The Key to Theosophy

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HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY FouNi)Ri;ss

OK

THE Theosophicai, Movement

WILLIAM QUAN JUDGE Successor to H.

P.

Bi.avatskv

OF THE ,.»firDeiTY

THE

Key to Theosophy BEING

A CLEAR EXPOSITION IN THE FORM OF QUESTION AND ANSWER OF THE

AND PHILOSOPHY,

ETHICS, SCIENCE,

FOR THE STUDY OF WHICH

THE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY HAS BEEN FOUNDED WITH

A

COPIOUS GLOSSARY OF GENERAL THEOSOPHICAL TERMS B

H.

P.

POINT

y

BLAVATSKY LOMA EDITION

Including an Exhaustive Index

REVISED AND EDITED BY

KATHERINE TINGLEY XTbe

ar^an XTbeosopbical POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA

1907

press

no]

Entered according

to

Act of Congress,

H. P. in

in the

Year i8Sp, by

BLAVATSKY,

the Office of the Librarian of Congress at

The Aryan Theosophical Puint Loma, California

Press

Washington, D. C.

DEDICATED BY

TO

ALL.

HER

PUPILS,

THAT

THEr MAY LEARN AND TEACH IN

1.

THEIR TURN.

.y^'

374

CONTENTS SECTION

I

Theosophy and the Theosophicai. Society

........ ...... ..... ........

The Meaning of the Name The Policy of the Theosophical Society The Wisclom-ReHgion Esoteric in All Ages Theosophy is not Buddhism

SECTION

PACE 1

5

8 14

II

Exoteric and Esoteric Theosophy

What

the

Modern Theosophical Society is not Members of the Theosophical

Theosophists and

The The

Difference between Theosophy and Occultism

is

Theosophy Accepted?

SECTION The Working System The Objects of the The Common Origin Our Other Objects

Society

of

Man

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.17 .21 .26 .28

.......

Difference between Theosophy and Spiritualism

Why

On

.

Society

.

.

.

35

III

oe the Theosophicae Society

........ ........ .......

the Sacredness of the Pledge

40 42 47 48

CONTENTS

SECTION IV The Relations On

of the Theosophical Society to Theosopiiy

......... .......

Self-Improvement

The Abstract and

the Concrete

PAGE

52

56

SECTION V The Fundamental Teachings

On God

of Theosophy

and Prayer

61

Necessary to Pray? Prayer Kills Self -Reliance Is

66

it

On

the Source of the

Human

The Buddhist Teachings on

71

Soul

74

.

Above

the

76

SECTION VI Theosophicae Teachings as to Nature and

The Unity of

All in All

Evolution and Illusion

On

....

.

the Septenary Constitution of our Planet

The Septenary Nature of Man The Distinction between Soul and The Greek Teachings

.... Spirit

SECTION

On the The

On On

83 87

89 92 96

VII

Man

Reward and Punishment, and on Nirvana

the Various

82

Various Post-Mortem States

Physical and the Spiritual

Eternal

.

Man

" Principles " in

Man

100

108 115

CONTENTS

SECTION

On

On On

is

PAGE

..... .......

to Theosophical

Teaching?

.

.

.122

our Past Lives?

IndividuaHty and PersonaUty

Reward and Punishment

the

VIII

Reincarnation or Rebirth

Memory according Why do we not Remember What

yii

of the

Ego

.

.

126 133

.

.

.136

.

.

.

SECTION IX

On Kamaloka and Devachan On

the Fate of the

Why

A

" Principles "

.

.

about the Skandhas

....... ...... ......

Post-AIortem and Post-Natal Consciousness

What

.

Theosophists do not Believe in the Return of Pure " Spirits "

Few Words

On

Lower

is

Really

Definite

Words

.

.

.

.

145

153

.155

Meant by Annihilation for Definite Things

142

161

169

SECTION X

On the Nature

oe our

Thinking Principle

....... .....

The Mystery of the Ego The Complex Nature of Manas The Doctrine is Taught in St. John's Gospel

174 179 182

SECTION XI

On the

Mysteries oe Reincarnation 194

Periodical Rebirths

What

is

Who

are

Karma? Those who Know?

198 .

.

.

The Difference between Faith and Knowledge Faith

Has God

the Right to Forgive?

.

;

or,

.

.

.

.211

Blind and Reasoned

214 218

CONTENTS

SECTION

What Duty

is

XII

Practical Theosophy?

......... ........ ......

The

Relations of the Theosophical Society to Political

On On

Self-Sacrifice

Charity

PAGE

Reforms

.

.

Theosophy for the Masses How Members can Help the Society What a Theosophist ought Not to Do

SECTION

On the

then,

is

227 233 238 241 244 245

XIII

Misconceptions about the Theosophical Society

........ ........ ........

254 258 259 there so much Prejudice against the Theosophical Society? 267

Theosophy and Asceticism Theosophy and Marriage Theosophy and Education

Why,

223

SECTION XIV The Theosophical

"

Mahatmas "

Are They " Spirits of Light " or " Goblins Damn'd The Abuse of Sacred Names and Terms

"

276

?

288

.

CONCLUSION The Future of Glossary Index

Appendix

the Theosophical Society

.

.

.

......

.

.

292

297 357 385

PREFACE The

purpose of

book

this

Key to Theosophy/' and

is

exactly expressed

in

its

title,

needs but few words of explanation.

"

The; It

is

not a complete or exhaustive text-book of Theosophy, but only a key to unlock the door that leads to the deeper study.

Wisdom

outlines of the

and explains

Religion,

its

It

traces the broad

fundamental principles;

meeting, at the same time, the various objections raised by the average

Western enquirer, and endeavoring form as simple and succeed

in

the obscurity

not

still

to

each

man must

reader's if

is

confusion.

must remain a

intelligible

would be too much

left

To

the

progress by his for

That

to expect; but

mentally

lazy

world mental as

own

efforts.

it

is

The

or

obtuse,

in the

The need

hoped that is

due to

Theosophy

world

spiritual

writer cannot do the

him, nor would the latter be any the

such vicarious thought were possible.

should

it

without mental effort on the

of the thought not of the language,

riddle; for in the

thinking

present unfamiliar concepts in a

language as clear as possible.

making Theosophy

part of the reader,

depth

in

to

better

off

for such an exposition

PREFACE

jj

as the present has long been felt

the Society, and

its

work, and

it

is

among

hoped that

as free as possible from technicalities, to

awakened, but who, as

Some from what and

to

yet, are

many whose

show

false in

Spiritualistic teachings as to the

what

what

pleasant

than

rather

who

post-mortem

life,

true,

and becoming very angry

is

of a half truth

possessors of the whole truth than those

delusion.

felt

arrow of Spiritualism,

who had no to

the

share to boast of.

many

Theosophists

The work

will be their best

will

be the more useful

reward.

H. London, 1889.

to

and questions, or have otherwise contributed

help during the writing of this book.

and that

For the past year

more antagonism

Very hearty thanks are due from the author sent suggestions

the writer's

others, preferring to believe

target for every poisoned

as though the possessors

Previous ex-

many

destroys an agreeable

Theosophy has been the

for their aid,

true

drawn much wrath upon

like too

who have

is

the true nature of Spiritualistic phenomena.

devoted head; the Spiritualists,

with any one

attention has been

some part of what

care has been taken in disentangling is

will supply information,

it

merely puzzled but not convinced.

planations of a similar kind have

is

those interested in Theosophy,

P. B.

PREFACE TO THE

LOMA EDITION

POINT

The

great

demand

students, for those

— has

who

necessitated a

for the

Key

— which

edition.

essentially

a book

for

upon a serious study of Theosophy

desire to enter

new

is

And

still

some

further to elucidate

of the subjects treated therein, and to bring the book up to date in view of the great expansion of the the

work of

reorganization of the Society in

the Theosophical

1898, a

Movement

since

few quotations have been

given from the writings of William Q. Judge, successor to H. P. Blavatsky

and the second Leader of the Theosophical Movement throughout the world, and also from some of those who have been students under cessors

and myself.

brackets.

A

my two

Prede-

All such additional quotations are placed in square

few passages omitted from the Second Revised American

Edition have been reinserted, thus preserving the historical continuity of the

work down

to the present day.

A

few explanatory notes have also

PREFACE

j^ii

been added.

The

Glossary,

added by H. P. Blavatsky

edition, is also included, together with a

to

her second

new and enlarged Index.

Throughout the work H, P. Blavatsky speaks of the Society Theosophical

Society,

although

its

Society and UniversaIv Brotherhood. the terms of

its

title

name was

full

the

Theosophical

Since the reorganization in 1898

have been transposed to stand as they now do: the

Universal Brotherhood and TheosophicaIv Society.

The

International

Headquarters of the organization are at Point Loma, California, U. Attention

is

as the

called to footnotes 11

and

S.

60.

Katherine TiNGIvEY Point Loma,

March

13, 1907.

A.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY I

THEOSOPHY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY^ THE MEANING OF THE NAME Theosophy and

Inquirer.

fangled religion.

Theosophist.

Is

its

doctrines are often referred to as a new-

a religion?

it

It is not.

Theosophy

is

Divine Knowledge or

Science. Inq.

What

ThEo.

is

the real

meaning of the term ?

Divine Wisdom, TJicosophia

the gods, as thcogouia

The word certainly

( ©eoo-ot^ta )

{BtoyovCa.),

,

or

Wisdom

of

genealogy of the gods.

means a god in Greek, one of the divine beings, not "God" in the sense attached in our day to the 6^6%

Therefore it is not " Wisdom of God," as translated by some, but Divine Wisdom such as that possessed by the gods. The term is many thousand years old. term.

1.

See Footnote H.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

2

Inq.

What

is

the origin of the

name?

from the Alexandrian philosophers, called from phil («^tX), "loving," The name Theosophy dates ( from the third century of our era, and began with Ammonius Saccas and his disciples, who started the Eclectic Theosophical system, and were also called Analogeticists. As explained by Professor Alexander Wilder, M. D., in his New Platonism and Alchemy,^ they were so called

ThEo.

It

comes

to us

lovers of truth, Philaletheians, and aletheia aX-qe^ut ), " truth."

—

Because of their practice of interpreting all sacred legends and narmyths and mysteries, by a rule or principle of analogy and

ratives,

correspondence, so that events which were related as having occurred

world were regarded as expressing operations and ex-

in the external

periences of the

human

soul.

They were also denominated Neo-Platonists. Though Theosophy, or the Eclectic Theosophical system, is generally attributed to the third century, yet, if Diogenes Laertius is to be credited, its origin is much earlier, as he attributed the system to an Egyptian priest, Pot Amun, who lived in the early days of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The same author tells us that the name is Coptic, and signifies one consecrated to Am-

God

Wisdom. Theosophy is the equivalent of Sanskrit Brahma-Vidyd, divine knowledge.

un, the

Inq,

What was

ThEo. its

2.

A

of

the

the object of this system?

First of disciples

all

moral truths upon " lovers of the truth." were

to inculcate certain great

and

all

those

who

Sketch of the Doctrines and Principal Teachers of the Eclectic or Alexandrian School; also an Outline of the Interior Doctrines of the Alchemists of the Middle Ages. Albany, N. Y., 1869.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY Hence "

3

also the motto adopted by the Theosophical Society:

no rehgion higher than truth." Theosophy was divided under three heads: (1) Belief in one absolute, incomprehensible and supreme Deity, or infinite essence, which is the root of all nature, and of all that is, visible and invisible. (2) Belief in man's eternal immortal nature, which, being a radiation of the Universal Soul, is of an identical essence with it. (3) Theurgy, " gods; from theoi, zvork divine work," or producing a or of " gods," and ergein, " to work." The term is very old, but,

There

is

Eclectic

as

it

belongs to the vocabulary of the mysteries, was not in

— practically proven by — by making oneself as — one's beings by returning incorporeal the pure as impurity of nature — man could move the gods was a mystic adepts and priests

popular use. initiated

It

belief

that, i.

to

e.,

to

pristine

part to

him

Divine mysteries, and even cause

them

to

occasionally visible, either subjectively or objectively. the transcendental aspect of

what

is

now

become It

was

called " Spiritual-

ism," but having been abused and misconceived by the populit had come to be regarded by some as necromancy, and was generally forbidden. A travestied practice of the the-

ace,

urgy of lamblichus lingers still in the ceremonial magic of some modern Kabalists. Modern Theosophy avoids and rejects both these kinds of magic and "necromancy" as being Real divine theurgy requires an almost very dangerous.

superhuman purity and holiness of life; otherwise it degenThe immediate diserates into mediumship or black magic. ciples of Ammonius Saccas, who was called Theodidakfos, " god-taught " such as Plotinus and his follower Porphyry rejected theurgy at first, but were finally reconciled to it

—

—

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY through lambhchus, who wrote a work to that effect entitled De Mysteriis, under the name of his own master, a famous Egyptian priest called Abammon. Ammonius Saccas was the son of Christian parents; but being from his childhood repelled by dogmatic spiritualistic Christianity, he became a Neo-Platonist and, like Jakob seers

and mystics,

is

Bohme and

said to have

other great

had divine wisdom reHence his name of

vealed to him in dreams and visions.

Theodidaktos,

He

resolved to reconcile every system of re-

and by demonstrating their identical origin to establish one universal creed based on ethics. His life was so blameless and pure, his learning so profound and vast, that several church fathers were his secret disciples. Clemens Alexan" Plotinus, the " St. John drinus speaks very highly of him. of Ammonius, was also a man universally respected and esteemed, and of the most profound learning and integrity. When thirty-nine years of age he accompanied the Roman Emperor Gordian and his army to the East, to be instructed by the sages of Bactria and India. He had a school of philosophy in Rome. Porphyry, his disciple, a Hellenized Jew, whose real name was Malek, collected all the writings of his Porphyry was also himself a great author, and gave master. an allegorical interpretation of some parts of Homer's writligion,

The system

ings.

to

was

is

known

of meditation the Philaletheians resorted

ecstasy, a system akin to Indian

of the Eclectic school

is

Yoga

practice.

What

due to Origen, Longinus

Ammonius.^ and Plotinus, the immediate The chief aim of the founders of the Eclectic Theosophical disciples of

3.

For

further

information

see

Dr.

Wilder's

pamphlet.

:

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY school

was one of

the three objects of

its

S

modern

the Theosophical Society, namely, to reconcile sects

and nations under a common system of

successor,

all religions,

ethics based

on

eternal verities. Inq.

What have you that

ThEo.

show

to

that this

is

not an impossible dream, and

the world's religions are based on one

all

and the same truth?

Their comparative study and analysis.

Religion "

was one

The

"

Wisdom-

and the sameness of primitive religious philosophy is proven to us by the identical doctrines taught to the Initiates during the MYSTERIES, an institution once universally diffused. As Dr. Wilder says: in antiquity

;

All the old worships indicate the existence of a single

The key

anterior to them.

wise

it

cannot be the

rigfht

that

is

to

open one must open

Theosophy all

;

other-

kev.

THE POLICY OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Inq.

In the days of

and the

sects

Ammonius

in

Eg\'pt

there were several great ancient religions, and Palestine alone were numerous. How

could he reconcile them?

ThEo.

By doing

that which

we

again try to do now.

The Neo-

were a large body, and belonged to various religso do our Theosophists. It was under Philadelphus that Judaism established itself in Alexandria, and forthwith the Hellenic teachers became the dangerous rivals of the College of Rabbis of Babylon. As the author of Nezv Platonism very pertinently remarks

Platonists

ious philosophies

The

Buddhistic,

;

Vedantic, and

Afagian

systems were expounded

along with the philosophies of Greece at that period.

It

was not

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY wonderful that thoughtful men supposed that the strife of words ought and considered it possible to extract one harmonious system

to cease,

from these various teachings.

.

.

.

Pantgenus, Athenagoras and Clem-

ent were thoroughly instructed in the Platonic philosophy, and com-

prehended

its

essential unity with the Oriental systems.

In those days the

Jew Aristobulus

affirmed that the ethics

of Aristotle represented the esoteric teachings of the law of Moses Philo Judaeus endeavored to reconcile the Pentateuch ;

with the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy and Josephus proved that the Essenes of Carmel were simply the copyists ;

and followers of the Egyptian Therapeutse, or healers. So it is in our day. We can show the line of descent of every Christian religion, as of every

The

latter are the

— even

the smallest

—

sect.

minor twigs or shoots grown on the larger

branches; but shoots and branches spring from the same trunk the WISDOM-RELIGION. To prove this was the

—

aim of Ammonius, who endeavored to induce Gentiles and Christians, Jews and Idolaters, to lay aside their contentions and strifes, remembering only that they were all in possession of the same truth under various vestments, and were all the children of a common mother. This is the aim of Theosophy likewise. Says Mosheim of Ammonius: Conceiving that not only the philosophers of Greece, but also

all

those of the different barbarian nations, were perfectly in unison with

each other with regard to every essential point, [he] made ness so to expound the thousand tenets of to

show they had

tended

all

to

originated

it

his busi-

these various sects as

from one and the same source, and

one and the same end.

If the writer pcedia

all

all

on Ammonius

knows what he

is

in

the

Bdinburgh Bncyclo-

talking about, then he describes

;

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY the

modern Theosophists,

their beliefs

7

and

their

work, for

he says, speaking of the Theodidaktos:

He

adopted the doctrines which were received in Egypt [the esoteric were those of India] concerning the Universe and the Deity, considered as constituting one great whole; concerning the eternity of the and established a system of moral discipline which alworld. lowed the people in general to live according to the laws of their country .

.

and the

.

dictates of Nature, but required the wise to exalt their

mind by

contemplation.

Inq.

What

are

your authorities

for

saying this of the ancient Theo-

sophists of Alexandria?

Theo.

