85...
IMPORTANT TO SPIRITUALISTS
[In the issue of April 29, 1875, there was published in the Spiritual Scientist a Circular entitled “Important to Spiritualists” facsimile of which is reproduced herewith. In an Editorial which appears in the same issue, E. Gerry Brown, writing under the heading “A Message from Luxor,” had the following to say:]
“The readers of the Scientist will be no more surprised to read the circular which appears on our front page than we were to receive the same by post . . . . . Who may be our unknown friends of the ‘Committee of Seven,’ we do not know, nor who the ‘Brotherhood of Luxor’; but we do know that we are most thankful for this proof of their interest, and shall try to deserve its continuance. Can anyone tell us of such a fraternity as the above? And what Luxor is meant? . . . It is time that some ‘Power,’ terrestrial or supernal, came to our aid, for after twenty-seven years of spiritual manifestations, we know nothing about the laws of their occurrence . . . . We cannot help regarding this as an evil of magnitude, and if we could only be satisfied that the appearance of this mysterious circular is an indication that the Eastern Spiritualistic Fraternity is about to lift the veil that has so long hid the Temple from our view, we in common with all other friends of the cause, would hail the event with joy. It will he a blessed day for us when the order shall be, SIT LUX.”
86
IMPORTANT TO SPIRITUALISTS
THE spiritual movement resembles every other in this respect: that its growth is the work of time, and its refinement and solidification the result of causes working from within outward. The twenty-seven years which have elapsed since the rappings were first heard in Western New York, have not merely created a vast body of spiritualists, but moreover stimulated a large and constantly increasing number of superior minds into a desire and ability to grasp the laws which lie back of the phenomena themselves.
UNTIL the present time these advanced thinkers have had no special organ for the Interchange of opinions. The leading spiritual papers are of necessity compelled to devote most of their space to communication of a trivial and purely personal character, which are interesting only to the friends of the spirits sending them, and to such as are just beginning to give attention to the subject. In England the London Spiritualist, and in France the Revue Spirite, present to us examples of the kind of paper that should have been established in this country long ago—papers which devote more space to the discussion of principles, the teaching of philosophy, and the display of conservative critical ability, than to the mere publication of the thousand and one minor occurrences of private and public circles.
IT is the standing reproach of American Spiritualism that it teaches so few things worthy of a thoughtful man’s attention; that so few of its phenomena occur under conditions satisfactory to men of scientific training; that the propagation of its doctrines is in the hands of so many ignorant, if not positively vicious, persons; and that it offers, in exchange for the orderly arrangements of prevailing religious creeds, nothing but an undigested system of present and future moral and social relations and accountability.
THE best thoughts of our best minds have heretofore been confined to volumes whose price has, is most instances, placed them beyond the reach of the masses, who most needed to be familiar with them. To remedy this evil, to bring our authors into familiar intercourse with the great body of spiritualists, to create an organ upon which we may safely count to lead us in our fight with old superstitions and mouldy creeds, a few earnest spiritualists have now united.
INSTEAD of undertaking the doubtful and costly experiment of starting a new paper, they have selected the Spiritual Scientist, of Boston, as the organ of this new movement. Its intelligent management up to the present time, by Mr. GERRY BROWN, and the commendable tone that he has given to its columns, make comparatively easy the task of securing the co-operation of the writers whose names will be a guarantee of its brilliant success. Although the object has been agitated only about three weeks, the Committee have already received promises from several of our best known authors to write for the paper, and upon the strength of those assurances many subscriptions have been sent in from different cities. The movement is not intended to undermine or destroy any of the existing spiritualistic journals: there is room for all, and patronage for all.
THE price of the Spiritual Scientist is $2.50 per annum, postage included. A person sending five yearly subscription, is entitled to a copy for himself without extra charge. Subscriptions may be made through any respectable agency, or by direct communication with the editor, E. GERRY BROWN, No. 18 Exchange Street, Boston, Mass. For the Committee of Seven,
BROTHERHOOD OF LUXOR ***
87
[Writing about this Circular in his Old Diary Leaves, Vol. 1, pp. 74-76, Col. Olcott says: “I wrote every word of this circular myself, alone corrected the printer’s proofs, and paid for the printing. That is to say, nobody dictated a word that I should say, nor interpolated any words or sentences, nor controlled my action in any visible way. I wrote it to carry out the expressed wishes of the Masters that we — H.P.B. and I — should help the Editor of the [Spiritual] Scientist at what was to him, a difficult crisis, and used my best judgment as to the language most suitable for the purpose. When the circular was in type at the printer’s and I had corrected the proofs, and changed the arrangement of the matter into its final paragraphs, I enquired of H.P.B. (by letter) if she thought I had better issue it anonymously or append my name. She replied that it was the wish of the Masters that it should be signed thus: ‘For the Committee of Seven, BROTHERHOOD OF LUXOR.’ And so it was signed and published. She subsequently explained that our work, and much more of the same kind, was being supervised by a Committee of seven Adepts belonging to the Egyptian group of the Universal Mystic Brotherhood. Up to this time she had not even seen the circular, but now I took one to her myself and she began to read it attentively. Presently she laughed, and told me to read the acrostic made by the initials of the six paragraphs. To my amazement, I found that they spelt the name under which I knew the (Egyptian) adept under whose orders I was then studying and working. [1] Later, I received a certificate, written in gold ink, on a thick green paper, to the effect that I was attached to this ‘Observatory,’ and that three (named) Masters had me under scrutiny. This title, Brotherhood of Luxor, was pilfered by the schemers who started, several years later, the gudgeon-trap called ‘The H. B. of L.’ The existence of the real lodge is mentioned in Kenneth Mackenzie’s Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia (p. 461). “Nothing in my early occult experience during this H.P.B. epoch, made a deeper impression on my mind than the above acrostic . . .” When H.P.B. pasted a copy of this Circular in her Scrapbook, Vol. I, p. 29 (originally 23), she wrote above the title:]
Sent to E. Gerry Brown by the order of S*** and T*** B*** — of Lukshoor. (Published and Issued by Col. Olcott by order of M . . .)
Footnotes
- ↑ [Tuitit, or Tuitit Bey. See Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom. Second Series. Letter No. 3.—Compiler.]