THEOSOPHY versus NEO-THEOSOPHY

A comparison between the Theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky with the "Neo-Theosophy"of Besant, Leadbeater and followers.

Based on the book "Theosophy or Neo-Theosophy?" by Margaret Thomas

Isis BooksOhio1995

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CONTENTS:

- Forward .........- Teaching on Logos, or Deity or God . . . . - On Religion . . . . . - On "Founders" of Religions . . . . . . . . - On Jesus and the Christ Principle . . . . . . - Churches and Priests . . . . . . . . . - "Absolution" and "Confession" Through "Apostolic Succession" . . . . . . - Vicarious Atonement . . . . . . . . - "The Sacraments" . . . . . . . . . - On Ceremonial . . . . . . . . - The "Coming" Messiah or Lord Maitreya or World Teacher . . . . . - Cosmogony . . . . . . . . . - Atman or Atma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - Nebular Theory . . . . . . . . . . . - Formation of Earth Chain . . . . . . . . - Mars - Mercury Teachings . . . . . . . . - Principles of Man . . . . . . . . - Atma - As Seventh Principle of Man . . . . . . . - Causal Body . . . . . . . . - Astral Body . . . . . . . . . . . - Monad . . . . . . . - The Goal of Evolution - Man . . . . . . - Teachings on Lower Kingdoms Vs. "Group Souls" ... . . . - Conditions During Sleep ("Invisible Helpers") . . . . . - After Death Conditions - Kama . . . . . . . - Devachan . . . . . . . . - Skandhas or "Permanent Atoms"? . . . . . . - Skandhas . . . . . . - Sleeping Atoms . . . . . . . - Occultists and Facts . . . . . . . .

- Memory . . . . . . . . . . . - The Secret Doctrine . . . . . . . - "Great Beings" .. . . . . . . . . - The How and Why of True Occult Study . . . . . - On H.P.B. . . . . . . - Notes . . . . . . .- APPENDIX

- "A Comparison of C.W. Leadbeater's The Chakras With the Writings of H.P.Blavatsky, William Q. Judge, and G. de Purucker" - M. Jaqua . . . . . . . .

- "Rev. Leadbeater Off the Trail" - R.S. Gherwal . . . . . .- "Two Schools of Thought" - Boris de Zirkoff . . . . - Flowers From a Neo-Theosophical Garden" - H.N. Stokes . . . .- "The Hidden Voice" - W.E. Small . . . . . . . . - "The Psychic World - Beware!" - G. de Purucker . . . . . - "Smogged With 'Astral Intoxication"' - Vonda Urban . . . .

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FORWARD

Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosophy, compiled by Margaret Thomas, (member of theTheosophical Society, Scotland, Wales and England, 1912-1924) was originally publishedin mimeograph form as Theosophy or Neo-Theosophy? and was reprinted in VictorEndersby's Theosophical Notes serially from December, 1952 through October, 1953. Thisreprint is taken from Endersby's publication. Some additional comparison quotations havebeen added by this editor, and numerous notes by Victor Endersby and this editor havealso been included. It is felt that the value of this compilation is as a comparison ofphilosophies and not as a historical reprint or source of original thought or teachings, andthus the additions to the original.

Blavatsky magazine articles have been referenced to Blavatsky Collected Writings(Theosophical Publishing House). The Secret Doctrine used was that identical with theoriginal published by The Theosophy Company (Los Angeles). The Mahatma Letters is thatpublished by Theosophical University Press (Pasadena). Five Years of Theosophy is thatpublished by The Theosophy Company.

All "Neo-Theosophy" quotes have not been able to be checked. Quotes from thefollowing books were able to be checked: A Study in Consciousness (TPH, 1918); Man:Whence, How and Whither (TPH, 1971); First Principles of Theosophy (TPH, 1923); TheMasters ("The Theosophical Press , Wheaton, IL., no date); The Inner Life I (Rajput Press,1911); The Inner Life II ("The Theosophical Publishing Society", London, 1911); A Textbookof Theosophy (TPH, 1971); The Hidden Side of Things I & II (TPH, 1913); Death - AndAfter? ('The Theosophical Publishing Society", London, 1914); Esoteric Christianity(TPH/Quest Abridged Edition, 1987); Ancient Wisdom (TPH, 1939); and At the Feet of theMaster (TPH, 1974, pamphlet). The quotes from The Theosophist, Adyar Bulletins, theTheosophical Review, an interview with the Associated Press from Besant, and Scienceof the Sacraments were unable to be checked with originals.

Additionally, The Key to Theosophy used is Theosophical University Press, 1987,

Isis Unveiled is TPH, 1972. Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge and The Voice of theSilence are those published by The Theosophy Company. The Chakras is TPH, 1987.

Thanks to Edmonton Theosophical Society for reprinting Endersby's TheosophicalNotes from which Thomas's compilation is taken. Thomas's compilation was also serializedin H. N. Stoke's The 0. E. Library Critic from Sept., 1928 through Oct., 1932. This versiondiffers in content and order from the Endersby reprint. Thanks to Akron, Ohio,Theosophical Lodge for a few reference materials to check quotations. Thanks also to R.Robb of Wizards Bookshelf for a copy of the Gherwal article appearing in the appendix.This is the second edition of Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosophy from Isis Books. The firstappearing in 1990. - M. R. Jaqua, 1995

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[Quotes from Blavatsky are given in normal type, those of Neo-Theosophists inItalics. Bracketed numbers refer to notes at the end of the dialogue.]

Comparison of Teachings

"How... can the system be judged by the standard of those who would assume thename without any right to it? Is poetry or its muse to be measured only by those would-bepoets who afflict our ears?" - H. P. Blavatsky (Key to Theosophy, p. 56)

THE TEACHING ON LOGOS, OR DEITY OR GOD

"We say and affirm that that motion - the universal perpetual motion which neverceases never slackens nor increases its speed not even during the interludes between thepralayas, or 'nights of Brahma' but goes on like a mill set in motion, whether it has anythingto grind or not... we say this perpetual motion is the only eternal and uncreated Deity weare able to recognize. To regard God as an intelligent spirit, and accept at the same timehis absolute immateriality is to conceive of a nonentity, a blank void; to regard God as aBeing, an Ego and to place his intelligence under a bushel for some mysterious reasons -is a most consummate nonsense; to endow him with intelligence in the face of blind brutalEvil is to make of him a fiend - a most rascally God. A Being however gigantic, occupyingspace and having length breadth and thickness is certainly the Mosaic Deity..." (MahatmaLetters, pp. 138-9, #22)

"(1) The Secret Doctrine teaches no Atheism, except in the Hindu sense of the wordnastika, or the rejection of idols, including every anthromorphic god...

"(2) It admits a Logos or a collective 'Creator' of the Universe; a Demiurgos - in thesense implied when one speaks of 'Architect' as the 'Creator' of an edifice, whereas thatArchitect has never touched one stone of it, but, while furnishing the plan, left all themanual labor to the masons; in our case the plan was finished by the Ideation of the

Universe, and the constructive labour was left to the Hosts of intelligent Powers andForces. But that Demiurgos is no personal Deity, i.e., an imperfect extra-cosmic god, - butonly the aggregate of the Dhyan-Chohans and the other forces." (Secret Doctrine I, pp.279-80)

"The Logos... 'This highest consciousness,' answer the Occultists, 'is only a syntheticunit in the world of the manifested Logos - or on the plane of illusion; for it is the sum totalof Dhyan-Chohanic consciousness' ... Iswara or Logos is a compound unity of manifestedliving Spirits, the parent-source and nursery of all the mundane and terrestrial monads, plustheir divine reflection, which emanate from, and return into, the Logos, each in theculmination of its time. (Secret Doctrine I, p. 573) [1] (See Notes)

"When we speak of the deity and make it identical, hence coeval, with Nature, theeternal and uncreate nature is meant, and not your aggregate of flitting shadows and finiteunrealities. We leave it to the hymn-makers to call the visible earth or heaven, God'sthrone, and our earth of mud His Footstool. Our DEITY is neither in a paradise, nor in aparticular tree, building, or mountain: is everywhere, in every atom of the visible as of theinvisible Cosmos, in, over, and around every invisible atom and divisible molecule; for ITis the mysterious power of evolution and involution, the omnipresent, omnipotent and evenomniscient creative potentiality." (Key to Theosophy, p. 64)

"...physical man (or his body) does not share in the direct pure wave of the divineEssence which flows from the One in Three, the Unmanifested, through the ManifestedLogos..." (BCW XII, p. 526) ------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"We have in the Logos of our solar system as near an approach to a personal (orrather, perhaps, individual) God as any reasonable man can desire, for of Him is trueeverything good that has ever been predicated of a personal deity. We cannot ascribe toHim partiality, injustice, jealously, cruelty; those who desire these attributes in their Deitymust go elsewhere. But so far as His system is concerned He possesses omniscience,omnipresence, omnipotence; the love, the power, the wisdom, the glory, all are there infullest measure. Yet He is a mighty Individual - a trinity in unity, and God in very truth,though removed by we know not how many stages from the Absolute, the unknowable,before which even solar systems are but as specks of cosmic dust ... The sun is His chiefmanifestation on the physical plane, and that may help us a little to realize some of Hisqualities, and to see how everything comes from Him ... I myself who speak to you haveonce seen him in a form which is not the form of His system. This is something whichutterly transcends all ordinary experience, which has nothing to do with any of the lowerplanes. The thing became possible for me only through a very daring experiment - the utterblending for a moment of two distinct rays or types, so that by means of this blending alevel could for a moment be touched enormously higher than any to which either of theegos concerned could have attained alone. He exists far above His system; he sits uponit as on a lotus throne. He is as it were the apotheosis of humanity, yet infinitely greater

than humanity." (C.W. Leadbeater, The Inner Life I, pp. 71-2)

"Man, the individual, evolving soul, is in truth in the image o f his Maker, [1] andwhat HE is in HIS fullness now, that man will be some day. Hence it is that, by a certaindevelopment of faculties latent in the human consciousness, men can touch even now thefringe, as it were, of the Consciousness of the LOGOS, and so, with HIM, see the Past ashappening even now." ( C. Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, p. 29)

"...in this music-temple . . . he is bearing his share in a concert which comes fromall the worlds of the system, and these streams from all the worlds make somehow themighty twelve-stringed lyre upon which the LOGOS Himself plays as He sits upon the Lotusof His system. It is impossible to put this into words; but the writer has seen it, and knowsthat it is true. He hears, He responds, and He Himself plays upon His system. Thus for thefirst time we have one brief glimpse of the stupendous life which He lives among the otherLOGOI who are His peers." (Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater, Man: Whence, How andWhither, pp. 390, 392)

"The sacrifice of the Logos lay in His voluntary circumscribing His infinite life in orderthat He might manifest. Symbolically, in the infinite ocean of light, with centre everywhereand with circumference nowhere, there arises a full-orbed sphere of living light, a Logos,and the surface of the sphere is His will to limit Himself that He may become manifest, Hisveil in which He incloses Himself that within it a universe may take form. That for which thesacrifice is made is not yet in existence; its future being lies in the 'thought' of the Logosalone; to Him it owes its conception and will owe its manifold life." (Annie Besant, AncientWisdom, p. 304)

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ON RELIGION

"I will point out the greatest, the chief cause of nearly two thirds of the evils thatpursue humanity ever since that cause became a power. It is religion under whatever formand in whatsoever nation. It is the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the churches..."(Mahatma Letters, p. 57, #10)

"Ignorance created Gods and cunning took advantage of opportunity. Look at Indiaand look at Christendom and Islam, at Judaism and Fetichism. It is priestly imposture thatrendered these Gods so terrible to man; it is religion that makes of him the selfish bigot, thefanatic that hates all mankind out of his own sect without rendering him any better or moremoral for it. It is belief in God and Gods that makes two-thirds of humanity the slaves of ahandful of those who deceive them under the false pretense of saving them. ...The Irish,Italian and Slavonian peasant will starve himself and see his family starving and naked tofeed and clothe his padre and pope. For two thousand years India groaned under theweight of caste, Brahmins alone feeding on the fat of the land, and to-day the followers ofChrist and those of Mahomet are cutting each other's throats in the names of and for thegreater glory of their respective myths. Remember the sum of human misery will never be

diminished unto that day when the better portion of humanity destroys in the name of Truth,morality, and universal charity, the altars of their false gods." (Mahatma Letters, p. 58, #10)

"The Bible, from Genesis to Revelations, is but a series of historical records of thegreat struggle between white and black Magic, between the Adepts of the right path, theProphets, and those of the Left, the Levites, the clergy of the brutal masses... That therewere two schools of Magic, and the orthodox Levites did not belong to the holy one, isshown in the words pronounced by the dying Jacob. (Secret Doctrine II, p. 211)

"The struggle of Bel and then of Merodach, the Sun-god, with Tiamat, the Sea andits Dragon, a 'war' which ended in the defeat of the latter, has a purely cosmic andgeological, meaning as well as an historical one. It is a page torn out of the History of theSecret and Sacred Sciences, their evolution, growth, and DEATH - for the profanemasses... It relates... to the as systematic persecution of the Prophets of the Right Path bythose of the Left. The latter, having inaugurated the birth and evolution of the sacerdotalcastes, have finally led the world into all these exoteric religions, invented to satisfy thedepraved tastes of the 'hoi polloi' and the ignorant for ritualistic pomp and thematerialization of the ever immaterial and Unknowable Principle." (Secret Doctrine II, p .503) ---------------Neo-Theosophy:

"Theosophy: As the origin and basis of all religions, it cannot be the antagonist ofany; it is indeed their purifier, revealing the valuable inner meaning of much that hasbecome mischievous in its external presentation by the perverseness of ignorance and theaccretions of superstition; but it recognizes and defends itself in each, and seeks in eachto unveil its hidden wisdom. No man in becoming, a Theosophist need cease to be aChristian, a Buddhist, a Hindu; he will but acquire a deeper insight into his own faith."[2](Annie Besant, Ancient Wisdom, pp. 4-5)

"If he is on God's side he is one of us, and it does not matter in the least whether hecalls himself a Hindu, or a Buddhist, a Christian, or a Muhammadan..." (3] (J. Krishnamurti,At the Feet of the Master, p. 8)

"What is the object of religions? They are given to the world by men wiser than themasses of the people on whom they are bestowed, and are intended to quicken humanevolution . . . all types need religion, so that each may reach upward to a life higher thanthat which he is leading ... Religions seek to evolve the moral and intellectual nature tounfold itself." [4] (Annie Besant, Esoteric Christianity, pp. 2-3)

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ON "FOUNDERS" OF RELIGIONS

"But we must resume the thread of our narrative with Buddha. Neither he nor Jesus

ever wrote one word of their doctrines." (Isis Unveiled II, p. 559)

"Our examination of the multitudinous religious faiths that mankind, early and late,have professed, most assuredly indicates that they have all been derived from one primitivesource. ...Combined, their aggregate represents one eternal truth; separate, they are butshades of human error and the signs of imperfection." (Isis Unveiled, II, p. 639) ---------------Neo-Theosophy:

"According to this view, the Founders o f the great religions are members of the oneBrotherhood . . . As Theosophy of old gave birth to religions, so in modern times does itjustify and defend them." (Annie Besant, Ancient Wisdom, pp. 3, 5)

". . . the Guardians of humanity . . . From time to time, one of them comes forth intothe world of men, as a great religious teacher, to carry on the task of spreading a new formof the Eternal Verities, a form suitable to a new race or civilization. Their ranks include allthe greatest Prophets of the Faiths of the world, and while a religion lives one of theseGreat Ones is ever at its head, watching over it as His special charge." (Annie Besant, TheMasters, p. 52 Adyar edition, p. 79 Krotona edition) = = = = = = = = = = =

ON JESUS AND THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE

"...let these unfortunate, deluded Christians know that the real Christ of everyChristian is the Vach, the 'mystical Voice,' while the man Jeshu was but a mortal like anyof us, an adept more by his inherent purity and ignorance of real Evil, than by what he hadlearned with his initiated Rabbis and the already (at that period) fast degenerating EgyptianHierophants and priests." (Mahatma Letters, p. 344, #59)

"... neither knew the other John the Baptist having never heard of Jesus who is aspiritual abstraction and no living man of that epoch." (Mahatma Letters, p. 415, #90)

"Take Paul, read the little of original that is left of him in the writings attributed to thisbrave, honest, sincere man, and see whether any one can find a word therein to show thatPaul meant by the word Christ anything more than the abstract ideal of the personal divinityindwelling in man. For Paul, Christ is not a person, but an embodied idea. 'If any man bein Christ he is a new creature,' he is reborn, as after initiation, for the Lord is spirit - thespirit of man. Paul was the only one of the apostles who had understood the secret ideasunderlying the teachings of Jesus, although he had never met him. But Paul had beeninitiated himself; and bent upon inaugurating a new and broad reform, one embracing thewhole of humanity, he sincerely set his own doctrines far above the wisdom of the ages,above the ancient Mysteries and final revelation to the epoptai. As Professor A. Wilder wellproves in a series of able articles, it was not Jesus, but Paul who was the real founder ofChristianity." (Isis Unveiled, II, p. 574)

"Do they affirm that Jesus gave himself as a voluntary sacrifice? on the contrary,there is not a word to sustain the idea. They make it clear that he would rather have livedto continue what he considered his mission, and that he died because he could not helpit, and only when betrayed... When, finally, he saw that his time had come, he succumbedto the inevitable. But see him in the garden, on the Mount of Olives, writhing in agony until'his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood,' praying with fervid supplication that thecup might be removed from him; exhausted by his struggles to such a degree that an angelfrom heaven had to come and strengthen him; and say if the picture is that of self -immolating hostage and martyr." (ibid., p. 545)

"If we do not accept Jesus as God, we revere him as a man. Such a feeling honorshim more than if we were to attribute to him the powers and personality of the Supreme,and credit him at the same time with having played a useless comedy with mankind, as,after all, his mission proves scarcely less than a complete failure; 2,000 years have passed,and Christians do not reckon one-fifth part of the population of the globe, nor is Christianitylikely to progress any better in the future." (ibid., p. 530) ---------------Neo-Theosophy:

"Again, in these researches into the remote past we have frequently found thedisciple Jesus, who in Palestine had the privilege of yielding up His body to the Christ. Asa result of that act He received the incarnation of Apollonius of Tyana . . . the one who wasonce the disciple Jesus stands ready especially to guide the various activities of theChristian Churches." ( C . W. Leadbeater, The Inner Life I, p. 11)

"I believe with many of the early Christians, that the World Teacher, named by themthe Christ, assumed at the stage of the Gospel story called the Baptism, the body of adisciple, Jesus, to carry on his earthly work at that time." (Annie Besant, interviewed Jan.13, 1926 by Associated Press of India)

"The historical Christ, then, is a glorious Being belonging to the great spiritualhierarchy that guides the spiritual evolution of humanity, who used for some three years thehuman body of the disciple Jesus ... That Mighty One who had used the body of Jesus asHis vehicle, and whose guardian care extends over the whole spiritual evolution of the fifthrace of humanity, gave into the strong hands of the holy disciple who had surrendered toHim His body the care of the infant Church. Perfecting his human evolution, Jesus becameone of the Masters of Wisdom, and took Christianity under His special charge, ever seekingto guide it to the right lines, to protect, to guard and nourish it." (Annie Besant, EsotericChristianity, pp. 96-7)

"We have seen how the man Jesus, the Hebrew disciple, laid down his body in gladsurrender that a higher life might descend and become embodied in the form. He thuswillingly sacrificed, and how by that act He became a Christ of full stature, to be theGuardian of Christianity . . . triumphing over death." (Annie Besant, Esoteric Christianity,p. 148)

"Let us pray."Guide us, O almighty Father, in all our doings, and from Thy heavenly throne send

down Thy holy Angel to be with Thy people who have met together to serve and to worshipThee Through Christ our Lord.

"The phrase 'Let us pray' is a signal given by the celebrant to the people when heis about to say a prayer, and it is therefore time for them to kneel ... for a considerable timethere was no written liturgy, and each celebrant filled in extemporaneously the outline ofthe ceremony as given by the Christ.

"That Christ did give such an outline is certain from clairvoyant investigation." ( C.W. Leadbeater, Science of the Sacraments, p. 471) = = = = = = = = = = =

CHURCHES AND PRIESTS

"The ever unknowable and incognizable Karana alone, the Causeless Cause of allcauses, should have its shrine and altar on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart- invisible, intangible, unmentioned, save through 'the still small voice' of our spiritualconsciousness. Those who worship before it, ought to do so in the silence and thesanctified solitude of their Souls; making their spirit the Sole mediator between them andthe Universal Spirit, their good actions the only priests, and their sinful intentions the onlyvisible and objective sacrificial victims to the Presence." (Secret Doctrine I, p. 280)

"If both Church and priest could but pass out of the sight of the world as easily astheir names do now from the eye of our reader, it would be a happy day for humanity. NewYork and London might then soon become as moral as a heathen city unoccupied byChristians; Paris be cleaner than the ancient Sodom." (Isis Unveiled II, p. 586)

---------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"The clergy exist for the benefit of the world; they are intended to act as channelsfor the distribution of God's grace . . . In him also is vested the power to bless and to offerthe sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist. The strength which the priest brings down is not forhimself, but for the flock which is committed to his care ... So there are two aspects ofordination - the gif t of the Holy Ghost which provides the Key to the reservoir and thepersonal link of the Christ Himself with His Minister. The former of these is the officialconnection which enables a priest, for example, to consecrate the Host and to dispenseabsolution and blessing." ( C. W. Leadbeater, Science and the Sacraments, pp. 301 ,309)

"Good news comes from Australia ... The three movements there, which Icommended to the special service of our members - the Educational, the Co-Masonic andthe Old Catholic Church - are growing beyond expectation ... A church, one of the oldlandmarks of Sydney, a fine looking pile in stone, which has the outside appearance of acathedral has been purchased for the Old Catholic Church." (Annie Besant, The

Theosophist, October, 1918) = = = = = = = = = = =

"ABSOLUTION" AND "CONFESSION" THROUGH "APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION"

"An outcry has just been made in England over the discovery that Anglican priestsare largely introducing auricular confession and granting absolution after enforcingpenances. ... The bishop, questioned, points to Matthew xvi, 19, for the source of hisauthority to bind and loose on earth those who are to be blessed or damned in heaven; andto the apostolic succession for proof of its transmission from Simon Barjona to himself. Thepresent volumes have been written to small purpose if they have not shown,

"1, that Jesus, the Christ-God, is a myth concocted two centuries after the realHebrew Jesus died;

"2, that, therefore, he never had any authority to give Peter, or anyone else, plenarypower;

"3, that even if he had given such authority' the word Petra (rock) referred to therevealed truths of the Petroma, not to him who thrice denied him; and that besides, theapostolic succession is a gross and palpable fraud;

"4, that Gospel according to Matthew is a fabrication based upon a wholly differentmanuscript." (Isis Unveiled II, p. 544)

--------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"Among students of Church history widely divergent views are held about the originof Holy Orders. The Roman Church has always maintained that the three Orders (bishop,priest and deacon) were instituted by Christ Himself and that the first bishops wereconsecrated by the apostles. Presbyterians and others, not themselves possessing theapostolic succession, contend that in the earliest times bishops and presbyters weresynonymous terms . . . Clairvoyant investigation into those early periods absolutelyconfirms the contention of the Roman Church . . . They know that there has been no breakin apostolic succession." ( C. W. Leadbeater, Science and the Sacraments, pp. 282, 286)

"But let no one suppose that the public absolution given to the whole flock is in anyway less effective than private absolution, if the desire for rectification on the part of thewrong-doer is equally earnest and sincere ... In the Liberal Catholic Church auricularconfession is entirely optional, and its frequent and systematic practice is not encouraged,since it is felt that under such conditions the detailed confession is apt to become a matterof routine, and its spiritual value in the life of the individual thereby defeated. For allordinary purposes the general confession in the Holy Eucharist should suffice." ( C. W.Leadbeater, Science and the Sacraments, p. 84) = = = = = = = = = = =

