Theosophy; The New Rock ‘n
Roll
Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky
1831
-1891
Theosophy
Megastar
______________________
Theosophy and the Masters
By
William Q
Judge
Condensed from Chapter 1 of
The
That man
possesses an immortal soul is the common belief of humanity; to this Theosophy
adds that he is a soul; and further that all nature is sentient, that the vast array
of objects and men are not mere collections of atoms fortuitously thrown
together and thus without law evolving law, but down to the smallest atom all
is soul and spirit ever evolving under the rule of law which is inherent in the
whole.
And just as
the ancients taught, so does Theosophy; that the course of evolution is the
drama of the soul and that nature exists for no other purpose than the soul's
experience. The Theosophist agrees with Prof. Huxley in the assertion that
there must be beings in the universe whose intelligence is as much beyond ours
as ours exceeds that of the black beetle, and who take an active part in the
government of the natural order of things. Pushing further on by the light of
the confidence had in his teachers, the Theosophist adds that such
intelligences were once human and came like all of us from other and previous
worlds, where as varied experience had been gained as is possible on this one.
We are
therefore not appearing for the first time when we come upon this planet, but
have pursued a long, an immeasurable course of activity and intelligent
perception on other systems of globes, some of which were destroyed ages before
the solar system condensed.
This immense
reach of the evolutionary system means, then, that this planet on which we now
are is the result of the activity and the evolution of some other one that died
long ago, leaving its energy to be used in the bringing into existence of the
earth, and that the inhabitants of the latter in their turn came from some
older world to proceed here with the destined work in matter. And the brighter
planets, such as Venus, are the habitation of still more progressed entities,
once as low as ourselves, but now raised up to a pitch of glory
incomprehensible for our intellects.
The most
intelligent being in the universe, man, has never, then, been without a friend,
but has a line of elder brothers who continually watch over the progress of the
less progressed, preserve the knowledge gained through aeons of trial and
experience, and continually seek for opportunities of drawing the developing
intelligence of the race on this or other globes to consider the great truths
concerning the destiny of the soul. These elder brothers also keep the
knowledge they have gained of the laws of nature in all departments, and are
ready when cyclic law permits to use it for the benefit of mankind. They have
always existed as a body, all knowing each other, no matter in what part of the
world they may be, and all working for the race in many different ways.
In some
periods they are well known to the people and move among ordinary men whenever
the social
organization, the virtue, and the development of the nations permit it.
For if they
were to come out openly and be heard of everywhere, they would be worshipped as
gods by some and hunted as devils by others. In those periods when they do come
out some of their number are rulers of men, some teachers, a few great
philosophers, while others remain still unknown except to the most advanced of the
body.
It would be
subversive of the ends they have in view were they to make themselves public in
the present civilization, which is based almost wholly on money, fame, glory,
and personality. For this age, as one of them has already said, "is an age
of transition," when every system of thought, science, religion,
government, and society is changing, and men's minds are only preparing for an
alteration into that state which will permit the race to advance to the point
suitable for these elder brothers to introduce their actual presence to our
sight.
They may be
truly called the bearers of the torch of
truth across
the ages; they investigate all things and beings; they know what man is in his
innermost nature and what his powers and destiny, his state before birth and
the states into which he goes after the death of his body; they have stood by
the cradle of nations and seen the vast achievements of the ancients, watched
sadly the decay of those who had no power to resist the cyclic law of rise and fall;
and while cataclysms seemed to show a universal destruction of art,
architecture, religion, and philosophy, they have preserved the records of it
all in places secure from the ravages of either men or time; they have made
minute observations, through trained psychics among their own order, into the
unseen realms of nature and of mind, recorded the observations and preserved
the record; they have mastered the mysteries of sound and color through which
alone the elemental beings behind the veil of matter can be communicated with,
and thus can tell why the rain falls and what it falls for, whether the earth
is hollow or not, what makes the wind to blow and light to shine, and greater
feat than all -- one which implies a knowledge of the very foundations of nature
-- they know what the ultimate divisions of time are and what are the meaning
and the times of the cycles.
