[1] In these two words, "emanate" and "Maker", reside the
very key to the fundamental difference between Theosophy and all religions - including the
religion called materialism. According to both religion and materialism, man has a
"maker;" (and) in all common justice as well as common sense, this absolves him
from either moral responsibility, 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 powers and drives inherent in himself. He is his own
"Maker," and absolutely responsible for his fate. 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 what is
supposed to be Theosophy was a red-flag warning of the nature of the Leadbeater
conspiracy. (V.E.)
[2] It is true that a man could theoretically sort out and cast away the
accrued errors of each of these religions, and still hang on to some remnant of pure
Theosophy in them without having recourse to wider teachings from elsewhere. But to call
himself a Christian or Mohammedan (Buddhism can be partially excepted) to his fellows of
that faith, because of 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 worst kinds 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 with the
Theosophical Movement at a later date. He now pursues a kind of unclassifiable mysticism.
(V.E.) (Krishnamurti died in 1986)
[4]
On the influence of conventional religion being positive in nature, we find in The Mahatma Letters: "...the 'Ma-Mo Chohans'... are the gods the Hindus and
Christians and Mahomed and all others of bigoted religions and sects worship; and so long
as their influence is upon their devotees we
would no more think of associating with or counteracting them in their work than we do the
Red-Caps... the Ma-Mos are the personification in nature of Shiva, Jehovah and other invented monsters with
Ignorance at their 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 The Mahatma
Letters (0. E. Library Critic, Sept., 1928)
and Leadbeater referred to it as "that abominable book". (American Theosophist, Dec., 1964, p. 290)
Further
on "Vicarious Atonement," Blavatsky
Theosophy holds that every action produces its unavoidable results for gods, men, or motes
and that there is no way of avoiding the repercussions eventually of evil actions. H. N.
Stokes in his 0. E. Library Critic (May, 1927)
writes: "Leadbeater told us that sin is a 'twist in the ether' (Theosophist September, 1917), which will
automatically straighten itself in time, but cannot be corrected by any effort of the
sinner himself; only a priest, by the use of the ceremonials peculiar to the church can
rectify it. Here we have a flat contradiction of the doctrine of Karma, a basic principle
of Theosophy. He further announced that 'power', or what Christians call 'the grace of
God', is something which no one can secure by his own efforts or worthiness, but that
priest of 'apostolic succession' can secure it for him by muttering certain prescribed
incantations by which an astral pipe is run up,
and 'Christ himself', standing at the top pours the force or grace down through it, with
the aid of an assisting angel. From the priest it is sprinkled 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 grace of God he described as a sort
of electricity which could be stored in reservoirs and liquified and distilled in a
suitably constructed still, and so gross was the picture he drew of it that one 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 results were and are powerful indeed, as exemplified by the life-long hypnosis of
Annie Besant expressed 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 mind
developed more in their ranks in twenty years than in a million among the poor simple
Mahatmas. (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 certain gravitational effects observed.
[10] Haley's Comet has different proportions of isotopes of carbon than found
on earth. (see Canadian Theosophist, May-June
'89) The moon's proportionality of different elements is very different from the earth. It
has virtually no water in any form - not even locked in minerals as earth rocks do - high
proportionality of uranium and rare earths, and specific density only about 60% of the
earth. This fits the Blavatsky assertion that the moon is a disintegrating and dried-out
shell.
[11]
This seems to correspond with the recently proposed "dark matter" of science
which 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 in science
as in real Theosophy. We have had a Leadbeater
addict tell us that precisely one of the reasons for his faith in Leadbeater was his
consistency with science. Naturally one is 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 of
planets or solar system. (V.E.)
[13] One can see that a few decades after Blavatsky's death, there
remained little relationship to her terms and meaning.
[14] The subtle bodies exist on completely different planes of consciousness
and perception from the "aura" seen by clairvoyants. Atma throws no direct form
of radiance on the 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 its attributes 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 of Manas becomes attached to the material universe and functions as
"Kama-manas." At death - unless the being has become soulless, which is another
matter - this aspect of Manas is withdrawn into its Primary and the "shell" or
Kama-rupa (combination of the Kama and part of the astral body) separates out and
disintegrates as an entity. There is temporarily a "Kama-body;" but the only
"mental" body is the "Causal" from which material mind emerges and to
which it returns. (V.E.) The dregs or purely material-oriented part of manas disintegrates
in the kama-loka.