An

almost countless number of well-known

Mosheim — one that — The

them — says

of

religion of the multitude

Ammonius

that

went hand

in

writers.

taught

hand with philosophy,

and with her had shared the fate of being by degrees corrupted and obscured with mere human conceits, superstitions and lies; and it ought therefore, to be brought back to

dross and expounding Christ had in view

it

was

upon

its

original purity

by purging it of this and the whole

philosophical principles

to reinstate

and restore

to

;

its

primitive in-

tegrity the Wisdom of the ancients, to reduce within bounds the universally prevailing dominion of superstition; and in part to correct, and in part to exterminate, the various errors that had found their way into the different popular religions.

what the modern Theosophists say was supported and helped he pursued by two church fathers, Clement and

This again,

is

precisely

only while the great Philaletheian in the policy

Athenagoras, by the learned rabbis of the synagogue, by the philosophers of the Academy and the Grove, and while he taught a common doctrine for all, we, his followers on the

same

line,

receive

no recognition

but,

on the contrary, are

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

8

'

abused and persecuted. People fifteen hundred years ago are thus shown to have been more tolerant than they are in this enlightened century.

Inq.

Was Ammonius notwithstanding Christian

encouraged and supported by the Church because, heresies, he taught Christianity and was a

his

?

Thko. Not at all. He was born a Christian, but never accepted Church Christianity. As said of him by Dr. Wilder He had

but to propound his instructions "according to the ancient Hermes, which Plato and Pythagoras knew before, and from them constituted their philosophy." Finding the same in the prologue of the Gospel according to John, he very properly supposed that the purpose of Jesus was to restore the great doctrine of Wisdom in its primitive integrity. The narratives of the Bible and the stories of the Gods he considered to be allegories illustrative of the truth, or else pillars of

fables to be rejected.

Moreover, as says the Bdinhurgh Encyclopaedia: was an excellent man and the was not his design entirely to abolish the worship of demons [gods], and that his only intention was to

He acknowledged

that Jesus Christ

friend of God, but alleged that

it

purify the ancient religion.

THE WISDOM-RELIGION ESOTERIC IN ALL AGES Inq.

Since

Ammonius never committed anything

feel sure that

to writing,

how can one

such were his teachings?

Neither did Buddha, Pythagoras, Confucius, Orpheus, Socrates, nor even Jesus, leave behind them any writings.

ThKO.

Yet most of these are

historical personages

and

their teach-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY ings have

whom

all

The

survived.

disciples of

9

Ammonius, among treatises and ex-

were Origen and Herennius, wrote

Certainly the latter are as historical,

plained his ethics.

if

Moreover, his punot more pils Origen, Plotinus and Longinus, counselor of the famhave all left voluminous records of the ous Queen Zenobia so, than the apostolic writings.

—

— Philaletheian system — so

profession of faith into exoteric Inq.

How what

and

have the is

far, at all events, as their public

was known; for the school was divided

esoteric teachings. reached our day, since you hold that

tenets

latter

properly called the

WISDOM-RELIGION

was

esoteric?

Theo. The WISDOM-RELIGION was ever one and the same, and being the last word of possible human knowledge, was therefore carefully preserved.

It

preceded by long ages the

Alexandrian Theosophists, reached the modern, and

will sur-

vive every other religion and philosophy. Inq.

Where and by whom was

Among

it

so preserved?

among profound seekand in those parts of the world where such topics have always been most valued and in India, Central Asia and Persia. pursued

Theo.

Initiates of every country

ers after truth

—

;

their disciples;

—

Inq.

Can you

Theo.

The

give

me some

best proof

proofs of

its

esotericism?

you can have of the

fact

is

that every an-

cient religious, or rather philosophical, cult consisted of

an

and an exoteric or outward public Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that the

esoteric or secret teaching,

worship.

MYSTERIES

of the ancients comprised with every nation

the Greater (secret)

and Lesser (public)

MYSTERIES —

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

10

as, for instance, in the celebrated solemnities called the

sinia,

From

Greece.

in

Egypt, and the initiated Brahmans of the India of to the later

Hebrew

Bleu-

the Hierophants of Samothrace,

rabbis,

all,

old,

down

for fear of profanation, kept

The Jewish rabbis called Mercavah, or exterior body,

their real boua-fide beliefs secret. their secular religious series the

the "vehicle" or covering which contains the hidden soul their highest secret knowledge.

The

—

priests of the ancient

nations never imparted their real philosophical secrets to the

They allotted to the latter only the husks. Northern Buddhism has its Greater and its Lesser Vehicle, known as the Mahdydna, the esoteric, and the Hinaydna, the exoteric, schools. Nor can you blame them for such secrecy;

masses.

for surely you would not think of feeding your flock of sheep

on learned dissertations on botany instead of on grass. Pythagoras called his Gnosis " the knowledge of things that are," or yvwo-is twv ovrw, and preserved that Knowledge for yj

his pledged disciples only

— for those who could digest such

mental food and feel satisfied; whom he pledged to silence and secrecy. Occult alphabets and secret ciphers are the development of the old Egyptian hieratic writings, the secret of

which was,

in the

days of

old, in the possession

Hierogrammatists, or initiated Egyptian Saccas, as his biographers

tell

us,

priests.

bound

only of the

Ammonius

his pupils

by oath

who had already been instructed in preliminary knowledge, and who were also bound by a pledge. Finally, do we not find the same also in early Christianity, among the Gnostics, and even

not to divulge his higher doctrines except to those

in the teachings of

Christ?

Did he not speak

to the multi-

tudes in parables which had a twofold meaning, and explain

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY "

Unto you," he says, "it mystery of the kingdom of God: but

his reasons only to his disciples? is

given to

know

the

unto them that are without, ables."

And

*

11

these things are done in par-

all

the author of Nczv Platonism

The Essenes of Judea and Carmel made

tells

—

us that

similar distinctions, divid-

ing their adherents into neophytes, brethren, and the perfect [or those initiated].

Examples might be brought from every country

to this

efifect.

Can you

Inq.

paedias define e.,

i.

Wisdom Theosophy pretty much

attain the " Secret

as "supposed intercourse zvith

" simply

by study ?

God and

superior spirits, and con-

sequent attainment of superhuman knozvledge by physical chemical processes." Is this so?

The^o.

I

think not.

Nor

is

Encyclo-

as Webster's Dictionary does,

.

.

.

or

.

.

.

there any lexicographer capable of

explaining, whether to himself or others,

how superhuman

knowledge can be attained by physical or chemical processes. Had Webster said by metaphysical and alchemical processes, the definition would be approximately correct; as it is, it is Ancient Theosophists claimed, and so do the modabsurd. i. e., ern, that the infinite cannot be known by the finite but that the divine essence could be sensed by the finite self communicated to the higher Spiritual Self in a state of ec-

—

—

This condition can hardly be attained,

stasy.

like

hypnotism,

by " physical and chemical processes." Inq.

What

is

your explanation of

it?

Real ecstasy was defined by Plotinus as " the liberation of the mind from its finite consciousness, becoming one and

The:o.

4.

Mark,

iv,

11.

:

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

12

This

identified with the infinite."

is

the highest condition,

says Dr. A. Wilder, but not one of permanent duration, and it is

tical

reached only by the very, very few.

with that state which

is

known

It is, indeed, iden-

in India as

Samadhi.

by the Yogis, who facilitate it physThe ically by the greatest abstinence in food and drink, and mentally by an incessant endeavor to purify and elevate the mind. latter is practised

Meditation pressed

is

silent

and unuttered prayer,

it:

The ardent turning of lar

good

or, as Plato ex-

[as in the

the soul toward

common meaning

God

;

not to ask any particu-

of prayer], but for good

itself

—

which we are a part on earth, and Therefore reout of the essence of which we have all emerged]. remove the divine ones, till they in of the main silent the presence which issues clouds from thy eyes and enable thee to see, by the light is intrinfrom themselves, not what appears as good to thee, but what for the universal

Supreme Good

[of

.

.

.

sically good.

what the scholarly author of Nezv Platonism, Dr. A. Wilder, describes as " spiritual photography " This

The

is

which facts and events, future, past, and and the mind becomes conscious of them. the past Beyond our everyday world of limits, all is one day or state [Death is the last ec stasis and future comprised in the present. on earth.] Then the soul is freed from the constraint of the body, and its nobler part is united to higher Nature and becomes partaker in the wisdom and foreknowledge of the higher beings. soul

is

the

camera

present, are alike fixed

in

;

—

.

Real Theosophy lonius

is,

.

.

for the mystics, that state which Apol-

of Tyana was made

to describe thus

The sage I can see the present and the future as in a clear mirror. need not wait for the vapors of the earth and the corruption of the air

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY to

foresee

mon men,

[events],

The Theosophy in the assertion, " Inq.

.

the present

Theosophy, then,

is

.

;

.

The

or gods, see the future; com-

thcoi,

sages, that

13

which

is

about to take place.

of the Sages he speaks of

The kingdom not, as held

of

God

is

is

well expressed

within us."

by some, a newly devised scheme?

Only ignorant people can thus refer to it. It is as old as the world, in its teachings and ethics, if not in name, as it is also the broadest and most catholic system among all.

Theo.

Inq.

How

comes

it,

then, that

Theosophy has remained so unknown

nations of the Western Hemisphere?

Why

to the

have been a advanced? confessedly cultured and the most sealed book to races should

it

Theo. We believe there were nations as cultured in days of old, and certainly more spiritually "advanced," than we are. But there are several reasons for this willing ignorance.

One

—a

of them was given by St. Paul to the cultured Athenians loss, for long centuries, of real spiritual insight, and even terest,

and

owing

their long slavery to the

dead

letter

But the strongest reason for it ism. Theosophy has ever been kept secret. Inq.

in-

to their too great devotion to things of sense

You have brought forward

of

dogma and

lies in

ritual-

the fact that real

proofs that such secrecy has existed;

but what was the real cause for it?

The causes for it were: Firstly, the perversity of average human nature, and its selfishness, always tending to the

TiiEo.

gratification of personal desires to the detriment of neighbors

and next of

kin.

divine secrets.

Such people could never be intrusted with Secondly, their unreliability to keep the sa-

cred and divine knowledge from desecration.

It is

the latter

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

14

which

led to the perversion of the

most subHme truths and

symbols, and to the gradual transformation of things spirit-

—

in and gross imagery the dwarfing of the god-idea and to idolatry.

ual into anthropomorphic, concrete

other words, to

THEOSOPHY Inq.

You all

IS

NOT BUDDHISM

are often spoken of as " Esoteric Buddhists."

followers of

No more

Are you then

Gautama Buddha?

Wagner. Some of us are Buddhists by religion yet there are far more Hindus and Brahmans than Buddhists among us, and more Christian-born Europeans and Americans than converted

Thdo.

than musicians are

followers of

all

;

The mistake has arisen through the confounding of the word Budhism with Buddhism, the religious system based on the teachings of Gautama the Buddha. Budhism, Buddhists.

d (from hodha, hodhi, " intelligence," " Wisdom") means the " Wisdom-Religion." And Theosophy, as spelled with one

already said, Inq.

is

the

WISDOM-RELIGION.

What the

is the difference between Buddhism, the religion founded by Prince of Kapilavastu, and Budhism, the " Wisdom-Religion,"

which you say

is

synonymous with Theosophy?

between the later ritualism and dogmatic theology of the churches and sects, and the secret teachings of Christ, which are called " the mysBuddha means the " Enteries of the kingdom of heaven." This has lightened " by Bodha, or understanding, Wisdom.

ThDo.

Just the

same

difiference as there is

passed root and branch into the esoteric teachings that Gau-

tama imparted

to his

chosen Arhats only.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

IS

But some Orientalists deny that Buddha ever taught any

Inq.

doctrine at

ThEo.

They may

for the

esoteric

all.

men

Nature has any hidden secrets Further on I will prove it by Buddha's His esoteric teachdisciple Ananda.

as well deny that

of science.

conversation with his

ings were simply the Gnpta-Vidyd, or secret knowledge, of

the ancient Brahmans, the key to which their

ors have, with few exceptions, completely

Vidyd has passed ings of the

who deny

into

Mahdydna it

what

is

now known

modern lost.

success-

And

this

as the inner teach-

school of Northern Buddhism.

Those

are simply ignorant pretenders to Orientalism.

advise you to read the Rev. Mr. Edkins' Chinese Bud-

I

—

on the Exoteric and Esoand teachings and then compare the testimony of the whole ancient world upon the subject.

dhism

especially the chapters

—

teric schools

Inq.

But are not the

ethics of

Theosophy

identical with those taught

by

Buddha?

ThKo.

Certainly; because these ethics are the soul of the Wis-

dom-Religion, and were once the tiates of all nations.

common

property of the Ini-

But Buddha was the

embody make them

first to

these lofty ethics in his public teachings, and to

and the very essence of his public system. It the immense difiference between exoteric Buddhism and every other religion. For while in other religions ritualism and dogma hold the first and most ituportant place, in Buddhism it is the ethics which have always been This accounts for the resemblance, the most insisted upon. amounting almost to identity, between the ethics of Theo-

the foundation is

herein that

lies

sophy, and those of the religion of Buddha.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

16

Inq.

Are

there any great points of difference?

ThEo. One great distinction between Theosophy and exoteric Buddhism is that the latter, represented by the Southern Church, entirely denies (a) the existence of any Deity, and {h) any conscious post-mortem life, or even any self-conscious surviving individuality in man. Such, at least, is the teaching of the Siamese

sect,

form of exoteric Buddhism.

now considered as the purest And it is so, if we refer only to

Buddha's public teachings; the reason for such reticence on his part I will give further on. But the schools of the Northern Buddhist Church, established in those countries to which his initiated Arhats retired after the Master's death, teach all that is now called Theosophical doctrines, because they form part of the knowledge of the Initiates thus proving how the truth has been sacrificed to the dead-letter by the too-zealous orthodoxy of Southern Buddhism. But how much grander and more noble, more philosophical and scientific, even in its dead letter, is this teaching than that of any other Church or religion! Yet Theosophy is not Buddhism.

—

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

\7

II

EXOTERIC AND ESOTERIC THEOSOPHY WHAT THE MODERN THEOSOPHICAL Inq.

Your

SOCIETY

IS

NOT

Buddhism, nor are they from the Neo- Platonic Theosophy?

doctrines, then, are not a revival of

entirely copied

They are not. [They are simply the latest presentment of the Wisdom-Religion referred to in the last chapter. Hence they embody the same eternal truths as have always underlain the teachings of the Wisdom-Rehgion in all anti-

ThKo.

and as Jesus, according to the Church Fathers, endeavored to restore. These truths underlie, not only Neo-Platonism and Buddhism, but every religion in its pristine purity as taught by the Founder, and every great philosophy of the anquity,

cient world.

The

object of the Theosophical

Movement

is

therefore the same namely, to revive in the hearts and minds ;

of

men

a knowledge of those eternal verities; for on them

hope of human life. The principle of Universal Brotherhood, based on a realization of the spiritual unity of mankind, has been forgotten by the world, and, as a consequence, civilization is threatened with destruction by the unOn this restrained forces of selfishness and materialism. point William Q. Judge, the successor of H. P. Blavatsky in

rests all the

the leadership of the Theosophical Society, says

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

18

mansame law causes it to reappear as surely as the sun rises and the human mind But some works can only be performed by the is present to see it. 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 Theosophy more the Elder Brothers have indicated where the truth could be found, and the companions all over the world are engaged in bringing it forth for wider currency and propagation. It is

under cyclic law, during a dark period

in the history of

kind, that the true philosophy disappears for a time; but the

—

—

.

.

.

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 Egypt had them in her great King-Initiates, sons of There is a habit of belittling the the sun and friends of great gods. ideas of the ancients which is in itself belittling to the people of today. 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

There

.

.

is

sufficient

.

future generations.

.

.

.

and ignored by the lusty and and the trading West, we find her full of lore If the men who wantonly relating to these wonderful men. ... burned up vast masses of historical and ethnological treasures found by the Conquerors of the New World, more particularly, 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 Turning

to India, so long forgotten

egotistical, the fighting

all,

as they did for the Americans,

to

do

for

the

Alexandrian

and as

library.

their predecessors attempted

Fortunately

events

worked

otherwise.

we can find the names by known to the people and who epic of the human soul.

All along the stream of Indian literature scores of great Teachers all

if

Theosophy

well

— the great — the teaching of

taught the same story

And

who were

.

this great

.

.

body of Helpers

—

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

\g

and religious, then from the ethical side we more proof. A mighty Triad, acting on and through ethics, The first, a is that composed of Buddha, Confucius, and Jesus. Hindu, 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 China. The Theosophist says that all these great names represent members is,

as said, both scientific

have

still

who all have a single doctrine. And who now and again appear in western

of the one single Brotherhood, the extraordinary characters

Germain, Jakob Bohme, Cagliostro, ParaMartin, and Madame H. P. Blavatsky, are agents for the doing of the work of the Great Lodge at the proper time. though It is true they are generally reviled and classed as impostors

civilization,

such as

St.

Mesmer, Count

celsus,

St.

—

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 Fifth Avenue theatrical church rebuking the professed Christians.

more

to the attention of the

known

to the

osophy of

Madame

.

their

Blavatsky brought once

But

Lodge, respecting man, his nature and destiny.

who have no

original phil-

own, and whose mendicant and criminal classes exceed

misery and in number those of any civilization on the earth. I

.

.

.

repeat then, that though the true doctrine disappeared for a time

from among men, in the

it

is

bound

to reappear, because first

it

is

impacted

imperishable center of man's nature; and secondly, the Lodge

forever preserves

Inq.

.

west the most important system, long

are alike called impostors by a people

all

in

.

it.]

Which system do you

prefer to follow in that case, besides Bud-

dhistic ethics?

None, and all. We hold to no religion and to no philosophy in particular; we cull the good we find in each. But here, again, it must be stated that, like all other ancient sys-

TiiEO.