VICARIOUS ATONEMENT

"We have often wondered at the extraordinary ideas of God and His justice thatseem to be honestly held by those Christians who blindly rely upon the clergy for theirreligion, and never upon their own reason. How strangely illogical is this doctrine of theAtonement. We propose to discuss it with the Christians from the Buddhist standpoint, andto show at once by what a series of sophistries, directed toward the one object of tighteningthe ecclesiastical yoke upon, the popular neck, its acceptance as a divine command hasbeen finally effected; also, that it has proved one of the most pernicious and demoralizingof doctrines. ...But if we step outside the little circle of creed and consider the universe asa whole balanced by the exquisite adjustment of parts, how all sound logic, how the faintestglimmering sense of Justice revolts against this Vicarious Atonement!" (Isis Unveiled II, p.542)

----------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"None the less, as we look backwards over the effects produced by this doctrine, wefind that belief in it, even in its legal - and to us crude exoteric - form, is connected withsome of the very highest developments of Christian conduct, and that some of the noblestexamples of Christian manhood and womanhood have drawn from it their strength, theirinspiration, and their comfort. It would be unjust not to recognize this fact. And wheneverwe come upon a f act that seems to us startling and incongruous, we do well to pause uponthat fact, and to endeavor to understand it. For if this doctrine contained nothing more thanis seen in it by its assailants inside and outside the churches, if it were in its true meaningas repellent to the conscience and the intellect as it is found to be by many thoughtfulChristians, then it could not possibly have exercised over the minds and hearts of men acompelling fascination, nor could it have been the root of heroic self-surrenders, or touchingand pathetic examples of self-sacrifice in the service of men." (Annie Besant, EsotericChristianity, p. 136 ) [5] = = = = = = = = = = =

THE SACRAMENTS

"With the races of our Fifth Race it became in symbology the sacr', and in Hebrewn'cabvah, of the first-formed races... See that suggestive work, The Source of Measures,where the author explains the real meaning of the word 'sacr', from which 'sacred,''sacrament,' are derived, which have now become synonyms of 'holiness,' though purelyphallic!" (Secret Doctrine, Proem, I, p. 5)

---------------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"The seven sacraments of Christianity cover the whole of life, from the welcome ofbaptism to the farewell of extreme unction. They were established by occultists, by menwho knew the invisible worlds; and the materials used, the words spoken, the signs made,were all deliberately chosen and arranged with a view to bringing about certain results." (

Annie Besant, Esoteric Christianity, p. 224) [6]

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ON CEREMONIAL

"Practical theurgy or 'ceremonial magic,' so often resorted to in their exorcisms bythe Roman Catholic Clergy - was discarded by the Theosophists. ...When ignorant of thetrue meaning of the esoteric divine symbols of nature, man is apt to miscalculate thepowers of his soul, and, instead of communing spiritually and mentally with the higher,celestial beings, the good spirits (the gods of the theurigists of the Platonic school), he willunconsciously call forth the evil, dark powers which lurk around humanity - the undying,grim creations of human crimes and vices - and thus fall from theurgia (white magic) intogoetia (or black magic, sorcery). ... Purity of deed and thought and can alone raise us toan intercourse 'with the gods' and attain for us the goal we desire." (Blavatsky CollectedWritings II, p. 96)

"The Suras, who win their intellectual independence, fight the Suras who are devoidthereof, who are shown as passing their lives in profitless ceremonial worship based onblind faith..." (Secret Doctrine II, p. 93) -------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"That (Co-Masonry) again bringing back the occult use of ceremonial, is to manynon-religious people a veritable religion, and prepares them to understand the value ofceremonies, a preparation, as every occultist will see, for the coming changes..." (AnnieBesant, Adyar Bulletin, March, 1920, p. 74)

"The ceremonies of each (great religion) interest me profoundly, and I have studiedthem all with keen pleasure, and can take part in any of them with full earnestness andsympathy." (Annie Besant, Adyar Bulletin, March, 1920, pp. 69-70) = = = = = = = = = = =

THE "COMING" MESSIAH OR LORD MAITREYA OR WORLD TEACHER

"Far from our thoughts may it ever be to erect a new hierarchy for the futureoppression of a priest-ridden world." (Mahatma Letters, p. 407, #87)

"And now, when so many of your sisters have died; and others still are dying, whilethe few of the old survivors, now in their second infancy, wait but for their Messiah - thesixth race - to resurrect to a new life and start anew with the coming stronger along the pathof a new cycle..." (Mahatma Letters, p. 150, #238)

"MAITREYA is the secret name of the Fifth Buddha, and the Kalki Avatar of the

Brahmins - the last MESSIAH who will come at the culmination of the Great Cycle." (SecretDoctrine I, p. 384)

"He will appear as Maitreya Buddha, the last of the Avatars and Buddhas, in theseventh Race. Only it is not in the Kali yug, our present terrifically materialistic age ofDarkness, the 'Black Age,' that a new Saviour of Humanity can ever appear." (SecretDoctrine I, p. 470) [7]

"No Master of Wisdom from the East will himself appear or send anyone to Europeor America... until the year 1975." (Blavatsky Collected Writings XII, p. 492) ----------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"There is slowly growing up in Europe, silently but steadily, with its strongest centreperhaps in Holland, but with its members scattered in other European Countries, the littleknown movement called the Old Catholic with the ancient ritual, with unchallenged Orders,yet holding itself aloof from the Papal Obedience. This is a living Christian Church whichwill grow and multiply as the years go on, and which has a great future before it small asit yet is . It is likely to become the future Church of Christendom when He comes.'" (AnnieBesant, The Theosophist, Editorial, October, 1916)

"The great purpose of this drawing together is to prepare the way for the coming ofthe new Messiah, or, as we should say in Theosophical circles, the next advent of the LordMaitreya, as a great spiritual teacher, bringing a new religion. The time is rapidlyapproaching when this shall be launched - a teaching which shall unify the other religions,and compared with them shall stand upon a broader basis and keep its purity longer." ( C.W. Leadbeater, The Inner Life I, p. 114)

"And now I have to give to you, by command of the King, I have to give you Hismessage, and some of the messages of the Lord Maitreya and His great Brothers . . . sothat what I am saying, as to matter of announcement, is definitely at the command of theKing who I serve ... our hope is . . . that very many from the Theosophical and Starorganizations, and the growing Co-Masonry and the great fellowship of teachers mayrecognize their Lord when He comes , so that we may keep Him with us for many years,and not make his own world impossible for Him save in seclusion as was done on His lastcoming." (Annie Besant, The Theosophist, November, 1925, pp. 150, 160)

"As to the approaching advent of the Christ and the work which He has to do, youcannot do better than read Mrs. Besant's book on The Changing World. The time of Hisadvent is not far distant, and the very body which He will take is even already born amongus." ( C. W. Leadbeater, The Inner Life I, p. 16) = = = = = = = = = = =

COSMOGONY

"Believing in seven planes of Kosmic being and states of Consciousness, withregard to the Universe or the Macrocosm, we stop at the fourth plane, finding it impossibleto go with any degree of certainty beyond." (Key to Theosophy, p. 90)

"The reader is reminded that Kosmos often means in our Stanzas only our ownSolar System, not the infinite Universe." (Secret Doctrine I, p. 200fn)

"These are the four lower planes of Cosmic Consciousness, the three higher planesbeing inaccessible to human intellect as developed at present." (Secret Doctrine I, p. 200)[see diagram from SD I, p. 200) [8] ---------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"We have thus the seven planes of a universe, a solar system, which, as we see bythis brief description, may be regarded as making up three groups: ...

I. Adi - - - - - - - - - I. The field of Logoic manifestation onlyii. Anupadaka

-----------

iii. Atmic -------- II. The field of supernormal human evolutioniv. Buddhic

----------

v. Mental -------- III. The field of elemental, mineral, vegetable, animalvi. Emotional and normal human evolution vii. Physical

(Annie Besant, A Study in Consciousness, p. 2) = = = = = = = = = = =

ATMAN OR ATMA

"...Atman or seventh principle ridded of its mayavic distinction from its UniversalSource - which becomes the object of perception for, and by the individuality centered inBuddhi, the sixth principle... Nor is it the 'Spirit of Buddhas present in the Church,' but theOmnipresent Universal Spirit in the temple of nature - in one case; and the seventhprinciple - the Atman in the temple - man -in the other. " (Mahatma Letters, pp. 343-4, #59)

"First of all, Spirit (in the sense of the Absolute, and therefore, indivisible ALL), orAtma." (Key to Theosophy, p. 119)

---------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"The fifth plane, the nirvanic, is the plane of the highest human aspect of the Godwithin us, and this aspect is named by Theosophists Atma, or the Self . It is the plane ofpure existence, of divine powers in their fullest manifestation in our fivefold universe - whatlies beyond on the sixth and seventh planes is hidden in the unimaginable light of God."(Annie Besant, Ancient Wisdom, p. 184) = = = = = = = = = = =

NEBULAR THEORY

"The nebulae exist; yet the nebular theory is wrong. A nebula exists in a state ofentire elemental dissociation. It is gaseous and - something else besides, which can hardlybe connected with gases, as known to physical science; and it is self -luminous. But thatis all... we may, we maintain, define our position with regard to modern nebular theory andits evident incorrectness, by simply pointing out facts diametrically opposed to it in itspresent form." (Secret Doctrine I, pp. 588, 591) [9]

"Therefore, do they (the Adepts) say that the great men of science of the Westknowing nothing or next to nothing either about cometary matter, centrifugal and centripetalforces, the nature of the nebulae, or the physical constitution of the Sun, stars, or even themoon, are imprudent to speak so confidently as they do about the 'central mass of the sun'whirling out into space planets, comets, and what not. Our humble opinion being wantedwe maintain: that it evolutes out but the life principle, the soul of these bodies, giving andreceiving it back in our little solar system, as the 'Universal Life-giver,' the ONE LIFE givesand receives it in the Infinite and Eternity..." (Blavatsky Collected Writings V, p. 154) [10]

"Q. Is it to be supposed that the Milky Way is composed of matter in a state ofdifferentiation other than that with which we are acquainted?

"A. I thoroughly believe so. It is the store-house of the materials from which thestars, planets and other celestial bodies are produced. Matter in this state does not existon earth; [11] but that which is already differentiated and found on earth is also found onother planets and vice-versa. But, as I understand, before reaching the planets from itscondition in the Milky Way, matter has first to pass through many stages of differentiation.The matter, for instance, within the Solar System is in an entirely different state from thatwhich is outside or beyond the system.

"Q. Is there a difference between the Nebulae and the Milky Way?"A. The same, I should say, that there is between a highway road and the stones

and mud upon that road. There must be, of course, a difference between the matter of theMilky Way and that of the various Nebulae, and these again must differ among themselves.But in all your scientific calculations and measurements it is necessary to consider that thelight by which the objects are seen is a reflected light, and the optical illusion caused by theatmosphere of the earth renders it impossible that calculations of distances, etc., shouldbe absolutely correct, in addition to the fact that it entirely alters observations of the matter

of which the celestial bodies are composed, as it is liable to impose upon us a constitutionsimilar to that of the earth. This is, at any rate, what the MASTERS teach us." (Transactionsof the Blavatsky Lodge, pp. 113-14)

---------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"Eventually there comes a point at which He sends through it a kind of electricalshock, which precipitates it into a lower condition of matter, so that instead of being a mereaggregation of atoms it becomes definitely a combination of them, usually a mass ofglowing hydrogen.

"Here we have the nebular stage, through which various systems in our universe areat this moment passing ... As our nebula revolved around its axis it gradually cooled,contracted and flattened down, so that eventually it became rather a huge revolving discthan a sphere. Presently fissures appeared in this disc and it broke into rings, presentingsomewhat the appearance of the planet Saturn and its surroundings, but on a giganticscale. At a chosen point in each of these rings a subsidiary vortex was set up, andgradually much of the matter of the ring was gathered into this. The concussion of thefragments generated an amount of heat which reduced them to a gas condition and thusformed a huge glowing ball, which gradually, as it cooled, condensed into a planet." ( C. W.Leadbeater, The Inner Life II, pp. 269-270)

"Let us consider first the great nebula in Orion ... It is a chaotic mass of matter, inan intensely heated condition, millions and millions of miles in diameter ... The probablechange, its next step, we can construct in imagination as we look at the nebula in CanesVenatici. The nebula now has taken on a spiral motion. It revolves, and its matter tends toaggregate round a nucleus. In course of time, the spherical mass will flatten; as it contracts,ring after ring of matter will break off from the cooling nucleus. As millions of years pass,these rings of matter too will break; each will aggregate round some nucleus, and insteadof a ring we shall have a planet, retaining the original motion of the nebula, and revolvingnow round a central sun. Or it may be that, without breaking into rings, the nebula will throwoff, as it whirls, outlying parts of itself, which then condense and become the planets; butin either process, the original chaotic nebula will have become an orderly solar system, witha central sun and planets circling round it like the solar system in which we live." ( C.Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, pp. 5-6) [12]

= = = = = = = = = = =

FORMATION OF EARTH CHAIN

"Again, in the Seventh Round on the Lunar chain, when Class 7, the last, quitsGlobe A, that Globe, instead of falling asleep, as it had done in previous Rounds, beginsto die (to go into its planetary pralaya); and in dying it transfers successively, as just said,its 'principles,' or life-elements and energy, etc., one after the other to a new 'laya centre,'which Commences the formation of Globe A of the Earth Chain. A similar process takesplace for each of the Globes of the 'lunar chain' one after the other,, each forming a fresh

globe of the 'earth chain.' ...But Globe A of the lunar chain is not fully 'dead' till the firstMonads of the first class have passed from Globe G or Z, the last of the 'lunar chain,' intothe Nirvana which awaits them between the two chains; and similarly for all the otherGlobes as stated, each giving birth to the corresponding globe of the 'earth chain.'

"Further, when Globe A of the new chain is ready, the first class or Hierarchy ofMonads from the Lunar chain incarnate upon it in the lowest kingdom, and so onsuccessively." (Secret Doctrine I, pp. 171-3)

"Now the life impulse reaches 'A' or rather that which is destined to become 'A' andwhich so far is but cosmic dust. A centre is formed in the nebulous matter of thecondensation of the solar dust disseminated through space and a series of three evolutionsinvisible to the eye of flesh occur in succession, viz., three kingdoms of elementals ornature forces are evoluted: in other words the animal soul of the future globe is formed; oras a Kabalist will express it, the gnomes, the salamanders, and the undines are created.The correspondence between a mother-globe and her child-man may be thus worked out.Both have their seven principles. In the Globe, the elementals (of which there are in allseven species) form (a) a gross body, (b) her fluidic double (linga sariram), c) her lifeprinciple (jiva); (d) her fourth principle kama rupa is formed by her creative impulse workingfrom centre to circumference; (e) her fifth principle (animal soul or Manas, physicalintelligence) is embodied in the vegetable (in germ) and animal kingdoms; (f) her sixthprinciple (or spiritual soul, Buddhi) is man (g) and her seventh principle (atma) is in a filmof spiritualized akasa that surrounds her." (Mahatma Letters, p. 94, #15)

-----------------Neo-Theosophy:

"Globe A of the terrene Chain began to form as the life wave left Globe A of thelunar Chain. The Spirit of a globe, when its life is over, takes a new incarnation, and as itwere, transfers the life with himself to the corresponding globe of the next Chain. Theinhabitants, after leaving the Chain, have long to wait ere their new home is ready for them,but the preparation that home begins when the spirit of the first globe leaves it and itbecomes a dead body, while he enters on a new cycle of life and a new globe begins toform round him. Molecules are built up under the direction of Devas, humanity not beingat all involved. The Spirit of a globe is probably on the line of this class of Devas, andmembers of it perform the work of building globes all through the system. A great wave oflife from the LOGOS builds up atoms in a system by the intermediary of such a Deva; thenmolecules are built, then cells, and so on. Living creatures are like parasites on the surfaceof the... earth. . . Our physical Earth was formed when the inhabitants left Globe D of theMoon Chain ... but Globe D, our earth could not go far in its formation till its congener,globe D, of the lunar chain, the Moon, had died." (Man: Whence How and Whither, pp.63-5)

"The new earth nebula was developed round a centre bearing pretty much the samerelation to the dying planet that the centres of the earth and moon bear to one another atpresent. But in the nebulous condition this aggregation of matter occupied an enormouslygreater volume than the solid matter of the earth now occupies. It stretched out in all

directions so as to include the old planet in its fiery embrace. The temperature of a newnebulae appears to be considerably higher than any temperatures we are acquainted with,and by this means the old planet was superficially heated afresh in such a manner that allatmosphere, water, and volatilizable matter upon it was brought into the gaseous conditionand so became amenable to the new centre of attraction set up at the centre of the newnebulae. In this way the air and seas of the old planet were drawn over into the constitutionof the new..." (A. P. Sinnett quoted in Ancient Wisdom, Annie Besant, pp. 353-4)

= = = = = = = = = = =

MARS-MERCURY TEACHINGS

"Go to your fortepiano and execute upon the lower register of keys the seven notesof the lower octave - up and down. Begin pianissimo; cresendo from the first key andhaving struck fortissimo on the last lower note go back diminuendo getting out of your lastnote a hardly perceptible sound - 'morendo pianissimo'... The first and last notes willrepresent to you the first and last spheres in the cycle of evolution - the highest! The oneyou strike once is our planet." (Mahatma Letters, p. 73, #13)

"Our Globe, as taught from the first, is at the bottom of the arc of descent, where thematter of our perception exhibits itself in its grossest form. ...Hence it only stands to reasonthat the globes which overshadow our Earth must be on different and superior planes."(letter from Mahatma K.H. quoted in Secret Doctrine I, p. 166)

"It is quite correct that Mars is in a state of obscuration at present, and Mercury justbeginning to get out of it... Again, both (Mars and Mercury) are septenary chains, asindependent of the Earth's sidereal lords and superiors as you are independent of the'principles' of Daumling (Tom Thumb)..." (letter from Mahatma K.H. quoted, in SecretDoctrine I, p. 165) ------------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"There are ten schemes of evolution at present existing in our solar system, but onlyseven of them are at the stage where they have planets in the physical world. These are:1 . . . ; 2 . . . ; 3. that of the Earth, Mars and Mercury, which has three visible planets,because it is in its fourth incarnation..." ( C. W. Leadbeater, Textbook of Theosophy, p.124)

"... our Earth Chain, or Terrene Chain, is the fourth in succession, and has thereforethree of its seven globes in physical manifestation, its third globe, C, being what is calledthe planet Mars, and its fifth globe E, what is called the planet Mercury." (Annie Besant andC. W. Leadbeater, Man: Whence, How and Whither, p. 9) = = = = = = = = = = =

PRINCIPLES OF MAN

[Here in the book is a diagram from Secret Doctrine I, p. 153, which is toocomplex to reproduce. - Ed.]

"As we are Proceeding here from Universals to Particulars, instead of using theinductive or Aristotlean method, the numbers are reversed. Spirit is enumerated the firstinstead of seventh, as is usually done, but, in truth, ought not to be done... Or as usuallynamed after the manner of Esoteric Buddhism and others: 1, Atma; 2, Buddhi (or SpiritualSoul); 3, Manas (Human Soul); 4, Kama Rupa (Vehicle of Desire and Passions); 5, LingaSarira; 6, Prana; 7, Sthula Sarira." (Secret Doctrine I, p. 153)

PRINCIPLES1. Atma2. Buddhi (or Spiritual Soul)3. Manas (Human Soul)4. Kama Rupa (Vehicle of Desires and Passions)5. Linga Sarira6. Prana7. Sthula Sarira

(Ibid.)

"We include Atma among the human 'principles' in order not to create additionalconfusion. In reality it is no 'human' but the universal absolute principle of which Buddhi,the Soul-Spirit, is the carrier." (Key to Theosophy, p. 93)

"The 'principles,' as already said, save the body, the life, and the astral eidolon, allof which disperse at death, are simply aspects and states of consciousness." (Key toTheosophy, p. 100)

"Occultism teaches that physical man is one, but the thinking man septenary,thinking, acting, feeling, and living on seven different states of being or planes ofconsciousness, and that for all these states and planes the permanent Ego (not the falsepersonality) has a distinct set of senses." (Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge, p. 73)

--------------------------Neo-Theosophy:

I . Adi ii. Anupadaka iii. Atma iv. Buddhi v. Manas vi. Kamasvii. Sthula

(Annie Besant, A Study in Consciousness, p. 64, [1918, 3rd Edition])

Principles: Atma. Spirit; Buddhi; Higher Manas and Lower Manas; Kama; LingaSharira; Sthula Sharira

Life: Atma; Spiritual Soul; Human Soul; Animal Soul Forms: Bliss-Body; Causal Body; Mental Body; Astral Body; Etheric Double; Dense Body (Annie Besant, Ancient Wisdom, p. 194)

"Dr . Annie Besant has proposed a set of names for the planes, so for future thesewill be used instead of those previously employed. A table of them is given below forreference:[13]

New Names: 1. Divine World; 2.Monadic World; 3.Spiritual World; 4. IntuitionalWorld; 5. Mental World; 6. Emotional or Astral World; 7. Physical World

Old Names: 1. Adi Plane; 2. Anupadaka Plane; 3. Atmic or Nirvanic Plane; 4.Buddhic Plane; 5. Mental Plane; 6. Astral Plane; 7. Physical Plane ( C. W. Leadbeater, A Textbook of Theosophy, 3rd Edition, 1918, p. 41) [13]

"The various subtle bodies of man that we have now studied form in their aggregatewhat is usually called the 'aura' of the human being. This aura has the appearance of anegg-shaped luminous cloud, in the midst of which is the dense physical body, and from itsappearance it has often been spoken of as though it were nothing more than such a cloud.What is usually called the aura is merely such parts of the subtle bodies as extend beyondthe periphery of the dense physical body; each body is complete in itself andinterpenetrates those that are coarser than itself; it is larger or smaller according to itsdevelopment, and all that part of it that overlays the surface of the dense physical body istermed the aura. The aura is thus composed of the overlapping portions of the ethericdouble, the desire body, and in rare cases the buddhic body, illuminated by the atmicradiance." [14] (Annie Besant, Ancient Wisdom, p. 195)

= = = = = = = = = = =

ATMA - AS SEVENTH PRINCIPLE OF MAN

"'Remember that there is within man no abiding principle' - which sentence I findfollowed by a remark of yours 'How about the sixth and seventh principles?' To this Ianswer, neither Atma nor Buddhi ever were within man..." (Mahatma Letters, p. 455, #127)

"First of all, Spirit (in the sense of the Absolute, and therefore, indivisible ALL), orAtma. As this can neither be located nor limited in philosophy, being simply that which ISin Eternity, and which cannot be absent from even the tiniest geometrical or mathematicalpoint of the universe of matter or substance, it ought not to be called, in truth, a 'human'principle at all. Rather, and at best, it is in Metaphysics, that point in space which thehuman Monad and its vehicle man occupy for the period of every life." (Key to Theosophy,p. 119)

-----------------Neo-Theosophy:

"These vehicles, being composed of matter modified by the action of the PlanetaryLogos of the Chain to which they belong, cannot respond to the vibrations of matterdifferently modified; and the student must be able to use his atmic body before he cancontact the Universal Memory beyond the limits of his own Chain." (Annie Besant, A Studyin Consciousness, p. 177)

