot set up as its ideal its own annihilation. It may be pointed out in reply that only that is a true ideal which, being unattainable, admits of infinite gradation in degrees of proximity. . . . Our conception of life is inseparably bound up with the conception of a continual striving after an unattainable ideal”. . . .
511
The Letters of Johann Caspar Lavater
To which is appended a letter from the Spirit about his first contemplation of God.
Zürich, 13 ☉ xi, 1798.
One letter more from the unseen world. Henceforth, God permitting, such communications will be more frequent.
This letter contains an infinitesimal fraction of that which might be said by a mortal of God, manifesting to, and being contemplated by him.[149]
God manifests simultaneously to billions of creatures and in millions of various forms.
He wills and He multiplies for the benefit of His numberless creatures and embodies simultaneously for each of these separately.
To you, O Sovereign, to your glorified spirit He will appear as he did to Mary Magdalene in the Garden of Gethsemane. When you feel for it the utmost need, and when you expect it least, then shall you hear coming from His divine lips your name “Maria”; and penetrated by the same feeling of the highest bliss as the Magdalene, you will answer His call, by saying as she did, “Rabbi!” Or else, filled with adoration as was the apostle Thomas, you will exclaim “My Lord and my God!”
We hasten to penetrate the darkness of the night in order to reach light. We travel along thorny paths that lead to paradise and we have to cross the wilderness before we enter the promised land; we must bear the pains of birth before we can be regenerated and born into the one real life.
May the Lord and the Holy Ghost be with you!
Letter II of the Blessed Spirit to His Friend on Earth
Dear friend, out of a thousand things I would if I could tell thee, I will speak only of that one which must interest thee most: I have received for this special permission. Spirits do nothing without first receiving permission to do so. They live bereft of their free will, subject to the will alone of the Almighty.[150] They transmit His commands to billions of beings as they would to one, and give instantaneous and most varied answers to millions of His questioning creatures.
512
Shall I be able to make you comprehend how I saw the Lord? Oh, it was by means entirely distinct from those which you mortals can imagine. After a number of visions, rules for guidance, explanations and hours of bliss accorded me by the Lord, I was once crossing a paradiasical land in the company of twelve other Spirits, who had passed almost as many degrees of perfection as I had. Like unto an ethereal cloud we glided hither and thither in profound silence, united in an enchanting sympathy, and, as it seemed, unanimously filled with the same aspirations and soaring towards the highest goal. With every moment we felt ourselves uniting more and more with each other. As we moved on we felt sincerer, happier, freer, more capable of realizing our bliss. “Oh, how great and merciful He who created us! Glory to the Creator! We are the creation of Love! Glory to the Loving One! . . . .”[151]
It was under the influence of such feelings that we continued our flying until we stopped close by a fountain. Here we felt as it were a feeble breath blowing on us. It was not in the similitude of man or Angel, yet that which was approaching us bore an image so closely human that it attracted our joint attention. A radiant light, like unto the light of pure Spirits, but not surpassing it, overshadowed us. . . . “It is one of our own”, we thought simultaneously. It vanished, and we suddenly felt as if we had lost something or someone. “What an enchanting Being”, we said to each other; “what a royal bearing and withal what a child-like charm, what beauty and what a grandeur”.
As we were still under the influence of these thoughts a most ravishing form suddenly appeared, greeting us in a most friendly way.
It did not resemble the preceding vision, but, like the latter, had likewise in itself something infinitely majestic and at the same time inexpressibly simple.
“Peace be with you, brethren and sisters!” it said; and we answered in unison, “Peace be with thee, thou blessed of the Lord. Heaven reflects itself in thy face and the love of God shines in thine eyes.”
“Who are ye?”[152] enquired the stranger.
“We are the happy worshippers of Almighty Love”, we answered.
“And who is that Almighty Love?” he asked with an incomparable charm.
“Art thou ignorant of the Omnipotent Love?” we exclaimed, or rather I did, for all my companions.
“I know it”, quoth the stranger in still more enchanting tones.
“Oh could we but be found worthy to see Him and hear His voice; but we do not feel ourselves yet sufficiently purified for a direct contemplation of the holiest purity!”
In answer to this we heard behind us a voice saying: –
“Ye shall not call impure that which was cleansed by God! Ye are washed of every impurity! Ye are purified! Ye are justified by Jesus Christ and the Spirit of the living God!”
An inexpressible bliss penetrated us through and through, when, upon turning in the direction whence came the voice, we felt impressed to fall on our knees and worship the invisible interpreter. What happened further? Each of us heard simultaneously a name which he had never heard before, but which every one of us comprehended and recognised as being his own new name. Instantaneously, with the rapidity of lightning, and like one
513
man, we turned towards the adored interpreter, who, with the same eternally unfathomable charm, explained to us the above.
“Ye have found that which ye have sought. He who sees me sees Omnipotent Love. I know all mine, and mine know me. I give my sheep life eternal and they will perish nevermore, and none will wrench them from My hand nor from My Father’s hand: I and the Father are one.”
How describe the sweetness of that highest bliss in which we were plunged, when He who became with every second more radiant, beautiful, and enchanting, opening to us His arms, pronounced the following words, a sentence to ring for us in the eternity and which henceforth no power can obliterate from our hearts:
“Come, ye blessed of my Father; and receive in heirloom the kingdom prepared for you since the world’s creation”; and, having embraced us in one simultaneous, sweeping embrace, He disappeared. We stood in silence, feeling ourselves bound for ever by the closest ties. We merged into each other, motionless, and experiencing the highest ravishment.
The eternally inexplicable Being confounding itself with us, became our heaven, the essence of our existence, in its full signification. It seemed to us as if a thousand new lives had penetrated into us. Our preceding existence vanished from our memory, and we felt created anew, and realized a new existence. We tasted immortality, i.e., experienced the feeling of an infinite abundance of life and strength, bearing on them the seal of indestructibility.
At last speech returned to us.[153] Oh, could I only impart to thee one sound of our blissful adoration!
He is, and we exist through Him, and Him alone! He is, and His existence is – life and love; and he who has seen this lives and loves after seeing them emanating from His divine face and eyes, full of the loftiest bliss.
We have seen Thee, all-powerful Love. Thou hast appeared before us in a human form. Thou art our Lord, our God. And yet thou wert neither man nor God, but God-man. Thou wert the One Love and art omnipotent by that love alone.
Thou supportest us through thine omnipotence, that thy power, even softened by Thy love, should not crush us. Is it Thou, Thou glorified in Heaven? Thou art a sea of bliss, Thou art Omnipotence, Thou art the personification of love, Thou, who having incarnated once upon a time in a human frame, took upon Thyself the burden of the World, and bleeding to death wert nailed upon a cross and becamest a corpse.
Yes, it is Thou – O glory of all beings! A Being before whom bows the whole Universe,[154] vanishing before Thee, O loftiest Love!
In a single ray of thy light centres the life of all the worlds!
And from a single breath of thine ignites the Universal Love.
This, my friend, is only the smallest of the crumbs fallen to earth from the table abounding in the bliss which feeds me. Profit thereby, and more shall be given thee.
Love, and thou shalt be loved.
Love alone can be loved, love alone can aspire to the highest felicities.
Love alone can give happiness, but only to those who also love themselves.
What an eternity of bliss is contained in a single instant of the contemplation of Love, but again, only to those who can themselves love.
O my beloved, it is only because thou lovest that I am permitted to
514
approach thee, to enter into communion with thee, in order to lead thee the more quickly toward the fountain of love.
Love! God and Heaven live in thee, as they live in the image and heart of Jesus Christ.[155]
This was written according to your terrestrial chronology in 13 ☉ xi, 1798.
Theosophy and the Problems of Modern Life
On the 3rd July was inaugurated the new meeting room of the Blavatsky Lodge; and on that occasion were set forth its use and purpose: – for the spread of Esoteric wisdom, and as the platform from whence H. P. B. can uninterruptedly give that instruction which she alone is qualified to do.
The following week a syllabus was announced, partaking more of the nature of a debating society’s programme than the fulfilment of the above objects, and calculated moreover to give to enquirers an inaccurate impression of the truths contained in Theosophy.
It is against this syllabus we would remonstrate, humbly, but with the utmost sincerity, and in the hope that this letter may, be it ever in so slight a degree, advance the cause we mutually have at heart.
A. R.
[Our Correspondents forget that Right Living is as important a part of Theosophy as Right Thinking. The first object of the Theosophical Society becomes a sham if it is not practically carried out, and it is necessary that the attempts to carry it out should be very carefully considered, so that mistakes may be avoided. “The Relation of Theosophy to the Problems of Modern Life” is surely a suitable subject for discussion in a Lodge of the Theosophical Society. The subjects are not dealt with from the point of view of a debating society, at which they are debated generally on their merits: they are dealt with entirely from the Theosophical standpoint, and it is the application of Theosophical principles to the solution of pressing questions which is now being discussed by the Lodge. So far, the discussions have been most interesting and most useful, and the full attendances show the approval of the Lodge. As already announced, a philosophical course will follow the present. – Eds.]