Ol^ . .

THE

^

university} OF

/I

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

20

Theosophy

terns,

is

divided into Exoteric and Bsoteric sec-

tions.

What

Inq.

is

the difference?

The members

ThDo.

of the Theosophical Society at large are

free to profess whatever reHgion or philosophy they like

or none, with,

if

they so prefer

and ready

to carry out

of the Association. tific

— provided they are

The

one or more

Society

is

in

—

sympathy

of, the three objects

a philanthropic and scien-

body for the propagation of the idea of brotherhood on

practical instead of theoretical lines.

of any religion or creed

—

it

does not

The Fellows may be matter but every mem;

ber must subscribe to the principal object of the Society accept

its

Constitution.

He may

or

may

^

and

not be so situated

as to help carry out the subsidiary purpose, but

it is

he will do his utmost in endeavoring to carry out

its

expected principal

Otherwise he has no reason for becoming a Fellow.

object.

Such are the majority of the exoteric Society, composed of These may or may ''attached" and ''unattached" members.^ Members they are, by not become Theosophists de facto. virtue of having joined the Society; but the latter can not 5.

The

full title

Society.

"

of which

The

is

now The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical

principal purpose of this Organization

is

to teach brotherhood,

demonstrate that it is a fact in nature and make it a living power in the life of humanity. The subsidiary purpose of this Organization is to study ancient and modern religion, science, philosophy and art; to investigate the laws of nature and the divine powers in man." 6.

An

"attached" member means one who has been admitted to some particular Center of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society. An "unattached" member, or "member-at-large," is one who is not connected with any Center, but who by correspondence keeps in touch with the International Head-

quarters at Point Loma, California.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

21

who has no sense for the divine fitness of things, or of him who understands Thcosophy in sectarian and if the expression may be used his own " Handsome is as handsome does " could be egotistic way. paraphrased in this case, and made to run, " Theosophist is who Theosophy does."

make

a Theosophist of one

—

—

THEOSOPHISTS AND MEMBERS OP THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Inq.

This applies to lay members, as

who pursue sophists

the esoteric study of

understand.

I

Theosophy;

And what

of those

are they the real

Theo-

?

Not necessarily, until they have proven themselves to be They have entered the inner group and pledged themsuch.

Theo.

selves to carry out, as strictly as they can, the rules of the occult body.

rule of i.

e.,

This

all is

is

a

difficult

undertaking, as the foremost

the entire renunciation of one's personality

a pledged

member has

to

become a thorough

—

altruist,

never to think of himself, and to forget his own vanity and pride in the thought of the good of his fellow-creatures, besides that of his fellow-brothers in the esoteric circle.

has to

live, if

He

the esoteric instructions shall profit him, a life

of abstinence in everything, of self-denial and strict morality, doing his duty by all men. The few real Theosophists in the

Theosophical Society are

among

these members.

This does

not imply that outside of the Theosophical Society and the inner circle there are no Theosophists; for there are, and

—

certainly far more than are more than people know of found among the lay members of the Theosophical Society.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

22

Inq.

Then what in that

is

the

good of joining the so-called Theosophical Society

Where

case?

is

the incentive?

None, except the advantage of getting esoteric instructions, the genuine doctrines of the Wisdom-Religion, and, if the real program is carried out, deriving much help from mutual aid and sympathy. Union is strength and harmony, and well-regulated simultaneous efforts produce wonders. This has been the secret of all associations and communities

The;o.

since Inq.

mankind

existed.

But why could not a man of well-balanced mind and singleness of purpose, one, say, of indomitable energy and perseverance, become an Occultist,

ThKo.

and even an Adept,

He may

;

if

he works alone?

but there are ten thousand chances against one

For one reason out of many others, no in our day which give out the secrets of Alchemy or mediaeval Theosophy in plain language. All are symbolical or in parables and as the key to these has been lost for ages in the West, how can a man learn the correct meaning of what he is reading and studying? Therein lies the greatest danger one that leads to unconHe who scious hlack magic or the most helpless mediumship. has not an Initiate for a master had better leave the dangerous study alone. Look around you and observe. While twothirds of civilized society ridicule the mere notion that there that he will

fail.

books on Occultism or Theurgy exist

;

—

anything in Theosophy, Occultism, Spiritualism, or in the Kabalah, the other third is composed of the most heterogeneous and opposite elements. Some believe in the mystical is

and even way.

in the

Others

supernatural will

(

!

)

,

but each believes in his

own

rush single-handed into the study of the

Kabalah, Psychism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, or some form

THB KHY TO THnoSOPHY Result no two

or another of Mysticism.

:

23

men

think ahke, no

two are agreed upon any fundamental occult principles, though many are those who claim for themselves the ultima Thule of knowledge, and would make outsiders believe that Not only is there no scientific they are full-blown adepts. accessible in the West Occultism of knowledge and accurate

— not even of true astrology, the only branch of Occultism laws and a which, exoteric teachings, has Occultism system — but no one has any idea of what defin-

definite

in its

real

ite

Some

means.

limit ancient

wisdom

to the

Kabalah and the

Jewish Zohar, which each interprets in his own way accordOthers reing to the dead letter of the rabbinical methods. gard Swedenborg or Bohme as the ultimate expressions of the highest wisdom; while others again see in mesmerism the One and all of those who put great secret of ancient magic. their theory into practice are rapidly drifting, through ignor-

Happy

ance, into black magic. it,

are those

who

escape from

as they have neither test nor criterion by which they can

distinguish between the true and the false. Inq.

Are we esoteric

Theo. is

what

it

The

personal presence of such masters

wisdom?

Not

directly.

not required.

those

group of tlie Theosophical Soreal initiates or masters of from does

to understand that the inner

ciety claims to learn

who have

Suf^ce

it if

they give instructions to some of

studied under their guidance for years and

devoted their whole

lives to their service.

Then,

in turn,

these can give out the knowledge so imparted to others

who

had no such opportunity. A portion of the true sciences is better than a mass of undigested and misunderstood learning. An ounce of gold is worth a ton of dust.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

24

Inq.

But how

one to know whether the ounce

is

is

real gold or only a

counterfeit?

Theo.

a

When

tree

known by

is

its

fruit,

a system by

its

results.

our opponents are able to prove to us that any solitary

student of Occultism throughout the ages has become a saintly

adept like

Ammonius

Saccas, or even a Plotinus, or a The-

urgist like lamblichus, or achieved feats such as are claimed

have been done by St. Germain, without any master to guide him, and all this without being a medium, a self-deluded to

psychic, or a charlatan

taken.

But

till

— then we

shall confess ourselves mis-

then, Theosophists prefer to follow the proven

natural law of the tradition of the Sacred Science. are mystics

and physical cultism

;

who have made

There

great discoveries in chemistry

on alchemy and Ocaid of their genius, have re-

sciences, almost bordering

others who, by the sole

discovered portions,

if

not the whole, of the lost alphabets

of the "

Mystery language," and are therefore able to read Hebrew scrolls; others still who, being seers, have caught wonderful glimpses of the hidden secrets of Nature. But all these are specialists. One is a theoretical inventor, another a Hebrew, i. e., a sectarian Kabalist, a third a Swedenborg of modern times, denying all and everything outside of his own particular science or religion. Not one of them can boast of having produced a universal or even a national correctly

benefit thereby, or a benefit even to himself.

ception of a few healers — of that

With

the ex-

class which the Royal Colnone and Surgeons would call quacks have helped with their science Humanity, or even a number of men of the same community. Where are the Chaldees of not by charms. old those who wrought marvelous cures,

—

lege of Physicians

—

''

THE KEY TO T HBO SOPHY but by simples "

Where

25

an Apollonius of Tyana, who healed the sick and raised the dead under any climate and circumstances? We know some specialists of the former class even in

Is the

ThEO.

is

Europe, but of the

of the Yogi —

secret

Inq.

?

''

latter only in Asia,

to live in death "

—

is still

where the preserved.

production of such healing adepts the aim of Theosophy?

aims are several; but the most important are those

Its

which are likely to lead to the relief of human suffering unAnd we der any or every form, moral as well as physical. believe the former to be far more important than the latter. Theosophy has to inculcate ethics it has to purify the soul if it would relieve the physical body, whose ailments, save in It is not by studying cases of accidents, are all hereditary. ;

— for

ends

the gratification of one's

Occultism for

selfish

the true goal

that of helping suffering mankind.

personal ambition, pride or vanity — that one can ever reach :

Nor

is it

by studying one single branch of the Esoteric Philosophy

man becomes an

that a

mastering, them Inq.

Theo.

by studying,

if

not

all.

Is help, then, to reach this

who

Occultist, but

most important aim given only to those

study the esoteric sciences?

Not

at

struction

if

Every

all.

member

lay

he only wants

it;

is

entitled to general in-

but few are willing to become

what is called " working members," and most prefer to remain the drones of Theosophy. Let it be understood that private research

vided teric

it

is

encouraged

in the

Theosophical Society, pro-

does not infringe the limit which separates

from the

esoteric, the hVuid

the"

exo-

from the conscious magic.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

26

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEOSOPHY AND OCCULTISM Inq.

You

ThEo.

speak of Theosophy and Occultism; are they identical?

By no means.

A man may

be a very good Theosophist

indeed, whether in or outside of the Society, without being in

any way an

Occultist.

But no one can be a true Occultist

without being a real Theosophist; otherwise he

is

simply a

black magician, whether conscious or unconscious. Inq.

What do you mean? have said already that a true Theosophist must put in practice the loftiest moral ideal; must strive to realize his unity with the whole of humanity, and work ceaselessly for others. Now, if an Occultist does not do all this, he must act selfishly for his own personal benefit; and if he has acquired more practical power than other ordinary men, he becomes forthwith a far more dangerous enemy to the world and those around him than the average mortal. This is clear.

The:o.

Inq.

I

Then

is

an Occultist simply a man who possesses more power than

other people?

ThEo.

—

Far more if he is a practical and really learned Ocand not one only in name. Occult sciences are not, as

cultist,

described in encyclopaedias, " those imaginary sciences of the

middle ages which related to the supposed action or influence of occult qualities or supernatural powers, as alchemy, magic,

necromancy and astrology," for they are real, actual and very dangerous sciences. They teach the secret potency of things in Nature, developing and cultivating the hidden powers " latent in man," thus giving him tremendous advantages over now become so commore ignorant mortals. Hypnotism

—

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

27

—

is a good mon, and a subject of serious scientific inquiry been discovered alpower has Hypnotic instance in point. most by accident, the way to it having been prepared by Mesmerism. And now an able hypnotizer can do almost anything with it, from forcing a man unconsciously to himself often by to play the fool, to making him commit a crime proxy for the hypnotizer, and for the latter' s benefit. Is not this a terrible power if left in the hands of unscrupulous persons? And please to remember that this is only one of the minor branches of Occultism.

—

Inq.

But are not all these Occult sciences, magic and sorcery considered by the most cultured and learned people as relics of ancient ignorance and superstition?

ThEo.

Let

me remind you The

ways.

*'

remark of yours cuts both among you regard

most cultured and learned "

also Christianity

and every other

ance and superstition. rate, in

that this

religion as a relic of ignor-

People begin to believe now, at any

hypnotism, and some

— even of the most cultured —

Theosophy and phenomena. But who among them, except preachers and blind fanatics, will confess to a belief in Biblical miracles? And this is where the point of difference comes in. There are very good and pure Theosophists who in

may

believe in the supernatural

— but no Occultist

— divine

miracles included

do so. For an Occultist practises scientific Theosophy, based on accurate knowledge of Nature's secret workings; but a Theosophist, practising the powers called abnormal, minus the light of Occultism, will simply tend toward a dangerous form of mediumship; because, although holding to Theosophy and its highest conceivable code of ethics, he practises it in the dark, on sincere but blind faith. will

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

28

Any

one, Theosophist or Spiritualist,

who

attempts to

vate one of the branches of Occult Science, ism,

Mesmerism or even

phenomena,

etc.

—

c.

culti-

Hypnot-

g.

the secrets of producing physical

— without the knowledge of the philosophic

rationale of those powers,

is

like a rudderless

boat launched

on a stormy ocean.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEOSOPHY AND SPIRITUALISM Inq.

But do you not believe

ThEO.

If

in Spiritualism?

by "Spiritualism" you mean the explanation which some abnormal phenomena, then decid-

Spiritualists give of

They maintain that these manifestations are gener"spirits" of departed mortals the produced by all who return to earth, they say, to comally their relatives edly zve do not.

—

—

municate with those they have loved or to whom they are attached. We deny this point-blank. We assert that the spirits of the dead can not return to earth, save in rare and exceptional cases, of which

I

may

speak later; nor do they

communicate with men except by entirely snhjective means. That which appears objectively is only the phantom of the ex-physical man. But in psychic and, so to say, spiritual Spiritualism we do believe most decidedly. Inq.

Do you

Theo. Inq.

reject the

phenomena also?

Assuredly not

How

— save cases of conscious fraud.

do you account for them then

?

ThEO. In many ways. The causes of such manifestations are by no means so simple as the Spiritualists would like to believe.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Foremost of ializations"

all,

is

29

the dens ex machind of the so-called "mater-

usually the astral body or "double" of the med-

ium or of some one

This astral body

present.

also the

is

producer or operating force in the manifestations of slatewriting, " Davenport "-like manifestations, Ino.

You

Thko.

say "usually"; then what

is

it

and so

on.

that produces the rest?

That depends on the nature of the manifestations. Some-

times the astral remains, the kdmalokic "shells" of the vanished personalities that were; at other times, Elementals. " Spirit "

I is a word of manifold and wide significance. do not know what Spiritualists mean by the term but what we understand them to claim is that the physical phen-

really

;

omena are produced by and immortal reject.

The

the reincarnating Ego, the Spiritual

individuality.

And

this hypothesis

we

entirely

Conscious Individuality of the disembodied can

not materialize, nor can

it

return from

its

own mental Deva-

chanic sphere to the plane of terrestrial objectivity. Inq.

But many of the communications received from the not only intelligence, but a knowledge of facts not

"spirits"

known

show me-

to the

dium, and sometimes even not consciously present to the mind of the investigator or any of those

who compose

the audience.

Theo. This does not necessarily prove that the intelligence and knowledge you speak of belong to spirits, or emanate from disembodied souls.

Somnambulists have been known

to

com-

pose music and poetry and to solve mathematical problems while in their trance state, without ever having learned music

Others answered intelligently questions put to them, and even, in several cases, spoke languages, such as

or mathematics.

Hebrew and

Latin, of which they

were

entirely ignorant

when

THE KEY TO THHOSOPHY

30

awake

—

all

then, maintain that this Inq.

profound sleep. Will you, was caused by "spirits" ?

this in a state of

But how would you explain

Theo.

We

it?

assert that the divine spark in

man

being one and

identical in its essence with the Universal Spirit, itual Self " is practically omniscient, but that

fest its

the the

it

our

'*

Now

knowledge, owing to the impediments of matter.

more more

these impediments are the physical body

pendent activity

is

removed

—

in other

paralyzed as to

spir-

cannot mani-

its

words,

own

inde-

and consciousness, as in deep sleep or deep

trance, or, again, in illness

Self manifest on this plane.

— the more This

is

fully can the inner

our explanation of those

phenomena of a higher order in which undeniable intelligence and knowledge are exhibited. As to the such as physical phenomena lower order of manifestations and the platitudes and common talk of the general "spirit" truly wonderful

—

—

most important of the teachings we hold upon the subject would take up more space and time than can be allotted to it at present. We have no desire to interfere with the belief of the Spiritualists any more than with any The onus probandi must fall on the believers in other belief. "spirits." And at the present moment, while still convinced that the higher kind of manifestations occur through disembodied souls, the leaders of the Spiritualists, and the most learned and intelligent among them, are the first to confess Graduthat not all the phenomena are produced by spirits. ally they will come to recognize the whole truth; but meanwhile we have no right nor desire to proselytize them to our the less so, as in the cases of purely psychic and views

to explain even the

—

spiritual manifestations

we

believe in the intercommunica-

THE KBY TO THHOSOPHY tion of the spirit of the

Hving

man

31

with that of disembodied

personalities/ This means that you reject the philosophy of Spiritualism in toto?

Inq.

ThEo. If by "philosophy" you mean its crude theories, we do. But it has no philosophy, in truth. The best, the most intelTheir lectual and earnest defenders of Spiritualism say so. namely, that fundamental and only unimpeachable truth phenomena occur through mediums controlled by invisible no one, except a blind materialist forces and intelligences " With rebig-toe school, will or can deny. of the Huxley gard to their philosophy, however, let me quote to you what

—

—

''

— than whom the no wiser or more devoted champion — says of them and

the able editor of Light find

This

their philosophy.

Spiritualists will

is

what

"

M. A. Oxon.," one of

the

very few philosophical Spiritualists, writes, with respect to their lack of organization, 7.

We

say that in such cases

it

is

and blind bigotry.

not the spirits of the dead

who descend on

but the spirits of the living that ascend to the pure Spiritual Souls. there

is

earth,

In truth

neither ascending nor descending, but a change of state or condition for

The body of

becoming paralyzed, or "entranced," the itself on the same plane of consciousness with the disembodied spirits. Hence, if there is any spiritual attraction between the two they can communicate, as often occurs in dreams. The difference between a mediumistic and a non-sensitive nature is this: the liberated spirit of a medium has the opportunity and facility of influencing the passive organs of its entranced physical body, to make them act, speak and write The Eco can make it repeat, echo-like, and in the human language, at its will. But the the thoughts and ideas of the disembodied entity, as well as its own. non-receptive or non-sensitive organism of one who is very positive can not be so influenced. Hence, although there is hardly a human being whose Ego does

the

medium.

spiritual

Ego

is

free

from

the latter

its

trammels, and finds

not hold free intercourse, during the sleep of his body, with those whom it loved and lost, yet, on account of the positiveness and non-receptivity of its physical

envelope and brain, no recollection, or a very dim, dream-like remembrance, lingers in the

memory

of the person once awake.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

32

worth while to look steadily at this point, for it is of vital moWe have an experience and a knowledge beside which all other knowledge is comparatively insignificant. The ordinary Spiritualist waxes wroth if anyone ventures to impugn his assured knowledge of Where other the future and his absolute certainty of the life to come. It is

ment.

men have

stretched forth feeble hands groping into the dark future, he

walks boldly as one

men have stopped

who

has a chart and knows his way.