But, asks the
busy man of the nineteenth century who reads the newspapers and believes in
"modern progress," if these elder brothers are all you claim them to
be, why have they left no mark on history nor gathered men around them? Their
own reply, published some time ago by Mr. A. P. Sinnett, is better than any I
could write.
"We will
first discuss, if you please, the one relating to the presumed failure of the
'Fraternity' to leave any mark upon the history of the world. They ought, you
think, to have been able, with their extraordinary advantages, to have gathered
into their schools a considerable portion of the more enlightened minds of
every race.
How do you
know they have made no such mark? Are you acquainted with their efforts,
successes, and failures? Have you any dock upon which to arraign them? How
could your world collect proofs of the doings of men who have sedulously kept
closed every possible door of approach by which the inquisitive could spy upon
them? The precise condition of their success was that they should never be
surprised or obstructed. What they have done they know; all that those outside
their circle could perceive was the results, the causes of which were masked
from view.
To account for
these results, many have in different ages invented theories of the
interposition of gods, special providences, fates, the benign or hostile
influences of the stars. There never was a time within or before the so-called
historical period when our predecessors were not molding events and 'making
history,' the facts of which were subsequently and invariably distorted by
historians to suit contemporary prejudices. Are you quite sure that the visible
heroic figures in the successive dramas were not often but their puppets?
We never
pretended to be able to draw nations in the mass to this or that crisis in
spite of the general drift of the world's cosmic relations. The cycles must run
their rounds. Periods of mental and moral light and darkness succeed each other
as day does night. The major and minor yugas must be accomplished according to
the established order of things. And we, borne along the mighty tide, can only
modify and direct some of its minor currents."
It is under
cyclic law, during a dark period in the history of mind, that the true
philosophy disappears for a time, but the same law causes it to reappear as
surely as the sun rises and the human mind is present to see it.
But some works
can only be performed by the Master, while other works require the assistance
of the companions. It is the Master's work to preserve the true philosophy, but
the help of the companions is needed to rediscover and promulgate it. Once more
the elder brothers have indicated where the truth -- Theosophy -- could be
found, and the companions all over the world are engaged in bringing it forth
for wider currency and propagation.
The Elder
Brothers of Humanity are men who were perfected in former periods of evolution.
These periods of manifestation are unknown to modern evolutionists so far as
their number are concerned, though long ago understood by not only the older
Hindus, but also by those great minds and men who instituted and carried on the
first pure and undebased form of the Mysteries of Greece. The periods, when out
of the Great Unknown there come forth the visible universes, are eternal in
their coming and going, alternating with equal periods of silence and rest
again in the Unknown.
The object of
these mighty waves is the production of perfect man, the evolution of soul, and
they always witness the increase of the number of Elder Brothers; the life of
the least of men pictures them in day and night, waking and sleeping, birth and
death, "for these two, light and dark, day and night, are the world's
eternal ways."
In every age
and complete national history these men of power and compassion are given
different designations. They have been called Initiates, Adepts, Magi,
Hierophants, Kings of the East, Wise Men, Brothers, and what not. But in the
Sanskrit language there is a word which, being applied to them, at once
thoroughly identifies them with humanity. It is Mahatma. This is composed of
Maha great, and Atma soul; so it means great soul, and as all men are souls the
distinction of the Mahatma lies in greatness. The term Mahatma has come into
wide use through the Theosophical Society, as Mme. H. P. Blavatsky constantly
referred to them as her Masters who gave her the knowledge she possessed. They
were at first known only as the Brothers, but afterwards, when many Hindus
flocked to the Theosophical movement, the name Mahatma was brought into use,
inasmuch as it has behind it an immense body of Indian tradition and
literature.
At different
times unscrupulous enemies of the Theosophical Society have said that even this
name had been invented and that such beings are not known of among the Indians
or in their literature. But these assertions are made only to discredit if
possible a philosophical movement that threatens to completely upset prevailing
erroneous theological dogmas. For all through Hindu literature Mahatmas are
often spoken of, and in parts of the north of that country the term is common.
In the very old poem the Bhagavad-Gita, revered by all Hindu sects and admitted
by the western critics to be noble as well as beautiful, there is a verse
reading, "Such a Mahatma is difficult to find."