Theosophy and Education
The golden phrase in Mr. Bertram Keightley’s admirable address on the above subject on Thursday, July 17th, was that in which he expressed what is or should be the true formula of all education, viz: to prepare children, by the presentation of high ideals, for the life they will be hereafter expected to lead. Is it possible to do this under the present system of school-life? The tendency of the discussion which followed Mr. Keightley’s address was to show that it is not, especially so far
515
as boys are concerned. The important question now is: Are we Theosophists prepared to do anything to better this state of things? All those who know anything of education practically, know also that the only way to effect much good, is to catch the children young. “Save the boy” must be the motto of the educational reformer, but the difficulty is to rescue him before further mischief is done, in the present state of public opinion and in face of the prestige of our great public schools. The Kindergarten has already begun the work, girls and boys being there taught together on true principles of education. But the Kindergarten training is over when the children are seven or eight years of age, when they pass into the Intermediate Classes, and the separation of sexes begins. The boys go to their preparatory schools under a master, and the girls pass into the High Schools or some private establishment. Both lose the benefit of the influence of the opposite sex, whether it be of their companions or their teachers. Now I should like to know why the plan of “mixed” education cannot be tried in England? Girls and boys associate together in their homes and in the holidays, when brothers and sisters often have their school-friends staying with them. The whole of their after life is to be passed, in the majority of cases, in the society of the opposite sex; what then is the reason that during those few years of school-life, they should be deemed unfit companions? Boys, when they go away to school, become quickly brutalised and demoralised, and learn to despise their sisters and to rebel against “petticoat government”! Girls, especially in boarding-schools, become frivolous, deceitful, fond of gossip and tale-telling, and when they leave school, are either painfully shy or absurdly infatuated with young men. Surely a more healthy and natural feeling would grow up were they educated together; the girls would acquire more robustness of character, the boys more gentleness and true chivalry. Of course some of their sports and studies would be separate, but each would soon gravitate to his or her right place. For my own part, when mistress of a day-school, I always kept the little boys as long as possible, and was never happier than when I had two or three children of both sexes boarding with me. There was never any difficulty either in their games or their studies; how should there be, since it was Dame Nature’s own arrangement?
If Theosophists would be bold enough to make this new departure, I think much good might come of it. And if any response should be made to this suggestion, it might be possible to try something. There are many practical educators amongst us, and no nobler work could possibly be undertaken, for such a school would be a seed-bed for the young Theosophic Shoots, whose early inculcated principles would be swamped in schools where “chapel” is a daily routine and soon becomes a mockery.
Asthma and Blood Fumes
Could either of our able editors afford me the information whether there is an occult explanation or otherwise of the fact that people suffering from asthma obtain almost immediate relief by the inhalation of the fumes arising from freshly spilled blood. The instances that have been brought under my notice have been with reference to the blood of animals, so that I do not know whether other blood would have a similar effect. But I was so much surprised to learn of this peculiar effect of freshly spilled blood upon asthma, that I thought it might prove of interest to the readers of Lucifer if the subject was ventilated through its columns.
Neptune
516
Our Budget
The last statement under this head was in March, and carried the account up to January. The last entry was wrong, in consequence of £5 being entered in error to the credit of Lucifer in the office accounts. The loss on the January number should have been £7 1s.
| Loss on issue | £ | s. | d. |
|---|---|---|---|
| February | 9 | 3 | 9 |
| March[156] | 10 | 0 | 3 |
| April | 8 | 7 | 0 |
| May[156] | 13 | 8 | 4 |
| June | 7 | 9 | 1 |
Further, payments have been made: under an advertising contract which has nearly expired, of £5 13s. 4d.; for the Lavater letters from St. Petersburgh, £5; and £4 for some literary work done by a Theosophist.
Lastly, Lucifer has still to receive payment from America for copies sent there on sale, and has the sixmonthly volumes to sell, after the issue of the present number. Received: R. S. Benson, £1. The balance sheet for the year will be published next month.
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Already acknowledged | 931 | 3 | 3 |
| H. T. Edge | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 936 | 3 | 3 |
Deeds have been drawn up vesting the Headquarters in the hands of Trustees, for the service of the Theosophical cause under the direction of H. P. B. The full particulars, with names of Trustees, etc., will be published in our next issue. It is hoped that friends will now quickly complete the sum necessary to discharge all accounts.
A. J. W. – £0 5s. 0d.
517
A Protest Against Agnosticism
THIS volume contains many striking and suggestive thoughts; but regarded as a contribution to philosophical literature can hardly be considered as satisfactory. The writer seems to hover between the extreme of ultra-idealistic metaphysic on the one hand, and the realism of the modern school of “modified materialism” on the other. Claiming objective validity for the laws of thought, even the formal rules of logic, we yet find the authoress speaking of “neurotic diagrams”, and granting the real existence of the physical world. Combined with some display of philosophical learning, we yet find her reasoning and writing on the assumption of the actual existence of a personal, anthropomorphic deity, “in whose image man was made”. Coupled with this, we find a theory of “spiritual attractions” between the sexes, somewhat after the style of the late Lawrence Oliphant, and the work concludes with the strange argument that there must be a personal, self-conscious, infinite and omnipotent deity, because otherwise the human instinct of prayer would be “logically out of court”. An argument this, which could be applied with equal validity to prove the logically impossible, seeing that our feelings are very often contrary to logic.
Whether such a work will do any one good is a question; but it does contain, as already remarked, suggestive “points” and valuable thoughts.
Essais de Philosophie et de Littérature
This little work, written in bright and charming style, with true French clearness of expression and lucidity of treatment, consists of essays on Education; the Experimental Method; the True Functions of the State; the Genius of the French and English nations; the Philosophy of Fashion; the Literature of the Future; William Pitt and Fox; concluding with Thoughts and Aphorisms.
Concerning the first three nothing more need be said than they are superficial aperçus of great subjects, which are dismissed in a manner too light and airy for things so serious. As the characteristic of the French genius M. Sigogne seizes upon irony, as forming the basis, the substance, of a Frenchman’s character, while to the Englishman he assigns humor, selecting Swift as its typical expression. Philosophising gravely and seriously about Fashion, utilising the historical and comparative method with a fine point of irony, he makes us smile, with a tinge of bitterness; sigh, half with contempt half with sorrow; at the folly and vanity of human life as we all see it around us. Juxtaposed to serious topics in true French, that is Voltairean style, we may learn from, as well as smile at, the emptiness of a life devoted to Fashion. In strong contrast stands the essay on the Literature of the Future, destined, says the author, under the reflex action of Wagner’s genius in music, to surpass all the past and to embody itself, most probably, in dramatic form. His study of the character of William Pitt is marked by a fairness and appreciative understanding of a national opponent worthy of 518imitation; but his sympathies are naturally and rightly far more with Fox than his rival.
The character of the concluding chapter may be judged from the following specimens:
“The fear of death arises from our not knowing how to live.”
“Each man is only a more or less obscured and incomplete manifestation of the human mind, which expresses itself completely in humanity; and the human mind is but an infinitesimal spark of the divine, the primitive cause, of which the universe is the effect.”
“Far from fearing death, we should be curious to die.”
“Every epoch has its dominant illusion; once it was glory, honor; to-day it is wealth.”
“I think, therefore I suffer.”
In the Pronaos of the Temple
We are glad to announce a fresh work from the prolific pen of Dr. F. Hartmann, already so well known by his previous works to all Theosophists. Dr. Hartmann has always taken a great interest in the writings of the Rosicrucians, and his present work he gives as the result of his studies in this most interesting field of research. The full title of the work shows the scope of the doctor’s enquiry. It is “In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom, containing the History of the True and False Rosicrucians: with an Introduction into the Mysteries of the Hermetic Philosophy”. The first five chapters of the eight contained in the book, are devoted to the teachings of the Neoplatonists, Mediæval Philosophers, “Adepts” and Rosicrucian “Orders”. These difficult matters are treated in a simple and straightforward manner, and there is always something “to take away” with one. In dealing with the “Rosicrucians”, Dr. Hartmann puts himself outside the wearisome controversies with which we are so familiar, and declares that “the true Rosicrucians, whether they still walk upon the earth in a visible form, or whether they inhabit the astral plane, are spiritual powers, such as are beyond the reach of examination of the externally reasoning historian or scientist”. The two concluding chapters are in the form of an appendix and “were originally intended to form the basis of a separate work entitled A Key to the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians”. From them we learn about the Rosicrucian rules, jewels, symbols, duties, and secret signs. The interpretations, we are glad to see, are from the ethical stand point. A copy of the Smaragdine Table, a treatise on Alchemy and some Hermetic Axioms complete a very readable and interesting volume.
La Théosophie
The above work is by a writer, well known in France, the fact of whose membership in the Theosophical Society is sufficient to show that his treatment of the subject will be both able and fair. The dearth of works upon Theosophy proper in France is so great that even a production lacking in literary merit would be welcome; much more so then a volume like the present. It has two main divisions, the first containing a general sketch of the positions of modern science on the fundamental questions of the origins of the world, life, mind, etc. This part of the work is cleverly and brightly written, with more claim to accuracy than most popular presentations of such topics can boast. In six chapters 519the author shows the application of the great conception of Evolution to the Kosmos and man, sketching under the latter head, the evolution of religion, language, social institution and philosophy. Some hasty generalisations and one or two graver errors diminish the value of these chapters, but on the whole they form what to many of the pseudo-scientists, of to-day will be an appropriate introduction to those which follow them. These last six chapters are devoted to the subject of Theosophy, which is very clearly and concisely dealt with, following strictly the lines of Mr. Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism”. Indeed, the first five chapters are virtually lucid summaries of that work, while the concluding chapter gives an outline of the history and organisation of the Theosophical Society, disfigured by very inferior reproductions of portraits of Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky.
On the whole this work, in spite of its preserving and indeed exaggerating the too materialistic bias of “Esoteric Buddhism”, is a valuable addition to Theosophical literature in French, and will be of service to the cause it is designed to aid.