" ....since the Ego in the causual body gives the fundamental tone or temperamentfor the incarnation, we may think of the Ego and his three lower vehicles as forming a chordof temperamental tones, the Chord of the Man. But the Individuality in the causal body isonly a partial representation of all his qualities; behind his Higher Manas or Abstract Mindexists the Buddhi, the Divine Intuition, and behind that, the Atma or the indomitable Spiritof God in man. But the Atma, Buddhi, and higher attributes of the Monad, 'the Son in theBosom of the Father.' The fundamental note of the Life of the Logos gives the dominanttone for the Monad, and the three attributes of the Monad, on the Adi, Anupadaka and thehigher Nirvanic planes, make the 'Chord of the Monad.'" ( C. Jinarajadasa, First Principlesof Theosophy, p. 110) [15]

= = = = = = = = = = =

CAUSAL BODY

"For it is the Buddhi-Manas which is called the Causal Body, (the United 5th and 6thPrinciples) and which is Consciousness, that connects it with every personality it inhabitson earth." (Key to Theosophy, p. 121)

"Speaking of Manas, the 'Causal Body,' we may call it - when connecting it with theBuddhic radiance - the 'HIGHER EGO,' never the 'Higher Self."' (Key to Theosophy, p. 174)

"... you have not yet grasped very firmly the difference between the sixth andseventh and the fifth, or the immortal and the astral or personal 'Monads = Egos.' ...the 'realEgo inheres in the higher principles which are reincarnated' periodically every one, two, orthree or more thousands of years. But the immortal Ego the 'Individual Monad,' is not thepersonal monad which is the 5th ..." (Mahatma Letters, p. 183, #24B)

-----------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"The ego dwells in a causal body, and when he takes upon himself in addition amental and an astral body, the operation involves the actual entangling of a portion of thematter of his causal body with the matter of those lower astral and mental types." ( C.W.Leadbeater, The Inner Life I, pp. 205-6)

"When the Thinker has consumed in the mental body all the fruits belonging to it of

his earthly life, he shakes it off and dwells unencumbered in his own place. All the mentalfaculties which express themselves on the lower levels are drawn within the causal body -with the germs of the passional life that were drawn into the mental body when it left theastral shell to disintegrate in Kamaloka - and these become latent for a time, lying withinthe causal body, forces which remain concealed for lack of material in which to manifest.The mental body, the last of the temporary vestures of the true man, disintegrates, and itsmaterials return to the general matter of the mental plane, whence they were drawn whenthe Thinker last descended into incarnation. Thus the causal body alone remains, thereceptacle and treasure house of all that has been assimilated from the life that is over."(Annie Besant, Ancient Wisdom, p. 161)

"Once again, there begins the process of involution, and now of the Ego who livesin the causal body. When the Ego descends into incarnation, he undergoes limitation planeby plane, as he makes successively the mental, astral and physical bodies." ( C .Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, p. 197) [16]

= = = = = = = = = = =

ASTRAL BODY(Linga-Sarira in Theosophy, Kama-Rupa in Neo-Theosophy)

"Why, she confounds 'Soul and Spirit,' refuses to discriminate between the animaland spiritual Egos the Jiv-atma (or Linga-Shirir) and the Kama-Rupa (or Atma-Rupa), twoas different things as body and mind, and - mind and thought are!" (Mahatma Letters, p.46, #9)

"Linga-Sarira: the inert vehicle or form on which the body is moulded; the vehicle ofLife. It is dissipated very shortly after the disintegration of the body." (Secret Doctrine II, p.593)

-------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"The desire nature of the astral body provides a delicate instrument o f cognition.Evil begins when the desire elemental dominates and dispossesses for the time the Ego.A natural desire then becomes a craving, and the astral body gets out of control. When aman loses his temper, so that for the time he is not showing a soul's attributes, but thoseof a wild beast, he has for the time reverted to an early state of evolution, dragged theretoby the astral body which he cannot control. What we have to understand is that we are notthe habits of the desire elemental of the astral body, but are to search, for our soul'spurpose, such aptitudes in it as are useful for us." ( C. Jinarajadasa, First Principles ofTheosophy, p. 105) [17]

"While the man is what we call alive and awake on the physical earth he is limitedby his physical body, for he uses the astral and mental bodies only as bridges to connecthimself with his lowest vehicle. One of the limitations of the physical body is that it quickly

becomes fatigued and needs periodical rest. Each night the man leaves it to sleep, andwithdraws into his astral vehicle, which does not become fatigued and therefore needs nosleep. During this sleep of the physical body the man is free to move about in the astralworld..." ( C. W. Leadbeater, Textbook of Theosophy, pp. 61-2) [18]

= = = = = = = = = = =

MONAD

"'Having for Father, Spirit, which is Life (the endless Circle or Parabrahm) and forMother the Great Deep, which is Substance (Prakriti in its undifferentiated condition) -Adonai possesses the potency of both and wields the dual powers of all things.' We wouldsay triple, but in the sense as given this will do. Pythagoras had a reason for never usingthe finite useless figure - 2, and for altogether discarding it. The ONE can, whenmanifesting, become only 3. The umanifested when a simple duality remains passive andconcealed. The dual monad (the 7th and 6th principles) has, in order to manifest itself asa Logos, the 'Kwan-shai-yin' to first become a triad (7th, 6th and half of the 5th)..."(Mahatma Letters, pp. 346-7)

"In short, as the spiritual Monad is one, Universal, Boundless and Impartite, whoserays, nevertheless, form what we, in our ignorance, call the 'Individual Monads' of men, sothe Mineral Monad being at the opposite point of the circle is also one - and from it proceedthe countless physical atoms, which Science is beginning to regard as individualized. ... Asthe Monads are uncompounded things, as correctly defined by Leibnitz, it is the spiritualessence which vivifies them in their degrees of differentiation, which properly constitutesthe Monad - not the atomic aggregation, which is only the vehicle and the substancethrough which thrill the lower and the higher degrees of intelligence." (Secret Doctrine I,pp.177-9)

"It would be very misleading to imagine a Monad as a separate Entity trailing its slowway in a distinct path through the lower Kingdoms, and after an incalculable series oftransformations flowering into a human being; in short, that the Monad of a Humboldt datesback to the Monad of an atom of hornblende." (Secret Doctrine I, p. 178)

-------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"Now this specialization of Jack out of the dog-Group Soul is due, not only to thehigher vibrations sent towards him from Jack's master, mistress, and friends, but also tothe fact that a Monad, 'a fragment of Divinity,' is seeking to form an Ego or Soul in order tobegin his human experiences. This Monad long ago attached to itself an atom of each ofthe planes as a centre on each plane, as an 'earnest' sent in advance with a view to hisfuture work . . . When the 'permanent atoms' find themselves in touch with a highlyspecialized part of the animal Group Soul, like the 'soul of Jack,' then the Monad sendsdown from his high plane certain influences ... the 'soul of Jack' as the result of the strongerand more divine radiations from the Monad, breaks off from the Group Soul ..." ( C.

Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, p. 122)

"Meanwhile, it may be said in passing, the everflowing stream of life from the Logossupplies new Monads of form on the higher levels, so that the evolution proceedscontinuously, and as the more-evolved Monads incarnate in the lower worlds their placeis taken by the newly emerged Monads in the higher." (Annie Besant, Ancient Wisdom,p. 205)

"The evolution of matter is a re-arrangement; the evolution of life is an unlocking andan unfoldment. In the first cell of living matter, in some incomprehensible fashion, areShakespeare and Beethoven. Nature may need millions of years to re-arrange thesubstance, 'selecting' age after age, till the proper aggregation is found, and Shakespeareand Beethoven can come from her bosom to be the protagonists in one scene of herdrama. Yet all the while, throughout the millions of years, the life held them bothmysteriously within itself . ...Within each cell HE resides in HIS fullness, under HISguidance, at the proper time, Shakespeare and Beethoven step forth, and we call itEvolution." ( C Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, p. 17) [19]

= = = = = = = = = = =

THE GOAL OF EVOLUTION - MAN

"The whole Kosmos is guided, controlled, and animated by almost endless seriesof Hierarchies of sentient Beings, each having a mission to perform, and who - whether wegive them one name or another, and call them Dhyan-Chohans or Angels - are'messengers' in the sense only that they are the agents of Karmic and Cosmic Laws. Theyvary infinitely in their respective degrees of consciousness and intelligence; and to callthem all pure Spirits without any of the earthly alloy 'which time is wont to prey upon' is onlyto indulge in poetical fancy. For each of these Beings either was, or prepares to become,a man, if not in the present then in a past or a coming cycle (Manvantara). They areperfected, when not incipient, men..." (Secret Doctrine I, pp. 274-5)

"In sober truth, as just shown, every 'Spirit' so-called is either a disembodied or afuture man. As from the highest Archangel (Dhyan Chohan) down to the last conscious'Builder' (the inferior class of Spiritual Entities), all such are men, having lived eons ago, inother Manvantaras, on this or other Spheres; so the inferior, semi-intelligent and non-intelligent Elementals - are all future men." (Secret Doctrine I, p. 277)

-----------------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"The nature-spirits constitute an evolution apart , quite distinct at this stage from thatof humanity ... We know that, after that individuality has been attained, the unfolding ofhumanity carries us gradually to the steps of the Path, and then onward and upward toAdeptship and to the glorious possibilities which lie beyond.

"This is our line of development, but we must not make the mistake of thinking of it

as the only line . . . The nature spirits, for example, neither have been nor ever will bemembers of a humanity such as ours." ( C. W. Leadbeater, The Hidden Side of ThingsI, pp. 116-7)

"...there are several parallel streams of evolving life, each mostly independent of theothers in its development.

"Two of these streams are those of Humanity and of a parallel stream called theevolution of Devas or Angels ... As already mentioned, human life has its earlier stages ofanimal vegetable, mineral and elemental life. From the same mineral life, however, the lifediverges into another channel, through stages of vegetable forms, animal forms, then theforms of 'nature-spirits,' or the fairies of tradition, into Angels or Devas ... One stream buildsorganisms living in water, while three use forms living on land. Only one of the six streamsleads into humanity; the other five pass into the parallel evolution of the Devas." ( C.Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, pp. 17-19) [20]

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TEACHING ON LOWER KINGDOMS VS. "GROUP SOULS"

"Man was the store-house, so to speak, of all the seeds of life for this Round,vegetable and animal alike... Having appeared at the very beginning, and at the head ofsentient and conscious life, man (the astral, or the 'Soul,' for the Zohar, repeating thearchaic teaching, distinctly says that 'the real man is the Soul, and his material frame nopart of him') - man became the living and animal UNIT, from which the 'cast-off clothes'determined the shape of every life and animal in this Round.

"Thus, he 'created' for ages the insects, reptiles, birds, and animals, unconsciouslyto himself, from his remains and relics from the Third and Fourth Rounds." (Secret DoctrineII, pp. 289-90)

"The Monad is a drop out of the shoreless Ocean beyond, or, to be correct, withinthe plane of primeval differentiation. It is divine in its higher and human in its lowercondition... and a monad it remains at all times, save in Nirvanic state, under whateverconditions, or whatever external forms. ...the MONAD has, during the cycle of itsincarnations, to reflect in itself every root-form of each kingdom. Therefore, the Kabalistssay correctly that 'MAN becomes a stone , a plant, an animal, a man, a Spirit, and finallyGod ...But by 'MAN' the divine Monad is meant, and not the thinking Entity, much less hisphysical body. ... It is correct to say that the man of this Manvantara, i.e., during the threepreceding Rounds, has passed through all the kingdoms of nature. That he was 'a stone,a plant, an animal.' But (a) these stones, plants, and animals were the prototypes, the filmypresentments of those of the Fourth Round; and (b) even those at the beginning of theFourth Round were the astral shadows of the present, as the Occultists express it... Thusthe astral prototypes of the lower beings of the animal kingdom of the Fourth Round, whichpreceded (the chhayas of) Men, were the consolidated, though still very ethereal sheathsof the still more ethereal forms or models produced at the close of the Third Round onGlobe D. 'Produced from the residue of the substance matter; from dead bodies of men and(other extinct) animals of the wheel before,' or the previous Third Round - as Stanza 24

tells us. Hence, while the nondescript 'animals' that preceded the astral man at thebeginning of this life-cycle on our Earth were still, so to speak, the progeny of the man ofthe Third Round, the mammalians of this Round owe their existence, in a great measure,to man again. Moreover, the 'ancestor' cf the present anthropoid animal, the ape, is thedirect production of the yet mindless Man, who desecrated his human dignity by puttinghimself physically on the level of the animal." (Secret Doctrine II, pp. 186-7)

"...the Manasaputras, the Sons of Wisdom who informed the mindless man, andendowed him with his mind (manas)." (Secret Doctrine II, p. 608) ----------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"Thus by their repeated plant-reincarnations the monadic group-souls in thevegetable kingdom evolve, until those that ensoul the highest members of the kingdom areready for the next step.

"This step carries them into the animal kingdom, and here they slowly evolve in theirphysical and astral vehicles a very distinct personality ... The monadic group-soulincarnates in a decreasing number of forms as it gradually approaches the point at whichcomplete individualization will be reached ... At last the decreasing number of formsanimated by a monadic group-soul comes down to unity, and it animates a succession ofsingle forms -a condition differing from human reincarnation only by the absence of Manas,with its causal and mental bodies. The mental matter brought down by the monadic group-soul begins to be susceptible to impacts from the mental plane, and the animal is thenready to receive the third great outpouring of the life of the LOGOS - the tabernacle isready for the reception of the human Monad.

"... Doubtless, in the course of aeons of evolution, the upwardly evolving Monad ofform might have unfolded Manas by progressive growth, but both in the human race in thepast, and in the animals of the present, such has not been the course of Nature. When thehouse was ready the tenant was sent down: from the higher planes of being the atmic lifedescended, veiling itself in Buddhi, as a golden thread; and its third aspect, Manas,showing itself in the higher levels of the formless world of the mental plane, germinalManas within the form was fructified, and the embryonic causal body was formed by theunion. This is the individualization of the spirit, the incasing of it in form, and the spiritincased in the causal body is the soul, the individual, the real man ...

"Further, this outpoured life reaches the evolving forms not directly but byintermediaries. The human race having attained the point of receptivity, certain great Ones,called Sons of Mind, cast into men the monadic spark of Atma-Buddhi-Manas." (AnnieBesant, Ancient Wisdom, pp. 210-13) [21]

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CONDITIONS DURING SLEEP ("INVISIBLE HELPERS")

"Q. Is the apparent objectivity in a dream really objective or subjective?"A. If it is admitted to be apparent, then of course it is subjective. The question

should rather be, to whom or what are the pictures or representations in dreams eitherobjective or subjective. To physical man, the dreamer, all he sees with his eyes shut, andin or through his mind, is of course subjective. But to the Seer within the physical dreamer,that Seer himself being subjective to our material senses, all he sees is as objective as heis himself to himself and to others like himself." (Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge, p.73)

"Q. What is the condition of the Linga Sarira (astral body - V.E.), or plastic body,during dreams?

"A. The condition of the Plastic form is to sleep with its body, unless projected bysome powerful desire generated in the higher Manas. In dreams it plays no active part, buton the contrary is entirely passive, being the involuntary half-sleepy witness of theexperiences through which the higher principles are passing." (Transactions of theBlavatsky Lodge, p. 76)

"Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness grouped underThought, Will and Feeling. During deep sleep, ideation ceases on the physical plane, andmemory is in abeyance; thus for the time-being 'Mind is not,' because the organ, throughwhich the Ego manifests ideation and memory on the material plane, has temporarilyceased to function. ...our 'Ego' is latent (in us) at the time of sushupti, sleep..." (SecretDoctrine I, pp. 38, 429)

"The three states of consciousness, which are Jagrat, the waking; Svapna, thedreaming; and Sushupti, the deep sleeping state." (Voice of the Silence, p. 6)

"Sleep is a sign that waking life has become too strong for the physical organism,and that the force of the life current must be broken by changing the waking for thesleeping state. Ask a good clairvoyant to describe the aura of a person just refreshed bysleep, and that of another just before going to sleep. The former will be seen bathed inrhythmical vibrations of life-currents - golden, blue, and rosy; these are the electrical wavesof Life. The latter is, as it were, in a mist of intense golden-orange hue, composed of atomswhirling with an almost incredible spasmodic rapidity, showing that the person begins to betoo strongly saturated with Life; the life essence is too strong for his physical organs, andhe must seek relief in the shadowy side of that essence, which side is the dream element,or physical sleep, one of the states of consciousness." (Transactions of the BlavatskyLodge, p. 71)---------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"While a man is what we call alive and awake on the physical earth he is limited byhis physical body, for he uses the astral and mental bodies only as bridges to connecthimself with his lowest vehicle. One of the limitations of the physical body is that it quicklybecomes fatigued and needs periodical rest. Each night the man leaves it to sleep, andwithdraws into his astral vehicle, which does not become fatigued and therefore needs nosleep. During this sleep of the physical body the man is free to move about in the astralworld, but the extent to which he does this depends upon his development ... The educated

man is generally able to travel in his astral vehicle wherever he will, and has much moreconsciousness in the astral world..." (C.W. Leadbeater, Textbook of Theosophy, pp. 61-2)

"The vast importance of the work which They are doing, and the enormous amountof it, make it obviously impossible that They should take up personal work with individuals.In the cases where such work has to be done it is always delegated to pupils... The workof the invisible helpers on the astral plane would simply not be done unless there werepupils at the stage where that is the best work they can do... For those who are acting asinvisible helpers on the astral plane there are no separate levels; it is all one.

"In India the idea of service on the astral plane is not so widely known as in theWest..." (C.W. Leadbeater, The Inner Life, Vol. I, pp. 19, 178) [22]

"During the night or at any time when we sleep he [the 'physical elemental' - Ed.] letsthe nerves and muscles relax, and devotes himself specially to the assimilation of vitalityand the recuperation of the physical body." ( C. W. Leadbeater, The Chakras, p. 57)

"When vitalized atoms are... more sparsely scattered, the man in rude healthincreases his power of absorption, depletes a larger area, and so keeps his strength at thenormal level; but invalids and men of small nerve-force, who cannot do this, often sufferseverely, and find themselves growing weaker and more irritable without knowing why." (C. W. Leadbeater, The Chakras, pp. 46-7) [23] = = = = = = = = = = =

AFTER DEATH CONDITIONS - KAMA

"In Kama Loka those who retain their remembrance, will not enjoy it at the supremehour of recollection. - Those who know they are dead in their physical bodies - can only beeither adepts or sorcerers; and these two are the exceptions to the general rule . (MahatmaLetters, p. 128, #20C)

"The good and pure sleep a quiet blissful sleep, full of happy visions of earth-life andhave no consciousness of being already for ever beyond that life...

"Every just disembodied four-fold entity - whether it died a natural or violent death,from suicide or accident, mentally sane or insane, young or old, good, bad, or indifferent -loses at the instant of death all recollections, it is mentally - annihilated; it sleeps it's akashicsleep in the Kama-loka. This state lasts from a few hours, (rarely less) days, weeks,months - sometimes to several years. All this according to the entity, to its mental statusat the moment of death, to the character of its death, etc. That remembrance will returnslowly and gradually toward the end of the gestation (to the entity or Ego), still more slowlybut far more imperfectly and incompletely to the shell, and fully to the Ego at the momentof its entrance into Devachan." (Mahatma Letters, pp. 123, 186-7, #19, #24B)

"Enq[uirer:] In no case, then, do you admit the possibility of the communication ofthe living with the disembodied spirit?

"Theo[sophist]: Yes, there is a case, and even two exceptions to the rule. The first

exception is during the few days that follow immediately the death of a person and beforethe Ego passes into the Devachanic state, ...The spirit is dazed after death and falls verysoon into what we call 'pre-devachanic unconsciousness.' The second exception is foundin the Nirmanakayas. ...adept, or Saint, or whatever you may call him... They have nomaterial body, as they have left it behind..." (Key to Theosophy, pp. 150-1)

"In the Kama Loka (semi-physical sphere) dwell the shells, the victims and suicides;and this sphere is divided into innumerable regions and sub-regions corresponding to themental states of the comers at their hour of death. This is the glorious 'Summer-land' of theSpiritualists, to whose horizons is limited the vision of their best seers - visions imperfectand deceptive because untrained and non-guided by Alaya Vynyana (hidden knowledge)."(Mahatma Letters, pp. 198-9, #25)

-----------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"The dead can see us, but it is our astral body that they see; consequently they areat once aware of our emotions, but not necessarily of the details of our physical condition.They know whether we are happy or miserable . . . The dead man carries on with him hisaffections and hatreds; he knows his old friends when he meets them, and he also oftenforms new friendships among new companions whom he meets for the first time on theastral plane." ( C. W. Leadbeater, The Inner Life II, p. 88)

"Many men arrive in the astral world in utter ignorance of its conditions, not realizingat first that they are dead, and when they do realize it fearing the fate that may be in storefor them, because of false and wicked theological teaching." ( C. W. Leadbeater, Textbookof Theosophy, p. 78)

"When an average man or woman reaches Kamaloka, the spiritual Intelligence isclothed with a desire body, which possesses considerable vigor and vitality; the lowerManas, closely interwoven with Kama during the earth - life just ended, having lived muchin the enjoyment of objects of sense and in the pleasures of the emotions, cannot quicklydisentangle itself from the web of its weaving, and return to its Parent Mind, the source ofits own being. Hence a considerable delay in the world of transition, in Kamaloka, while thedesires wear out and fade away to a point at which they can no longer detain the Soul withtheir clinging arms.

"As said, during the period that the Immortal Triad, Mind and Desire remain togetherin Kamaloka, communication between the disembodied entity and the embodied entitieson earth is possible." (Annie Besant, Death - and After, pp. 35-6)

"The average person passing into the heaven-life, for example, tends to float at aconsiderable distance above the surface of the earth, although on the other hand some ofsuch men are drawn to our level. Still, broadly speaking, the inhabitants of the heaven-world may be thought of as living in a sphere or ring or zone round the earth. Whatspiritualists call summer-land extends many miles above our heads. . ." ( C. W. Leadbeater,The Inner Life I, p. 174) [24]

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DEVACHAN

"... all the great plans of moral reform of intellectual and spiritual research intoabstract principles of nature, all the divine aspirations, would, in devachan come to fruition,and the abstract entity... would occupy itself in this inner world of its own preparation, living,if not quite what one would call a conscious existence, at least a dream of such realisticvividness that none of the life-realities could ever match it." (Mahatma Letters, p. 191, #25)

"Enq. But what is Devachan?"Theo. The 'land of gods' literally; a condition, a state of mental bliss. Philosophically

a mental condition analogous to, but far more vivid and real than, the most vivid dream. Itis the state after death of most mortals." (Key to Theosophy, p. 100)

"You postulate an intercourse of entities in devachan which applies only to themutual relationship of physical existence. TWO sympathetic souls will each work out itsown devachanic sensations making the other a sharer in its subjective bliss, but yet eachis disassociated from the other as regards actual mutual intercourse. For whatcompanionship could there be between two subjective entities which are not even asmaterial as that etherial body - shadow - the Mayavi-rupa?" (Mahatma Letters, p. 198, #25)

"A mother from a savage tribe is not less happy than a mother from a regal palace,with her lost child in her arms; and although as actual Egos, children prematurely dyingbefore the perfection of their septenary Entity do not find their way to Deva-Chan, yet allthe same the mother's loving fancy finds her children there, without one missing that herheart yearns for. Say - it is but a dream, but after all what is objective life itself but apanorama of vivid realities? The pleasures realized by a Red Indian in his 'happy huntinggrounds' in that Land of Dreams is not less intense than the ecstacy felt by a connoisseurwho passes aeons in the wrapt delight of listening to Divine Symphonies by imaginaryangelic choirs and orchestras." (Mahatma Letters, p. 103, #16)--------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"When the astral life is over, the man dies t o that world in turn, and awakens in themental world . . . His mental body is by no means fully developed; only those parts of it arereally in action to their fullest extent which he has used in this altruistic manner. When heawakens again after the second death, his first sense is one of indescribable bliss andvitality - a feeling of such utter joy in living that he needs for the time nothing but just to live.Such bliss is of the essence of life in all the higher worlds of the system. Even astral life haspossibilities of happiness far greater than anything that we can know in the dense body; butthe heaven-life in the mental world is out of all proportion more blissful than the astral." (C. W. Leadbeater, Textbook of Theosophy, pp. 89-90) [25]

"And with regard to the true communion, that of soul with soul! That is closer, nearer,

dearer than anything we know here, for, as we have seen, there is no barrier on the mentalplane between soul and soul; exactly in proportion to the reality of soul-life in us is thereality of soul-communion there; the mental image of our friend is our own creation; hisform as we knew and loved it; and his soul breathes through that form to ours just to theextent that his soul and ours can throb in sympathetic vibration." (Annie Besant, AncientWisdom, p. 158)

"The fifth subdivision of Kamaloka offers many new characteristics . . . Here aresituated all the materialized heavens which play so large a part in popular religions all theworld over. The happy hunting-grounds of the Red Indian..." (Annie Besant, AncientWisdom, p. 110) [26]

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SKANDHAS OR "PERMANENT ATOMS"?