Where

other

short at a pious aspiration, or have been content with

it is his boast that he knows what they only believe, and that out of his rich stores he can supplement the fading faiths built only upon hope. He is magnificent in his dealings with man's most cherished expectations. " You hope," he seems to say, "for that which You have accepted a traditional belief in what I I can demonstrate.

a hereditary faith,

can experimentally prove according to the strictest

scientific

method.

The old beliefs are fading; come out from them and be separate. They contain as much falsehood as truth. Only by building on a sure foundation of demonstrated fact can your superstructure be stable.

round you old faiths are toppling.

When

one comes to deal with

way, what is

is

this magnificent

person

in

a practical

Very curious and very disappointing.

the result?

All

Avoid the crash and get you out."

He

so sure of his ground that he takes no trouble to ascertain the inter-

pretation which others put

has concerned

itself

upon

his facts.

The wisdom of

the ages

with the explanation of what he rightly regards as

proven; but he does not turn a passing glance on its researches. He does not even agree altogether with his brother Spiritualist. It is the story over again of the old Scotch body who, together with her hus-

They had exclusive keys to heaven, or rather was "na certain aboot Jamie." So the infinitely divided, and subdivided and re-subdivided sects of Spiritualists shake Again, the coltheir heads, and are "na certain aboot" one another. lective experience of mankind is solid and unvarying on this point that union is strength and disunion a source of weakness and failure. Shoulder to shoulder, drilled and disciplined, a rabble becomes an army, each man a match for a hundred of the untrained men that may

band, formed a "kirk." she had,

for she

be brought against

it.

Organization in every department of man's

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

33

and labor, profit and development. work, fitful energy, undishaphazard Want of method, want of plan, failure. The voice of humanity ciplined effort these mean bungling

work means

success, saving of time

—

Does the

attests the truth.

the conclusion?

unto himself, and a thorn Inq.

I

was

Spiritualist accept the verdict

Verily, no.

He

and act on is a law

He

refuses to organize.

in the side of his neighbors.^

told that the Theosophical Society

was

originally

founded to

crush Spiritualism and belief in the survival of the individuality in

man.

Theo.

You

are misinformed.

that immortal individuality.

Our

beliefs are all

But then,

like so

founded on

many

others,

you confuse personality with individuality. Your Western psychologists do not seem to have established any clear distinction between the two. Yet it is precisely that difference which gives the key-note to the understanding of Eastern philosophy, and which lies at the root of the divergence between the Theosophical and Spiritualistic teachings. And though it may draw upon us still more the hostility of some Spiritualists, yet I must state here that it is Theosophy which is the true and unalloyed spiritualism, while the modern scheme of that name is, as now practised by the masses, simply transcendental materialism. Inq.

Please explain your idea more clearly.

Theo.

What

I

mean

is

that though our teachings insist

the identity of spirit and matter, and though is

potential matter,

as ice

is

solidified

condition of the

we

upon

say that spirit

and matter simply crystallized spirit, just steam, yet, since the original and eternal

All 8.

is

not

spirit,

but m^^a-spirit, so to speak

Light, June 22, 1889.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

34

—

visible

festation

and

solid matter being simply its periodical

— we maintain that the term

''spirit"

mani-

can only be

applied to the true individuality. Inq.

But what " I " or "

is

the distinction between this " true individuality " and the

Ego

" of

which we are

all

conscious?

Theo. Before I can answer you, we must agree upon what you mean by " I " or " Ego." We distinguish between the simple fact of self-consciousness

— the simple feeling that "

— and the complex thought that "

I

I

am Mr. Smith

am

I

"

or Mrs.

Brown." Believing as we do in a series of births for the same Ego, or reincarnation, this distinction is the fundamental pivot of the whole idea. You see " Mr. Smith " really means a long series of daily experiences strung together by the thread of memory, and forming what " Mr. Smith " calls " himself." But none of these ''experiences" are really the " I " or the Ego, nor do they give " Mr. Smith " the feeling that he

is

himself, for he forgets the greater part of his daily

him

experiences, and they produce the feeling of Bgoity in

only while they

last.

We

Theosophists, therefore, distin-

guish between this bundle of "experiences," which

we

call

the

false (because so finite and evanescent) personality, and that element in man to which the feeling of " I am I " is due. It is this " I

am

I

say that this "

we many

"

which we

Ego

call the true individuality and " or individuality, like an actor, plays

parts on the stage of

;

life.^

Let us

call

every

new

life

on earth of the same Ego a night on the stage of a theatre. One night the actor, or " Ego," appears as Macbeth, the next as Shylock, the third as 9.

Romeo, the fourth as Hamlet or King

See further, Section VIII,

"

On

Individuality and Personality."

THE KEY TO THBO SOPHY

35

Lear, and so on, until he has run through the whole cycle

The Ego begins

of incarnations.

his life-pilgrimage as a

an Ariel, or a Puck; he plays the part of a super, is a soldier, a servant, one of the chorus rises then to "speaking parts," playing leading roles, interspersed with insignisprite,

;

ficant parts,

till

he

finally retires

from the stage

as Prospero,

the magician. Inq.

I

understand.

You

say then, that this true

But surely the actor

earth after death.

is

Ego can not

return to

at Uberty, if he has pre-

served the sense of his individuality, to return

if

he likes to the scene

of his former actions?

ThEo.

We

say not

;

simply because such a return to earth would

be incompatible with any state of unalloyed bliss after death, as I

am

prepared to prove.

We

much unmerited misery during

say that

man

suffers so

through the fault of others with whom he is associated, or because of his environment, that he is surely entitled to perfect rest and quiet, if not However, bliss, before taking up again the burden of life.

we can

discuss this in detail later.

WHY Inq.

his life,

IS

THEOSOPHY ACCEPTED?

understand to a certain extent; but I see that your teachings are more complicated and metaphysical than either Spiritualism or current religious thought. Can you tell me, then, what has caused I

far

this est

system of Theosophy which you support and so much animosity at the same time ?

to arouse so

much

inter-

There are several reasons for it, I believe. Among other causes that may be mentioned are: (1) The great reaction from the crassly materialistic theories now prevalent among

Theo.

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

36

(2) General dissatisfaction with the artitheology of the various Christian Churches and the

scientific teachers. ficial

number of

daily increasing

and

conflicting sects.

(3)

An

ever-growing perception of the fact that the creeds which are so obviously self- and mutually contradictory can not he true, and that claims which are unverified can not he real. This natural distrust of conventional religions

is

only strength-

ened by their complete failure to preserve morals and to purify society and the masses. (4) A conviction on the part of many, and knowledge by a few, that there must be some-

where a philosophical and religious system which shall be scientific and not merely speculative. (5) Finally, perhaps, a belief that such a system must be sought for in teachings far antedating any modern faith. Inq.

But how did

system come to be put forward just

this

now?

—

a fact Theo. Just because the time was found to be ripe shown by the determined effort of so many earnest students to reach the truth, at whatever cost and wherever it may be concealed. Seeing this, its custodians permitted that some portions at least of that truth should be proclaimed.

Had

the

formation of the Theosophical Society been postponed a few years longer, one half of the civilized nations would have

rank materialists, and the other half anthropomorphists and phenomenalists.

become by

Inq.

Are we

Theo.

this time

to regard

In no

Theosophy

in

any way as a revelation?

way whatever, not even

direct disclosure

superhuman heings; but only of

old — very

in the sense of a

from some higher, supernatural,

old — truths

of an ''unveiling" minds hitherto ignorant of

in the sense

to

new and

or, at least,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

37

—

them ignorant even of the existence and preservation of any such archaic knowledge. It has become "fashionable," especially of late, to deride the notion that there ever was in the Mysteries of great and civilized peoples, such as the Egyptians, Greeks or Romans, anything but priestly imposture. Even the Rosicrucians were no better than half lunatics, half knaves. Numerous books have been written on them and tyros, who had hardly heard the name a few years before, sallied out as profound critics and gnostics on the subject of alchemy, the fire-philosophers and mysticism in general. Yet a long series of Hierophants of Egypt, India, Chaldaea and Arabia, together with the greatest philosophers and sages of Greece and the West, are known to have included under the designation of Wisdom and ;

Divine Science all knowledge; for they considered the base and origin of every art and science as essentially divine. Plato regarded the Mysteries as most sacred and Clemens Alexandrinus, who had been himself initiated into the Eleus;

inian Mysteries, has declared that

**

the doctrines taught

them the end of all human knowledge." Were Plato and Clemens two knaves or two fools, we wonder, therein contained in

or Inq.

— both

?

You spoke of " animosity." If truth is as represented by Theosophy, why has it met with such opposition, and with no general acceptance?

For many and various reasons again, one of which is the hatred felt by men for "innovations," as they call them. Selfishness is essentially conservative, and hates being disturbed. It prefers an easy-going, unexacting lie to the great-

ThKo.

est truth, if the latter requires the sacrifice of one's smallest

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

38

The power of mental

comfort.

inertia

is

that does not promise immediate benefit

age

great in anything

and reward.

More-

preeminently unspiritual and matter-of-fact.

is

over, there

is

Our

the unfamiliar character of Theosophic teach-

ings; the highly abstruse nature of the doctrines, some of which contradict flatly many of the human vagaries cherished by sectarians, which have eaten into the very core of popular beliefs. If we add to this the personal efforts and great purity of life exacted of those who would become the disciples of the inner circle, and the very limited class to which an entirely unselfish code appeals,

why Theosophy

is

it

will

doomed

be easy to perceive the reason

to such slow, up-hill

who

work.

It is

and have lost all hope of being helped out of the mire of life by any other means. Moreover, the history of any system of belief or morals newly introduced into a foreign soil shows that its beginnings were impeded by every obstacle that obscurantism and selfishness could suggest. " The crown of the innovator is a crown of thorns " indeed No pulling down of old, wormeaten buildings can be accomplished without some danger. essentially the philosophy of those

suffer,

!

Inq.

All this refers rather to the ethics and philosophy of Theosophy.

Can you

give

me

a general idea of the Theosophical Society,

its

objects

and statutes?

This has never been made receive accurate answers.

Theo.

Inq.

But

ThEo. Inq.

I

Ask, and you shall

heard that you were bound by pledges,

Only

And

secret.

in the

also, that

bound by them.

Arcane or Esoteric

section.

some members after leaving did not regard themselves Are they right?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY This shows that their idea of honor

39

an imperfect one. How can they be right ? As well said in the Path,^^ our Theosophical organ at New York, treating of such a case " Suppose that a soldier is tried for infringement of oath and dis-

The:o.

is

:

cipline,

and

is

dismissed from the service.

justice he has called

In his rage at the

down, and of whose penalties he was

dis-

enemy with false a revenge upon his

tinctly forewarned, the soldier turns to the

information

—a

spy and traitor

— as

former chief, and claims that his punishment has released him from his oath of loyalty to a cause." Is he justified, think you ? Do you not think he deserves being called a dishonorable man, a coward ? Inq.

I

believe so

;

but some think otherwise.

So much the worse for them. subject later, if you please.

The:o.

10.

Founded and tury Path,

edited by William Q.

But we

will talk

on

this

Judge (1886); now continued as the Cen-

edited by Katherine Tingley.

Published at Point Loma, California.

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHY

40

III

THE WORKING SYSTEM OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY" THE OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY Inq.

and have been so from the beginning. To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Hu-

They are

Theo. ( 1 )

ll.

are the objects of the " Theosophical Society"?

What

three,

the Organization was known as The Theosophical Society and Universal Brotherhood, the philosophy known as "Theosophy" first touching the thought of the Western world in 1875. The Society soon came to be known

[For years

simply as the "Theosophical Society," and the second part indicated the main object of the Society, was almost entirely On January 13th, 1898, the Society was reorganized by the third Leader, as the Universal Brotherhood, being a of the Theosophical Society, the it

was

On

name expressing

of the

title,

which

lost sight of.

Katherine Tingley, natural unfoldment

the true purpose for which

established. 18th, 1898, the Theosophical Society formally merged itself Universal Brotherhood, accepting the Constitution of the same, and

February

into the

becoming an

integral

part thereof.

Organization is The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, " ordained and established for the benefit of the people of the earth and all creatures," and the objects of which are as follows: " This Organization declares that Brotherhood is a fact in Nature. The prin-

The

full

title

of

the

Brotherhood, demonstrate that life of humanity. The subsidiary purpose of this Organization is to study ancient and modern religion, science, philosophy and art; to investigate the laws of Nature and the divine

cipal it

is

purpose of this Organization

a fact in Nature,

powers

in

man."

and make

(5"^^ also,

it

is

to teach

a living power in the

Footnote 60.)]

THE KBY TO THBOSOPHY

41

manity without distinction of race, color, sex, caste or creed. (2) To promote the study of Aryan and other Scriptures, of the world's religions and sciences, and to vindicate the importance of old Asiatic literature, such as that of the Brahmanical, Buddhist and Zoroastrian philosophies. (3) To investigate the hidden mysteries of Nature under every aspect possible, and the psychic and spiritual powers latent in man These are, broadly stated, the three chief objects especially. of the Theosophical Society. Inq.

Can you

give

me some more

may

planatory clauses as

Then in

upon these?

We may divide each of the three objects into as many ex-

Theo.

Inq.

detailed information

let

us begin with the

be found necessary.

first.

What means would you

order to promote such a feeHng of Brotherhood

are

known

to be of the

among

most diversified rehgions, customs,

resort to

races that beliefs

and

modes of thought?

Theo.

Allow me

press.

Of

to

add that which you seem unwilling

course

we know

—

that,

to ex-

with the exception of two

—

the Parsis and the Jews every nation remnants of races is divided, not merely against all other nations, but even against itself. This is found most prominently among the Hence your wonder, so-called civilized Christian nations. and the reason why our first object appears to you a Utopia. Is

Inq.

it

not so ?

Well, yes

;

but what have you to say against

it

?

Nothing against the fact, but much about the necessity of removing the causes which make Universal Brotherhood a Utopia at present.

Theo.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

42

Inq.

What

ThEO.

are, in

and foremost, the natural

First

nature.

your view, these causes? selfishness of

This selfishness, instead of being eradicated,

human is

daily

strengthened and stimulated into a ferocious and irresistible feeling by the present religious education,

only to encourage, but positively to justify

which tends not

it.

People's ideas

about right and wrong have been entirely perverted by the literal

acceptance of the Jewish Bible.

All the unselfishness

of the altruistic teachings of Jesus has become merely a theoretical subject for pulpit oratory

;

while the precepts of prac-

taught in the Mosaic Bible, against which Christ so vainly preached, have become ingrained into the innermost life of the Western nations. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," has come to be the first maxim of

tical selfishness

your law.

Now,

I state

versity of this doctrine

openly and fearlessly that the per-

and of so many others Thcosophy

alone can eradicate.

THE COMMON ORIGIN OF MAN Inq.

How? Simply by demonstrating on logical, philosophical, metaphysical, and even scientific grounds that: (o) All men have spiritually and physically the same origin, which is the funda(Z?) As mankind is essenmental teaching of Theosophy. tially of one and the same essence, and that essence is one infinite, uncreate and eternal, whether we call it God or nothing, therefore, can afifect one nation or one Nature man without affecting all other nations and all other men.

The^o.

—

—

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY This

is

a pond

as certain will,

43

and as obvious as that a stone thrown into later, set in motion every single drop

sooner or

of water therein. But

Inq.

this is not the

teaching of Christ, but rather a pantheistic notion.

where your mistake lies. It is purely Christian, although not Judaic, and therefore, perhaps, your Biblical

ThEo.

That

is

nations prefer to ignore Inq.

This

is

it.

a wholesale and unjust accusation.

Where

are your proofs

for such a statement?

They are ready at hand. Christ is alleged to have said, Love one another," and " Love your enemies ;" " for if ye love them [only] which love you, what reward [or merit]

Theo. "

have ye? do not even the publicans^^ the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others ? do But not even the publicans so?" These are Christ's words. Genesis (ix, 25) says: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." And therefore, not Christians, but biblical people prefer the law of Moses to Christ's law of love. It is upon the Old Testament, which panders to all their passions, that they base their laws of conquest, annexation and tyranny over races which they call What crimes have been committed on the strength inferior. of this if taken in its dead-letter sense infernal passage

—

12.

—

—

regarded as so many thieves and pickpockets in those days. Among Jews the name and profession of a publican was the most odious thing in the world. They were not allowed to enter the Temple, and Matthew (xviii, 17) speaks of a heathen and a publican as identical. Yet they were only Roman tax-gatherers, occupying the same position as the British officials in India and

Publicans the

other conquered countries.

— THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

44

in

Genesis, history alone gives us an idea, however inad-

equate." Inq.

I have heard you say that the identity of our physical origin is proved Yet by science, that of our spiritual origin by the Wisdom-Religion. we do not find Darwinists exhibiting great fraternal aflfection.

ThKo.

Just

ialistic

This

so.

The

right.

and

human real,

13.

what shows the

deficiency of the mater-

we Theosophists

identity of our physical origin

to our higher

soul

is

systems, and proves that

and deeper

spirit,

or

its

feelings.

are in the

makes no appeal

Matter, deprived of

its

divine essence, can not speak to the

But the identity of the soul and spirit, of immortal man, as Theosophy teaches us, once proven heart.