Theosophical Activities: Ceylon
Our brother Dr. J. Bowles Daly is setting the example of admirable work in Ceylon, one of the latest proofs of his practical enthusiasm being the championing of the cause of the lepers at Colombo. We cut the following from the Ceylon Times of June 28th. It is prefaced by a note of the Doctor asking, in the face of the well-known Churchianity of the Ceylon Press, simply for fair play. The Times, thus challenged, prints our brother’s appeal, at the same time protecting its orthodoxy with the declaration: “We have no sympathy with and cannot undertake to listen to the chimerical and Will-of-the-wisp gospel of Theosophy”. We wonder what “Christianity” would have said of Father Damien had he been a Theosophist! However, we are very content with the industry with which orthodoxy is hammering the nails into her own coffin.
The Doctor’s appeal runs as follows: –
“Some weeks ago, I visited the Leper Asylum near Colombo. Several of the invalids came down to the beach to receive me, and I was conducted to their Hall. At first I noticed nothing offensive in the large group of men, women and children who surrounded me, numbering about 200; on closer inspection I perceived that the feet and hands of nearly all were closely swathed in cotton bandages. They were pleased to see me; none, however, offered to shake hands. The Doctor took me over the wards, which were all clean and well kept. I noticed one case of black leprosy; the fingers and toes had dropped off, and all the body was covered with black scales that even showed on his brown skin. For the most part they lose feeling in the extremities, will hold a hot object in their hands till a blister is raised; this immediately becomes ulcerated, and finally assumes a loathsome appearance. On entering the Hall, I requested them to sit round while I spoke to them. In doing so, I perceived a fine elderly man with a noble appearance, notwithstanding he was totally blind and had to hold a handkerchief constantly to his mouth to hide a terrible flow of saliva. This man was chief of the Lepers, for twenty-six years he has been a victim, during all that time he has led his afflicted brethren in all good deeds, constituting himself their friend, father and religious adviser. I spoke to them of the precepts of Lord Buddha and exhorted them on the tenets dear to the heart of every true Buddhist. A solemn cry of Sadu! Sadu! uttered with clasped, uplifted hands was frequently interjected. There ran through this expression of encouragement a minor chord which touched me like the notes of
520
a violin. It spoke of sorrow bravely borne, so sad and yet so beautiful: the grim isolation of their disease did not make them forget the balm of their beautiful faith, doubly dear coming from the lips of a European. I never addressed a more earnest audience. Suffering of every kind I have witnessed, both on the battle field and in the London slum, but never did my heart go out more warmly in sympathy than it did to those poor brothers and sisters, who are in the world but not of it. The Doctor assured me that no restriction was practised, they were free to come and go as they pleased. Some availed themselves of this liberty and went for a while, some returning on finding they were not wanted. Practically, those who came remained till a higher summons recalled the spirit from its loathsome shell. Can any condition be more desolate, than to find that wife, sister, brother, child, ‘no one wants me’.?
“I asked them to tell me how I could help them. They assured me that all their material wants were supplied by a beneficent Government and their good Doctor. There was only one thing they needed, and this they could only solicit at the hands of those who loved their religion and honored their great Teacher. Their little shrine was old and tottering; they wanted to restore it. Then they took me round and showed me the poor little place, which they built themselves lovingly and laboriously, picking the nicest stones from the shore and the bed of the river. The simplicity and piety of their devotion touched my heart. I promised to acquaint my friends in England with their request, and assured them that they should have a new shrine to make their offerings, and keep their hearts pure though their bodies were soiled with disease. Great credit is also due to the excellent medical officer, Dr. Meier. He is both largehearted and sympathetic, and his services ought to be substantially recognized by the Government.
“Since that visit, business called me to India. On my return, I find a petition reminding me of my promise. As the cause is urgent, I shall open a list for subscriptions and appeal to the kind-hearted in the Island to help me to brighten the remaining days or months of those poor brethren so terribly blighted.”
The Theosophical Society in Europe
The President Founder, Colonel H. S. Olcott, has sent the following order: –
Adyar, Madras, July 9th, 1890.
To secure a better management of the Society’s affairs throughout Europe, than I can give from this distance, I do hereby depute to my co-founder, H. P. Blavatsky, full authority to come to an agreement with the Branches of the United Kingdom, Greece, France, Austria, and Holland, and the non-official groups in Spain, Russia, and other Continental countries, for the consolidation of the whole into one Section of the Theosophical Society; and to take the general supervision over and have as full management of the same as I could myself. Provided
(1.) That the formation of the said section shall be agreed to by three-fourths of the whole number of Branches and non-official groups.
(2.) That the constitution of the said section shall fully recognize the three declared objects of the Theosophical Society and no bye-laws be enacted in violation of the same.
(3.) That the said European section shall have complete autonomy to the same extent as the American section. Branches receiving copies of this order are requested to put themselves in official correspondence with Madame Blavatsky.
Theosophical Activities: England, Ireland and America
This prompt acquiescence in the wish expressed by the Theosophists in Europe will bind them yet more closely to the President Founder.
521
London. – The Lodge meetings at Headquarters during the last month have been very fully attended, and the discussions on the questions set down for study have been exceptionally interesting and instructive. The Lodge meets at 19 Avenue Road, Regent’s Park, every Thursday evening, at 8.30, and cards of admittance can be obtained from any member.
Madame Blavatsky receives on Monday and Friday evenings only. During the day she is too closely occupied to see visitors, and the other evenings are given to Theosophical work.
Any member of the Theosophical Society can share the common meals at Headquarters on payment of 1s. for breakfast, lunch, or tea, and of 1s. 6d. for dinner. Notice should, if possible, be sent to the Housekeeper beforehand. Resident Visitors can be admitted, if there is a room vacant, on payment of 30s. a week into the Headquarters Maintenance Fund.
A meeting for enquirers is held every Monday evening at the rooms of the British Section, 7 Duke Street, Strand, at 7.30 p.m. On Tuesdays, at 8.30 p.m., there is a meeting at 345 Mile End Road, E. On Fridays, at 8.30 p.m., the Brixton Lodge meets at the Ferndale Liberal Club, Bedford Road (close to Clapham Road Station, L.C.D.R.).
A Lending Library has just been formed at Battersea under the charge of Mr. J. P. Dowling, 11 York Road, Battersea. A Lodge is also in process of formation in this district, and a class for study, meeting on Sunday evenings, has been commenced.
The Countess Wachtmeister begs to acknowledge the gift of £5 towards her Library Fund from an unknown friend. The system she has hitherto carried out, and will hope to continue in the future, is the following; as soon as a nucleus of people interested in Theosophy is formed in any part of England, she at once forwards books to lay the foundation of a Lending Library, and she finds that the charging of the small sum of 2d. a week for the perusal of each book enables the purchase of more books, and the Library grows apace. From the same kind friend the Countess has received some rare and interesting books which will be added to the T. P. S. Lending Library, 7 Duke Street, and she begs to add the thanks of all the readers to her own to the unknown benefactor.
The Press Department of the British Section, Theosophical Society is not as well served by the Fellows as it should be. Every Theosophist who sees, in any paper, any reference to matters Theosophical, is requested to immediately send a marked copy of the paper to Mrs. Cleather, 19 Gayton Road, Harrow-on-the-Hill. Each Fellow is asked to regard this as a personal duty, to be rigidly discharged.
Many of our readers may have seen a scandalous libel, which appeared in several English newspapers, on Mr. Bertram Keightley, then absent in America. Mr. Keightley returned home to prosecute the libellers, and writs were issued against Captain Pfoundes and the papers that had inserted the libel. All of these papers, save two, have apologized, and have paid small damages to avoid further proceedings. These sums, amounting to between £250 and £300 will, after all legal costs have been deducted, be paid over into one of the Theosophical funds.
It has also been decided to prosecute Professor Elliot Coues and the New York Sun for making and publishing the statement that Madame Blavatsky has been guilty of gross immorality. This falsehood is one among a mass of cruel and injurious statements, most of which are of a nature which admits of neither proof nor disproof, and many of which turn on questions of psychical experience on which no jury could be trusted to decide. This one lie, however, is entirely “on the exoteric plane”, and is not a matter of opinion but a question of fact. For the sake of the Society, which would be prejudiced by the slander, it has been decided to prosecute, and writs have been issued. As Madame Blavatsky is editor 522of this journal, and as she is seeking legal remedy, nothing can be said here beyond this dry statement of facts.
Manchester. – Persons who are interested in the special teachings of Theosophy are invited to communicate with the President of the Liverpool Lodge, Sydney G. P. Coryn, Halewood Mount, Southport Road, Freshfield, Liverpool, with the view of establishing a centre in Manchester for the reading and discussion of Theosophical literature and tenets. To such as have found theology as now taught, or religion as at present practised, to be inconsistent in themselves; to such as are filled with a sense of the great importance of solving the problem of human existence; and to such as have failed to square their conceptions of Divine Providence, and Justice, with the misery and suffering by which they are daily surrounded, we make a special appeal. It is to be hoped that such will not deny themselves, nor evade, the impartial examination of a philosophy which offers a solution of the most pressing questions which can beset the human mind.
Dublin. – We are glad to announce that the habitat of the Dublin Lodge has been changed from Lower Leeson Street to more commodious premises at No. 105 Stephen Street, South. We have to compliment the members of the Lodge upon the activity which has accentuated the need for further accommodation, and in expressing the hope that it will lead to a proportionate increase of active workers for Theosophy, we feel that we are only representing the intentions of those of our Fellows in Dublin who have not already had the fullest opportunity for united work. All official letters should in future be directed to the Secretary, at the above address. The office of secretary is now held by Mr. Fred. J. Dick, who has been appointed to fill this position, which had become vacant upon the return of Mr. C. F. Wright to the Head Quarters of the Society in London.
Baltimore, Md. – A charter has been issued for a new Branch entitled Hermes Council, Theosophical Society, President, Mr. Chas, F. Silliman; Secretary, Mr. Wm. H. Numsen, 18 Light Street.