[17] The "desire elemental" is not the "astral body. " It
is not a form or body at all, but a principle -
Kama. (V.E.)
[18] The true teaching is that normally
the astral body moves little if at all away from the physical in sleep. Moreover, a
withdrawal merely into the astral body would mean a sleeping existence only of dreams and
nightmares. (V.E.)
[19] This "special creation" idea for an explanation of things is
at base a Christian doctrine. Theosophy has a more rational explanation in that it is
acquired ability through previous incarnations as well as development of sensitivity to
the higher nature, which also is the result of effort and a moral life. Blavatsky writes:
"...the presence in man of various creative powers - called genius in their
collectivity - is due to no blind chance, to no innate qualities through hereditary
tendencies... but to an accumulation of individual antecedent experiences 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 are powerful natural
forces but unselfconscious. Original Theosophy holds that there is only one course of evolution, let alone six. Everything
passes through the same, identical stages. In a cosmos that is constructed in a certain
way, how can any being evolve except according to how that cosmos is constructed? The
Neo-Theosophical scheme is not rational, but appealing as a fairytale.
[21] The "Sons of Mind" or "Manasaputras" as Blavatsky
calls these beings superior to us in evolution, did not give a "monadic spark" to incipient
mankind because it already had this. Mankind had the mind-principle or manas, but it was
latent and would have taken aeons to develop on its own. What the "Sons of Mind"
did was to inflame or awaken man's latent mentality, much as one flame lights another.
[22] Because it was a Western invention with no truth in it. There are real "invisible helpers," but they
are Adepts and they do not work in the crude ways described by Leadbeater. (V.E.) In
original Theosophy "spirit guide" or astral communications are portrayed 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 of
good intentions or moral or spiritual superiority. The lower astral is the sewer for the
worse of 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 spiritual communications,
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 resistance to Nature's vital influx, while Leadbeater states we sleep
because of too little vitality. Leadbeater is
describing vampirism.
[24] This section represents the same kind of political compromise with
spiritualism that 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 is coiled. For the dead who is
conscious at all in it, it is either the hell of Kama Loka or the hideous vicarious
satiations of passion through mediumism. The
Mahatma Letters should be studied in this connection. (V.E.)
[26] Here the basic idea is correct, but the "fifth subdivision" as
used has no authentic 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, and
especially illusive on the physical and astral levels. Blavatsky wrote: "It is on the
doctrine of the illusive nature of matter, and the infinite divisibility of the atom, that
the whole science of Occultism is built. " (SD I, p. 520) The prevalent idea in
Blavatsky's time of scientists was that of the irreducible "billiard ball" model
of the atom.
[28] This is really materializing things. (V.E.) Leadbeater/Besant obviously
got themselves into a corner here as parts of their fantasy-scheme didn't match up. It
doesn't matter 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 complete article 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 biography of Leadbeater, is a
debased sexual tantric practice, and as such and among else could not have been
recommended by a genuine white adept. Such practices are a means of lower black magic.
(see chart opposite BCW XII, p. 524)
[33] The point at hand is also not who has the truth, because many may not
have put effort to determine an answer one way or another, but that Leadbeater/Besant
represent a forgery in claiming to represent the same Theosophy that Blavatsky did. There
is a technical Theosophy with specific doctrines and a more generic "theosophy"
that is roughly genuine mysticism and altruism. Modern Theosophists take refuge in
ignoring that there was a definite technical Theosophy presented by Blavatsky, and thus
only acknowledge 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 but that which it knows to
be the truth." (p. 52, #10)
Whether Leadbeater and
Besant were genuine mystics and not self-deluded psychics is another question but it is
clearly dishonest to ride on the shirttails of original Theosophy by calling a
contradictory system by the same name. Many, many have doubtless been turned away from
genuine Theosophy after being exposed to the obvious gibberish of
"Leadbeaterism" and not being aware of the difference.