But
irrespective of all disputes as to specific names, there is sufficient argument
and proof to show that a body of men having the wonderful knowledge described
above has always existed and probably exists today. The older mysteries
continually refer to them. Ancient
But the truth
is, these great Egyptians were Initiates, members of the one great lodge which
includes all others of whatever degree or operation. The later and declining
Egyptians, of course, must have imitated their predecessors, but that was when
the true doctrine was beginning once more to be obscured upon the rise of dogma
and priesthood.
The story of
Apollonius of Tyana is about a member of one of the same ancient orders
appearing among men at a descending cycle, and only for the purpose of keeping
a witness upon the scene for future generations.
Abraham and Moses
of the Jews are two other Initiates, Adepts who had their work to do with a
certain people; and in the history of Abraham we meet with Melchizedek, who was
so much beyond Abraham that he had the right to confer upon the latter a
dignity, a privilege, or a blessing. The same chapter of human history which
contains the names of Moses and Abraham is illuminated also by that of Solomon.
And thus these three make a great Triad of Adepts, the record of whose deeds
can not be brushed aside as folly and devoid of basis.
Moses was
educated by the Egyptians and in Midian, from both of which he gained
much occult
knowledge, and any clear-seeing student of the great Universal Masonry can
perceive all through his books the hand, the plan, and the work of a master.
Abraham again knew all the arts and much of the power in psychical realms that
were cultivated in his day, or else he could not have consorted with kings nor
have been "the friend of God"; and the reference to his conversations
with the Almighty in respect to the destruction of cities alone shows him to
have been an Adept who had long ago passed beyond the need of ceremonial or
other adventitious aids. Solomon completes this triad and stands out in
characters of fire.
Around him is
clustered such a mass of legend and story about his dealings with the elemental
powers and of his magic possessions that one must condemn the whole ancient
world as a collection of fools who made lies for amusement if a denial is made
of his being a great character, a wonderful example of the incarnation among
men of a powerful Adept.
We do not have
to accept the name Solomon nor the pretense that he reigned over the Jews, but
we must admit the fact that somewhere in the misty time to which the Jewish
records refer there lived and moved among the people of the earth one who was
an Adept and given that name afterwards. Peripatetics and microscopic critics
may affect to see in the prevalence of universal tradition naught but evidence
of the gullibility of men and their power to imitate, but the true student of
human nature and life knows that the universal tradition is true and arises
from the facts in the history of man.
Turning to
There the
people are fitted by temperament and climate to be the preservers of the
philosophical, ethical, and psychical jewels that would have been forever lost
to us had they been left to the ravages of such Goths and Vandals as western
nations were in the early days of their struggle for education and
civilization. If the men who wantonly burned up vast masses of historical and
ethnological treasures found by the minions of the Catholic rulers of Spain, in
Central and South America, could have known of and put their hands upon the
books and palm-leaf records of India before the protecting shield of England
was raised against them, they would have destroyed them all as they did for the
Americans, and as their predecessors attempted to do for the Alexandrian
library. Fortunately events worked otherwise.
All along the
stream of Indian literature we can find the names by scores of great adepts who
were well known to the people and who all taught the same story -- the great
epic of the human soul. Their names are unfamiliar to western ears, but the
records of their thoughts, their work and powers remain. Still more, in the
quiet unmoveable East there are today by the hundred persons who know of their
own knowledge that the Great Lodge still exists and has its Mahatmas, Adepts,
Initiates, Brothers. And yet further, in that land are such a number of experts
in the practical application of minor though still very astonishing power over
nature and her forces, that we have an irresistible mass of human evidence to
prove the proposition laid down.
And if
Theosophy -- the teaching of this Great Lodge -- is as said, both scientific
and religious, then from the ethical side we have still more proof. A mighty
Triad acting on and through ethics is that composed of Buddha, Confucius, and
Jesus. The first, a Hindoo, founds a religion which today embraces many more
people than Christianity, teaching centuries before Jesus the ethics which he
taught and which had been given out even centuries before Buddha. Jesus coming
to reform his people repeats these ancient ethics, and Confucius does the same
thing for ancient and honorable
The Theosophist
says that all these great names represent members of the one single
brotherhood, who all have a single doctrine.