New Orleans, La. – A new Branch has been organised, to be known as the Vyasa Theosophical Society, chiefly owing to the energy of Mr. Carl. F. Redwitz, formerly President of the Krishna Theosophical Society, Philadelphia.
Kearney, Neb. – A Branch charter has been issued to the Theosophists of this city.
Theosophy for Children.
“The most severely felt want of Theosophy at this epoch is unquestionably a literature for children. We have absolutely nothing. This is in part because any fresh intellectual movement must of necessity address itself in the first place to adults, but in part, also, because the power to interest the young is of extreme rarity. It is incomparably easier to give a scientific lecture than to address a Sunday school. And yet Theosophy must have its comprehensible side to a child, or else childhood must be handed over to either the orthodox or the nothingarians, Truth having later to make its way through careless indifference or over the débris of collapsed creeds. He who makes the content of Theosophy intelligible and winsome to a child does a service which it is hard to match and impossible to overrate.
“The editor of the Path has the great satisfaction of being able to announce to American Theosophists that his honored co-laborer, Mrs. J. Campbell Ver Planck, has promised to add four more children’s stories to the three with which she has already favored them. Those heretofore published in the Path are ‘How the Christ-Child was born’, (January, 1889); ‘Fohat’s Playground’, (January, 1890); and ‘Carlo’s Game’, (May 1890). The four in contemplation are upon the
523
topics of Karma, Re-incarnation, ‘The Wonder Light’, and (probably) Universal Brotherhood. It is intended that these seven shall be published in book form at as early a date as practicable, the work being done upon the Aryan Press, and the price being thereby made as low as is compatible with neatness and durability. Full particulars will hereafter appear. If Theosophists make a point of buying and circulating this little volume to such an extent that its cost shall be covered, it is further purposed to issue a second book by Mrs. Ver Planck, the subject to be ‘The Adventures of an Atom’, and the design an epitome of Theosophical teaching adapted to childhood in form and expression. Nor is this all. The same author has in view a Theosophical catechism for children, intended for home use and for the Sunday schools which will be the sooner established if they have something to work with. If the Path exhibits signs of elation at this prospect, no one need smile. They will be entirely justified when the books appear.”
[Lucifer has also the great satisfaction and pleasure of announcing the above to his readers, and his feelings of elation are no whit less than those of the Path.]
Theosophical Society Correspondence Staff
Preamble; The great number of inquiries received by the General Secretary have shown the necessity for more attention being paid to this class of letters, whether from members of the Society or otherwise, than he or his immediate assistants have been able to give. To meet this, and at the same time to give to earnest, capable Theosophists the chance to do good work, it has been determined:
1st. – To organise a Correspondence Staff.
2nd. – That the headquarters of the Staff shall be the address of the General Secretary, and that he shall keep a record of the Staff, and of the work.
3rd. – That the General Secretary will give to the Staff-members from time to time, the names of persons who desire to enter on Theosophical correspondence.
4th. – That the members of the Staff will correspond with such inquirers on Theosophical topics and no others, except in cases of private correspondence, and that postage will be paid by the inquirers and Staff-members themselves.
5th. – That the paper used in this work shall be dated from the office of the General Secretary, and may or may not be furnished by him, as shall seem best.
6th. – That the Staff-members may use, if they see fit, a nom de plume, in which case their names shall not be given to correspondents.
7th. – That the staff in beginning any correspondence shall disclaim any authoritative utterances.
If you wish to enter into this please inform the General Secretary.
General Secretary T. S.
[A similar scheme is being set on foot in England. – Eds.]
Libel by Dr. Coues and “New York Sun”
In the New York Sun of Sunday, July 19th, appeared an article by Dr. Elliott Coues of Washington, D. C., purporting to be an interview with a reporter, and consisting of voluminous and minute attacks upon the Theosophical Society, Col. Olcott, Madame Blavatsky, and myself. The language is coarse and violent and the animus of the writer is so plainly disclosed, that it might as well serve as an ample answer to the attack. Inasmuch, however, as certain moral charges cannot be permitted utterance with impunity, I have brought suit for libel against both Dr. Coues and the Sun, and am awaiting instructions from Madame Blavatsky as to her own course. In the meantime it is proper to recall to members of the Theosophical Society, and not less so to others interested, the following facts: –
1st. That Dr. Coues repeatedly threatened me in the time past that, unless made President of the American Section of the Theosophical Society, he would withdraw his own followers from the Section and break it up.
524
2nd. That in letters to Madame Blavatsky of Dec. 25th, 1888, April 16th, 1889, and April 17th, 1889, he assures her of his devotion and friendship, but in that of April 16th repeats the threat that unless made President he will withdraw his followers and break up the Society.
3rd. That until June 22nd, 1889, Dr. Coues continued as a member of the Theosophical Society and as Acting-President of the local Branch in Washington.
4th. That on that date he was, by a unanimous vote of the Executive Committee of the American section, expelled from the Theosophical Society for defamation of character and untheosophical conduct.
His correspondence with Madame Blavatsky, together with other letters of like kind, was printed in a pamphlet on June 14th, 1889, and a copy of this pamphlet will now be sent to any one enclosing a stamp to my address.
P. O. Box 2659,
New York.
[The Path.]
"Going To and Fro in the Earth"
THE rapid growth of interest in Hypnotism and the constant fresh discoveries made in this, the newest province of modern science, is evidenced by the appearance of the second part of Dr. Luys’ article on the subject in the current Fortnightly. Dr. Luys gives a lucid sketch of “Suggestion” illustrated with some very striking instances; but the most remarkable novelty would seem to be his discovery that in 35 per cent. of people on the average a peculiar state called “fascination” can be induced mechanically by the use of a revolving mirror. This state of fascination seems to be a juxtaposition of the basic hypnotic states of catalepsy and somnambulism. In the state of fascination, the patient is peculiarly receptive to “suggestion” which may be made to operate automatically, subsequent to his restoration to normal consciousness.
The possibility of inducing such a state by purely mechanical means in so large a proportion of people, opens up new and alarming dangers in our present condition of social and moral disintegration – dangers even more terrible than those already frequently pointed out in Lucifer.
Special interest also attaches to Dr. Luys’ repeated and emphatic confirmation of Reichenbach’s observation that persons in the “mesmeric” or hypnotic condition could perceive what he terms an “odic light” radiating from the poles of a magnet. Thus modern science at last condescends “tentatively” to confirm one of the best known teachings of occult science – en attendant the time when it will be obliged to accept its fundamental doctrines as a whole.
Attention must also be called to Dr. Luys’ account of the transfer of such abnormal nervous conditions as hemiplegia, partial paralysis, hysterical contraction, etc. from the afflicted person to a “sensitive”, who on being re-awakened appears none the worse for the operation, while the sufferer is at least temporarily and often permanently benefited by it. But whether the non-appearance of bad symptoms in the sensitive can be taken to show that he is in reality none the worse for the operation, is a point upon which Occultism would have something to say.
At the British Medical Association Meeting at Birmingham, Dr. Norman Kerr 525read a paper on Hypnotism to the Psychological Section. He accepted the phenomena as facts and then, in considering the question, “Is hypnotism a desirable and justifiable remedy?” he took up the following positions: –
“1. Only a limited number of persons were susceptible. 2. The after effect was a disturbance of mental balance, a dissipation of nerve energy, and nerve exhaustion. Frequent repetition was apt to cause deterioration of brain and nerve function, intellectual decadence, and moral perversion. 3. Hypnosis was a departure from health, a deseased state. 4. Hypnosis was a true neurosis, embracing the lethargic, cataleptic, and somnambulistic states. Thus, if a disease were cured by hypnotism, this would be only by substituting another disease. The suffering was sometimes temporarily assuaged by hypnotic suggestion, but the underlying disease was not necessarily cured by hypnotic anæsthesia, though evanescent oblivion might be secured, 5. The lethal power of the morbid disorder, of which the pain was a merciful, if unwelcome, messenger, was in most cases increased. 6. The dangers of hypnotism were very great. Each séance might bring the hypnotee more under the control of the hypnotist, ending often in the complete submission of the former to the will of the latter. A jelly-fish slavery, without mental or moral backbone, was infinitely worse than days of pain and nights of agony. There were many wrecked lives through mesmerism. 7. An elective and subtle activity, ending in disaster, might develop between operator and operated upon. 8. In the lethargic and cataleptic states criminal assaults had been committed by medical men, who had been convicted and punished. In the somnambulistic state subjects had been compelled by the operator’s behest to commit crime. So serious were these evils that French surgeons had been prohibited from practising hypnotism in the army and navy. 9. It is not desirable that the control of any one's thoughts and actions should be in the keeping of a fallible fellow mortal.”