"At

the close of the middle ages, slavery, under the power of moral forces, had mainly disappeared from Europe but two momentous events occurred which overbore the moral power working in European society, and let loose a swarm of curses upon the earth such as mankind had scarcely ever known. One of these events was the first voyaging to a populated and barbarous coast where human beings were a familiar article of traffic and the other the discovery of a new world, where mines of glittering wealth were open, provided labor could be imported to work them. For four hundred years men and women and children were torn from all whom they knew and loved, and were sold on the coast of Africa to the dead often with the living foreign traders they were chained below decks during the horrible middle passage,* and, according to Bancroft, an impartial historian, two hundred and fifty thousand out of three and a quarter millions were thrown into the sea on that fatal passage, while the remainder were consigned to nameless misery in the mines, or under the lash in the cane and rice fields. The ;

;

—

;

—

*

In the name of the Most on the Christian church. government concluded more than ten treaties authorizing the sale of five hundred thousand human beings in 1562 Sir John Hawkins sailed on his diabolical errand of buying slaves in Africa and selling them in the West Indies in a ship which bore the sacred name of Jesus; while Elizabeth, the Protestant queen, rewarded him for his success in this first adventure of Englishmen in that inhuman traffic by allowing him to wear as his crest a demi-Moor in his proper color, bound with a cord,' or in other words, a manacled negro slave." Conquests of the Cross, quoted from the Agnostic Journal. guilt of this great crime rests

Holy Trinity'

'

the Spanish

;

'

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY and become deep-rooted the road of real charity Inq.

in

45

our hearts, would lead us far on

and brotherly good

will.

But how does Theosophy explain the common origin of man?

Theo.

By

teaching that the root of

all

nature, objective and sub-

and everything else in the universe, visible and invisible, is, was, and ever will be one absolute essence, from which This is Aryan all starts, and into which everything returns. philosophy, fully represented only by the Vedanta and the

jective,

Buddhist system. With this object in view, it is the duty of all Theosophists to promote in every practical way, and in all countries, the spread of non-sectarian education. Inq.

What

Theo.

else

is

to be

In order to

done besides

this ?

— on the physical plane,

awaken brotherly

feeling

among

I

mean.

nations

we

have to assist in the international exchange of useful arts and products, by advice, information and co-operation with What is also needall worthy individuals and associations. ed is to impress men with the idea that, if the root of mankind is one, then there must also be one truth which finds expression in Inq.

all

the various religions.

This refers to the there.

common

But how does

it

origin of religions,

and you may be

right

apply to practical brotherhood on the physical

plane ?

Theo.

First,

because that which

is

true on the metaphysical

plane must be also true on the physical. there

is

no more

fertile

Secondly, because

source of hatred and strife than relig-

When

one party or another thinks itself the sole possessor of absolute truth, it becomes only natural that it should think its neighbor absolutely in the clutches of Error or the Devil. But once get a man to see that none of ious differences.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

46

them has the zvhole

truth, but that they are mutually complementary; that the complete truth can be found only in the combined views of all, after that which is false in each of them has been sifted out then true brotherhood in religion

—

will

Inq.

be established.

The same

applies in the physical world.

Please explain further.

TiiEO.

Take an

A

instance.

plant consists of a root, a stem,

and many shoots and leaves. As humanity, as a whole, is the stem which grows from the spiritual root, so is the stem the unity of the plant. Injure the stem and it is obvious that every shoot and leaf will suffer. So it is with mankind. Inq.

Yes; but

if

you injure a

leaf or a shoot,

you do not injure the whole

plant.

ThEO.

And

therefore you think that by injuring one

man you

But how do you know? Are you aware that even materialistic science teaches that any injury to a plant, however slight, will affect the whole course of its future growth and development? Therefore you are mistaken, and the analogy is perfect. If, however, you overlook the fact that a cut on the finger may often make the whole body suffer, and react on the whole nervous system, I would all the more remind you that there may well be other spiritual laws, operating on plants and animals as well as on mankind, although, as you do not recognize their action on plants and animals, you may deny their existence.

do not injure humanity?

Inq.

What

laws do you mean?

We

them Karmic laws; but you will not understand meaning of the term unless you study Occultism. However, my argument does not rest on the assumption of

Theo.

the full

call

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

a7

these laws, but really on the analogy of the plant. the idea, carry will

soon

it

Expand

out to a universal application, and you

find that in true philosophy every physical

ac-

moral and everlasting effect. Injure a man by harm you may think that his pain and sufdoing him fering can not spread by any means to his neighbors, least of We affirm that it will, in good all to men of other nations. Therefore we say that unless every man is brought to time. understand, and accept as an axiomatic truth, that by wronging one man we wrong not only ourselves, but the whole of humanity in the long run, no brotherly feelings such as preeminently by preached by all the great Reformers

tion has

its

bodily

Buddha and Jesus

:

— are possible on

—

earth.

OUR OTHER OBJECTS Inq.

Will you

now

explain the methods by which you propose to carry

out the second object?

To

our International Headgood works upon the world's religions that we can; to put into written form correct information upon the various ancient philosophies, traditions and legends, and disseminate the same in such practicable ways as the translation and publication of original works of value, and extracts from and commentaries upon the same, also by the oral in-

ThKo.

collect for the library of

quarters^'* all the

structions of persons learned in their respective departments

[and authorized by the Leader and

Official

Organization to do so]. 14.

Now

at

Point Loma, California.

Plead of the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

48

Inq.

And what about the third object, to investigate the hidden laws of Nature and the psychic and spiritual powers latent in man? This has to be achieved also by means of pubHcations in those places where no lectures and personal teachings are

ThEo.

possible.

Our duty

is

to keep alive in

man

his spiritual in-

oppose and counteract — after due investigation and proof of every form, nature — bigotry tuitions

;

to

its

irrational

religious, scientific or social,

in

and cant above

all,

whether as

religious sectarianism or as belief in miracles or anything

supernatural.

ledge of

all

What we have

do is and to

to

the laws of Nature,

to seek to obtain

diffuse

the study of those laws least understood by

it

;

to

know-

encourage

modern people

—

the so-called Occult Sciences, based on the true knozvledge of

Nature, instead

of, as at present,

on superstitions

beliefs based

on blind faith and authority. Popular folk-lore and traditions, however fanciful at times, when sifted, may lead to the discovery of long-lost but important secrets of Nature. The Society, therefore, aims at pursuing this line of inquiry, in the hope of widening the field of scientific and philosophical observation.

ON THE SAC REDNESS OF THE PLEDGE Inq.

Have you any

ethical system that

you carry out

in the

Society?

enough for whomThey are the essence and cream soever would follow them. of the world's ethics, gathered from the teachings of all the Therefore you will find repreworld's great reformers. sented therein Confucius and Zoroaster, Lao-Tze and the

ThEo.

The

ethics are there, ready

and

clear

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

49

Bhagavad-Gita, the precepts of Gautama Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth, of Hillel and his school, as also of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and their schools.

Do

Inc.

the

members of your Society carry out

these precepts?

I

have

heard of great dissensions and quarrels among them.

Very

ThEo.

shape

naturally, since, although the

may

be called new, the

reform

men and women

in its present

to be

reformed

As

are the same human, sinning natures as of old.

already

working members are few but many are the sincere and well-disposed persons who try their best to live up to the Society's and their own ideals. Our duty is to encourage and assist individual Fellows in self-improvement, intellectual, moral and spiritual; not to blame or condemn those who fail. We have, strictly speaking, no right to refuse adespecially in the Esoteric Section of the mission to any one " he who enters is as one newly born." But Society, wherein if any member his sacred pledges on his word of honor chooses, after that and immortal Self notwithstanding said, the earnest

;

—

—

"

new

—

birth," to continue with the

defects of his old

life,

and

Society, then, of course, he

new man

to indulge in

is

more than

the vices or

them

still

likely to be

in the

asked to

resign and withdraw, or, in case of his refusal, to be expelled.

We Inq.

have the

strictest rules for

such emergencies.

Can some of them be mentioned?

They

To

begin with, no Fellow in the Society, whether exoteric or esoteric, has a right to force his personal

Theo.

can.

opinions upon another Fellow. in the Society at large.

This

As regards

is

one of the offenses

the inner section,

called the Esoteric, the following rules

were

laid

now

down and

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

50

adopted so far back as 1880:

"

No

Fellow shall put to his

selfish use any knowledge communicated to him by any member of the first section [now a higher ''degree"], violation of Now, however, bethe rule being punished by expulsion." fore any such knowledge can be imparted, the applicant has to bind himself by a solemn oath not to use it for selfish purposes, nor to reveal anything said except by permission/^

Inq.

But

is

a

man expelled, or resigning, from the section free may have learned, or to break any clause of the

anything he

to reveal

pledge he

has taken?

Theo. Inq.

Certainly not.

But

ThEO. est

reasonable or just?

is this

Most

assuredly.

To any man

or

woman

with the slight-

honorable feeling a pledge of secrecy taken even on one's

zvord of honor, much more to one's Higher Self And though he is binding till death. within

—

the Section and the Society, no

man

or

woman

— the God may

leave

of honor will

think of attacking or injuring a body to which he or she has

been so pledged. Inq.

But

is

not this going rather far?

Perhaps so, according to the low standard of the present But if it does not bind as far as this, time and morality. what use is a pledge at all? How can any one expect to be

ThEo.

IS.

who had been admitted to the on going away after failing in their duties as members, tried to sell what instruction and teaching they had received, and by so doing tended to bring discredit upon H. P. Blavatsky's work. It is well known that all instruction and teaching given by her was given without money and without price, and this has been strictly followed by her successors, W. Q. Judge and Katherine

[This precaution had to be taken because some Society,

Tingley.]

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY taught secret knowledge himself from

all

if

he

is

the obligations he

51

to be at Hberty to free

had taken whenever he

What security, confidence or trust would ever exist among men if pledges such as this were to have no really pleases?

binding force at all?

Believe me, the law of retribution

(Karma) would very soon overtake one who so broke his pledge perhaps even as soon as the contempt of every honor;

man

would, even on this physical plane. As well expressed in the Path, July, 1889, just cited on this subject: able

A

pledge, once taken, is forever binding in both the moral

occult Ivor Ids.

If

we break

justify us in breaking

mighty lever of the

it

Law

it

again [of

;

and the

once and are punished, that does not

and so long as we do, so long react upon us.

Karma]

will the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

52

IV

THE RELATIONS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY TO THEOSOPHY ON SELF-IMPROVEMENT Inq.

Is

moral elevation, then, the principal thing insisted upon

ciety

in the

So-

?

He who would be a true Theosophist ThEo. Undoubtedly! must bring himself to live as one. Inq.

If so, then, as

I

remarked before, the behavior of some members

strangely belies this fundamental rule.

ThEo. Indeed it does. But this cannot be helped among us, anymore than among those who call themselves Christians and This is no fault of our Constitution and act like fiends. Even in some exoteric rules, but that of human nature. themselves on their pledge the members public Branches " Higher Self " to live the life prescribed by Theosophy. They have to bring their Divine Self to guide their every thought and action every day and at every moment of their A true Theosophist ought to deal justly and walk lives. ''

humbly." Inq.

What do you mean by

Theo.

Simply

this

:

this?

the one self has to forget itself for the

many

:

:

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY me answer you

Let

selves.

in the

S3

words of a true

who

theian, a Fellow of the Theosophical Society,

expressed

tifully

What may

it

man

every

est inventory be,

it

it

as follows

needs

first is to find

himself, and then take an hon-

of his subjective possessions not beyond redemption

is

Philale-

has beau-

if

;

we

and, bad or bankrupt as set

about

it

in earnest.

But how many do? All are willing to work for their own development and progress very few for those of others. To quote the same writer again ;

Men

have been deceived and deluded long enough

;

they must break

—

away their shams, and go to work for themselves nay, there is one little word too much or too many, for he who works for himself had better not work at all; rather let him work himself for

their idols, put

For every flower of love and charity he plants in his weed will disappear from his own, and garden of the gods humanity shall blossom as a rose. In

others, for

all.

neighbor's garden a loathsome

all

—

—

so this

Bibles, all religions, this

have at

first

sotted them.

is

plainly set forth

;

but designing

men

misinterpreted and finally emasculated, materialized, beIt

does not require a

be a revelation unto himself.

new

revelation.

Let every

Let once man's immortal

spirit

man take

possession of the temple of his body, drive out the money-changers and

every unclean thing, and his for

when he

is

own

divine humanity will redeem

thus at one with himself he will

know

him

the "builder of

the temple."

Inq.

This

ThEo.

is

It

pure altruism,

is.

And

ciety out of ten

if

I

confess.

only one Fellow of the Theosophical So-

would practise

it,

ours would be a body of elect

But there are those among the outsiders who will always refuse to see the essential difiference between Theosophy and the Theosophical Society, the idea and its imperfect embodiment. Such would visit every sin and shortcoming of the

indeed.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

54

— the human body — on the pure

which sheds thereon its divine Hght. Is this just to either? They throw stones at an association that tries to work up to, and for the propagation of, its ideal with most tremendous odds against vehicle

Some

it.

vilify the

spirit

Theosophical Society only because

—

it

pre-

sumes to attempt to do that in which other systems Church and State Christianity preeminently have failed most egre-

—

giously

others because they w^ould fain preserve the existing

;

Pharisees and Sadducees in the seat of Moses, and publicans and sinners reveling in high places, as under

state of things

Roman

;

Fair-minded people, its decadence. ought to remember that the man who does all he can does as much as he who has achieved the most, in this world of relative possibilities. This is a simple truism an axiom supported for believers in the Gospels by the parable of the talents, given by their Master: the servant who doubled his tzvo talents was rewarded as much as the other fellowservant who had received five. To every man it is given " according to his several ability." the at

any

empire during

rate,

—

Inq,

Yet

it

is

rather difficult to

draw

the Hne of demarcation between the

abstract and the concrete in this case, as

which

Theo.

to

we have

only the latter by

form our judgment.

Then why make an exception

ciety?

for the Theosophical Soought to begin at home. Will and scoff at the " Sermon on the Mount " because

Justice, like charity,

you revile your social,

political

and even religious laws have, so

not only failed to carry out

its

far,

precepts in their spirit, but

dead Abolish the oath in courts, parliament, army, and everywhere, and do as the Quakers do, if you ivill call yourselves Christians. Abolish the courts even

in their

letter?

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

55

if you would follow the Commandments of you have to give away your cloak to him who deprives you of your coat, and turn your left cheek to the bully who " Resist not evil," " love your enesmites you on the right. mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you;" for " whosoever shall break one of the least of these Commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven,'*^ and " whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire." And why should you judge, if you would not be judged in your turn? Insist that between Theosophy and the Theosophical Society there is no difference, and forthwith you lay the system of Christianity and its very essence open to the same charges, only in

themselves; for Christ,

a more serious form. Inq.

Why

Theo.

more serious?

Because, while the leaders of the Theosophical movement,

recognizing fully their shortcomings, try

amend

all

they can to

ways and uproot the evil existing in the Society, and while their rules and by-laws are framed in the spirit of Theosophy, the Legislators and the Churches of nations and their

countries which call themselves Christian do the reverse.

Our members

— even the worst among them — are no worse

than the average Christian. osophists experience so

Theosophical

life,

it

is

Moreover,

much

if

difficulty in

because they are

the

Western The-

leading the true

all

the children of

Every one of them was a Christian, bred and brought up in the sophistry of his church, his social customs and even his paradoxical laws. He was this before he became a Theosophist or rather a member of the Theotheir generation.

—

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

'

56

sophical Society, as

tween the abstract

it

cannot be too often repeated that be-

ideal

and

its

vehicle there

is

a most im-

portant difference.

THE ABSTRACT AND THE CONCRETE Inq.

Please elucidate this difference a

Theo.

The

Society

is

little

a great body of

more.

men and women, composed Theosophy

of the most heterogeneous elements.

in its ab-

meaning is Divine Wisdom, or the aggregate of the the knowledge and wisdom that underlie the Universe homogeneity of eternal good; and in its concrete sense it is the sum total of the same as allotted to man by Nature on this earth, and no more. Some members earnestly endeavor to realize and, so to speak, to objectivize Theosophy stract

—

in their lives tise it;

;

while others desire only to

and others

still

may have

know

of, not to prac-

joined the Society merely

out of curiosity or a passing interest, or perhaps, again, be-

cause some of their friends belong to

How

it.

then, can the

system be judged by the standard of those who would assume Is poetry or its muse to the name without any right to it? only those would-be poets who afflict our by be measured ears?

The

Society can be regarded as the embodiment of

Theosophy only

motives

in its abstract

;

it

can never presume

to call itself its concrete vehicle so long as

tions

and weaknesses are

all

human

represented in

its

imperfec-

body; other-

wise the Society would be only repeating the great error and the overflowing sacrileges of the so-called churches of Christ. If Eastern comparisons

may

be permitted, Theosophy

is

the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY shoreless ocean of universal truth, love,

ing ety

and wisdom,

reflect-

radiance on the earth; while the Theosophical Soci-

its is

57

Theosophy

only a visible bubble on that reflection.

divine nature, visible and invisible, and

nature trying to ascend to finally,

its

divine parent.

the fixed, eternal sun,

is

and

its

is

human

Society

its

Theosophy,

Society the evan-

become a

escent comet trying to settle in an orbit to

planet,

ever revolving within the attraction of the sun of truth.

It

was formed to assist in showing to men that such a thing as Theosophy exists, and to help them to ascend toward it by studying and assimilating Inq.

I

Theo.

its

eternal verities.

thought you said you had no tenets or doctrines of your

The

Nor have we.

to support or teach.

truths uttered by

Society has no

It is

own?

wisdom of

its

simply the storehouse of

the great seers, initiates

—

own

all

the

and prophets of

at least, as many as it and even prehistoric ages can get. Therefore it is merely the channel through which more or less of truth found in the accumulated utterances of humanity's great teachers is poured out into the world.

historic

Inq.