And the
extraordinary characters who now and again appear in western civilization, such
as St. Germain, Jacob Boehme, Cagliostro, Paracelsus, Mesmer, Count St. Martin,
and Madame H. P. Blavatsky, are agents for the doing of the work of the Great
Lodge at the proper time. It is true they are generally reviled and classed as
impostors -- though no one can find out why they are when they generally confer
benefits and lay down propositions or make discoveries of great value to
science after they have died. But Jesus himself would be called an impostor
today if he appeared in some
Madame
Blavatsky brought once more to the attention of the West the most important
system, long known to the Lodge, respecting man, his nature and destiny. But
all are alike called impostors by a people who have no original philosophy of
their own and whose mendicant and criminal classes exceed in misery and in
number those of any civilization on the earth.
It will not be
unusual for nearly all occidental readers to wonder how men could possibly know
so much and have such power over the operations of natural law as I have
ascribed to the Initiates, now so commonly spoken of as the Mahatmas.
In India,
China, and other Oriental lands no wonder would arise on these heads, because
there, although everything of a material civilization is just now in a backward
state, they have never lost a belief in the inner nature of man and in the
power he may exercise if he will. Consequently living examples of such powers
and capacities have not been absent from those people. But in the West a
materialistic civilization having arisen through a denial of the soul life and
nature consequent upon a reaction from illogical dogmatism, there has not been
any investigation of these subjects and, until lately, the general public has
not believed in the possibility of anyone save a supposed God having such
power.
A Mahatma
endowed with power over space, time, mind, and matter, is a possibility just
because he is a perfected man.
Every human
being has the germ of all the powers attributed to these great Initiates, the
difference lying solely in the fact that we have in general not developed what we
possess the germ of, while the Mahatma has gone through the training and
experience which have caused all the unseen human powers to develop in him, and
conferred gifts that look god-like to his struggling brother below.
Telepathy,
mind-reading, and hypnotism, all long ago known to Theosophy, show the
existence in the human subject of planes of consciousness, functions, and
faculties hitherto undreamed of. Mind-reading and the influencing of the mind
of the hypnotized subject at a distance prove the existence of a mind which is
not wholly dependent upon a brain, and that a medium exists through which the
influencing thought may be sent. It is under this law that the Initiates can
communicate with each other at no matter what distance.
Its rationale,
not yet admitted by the schools of the hypnotizers, is, that if the two minds
vibrate or change into the same state they will think alike, or, in other
words, the one who is to hear at a distance receives the impression sent by the
other. In the same way with all other powers, no matter how extraordinary. They
are all natural, although now unusual, just as great musical ability is natural
though not usual or common.
If an Initiate
can make a solid object move without contact, it is because he understands the
two laws of attraction and repulsion of which "gravitation" is but
the name for one; if he is able to precipitate out of the viewless air the
carbon which we know is in it, forming the carbon into sentences upon the
paper, it is through his knowledge of the occult higher chemistry, and the use
of a trained and powerful image making faculty which every man possesses; if he
reads your thoughts with ease, that results from the use of the inner and only
real powers of sight, which require no retina to see the fine-pictured web
which the vibrating brain of man weaves about him. All that the Mahatma may do
is natural to the perfected man; but if those powers are not at once revealed
to us it is because the race is as yet selfish altogether and still living for the
present and the transitory.
I repeat then,
that though the true doctrine disappears for a time from among men it is bound
to reappear, because first, it is impacted in the imperishable center of man's
nature; and secondly, the Lodge forever preserves it, not only in actual
objective records, but also in the intelligent and fully self-conscious men
who, having successfully overpassed the many periods of evolution which
preceded the one we are now involved in, cannot lose the precious possessions
they have acquired.
And because
the elder brothers are the highest product of evolution through whom alone, in
cooperation with the whole human family, the further regular and workmanlike
prosecution of the plans of the Great Architect of the Universe could be
carried on, I have thought it well to advert to them and their Universal Lodge
before going to other parts of the
subject.
___________________
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