We cut the following from the Globe of July 29th, 1890: –
“Théophile Gautier, describing the effects of hashish, wrote, “My hearing was prodigiously clear. I could distinguish the color of sound. Green, red, yellow, and blue sounds reached me in perfectly distinct undulations”. Gautier was a poet, and those words of his may have appeared to many as the result of an overwrought imagination. He was, however, laboring under no delusion; colored sound is by no means a metaphor. It is, according to certain German savants, an absolutely true physiological fact. The proportion of persons, they say, having the faculty of coloring sound is 10 per cent. – which seems to us to be an exaggerated number – and herein consists the phenomenon. For all who possess that faculty every audative sensation, noise, spoken word, or melody is represented by a distinct color. An indefinite sound produces only an ill-defined, grey, sombre image, as in the instance of a cannon, which fired from afar causes only an unsatisfied sensation, devoid of color; but when the report is sharp, clear, and near, the color evolved becomes distinct. According to Dr. Baratoux, speech is represented by a uniform color for each person having the faculty of coloring sound, blue being the prevailing one, and then yellow and red- Green voices are scarce. The voice of a young girl conveys the impression of an azure blue, and that of a grown woman is of a violet tint. The speech of women with masculine voices produces a sensation akin in color to indigo. The tenor’s voice is light chestnut, the baritone's is dark blue, and the basso's is quite black. The soprano’s is bright red, and the contralto's is dark chestnut. As a rule, low deep voices have a darker coloring than clear sharp voices. These are usually pale blue, while medium ordinary voices are yellow tinted. The color evolved by vowels is not uniformly the same. According to some German savants the a is black, the i is red, and the o is white. Others say that the e is yellow, and that the u is either blue or green, according to circumstances of pronunciation,
“Musical instruments produce colored sensations of a particular kind. The sound of brass instruments is red: that of the clarinette is yellow: that of the violin and piano is blue; and that of the big drum is dark brown. The color evolved by the notes of the gamut played on any instrument is proportionately brilliant or dull, according to the more or less high or low tones produced. In singing, the color evolved depends occasionally on the particular vowel used, as in do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si; and it is said that a distinguished
526
contralto always realised an azure-blue from do, a rose-color from re, a bright yellow from mi, a deep blue from fa, a red from sol, a violet from la, and a coffee-brown from si.
“It is assumed that the color evolved by the sight and sound of figures would enable certain persons to solve arithmetical problems by a combination of colors. It would be scarcely safe to entrust one's accounts to calculators of that kind. A specimen of the genus admits that zero conveys no distinct color to his mind, and that 2, to 2,000 produces in him the self same luminous colored sensation. The figure 1 suggests a black color, 2 a pearl-grey, 3 a yellow, 4 a decided grey, 5 a deep chocolate, 6 a pink, 7 a blue, 8 a red, and 9 a white.
“There are other peculiarities in connexion with the theory of color in sound still more singular than the foregoing. For example, it is contended that every language can be characterized by a combination of colors pertinent to itself. French is silver-grey, English is dark-grey, and German is mouse-grey. Languages spoken in the South of Europe are of brighter colors. Spanish is a mixture of carmine and yellow, with coruscating tints and ‘metallic sparkle’, whatever that may be, and Italian is a mixture of yellow, carmine, and black, with soft tints of other colors to harmonize. Another believer in this theory assimilates Christian names to colors. John suggests a pale red, Joseph a dark blue, Louise a pale blue. Lucy suggests a yellow, and Marius, and all names ending in us, a green.
“Now, how shall we explain these phenomena? It is certain there is a close relationship between the senses which admits of their exercising an influence over each other. Color-hearing is evidently the result of a special condition of sensuous excitability. It should not, however, be considered a morbid symptom, although it may be considered as closely akin to psychical irregularity. A case is cited of a person on whom the sound of the letter o produced at one and the same time a sensation of suffocating heat, and of fear as of being thrown down a precipice. However it may be, there is no doubt that science justifies, up to a certain point, one of the pretensions of the school of ‘impressionists’, which maintains the association, under certain physical conditions, of sounds with light and color. But these too suggestive impressionists should bear in mind that those colored sounds are really exceptional effects, which the majority of people certainly fail to notice.”
The above facts corroborate the experiments of Mr. Francis Galton, who, however, carried his observations upon the interchangeability of the senses a stage further. For in his “Inquiry into Human Faculty”, he gives a number of cases in which individuals associated not only sounds, but also numbers and geometrical forms with definite and invariable shades of color. Such observations are of interest from the Theosophical standpoint, as confirming the teaching concerning the senses, given by Madame Blavatsky in the Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge, Part 1, pp. 37 and 38. They go even farther and distinctly suggest the real existence of a “sixth sense” which is the root of our present five, and which unites and synthesizes them all in one. For to this sixth sense, the deliverances of the lower five would naturally be interchangeable, and its own deliverances would of course tend to translate themselves into terms of one or more of the lower five.
Solidarity
We are all members of one body, and the man who endeavors to supplant and destroy another man is like the right hand seeking to cut off the left through jealousy. He who kills another slays himself; he who steals from another defrauds himself; he who wounds another maims himself; for others exist in us and we in them.
The rich weary themselves, detest each other, and turn in disgust from life, their wealth itself tortures and burns them, because there are poor in want of bread. The weariness of the rich is the distress of the poor.
527
Theosophical and Mystic Publications
THE THEOSOPHIST for July opens with an introduction to the series of lectures which E. D. Fawcett is giving at Adyar. The title is “Rationalized Mysticism” and the objects proposed are – “(a) to revive independence of thinking, neglect of which means a self-inflicted injury, and (b) the tentative laying of the rational or inductive basis of mysticism”. The latter object is qualified by the writer, who adds: “I say ‘mysticism’, but mysticism if rationalised becomes in actual truth a spiritual philosophy or metaphysic”. Mr. Fawcett proposes to establish a philosophy of mysticism by the inductive method, which will be useful as supplementing the work of Du Prel. We should, however, have been better pleased if the attempt had been initiated with less pretention, and with greater respect for methods of which Mr. Fawcett has had no experience. We therefore take exception to the tone of some of the writer’s observations. As humanity must stand or fall together, too great an accentation of “independence” is, to say the least of it, unwise. Experience, however, will inevitably correct this attitude. In fact the writer seems to have a premonition of the “no man’s land” to which he would thus propose to journey, when he says: “It is not every mind which can resolutely set before itself ‘truth for its own sake’, and then proceed to strive cheerlessly against the tornado of sceptical misgivings, or possibly eke out its spiritual life in the desert of a metaphysical agnosticism”. Rationalised physical sensation will not discover “truth for its own sake”; there is a third factor by which alone the “Heart Doctrine” can be learned, and which can change self-reliance for Self-reliance. Nevertheless we look forward with interest to the forthcoming lectures and hope that they will, at least, succeed in “defining the problem”.
“The Snake-Charmer’s Song” is an interesting paper by “H. S. O.”, on the mantrams and rites used by Pambottis, or snake-charmers. Most of the information as to these mantrams is derived through Mr. K. Narayanswami Aiyer, F.T.S., of Kumbakonam, from an old Tamil work called “Pambotti Siddha Padal”. This work is capable of a dual interpretation. Taken literally it applies to the charming of snakes, while from a higher interpretation, as our President says, “it may be read as one series of practical instructions to a neophyte entering the higher paths of Occultism”.
The excellent translation of the “Varaha-Upanished of the Krishna-Yajur Veda”, by the Kumbakonam T. S. is continued. Mrs. Cotton contributes a paper on Cheirosophy or Palmistry. “Personal Experience of Scottish Second Light” is an interesting paper by J. W. Brodie-Innes. The translation of the “Vedantavartikam” by B. P. Narasimmiah, is continued, and deserves very careful study, which will amply repay the serious student. Brother Dnunjibhoy Jamsetjee Medhora contributes a very learned paper on the “First Day of the Parsee Year”, which will be of great interest to astrological or astronomical students. The most striking feature of this number of the Theosophist is an excellently executed photograph of the founders by the Monochrome Company.
THE PATH for July introduces us to a very powerful paper by Edward Maitland against the horrors of vivisection. Under the title of “The Modern Inquisition” the writer continues with great earnestness the campaign which he and his late colleague, the lamented Dr. Anna Kingsford, sustained against this legalised inhumanity. The article entitled “True Progress; Is it aided by watching the Astral Light?” is very opportune. The following questions and answers are worth repeating:
“‘Has the Astral Light no power to teach, and, if not, why is it thus? And are there other dangers than what I have discovered?
“‘No power has the astral plane, in itself, to teach you. It contains the impressions made by men in their ignorance and folly. Unable to arouse the true thoughts, they continue to infect that light with the voice of their unguided lives. And you, or any
528
other seer, looking therein, will warp and distort all that you find there. It will present to you pictures that partake largely of your own constitutional habits, weaknesses, and peculiarities. Thus you only see a distorted or exaggerated copy of yourself. It will never teach you the reason of things, for it knows them not.
“‘But stranger dangers than any you have met are there when one goes further on. The dweller of the threshold is there, made up of all the evil that man has done. None can escape its approach, and he who is not prepared is in danger of death, of despair, or of moral ruin. Devote yourself, therefore, to spiritual aspiration and to true devotion, which will be a means for you to learn the causes that operate in nature, how they work, and what each one works upon.’”
“The Kali Yuga in Hindu Chronology”, is a carefully written and studious paper. A short contribution on “Practical Theosophy” is sensible and to the point. “Of Propounding Theosophy” is a paper dealing with the fact that the mind of every man differs from that of every other, and that, therefore, the methods of propounding Theosophy must be as varied as the minds of those to whom it has to be presented.
Le Lotus Bleu, in addition to the continued translations, contains some extracts from Isis Unveiled, dealing with some of the phenomena of so-called spiritualism, an article entitled “Le Maillet du Maître” by J. L., and also some interesting notes by Guymiot.
The Buddhist for June continues its programme, and manfully defends the ancestral faith of the followers of Gautama against all comers, and its membership from missionary exploitation. The contributions are decidedly interesting, especially the “Excursion Notes” of Dr. J. Bowles Daly, who is making a useful tour round the island.
Theosofie en de Theosofische Vereeniging is the title of a pamphlet published in Amsterdam by one of our real […]ers[161], containing a translation of part of the T. P. S. pamphlet, entitled: “Bertram Keightley’s lectures in America”, together with some other matter.
The Theosophical Forum, No 13, continues its useful work in answering questions from all comers. So far sixty-four questions have been answered, and let us hope sixty-four misconceptions cleared away from the minds of the querists.