"...Karma is the guiding power, and Trishna (in Pali Tanha) the thirst or desire tosentiently live - the proximate force or energy, the resultant of human (or animal) action,which, out of the old Skandhas produce the new group that form the new being and controlthe nature of birth itself... The 'old being' is the sole parent - father and mother at once -of the 'new being.' It is the former who is the creator and fashioner, of the latter, in reality;and far more so in plain truth, than any father in flesh. And once that YOU have wellmastered the meaning of Skandhas you will see what I mean.

"It is the group of Skandhas, that form and constitute the physical and mentalindividuality we call man (or any being). This group consists (in the exoteric teaching) of fiveSkandhas, namely: Rupa - the material properties or attributes; Vedana - sensations;Sanna - abstract ideas; Sankhara - tendencies both physical and mental; and Vinnana -mental powers, an amplification of the fourth meaning the mental, physical and moralpredispositions. We add to them two more, the nature and names of which you may learnhereafter. Suffice for the present to let you know that they are connected with, andproductive of Sakkayaditthi, the 'heresy or delusion of individuality' and of Attavada, 'thedoctrine of Self,' both of which (in the case of the fifth principle the soul) lead to the mayaof heresy and belief in the efficacy of vain rites and ceremonies; in prayers andintercession... Skandhas... are ever and ceaselessly at work in preparing the abstractmould, the 'privation' of the future new being." (Mahatma Letters, pp. 110-120, #16)

"Enq. What becomes of the other, the lower Skandhas of the personality, after thedeath of the body? Are they quite destroyed?

"Theo. They are and yet they are not - a fresh metaphysical and occult mystery foryou. They are destroyed as the working stock in hand of the personality; they remain askarmic effects, as germs, hanging in the atmosphere of the terrestrial plane, ready to cometo life, as so many avenging fiends, to attach themselves to the new personality of the Egowhen it reincarnates." (Key to Theosophy, p-154)

----------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"A physical impact of any kind will cause vibrations corresponding to its own in thephysical body it contacts ... whether local or general, they will reach the permanent physicalatom . . . All the results of physical experiences remain stored up in this permanent atom,as powers of vibrating ... The physical body disintegrates at death; its particles scatter, allcarrying with them the result of the experience through which they have passed ... But thephysical permanent atom remains ...

"The permanent astral atom bears exactly the same relation to the astral body asthat borne by the physical permanent atom to the physical body. At the end of the life inKama-loka-purgatory - the golden life-web withdraws from the astral body, leaving it todisintegrate, as its physical comrade had previously done, and enwraps the astralpermanent atom for its long sleep. A similar relation is borne to the mental body by thepermanent mental particle during physical astral and mental life" (Annie Besant, A Studyin Consciousness, pp. 60, 65) [27]

"A questioner sometimes asks: How can these permanent atoms be stored up withinthe causal body, without losing their physical, astra1, and mental natures, since the causalbody exists on a higher plane, where the physical, as physical, cannot be? Such a querentis forgetting, for a moment, that all the planes are interpenetrating ... The triad forms aminute particle within the causal body; each constituent part of it belongs to its own plane,but as the planes have meeting points everywhere, no difficulty arises in the necessaryjuxtaposition." (Annie Besant, A Study in Consciousness, p. 66) [28]

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SLEEPING ATOMS

"Life is ever present in the atom of matter, whether organic or inorganic, conditionedor unconditioned - a difference that the occultists do not accept. Their doctrine is that lifeis as much present in the inorganic as in the organic matter: when life-energy is active inthe atom, that atom is organic; when dormant or latent, then the atom is inorganic... The'Jiva,' or life principle which animates man, beast, plant, and even mineral, certainly is 'aform of force indestructible'... Were it to become, we will not say absent, for this isimpossible, since it is omnipresent, but for one single instant inactive, say in a stone, theparticle the latter would lose instantly their cohesive property and disintegrate as suddenly -though the force would still remain in each of its particles, but in a dormant state. Thus thecontinuation of the sentence which states that, when this is 'disconnected with one set ofatoms, it becomes attracted immediately by others' does not imply that it abandons entirelythe first set, but only that it transfers its vis viva or living power, the energy of motion, toanother set. But because it manifests itself in the next set as what is called Kinetic energy,it does not follow that the first set is deprived of it altogether; for it is still in it, as potentialenergy, or life latent. ...we regard and call in our occult phraseology those atoms that aremoved by Kinetic energy as 'life atoms,' while those that are for the time being passive,containing but invisible potential energy, we call 'sleeping atoms' ..." (Blavatsky CollectedWritings V, pp. 111-13)

---------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"The physical body disintegrates at death; its particles scatter, all carrying with them theresult of the experiences through which they have passed - as indeed all particles of ourbodies are ever doing day by day, in their ceaseless dyings out of one body and ceaselessbirthings into another. But the physical permanent atom remains; it is the only atom that haspassed through all the experiences of the ever-changing conglomerations we call our body,and it has acquired all the results of all those experiences. Wrapped in its golden cocoon,it sleeps through the long years during which the Jivatman that owns it is living throughother experiences in other worlds. By these it remains unaffected, being incapable ofresponding to them, and it sleeps through its long night in undisturbed repose. ...H. P.Blavatsky throws out a hint as to these 'sleeping atoms.' (See The Secret Doctrine II, 710)(Annie Besant, A Study in Consciousness, p. 60) [29]

= = = = = = = = = = =

MEMORY

"There are five Skandhas or 'attributes' in the Buddhist teachings: 'Rupa (form orbody), material qualities; Vedanna, sensation; Sanna, abstract ideas; Samkhara,tendencies of mind; Vinnana, mental powers. Of these we are formed; by them we areconscious of existence; and through them communicate with the world about us...

"Enq. What do you mean by Skandhas?"Theo. Just what I said: 'attributes' among which is Memory... Because memory is

included within the Skandhas, and the Skandhas having changed with the new existence,a memory, the record of that particular existence, develops. ... the record or reflection ofall the past lives must survive... we preserve no memory on the physical plane of our pastlives, though the real 'Ego' has lived them over and knows them all." (Key to Theosophy,pp. 129-31)

-----------------Neo-Theosophy

"When functioning in this physical world he remembers by means of his mental body;but since that is a new one, assumed only for this birth, it naturally cannot contain thememory of previous births in which it had no part." (C.W. Leadbeater, A Textbook ofTheosophy, p. 44)

"The memory of the cells, or of groups of cells, perishes at death, and cannot besaid to be recoverable, as such. Where then is Memory preserved?

"The brief answer is Memory is not a facu1ty, and is not preserved; it does notinhere in consciousness as a capacity, nor is any memory of events stored up in theindividual consciousness. Every event is a present fact in the universe-consciousness, inthe consciousness of the LOGOS..." (Annie Besant, A study in Consciousness, p. 169)

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OCCULTISTS AND FACTS

"It was H.P.B., who, acting under the orders of Atrya (one whom you do not know)was the first to explain in the Spiritualist the difference there was between psyche andnous, nefesh and ruach - Soul and Spirit. She had to bring the whole arsenal of proofs withher, quotations from Paul and Plato, from Plutarch and James, etc. before the Spiritualistsadmitted that the theosophists were right. It was then that she was ordered to write Isis -just a year after the Society had been founded." (Mahatma Letters, p. 289, #52)

"And to show you how exact a science is occultism let me tell you that the meanswe avail ourselves of are all laid down for us in a code as old as humanity to the minutestdetail..." (Mahatma Letters, p. 144, #22)

"...I the humble undersigned Fakir certify that the Secret Doctrine is dictated toUpasika [H.P.B] partly by myself and partly by my brother K.H. - M..." [Mahatma Morya](Letter to Dr. Hubbe-Schleiden, Invitation to The Secret Doctrine, Theosophical UniversityPress)

"...this you must tell to all: - With occult matters she [H.P.B.] has everything to do.We have not abandoned her; she is not 'given over to chelas'. She is our direct agent."(Letters to the Masters of the Wisdom I, p. 46)------------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"She (H.P.B) often in her humility, buttresses her own true statements with a massof rubbish from inferior writers picked up haphazard; on minor points she of ten speakshastily and carelessly; and further, she confuses her teachings with excessivedigressions..." (Annie Besant, Theosophical Review, August, 1899)

"Sometimes the Masters themselves used her (H.P.B.'s) body, and wrote or spokedirectly through her. At other times when her ego was elsewhere engaged, one or otherof two pupils, of lower degree than herself , would take the body, and there were evencertain occasions when another woman would be in charge." (C.W. Leadbeater, The InnerLife II, p. 382)

= = = = = = = = = = =

THE SECRET DOCTRINE

"The Secret Doctrine will explain many things, set to right more than one perplexedstudent." (Mahatma Letters, p. 357, #63)

"I have also noted your thoughts about the Secret Doctrine. Be assured that whatshe has not annotated from scientific and other works, we have given or suggested to her.

Every mistake or erroneous notion, corrected and explained by her from the works of othertheosophists was corrected by me, or under my instruction. It is a more valuable work thanits predecessor, an epitome of occult truths that will make it a source of information andinstruction for the earnest student for long years to come." (Letters From the Masters of theWisdom, First Series, #19)

"The same will be said of the Secret Archaic Doctrine, when proofs are given of itsundeniable existence and records. But it will take centuries before much more is given fromit... since the SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories, butcontains all that can be given out to the world in this century." (Secret Doctrine, I xxxviii)

"...the 'Brothers...' never promised to guide, or even protect, either the Body [of theTheosophical Society] or its members." (Blavatsky Collected Writings III, p. 274)

-------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"Dr Weller Van Hook has a very useful article in our present number, to which I drawthe attention of our readers. As I have said in the Bulletin for February, 'It is marked by thestrong common sense, freedom of thought, tolerance and open-eyed loyalty, whichare so characteristic of the writer.' [italics added] (Annie Besant, The Theosophist,March, 1922, p. 530) [A.B. was referring to an article which contained the following quote.]

"They, as they step aside, as did Madame Blavatsky, leave their authority toappointed leaders who carry on the work under the original Power that caused theorganization to come into existence. To realize this is to find a new respect for the Headsof the movement, and a new tolerance of their doings. It is to recognize that there is noneed to sustain a movement back to the teachings of H.P.B. Our present leaderssuffice for the hour." [italics added] (Weller Van Hook, The Theosophist, March, 1922)

"We have no quarrel with the 'Back to Blavatsky' movement. Ill would we haveprofited by her teachings, were we only to have marked time in knowledge since she leftus on the physical plane thirty years ago. I may, however, say that whenever my BrotherLeadbeater, or myself have come across anything which seemed to conflict with anythingshe had written, we examined our observation with minute care, and tested our own'discoveries' by her statements." (Annie Besant, The Theosophist, March, 1922, p. 595)[30]

= = = = = = = = = = =

"GREAT BEINGS"

"Orientalists and their Dictionaries tell us that the term 'Manu' is from the root Man,'to think'; hence 'the thinking man.' But, esoterically, every Manu, as an anthro-pomorphizedpatron of his special cycle (or Round), is but the personified idea of the 'Thought Divine' (asthe Hermetic 'Pymander'); each of the Manus, therefore, being the special god, the creator

and fashioner of all that appears during his own respective cycle of being or Manvantara.Fohat runs the Manus (or Dhyan-Chohans') errands, and causes the ideal prototypes toexpand from within without..." (Secret Doctrine I, p. 63)

"It is from IT that issues the great unseen Logos, who evolves all the other logoi, theprimeval MANU who gives being to the other Manus, who emanate the universe and all init collectively, and who represent in their aggregate the manifested Logos." (Secret DoctrineII, p. 310)

"Manu is the synthesis perhaps of the Manasa, and he is a single consciousness inthe same sense that while all the different cells of which the human body is composed aredifferent and varying consciousnesses there is still a unit of consciousness which is theman. But this unit, so to say, is not a single consciousness: it is a reflection of thousandsand millions of consciousnesses which a man has absorbed.

"But Manu is not really an individuality, it is the whole of mankind. You may say thatManu is a generic name for the Pitris, the progenitors of mankind." (Transactions of theBlavatsky Lodge, p. 100)

"Pratyeka Buddhas are those Bodhisatvas who strive after and often reach theDharmakaya robe after a series of lives. Caring nothing for the woes of mankind or to helpit, but only for their own bliss, they enter Nirvana and - disappear from the sight and thehearts of men. In Northern Buddhism a 'Pratyeka Buddha' is a synonym of spiritualSelfishness." (Voice of the Silence, p. 47) [31]

"The fact is, that to the last and supreme initiation every chela ...is left to his owndevice and counsel. We have to fight our own battles..." (Mahatma Letters, #54, p. 309)

(Comte St. Germain) "No wonder you find it cloudy, for it was never meant for theuninitiated reader. Eliphas studied from the Rosicruscian MSS. (now reduced to threecopies in Europe). These expound our eastern doctrines from the teachings of Rosencrauz,who, upon his return from Asia dressed them up in a semi-Christian garb intended as ashield for his pupils, against clerical revenge. One must have the key to it and that key isa science per se. Rosencrauz taught orally. Saint Germain recorded the good doctrines infigures and his only cyphered MS. remained with his staunch friend and patron thebenevolent German Prince from whose house and in whose presence he made his last exit- HOME." (Mahatma Letters, p. 280, #49)

"(1 ) An adept - the highest as the lowest - is one only during the exercise of hisoccult powers.

"(2) Whenever these powers are needed, the sovereign will unlocks the door to theinner man (the adept,) who can emerge and act freely but on condition that his jailor - theouter man will be either completely or partially paralyzed - as the case may require; viz:either (a) mentally and physically; (b) mentally - but not physically; (c) physically but notentirely mentally; (d) neither, - but with an akasic film interposed between the outer and theinner man... no adept can be supposed to keep his will in constant tension and the innerman in full function, when there is no immediate necessity for it. When the inner man rests

the adept becomes an ordinary man, limited to his physical senses and the functions of hisphysical brain. Habit sharpens the intuitions of the latter, yet is unable to make themsupersensuous. The inner adept is ever ready, ever on the alert, and that suffices for ourpurposes. At moments of rest then, his faculties are at rest also." (Mahatma Letters, p. 180,#24B)

"I tell you, my dear friend, that I am far less free to do as I like than you are in thematter of the Pioneer. None of us but the highest Chutuktus are their full Masters."(Mahatma Letters, p. 113, #16)

"...a high adept whose powers are not in the Chohan's chancery sequestered by Himto prevent him from squandering them upon the unworthy objects of his personalpredilections..." (Mahatma Letters, p. 181, #24B)

"... if a 1st - 5th round man devoted himself to occultism and became an adept,would he escape further earthly incarnations?

"No; if we except Buddha - a sixth round being... Yet even he escaped furtherreincarnations but on this earth; and, when the last of the sixth round men of the third ringis gone out of this earth, the Great Teacher will have to get reincarnated on the nextplanet." (Mahatma Letters, p. 117, #17)

"...having become a full adept (which unhappily I am not) I arrest the hand of Deathat will,, and when finally obliged to submit to it, my knowledge of the secrets of nature putsme in a position to retain my consciousness and distinct perception of Self as an object tomy own reflective consciousness and cognition; and thus avoiding all suchdismemberments of principles, that as a rule take place after the physical death of averagehumanity, I remain as Koothoomi in my Ego throughout the whole series of births and livesacross the seven worlds and Arupa-lokas until finally I land again on this earth among thefifth race men of the full fifth Round beings. I would have been, in such a case - 'immortal'for an inconceivable (to you) long period embracing many milliards of years. And yet am'I' truly immortal for all that? Unless I make the same efforts as I do now, to secure formyself another such furlough from Nature's Law, Koothoomi will vanish and may becomea Mr. Smith or an innocent Babu, when his leave expires." (Mahatma Letters, pp. 120-30,# 20C)

"And this weary round of birth upon birth must be ever and ever run through, untilthe being reaches the end of the seventh round, or - attains in the interim the wisdom of anArhat, then that of a Buddha and thus gets relieved for a round or two..." (Mahatma Letters,p. 196, #25)

---------------------Neo-Theosophy:

"The Manu, or temporal leader , is practically an autocratic monarch who arrangeseverything connected with the physical-plane life of the new race, and endeavors in everyway... to male it as perfect an expression as possible of the idea which the LOGOS has

set before Him for realization." (C. W. Leadbeater, The Inner Life I, pp. 8-9)

"The Root-Manu of the terrene Chain, Vaivasvata, who directs the whole order ofits evolution, is a mighty Being from the Fourth Chain of the Venus Scheme ... A Root-Manu of a Chain must achieve the level fixed for the Chain or Chains on which He ishuman, and become one of its Lords; ... then he becomes the Manu of a Race; then aPratyeka Buddha; then a Lord of the World; then the Root-Manu, then the Seed-Manu ofa Round, and only then the Root-Manu of a Chain." (Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater,Man: Whence, How and Whither, p. 82)

"The Adept of the First Ray who takes the seventh Initiation usually enters thereafterupon the arduous duties of the Manu of a Root Race on a globe. His term of office beginswith the slow gathering of the egos who are going to work under Him at the commencementof the new race, and through all the successive sub-races as they appear one by one.During the hundreds of thousands of years of the history of a Root Race, He directs thebuilding of variant after variant of the sub-races, and Himself incarnates in each sub-raceto set the form for it." (C. Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, p. 209)

"When the life-wave shall pass from Earth to Mercury, it is these Three who shallbecome in turn Lords of Mercury, and guide all evolution on that globe. They are known inBuddhism as Pratyeka Buddhas, the 'solitary Buddhas;' for They do not teach ... But Theystand at the level of the Buddha, though Theirs is not the role of the World-Teacher. Hencethe curiously misleading description in popular Buddhism of Them as 'so1itary' or 'se1fish'Buddhas." (C. Jinarajadas, First Principles of Theosophy, p. 208)

(St. Germain: ) "The last survivor of the Royal House of Rakoczi, known as theComte de S. Germain in the history of the eighteenth century; as Bacon in the seventeenth;as Robertus the monk in the sixteenth, as Hunyadi Janos in the fifteenth; as ChristianRosencreuz in the fourteenth - to take a few of His incarnations - was disciple throughthese laborious lives and now has achieved Masterhood, the 'Hungarian Adept' of TheOccult World, and known to some of us in the Hungarian body ... They live in differentcountries. . . the Master Rakoczi in Hungary but travelling much..." (Annie Besant, TheMasters, pp. 80-2)

"An accepted pupil is taken into his Master's consciousness to so great an extentthat whatever he sees or hears is within the knowledge of his Master - not that the Masternecessarily sees or hears it at the same moment (though this often happens) but that it lieswithin the Master's memory exactly as it does within the memory of the pupil. Whatever thepupil feels or thinks is within the astral and mental bodies of his Master . . . If , for example,the pupil is writing a letter or giving a lecture, the Master is sub-consciously aware of thefact, and may at any moment throw into the mind of the pupil a sentence to be included..."(C. W. Leadbeater, The Inner Life I, p. 27)

"Just in the same way the Great White Brotherhood has nothing to do with therelations between the Master and His pupil; that is a matter solely for the privateconsideration of the Master himself." (C. W. Leadbeater, The Inner Life I, p. 27)

"A Master is a term applied by Theosophists to denote certain human beings, whohave completed their human evolution, have attained human perfection, have nothing moreto learn so far as our part of the solar system is concerned..." (Annie Besant, The Masters,p. 73)

"...one day one of the Masters made a suggestion to me with regard to a certain kindof meditation which would evoke this force (the kundalini)." ( C . W. Leadbeater, TheChakras, p. 87) [32]

= = = = = = = = = = =

THE HOW AND WHY OF TRUE OCCULT STUDY

"As our London opponent truly remarks: these subjects (metaphysical) are onlypartly for understanding. A higher faculty belonging to the higher life must see, - and it istruly impossible to force it upon one's understanding - merely in words. One must see withhis spiritual eye, hear with his Dharmakayic ear, feel with the sensations of his Ashta-vijnyana (spiritual 'I') before he can comprehend this doctrine fully; otherwise it may butincrease one's 'discomfort,' and add to his knowledge very little." (Mahatma Letters, p. 200,#25)

"There is one general law of vision (physical and mental or spiritual) but there is aqualifying special law proving that all vision must be determined by the quality or grade ofman's spirit and soul, and also by the ability to translate divers qualities of waves of astrallight into consciousness." (Mahatma Letters, p. 255, #40)

"As we do not 'require a passive mind' but on the contrary are seeking for thosemost active, which can put two and two together once that they are on the right scent, wewill, if you please, drop the subject. Let your mind work out the problem for itself... Thus,little by little, the now incomprehensible will become the self-evident; and many a sentenceof mystic meaning, will shine yet out before your Soul-eye, like a transparency, illuminatingthe darkness of your mind. Such is the course of gradual process." (Mahatma Letters, pp.277-78, #48)

"On close observation, you will find that it was never the intention of the Occultistsreally to conceal what they had been writing from the earnest determined students, butrather to lock up their information for safety-sake, in a secure safe-box, the key to whichis - Intuition. The degree of diligence and zeal with which the hidden meaning is sought bythe student, is generally the test - how far he is entitled to the possession of the so buriedtreasure." (Mahatma Letters, p. 279, #48)

ON H.P.B.

"You can never know her as we do, therefore - none of you will ever be able to judgeher impartially or correctly. You see the surface of things; and what you would term 'virtue,'holding but to appearances, we - judge but after having fathomed the object to its

profoundest depth, and generally leave the appearances to take care of themselves. Inyour opinion H.P.B. is, at best, for those who like her despite herself - a quaint, strangewoman, a psychological riddle; impulsive and kindhearted, yet not free from the vice ofuntruth. We, on the other hand, under garb of eccentricity and folly - we find a profounderwisdom in her inner Self than you will ever find yourselves able to perceive. In thesuperficial details of her homely, hard-working, common-place daily life and affairs, youdiscern but unpracticality, womanly impulses, often absurdity and folly; we, on the contrary,light daily upon traits of her inner nature the most delicate and refinded, and which wouldcost an uninitiated psychologist years of constant and keen observation, and many an hourof close. analysis and efforts to draw out of the depth of that most subtle of mysteries -human mind - and one of her most complicated machines, - H.P.B.'s mind - and thus learnto know her true inner Self." (Mahatma Letters, p. 314, #54)

----------------------

Finally, in bringing this Section to a close, a challenge is issued to any and everystudent of Theosophy to produce contradictory teachings as between Masters' letters(whether published in The Mahatma Letters, or The Occult World or the little Adyar book,Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom) and the writings of H.P.B., similar to those thathave been shown to exist between the Masters' and H.P.B. on the one hand and Mr.Leadbeater's, Mrs. Besant's and Mr. Jinarajadas's on the other.