But

such truth unreachable outside of the Society?

is

every Church claim the same

Theo.

Not

— true

'*

The undeniable shows Sons of God "

at

all.

Does not

?

—

existence of great initiates that such

wisdom was often

reached by isolated individuals; never, however, without the guidance of a master at first. But most of the followers of such, when they became masters in their turn, have dwarfed the Catholicism of these teachings into the narrow groove of their

own

sectarian

dogmas.

The commandments

of

a

chosen master alone were then adopted and followed, to the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

58

exclusion of

all

—

others

if

followed at

all,

note well, as in

Sermon on the Mount. Each religion is thus made to focus a vast panorama of hu-

the case of the

a bit of the divine truth,

man Inq.

fancy which claims to represent and replace that truth.

But Theosophy, you

Theo.

say,

Most assuredly

it

and of absolute

religion

To

every creed.

not a religion.

is

is

not, since

truth, a

resort once

it

is

the essence of

all

drop of which only underlies

more

to

metaphor, Theosophy

the white ray of the spectrum, and every reone of the seven prismatic colors. Ignoring all the others, and cursing them as false, every special colored ray claims not only priority, but to be that white ray itself, and anathematizes even its own tints from light to dark as heresies. Yet as the sun of truth rises higher and higher on the horizon of man's perception, and each colored ray gradually fades out until it is finally reabsorbed in its turn, humanity will at last be cursed no longer with artificial polarizations, but will find itself bathing in the pure, colorless sunlight of eternal truth. And this will be Theosophia.

on earth

is like

ligion only

Inq.

Your claim

is,

then, that all the great religions are derived

Theosophy, and that

it is

saved from the curse of

by assimilating its

it

that the world will be

from finally

great illusions and errors?

And we add that our Theosophical Sohumble seed which, if watered and let live, will finally produce the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which is grafted on the Tree of Life Eternal. For it is only by studying the various great religions and philosophies of humanity, by comparing them dispassionately and with an It unbiased mind, that men can hope to arrive at the truth.

ThKo.

Precisely so.

ciety

is

the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

59

is especially by finding out and noting their various points of agreement that we may achieve this result. For no sooner do we arrive either by study or by being taught by someone who knows at their inner meaning than we find, almost

— —

in

every case, that

We

Inq.

it

have heard of a Golden Age that was, and what you describe

would be a Golden Age it

Theo.

expresses some great truth in Nature.

to be realized at

some future day.

When

shall

be?

Not before humanity

A maxim

in the

—

as a whole feels the need of

Persian Javidan Khirad says

:

"

Truth

is

it.

of

two kinds one manifest and self-evident, the other demanding incessantly new demonstrations and proofs." It is

only

when

this latter

kind of truth becomes as universally

now dim and therefore liable to be distorted by sophistry and casuistry it is only when the two kinds will have become once more one, that all people will be brought to see alike. obvious as

Inq.

it is

—

But surely those few who have felt the need of such truths must have their minds to believe in something definite? You tell me that, the Society having no doctrines of its own. every member may believe as he chooses and accept what he pleases. This looks as if the Theosophical Society were bent upon reviving the confusion of languages and beliefs of the Tower of Babel of old. Have you no

made up

beliefs in

ThEO.

common?

What

meant by the Society having no tenets or docown is that no special doctrines or beliefs are obligatory on its members but of course this applies only to the body as a whole. The Society, as you were told, is divided into an outer and an inner body. Those who belong trines of

is

its

;

— THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

60

to the latter have, of course, a philosophy or, if it,

Inq.

May we

Theo.

you so prefer

a religious system of their own.^^

We

be told what

make no

is?

it

secret of

it.

It

was

outlined a few years

ago in the early publications of the Society,^^ and may be found still more elaborated in The Secret Doctrine. It is based on the oldest philosophy of the world, called the Wisdom-Religion or the Archaic Doctrine. If you like, you may ask questions and have them explained. 16.

"

Every member has the right

to believe or disbelieve in any religious system or

philosophy, each being required to

which he expects for

AND ThEosophical

his

own."

show

that tolerance for the opinions of others

Constitution of the Universal Brotherhood

Society. 17.

For Book-List, see end.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

61

V

THE FUNDAMENTAL TEACHINGS OF THEOSOPHY ON GOD AND PRAYER Inq.

Do you

Theo. Inq.

I

believe in

That depends upon what you mean by the term. mean

the

God

tor: the Biblical

Theo.

God?

In such a

of the Christians, the Father of Jesus, and the Crea-

God

of Moses, in short.

God we do

not believe.

We

reject the idea

of a personal or an extra-cosmic and anthropomorphic God,

who

is

but the gigantic shadow of man, and not even of

The God of

at his best.

theology,

we

say

man

— and prove — it

is a bundle of contradictions and a logical Therefore we will have nothing to do with him.

impossibility.

Inq.

State your reasons,

Theo.

if

you

please.

They are many, and cannot all receive attention. But This God is called by his devotees infinite

here are a few.

and absolute, Inq.

I

Theo.

believe he

Then

if

is

he not?

is.

infinite

—

/.

solute,

how can he have

Form

implies limitation,

a

e.,

limitless

— and

especially

if

ab-

form and be a creator of anything? and a beginning as well as an end;

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

62

and

order to create, a Being must think and plan.

in

ABSOLUTE

can the

be supposed to think

—

How

have any and con-

i.e.,

whatever to that which is limited, finite This is a philosophical and a logical absurdity. Even the Hebrew Kabalah rejects such an idea, and therefore makes of the one and the Absolute Deific Principle an infinite Unity called Ain Suph.^* In order to create, the Creator has to become active; and as this is impossible relation

ditioned?

for ABSOLUTENESS, the infinite principle had to be shown becoming the cause of evolution (not creation) in an indirect way i.e., through the emanation from itself (another absurdity, due this time to the translators of the Kabalah)*"

—

of the Sephiroth.

How

Inq.

about those Kabalists who, while being such,

believe in

still

Jehovah, or the Tetragrammaton ?

Thdo.

They are

at liberty to believe in

their belief or disbelief

The

Jesuits

Inq.

5.

Shall

Then you

The:o.

Not

18.

Ain Suph,

19.

How

afifect

please, as

a self-evident fact.

us that two and two are not always four to a

tell

certainty, since

=

can hardly

what they

it

we

depends on the

will of

God

accept their sophistry for

all

to

make

that

2x2

?

are atheists?

that

we know

=

of,

and not unless the epithet of

=

aireLpov, the Endless, or Boundless, in and to irav, e^iD ]'K with Nature, the Non-existent which IS, but is not a Being.

can the non-active eternal principle emanate or emit? The Parabrahman nor does the Ain Suph of the Chaldaean Kabalah. It is an eternal and periodical law which causes an active

of the Vedantins does nothing of the kind

;

and creative force (the Logos) to emanate from the ever-concealed and incomprehensible one principle at the beginning of every Mahamanvantara, or

new

cycle of

life.

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY "Atheist "

is

to be applied to all those

anthropomorphic God.

We

63

who

disbelieve in an

believe in a Universal Divine

Principle, the root of

ALL, from which

within which

be absorbed at the end of the great

all shall

all

proceeds, and

cycle of Being. Inq.

This

is

to the

Theo.

If you are Pantheists, you you are not Deists, then you have to answer

the old, old claim of Pantheism.

can not be Deists

name of

;

and

if

Atheists.

Not necessarily

so.

The term

" Pantheism "

many abused terms whose

is,

again,

and primitive meaning has been distorted by blind prejudice and a onesidedness of view. If you accept the Christian etymology of this compound word, and form it of pan {-rav), "all," and theos (^eos), " god," and then imagine and teach that this means that every stone and every tree in Nature is a God or the ONE God, then, of course, you will be right, and make of one of the

real

Pantheists fetish-worshippers, in addition to their legitimate

name.

But you

logize the Inq.

What

Theo.

is,

Let

word

"

will

you etymoand as we do.

hardly be as successful

Pantheism

" esoterically,

if

then, your definition of it?

me

ask you a question in

my

turn.

What do you

understand by Pan, or Nature? Inq.

Nature

is,

I

suppose, the

aggregate of causes and

sum

total

eflfects in

of things existing around

iis

;

the

the world of matter, the creation or

universe.

Theo. Hence the personified sum and order of known causes and effects; the total of all finite agencies and forces, as utterly disconnected from an intelligent Creator or Creators,

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

64

and perhaps " conceived of as a as in your cyclopaedias ?

— Inq.

Yes,

I

single

and separate force

"

believe so.

Theo. Well, we neither take into consideration this objective and material nature, which we call an evanescent illusion, nor do we mean by Pan, Nature, in the sense of derivation from *'

When we speak of

to be born."

tical

the Latin natura, " becoming," the Deity and

its

accepted

from

make

7tasci,

it

iden-

— hence coeval — with Nature, the eternal and uncreate

Nature is meant, and not your aggregate of flitting shadows and finite unrealities. We leave it to the hymn-makers to call the visible sky or heaven, God's Throne, and our earth of mud His footstool. Our DEITY is neither in a paradise nor in a particular tree, building or mountain; it is everywhere, in every atom of the visible as of the invisible Cosmos, in, over and around every invisible atom and divisible molecule for IT is the mysterious power of evolution and involution, the omnipresent, omnipotent and even omniscient creative potentiality. Inq.

Stop

!

Omniscience is the prerogative of something that thinks, and to your Absoluteness the power of thought.

you deny

Theo.

We

deny

it

to the

ABSOLUTE,

thing limited and conditioned.

since thought

Inq.

it

some-

But you evidently forget

that in philosophy absolute unconsciousness

consciousness, as otherwise

is

would not be

is

also absolute

absolute.

Then your Absolute thinks?

—

for the simple reason that it is AbsolNo, IT does not Nor does it exist, for the same reason, ute Thought itself.

Theo.

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY as

it

is

Read poem by Solomon ben-Yehudah Ibn

absolute existence, and Be-ness, not a Being.

the superb Kabalistic

Gebirol, in the Kether Malchuth,

Thou

65

art one, the root of all

numeration

;

and you

will

understand

numbers, but not as an element of

for unity admits not of multiplication, change, or form.

Thy unity the wisest of men are Thou art one, and Thy unity is never lost, because they know it not. diminished, never extended, and cannot be changed. Thou art one, Thou

art one,

and

in the secret of

and no thought of mine can fix for Thee a limit, or define Thee. Thou ART, but not as one existent, for the understanding and vision of mortals cannot attain to Thy existence, nor determine for Thee the where, the how, and the why.

In short, our Deity

the eternal, incessantly evolving,

is

not creating, builder of the universe; that universe itself unfolding out of

its

own

essence, not being made.

sphere, without circumference, in

its

— ITSELF.

is

a

symbolism, which has

but one ever-acting attribute embracing

or thinkable attributes

It

It is

other existing

all

the one law, giving

and immutable laws, withthat never-manifesting, because absolute, which in

the impulse to manifested, eternal in its

Inq.

I

LAW

manifesting periods

is

The ever-Becoming.

once heard one of your members remark that Universal Deity, bewas in vessels of dishonor, as in those of honor, and

ing everywhere,

therefore was present in every atom of

my

cigar-ash

!

Is

not this rank

blasphemy ?

Theo.

I

do not think

as blasphemy.

so, as

simple logic can hardly be regarded

Were we

to exclude the

Omnipresent Prin-

from one single mathematical point of the universe, or from a particle of matter occupying any conceivable space,

ciple

could

we

still

reeard

it

as infinite?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

66

NECESSARY TO PRAY ?

IS IT

Do you

Inq.

Theo. Inq.

We

We

do not.

You do

Theo.

and do you ever pray?

believe in prayer,

act instead of talking.

not offer prayers even to the Absolute Principle?

Why

Being well-occupied people, we can

should we?

hardly afford to lose time in addressing verbal prayers to a

pure abstraction. only in

any

parts one to another, but

its

finite

existence

Do you

Theo.

capable of relations

non-existent as regards

The visible universe depends for its and phenomena on its mutually acting forms and on prayer or prayers.

not believe at

Not

is

is

relations.

their laws, not Inq.

The Unknowable

in

all in

the efficacy of prayer?

many words and repeated you mean the outward petition to

prayer taught in so

externally, if by prayer

an unknown God as the addressee, which was inaugurated by the Jews and popularized by the Pharisees. Inq.

Is there

Theo.

any other kind of prayer?

Most

we

decidedly;

Inq.

To whom,

Theo. Inq.

To

then, do

An

his prayer to his

finite

vi,

God and ;

— to

in its esoteric

it

in

meaning.

theology?

Occultist or a Theosophist addresses

Father zvhich

understand, Matthew therefore

rather

you pray when you do so?

from the one given

Entirely so.

it is

petition.

" our Father in heaven "

Is that different

Theo.

wiEiy-PRAYER, and

call it

an internal command than a

is in

secret (read,

and try

to

6), not to an extra-cosmic and

that " Father "

is

in

man

himself.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

67

Then you make of man a God ?

ThEO.

Please say

God

''

man is And how

"

and not " a God."

God

In our sense,

whom we

can have cognizGrant us our postuance. late that God is a universally diffused, infinite principle, and how can man alone escape from being soaked through hy, and in, the Deity? We call our "Father in heaven" that deific essence of which we are cognizant within us, in our heart and spiritual consciousness, and which has nothing to do with the anthropomorphic conception we may form of it the inner

in

the only

of

can this be otherwise ?

our physical brain or

its

fancy

:

"

Know

ye not that ye

are the temple of God, and that the spirit of (the absolute)

God

that essence in us.

human

divine, not to,

—

or

is

""°

Yet let no man anthropomorphize Let no Theosophist, if he would hold to

dwelleth in you?

truth, say that this "

distinct from, either finite

man

God

in secret " listens

or the infinite essence

Nor, as just remarked, that a prayer is a for all an occult process by which It is a mystery, rather petition. and desires, unable to be thoughts finite and conditioned assimilated by the absolute Spirit which is unconditioned, are are one.

;

20.

One

often finds in Theosophical writings conflicting statements about the Christos man. Some call it the sixth principle (Buddhi), others the sev-

principle in

enth {Atman).

If Christian

Theosophists wish to make use of such expressions,

them be made philosophically correct by following the analogy of the old Wisdom-Religion symbols. We say that Christos is not only one of the three let

higher principles, but

all

the three regarded as a Trinity.

This Trinity repre-

Holy Ghost, the Father and the Son, as it answers to abstract spirit, Krishna and Christ are philosophicdifferentiated spirit, and embodied spirit. In the Bhagally the same principle under its triple aspect of manifestation. avad-Glta we find Krishna calling himself indifferently Atman, the Abstract Spirit, Kshetrajna, the Higher or reincarnating Ego, and the Universal Selk all names which, when transferred from the universe to man, answer to Atma, Buddhi and Manas. The Anuyita is full of the same doctrine. sents the

—

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

68

translated into spiritual wills and the will

;

such process being

" spiritual

transmutation." The intensity of our ardent aspirations changes prayer into the " philosopher's

called

stone," or that which transmutes lead into pure gold. The only homogeneous essence, our " will-prayer," becomes the active or creative force, producing effects according to our desire.

Inq.

Do you mean

to say that prayer

is

an occult process bringing about

physical results?

Theo.

I

do.

But woe

Will-power becomes a living power.

unto those Occultists and Theosophists who, instead of crushing out the desires of the lower personal ego or physical man,

—

^md saying addressing their Higher Spiritual Ego, immersed in Atma-Buddhic light " Thy will be done, not mine," send up waves of will-power for selfish or unholy purposes! For this is black magic, abomination and spiritual

—

Unfortunately,

sorcery.

all

this is the favorite occupation

when

of our Christian statesmen and generals, especially latter are

sending two armies to murder each other.

before action indulge in a offering prayers to the

bit

of such sorcery,

when

the

Both

severally

same God of Hosts, each entreating

his help to cut his enemies' throats. Inq.

David prayed to the Lord of Hosts to help him smite the Philistines and slay the Syrians and the Moabites, and " the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went." In that we only follow what we find in the Bible.

TiiEO.

Of

course you do.

But since you delight

in

calling

yourselves Christians, not Israelites or Jews, as far as we know, why do you not rather follow that which Christ says ?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY And he

distinctly

commands you not

to follow "

69

them of old

you do as he tells you, the sword that they too would take and warns those who Christ has given you one prayer, will perish by the sword. of which you have made a lip-prayer and a boast, and which none but the true Occultist understands. In it you say, in your dead-sense meaning, " Forgive us our debts, as we forwhich you never do. Again, he told give our debtors " you to love your enemies and do good to them that hate you. '* meek prophet of Nazareth " who taught It is surely not the you to pray to your *' Father " to slay and give you victory over your enemies! This is why we reject what you call times," or the Mosaic law, but bids

—

" prayers." Inq.

But how do you explain the universal fact that all nations and peoples have prayed to and worshiped a God or Gods? Some have adored and propitiated devils and harmful spirits, but this only proves the universaHty of the beHef in the efficacy of prayer.

Thko.

It is

explained by the fact that prayer has several other

meanings besides that given

to

it

by the Christians.

It

means

not only a pleading or petition, but in days of old meant far

more, an invocation and incantation. The mantra, or the rhythmically chanted prayer of the Hindus, has precisely such a meaning, for the Brahmans hold themselves higher than the

common devas

or " Gods."

A prayer may be an appeal or

—

as in the case of an incantation for malediction and a curse two armies praying simultaneously for mutual destruction as much as for blessing. And as the great majority of people are intensely selfish, and pray only for themselves, asking to be given their

and begging God

—

daily bread " instead of working for it, not to lead them " into temptation," but to *'

— THE KEY TO THBO SO PHY

70

them (the memorialists only) from

deliver

that prayer, as kills in

man

now

understood,

self-reliance;

is

with by nature.