Department of Branch Work, papers 1 and 2. This is a new departure inaugurated by brother William Q. Judge, and consists of the publication of papers read at Branch meetings, copies of which are sent to every branch in the American section. The first two papers are respectively entitled, “The Second and Third objects of the Theosophical Society as Related to the First”, by B. Keightley, and “Soul and Spirit”, by Miss Kate Hillard, both papers being read before the Aryan T. S. of New York. With the second paper is also published the substance of an address delivered by B. Keightley to the same branch on “The Evolution of the Soul”. Both papers are of great interest. It is rumored that attempts are being made to import some of the loaves and fishes of our American brothers into Europe.
Theosophical Tract Series, No. 4. Our Bombay Fellows continue their good work by publishing “The Philosophy of Happiness” as their fourth pamphlet; its object being “to show from an examination of the nature of happiness, that true happiness lies in the practice of virtue and in that alone, and that the idea of being happy without being virtuous is a delusion and a snare”.
We are glad to notice that Col. Olcott is printing and distributing what Le Lotus Bleu would call tirages à part of articles in the Theosophist.
Life’s more than breath, and the quick round of blood; |
| “Festus.” |
Footnotes
- ↑ Paulo V actually styled himself Vice-Deo. One is reminded of Caligula of some sixteen centuries before.
- ↑ See Servetus and Calvin. By R. Willis, M.D. Freethought Publishing Co., London.
- ↑ Towards the end, as we ourselves mentioned in doing it. – [Eds.]
- ↑ Compiled from the Sacred Writings of the Southern Buddhists for the use of Europeans, by Subhâdra Bhikshu: London, George Redway, 1890.
- ↑ This refers to the superb ethical and rational fundamentals of Buddhism, and not to the occult teachings vouchsafed by the Bhikshu; for the latter are conspicuous by their absence.
- ↑ Catechisms of the Dwaita and Vesishtadwaita philosophies have already been published by members of the T.S.
- ↑ This term evidently is intended to represent the same idea as Buddhi conveys to the mind of a student of the Esoteric Doctrine.
- ↑ The Italics in all quotations are the Reviewer’s.
- ↑ That is to say who has reached the Nirvanic state. What then is that which remembers past lives in a Buddha, the Individuality or what?
- ↑ If the “Will to live” is that which brings about birth renewal and is moreover the “Individuality” which is subject to the Law of Karma, it is difficult to understand how any “will to live” can be a responsible entity or why such a “blind force” should have aught to do with wise or “foolish” acts. The omission of any clear statement as to the Buddhist conception of the permanent Ego is a great oversight in a book intended for the Europe of our present day. This omission causes unnecessary confusion and dwarfs the sublimity of the higher teachings of Buddhism.
- ↑ George Redway, York Street, Covent Garden.
- ↑ Experts say that it is the oldest Coptic MS. in the Museum.
- ↑ 1851, for we find in the Journal des Savants (1852, p. 333), a review of this work.
- ↑ The mystical and technical terms with which the narrative is crowded will be printed in capitals. In the Notes the abbreviation S. stands for Schwartze, and P. for Petermann. The Italics in the text are meant to draw the particular attention of the reader.
- ↑ It has been deemed advisable not to attempt any translation of this compound term. Pistis-Sophia is compounded of two substantives and, therefore, cannot be rendered La Fidèle Sagesse, as has been done by the translator or translators in the Dictionnaire des Apocryphes of the Abbé Migne’s collection. If, again, we translate it by Faith-Wisdom, doubt will arise owing to the theological meaning of the first component, an idea which is totally foreign to the Gnostic scheme.
The reason for the term Pistis will be apparent from the following quotations from the text:
“O Light, in whom I have trusted (e-pist-eusa) from the beginning, for whose sake I have undergone these great trials, help me!” (Pag. 99.)
“With confidence I trusted (pistei e-pist-eusa) in the light, and recalling me to memory he has heard my hymn. . . . . .Now, therefore, O Light, all the Rulers will see what thou hast done with me, so that they may fear and believe (pist-euosi) in the Light.” (Pag. 164.)
These passages are taken from the hymns of Pistis-Sophia to the Light.
The fundamental idea of the term Pistis will become apparent from the narrative.
- ↑ The numbers in square brackets denote the pages of the Coptic codex.
- ↑ “Was rising from the dead and passing. . . .” (S). The translation is of secondary importance; whichever rendering is adopted, the number eleven gives the key to the situation. The eleventh trial or degree of initiation had been safely passed through, and the twelfth and last which, if the candidate was successful, would crown the whole work, was now being entered upon. Hercules was to enter upon his twelfth labour, and the sun the twelfth sign of the Zodiac. Even the popular adage “at the eleventh hour,” is an echo of this mystery. In the second volume of the Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magic (pp. 386, et seqq), Eliphas Lévi gives the Nuctemeron of Appollonius of Tyana. Nuctemeron means the space of a day and a night or twenty-four hours. Each grade of initiation had two degrees, in all twenty-four. This explains “the First Mystery, which is the Four-and-Twentieth” of the text. Readers of the Abbé Constant’s work, who are ignorant of Greek, should be warned that the French below the Greek is not even the vaguest possible paraphrase, but simply Lévi’s idea about the text. He is, however, right in saying that “these twelve symbolical hours, which may be compared with the signs of the Zodiac and the labours of Hercules, represent the cycle of degrees of Initiation”. See Secret Doctrine I. 450.
- ↑ The Greek word translated by “Region” is topos; it corresponds to the Sanskrit loka. In the second volume of the Secret Doctrine, p. 174, we are told that “Sanja, the daughter of Viswakarman, married to the Sun, ‘unable to endure the fervours of her lord,” gave him her Chhaya (shadow, image, or astral body), while she herself repaired to the jungle to perform religious devotions, or Tapas”. Verb. sap.
- ↑ In Masonic Lodges the Tyler demands the sacramental words (or precepts) from the apprentice or candidate, thus repeating the ancient formulae. As Ragon, following the occult tradition, has well proved, Masonry was a forced product of the Gnostic mysteries, born of a compromise between political Christianity and Gnosticism.
- ↑ Compare: “Thou art the First Mystery looking within, thou hast come from the spaces of the Height and the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Light, and thou has descended on the Vesture of Light, which thou didst receive from Barbelo, which vesture is Jesus, our Saviour, on which thou didst descend as a Dove.” (Pag. 128.) Now, the Second Space of the First Mystery corresponds in Esoteric parlance to the second plane of consciousness from within or above, on which plane is Buddhi (the Spiritual Soul), the vehicle of Atman (Universal Spirit), the “First Mystery”, which is also “the last Mystery” in the endless cycle of emanation and reabsorption. In Egyptian Esotericism the “dove symbol” of the Gnostics was represented by the glyph of the winged globe. The dove, that descends on “Jesus” at his baptism is typical of the conscious “descent” of the “Higher Self” or Soul (Atma Buddhi) on Manas, the Higher Ego; or in other words, the union during initiation of the Christos, with Chrestos or the imperishable “Individuality” in the All, with the transcendent Personality – the adept.
- ↑ In the same way that Atma is the first or seventh principle, as previously explained.
- ↑ “Because none of them had reached that Mystery.” (S.)
- ↑ The triple Powers are an aspect of the triple Logos, and the 24 Invisibles are the 21 (7×3) emanating Rays, and their three Logoi.
- ↑ Or the Eternal unborn Powers – Aja, in Sanskrit: the Self-generated, the Anupadaka (parentless), the Self-existent – in Sanskrit, Swayambhu; and the generated, including both the emanations from higher Emanations (4th plane), and those Dhyan Chohans and Devas who have been men, i.e., already gone through the Manasic cycle.
- ↑ The “eternal celibates”, the Kumaras; literally those without a Syzygy, double, pair, mate or counterpart. It is the Hierarchy of the Kumaras which incarnates in man as his Higher Ego or Manas.
- ↑ Sc. of the Projections. On pagg. 190 and 191 the scale of the twelve Saviours is given. The first seven preside over the projections or emanations of the seven Voices, Vowels, or Amens, and the last five over the five Trees; they are all of the Treasure of Light (11, 14).
- ↑ The “Child of the Child” is Manas, the child of Buddhi on a higher plane, and the lower Manas, the child of the higher, on an inferior semi-human plane. The “twins” are the dual Manas, in Esotericism.
- ↑ The “Three Amens” are: the upper triad in Septenary man; the region of the “Five Trees” is the earth and localities wherein the actual and past Five Root-races have developed; the “Seven Amens” and the “Seven Voices” are identical with the “Seven Aums and the Seven Mystic Voices”, “the voice of the inner God” (vide Voice of the Silence, pp. 9 and 10). The “seven thunders” spoken of in Revelation are typical of the same mystery of spiritual Initiation. Again, from a Macrocosmic aspect the Seven Amens are the seven rays of each of the “Three Amens,” making up the “Twenty-four Invisibles,” and so on ad infinitum.
- ↑ As many of these terms are to a certain extent explained in the sequel, it will be unnecessary to go into an elaborate disquisition on the hierarchies. For the broad outline students should compare the Secret Doctrine, I, 213, 435, and also Pt. 1 of the Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge.
- ↑ See Secret Doctrine, I. 406, 416, 449; II. 79, 506, and Isis Unveiled I. 302. From the esoteric point of view, the Pleroma in the Gnostic scheme corresponds to absolute space with its seven planes or degrees of Consciousness and the rest. See the passage on the “Seven Skinned Eternal Mother-Father” in the Secret Doctrine, vol. I, p. 9, and also Part 1 of the Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge.
- ↑ Pleroma.
- ↑ From Dec. 20 to Jan. 18.
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 The distinction between lux and lumen, both meaning light, has been preserved in the English by printing the word “light” with a capital when it stands for lumen.
- ↑ This date proves that the above is a description of the Mysteries, all the greater Initiations being performed during full moon.