It would be extraordinary that the entire perversion of the real teaching, of whichthese examples are the merest indication, should have gone unperceived by the vastmajority of members of the Theosophical Society were it not for the explanation: They donot know what Theosophy is. They have not in them that knowledge of the great truthswhich forms the criterion, the only true standard, by which they may judge all else. Withoutthe vision of the true that which looks like the true is bound to produce its glamour with theinevitable results. [33] The motto of the Theosophical Society is that there is no religionhigher than truth and the search for it has to be pursued irrespective of likes and dislikes.Most people do not want truth. They only desire the learning that suits them and makesthem happy as their personalities regard happiness. They fall into the easy trap of beliefbecause they have not that inward determination to seek and to know, no matter what theeffort may cost in time and labour and sacrifice. Those words of H.P.B.'s leap to the mindof the real student at every turn of the way:

"To the mentally lazy or obtuse, Theosophy must remain a riddle; for in the worldmental as in the world spiritual each man must progress by his own efforts. The writercannot do the reader's thinking for him, nor would the latter be any the better off if suchvicarious thought were possible." (The Key to Theosophy, p. xi)

Instead, there has been "the gradual descent of... teaching into so-called simplicityso that the most ignorant might be able to grasp it. "Everyone who carefully studies thephenomena presented will admit that men of strong intellect have been driven out... by thecrudity of the religious ideas set before them, the contradictions in the authoritive teachings,the views as to God, man and the universe that no trained intelligence could possiblyadmit." Mrs. Besant can sum it up in regard to Christianity and its "moral degradation" but

is unable to make application when the same process is obviously at work in Theosophy.Theosophy has no relationship, companionship or comradeship with falsehoods.

Compromise with them is not tolerance. As illustrated again and again in the case ofH.P.B., Theosophy must fight to the bitter end against falsehood and sham. It can becharitable and tolerant towards wrongdoers or committers of mistakes and blunders andsins or criminals but it can neither be charitable nor tolerant towards sin or crime or mistakeor blunder [in its teachings.] Between purity and impurity, there is no compromise. Thosewho assert that there can be, attempt to excuse themselves by passing off lack of courageas "brotherliness. " Where work for the Cause of Theosophy is hindered or spoiled, itbecomes a duty to stand firm and fast for TRUTH.

Our duty is not to believe but to seek and know, remembering that our convictionsare but the result of past experiences which have to be checked by the establishedconvictions of the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy that is available. IN ORDERTO KNOW, Theosophy must be studied. It can be - in the various letters of the Masters thatare now open to us, and in the pages from their Messenger who recorded it again for theWestern World in the last quarter of the 19th century. That person alone, permeatedthrough and through by this study, with the wisdom that gives the real standard, can judgewhether truth is to be found in so-called expansions of Theosophical teachings. Finally, ithas to be remembered that the study which brings knowledge includes application of theprinciples. Theosophy is an uttermost necessity in daily life, and not a luxury for leisuremoments.

- Margaret Thomas

END PRO TEM --------------------------

NOTES

[1] In these two words, "emanate" and "Maker", reside the very key to thefundamental difference between Theosophy and all religions - including the religion calledmaterialism. According to both religion and materialism, man has a "maker;" (and) in allcommon justice as well as common sense, this absolves him from either moralresponsibility, or the consequences of the nature put into him. Man is never "created or"made. " He is a compound of emanations, self -evolved from the Absolute under powersand drives inherent in himself. He is his own "Maker," and absolutely responsible for hisfate. Materialism merely substitutes a combination of blind forces for "god" as the "Maker;"an equally vicious proposition. The introduction of such notions and terminology into whatis supposed to be Theosophy was a red-flag warning of the nature of the Leadbeaterconspiracy. (V.E.)

[2] It is true that a man could theoretically sort out and cast away the accrued errorsof each of these religions, and still hang on to some remnant of pure Theosophy in themwithout having recourse to wider teachings from elsewhere. But to call himself a Christianor Mohammedan (Buddhism can be partially excepted) to his fellows of that faith, becauseof that pitiful salvage recognized by them as their own, would certainly cause them to call

him a contemptible hypocrite if they knew his real views. In our opinion, one of the worstkinds of deceit is knowingly to call oneself by a name having a specific meaning to others,and quite a different one to oneself. (V.E.)

[3] At that time, Krishnamurti was being readied, as a boy, for becoming the "vehicle"of Maitreya Buddha, the "Coming Christ." He detected the folly of himself and broke withthe Theosophical Movement at a later date. He now pursues a kind of unclassifiablemysticism. (V.E.) (Krishnamurti died in 1986)

[4] on the influence of conventional religion being positive in nature, we find in TheMahatma Letters: "...the 'Ma-Mo Chohans'... are the gods the Hindus and Christians andMahommed and all others of bigoted religions and sects worship; and so long as theirinfluence is upon their devotees we would no more think of associating with orcounteracting them in their work than we do the Red-Caps... the Ma-Mos are thepersonification in nature of Shiva, Jehovah and other invented monsters with Ignorance attheir tail." (p. 463, #134)

[5] Chief among said "assailants" being this same "shortsighted" H. P. Blavatsky,founder of the Theosophical Movement. (V.E.) Originally Besant completely ignored TheMahatma Letters (O. E. Library Critic, Sept., 1928) and Leadbeater referred to it as "thatabominable book". (American Theosophist, Dec., 1964, p. 290)

Further on "Vicarious Atonement," Blavatsky Theosophy holds that every actionproduces its unavoidable results for gods, men, or motes and that there is no way ofavoiding the repercussions eventually of evil actions. H. N. Stokes in his O. E. Library Critic(May, 1927) writes: "Leadbeater told us that sin is a 'twist in the ether' (TheosophistSeptember, 1917), which will automatically straighten itself in time, but cannot be correctedby any effort of the sinner himself; only a priest, by the use of the ceremonials peculiar tothe church can rectify it. Here we have a flat contradiction of the doctrine of Karma, a basicprinciple of Theosophy. He further announced that 'power', or what Christians call 'thegrace of God', is something which no one can secure by his own efforts or worthiness, butthat priest of 'apostolic succession' can secure it for him by muttering certain prescribedincantations by which an astral pipe is run up, and 'Christ himself', standing at the top poursthe force or grace down through it, with the aid of an assisting angel. From the priest it issprinkled over the congregation and even over the surrounding country for miles around -a sort of theosophical April shower, wetting alike the just and the unjust. This force or graceof God he described as a sort of electricity which could be stored in reservoirs and liquifiedand distilled in a suitably constructed still, and so gross was the picture he drew of it thatone might expect it to be bottled and served from door to door like the morning milk(Theosophist, April, 1920, pages 55-63)."

[6] They were indeed established by "Occultists" of no mean ability; and the resultswere and are powerful indeed, as exemplified by the life-long hypnosis of Annie Besantexpressed thus. What kind of Occultists, and what kind of results, is the question. (V.E.) [7] According to Blavatsky Theosophy, we are only about 5000 years into the kali-yuga which lasts 432,000 years. The seventh race is millions of years away. [8] If one were to heed the maunderings of Neo-Theosophists, the human minddeveloped more in their ranks in twenty years than in a million among the poor simpleMahatmas. (V.E.)

[9] While perhaps not what HPB is referring to, Plasma - the fourth state of matter -has been discovered by science since HPB's time. It is gaseous in some properties, but

"elementally disassociated" into ions and with different properties than gas in other aspects.Also "dark matter" of unknown properties is postulated by science to explain certaingravitational effects observed.

[10] Haley's Comet has different proportions of isotopes of carbon than found onearth. (see Canadian Theosophist, May-June '89) The moon's proportionality of differentelements is very different from the earth. It has virtually no water in any form - not evenlocked in minerals as earth rocks do - high proportionality of uranium and rare earths, andspecific density only about 60% of the earth. This fits the Blavatsky assertion that the moonis a disintegrating and dried-out shell.

[11] This seems to correspond with the recently proposed "dark matter" of sciencewhich is held to infill much of space and be more prevalent than other forms of matter.

[12] All this is simply the original crude nebular theory of La Place, now as dead inscience as in real Theosophy. We have had a Leadbeater addict tell us that precisely oneof the reasons for his faith in Leadbeater was his consistency with science. Naturally oneis consistent with a book from which one swipes whole pages. But poor outmoded H.P.B.won out. No scientist today will unqualifiedly endorse any extant theory of the origin ofplanets or solar system. (V.E.)

[13] one can see that a few decades after Blavatsky's death, there remained littlerelationship to her terms and meaning.

[14] The subtle bodies exist on completely different planes of consciousness andperception from the "aura" seen by clairvoyants. Atma throws no direct form of radiance onthe level of the aura, being too far removed from this coarse astral level.

[15] There can be no "higher" aspects of the monad - which is tautology. All itsattributes or manifestations are "below" or manifestations of it - which is why it is called a"monad".

[16] The term "mental body" thus used makes no sense. During life an aspect ofManas becomes attached to the material universe and functions as "Kama-manas." Atdeath - unless the being has become soulless, which is another matter - this aspect ofManas is withdrawn into its Primary and the "shell" or Kama-rupa (combination of the Kamaand part of the astral body) separates out and disintegrates as an entity. There istemporarily a "Kama-body;" but the only "mental" body is the "Causal" from which materialmind emerges and to which it returns. (V.E.) The dregs or purely material-oriented part ofmanas disintegrates in the kama-loka.

[17] The "desire elemental" is not the "astral body. " It is not a form or body at all, buta principle - Kama. (V.E.)

[18] The true teaching is that normally the astral body moves little if at all away fromthe physical in sleep. Moreover, a withdrawal merely into the astral body would mean asleeping existence only of dreams and nightmares. (V.E.)

[19] This "special creation" idea for an explanation of things is at base a Christiandoctrine. Theosophy has a more rational explanation in that it is acquired ability throughprevious incarnations as well as development of sensitivity to the higher nature, which alsois the result of effort and a moral life. Blavatsky writes: "...the presence in man of variouscreative powers - called genius in their collectivity - is due to no blind chance, to no innatequalities through hereditary tendencies... but to an accumulation of individual antecedentexperiences of the Ego in its preceding life, and lives. " (Blavatsky Collected Writings XII,p. 17) Each person creates himself through effort and experience. Shakespeare created

himself and earned his abilities.[20] In original Theosophy, the nature-spirits are lower in evolution than the

minerals, plants, animals, or humans, or the highest in the series - the Dhyan Chohans.There are three kingdoms of elementals before the mineral stage. Some nature-spirits arepowerful natural forces but unselfconscious. Original Theosophy holds that there is onlyone course of evolution, let alone six. Everything passes through the same, identicalstages. In a cosmos that is constructed in a certain way, how can any being evolve exceptaccording to how that cosmos is constructed? The Neo-Theosophical scheme is notrational, but appealing as a fairytale.

[21] The "Sons of Mind" or "Manasaputras" as Blavatsky calls these beings superiorto us in evolution, did not give a "monadic spark" to incipient mankind because it alreadyhad this. Mankind had the mind-principle or manas, but it was latent and would have takenaeons to develop on its own. What the "Sons of Mind" did was to inflame or awaken man'slatent mentality, much as one flame lights another.

[22] Because it was a Western invention with no truth in it. There are real "invisiblehelpers," but they are Adepts and they do not work in the crude ways described byLeadbeater. (V.E.) In original Theosophy "spirit guide" or astral communications areportrayed as being almost always false, the result of astral shells of the dead, elementaries,elementals and other sources. Just because something is invisible, it is no guarantee ofgood intentions or moral or spiritual superiority. The lower astral is the sewer for the worseof human emotions and thoughts. As for "astral helpers", "astral masters" and the like, K.H.writes in the Mahatma Letters (#8): "...ninety-nine hundredths of supposed spiritualcommunications, are, prima facie false."

[23] On this fundamental matter, HPB claims we sleep because of too much vitality,or that the body has to rest and regain its resistence to Nature's vital influx, whileLeadbeater states we sleep because of too little vitality. Leadbeater is describingvampirism.

[24] This section represents the same kind of political compromise with spiritualismthat Leadbeater made with Christianity via the "Liberal Catholic Church." (V.E.)

[25] The "happiness" of astral life, for the living who open the door, is the deadly"bliss" of the opium-smoker - the "Lower Iddhi" under each blossom of which a serpent iscoiled. For the dead who is conscious at all in it, it is either the hell of Kama Loka or thehideous vicarious satiations of passion through mediumism. The Mahatma Letters shouldbe studied in this connection. (V.E.)

[26] Here the basic idea is correct, but the "fifth subdivision" as used has noauthentic warrant. (V.E.)

[27] This "permanent atom" is one of the most interesting inventions of Leadbeater.But it is an invention pure and simple (V.E.)

Original Theosophical doctrines hold that nothing is "permanent" in Nature, andespecially illusive on the physical and astral levels. Blavatsky wrote: "It is on the doctrineof the illusive nature of matter, and the infinite divisibility of the atom, that the whole scienceof Occultism is built. " (SD I, p. 520) The prevalent idea in Blavatsky's time of scientists wasthat of the irreducible "billiard ball" model of the atom.

[28] This is really materializing things. (V.E.) Leadbeater/Besant obviously gotthemselves into a corner here as parts of their fantasy-scheme didn't match up. It doesn'tmatter how "minute" something is, it can't change the laws of nature and exist on the wrong

plane of being.[29] H.P.B. certainly does throw out a hint but note the complete passage in the

opposite column [page] from which the footnote referred to was taken and compare them.(V.E.) This is all a muddle. Which SD edition Besant refers to is uncertain. See BCW V, pp.109-117, or Five Years of Theosophy (Theosophy Company) pp. 531-539, for the completearticle referred to - neither article agreeing with the other in wording, punctuation, etc..

[30] on the record, this is utter nonsense - or a flat lie. (V.E.)[31] This footnote in the original Voice was deleted from TPH/Quest editions for

many years along with hundreds of other alterations. See Eclectic Theosophist 3/15/72, #9,pp. 2-3 I believe it is now included in the current edition.

[32] This "meditation", as revealed in Gregory Tillet's The Elder Brother biographyof Leadbeater, is a debased sexual tantric practice, and as such and among else could nothave been recommended by a genuine white adept. Such practices are a means of lowerblack magic. (see chart opposite BCW XII, p. 524)

[33] The point at hand is also not who has the truth, because many may not haveput effort to determine an answer one way or another, but that Leadbeater/Besantrepresent a forgery in claiming to represent the same Theosophy that Blavatsky did. Thereis a technical Theosophy with specific doctrines and a more generic "theosophy" that isroughly genuine mysticism and altruism. Modern Theosophists take refuge in ignoring thatthere was a definite technical Theosophy presented by Blavatsky, and thus onlyacknowledge the generic mystical definition. Adept K.H. writes in the Mahatma Letters:"Our doctrine knows no compromises. It either affirms or denies, for it never teaches butthat which it knows to be the truth." (p. 52, #10)

Whether Leadbeater and Besant were genuine mystics and not self-deludedpsychics is another question but it is clearly dishonest to ride on the shirttails of originalTheosophy by calling a contradictory system by the same name. Many, many havedoubtless been turned away from genuine Theosophy after being exposed to the obviousgibberish of "Leadbeaterism" and not being aware of the difference.

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APPENDIX

- "A Comparison of C.W. Leadbeater's The Chakras With the Writings of H.P.Blavatsky, William Q. Judge, and G. de Purucker" - M. Jaqua . . . . . . . .

- "Rev. Leadbeater Off the Trail" - R.S. Gherwal . . . . . .- "Two Schools of Thought" - Boris de Zirkoff . . . . - "Flowers From a Neo-Theosophical Garden" - H.N. Stokes . . . .- "The Hidden Voice" - W.E. Small . . . . . . . . - "The Psychic World - Beware!" - G. de Purucker . . . . . - "Smogged With 'Astral Intoxication"' - Vonda Urban . . . .

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A Comparison of C. W. Leadbeater's The Chakras with the writings of H. P.Blavatsky, William Q. Judge, and G. de Purucker - M. R. Jaqua

By far the largest selling book of any Theosophical publisher over the past fifty yearshas been C.W. Leadbeater's The Chakras, with 300,000 in print as of 1987. Possibly it hassold more than all Blavatsky's books combined. Today, when one tells a knowledgeableperson that he is a Theosophist, he will more than likely be categorized as a student ofLeadbeater and Annie Besant. Most, I doubt, have any further understanding of whatTheosophy is about, and no clear conception of who our founder Blavatsky was, if theyhave ever heard her name, let alone the name of the even more obscure founder WilliamQuan Judge.

With the publication of the revealing biography of Leadbeater by Gregory Tillet, TheElder Brother, the Leadbeater/Besant school of "Theosophy" may be on the wane. Thingschange slowly however, and if one goes to his local bookstore and looks in the "New Age"section, he is likely to find books by Leadbeater, along with shelves of "channeling" and thelike, and lucky to find anything by Blavatsky or the dozens of other serious Theosophicalwriters.

Leadbeater's The Chakras and other writings have been promoted as "Theosophy"for the past three-quarters of a century, yet they differ considerably in philosophy from otherforms of "Theosophy." This writer's own preferred authors of Blavatsky, Judge, andPurucker also call their presentations "Theosophy." Do each differ in fundamentals as towhat they are labeling "Theosophy"?

If the two philosophies differ considerably, who can lay claim to correctly calling hiswork by that name? This would not seem a matter of mere opinion or vagueintellectualizing, but something of concrete definition. A discrete system of philosophy isdue a name that differentiates it from others. If "Pure Land" Buddhists began calling theirsystem "Mahayana" Buddhism, would there be an objection from the genuineMahayanists? Any Theosophist who is sincerely interested in the truth of the matter andnot mere emotionalism or the titillation of psychic and power games would seemnecessarily to be interested in coming to some conclusions. A point by point comparisonof aspects of Leadbeater's "Theosophy" in his The Chakras with statements by otherwriters should provide some valuable insight on this crucial question to the future ofTheosophy.

In his Esoteric Teachings (vol. IX, pp. 85-99) G. de Purucker states that he makesthe few observations he does of the chakras:

"... largely in order to enforce or to emphasize the warning to all Esotericists to leavethe chakras and their respective pranas alone, because very serious peril to both mentaland physical health will almost certainly be incurred by ignorant and consequently foolishyoga experimentation in connection with them, such as attempting to control the breath...etc." (P. 94)

While Leadbeater specifically gives location of the chakras in his book (which differsconsiderably from Purucker's locations in ET IX, p. 95), Blavatsky nowhere in her SecretDoctrine gives the locations of the chakras or in any of her other writings. outside the

papers for her Esoteric Group. William Judge also did not give out the locations of thechakras in any of his writings.

There are numerous contradictions within Leadbeater's The Chakras (Quest Books,1987). on pages 90 and 91 he states that the use of alcohol, tobacco or other drugsdestroys a person's "etheric web" and allows entrance of negative influences. He statesthat in other cases these drugs cause this "etheric web" to "harden" and that no higherinfluences can enter. This "etheric web" is not referred to in the literature of Blavatsky,Judge, or Purucker. Leadbeater's analogies as to the effect of drugs on the "etheric web"are contradictory and similar to saying that a bullet will either pierce the flesh or turn it intoconcrete.

On the use of tobacco, to which Leadbeater assigns the most horribleconsequences, we find that he is not in agreement with either Blavatsky, Judge, orPurucker. Leadbeater Writes:

"For any person who really means to develop his vehicles, to awaken his chakras,to make progress along the path of holiness, tobacco is undoubtedly to be sedulouslyavoided." (P. 93)

Considering that to most Theosophists admission, H.P. Blavatsky, while being aheavy smoker, was also the greatest practical and public occultist of our movement, thereseems to be a misapprehension of fact in Leadbeater's statements. Olcott, Judge,Purucker, Blavatsky, and the Adept Morya were all smokers (see Mahatma Letters, #71,p. 374, T.U.P. edition). In another contradiction along this line, Leadbeater states on page10 of The Chakras that "unfoldment" of the chakras "seems to have no more directconnection with morality than has the enlargement of the biceps," while, contradictinghimself, on pages 90-3 he states that use of drugs, alcohol, or tobacco is fatal to occultdevelopment. Blavatsky, Judge, and Purucker all state in innumerable places that onlywithin the highest morality is any occult development safe or desirable.

The Blavatskian idea is basically to avoid any type of attempt at psychic or occultdevelopment, as virtually no one can live the life required. These faculties will be naturalat a later stage of evolution. The Leadbeater school, in contradiction, centers their wholescheme on the psychic glamors. Blavatsky, Judge and Purucker promote philosophy andthe practical results in living a high philosophy, while the Leadbeater/Besant school of"Theosophy" promotes primarily the excitement of the lower psychic realms, which appealsmore to everyone's baser and emotional being, the "lower iddhi". Without the higherphilosophy and understanding, the lower psychic is ever and absolutely undependable'.

Blavatsky states about tobacco in her rules for the Esoteric Group that:

"The moderate use of tobacco is not prohibited, for it is not an intoxicant; but itsabuse, like that of everything else, even pure water or bread - is prejudicial." (BlavatskyCollected Writings, vol. XII, p. 496)

Purucker likewise with Blavatsky on tobacco states that:

"There is no occult reason against smoking; but there is an occult reason forsmoking in certain cases, for it takes the place, to a degree, of incense, which is an aid or

a help in driving away certain elemental and evil forces." (ET I, p. 104fn)

Judge, while implying that tobacco is only a protective on more material levels andthat real occult protection stems from inner strength, states:

"Tobacco may protect the carcass from germs and disease, but that security tosafety is needed by all men, whether they are studying Occultism or not. The wholequestion of tobacco or no tobacco is purely material. It has been discovered that it does notdegrade except by abuse, but at the same time it was found and declared that othernarcotics and stimulants, such as hemp, opium, and spirits, do dynamically obstruct andspiritually degrade. Hence these tears - and tobacco." (Echoes of the Orient, Vol. II, p.264)

Use of alcohol was prohibited in both the Purucker and the Blavatsky/Judge EsotericGroups.

In another contradiction within The Chakras, Leadbeater states on pages 71-2 thatthe astral chakras are in "full activity" in all cultured, later races - while on page 86 he statesthat Hindus, who are of an earlier race than our own, are "by heredity more adaptable" toawaken the higher centers. His first statement implies that our western race is superior tothe eastern occultly, while his second statement contradicts his first viewpoint. (In TheMahatma Letters, #23b and #28, one might see that the Hindu race is less materialisticallyintellectual, but more spiritual than our western race. The first and later sub-races in a root-race are seen as more spiritual in nature but less materialistically intellectual like our ownmid-race.)

On pages 46-7 and 57 of The Chakras Leadbeater states that the reason personsbecome tired is because they can no longer absorb sufficient energy from the environment.They thus have to sleep to absorb more vitality and charge the body up, so to speak, whileit is inactive in sleep. He says people of rude health are able to "absorb" more energy thanthose of weak constitutions (which, incidently, is also descriptive of vampirism.)

"When vitalized atoms are.. more sparsely scattered, the man in rude healthincreases his power of absorption, depletes a larger area, and so keeps his strength at thenormal level; but invalids and men of small nerve-force, who cannot do this, often sufferseverely, and find themselves growing weaker and more irritable without knowing why."