I

doubly pernicious:

;

and, in rare

is

(a)

it

more already endowed

is

still

in

we believe in ''communion" unison with our " Father in

moments

of ecstatic bliss, in the mingling

repeat that

and simultaneous action secret"

the result

develops in him a

(^) ferocious selfishness and egotism than he it

evil,

of our higher soul with the universal essence, attracted as

toward origin and centre — Samadhi, and after death. Nirvana. gods, created beings —

a state called during life

its

is

to

finite

because

it

i.e.,

we regard

it

We

refuse to pray

saints, angels, etc.

we cannot pray to the before therefore we try to

as idolatry;

ABSOLUTE for reasons explained replace fruitless and useless prayer by meritorious and good;

producing actions. Inq.

Christians would call this pride and blasphemy.

ThEo.

Entirely so.

It is they,

Are they wrong?

on the contrary, who show Sa-

tanic pride in their belief that the Absolute or the Infinite

even tion

if there were such a thing as the possibility of any between the unconditioned and the conditioned

rela-

—

stoop to listen to every foolish or egotistical prayer.

—

will

And

it

is they, again, who virtually blaspheme Omniscient and Omnipotent God needs uttered prayers to know what he has to do! This, understood esoterically, is The one says: corroborated by both Buddha and Jesus.

in

" Seek

naught from the helpless Gods

act; for darkness will not brighten. lence, for

Jesus

it

— pray not

:

"

!

hut rather

Ask naught from

can neither speak nor hear."

— recommends

teaching that an

Whatsoever ye

si-

And the other —

shall

ask in

my name

!

THE KHY TO THBOSOPHY (that of Christos), that will if

taken in

if

we

its literal

accept

it

I

do."

Of

n

course this quotation,

But knowledge of the

sense, goes against our argument.

esoterically,

with the

— —

full

which to us represents Atmdmeaning of the term Christos the only it comes to this: Buddhi-Manas, the "SELF" God we must recognize and pray to, or rather act in unison with, is that Spirit of God of which our body is the temple, and in which it dwelleth.

PRAYER KILLS SELF-RELL4NCE Inq.

But did not Christ himself pray and recommend prayer?

Theo.

It

is

so recorded; but those prayers are precisely of

that kind of in secret."

communion

just

Otherwise, and

versal Deity, there

if

mentioned with one's " Father we identify Jesus with the Uni-

would be something too absurdly

in the inevitable conclusion that he, the "

prayed his Inq.

to himself,

and separated the

very

God

will of that

illogical

himself,"

God from

own

One argument more; an argument, moreover, much used by some Christians. sions

They

Christ

I

feel that

am not able to conquer my pasmy own strength. But when I pray to Jesus gives me strength, and that in his power 1 am

say, " I feel that I

and weaknesses he

in

able to conquer."

No

If " Christ Jesus "

is God, and one indeof course everywho prays, him pendent and separate from " almighty God." But thing is, and iniist be, possible to

Theo.

wonder.

then, Where's the merit, or justice either, of such a conquest?

Why

should the pseudo-conqueror be rewarded for some-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

11

Would

thing done which has cost him only prayers?

you,

even a simple mortal man, pay your laborer a full day's wage if you did most of his work for him, he sitting under an

and praying to you to do so all the while? This idea of passing one's whole life in moral idleness, and having one's hardest work and duty done by another whether God or man is most revolting to us, as it is most degrading to apple-tree

—

—

human Inq.

dignity.

Perhaps so yet it is the idea of trusting in a personal Savior to help and strengthen in the battle of life which is the fundamental idea of modern Christianity. And there is no doubt that, subjectively, such ;

belief

efficacious; i.e., that those

is

who

believe do

feel

themselves

helped and strengthened.

Th^o.

Nor

there any

is

" Christian"

and

more doubt

some

patients of

Mental Scientists"— the great "Dcuiers"^^ nor that hypnotism and suggespsychology and even mediumship, will produce such re-

— are also sometimes cured tion,

that

"

;

sults as often, if not oftener.

You

take into consideration,

and string on the thread of your argument, successes

And how you

about ten times the number of failures?

will not

presume

to say that failure

with a sufficiency of blind faith, Inq.

A

To

his

Higher

Surely

unknown, even

fanatical Christians

But how can you explain those cases which are followed by cess? Where does a Theosophist look for power to subdue ions and selfishness?

TiiEo. 21.

among

is

alone.

Self, the divine spirit or the

God

?

full suc-

his pass-

in

him,

new sect of healers, who, by disavowing the existence of anything but spirit, which can neither suffer nor be ill, claim to cure all and every disease, provided the patient has faith that what he denies can have no existence. A new form of self -hypnotism.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

73

and to his Karma. How long shall we have to repeat over and over again that the tree is known by its fruits, the nature

You speak of subduing passions and with the help of God or through and becoming good Christ. We ask, where do you find more virtuous, guiltless in Christendom or people, abstaining from sin and crime Buddhism; in Christian countries or in heathen lands? Statistics are there to give the answer and corroborate our According to the last census in Ceylon and India, claims. in the comparative table of crimes committed by Christians, Mohammedans, Hindias, Eurasians, Buddhists, etc., in two

of the cause by

its

effects?

—

millions of population taken at

random from

each,

and cover-

ing the misdemeanors of several years, the proportion of crimes committed by the Christian stands at about 15 to 4

committed by the Buddhist population." No Orientalist, no historian of any note, or traveler in Buddhist lands, from Bishop Bigandet and Abbe Hue to Sir William Hunter and every fair-minded official, will fail to give the palm of virtue Yet the former (not the to Buddhists before Christians. true Buddhist Siamese sect, at all events) do not believe in They either God or a future reward outside of this earth. "Pray!" they neither priests nor laymen. do not pray " " to whom, or to what ? would exclaim in wonder

—

;

Then they

Inq.

are truly Atheists.

most virtueBuddhism says: Respect the religions of other men and remain true to your own; but Church Christianity, denouncing all

Theo.

Most undeniably; but they are

loving and virtue-keeping

22.

See Lucifer for April, 1888,

men

p. 147, art.

"

in

also the

the whole world.

Christian Lectures on Buddhism."

THE KBY To THHOSOPHV

74

the gods of other nations as devils, would

doom every non-

Christian to eternal perdition. Inq,

Does not the Buddhist priesthood do the same?

Theo.

Never.

in the If

They hold

Dhammapada

to

too

do

much

so,

to the wise precept

for they

know

found

that:

any man, whether he be learned or not, consider himself so great is Hke a bHnd man holding a candle blind

—

as to despise other men, he

himself, he illumines others.

ON THE SOURCE OF THE HUMAN SOUL Inq.

How,

then,

Soul?

Theo.

do you account for man being endowed with a Spirit and

Whence

From

these?

the Universal Soul; certainly not bestowed by a

Whence

personal God.

From

the

the moist element in the jelly-fish?

Ocean which surrounds it, in which it lives and its being, and whither it returns when

breathes and has dissolved. Inq.

So you

reject the teaching that Soul

is

given, or breathed into man,

by God?

The:o. (ii,

We 7)

are obliged is,

The

" soul " spoken of in Genesis

as therein stated, the "living soul" or nephesh,

the vital, animal soul with which

God

— we

and immntahle

like

every animal.

not at

all

immortal Inq.

to.

Well,

man

let

lazv

— endows man

say "nature"

the thinking Soul or mind; least of

all

is

It is it

the

Spirit. us put

it

rational Soul

otherwise:

is it

God who endows man with

and immortal Spirit?

a hu-

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHY Again, in the

ThEo.

we

way you

75

we must object God, how can we be-

put the question,

no personal heve that he endows man with anything? But granting, for the sake of argument, a God who takes upon himself the risk of creating a new Soul for every new-born babe, all that can be said is that such a God can hardly be regarded as him-

to

it.

Since

believe in

endowed with any wisdom or prevision. Certain other and the impossibility of reconciling this with the claims made for the mercy, justice, equity and omniscience of that God, are so many deadly reefs on which this theological dogma is daily and hourly broken. self

difficulties,

Inq.

What do you mean?

ThEO.

I

am thinking in my presence

What

difficulties?

of an unanswerable argument ofifered

by a Sinhalese Buddhist priest, a famous one in no way ignorant preacher, to a Christian missionary or unprepared for the public discussion during which it was It was near Colombo, and the missionary had advanced. once

—

challenged the priest Megittawatti to give his reasons the Christian

God should

not be accepted by

why

the " heathen."

Well, the missionary came out of that memorable discussion second-best, as usual. Inq.

I

should be glad to learn

in

what way.

Simply this the Buddhist priest premised by asking the padre whether his God had given commandments to Moses The for men only to keep, but to be broken by God himself. " Well," said missionary denied the supposition indignantly.

ThEo.

his opponent,

:

"you

tell

us that

God makes no

exceptions to

Now this rule, and that no Soul can be born without his will. God forbids adultery, among other things, and yet you say

^

V^\sL^.^X OF THE \ -^

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

76

in the same breath that it is he who creates every babe born, and he who endows it with a Soul. Are we then to understand that the milHons of children born in crime and adultery are your God's work? that your God forbids and punishes the breaking of his laws, and that, nevertheless, he creates daily and hourly souls for just such children^ According to the simplest logic, your God is an accomplice in the crime; since, but for his help and interference, no such children of

lust could be born.

Where

is

the justice of punishing not

only the guilty parents, but even the innocent babe, for that

which is done by that very God, whom yet you exonerate from any guilt himself?" The missionary looked at his watch and suddenly found it was getting too late for further discussion. Inq.

You we

forget that

all

such inexplicable cases are mysteries, and that

are forbidden by our religion to pry into the mysteries of God.

No, we do not forget, but simply reject such impossiNor do we want you to believe as we do. We only answer the questions you ask. We have, however, another name for your " niA^steries."

TnE:o.

bilities.

THE BUDDHIST TEACHINGS ON THE ABOVE Inq.

What

ThEo.

It

does Buddhism teach with regard to the Soul?

depends whether you mean exoteric, popular BudAccording to the former its esoteric teachings.

dhism, or

man

is

he

material, impermanent.

is

considered as subject to change, and hence as far as

tion that the

new

But when we come

to the ques-

personality in each succeeding rebirth

is

the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

11

aggregate of skandhas, or the attributes of the old personahty, and ask whether this new aggregation of skandhas is a new being hkewise, in which nothing has remained of the the reply

last,

is

abstruse metaphysics, and plainly does not

express this disbelief in soul by any means. Inq.

Is not

Theo.

something

It is

;

like this

spoken of

in esoteric

Budhismf

for this teaching belongs both to esoteric Budhism,

Wisdom, and to exoteric Buddhism, or philosophy of Gautama Buddha.

or Secret ious Inq.

But we are

distinctly told that

the relig-

most of the Buddhists do not believe

in the Soul's immortality.

you mean by Soul the personal Ego, or life-soul nephesh. But every learned Buddhist [as also ourselves] believes in the individual or divine Ego. Those who do not, err in their judgment; they are as mistaken on

ThEO.

Nor do we,

—

if

this point as those Christians

who mistake

the theological

interpolations of the later editors of the Gospels about

dam-

nation and hell-fire for verbatim utterances of Jesus. NeiBuddha nor " Christ " ever wrote anything themselves,

ther

but both spoke in allegories and used " dark sayings," as all true Initiates did, and will do for a long time yet to come.

Both scriptures treat of all such metaphysical questions very cautiously, and both Buddhist and Christian records sin by that excess of exotericism, the dead-letter meaning far overshooting the Inq.

mark

Do you mean

in

both cases.

to suggest that neither the teachings of

Buddha nor

those of Christ have been heretofore rightly understood?

Theo.

What

I

mean

is

just as

you

say.

Both Gospels

— the

!

the key To theosophy

7b

— were preached with the same

Buddhist and the Christian

Both reformers were ardent philanthropists most unmistakably social betterment of the noblest and highest type, self-sacrifice to " Let the sins of the whole world fall upon the bitter end. me, that I may relieve man's misery and suffering " cries Buddha. "I would not let one cry whom I could save!" object in view.

and

practical altruists, preaching

!

exclaims the Prince-beggar, clad in the refuse rags of the burial grounds.

"

heavy-laden, and

I will

Come

unto me,

ye that labor and are

all

give you rest,"

is

poor and the disinherited made by the "

who had

not where to lay his head.

the appeal to the

Man

The

of Sorrows,"

teachings of both

are boundless love for humanity, charity, forgiveness of injury, forgetfulness of self,

and

pity for the deluded masses;

both show the same contempt for riches, and ence between revealing to

mcum and

all

tiium.

make no

differ-

Their desire was, without

the sacred mysteries of initiation, to give the

ignorant and the misled, whose burden in

life

was too heavy

for them, hope enough and an inkling into the truth sufficient to support

them

But the object of

in their heaviest hours.

both reformers was frustrated, owing to excess of zeal of their later

followers.

The words of

the Masters having

been misunderstood and misinterpreted, behold the consequences Inq.

!

But surely Buddha must have repudiated the and his own Priests say so

soul's immortality if all

the Orientalists

ThEO. ter,

The Arhats began by following and the majority of the

priests

the policy of their

who

not initiated, just as in Christianity; and the great esoteric truths

Mas-

followed them were

became almost

so, little lost.

A

by

little,

proof

in

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY point

is

that, out of the

two existing

79

sects in Ceylon, the

Siamese beheves death to be the absolute annihilation of individuality and personality, and the other explains Nirvana as Inq.

we Theosophists

do.

But why, in that case, do Buddhism and Christianity represent the two opposite poles of such beHef ?

Theo. Because the conditions under which they were preached were not the same. In India the Brahmans, jealous of their superior knowledge, and excluding from it every caste save their own, had driven millions of men into idolatry and almost fetishism. Buddha had to give the death-blow to an exuberance of unhealthy fancy and fanatical superstition resulting from ignorance, such as has rarely been known before or after.

Better a philosophical atheism than such

ignorant worship for those

Who Or

and who first

of

live

all this

cry upon their gods and are not heard

are not heeded,

and

die in mental despair.

muddy

before he gave out the truth. all,

for the

He had

torrent of superstition

same good

And

;

to

to arrest

uproot errors

as he could not give out

reason as Jesus

— who

reminds his

heaven are not for the uninmasses, but for the elect alone, and therefore he

disciples that the mysteries of telligent

spoke to the people caution led

Buddha

to say to the

in parables

to conceal too

xiii,

much.

10, 11)

He

— so

his

even refused

there was or was pressed to answer, " the Exalted

monk Vacchagotta whether

not an Ego in man. When one maintained silence."

Buddha

(Matt,

gives his initiated disciple Ananda,

who

inquires

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

80

for the reason of this silence, a plain and unequivocal answer in the

dialogue translated by Oldenburg from the Samyuttaka

Nikdya: Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked me, Ego? " had answered, " The Ego is," then that, Ananda, would have confirmed the doctrine of the Samanas and Brahmanas, who beUeved in permanence. If I, Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked me, " Is there not the Ego ?" had answered, " The Ego is not," then that, Ananda, would have confirmed the doctrine of those who beHeved in annihilation. If I, Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked me, " Is there the Ego ?" had answered, " The Ego is," would that have served my end, Ananda, by producing in him the knowledge, all existences (dhamnia) are non-ego? But if I, Ananda, had answered, " The Ego is not," then that, Ananda, would only have caused the wandering monk Vacchagotta to be thrown from one bewilderment to another: " My Ego, did it not exist before? But now it exists no longer !" If

I,

" Is there the

This shows better than anything that Gautama Buddha withheld such difficult metaphysical doctrines from the masses in order not to perplex them more. What he meant was the difference between the personal temporary Ego and the

Higher

Self,

which sheds I " of man.

its

light

on the imperishable Ego,

the spiritual " Inq.

This refers to Gautama, but

ThEO.

Read

in

what way does

history and think over

it.

At

it

touch the Gospels?

the time the events

narrated in the Gospels are alleged to have happened there

was a

similar intellectual fermentation taking place in the

whole civilized world, only with opposite results and the West. The old gods were dying out.

in the

East

While the

civilized classes drifted, in the train of the unbelieving

Sad-

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

81

into materialistic negations and mere dead-letter Mosaic form in Palestine, and into moral dissolution in Rome, the lowest and poorest classes ran after sorcery and Once more strange gods, or became hypocrites or worse. The cruel, the time for a spiritual reform had arrived. anthropomorphic and jealous God of the Jews, with his sanguinary laws of " an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," of the shedding of blood and animal sacrifice, had to be relegated to a secondary place and replaced by the merciful Father in secret." The latter had to be shown,

ducees,

''

not as an extra-Cosmic God, but as a divine Savior of the

•man of

flesh,

enshrined in his

own

heart and soul, in the poor

No more

here than in India could the secrets of initiation be divulged, lest by giving that which is holy to the dogs, and casting pearls before swine, both the Revealer

as in the rich.

and the things revealed should be trodden underfoot. Thus whether the latter Buddha and Jesus lived out the historic period allotted to him or not, and who equally abstained from revealing plainly the mysteries of led in the one case to the blank negations Life and Death Buddhism, and in the other to the three clashing of Southern forms of the Christian Church and the two hundred sects in the reticence of both

—

Protestant England alope.

—

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

82

VI

THEOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS AS TO NATURE

AND MAN THE UNITY OF ALL IN ALL Inq.

Having told me what God, the soul and man are not, in your views, can you inform me what they are, according to your teachings ?

In their origin and in eternity the three, Hke the universe and all therein, are one with the absolute Unity, the un-

ThKO.

knowable

deific

essence

I

spoke about some time back.

We

and consecutive on to the subjective from the appearances of the universe believe in

no creation, but

in the periodical

objective plane of being, at regular intervals of time, covering

periods of immense duration. Inq.

Can you

ThEo.