- ↑ See the Voice of the Silence, p. 65, when the hymn of nature proclaims: “A Master has arisen, a Master of the Day”; and also p. 72.
- ↑ On pagg. 17 and 18, the three Robes or Vestures are described. In Buddhism the three Buddhic bodies or forms are styled: – Nirmânakâya, Sambhogakâya, and Dharmakâya, as the Voice of the Silence informs us in the Glossary (p. 96), which see for a full description.
- ↑ Archê.
- ↑ Pleroma.
- ↑ Notice the singular number of “womb” and “body”.
- ↑ The four lower human Principles, we are taught in the Esoteric Philosophy, i.e., Body, Double, Life and Instinct (animal soul, or Kama, the passionate Principle), are derived by men from the Planetary Hierarchies and the Rulers of the lower terrestrial spheres – the rupa planes.
Compare the slokas of “Dzyan” in the Secret Doctrine, vol. II. 17.
“How are the Manushya born? The Manus with minds, how are they made? The Fathers called to their help their own fire; which is the fire which burns in Earth. The Spirit of the Earth called to his help the Solar Fire. These three produced in their joint efforts a good Rupa. It could stand, walk, run, recline, or fly. Yet it was still but a Chhaya, a shadow with no sense.” . . . . “The Breath needed a form; the Fathers gave it. The Breath needed a gross body; the Earth moulded it. The Breath needed the Spirit of Life; the Solar Lhas breathed it into its form. The Breath needed a Mirror of its Body; ‘We gave it our own,’ said the Dhyanis. The Breath needed a Vehicle of Desires; ‘It has it,’ said the Drainer of Waters. But Breath needs a mind to embrace the Universe; ‘We cannot give that,’ said the Fathers. ‘I never had it,’ said the Spirit of the Earth. ‘The form would be consumed were I to give it mine,’ said the Great Fire. . . . .”
- ↑ The arupa or formless planes, which shows that “Jesus” is the type of the Mahatmic prototype, the Higher Manas.
- ↑ See Isis Unveiled II., p. 247.
- ↑ This is to say, that the Power planted is the reflection of the Higher Ego, or the lower Kama-Manas.
- ↑ Notice the tense, the orthodox John being dead years before.
- ↑ It is curious to remark the interchangeability of terms; at the end of pag. 12 we have the Rulers of the Sphere and the Rulers of the Æons, and now we have the Æons of the Sphere and a little below the Sphere of the Rulers. They are all intentional blinds.
- ↑ On page 194 we read of “the great Leader of the Midst whom the Rulers of the Æons call the Great Iaô, according to the name of the great Ruler which is in their Region, . . . . . and the twelve Servants (Deacons), whereby ye received Form and Strength”. “As above, so below”; this apparent dualism is quite in keeping with all esoteric systems. – “Demon est Deus inversus.”
- ↑ The student should remember that a is a privative, and signifies without: a rupa, without form, and so with other similar words.
- ↑ I have before me now an “Anglican” imitation of the Roman Catholic Garden of the Soul, in which I find among the “Penitential devotions,” prayers for confession. In the index I find Three Theological Virtues, Four Cardinal Virtues, Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost, Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy, Seven Corporal Works of Mercy . . . . Three Notable Duties, The Golden Litany, The Five Joyful Mysteries, &c., all marshalled out with mathematical precision. In a pamphlet there are directions after receiving the sacrament to ejaculate “Body of Christ save me, Blood of Christ refresh me, Water from the side of Christ wash me, In thy wounds hide me,” &c. With the theology of the War Cry fresh in one’s recollection, and the open revival of these monkish phrases and practices, the religion of Christ and his mission to the world seem, if it were possible, to be well-nigh forgotten! Mental slavery and theological errors have ever taken the form of an “angel of light,” but every step in human progress has pointed out their true character, let the form be enforced celibacy, persecution, opposition to knowledge and freedom, undeviating dogmas, or any other sin against the soul. Meanwhile let it be remembered that superstition and vice are sisters who walk hand-in-hand, and who are acquiring a terrible power at the present time, especially the last in the large cities which have now arisen in every European country.
- ↑ By Edward Carpenter. London: Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., 1889.
- ↑ Vide Secret Doctrine, Vol. I., 550.
- ↑ Voice of the Silence, page 57.
- ↑ “The London Occult Society.”
- ↑ And yet, according to Lavater, the dead have written letters to their friends, which letters are translated further on. – (Ed.)
- ↑ 1891
- ↑ More generally known as the Philosophumena, Lib. IV. capp. 29 et seqq.
- ↑ But even so, when it is remembered that we get the following résumé from the writings of an opponent, it is evident that no partiality to the “heretics” colors the exposition, and that we have the barest possible justice at the best. What should we have learned from the pen of a Gnostic!
- ↑ See the Chart of the Plerôma, appended to this paper.
- ↑ Our author, with the usual materialising propensity of the ecclesiastic, thus makes the Valentinian System start from Brahmâ, the creator or third Logos; in other words he starts from the Plerôma. Bythus or the Monad, on the contrary, is the First Unmanifested Logos, the Potentiality of all Potentialities.
- ↑ Although our author expresses Bythus, or the Father, by masculine pronouns in his narrative, we prefer to follow Valentinus, who tells us that the Father was “without attributes”. We, therefore, shall use impersonal pronouns when referring to the Monad, and so vindicate the teachings of the great Gnostic sage for all philosophical minds.
- ↑ That is the mystery of the First Unmanifested Logos and Mulaprakriti.
- ↑ The verbs in this passage are singular, Mind and Truth being regarded as one duad.
- ↑ That is four sevens, three being still unmanifested even in the Divine Mind.
- ↑
DECAD. DODECAD. Bythius
(Bythus-like)Mixis
(Mingling)Paraklêtus
(Advocate or Comforter)PISTIS
(Faith or Confidence)Agêratus
(Unaging)Henôsis
(Union or Oneness)Patrikus
(Father-like)Elpis
(Hope)Autophyês
(Self-existent)Hêdonê
(Bliss)Mêtrikus
(Mother-like)Agapê
(Love or Charity)Akinêtus
(Immoveable)Synkrâsis
(Mixing)Aênûs
(Everlasting or Everflowing)Synesis
(Understanding)Monogenês
(Only-begotten)Makaria
(Blessedness)Ekklesiastikus
(Ekklesia-like)Makariotês
(Happiness)Thelêtus
(The Longed-for or Desired)SOPHIA
(Wisdom) - ↑ Genesis i. 2.
- ↑ Exodus xxxiii. 3.
- ↑ 30 = 2 × 3 × 5 and also 3 × 10; and 3 × (7 + 3). Now if we remember that five is the number of the Pentagram or Man, we shall be able to see that the number 30 includes both Microcosmic and Macrocosmic numbers. If again we add to the Pleroma the Father, we get 31.
Now 777 = 343 + 434, = (7 × 7 × 7) + (2 × 7 × 31), = 73 + (2 × 7)(22 × 7 + 3).
Also 777 = 7 × 102 + 7 × 10 + 7.
Take the powers to represent planes and apply them to the geometrical Figures.
Earnest esoteric students should take the hint and work out some of the marvellous permutations, combinations, and interchangeabilities of numbers and geometrical figures; but in this stupendous and mind-bewildering task each must do his own thinking for himself. - ↑ The Staurus or Cross (+) is the potentiality of the Positive and Negative, or Male and Female, forces in nature. They are also called the Participator, because they share in the Creation Above, in an abstract sense, and in the Creation Below, in a concrete. In the abstract the + ceases and becomes the O, and therefore is called the Boundary, for the Below is the Natural Creation of Sex, whereas the Above is the Creation of the Gods or of Mind; in other words, of the Pleroma or Mahat. We see also this Fall into generation, or the Substitution of the Natural for the Divine Creation, typified in the Myths of Saturn emasculating Uranus, Zeus, Saturn, and Typhon, Osiris.
- ↑ “Without repentance,” i.e., unconsciously, the forces acting as a Law of Nature.
- ↑ N.B. – All in the Pleroma is reflected without.
- ↑ For the whole Pleroma is a unity to those below.
- ↑ The Bridge-maker, he who extends the ray to the worthy or withdraws it from the unworthy, he who builds the “Bridge” between the Higher and the Lower Manas, viz. the Antaskarana.
It is hardly necessary to point out that Jesus and Christ are distinct entities, in fact as we shall see later on there are no less than three Christs in the Gnostic scheme.
Esoteric students will at once perceive that, from the Microcosmic standpoint, Jesus is the Lower Manas, the ray from the Higher Manas, even as, from the Macrocosmic standpoint, it corresponds to Manas, the ray from Mahat, the Divine Mind. Jesus is not Christos, just as the Personality is not the Individuality. - ↑ Note also that her original syzygy is Thelêtus, the Desired or Longed-for.
- ↑ Antaskarana from another aspect.
- ↑ Psalm cxi. 10.
- ↑ See Fig. 7; The “Seven” is in the middle.
- ↑ Study Figures 3, 7, 8, 15 and 18.
- ↑ See Fig. 9. The Horizontal diameter is above the greatest triangle of matter.
- ↑ Fig. 9. The triangles on whose bases are 4 Fires, are fourth in either series, and therefore have attained the turning point.
- ↑ Deuteronomy iv. 35.
- ↑ See the explanation of the figures.
- ↑ 12 = 4 × 3, = 22 × 3: 60 = 12 × 5, = 3 × 4 × 5, = 22 × 3 × 5.
Also 60 = (7 + 5) × 5, = (7 + 3 + 2) × 5, = (10 + 2) × 5.
All of which may be applied to planes and principles. - ↑ 70 = 7 × 10, = 21 + 49, = 3 × 7 + 7 × 7.