Leadbeater's position here is again directly contrary to that of each Blavatsky,Judge,. and Purucker. The latter all state that the reason sleep is necessary is not becausethere is too little vitality available, as Leadbeater states, but because there is too much, andthe onslaught cannot be resisted any longer. This is also why death ensues. At death whenthere is no longer resistence from a unified body-system, the pranic currents destroy thebody in decomposition. William Q. Judge writes:

"During the waking state the life-waves rush into the body with greater intensityevery hour, and, we being unable to resist them any longer than the period usuallyobserved, they overpower us and we fall asleep. While sleeping, the life-waves adjustthemselves to the molecules of the body; and when the equilibrium is complete we again

wake to continue the contest with life. If this periodical adjustment did not occur, the lifecurrent would destroy us." (Echoes of the Orient, vol. III, p. 11)

Purucker in his Esoteric Teachings, vol. XII, p. 76, quotes from Transactions of theBlavatsky Lodge in expressing his views on the physical cause of sleep:

"Ask a good clairvoyant to describe the aurora of a person just refreshed by sleep,and that of another just before going to sleep. The former will be seen bathed in rhythmicalvibrations of life currents - golden, blue, and rosy; these are the electrical waves of Life.The latter is, as it were, in a mist of intense golden-orange hue, composed of atomswhirling with an almost incredible spasmodic rapidity, showing that the person begins to betoo strongly saturated with Life; . the life essence is too strong for his physical organs, andhe must seek relief in the shadowy side of that essence, which side is the dream element,or physical sleep, one of the states of consciousness." (p. 71)

Blavatsky, Judge and Purucker (through quoting Blavatsky in this case) all state thatphysical sleep becomes necessary because there is too much vitality for the body and nottoo little as Leadbeater states. This is a fundamental difference in doctrine betweenBlavatsky, Judge, and Purucker as compared to Leadbeater and points to a clear-cutdivergence in the Source of their teachings that goes beyond merely the point at hand.

There is some inimical power in personifying the "Deity" or Absolute. It categorizesit within narrow human limitations when actually beyond all possible comprehension on thehuman level. Blavatsky goes so far as to say that such personification is at the root of BlackMagic and all the degenerative forces against the human race. (BCW XIII, p. 256)Leadbeater personifies the Logos in The Chakras by referring to it as "He." "It," yes, but"He", hardly. The Logos is no single entity as we think of an individual entity. Blavatskywrites:

"In Esoteric philosophy the Demiurge or Logos, regarded as CREATOR, is simplyan abstract term, an idea, like 'army.' As the latter is the all-embracing term for a body ofactive forces or working units - soldiers - so is the Demiurge the qualitative compound ofa multitude of Creators or Builders." (Secret Doctrine I, p. 380fn)

Elsewhere Blavatsky remarks on the matter, of personifying cosmic powers:

"Shall we call these 'Fathers' of ours, whether individually or collectively and underany circumstances, our personal God? Occultism answers Never." (BCW XII, P. 533)

Leadbeater's description on pages 38-30 of The Chakras of the manifestation ourcosmos through the First, Second and Third Logos is at complete odds with the teachingsof Blavatsky, Judge, and Purucker and could only be aimed at destruction of any sense ofphilosophic discrimination in the student! While Leadbeater has each of the Logoiperforming different Direct functions in the manifesting of the world, according to thewritings of Blavatsky, Judge and Purucker As Well As Simple Logic! - only the Third or"lowest" Logos in the scheme of manifestation can possibly have anything directly to dowith our material world. Leadbeater's position here can be nothing else than facetious, as

he has the First and Second Logos directly involved within the physical cosmos without theintermediary of the Third Logos. It is obfuscation, pure and simple, of a true or the originaland sensible doctrine of progressively material emanation through three succeeding levelsof increasing materiality, or the three Logoi.

Roughly, in the genuine doctrine, the Third or "Demiourgos" as called by the Greeks,Logos, is emanated by the Second Logos, the Second Logos is an emanation of the FirstLogos, and the First Logos an emanation of indescribable and infinite Parabrahman.Leadbeater, "as he has long understood" (but incorrectly), has the First and Second Logosparticipating in our manifestation independently of the Third Logos - which is functionallyimpossible and something like saying that the president of General Motors is personallyresponsible for tightening the lug nuts on every car sold. As regards our manifestedcosmos emanating only from the Third Logos, Blavatsky writes in a commentary on theNew Testament:

"The... verse refers to the Third or Creative Logos. All things came into existencethrough it, viz., the third aspect of the Logos and source of their existence..." (BCW XI, p.588)

Purucker writes identically as to the emanation of the First, Second, and Third Logosand the manifested cosmos through the latter:

"Manu, or dhyani-chohan, in the esoteric system, is the entities collectively whichappear first at the beginning of manifestation and from which, like a cosmic tree, everythingis derived or born. Manu actually is the (spiritual) tree of life of any planetary chain, ofmanifested being. Manu is thus, in one sense, the Third Logos..." (Fundamentals of theEsoteric Philosophy, p. 48, T.U.P. edition)

Judge writes identically to Blavatsky and Purucker:

"... all Planes of Consciousness and all the Principles of man are root-differentiationsof MAHAT, the 'Great Principle' of Mind of the Universe (the Third Logos of the SecretDoctrine.)" (Echoes III, p. 310)

On page 27 of The Chakras Leadbeater writes that "The force of Kundalini in ourbodies comes from that laboratory of the Holy Ghost deep down in the earth." Since heelsewhere states that the source of the physical kundalini is the basal or Muladhara chakra,he seems to be equating the third being of the Christian Trinity with the lowest chakra. InPurucker's view the Christian "Holy Ghost" is the same as the Second Logos because ofits feminine/passive potency. (E.T, vol. v, p. 21) Elsewhere Purucker equates the SecondLogos with "Cosmic Buddhi" or Alaya. Blavatsky at one point equates the Holy Ghost withAtma, but in one sense anything could be generically labeled "Atma" that was unmanifestto us in our cosmos. (BCW XI, p. 497)

William Judge writes identically to Purucker: "Akasa in the mysticism of the EsotericPhilosophy is, properly speaking, the female 'Holy Ghost'..." (Echoes III, p. 58) (CosmicBuddhi, or Alaya, is of a superior hierarchy to the Buddhi principle in the humanconstitution. Akasa is identical to Alaya or "Cosmic Buddhi" in Akasa's higher aspects.)

Neither Blavatsky, Judge, or Purucker place the Holy Ghost "deep down in the earth"as Leadbeater does. Even conventional Christianity places the Holy Ghost as somethingdetached from the earthly-material, not operating within the bowels of the earth, wheremany place their hell.

On page 28 of The Chakras Leadbeater states that the Third Logos ("He'' in hispersonification) "is engaged in building denser and denser chemical elements." This isagain directly contrary to the teachings of Blavatsky and Purucker and against the veryspirit of their Theosophy - thus again pointing to another source of Leadbeater's teachings,which is most likely his own imagination. According to Blavatsky and Purucker, we havenow passed the low point in materiality for our round - during Atlantean times - and nowmatter is becoming LESS DENSE and more ephemeral as we ascend the arc of spirituality,and not MORE DENSE as Leadbeater states. Leadbeater gives the perspective that weshould be looking to the more material and away from the spiritual, which is of course thedirection of sorcery and not of spirituality. Spirituality's direction is away from and progressfrom dense materiality. Evolution is away from dense matter and not towards it asLeadbeater infers.

Purucker states:

"From now on, all the globes and all the life-waves which up to the present haveshown a tendency to sink into matter, now having reached their balance, will hereaftershow a tendency to become more ethereal. The very earth we live on, as the ages pass,will show a tendency to etherealize itself, spiritualize itself; and I may point out that thediscoveries in radioactivity, such as that of uranium, and certain other elements of highatomic weight, are merely examples of the steady disintegration of the grossest chemicalelements known. They would naturally be the first to etherealize." (Studies in OccultPhilosophy, p. 97)

Leadbeater states that the kundalini is aroused by bringing of the first or Mulhadarachakra fully into activity (pp. 77-8). This method, of what he calls "Laya Yoga," is themethod of Tantra Yoga, its coined "Laya Yoga'' name notwithstanding. Leadbeater states(p. 119) that the term "laya" is somehow derived or associated with the english word"latency," to which this writer doubts it has any philological relationship other than soundingsimilarly. "Laya" is from the Sanskrit root li, meaning "to dissolve" or "disintegrate." InPurucker's Occult Glossary a "laya center" is described as "the mystical point where a thingdisappears from one plane and passes onwards to reappear on another plane." "LayaYoga" could not be described as one of the "seven recognized systems of Yoga" in Indiaas Leadbeater states, but as a derivation of often or usually degenerate Tantra Yoga - thesystem used by eastern sorcerers.

In another contradiction. within The Chakras (pp. 72, 77), Leadbeater states that thefirst chakra or Muladhara is the home of the serpent fire or kundalini, while elsewhere (pp.81-2) he states that the greatest danger in rousing the kundalini is that it will rushdownwards instead of upwards, and thus excite the lower passions. One may wonderhow, if its base is in the lowest chakra, the kundalini can rush downwards any lower thanthis lowest chakra?

On page 77 of The Chakras Leadbeater states that "all schools of yoga recognize...the importance of the chakras" and that "The plan of the Raja Yogi is to meditate upon each

in turn and bring them into activity by sheer force of will..." THIS IS A FALSE STATEMENTAND WOULD BE KNOWN TO BE FALSE BY ANYONE WHO HAD EVENSUPERFICIALLY STUDIED THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF YOGA. Raja-yoga, whichis the method of Theosophy and Blavatsky, Judge, and Purucker, does not regard studyof especially the lower chakras as important but inimical and dangerous, and as a methodused in black magic. It sees concentration on the chakras below the head as harmful orfatal to spiritual development. It is a concentrating on the perishable physical and astralqualities instead of the truly valuable mental and spiritual qualities. It is a directing of theattention in the wrong course, towards the material and away from the spiritual. Blavatskywrites in her Esoteric Instructions:

"He who has studied both systems, the Hatha and Raja-Yoga, finds an enormousdifference between the two: one is purely psycho-physiological, the other purely psycho-spiritual. The Tantrists do not seem to go higher than the six visible and know plexuses,with each of which they connect the Tattvas; and the great stress they lay on the chief ofthese, the Muladhara Chakra (the sacral plexus), shows the material and selfish bent oftheir efforts towards the acquisition of powers. ...with the followers of the old school it isdifferent. We begin with mastery of that organ which is situated at the base of the brain, inthe pharynx, and called by Western anatomists the Pituary Body." (BCW XII, p. 616)

In reference to the higher centers that Blavatsky states Raja-yoga is solelyconcerned with, Leadbeater claims that the brow center or pituary chakra exerts its specialfaculties of spiritual sight by means of a special "etheric microscope." He writes:

"A tiny flexible tube of etheric matter is projected from the center of it, resemblinga microscopic snake with something like an eye at the end of it. This is the special organused in that form of clairvoyance, and the eye at the end of it can be expanded orcontracted, the effect being to change the power of magnification according to the size ofthe object which is being examined." (p. 79)

Leadbeater also states that this "etheric microscope" was the basis of the serpent-crown worn by Egyptian initiates.

The powers of the "third eye" are mental. and spiritual powers and have no need ofetheric devices modeled after modern microscopes. Leadbeater's explanation of the "thirdeye" as a microscope is absurd and infantile. Size is a mental and relative concept ordimension or quality and has no bearing on the relative size of the clairvoyant. It wouldseem that an adept with such an occult ability would merely have to bring his mind inrapport with an object, whether its scope be, to us, the size of a speck of dust or a planet.The serpent is an ancient symbol of wisdom and initiation and it was such on the Egyptianheaddress - a symbol.

In Egypt the serpent in one aspect was Hermes-Thoth and represented "divinecreative wisdom." "... the 'Serpent' and 'Dragon' were names given to the 'Wise ones', theinitiated adepts of olden times." (SD I, p. 404) As to the Egyptian serpent headdress inparticular, Blavatsky writes: "It has been repeatedly stated that the Serpent is the symbolof wisdom and of occult knowledge... The crown form of an asp, the Thermuthis, belongsto Isis, goddess of Life and Healing." (SD II, p. 26fn)

In the diagram opposite page 524 in BCW XII, Blavatsky states that the lowerphysical organs are "used only by Dugpas in Black Magic." (The lower ternary is only usedin sorcery, its symbol being the inverted triangle. One might consider whether the invertedtriangle used in the heart chakra on page 99 of The Chakras is a symbol of such.)

Leadbeater states on page 87 that "...one day one of the Masters made asuggestion to me with regard to a certain kind of meditation which would evoke this force."(the kundalini) The practice, while remaining a mystery to most for sixty years, was recentlyunearthed by Gregory Tillet in his biography of Leadbeater, The Elder Brother, and is a lowtantric autoerotic one - and thus by Blavatsky's definition concerning the lower ternary isa black magic practice. The "Master" could not have been one from the Lodge that utilizedBlavatsky as a presenter of their doctrines, and thus Leadbeater is found self-deluded, apawn, or a presenter of teachings of the left-hand path.

Blavatsky states elsewhere (BCW XII, p. 621) that Raja-yoga schools never publishtantra-like works or on the chakras because they "tend to Black Magic and are mostdangerous to take for guides in self-training." She adds: "I hope that American Esotericistswill be on their guard." In the original Esoteric Section under Blavatsky overall and Judgein America, there was a prohibition "against physical means and physical practices pursuedfor the finite purpose of developing psychic power." (Echoes III, p. 333)

G. de Purucker presented the same view as Blavatsky and Judge that concern overthe chakras tends in the direction selfishness, psychism and the left-hand path:

"It is precisely these relatively unimportant facts of occult physiology which seem toexercise on the perverse minds of the men and women of our generation a sort of psychicfascination, as if, for sooth, it is with the human body and its functions and organs, etc., thatthe really sublime teachings of the occult or Esoteric Philosophy mainly deals! ... In Indiathese truths are as well known and in fact far better known, due to ages of highphilosophical teaching, than they are in the West; yet India and China and other Orientalcountries are simply overrun with the dangers of quasi-occultism, whose proponents inIndia are called the lower classes of Yogins or Fakirs, etc., etc. Their whole attention andindeed their whole life, more or less, is given up to a study and practice of the oftenelaborate rules for psycho-physical development contained in the Hatha-Yoga as well asin the often infamous and bestial Tantrika works. But whereas in India, as an example, thedangers of these works through centuries of a relatively high philosophical education aremore or less clearly appreciated by educated people and those who have been trained inthe higher philosophical thought, there is little if any such protective knowledge abroad orcommon in the Occident. ... There is a complete science regarding the chakras, but it is nota science which it would be helpful for you to study now. It is mostly studied by BlackMagicians or by those who unconsciously aspire to become Black Magicians, becausewhat they want to gain is 'powers' ...even the chelas are not allowed to cultivate the powersof the chakras by concentrating upon them. They find out by following the chela-life howto use the powers naturally; and I have known chelas who did not even know the namesof the chakras. They have heard vaguely that these nerve-centers are in the body, but theyare not interested. They simply use the powers which flow through these chakras, becausethey have become evolved men..." (ET IX, pp. 85-6, 93fn)

Just what is "Theosophy?" Is it anything anyone wishes to call by that name - like

a generic name for the metaphysical - or is there a valid standard of definition? The word"Theosophy" may have been used a thousand years ago, but it obtains a new and definitedefinition if used as a chosen label for a specific system of philosophy, as chosen and usedby Blavatsky for her specific system a hundred years ago. There may be primary andsecondary definitions, as in many terms. one such definition is Theosophy as the specificphilosophic system presented by Blavatsky.

Leadbeater calls his book The Chakras "Theosophy" as are scores or hundreds ofothers in the same vein labeled, yet differing completely from Blavatsky Theosophy andproducing great misconception in the public. Blavatsky, Judge, Purucker and as well TheMahatma Letters are as mutually consistent as could be possible in their presentation andthus intellectually and intuitively can be held to represent an identical Source Doctrine, asthey maintain they do.

Within the present Theosophical Societies, according to the program of the originalSociety and still held in principle by each, there can be promulgated no dogma, "completefreedom of thought" being one of our ideals. Even if one thought Theosophy as presentedby Blavatsky, Judge, and Purucker, or someone else, was "the complete truth and nothingbut the truth," it would be wrong to set such up as dogma. The Theosophical Societies andTHEOSOPHY, however, are two things quite different. "Our doctrine knows nocompromises" one finds in The Mahatma Letters as to the technical doctrines. People haveto discover truth by their own means, by their own "self-induced and self-devised efforts."To impose belief is to destroy the very function that is responsible for discovering truth.

As to Theosophy, the technical philosophic system: A system of thought has to havea label or name and Theosophy was the term used by Blavatsky to label the definite systemof thought she presented. Her writings and the writings of those that agree with her's arethe only writings that can be logically or truthfully called "Theosophy." This is the onlyreasonable definition.

In analysis and comparison of Leadbeater's The Chakras with what in simpledefinition is Theosophy, it is obvious that The Chakras is not Theosophy. It is somethingelse. It represents Theosophy's polar antithesis in its basic aspects, and to argue minorpoints of agreement serves no purpose as everything agrees with something else on somepoint. Without Blavatsky Theosophy to falsely present himself as a representative of, it islikely C. W. Leadbeater would have never received a hearing or popularity. If one prefersLeadbeater's philosophy, this is a person's prerogative (at his own delusion and peril, ifone were to give credence to Blavatsky, Judge, Purucker), but it can only be calledTheosophy by theft.

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REV. LEADBEATER OFF THE TRAIL * - R. S. Gherwal

The harm to Yoga philosophy that has been done by misinformation thru the"Theosophist" Rev. C. W. Leadbeater is indeed very great.

Most readers of Theosophical and occult literature believe Rev. Leadbeater to be

a friend to the Hindus, but after reading his book, The Inner Life and The Chakras, I amforced to say by the information he has given, he is the greatest enemy of Yoga philosophy,and has given a bad name to Yoga. This may have been done unconsciously.Nevertheless, it is hard to believe, as in The Chakras he in no instance has corrected themisinformation made in The Inner Life. For example, in The Chakras he tries to prove adifference in the petals of the different centers from that which is given in Yoga philosophy.

According to Rev. Leadbeater all the Yogis of the past and present, even thefounder of Yoga philosophy are wrong about the Chakras, and their petals.

All Yogis and our books claim Sahasrara, has one thousand petals but in one of hischapters, Rev. Leadbeater says he found there were only Nine Hundred and Sixty and not"One Thousand". The Ajna Chakra has two petals, according to Yoga, but Rev. Leadbeaterclaims he found Ninety-six petals in the Ajna Chakra. All his counts are opposite the Yogis'Chakras, except one. He claims he found Nine Hundred and Sixty and Ninety-six.

Every Yogi cannot help but laugh, because there are really no petals at all. I willexplain here, the symbols these petals stand for.

Every Yogi knows, and the students of Yoga Philosophy know, that Rev.Leadbeater, is "off the trail," and did not stop to consider the origin of our One ThousandPetals, but undoubtedly he had something else in mind.

In Yoga Philosophy these Chakras are symbols: the first - Earth, the second -Water, third - Fire, fourth - Air, fifth - Ether and sixth Mental. The "Thousand - Petaled" wedo not call a Chakra, as it is above the nature element and mind.

In these six symbols we have the "Garland of Letters," as there are fifty letters in theSanskrit alphabet and each petal of these centers represent a letter. In the first or RootChakra, Yoga puts four petals, six in the second, ten in the third, twelve in the fourth,sixteen in the fifth and two in the sixth, between the eyes. That includes the occult symbolof the Sanscrit alphabet. By repeating all of the fifty alphabetical letters twenty times wehave One Thousand - the symbol of the "Thousand - petals". We would like to know justwhere Rev. Leadbeater gets his idea that there are only 960. Now is he not off the trail,reader?

Now I will give you his own words about awakening the Kundalini:

"One very common effect of rousing it prematurely is that it rushes downwards in thebody instead of upwards, and thus excites the most undesirable passions - excites themand intensifies their effects to such a degree that it becomes impossible for the man toresist them, because a force has been brought into play, in whose presence he is ashelpless as a swimmer before the jaws of a shark".

The reader will find this kind of "stuff" in Chapter Four and in the next Chapter hecontradicts as follows:

"It is said in some cases Kundalini has been awakened not only by the will, but alsoby accident; by a blow or by physical pressure. I heard recently from one of ourTheosophical lecturers that he had come across an example of the kind when touring inCanada. A lady, who knew nothing at all of these matters fell down the cellar steps in herhouse. She lay for some time unconscious, and when she awoke she found herself

clairvoyant, able to read the thoughts passing in other people's minds, and to see what wasgoing on in every room in the house; and this clairvoyance has remained a permanentpossession. One assumes that in this case in falling, the lady must have received a blowat the base of the spine exactly in such a position of such a nature as to shock theKundalini into partial activity."

The miseries and dangers spoken of in the previous chapter, do not appear to havebeen monstrous in this case.

I will now show my readers at what Rev. Leadbeater is driving. And he does nothesitate, if, at the same time he gives a bad name to the Yoga Philosophy, because hewants followers of his method of opening the Kundalini, and really one can hardly blameRev. Leadbeater, as it seems to be the custom of the West to first give the other man a badname and then, seek his followers. For nearly half a century I have met Master Yogis whohave awakened their Kundalini and not in a single instance did they claim they had openedit. Rev. Leadbeater is the first man to come to my attention, who claims he has opened hisKundalini. For the rest of the people he says:

"...but most people cannot gain it during the present incarnation, if it is the first inwhich they have begun to take these matters seriously in hand, but it is really for themajority, the work of a later round altogether. The conquest of the serpent-fire has to berepeated in each incarnation, since the vehicles are new each time, but after it has beenonce thoroughly achieved these repetitions will be an easy matter."

Then on the same page he gives his own personal experience:

"It may be of use if I mention my own experience in this matter. In the earlier partof my residence in India forty years ago I made no effort to rouse the fire, not indeedknowing very much about it, and having the opinion that, in order to do anything with it, itwas necessary to be born with a specially psychic body, which I did not possess. But oneday one of the masters made a suggestion to me with regard to a certain kind of meditationwhich would evoke this force. Naturally I at once put the suggestion into practice, and incourse of time was successful. I have no doubt, however, that He watched the experiment,and would have checked me if it had become dangerous. I am told that there are Indianascetics who teach this to their pupils, of course keeping them under careful supervisionduring the process. But I do not myself know of any such, nor would I have confidence inthem unless they were specially recommended by someone who I knew to be possessedof real knowledge."

Rev. Leadbeater claims he has opened the Kundalini, still he will not have theconfidence in the Hindu Master, unless they were specially recommended by some ghoston the Astral Plane. Following, I will show how he wants you to open the Kundalini:

"People often ask me what I advise them to do with regard to the arousing of thisforce. I advise them to do exactly what I myself did. I recommend them to throw themselvesinto theosophical work and wait until they receive a definite command from some Masterwho will undertake to superintend their psychic development, continuing in the meantime

all the ordinary exercises of meditation that are known to them. They should not care in theleast whether such development comes in this incarnation or in the next, but should regardthe matter from the point of view of the ego and not of the personality, feeling absolutelycertain that the Masters are always watching for those whom They can help, that it isentirely impossible for anyone to be overlooked, and that They will unquestionably giveTheir directions when They think that the right time has come."

It would really be a great joy to all Yogis if, Rev. Leadbeater will leave the YogaPhilosophy alone and give to the world what he wants, but by all means, call it by someother name.

This is not a pleasure to me to criticize some other writer, but I believe it is the dutyof every Yogi, to give to those who are seeking information, only that which he (the Yogi)knows to be correct about the Kundalini the Mother of the Universe.

The following is an article on the same subject, by Arthur Avalon. He, too, questionsRev. Leadbeater's remarks.

From pp. 6 to 18 Mr. A. Avalon's, The Serpent Power:

"We may here notice the account of a well-know 'Theosophical' author (Mr. C. W.Leadbeater), regarding what he calls the 'Force Centres' and the 'Serpent Fire,' of whichhe writes that he has had personal experience. Though Mr. Leadbeater also refers to theYoga Shastra, it may perhaps exclude error if we here point out that his account does notprofess to be a representation of the teaching of the Indian Yogis (whose competence fortheir own Yoga the author somewhat disparages), but that it is put forward as the Author'sown original explanation (fortified, as he conceives, by certain portions of Indian teaching)of the personal experience which (he writes) he himself has had. This experience appearsto consist in the conscious arousing of the 'Serpent Fire,' [1] with the enhanced 'astral' andmental vision which he believes has shown him what he tells us. [2] The centres, orChakras, of the human body are by Mr. Leadbeater described to be vortices of 'etheric'matter [3] into which rush from the 'astral' [4] world, and at right angles to the plane of thewhirling disc, the sevenfold force of the Logos bringing 'divine life' into the physical body.Though all these seven forces operate on all the centres, in each of them one form of theforce is greatly predominant. These inrushing forces are alleged to set up on the surfaceof the 'etheric double' [5a] secondary forces at right angles to themselves. The primaryforce on entrance into the vortex radiates again in straight lines, but at right angles. Thenumber of these radiations of the primal forces is said to determine the number of 'Petals'[6] (as the Hindus call them) which the 'Lotus' or vortex exhibits. The secondary forcerushing round the vortex produces, it is said, the appearance of the petals of a flower, or,'perhaps more accurately, saucers or shallow vases of wavy iridescent glass.' In this way -that is, by supposition of an etheric vortex subject to an incoming force of the Logos - boththe 'Lotuses' described in the Hindu books and the number of their petals is accounted forby the author, who substitutes for the Svadhishthana centre a six-petalled lotus at thespleen, [5b] and corrects the number of petals of the lotus in the head, which he says is nota thousand, as the book of this Yoga say, 'but exactly 960.' [6a]

"There are some resemblances between this account and the teaching of' the YogaShastra, with which in a general way the author cited appears to have some acquaintance,

and which may have suggested to him some features of his account. There are firstlyseven centres, which with one exception correspond with the Chakras described. Theauthor says that there are three other lower centres, but that concentration on them is fullof danger. What these are is not stated. There is no centre lower, that I am aware of, thanthe Muladhara (as the name 'root-centre' itself implies), and the only centre near to it whichis excluded, in the above-mentioned account, is the Apas Tattva centre, or Svadhishthana.Next there is the Force ' the Serpent Fire,' which the Hindus call Kundalini, in the lowestcentre, the muladhara. Lastly, the effect of the rousing of this force, which is accomplishedby will power (Yogabala) [8] is said to exalt the physical consciousness through theascending planes to the 'heaven world.' To use the Hindu expression, the object and aimof Shatchakrabheda is Yoga. This is ultimately union with the Supreme Self or Paramatma;but it is obvious, that as the body in its natural state is already, though unconsciously, inYoga, otherwise it would not exist, each conscious step upwards is Yoga, and there aremany stages of such before complete or Kaivalya Mukti is attained. This and, indeed, manyof the preceding stages are far beyond the 'heaven world' of which the author speaks.Yogis are not concerned with the 'heaven world,' but seek to surpass it; otherwise they arenot Yogis at all. What, according to this theory, manifested force apparently does is this:it enhances the mental and moral qualities of the self-operator as they existed at the timeof its discovery. But if this be so, such enhancement may be as little desirable as theoriginal state. Apart from the necessity for the possession of health and strength, thethought, will, and morality, which it is proposed to subject to its influence must be firstpurified and strengthened before they are intensified by the vivifying influence of thearoused force. Further, as I have elsewhere pointed out, [9] the Yogis say that the piercingof the Brahmagranthi or 'knot' [10] sometimes involves considerable pain, physical disorder,and even disease, as is not unlikely to follow from concentration on such a centre as thenavel (Nabhipadma).

"To use Hindu terms, the Sadhaka must be competent (Adhikari), a matter to bedetermined by his Guru, from whom alone the actual method of Yoga, can be learned. Theincidental dangers, however, stated by Mr. Leadbeater go beyond any mentioned to me byIndians themselves, who seem to be in general unaware of the subject of 'phallic sorcery',to which reference is made by Mr. Leadbeater, who speaks of schools of (apparentlyWestern) 'Black Magic' which are said to use Kundalini for the purpose of stimulating thesexual centre. Another author says: [11] 'The mere dabbler in the pseudo-occult will onlydegrade his intellect with the puerilities of psychism, become the prey of the evil influenceof the phantasmal world, or ruin his soul by the foul practices of phallic sorcery - asthousands of misguided people are doing even in this age.' Is this so? It is possible thatperverse or misguided concentration on sexual and connected centres may have the effectalluded to. And it may be that the Commentator Lakshmidara alludes to this when hespeaks of Uttara Kaulas who arouse Kundalini in the Muladhara to satisfy their desire forworld-enjoyment and do not attempt to lead Her upwards to the Highest Centre which isthe object of Yoga seeking super-worldly bliss. Of such, a Sanskrit verse runs 'they are thetrue prostitutes.' I have, however, never heard Indians refer to this matter, probablybecause, it does not belong to Yoga in its ordinary sense, as also by reason of theantecedent discipline required of those who would undertake this Yoga, the nature of theirpractice, and the aim they have in view, such a possibility does not come underconsideration. The Indian who practices this or any other kind of spiritual Yoga ordinarily

does so not on account of a curious interest in occultism or with a desire to gain 'astral' orsimilar experiences. [12] His attitude in this as in all other matters is essentially a religiousone, based on a firm faith in Brahman (Sthiranishtha), and inspired by a desire for unionwith It which is liberation.

"Assuming for argument the alleged correspondence, then the 'etheric centres' orChakras of Mr. Leadbeater's account appear to be centres of energy of Prana-vayu - orVital Force. The lotuses are also this and centres of the universal consciousness. Kundaliniis the static form of the creative energy in bodies which is the source of all energies,including Prana. According to Mr. Leadbeater's theory, Kundalini is some force which isdistinct from Prana, understanding this term to mean vitality of the life-principle, which onentrance into the body shows itself in various manifestations of life which are the minorPranas, of which inspiration is called by the general name of the force itself (Prana). Verses10 and 11 says of Kundalini: 'It is She who maintains all the beings (that is, jiva, jivatma)of the world by means of inspiration and expiration.' She is thus the Prana Devata, but, asShe is (Comm., vv. 10 and 11) Srishti-sthitilayatmika, all forces therefore are in Her. Sheis, in fact, the Shabdabrahman or "word" in bodies. The theory discussed appears todiverge from that of the Yogis when we consider the nature of the Chakras and thequestion of their vivification. According to Mr. Leadbeater's account, the Chakras are allvortices of 'etheric matter,' apparently of the same kind and subject to the same externalinfluence of the inrushing sevenfold force of the 'Logos" but differing in this, that in each ofthe Chakras one of other of their sevenfold forces is predominant. Again, if, as has beenstated, the astral body corresponds with the Manomayakosha, then the vivification of theChakras appears to be, according to Mr. Leadbeater, a rousing of the Kamik side of themental sheath. According to the Hindu doctrine, these Chakras are differing centres ofconsciousness, vitality, and Tattvik energy.

Each of the five lower Chakras is the centre of energy of a gross Tattva - that is, ofthat form of Tattvik activity or Tanmatra which manifests the Mahabhuta or sensible matter.The sixth is the centre of the subtle mental Tattva, and the Sahasrara is not called aChakra at all. Nor, as stated, is the splenic centre included among the six Chakras whichare dealt with in this account.

'In the Indian system the total number of the petals corresponds with the number ofthe letters of the Sanskrit Alphabet, [13] and the number of the petals of any specific lotusis determined by the disposition of the subtile "nerves" [or]Nadis around it. These petals,further, bear subtile sound-powers, and are fifty in number, as are the letters of the SanskritAlphabet.

"This work also describes certain things which are gained by contemplation on eachof the Chakras. Some of them are of general character, such as long life, freedom fromdesire and sin, control of the senses, knowledge, power of speech, and fame. Some ofthese and other qualities are results common to concentration on more than one Chakra.others are stated in connection with the contemplation upon one centre only. Suchstatements seem to be made, not necessarily with the intention of accurately recording thespecific result, if any, which follows upon concentration upon a particular centre, but by wayof praise for increased self-control or Stuti-vada; as where it is said in v. 21 thatcontemplation on the Nabhi-padma gains for the Yogi power to destroy and create theworld.

"It is also said that mastery of the centres may produce various Siddhis or powers

in respect of the predominating elements there. And this is, in fact, alleged. [14] PanditAnanta Shastri says: [15] 'We can meet with several persons every day elbowing us in thestreets or bazaars who in all sincerity attempted to reach the highest plane of bliss, but fellvictims on the way to the illusions of the psychic world, and stopped at one or the other ofthe six Chakras. They are of varying degrees of attainment, and are seen to possess somepower which is not found even in the best intellectuals of the ordinary run of mankind. Thatthis school of practical psychology was working very well in India at one time is evidentfrom these living instances (not to speak of the numberless treatises on the subject) of menroaming about in all parts of the country.' The mere rousing of the Serpent power does not,from the spiritual Yoga standpoint, amount to much. Nothing, however, of real moment,from the higher Yogis' point of view, is achieved until the Ajna Chakra is reached. Here,again, it is said that the Sadhaka whose Atma [aim?] is nothing but a meditation on thislotus 'becomes the creator, preserver and destroyer, of the three worlds; and yet, as thecommentator points out (v. 34), 'This is but the highest Prashangsa-vada or Stutivada - thatis, compliment - which in Sanskrit literature is often void of reality as it is in our ordinary life.Though much is here gained, it is not until the Tattvas of this centre are also absorbed, andcomplete knowledge [16] of the Sahasrara is gained, that the Yogi attains that which is bothhis aim and the motive of his labour, cessation from rebirth which follows on the control andconcentration of the Chitta on the Shivasthanam, the Abode of Bliss.

It is not to be supposed that simply because the Serpent Fire has been aroused thatone has thereby become a Yogi or achieved the end of Yoga. There are other points ofdifference which the reader will discover for himself, but into which I do not enter, as myobject in comparing the two accounts has been to establish a general contrast between thismodern account and that of the Indian schools. I may, however, add that the differencesare not only as to details. The style of thought differs in a way not easy shortly to describe,but which will be quickly recognized by those who have some familiarity with the IndianScriptures and mode of thought. The latter is ever disposed to interpret all processes andtheir results from a subjective standpoint, though for the purposes of Sadhana the objectiveaspect is not ignored. The Indian Theory is highly philosophical. Thus, to take but oneinstance, whilst Mr. Leadbeater attributes the power of becoming large or small at will(Anima and Mahima Siddhi) to a flexible tube or 'microscopic snake' in the forehead, theHindu says that all powers (Siddhi) are the attributes (Aishvaryya) of the Lord Ishvara, orCreative Consciousness, and that in the degree that the Jiva realizes that consciousness[17] he shares the powers inherent in the degree of his attainment."

The Above is an excerpt from Mr. Avalon's introduction to his book, The SerpentPower. Every student of Yoga should read it.

FINISOm, Om, Om.

--------------------

NOTES* (Arthur Avalon):

[1] This and the following notes compare his and the Indian theory. The Devi orGoddess is called Bhujangi or serpent because at the lowest centre (Muladhara) she lies

'Coiled' - at rest. The Cosmic Power in bodies is here at rest; when roused it is felt asintense heat.

[2] Certain Siddhis or occult powers are acquired at each center as the practitionerworks his way upwards.

[3] The petals of the lotus are Pranashakti manifested by Pranavayu or vital force.Each lotus is a centre of a different form of 'matter' (Bhuta) there predominant.

[4] This is a western term.[5a, 5b] Not mentioned in the account here given.[6] See last note but three.[6a] So little attention seems to be given to exactitude in this matter that one of the

letters is dropped in order to make 1000 petals - that is 50 X 20. 'Thousand' is, here onlysymbolic of magnitude.

[7] (Apparently editing error. No note 7 in original. -ed.)[8] With the aid of bodily purification, certain Asans and Mudras (v. post).[9] In the first edition of Mahanirvana Tantra, CXXIV.[10] There are three 'knots' which have to be pierced or centres where the force of

Maya is particularly strong.[11] The Apocalypse Unsealed, by James M. Pryse, p. 62[121 Those who do practice magic of the kind mentioned work only in the lowest

centre, have recourse to the Prayoga, which leads to Mayika Shiddhi, whereby commerceis had with female spirits and the like. The process in this work described is one upon thepath of liberation and has nothing to do with sexual black magic.

[13] - which are sometimes given as 50 and sometimes as 51.[14] See Yogatattve Upanishad, where contemplation on the earth centre secures

mastery over, etc. At the same time it points out that these 'powers' are obstacles toliberation.

[15] Anandalahari, p. 35.[16] This, it is obvious, comes only after long effort, and following on less complete

experiences and results. According to Indian nations, success (Siddhi) in Yoga may be thefruit of experiences of many preceeding lives. Kundalini must be gradually raised from onecentre to another until she reaches the Lotus in the cerebrum. The length of time requiredvaries in the individual - it may be years ordinarily or in exceptional cases months.

[17] As this is by the Devi's grace, She is called "the giver of the eight Siddhis"(Ishitvadyashtasiddhida). See Trishati, 11, 47. She gives Aishvaryya.

---------------------* From Kundalini, Mother of the Universe: Mystery of Piercing the Sixth Chakra,

Gerwal Singh, Santa Barbara, 1930. The excerpt in this article appeared only in the lstedition of Avalon's The Serpent Power, London, 1920.------------------------------

TWO SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT - Boris de Zirkoff*

Within the ranks of the organized Theosophical Movement, there have existed for

a number of years past two schools of thought vastly different from each other.One of them is primarily based upon the writings of H.P. Blavatsky, the chief founder

of the Theosophical Society, and the pronouncements of her own superiors in the occulthierarchy. To these may be added a considerable number of essays and articles writtenby some of the direct pupils of the Teachers, and frequently under their own direction.

The other school is based upon claimed psychic investigations and clairvoyantrevelations of several individuals whose claims have remained unsupported and uncheckedby any collateral authority, and have been accepted on their own say-so, without anysubsidiary corroboration.

The teachings of these two schools of thought diverge from, and very oftencontradict, each other on various important points. In the very nature of things, they cannotbe harmonized.

Personal attachments of students to one or another "authority," genuine or claimed,is of course no guarantee, and therefore cannot decide either the nature or the implicationsof one or the other approach to the subject of occultism. Something more is required thanemotional reactions or the tendency to overlook essentials and disregard fundamentaldifferences.

It is quite probable that in a Movement like ours, no matter what historical era it maymanifest itself, there will arise from time to time individuals whose psychic tendencies willbe the basis for various claims of special knowledge, and groups of followers will alwaysbe found to give them the emotional support which they desire - a support devoid of anyintellectual basis or independent analysis of the claims made. This seems to be the fate ofall occult and pseudo-occult movements whose history has come down to us, howeverimperfectly.

It is a curious commentary upon human confusion in general, and the psycho-mentaluncertainty of some students of Theosophy, that Publishing Houses within the organizedTheosophical Movement sell indiscriminately various works belonging to the twodiametrically opposite schools of thought mentioned above, and often advertise them onthe same page of their publications. Considering this fact, the accusation made by somehostile critics that the organized Movement is not vitally interested in spreading truth (asit understands it), but in merely selling books on the general subject of occultism, is notwithout foundation, and should be sympathetically considered and analyzed.

There is, however, a very important fact which must not be overlooked by students.It is concerned with science and scientific discoveries and developments of recent years.

It so happens that scores of the most up-to-date scientific pronouncementsconcerning the nature and structure of the universe support and uphold many of thestatements contained in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky and her own Teachers, while thesame pronouncements go contrary to, and disavow the claims of psychic investigators andthe results of their research. This fact is of primary importance and should be given mostcareful consideration by students of Theosophy.

Recent developments in the field of astronomy, chemistry, physics, anthropology,biology and, above all, in the newly developed area of parapsychology, present a long listof discoveries, as well as theories, which were foreshadowed in The Secret Doctrine andother contemporary writings from high occult sources. The scientific achievements andconclusions have thrown further doubt, however, on a number of psychic speculations thenature of which had been suspect for some years past.

There is a serious warning contained in this fact of observation.It would be regrettable if the reader were to j ump to the totally unwarranted

conclusion that no reliance whatever should be given to the pronouncements of psychicsand clairvoyants, on the ground that they are, allegedly, always wrong. This is not true.

Psychic vision can be objective and reliable, but only in the case of those extremelyrare individuals who have received severe and sustained occult training, maybe for morethan one lifetime, under the guidance of a competent Teacher, himself a genuine Initiate.Many are those who have psychic vision, or psychic sensitivity of one type or another;many are those who are to some extent clairvoyant or clairaudient. But the overwhelmingmajority of them do not know what they see or hear and, jumping to conclusions, ascribewhat they perceive to totally wrong causes, and interpret them in accordance with one oranother theory or pet illusion which gives a special bent to their mind and their emotions.Hence the unreliability of otherwise kindly and friendly folk claiming to be the custodiansof higher knowledge.

The only way in which truth can be sifted from a lot of psychic rubbish, as far asstudents of Theosophy are concerned, is by a calm analysis of the teachings of the twoschools referred to above. Compare their pronouncements on the basic occult subjects.Consider their implications. Do not jump to conclusions on the basis of an inadequateresearch. Find out whether the propositions under consideration are logical, reasonableand universal; whether they fit together into a harmonious whole; whether they follow onefrom the other and support one another. If they do not, reserve your judgement and remainalert. A more prolonged study may be required before you can arrive at a conclusion thatwill satisfy you in every way.

On the eve of the centenary of the modern Theosophical Movement, we are calledupon to purify the Theosophical atmosphere of unfortunate delusions and to abide asclosely as possible by the original teachings as a sacred trust in our care.

----------------------* From Theosophia, Summer, 1971. Boris de Zirkoff was compiler of Theosophical

Publishing House's Blavatsky Collected Writings.----------------------

FLOWERS FROM A NEO-THEOSOPHICAL GARDEN - H. N. Stokes*

The following declaration formed part of the evidence in the Madras High Court CaseNo. 1778, 1913, the suit of G. Narayaniah vs. Mrs. Annie Besant. It purports to be thesworn statement of a certain boy whom, in order to avoid annoyance to his family, Idesignate by his initials only, "D.D.P." It was reprinted in The Hindu, Madras, April 13,1913, certain names being omitted in order to avoid identification of the deponent, and canalso be found in Brooks, Neo-Theosophy Exposed, page 305. The original of thisdeclaration as written by the boy himself, with affidavit, is, I understand, in the possessionof Mrs. Tingley, who secured it from him with the knowledge and consent of his father.

The D.D.P. Declaration:

"In the year 1903 I was visiting in the city of .... with my parents, and then and theremet Mr. Charles W. Leadbeater. I was then thirteen years of age and Mr. Leadbeater fromthe first treated me in a very affectionate manner.

"At his suggestion my parents consented to my accompanying him to .... on apleasure trip. We remained in .... three months, at the expiration of which time Iaccompanied Mr. Charles W. Leadbeater to the .... coast, visiting en route a number oflarge cities.

"Mr. Charles W. Leadbeater and myself occupied the same bed, habitually sleepingtogether. On the morning succeeding the first night that we slept together, and before wearose to dress, Mr. Charles W. Leadbeater explained to me the practice ... (in question)and urged me to engage in the practice, giving as a reason therefore that it would aid mein overcoming any desire to have .... (normal) intercourse with women - which desire, hetold me, would develop in the course of nature at my age very soon. Mr. Charles W.Leadbeater also told me that the practice was recommended by his Master and teacher forthat reason, and advised me not to speak of the matter to any one.

"This reciprocal (note the word - Ed. "Critic") practice continued for the greater partof seven months.

"On leaving Mr. Charles W. Leadbeater I returned to my parents who expressedthemselves as being very much shocked at my changed appearance and condition.

"My health was greatly broken as a result of the practices mentioned herein. I havebeen under medical treatment since that time and I am now under a physician's care and,I believe, slowly regaining physical health.

"I make this statement with the motive of thus giving a warning which may enableparents to protect their children from pernicious teachings given by those who pose beforethe world as moral guides but whose practices debase and destroy both children and men."

"......... being first duly sworn on oath deposes and says that he is the identicalperson who signed the foregoing statement, knows the contents thereof and each andevery statement therein made is true.

(seal) .........................

The authenticity of the above document is unquestionable and so far as I know hasnever been seriously denied. This, of course, is not asserting the literal truth of the chargescontained therein, but one may well ask whether the boy would have made falsestatements under oath, with the connivance of his parents, thus placing himself on recordas a partner in such criminal proceedings, and bringing unpleasant notoriety on his family.Its genuineness is attested by the boy's father in the course of certain correspondence withMr. A.P. Warrington, then Corresponding Secretary of the American E.S. with who Mr. P.'sapplication for reinstatement in the E.S. was then pending. I quote from Mr. Warrington'sletter, dated Los Angeles, February 6, 1912, as follows. (This Letter formed part of theevidence in the above Madras High' Court Case and is published in full in Neo-TheosophyExposed, page 306). Says Mr. Warrington in part:

"Now as to your application for membership in the E.S., I submitted the same to theouter Head as I informed you I would do, and she replies just as I expected, and I think youwill quite agree with the position which she takes when you think it all over quietly,

dispassionately and impersonally. She says that it is necessary for you to make good thatyou should try to get from Mrs. Tingley D...'s signed declaration, for she has used thisdeclaration and circulates all over the world the foulest slanders."

From this letter it appears that Mrs. Besant made it a condition of Mr. P.'sreinstatement in the E. S. not that he should give evidence of the ability to profit by theinner teachings, nor even that he should deny the charges, but that he should secure anddeliver to her the original of a document highly compromising to her Brother Leadbeater,and that she endeavored to utilize his desire to reenter the E.S. as a tool for suppressingdamaging evidence. And this indecent proposal emanated from one who claims to be "thesuccessor" of H.P.B.! In this we see one more evidence that the E.S. is simply aninstrument of A.B. and C.W.L. for accomplishing their personal aims.

In his rejoinder to Mr. Warrington, dated March 8, 1912 (see Brooks, Neo-Theosophy Exposed, page 310) Mr. P., the boy's father, says, among other things:

"I think it would be useless to make a demand on Mrs. Tingley for the return of thedeclarations, for I am sure she would not part with them.

"When we went to Seattle in early 1909, an attempt was made to get a betterunderstanding of the "X" (Leadbeater - Ed. Critic) matter, and to that end four prominentmembers of the Seattle Branch met and discussed it; as an outcome of this D.... made avoluntary confession (not about the "teachings" so-called but of certain other objectionableacts which it would be impossible to countenance on any wild plea of purity ofmotive) ...

"The bare thought that D.... went out of his way to make awful statements is toodreadful to dwell on. At present I am defending him less because he is my son than thatI am certain he has told the truth...

"All the same - if it can be proved that the statements made by D.... and myself toMrs. Tingley are false - then we are ready to publish an apology in any publication named.More - in view of the heinousness of the offense, we will both of us make a public apologyin the presence of Mrs. Besant, Mr. Leadbeater or any other official, at which the membersaround shall be invited at what would be a semi-public function. ..."

Needless to say this offer was never accepted. It was not retraction, which wasimpossible, but concealment, that was sought the bully-ragging and swindling of the T.S.membership. As for the charges in D. D. P.'s statement, whatever might be thought of themhad they been isolated, they carry great weight when placed side by side with the chargesof the two boys embodied in the original letter filed with Mrs. Besant by the AmericanSection (Critic, March 15th).

--------------* From Stokes' 5/10/22 O. E. Library Critic. This was one of a series of articles on

the same specific topic. H. N. Stokes was probably the most consistent and outspokencritic of Neo-Theosophy during the 26 years of his publication.---------------

THE HIDDEN VOICE - W. E. Small*

A sickness of heart comes over one on reading and pondering long an article in theOctober 1971 issue of The Theosophist by Hugh Shearman, titled TheosophicalOntologies. It is an article that demands from members of all Theosophical Societies andgroups a most careful and honest evaluation. What inner urgings, we may ask, led to itswriting and publication? What effects may it have not only on one Theosophical Society buton the whole Theosophical Movement?