- ↑ See Cap. 36 infra, and compare the passages in the Bible where “father Abraham” and “the seed of Abraham” are spoken of, and perhaps quite a new meaning of these familiar phrases will present itself. Cf. for “father Abraham” Mat. iii, 9; Luke iii, 8; i, 73; xvi, 24 and 30; John viii, 39, 53, and 56; Acts vii, 2; Rom. iv, 1, 12, and 16; and Jam. ii, 21; and for “seed of Abraham”, Luke i, 55; John viii, 33 and 37; Rom. iv, 13; ix, 7; xi, 1; Gal. iii, 16 and 29; and Heb. ii, 16.
- ↑ Genesis ii. 70.
- ↑ Ephes. iii. 14, 16 – 18.
- ↑ I. Cor. ii. 14.
- ↑ Sophia, the Ogdoad, is of course the reflection of the Pleromic Heptad plus Sige; viz., Sophia, plus the Abortion, the Tetrad, and plus the Common Fruit, the spouse or syzygy of the Abortion, the Triad,; eight in all, the Ogdoad.
Perhaps also by a careful study of the Figure, a raison d’être for the nefast “Eighth Sphere” (which is not the moon) may be suggested. - ↑ The very word used of John the Baptist in John 1. 37. Indeed the first chapters of John can only be interpreted by a Gnostic student; every verse bristles with technicalities of the Gnosis; even the apparently most unimportant words are full of meaning.
- ↑ John x. 8.
- ↑ Cf. Ephes. iii. 9, 10; Rom. xvi. 25.
- ↑ Luke i. 35.
- ↑ The uninitiated were always called the “dead”.
- ↑ Rom. viii. 11.
- ↑ Genesis iii. 19.
- ↑ Exodus vi. 2, 3.
- ↑ It is hardly necessary to point out the wonderful concordance of this system with that of the Secret Doctrine. The mysteries of the Higher and Lower Ego are presented, perhaps, almost too clearly.
- ↑ Vol. i, p. 405.
- ↑ Editor’s note: corrected in accordance with the journal’s Errata on p. 440.
- ↑ Editor’s note: “signs” was corrected to “sighs” in the journal’s Errata on p. 440.
- ↑ We are afraid that this is not a very strong argument. Although it is very probable that animal-life, such as we know it, cannot be supported on Jupiter, still that planet almost certainly has an animal-life of its own. It is also quite conceivable that nature can continue the race without the distinct duality of sexes which now obtains; in the East it is taught that, milleniums ago, she did so procreate, and a study of the lower forms of life shows us organisms procreating under the same law. – [Eds.].
- ↑ Evidently, the great Swiss physiognomist was better acquainted with the nature of living men than with that of disembodied spirits, since he attributes to the latter personality of human characteristics! Transl.
- ↑ What would Lavater, with such exalted and lofty, though rather too anthropomorphic ideas about disembodied souls, say, to the inane and often senseless “messages” from the Spirit World through the modern professional medium. What would he think of the materializations of “three-toed” Lillies, punch- and tea-drinking John Kings and the rest of the astral crew? Thus it seems, that Spirit-letters were known before modern Spiritualism was born. – [Trans.]
- ↑ Sectarian feelings even in Spirits. – [Transl.]
- ↑ Such are the ways and the modus operandi of the Planetary Dhyanis and the Nirmânakâyas, but not quite those of disembodied spirits of ex-“personalities”. Yet, great and saintly, indeed, must be the man or woman who becomes worthy of such visitants! As a general rule such an influence is exercised on the lower self by one’s own Ego, a Spirit surely, yet not “disembodied”. – [Transl.]
- ↑ Which of the professional mediums answer this description? Is it the drunken sots and epileptics we all know, or have heard of, who are such “highly worthy” people? – [Transl.]
- ↑ The “Spirit” is hardly of the modest class. The style of his letters is that of Lavater himself; and we have little doubt but they were written by him in trance condition, unknown to himself. – [Transl.]
- ↑ “A Lover of the Beautiful”. By Lady Carmarthen. Mac Millan and Co.
- ↑ “The Biology of Daily Life.” By John Henry Napper Nevill, M.A., sometime a Student of Medicine in Trinity College, the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Meath Hospital, Dublin. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, and Co. (Limited).
- ↑ The italics are ours.
- ↑ Typical of the “forty-nine fires” in the Occult doctrines. See the figures in Lucifer, No. 33, for May.
- ↑ The passages in square brackets are the summarizing of long repetitions.
- ↑ See Table I. in Lucifer, No. 34, for June.
- ↑ Compare Lucifer, No. 32, p. 109.
- ↑ Or into the Air (Aëra) with inspiration. See Commentary (4) on Adamas, “the Middle Region of the Air”.
- ↑ Horary Astrologers.
- ↑ See Lucifer, No. 34, p. 316. pag. 14.
- ↑ Sc. the Water of Space.
- ↑ By John M. Robertson; London: Freethought Publishing Company, 63, Fleet Street, E.C., 1890. Price Two Shillings.
- ↑ Reprinted from the 1624 English translation by Robt. H. Fryar, Bath.
- ↑ See Table i. Lucifer VI, 34, p. 319.
- ↑ See Lucifer VI, 32, p. 109, note 6; and 34, p. 323, note 6.
- ↑ Or, “And if I shall tell you the Emanation of these, I will tell you a Mystery, how they were made.”
- ↑ Notice the reflection of these as the Four-and-Twenty Hylic Projections, pag. 45, infra.
- ↑ See Lucifer, VI, 35, p. 398, note 1.
- ↑ See Commentary, “Ildabaoth”, infra.
- ↑ See Lucifer, VI, 34, p. 320, note 8.
- ↑ Compare this with the Valentinian System (Lucifer vi, 33, p. 232), where Sophia generates “without a Syzygy”, and also with the Commentary on Ildabaoth infra, where Ildabaoth generates without a female, just as Sophia generated without a male. Demon est Deus inversus.
- ↑ Called also the “High Æons” (pag. 56), which are opposed to the “Æons of the Rulers.”
- ↑ Ascended (S.) [! ?].
- ↑ Metanoia: compare Lucifer vi, 33 p. 233, and notes 1 and 2, where the Stauros is said to be incapable of change, or without repentance (ametanoētos). Compare also Dict. of Christ. Biog. Vol. i, p. 38, art. “Adam”.
- ↑ The “Outer Darkness” of Table I., Caligo Externa.
- ↑ The Treasure of Light is called the Region of Truth.
- ↑ Compare Lucifer vi, 33, p. 235, “Now foolishness . . . . is the power of the Demiurge”.
- ↑ In pag. 44, they are called Sisters,
- ↑ See Lucifer vi, 34, p. 317, note 2.
- ↑ Affligere, " Thou art cast down” (S.); affligor, “I am cast down’’ (P.).
- ↑ Or, " may they give offence.”
- ↑ Compare supra, pagg. 45 and 49, the " Gate of the Æons." There are Nine Guardian of the Three Gates of the Treasure of Light,
- ↑ Buddhi.
- ↑ See Table I, Lucifer, vi, 34, p. 319.
- ↑ See Lucifer, vi, 35, p. 399, note 6, for the three Fathers of Jesus, and for the First Mystery, note 5, ibid.
- ↑ They who fulfil thy decrees.
- ↑ Notice the sudden bringing home to the hearers of the teaching; this sudden change of person occurs several times, and is one of the most powerful means for forcing the comprehension of the ideas of the Gnosis on the reader,
- ↑ The other disciples adored the feet of Jesus.
- ↑ Not necessarily at death only, but during Samadhi, or mystic trance,
- ↑ i.e., no theological delusion.
- ↑ The more widely spread traditions found elsewhere – as in Mexico, India, Asia Minor, &c. – are traceable to the floods which destroyed Atlantis.
- ↑ The article from which these extracts are taken was written by Tolstoi in reply to innumerable letters he has received, as he says, from total strangers, requesting him to give his own views on the subject handled in “The Kreutzer Sonata”, and this said article is translated from the unpublished MS., with Count T.’s permission.
- ↑ . . . . “for there shall no man see me (God) and live” (Exod. xxxiii, 20). – [Ed.]
- ↑ Surely such a state of irresponsibility is nothing to be envied nor desired. What kind of “liberated” Spirits are these! – [Ed.]
- ↑ One would hardly recognize the genius and remarkable intellect of Lavater in the above gush. It might be more appropriate to sign this letter with the name of one of General Booth’s “Army”. – [Ed.]
- ↑ Was such a question necessary, when coming from a Spirit and that, moreover, of the “God-man?” – [Ed.]
- ↑ What kind of conception of Spirit and Spirits had the great Lavater, if he could accept all this physiological description of post mortem emotions, as a bona fide narrative of a disembodied soul? A queer ‘Spirit’ this! (Ed.)
- ↑ This, we fear, is a slight exaggeration of facts. The Spirit seems to forget the millions of the “heathen”.
- ↑ We are, indeed, forced to suspect the venerable Spirit Makariozenagath of being the disincarnated Spirit of a Methodist preacher. – [Ed.]
- ↑ 156.0 156.1 In these issues the cost was increased by the insertion of diagrams, which cost in March 18s. 6d., and in May £5 17s. 9d.
- ↑ By P. F. Fitzgerald. London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Co. 1890.
- ↑ Par Emile Sigogne. Paris: Georges Carré. 1890.
- ↑ By Franz Hartmann, M.D., Theosophical Publishing Society, 7 Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C., Occult Publishing Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
- ↑ Par Saint Patrice (Baron Harden Hickey). Paris: L. Sauvaitre, 72 Boulevard Haussmann.
- ↑ Editor’s note: the scan is damaged here; the beginning of this word is illegible. The same defect occurs in the available whole-volume scan. No conjectural reconstruction has been supplied.