A curious introductory note by the Editor, N. Sri Ram, commenting that the articlemay be regarded by some as controversial, as "upsetting to settled views of one sort oranother," would indicate that he himself may regard it as constituting a challenge, athrowing down of the gauntlet. We may certainly accept his words as indirect, if not overt,invitation expectant of a rebuttal expressing other' views.

So we speak out. And we trust that this will be only one of other speakings-out fromTheosophists in many countries; for in Dr. Shearman's words we find a line of thought andattitude which, if representative of large numbers of other Theosophists, could change thefuture course and destiny of that Noble Movement launched and re-activated in the closingquarter of the 19th century with such high hopes by H.P. Blavatsky and the AdeptBrotherhood of which she was the outer representative.

These words are not leveled in an uncharitable spirit at any individual. They pointwith honest conviction to what appears to the writer to be a great and serious danger withinthe Theosophical Movement; for what Dr. Shearman writes may well act as a placebohelping to lull the stirring conscience of many because of its appealing but speciousargument, its flavor of scientific open inquiry. To others, of course, it will serve as an irritant,a prod or challenge.

Dr. Shearman advances the idea that there are in Theosophy mainly two ontologies.(He is using the word in its philosophic meaning as the science of being or reality; thebranch of knowledge that investigates the nature, essential property, and relations ofbeing.) There is the ontology, he says, which "came from Madame Blavatsky," extensionsof which are to be found in the Mahatma Letters, with respect to which she was the mediumand means of transmission..." And there is, he contends, the ontology of BishopLeadbeater - "more personally his own," from his individual experience. These are, theauthor declares, very largely what constitutes the corpus of Theosophical literature today.

That is Dr. Shearman's major premise, and from it he pursues his argument. But itis a false premise, untrue; and thus no matter with what apparently fair or persuasivereasoning he seeks its support, it will confuse and mislead the untutored reader orbeginning student of Theosophy.

Let us speak plainly. There are not in Theosophy various and sundry 'ontologies'differing in their fundamental teachings concerning the nature of the universe (see TheMahatma Letters, p. 49) - not one propounded by H.P.B. and another equally sound andauthentic presented by C.W. Leadbeater or by Olcott or by Tom, Dick or Harry. Truth perse is one. It is not one thing here and another thing somewhere else. It is one. If you wantto use the term 'ontology,' acceptable to that branch of study called Philosophy, then thereis in Theosophy only one ontology. We prefer the simple word Teaching. The Teachingsare the facts of universal being. Thus Have I Heard: iti maya srutam: are the words that

mark the true chela become Teacher. Only as I have been taught, only as I have receivedit, do I pass on the Teaching. What true Theosophist does not recognize its esoteric ring?On that statement and what it deeply signifies Theosophy stands - or falls.

But this, you say, is not an attitude acceptable to Science or scientists today. Let thatbe. Given time, in the true spirit of scientific inquiry and research, leading and intuitivethinkers will come to recognize the basic Theosophical truths. This is not said dogmaticallybut because we believe, as Dr. G. de Purucker expresses it (Occult Glossary), thatTheosophy is "the formulation in human language of the nature, structure, origin, destiny,and operations of the Kosmical Universe and of the multitudes of beings which infill it."Facts are pitchforks, said H.P.B. somewhere, meaning they are there; they exist; theycannot be wished away or denied. Our inadequacy intellectually and intuitively to graspthem, to place them in proper relationship with other facts of being, does not change, dasDing an sich. It remains. Obviously H.P.B. did not say all there was to say about these factsof being, but what she did say is a faithful reporting on which students can rely. They cantest them; they should. They can question them; they should. They will find that there willbe no need to throw them overboard, to flounder around for new facts, or, if you prefer, newontologies.

Each student will, of course, see these basic ideas colored by his own nature andunderstanding - some more clearly and intuitively one aspect; some another. But thisnatural personal coloring is not a creating of grand postulates or new and worthy'ontologies.' It is merely a viewing of the Truth through the qualities of one's individualswabhava, one's essential nature. Seek the Truth. Seek the Great Idea. The rest will come.Seek in the buddhi-manas of your being, and let psychic visions fall into their place asrelatively unimportant and subsidiary.

Dr. Shearman stresses the 'personality' of these two individuals, emphasizing the"strong prejudices of H.P.B." which affect the "descriptive material that came from her," andinsinuating, as an instance, that her accounts of the after-death conditions "clash veryemphatically, not only with what Bishop Leadbeater and other members of the Society laterdescribe, but also with descriptions given by psychics quite unconnected with the Society."(I should think so!)

Throughout the article the effort to discredit H.P.B.'s bona fides is transparent.Shearman quotes from A.P. Sinnett's The Early Days of Theosophy in Europe (p. 26),written as all historians should know, when A.P.S. in his later years was disgruntled withTheosophy and had completely turned against H.P.B. Sinnett says that H.P.B. did not knowenough of the truths of "Reincarnation, karma, the planetary chains, the succession of root-races, the sub-races and so on" to tamper with them, "to import confusion" into them; but,he implies that because of "a bitter detestation of spiritualism" she let this feeling distort theteachings on the 'after-death' conditions.

Poppycock! Anyone who knows anything about H.P.B. and how she was trained andtaught will laugh at this bleating of the bruised ego. It is pitiable enough to recall Sinnett'sturning on his friend after all he had received from her of inestimable value while she wasalive; but for a later Theosophical writer, an historian to boot, to seek reinforcement of hisown personal views from this biased source is sadly reprehensible.

Shearman tries to show that letters which H.P.B. transmitted from the Masterscontained ideas and expressions out of her own head. In support of this he quotes phrasestaken out of context from a letter from H.P.B. written in Wurzburg, Germany, in June 1886

and copied in the handwriting of Frau F. Gebhard. A careful reading of that whole letter(see The Theosophist, August, 1931), and, for a longer version, The Path, March, 1893)makes, perfectly clear that H.P.B. was not writing anything out of her own head and makingit appear to be Master's. It often happened that in precipitating messages from the Master,chelas who could not speak English sought appropriate English words and phrases "fromH.P.B.'s own head" when she was present. But the real message was not tampered with;it was conveyed as intended. To imply that H.P.B. 'invented' these is a plain falsehood. Andas for the general slur that H.P.B. concocted large portions of these messages herself, justask yourself the simple question: If you could produce or write anything on order from theMaster and in his own style of handwriting, would this message be considered your ownor Master's?! If you take a note in shorthand from the boss and he says, Sign it and postit, is that letter his message or yours? Verb. sap.

Who, after all, was H.P.B.? All true Theosophists should know her rightful place. Itis not a matter of praise or worship. It is a matter of honesty and a burning desire to searchfor and know the Truth. Who was that complex, dynamic, often volcanic and unconventionalcharacter? Says the Master M. (Mahatma Letters, p. 263): "... a woman of mostexceptional and wonderful endowments. Combined with them she had strong personaldefects, but just as she was, there was no second to her living fit for this work."

In simple language, H.P.B. was far more than a sensitive psychic of rare ability. Shewas, above all else, the direct and chosen vehicle or carrier of the message "of the truthsof being" about Man and Nature from the Trans-Himalayan Adepts. She was their chela,who had paid the awful price necessary in training and discipleship. What do we, with ourpetty comparisons, our limited focus of understanding, know of the constraints, the rules,under which she labored in order to become worthy, second to none, to carry out hermission? Again the Master M. speaks (op. cit. p. 272): "The Old Woman is accused ofuntruthfulness, inaccuracy in her statements... She is forbidden to say what she knows.You may cut her to pieces and she will not tell... were she a natural born liar - she mightbe happier and [have I won her day long since by this time. But that's just where the shoepinches, Sahib. She is too truthful, too outspoken, too incapable of dissimulation, and nowshe is being daily crucified for it."

H.P.B. makes no bones about her own qualifications. She knew what she knew andfor the most part kept silent on the real issues involved. Despite what her detractors in thepast have said of her; still worse, despite what so-called friends would intimate today, thatshe concocted or invented these truths, she declares frankly and straightforwardly,borrowing Montaigne's words, that what she brought of her own was but the 'string' that tiedthe 'nosegay of culled flowers.' And she adds words that every student of Theosophyshould know and should have tested: "Pull the I string to pieces and cut it up in shreds, ifyou will. As for the nosegay of FACTS - you will never be able to make away with these.You can only ignore them, and no more."

And here let us say that these "facts" do not comprise an 'ontology' of H.P.B.'s. Whatshe brought is a page of the Secret Doctrine, something about the truth in Nature -inviolable because a part of TRUTH itself . It should be obvious to any tyro in Theosophythat H.P.B.'s words, when it comes to teaching, when it comes to reporting the facts ofuniversal nature, are what have been checked and tested - scientifically, if you please, forwhat else is real science but such a testing? - by generations of adepts and seers, and arean accurate reporting of them. Nor do you belittle H.P.B. by saying that she 'merely'

reported these facts. In saying so you can only elevate her. And to say, as Shearmanconcludes, that H.P.B. confined herself "to the perhaps safer fields of things large, relativelyremote and incapable of testing," is with subtle casuistry trying to saw seeds of doubt andconfusion in the minds of those untrained. And to trot out Count Keyserling as finding C.W.Leadbeater's account of inner worlds written as "one who observes more or lessscientifically, the only one who describes in simple straightforward language" - what supportis this? Since when is Keyserling considered an authority on the invisible or astral worlds!

It is doubtful if any scientist would be impressed on reading Leadbeater's Man, How,Whence and Whither? or his Lives of Alcyone by the veracity of his visions. To say this isto state mildly what could be expressed with some force. One does not attack Mr.Leadbeater because of his psychic explorings; one can recognize his sincerity and thedevotion of his followers; but one must clearly state that his so-called reportings are simplywhat they are: psychic investigations by a psychic and are not Theosophy as the wordshould be understood.

These are facts our readers should know in judging the worth and value of what ispresented as Theosophy today. Theosophy should be respected, sought after asembodying in its practical bearing "divine ethics" (H.P.B.); also recognized as "thesubstratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies, taught and practiced bya few elect ever since man became a thinking man" (H.P.B.); and, as we have alreadynoted, as reporting the "nature, origin, destiny, and operations" of the Universe and itsmultimyriad beings (G. de Purucker). Theosophy should be recognized as nothing less thanthis in the public mind.

What, frankly, would a logical follow-through of Dr. Shearman's ideas mean? Thatbasically there are two Theosophical Societies? - one loyal to the Teachings of the originalFounders (and composed of individuals who are members of various groups and someprobably not outwardly even labeled as Theosophists); and another whose chief aim wouldbe to serve the forwarding of the psychic investigations of C.W. Leadbeater and the LiberalCatholic Church of which he was a Bishop?

Let us be honest with ourselves. That dichotomy may yet be invisible, but who willdeny that it is there, growing, consolidating? No longer can a slumbering membershipsweep under the rug and shrug off what has lain hidden there as something to turn awayfrom or postpone decision on to some indefinite future. The hope of true Theosophists hasever been to preserve and promulgate the original Teachings which carry the impact oftested Truth, and to work constructively and harmoniously with all. The danger has been,and is now stronger than ever - if we may judge by the publication of this article underreview in a Theosophical organ of international repute - that the pure stream of teachingmay be so contaminated by the psychic tide, that for the very preservation of that inner lifeessential to the Movement, a separation may prove to be an unavoidable and remedialnecessity. It is a strange and eminently fateful situation.

As a Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church, Leadbeater may speak for that bodythrough his writings, but he cannot under that guise be considered to speak for the T. S.or for Theosophy itself, nor for any true Esoteric Section of any Theosophic body. Yet oneis impelled to ask: Is there here a hidden voice that thus speaks for many kindly, well-meaning, sincere individuals who are unacquainted with the basic Theosophical literatureand the tradition behind it? Is there a hidden Voice representing the Liberal Catholic Churchthat seeks to elevate one of its Bishops and at the same time to lower in the estimation of

Theosophists uncertain of their ground H.P.B. and what she stood for?Or, we may ask, is there not another deeper hidden voice that, overleaping barriers

of separative organizations and the weathered canyons of prejudice, speaks for untoldnumbers in this great Theosophical Movement? A voice that cries out for Truth above allelse? Truth that will enlighten. Truth that will stir to noble and wise action? If and when wecome to truly know something of the Essence of the Nature of Being or Reality, can weever be satisfied with that which is obviously less, swept along by currents and temptationsthat offer the 'easy way,' succumbing to the merely pleasing and pleasant? Has not the timecome in this new cycle to stand firm and raise high the banner of real Theosophy, and toacknowledge allegiance only to that "TRUTH, high-seated upon its rock of adamant,""alone eternal and supreme"? (Isis Unveiled, Preface, v.) ----------------

* From The Eclectic Theosophist, May 15, 1972. W. E. Small's active Theosophicalcareer spans over seventy years, from an Editor of Theosophical Forum in the 1930's, toEditor of the Eclectic in the 1990's.-----------------

THE PSYCHIC WORLD - BEWARE! - G. de Purucker*

Here once more, and with extreme reluctance, one feels the need of stating thatthere is a good deal of the teaching of the Esoteric Philosophy which simply cannot beopenly stated in a published book, because such teaching belongs to the highly reconditeand extremely difficult thought of the esoteric studies reserved for the few.

The author of the present work desires to state once for all, and with the emphasisat his command, that neither this declaration of certain esoteric teachings which are toosacred to be given to the public, nor other similar declarations made in the course of thepresent work, are in any sense of the word to be considered or looked upon as 'claims'made by him possessing 'superior' or wonderful knowledge. The author absolutelydisavows not only any such intention of 'claiming' anything, but must point out that merelystating that the Esoteric Philosophy contains wide ranges of teaching or doctrine which areincommunicable to the public is making no 'claims' whatsoever, but is the simple statementof something that ought to be known to every student of the Archaic Wisdom.

The writer of these lines has immense and profound sympathy with those who lookaskance and with suspicion upon any claimants to occult powers or occult knowledge; forhe, fully as much as others, is keenly sensible of the mischief and confusion that suchclaimants have brought about in the Theosophical Movement. There are today abroad inthe world associations or societies or organizations of many different kinds, some of themclaiming either new and greater revelations than H.P. Blavatsky brought to the WesternWorld, and usually as being from the source from which she drew her great knowledge, oraverring that they and their respective heads draw their alleged 'wisdom' and so-called'secret teaching' from a source still higher than that upon which H.P. Blavatsky drew.

Now with all the charity in the world towards honest students, whether they beTheosophists or not, and with no wish whatsoever to seem to be inconsiderate or unkind,

the author of these lines feels impelled to say that in his considered opinion virtually all ofthese various claims to special powers or privileges are fraudulent shams. Such is his ownindividual and considered judgement in the matter, and he bases this opinion upon twofacts which are as follows: (a) the statements, writings, averments, or 'claims' of theseespecial groups generally wander so far from and contain so little of that Archaic Wisdomwhich in the present work is called the Esoteric Tradition, and which throughout the ageshas been universal over the globe, that they thus lack the primal requisite of truth, bothesoteric and exoteric, which is universality, and lack it both in substance and in form. Thusthe greater and more important test of true Esotericism, to wit, is its universality in all agesand in all races of men as evidenced in that common Doctrine which all the great Religionsand Philosophies of the human race imbody as their spiritual substance; and (b) it isvirtually impossible to set forth or to publish esoteric truth in any manner, except by pointingto what the great sages and seers of the ages, have left behind them as their respectiveMessages.

One must look for the cause of the rising of these various erratic associations to thatinrush of psychic influence which H.P. Blavatsky and her great Teachers from thebeginning of the modern Theosophical Movement taught was about to take place; andthere is no part of the human constitution which is so uncertain, so erratic in its processes,so dangerous to follow as a guide, as the psychical portion of man's being. It is full ofdangers and pitfalls to the unwary; and there is a deep pathos in the fact that it is just thesethings of psychic stamp and character which appeal so to men of our time. Psychism in allits forms, relatively good, downright bad, and indifferent, is something which unfortunatelyappeals directly to the credulous, the gullible, the unwise, and the foolish; and the earnestTheosophist should never hesitate openly to proclaim that one of the main purposes infounding the modern Theosophical Movement was to do what could be done to stem thethen impending inrushing tide or flow of psychism in its various forms. Where psychism is,Spirituality usually flies out at the window - because evicted by man's folly; whereSpirituality is allowed to enlighten the mind and refine the heart by its benign and inspiringinfluence, the psychical in all its forms shrivels into the bundle of illusions which it actuallyis.

All these various psychical bodies or societies are posterior in time to the foundingof the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky and others. Some ofthem broke off from the Theosophical Movement, while others arose outside of its ranks,although all younger than the Theosophical Society, they rarely if ever acknowledge thedebt they owe to it in so far as concerns the teachings which they have one and all takenfrom it, and which teachings form whatever is worthwhile in them. Without any philosophythat is worthy of the name, save what has been cribbed from the Theosophical Society,with a religious atmosphere which is insignificant and a science which is either merepopular trifling or worse, one turns from an inspection of them with relief.

Yet even here in these various movements, some quasi-theosophical withoutacknowledging it, and some frankly anti-theosophical and vaunting it, there are doubtlessnumbers of very kindly and good people who in their search for truth have not yet come toour doors. Without question the best way for Theosophists to handle this situation is withgreat gentleness and with unending kindness both of heart and mind and with an ever-ready desire to extend to truth-seekers from whatsoever quarter they may come suchportion of the ancient wisdom as we ourselves may be privileged to have made our own.

As Edwin Markhim (in his poem "Outwitted") said:

He drew a circle that shut me out -Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in!

Finally, the writer of the present work does not here make, nor has he ever made,claims to anything whatsoever; he has given in the present work and in his former books,something of what he himself has been taught; but this statement is made not as a 'claim,'but as a simple averment of fact which the reader is at full liberty to accept or reject,according to his conscience and his best reason.

The proof of the body of the truth of any teaching or group of teachings is not andcannot be based on 'claims,' though made by the high gods themselves, but solely on theintrinsic and inherent merits of said teaching or body of teachings; and upon this groundof merit alone, such merit comprising universality, spirituality, mutual coherency, and logicalconsecution in thought, any teaching whatsoever must rest. It is true enough that greatnames and brilliant reputations lend splendor to a teaching, and in themselves evokerespect; but even brilliant reputations and great names are no absolute proofs that anyteaching coming from such source is true. This is especially true in Esotericism, whosedoctrines persuade the mind and sway the heart solely because of their intrinsic value andobvious merit, and on these alone they must stand or fall. ---------------

* From The Eclectic Theosophist, Jan., 15, 1973 and also The Esoteric Tradition II,p. 889.---------------

SMOGGED WITH ASTRAL INTOXICATION - Vonda Urban*

The recent widely viewed television portrayal of Shirley Maclaine's book, Out on aLimb has to be considered along with it as, at best, a questionable blessing. While thereis no doubt about some splendid Theosophical thoughts sprinkled throughout... is it realisticto expect that these morsels of truth can outweigh or counteract the pernicious lure topsychism which is overwhelmingly the main substance of the message promoted therein?One can only sadly wonder how many of the followers of the "tinsel town guru" willinnocently plunge after her into the treacherous realms of Kama-Loka, persuing "sweettongued voices of illusion in the stupefying enchantment of those mayavic regions,"blissfully unaware of dangers lurking there? How many will become the hapless victims ofthose voices, unable ever again to close the door once it has been opened, the very samevoices and hallucinations tempting and tormenting the hundreds of thousands of thepsycho-mentally ill living in untold misery and confusion on the streets of our cities? Howmany may have arrived there via channeling, hatha-yoga, hypnosis, negative meditation,chanting, drugs, and all such harmful practices that are strictly forbidden on the Spiritual

Path?Indeed, it comes as a shock to many - nor is it likely to be believed by those

smogged with 'astral intoxication' - that psychic is not spiritual! And how much of soundvalue is there in the view that wherever interest is primarily focused on phenomena and theoccult arts similar and equal attention will be given to study about the seven principles ofman; about the Astral Light and its inhabitants; about psychic powers; about the after-deathstates; about hatha-yoga, about hypnotism, etc? It is a study of these areas that giveKNOWLEDGE that will protect students from rushing into paranormal experimentation. Itcannot be overstated that preoccupation with phenomena is an impediment to spiritualgrowth; that wherever psychic activity prevails, there spirituality dies; and this becausealtered states of consciousness occur on an extended range of physical sense that functionon other densities of energy-substance-matter. Consider, for example, that animals exhibithighly developed psychic faculties, and they respond to sensory frequencies beyond thehuman range as proved by the dog whistle that we cannot hear.

In The Voice of the Silence, H. P. Blavatsky defines the difference between psychicand spiritual sense; "...There are two kinds of Siddhis, one group embraces the lower,coarse, psychic and mental energies; the other is one which exacts the highest training ofSpiritual powers... :"(Glossary 1, note 1.) These two groups stand in opposition at thematerial and spiritual of human self-consciousness; and development toward eitherdirection occurs with equal withdrawal from the other. The Voice makes this very clear inpronouncing: "... The Self of matter and the SELF of spirit can never meet. One of the twainmust disappear; there is no place for both..." (p. 12, orig. ed.) Spiritual siddhis unfoldnormally along the path of chelaship as they are earned by living the life which means, ofcourse, first deserve, then desire. But forced entry onto other planes of perception ischeating nature, the price for which is apt to be a short circuit in the sensory apparatus.

The field in which extrasensory perception operates is the Astral Light, graphicallydescribed in The Theosophical Glossary, p. 38:

"A subtle essence visible only to a clairvoyant eye, and the lowest but one (viz., theearth), of the seven Akasic or Kosmic Principles. Eliphas Levi calls it the great Serpent andthe Dragon from which radiates on Humanity every evil influence. This is so; but why notadd that the Astral Light gives out nothing but what it has received; that it is the greatterrestrial crucible, in which the vile emanations of the earth (moral and physical) uponwhich the Astral Light is fed, are all converted into their subtlest essence, and radiated backintensified, thus becoming epidemics - moral, psychic and physical..."

Psychic epidemics occur in periodic cycles during which the separation between thephysical and astral world grows very thin resulting in an inrush of psycic forces andsubstances into the physical sphere. The mushrooming seminars offering instruction inevery sort of paranormal activity evidences the psychic. epidemic now dangerously raging.What used to be called seance is now called "Channeling" and "trance-channeling;" but themeaning is the same. Channeling is the condition through which the living assimilatethemselves with the dead. H.P.B. gives so vivid a picture of the process and what it is thatwe channel, that it should chill any interest in romping through the field of Kama-Loka; andit helps explain obsession and multi-personality afflictions:

"... During epidemics of this kind the kingdom of the dead invades the region of the

living, though fortunately this kind of refuse are bound by the ties of their formersurroundings. And so, when evoked by mediums, they cannot break through the limits andboundaries in which they acted and lived... And the wider the doors are opened to them thefurther the necromantic epidemic is spread...

"It stands to reason that this mere earthly refuse, irresistibly drawn to the earth,cannot follow the soul and spirit - these highest principles of man's being. With horror anddisgust I often observed how a reanimated shadow of this kind separated itself from theinside of the medium; how separating itself from his astral body and clad in someone else'svesture, it pretended to be someone's relation... Oh, if they only knew the truth... If theysaw, as I have often seen, a monstrous, bodiless creature seizing hold of someone presentat these spiritistic sorceries! It wraps the man as if with a black shroud, and slowlydisappears in him as if drawn into his body by each of his living pores..." - (From a letter toher sister published in The Path, Vol. IX, pp. 380-1)

Fortunate are those who, though lured into the dazzling illusion of the psychic world,escape from it unharmed.--------------

* The Eclectic Theosophist, Sept./Oct., 1987

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