Take

elaborate the subject?

as a

first

comparison, and a help toward a more

correct conception, the solar year;

and as a second, the two

halves of that year, producing each a day and a night of six

months' duration at the North Pole. Now imagine, if you can, instead of a solar year of 365 days, ETERNITY. Let the sun represent the universe, and the polar days and nights of six months each days and nights lasting each 182 trillions

and quadrillions of years, instead of 182 days each.

As

the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY sun

rises

83

every morning on our objective horizon out of

its

(to us) subjective and antipodal space, so does the Universe emerge periodically on the plane of objectivity, issuing from

that of subjectivity

— the antipodes of the former. And

the " Cycle of Life."

as the sun disappears

This

is

from our

horizon, so does the Universe disappear at regular periods, the " Universal Night " sets in. alternations the " Days and Nights of

The Hindus

when

call

such

Brahma," or the times The Westerns (dissolution). and Pralaya of Manvantara may call them Universal Days and Nights if they prefer. During the latter (the Nights) All is in All; every atom is resolved into one Homogeneity.

EVOLUTION AND ILLUSION Inq.

But who

Theo.

No

tion;

is

it

that each time creates the universe?

one creates

it.

Science would

call the

process evolu-

and the Orientalists

the pre-Christian philosophers

emanation we Occultists and Theosophists see in it the only universal and eternal Reality casting a periodical This rereflection of Itself on the infinite spatial depths. flection, which you regard as the objective material universe, we consider as a temporary illusion and nothing else. That

called

it

;

alone which Inq.

At

Theo.

that rate,

As

is

eternal

you and

I

is

real.

are also illusions.

flitting personalities

another — we

are.

aurora borealis

— today

Would you

— the Northern

call

one person, tomorrow

the sudden flashes of the

lights

—

a "reality,"

though

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV

84

as real as can be while

it is it

is

you look at it? Certainly not; it, if permanent and eternal,

the cause that produces

which

the only reality, while the effect

is

is

but a passing

illusion.

Inq.

me how

All this does not explain to originates

;

how

the unconsciousness that

Theo.

It

is

Verily

this illusion called the universe

the conscious to he proceeds to manifest itself is.

unconsciousness only to our

may we paraphrase

(Absolute) light (which ness (which

is

from

is

St.

John

finite

(i,

5),

consciousness.

and

say,

"And

darkness to us) shineth in dark-

illusionary material light);

and the darkness

comprehendeth it not." This absolute light is also absolute and immutable Law. Whether by radiation or emanation

—

we need not

quarrel over terms

— the universe passes out of

homogeneous subjectivity on to the first plane of maniwhich planes there are seven, we are taught. With each plane it becomes more dense and material until it reaches this our plane, on which the only world approximately known and understood in its physical composition by its

festation; of

science

we Inq.

is

the planetary or solar system

— one

sni generis,

are told.

What do you mean by

mean

sui generis?

though the fundamental law and the universal working of laws of Nature are uniform, still our solar system like every other such system in the millions of others in Cosmos, and even our Earth has its own program of manifestations, differing from the respective pro-

The:o.

I

that,

—

grams of all others. planets, and imagine

—

We

speak of the inhabitants of other thinking i. c., that if they are men

—

!

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

85

— they must be as we The fancy of poets and represent even the angels painters and sculptors never — plus wings. We say that as a beautiful copy of man are.

entities

fails to

all

an error and a delusion because, if on this little earth alone one finds such a diversity in its flora, fauna and mankind from the seaweed to the cedar of Lebanon, from the jellyfish to the elephant, from the Bushman and negro to the this is

;

—

Apollo Belvedere

—

alter the conditions,

cosmic and plan-

and there must be as a result quite a different flora, fauna and mankind. The same laws will fashion quite a different set of things and beings even on this our plane, inetary,

our planets. How much more diff'erent, then, must be external nature in other solar systems; and how foolish is it to judge of other stars and worlds and human beings by our own, as physical science does

cluding in

Inq.

it all

But what are your data for

Theo.

What

this assertion?

science in general will never accept as proof

the cumulative testimony of an endless series of Seers

have

Their spiritual

testified to this fact.

visions —

—

who

real ex-

plorations by and through psychic and spiritual senses un-

—

trammeled by blind flesh have been systematically checked and compared one with the other, and their nature sifted. All that was not corroborated by unanimous and collective experience was rejected, while that only was recorded as established truth which, in various ages, under different climes,

and throughout an untold series of incessant observations, was found to agree and receive constantly further corroboration. The methods used by our scholars and students of the psychospiritual sciences do not differ from those of stud-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

86

ents of the natural

Only our

fields

and physical

sciences, as

you may

see.

of research are on two different planes, and

our instruments are made by no

human hands;

for which

they are but the more reliable.

The

reason,

perchance,

retorts,

accumulators and microscopes of the chemist and

naturalist

may

get out of order

omer's horological instruments

;

the telescope and the astron-

may

get spoiled; our record-

ing instruments are beyond the influence of weather or the elements. Inq.

And

Thko.

therefore you have impUcit faith in them?

word not

found in Theosophical dictionaries we say knozvledge based on observation and experience. There is this difference, however that while the observation and experience of physical science lead the scientists to about as many "working hypotheses" as there are minds to evolve them, our knozvledge consents to add to its lore only those facts which have become undeniable and which are fully and absolutely demonstrated. We have no two beliefs or hypotheses on the same subject. Faith

a

is

to be

;

:

Inq.

Is

it

find in

on such data that you came to accept the strange theories we the earher Theosophical books ?

some of

These theories may be slightly incorrect in their minor details, and even faulty in their exposition by lay students they are facts in nature, nevertheless, and come nearer the truth than any scientific hypothesis.

ThKO.

Just SO.

;

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHY

87

ON THE SEPTENARY CONSTITUTION OF OUR PLANET Inq.

I

understand that you describe our earth as forming part of a chain of

earths?

We

Theo. the

But the other

do.

same plane of

six "earths" or globes are not

objectivity as our earth is; therefore

on

we

can not see them. Inq.

on account of the great distance?

Is that

Not

Thko. ets, is

at all

;

for

we

see with our

naked eye not only plan-

but even stars at immeasurably greater distances; but

owing

to these six globes being outside

of perception or plane of being.

It is

it

our physical means not only that their

material density, weight and fabric are entirely different

from those of our earth and the other known planets but they ;

are (to us) in an entirely dift'erent layer of space, so to speak

— a layer not And when

I

to be perceived or felt by our physical senses. say " layer," please do not allow your fancy to

suggest to you layers like strata or beds laid one over the

would only lead to another absurd misconception. What I mean by ''layer" is that plane of infinite space which by its nature cannot fall under our ordinary waking perceptions, whether mental or physical, but which exists in Nature outside of our normal mentality or consciousness, outside of our three-dimensional space, and outside of our division of time. Each of the seven fundamental planes (or

other

;

for this

layers) in space

— of course as a whole, as the pure space of own obspace — has not as our

Locke's definition, jectivity

and

subjectivity, its

finite

own

consciousness and set of senses.

comprehensible to one trained

its

space and time,

its

own

But all this will be hardly modern ways of thought.

in the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

88

Inq,

What do you mean by a different set of senses? Is there anything on our human plane that you could bring as an illustration of what you say, just to give a clearer idea of what you may mean by this variety of senses, spaces and respective perceptions?

Theo.

None, except, perhaps, that which for Science would

be rather a handy peg on which to hang a counter-argument.

We have a different set of senses in dream-Hfe, have we not? We feel, talk, hear, see, taste and function in general on a different plane, the

change of

state of

our consciousness being

evidenced by the fact that a series of acts and events embracing years, as instant.

we

think, passes ideally

through our mind

in

one

W^ell, that extreme rapidity of our mental opera-

and the perfect naturalness, for the time the other functions, show us that we are on

tions in dreams,

being, of

all

quite another plane.

Our philosophy

teaches us that as there

are seven fundamental forces in nature, and seven planes of being, so there are seven states of consciousness in

which

can live, think, remember and have his being. To enumerate these here is impossible, and for this one has to turn But in these two states to the study of Eastern metaphysics. every ordinary mortal, the waking and the dreaming from a learned philosopher down to a poor untutored savage,

man

—

—

has a good proof that such states Inq.

differ.

You do not accept, then, the well-known explanations of biology and physiology to account for the dream-state?

Theo.

We do not. We

chologists,

reject even the hypotheses of

your psy-

preferring the teachings of Eastern

Wisdom.

Believing in seven planes of Kosmic being and states of Consciousness, with regard to the Universe or the

Macrocosm,

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

89

we

stop at the fourth plane, finding it impossible to go with any degree of certainty beyond. But with respect to the Microcosm, or man, we speculate freely on his seven states and principles. Inq.

How

Thdo.

do you explain these?

We

spiritual

who

find,

first

of

two

distinct beings in

man

— the

and the physical; the man who thinks and the man

much Therefore we

records as

ilate.

all,

of these thoughts as he divide

the upper or the spiritual ciples" or aspects;

him

is

able to assim-

—

two distinct natures being, composed of three "prininto

and the lower or the physical quaternary,

composed of four —

in all seven.

THE SEPTENARY NATURE OF MAN Inq.

Is

Theo.

it

what we

call Spirit

It is not.

That

is

and Soul and the man of flesh? the old Platonic division.

Plato was

an Initiate, and therefore could not go into forbidden details but he

who

is

acquainted with the archaic doctrine finds the

seven in Plato's various combinations of Soul and Spirit.

He

regarded

man

as constituted of

two parts

— one

eternal,

formed of the same essence as the Absoluteness; the other its constituent parts from Man is composed, he shows, of the minor "created" Gods. an immortal principle; and (3) a mortal body; a (1) (2) " separate mortal kind of Soul." It is that which we respectively call the physical man, the Spiritual Soul or Spirit This is the division (iioiis), and the animal soul (psuelie).

mortal and corruptible, deriving

THB KBY TO THHOSOPHY

90

adopted by Paul, another is

a psychical body which

Initiate, is

sown

who

maintains that there

in the corruptible (astral or

physical body), and a spiritual body that

is

raised in incor-

Even James (iii, 15) corroborates the same by saying that the "wisdom" (of our lower soul) descendeth not from above, but is terrestrial, " psychical," " demoniacal," {z'ide Greek text), while the other is heavenly wisdom. Now, so plain is it that Plato, and even Pythagoras, while speaking but of three "principles," give them ruptible substance.

seven separate functions in their various combinations, that if

we

contrast our teachings this will become quite plain.

Let us take a cursory view of these seven aspects by drawing a table.

THEOSOPHICAL DIVISION Sanskrit Terms

(a) Rupa, or Sharira.

Sthula

(b) Prana.

(o) Physical body.

(b)

Life, principle.

or

vital

a W

(c) Linga Sharira.

Explanatory

Meaning

Exoteric

(c) Astral body.

o

Is the vehicle of all the other "principles" during life.

(a)

Necessary only to a, c, d, and the functions of the lower Manas, which embrace all

(b)

those

limited

ical)

brain.

(c)

to

The Double,

the

the

(phys-

phantom

body.

1-4

w n

(d)

Kama

Rupa.

(d)

The

seat of ani-

mal desires and passions.

(d) This is the center of the animal man, where lies the line of demarcation which the mortal man separates from the immortal entity.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Sanskrit Terms

—

{e) Manas a dual principle in its func-

Exoteric

{e)

Mind,

ence

;

intellig-

the higher hu-

man

tions.

Meaning

mind, whose

or radiation, links Monad, the for the lifetime, to the mortal man. light,

91

Explanatory

The future state and the Karmic destiny of man depend on whether Manas gravitates more downward to

{e)

Kama

Rijpa, the seat of the

animal passions, or upward to Buddhi, the Spiritual Ego. In the latter case, the higher consciousness of the individual Spiritual aspirations of

mind

(Manas), assimilating

Buddhi, is absorbed by it and forms the Ego, which goes into Devachanic bliss. 23 (/) Buddhi.

The (/) Soul.

ig) Atma.

{g) Spirit.

Spiritual

(/) The vehicle versal spirit.

of pure uni-

Eh

ig) as

Now

One with its

the

Absolute,

radiation.

what does Plato teach? He speaks of the interior man as constituted of two parts one immutable and always the same, formed of the same substance as Deity, and the other mortal and corruptible. These two parts are found in the upper Triad and the lower Quaternary of our table. He

—

explains that

23.

when

the Soul (psuche) "allies herself to the

some Theosophical writings, by students, d, e and / are respectively called the animal, the human, and the spiritual souls, which answers as well. Though the

In

usually numbered, this is strictly speaking, useless. The dual (Atma-Buddhi) is susceptible of being thought of as the two highest numbers (the 6th and 7th). As to all others, since that "principle" only which is predominant in man has to be considered as the first and foremost, no numeration is possible as a general rule. In some men it is the higher Intelligence (Manas, or the 5th) which dominates the rest; in others it is the animal soul (Kama Riipa) that reigns supreme, exhibiting the most bestial instincts, etc.

principles

Monad

are

alone

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

92

nous (divine

spirit or substance^"*),

and f ehcitously" but the case ;

is

she does everything aright

otherwise

when

she attaches

herself to anoia (folly, or the irrational animal soul). then,

pects

:

Here,

we have Manas, or the Soul in general, in its two when attaching itself to anoia (our Kama Riapa, or

"animal

soul," as

sometimes described)

tire annihilation, as far as the personal

when

allying itself to the nous

it

as-

the

runs toward en-

Ego

concerned;

is

(Atma-Buddhi)

into the immortal, imperishable Ego, and then

it

its

merges spiritual

consciousness of the personal that n^as, becomes immortal.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN SOUL AND SPIRIT Inq.

Do you

ThEo.

really teach, as

and French

ualists

We do not.

you are accused of doing by some

Spiritists, the annihilation

Our opponents have

Spirit-

of every personality?

started the nonsensical

—

the individuality charge because this question of duality the human animal of of the Divine Ego and the personality involves that of the possibility of the real immortal Ego

—

appearing

we Inq.

You have if

it

mean by Paul

seance-rooms as a "materialized

spirit,"

which

deny, as already explained.

ation

24.

in

calls

course,

just spoken of psuche running towards

attaches itself to anoia.

What

its

did Plato, and

entire annihil-

what do you,

this? Plato's

nous

" Spirit "

Buddhi and not Atma

;

is

but as this spirit is "substance," then, of meant, as the latter can not philosophically

be called "substance" under any circumstance. We include Atma among the human "principles" in order not to create additional confusion. In reality it is no human principle, but the universal absolute principle of which Buddhi, the Soul-Spirit,

is

the carrier.

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY ThEO.

The

93

entire annihilation of the personal consciousness,

as an exceptional

and rare

almost invariable rule

is

The general and

case, I think.

merging of the personal

the

into the

individual or immortal consciousness of the Ego — a transformation or a divine transfiguration — and the entire annihilation only of the lower quaternary.

the

man

Would you

of flesh (or the temporary personality)

,

his

expect

shadow

(the astral), his animal instincts, and even physical

life,

to

survive with the "spiritual Ego'^ and become sempiternal?

Naturally

all this

poreal death.

It

ceases to exist, either at or soon after cor-

becomes

in

time entirely disintegrated and

disappears from view, being annihilated as a whole. Inq.

Then you

Theo.

also reject resurrection in the flesh?

Why

Most decidedly we do!

should we,

who

believe in

the archaic Esoteric Philosophy of the ancients, accept the

unphilosophical speculations of the later Christian theology,

borrowed from the Eg>'ptian and Greek exoteric systems of the Gnostics? Inq.

The Egyptians revered Hindus are

nature-spirits,

idolaters to this

day

;

and

deified

your and do

even onions

the Zoroastrians worshiped,

;

still worship, the sun and the best Greek philosophers were either dreamers or materialists witness Plato and Democritus. How can you compare? ;

—

Theo.

It

may

be so in your modern theological and even

sci-

catechisms; it is not so for unbiased minds. The Egyptians revered the " One-Only-One," as Nont; and it is from this word that Anaxagoras got his denomination

entific

nous, or, as he calls potent;"

dpx^/

it,

vov? avTOKpaxT/s,

71-^5 Ktvr/o-tcjs,

" the

mind or

spirit self-

"the leading motor" or prinintn

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHV

94

mobile of

With him

all.

Nous was God, and the logos The nous is the spirit (whether

the

was man, his 'emanation. in Kosmos or in man), and the

whether Universe or astral body, the emanation of the former, the physical body being merely the animal. Our external powers perceive phenomena; our Nous alone is able to recognize their noumena. It is the logos alone, or the noumenon, that survives, because it is immortal in its very nature and essence; and the logos in man is the Eternal Ego, that which reincarnates and lasts forever. But how can the evanescent or external shadow, the temporary clothing of that divine Emanation which returns to the source whence it proceeded, be that zvhich Inq.

is

logos,

" raised in incorruptibility " ?

you can hardly escape the charge of having invented a new and psychic constituents for no philosopher speaks of them, though you believe that Plato does. Still

division of man's spiritual

And

Theo.

I

;

support the view.

agoras followed the same

Not only

division. ^^

Plato, but also Pyth-

He

described the Soul

(monas) composed of three elements the Nous (spirit), the phren (mind), and the thumos (life, breath, or the nephesh of the Kabalists), which three correspond to our Atmd-Buddhi (higher Spirit-Soul), to Manas (the Ego), and to Kama Rupa in conjunction with as a self-moving Unit

—

25.

" Plato

and Pythagoras," says Plutarch,

" distribute the soul into

rational [noetic] and irrational soul [agnoia]

which is rational an eternal Deity

is

eternal

— for

though

it

— but that part of the soul

dies."

agnoia.

two

parts, the

that that part of the soul of

be not God, yet

which

is

it

is

man

the product of

divested of reason [agnoia]

The modern term agnostic comes from a-gnosticos, a word cognate with We wonder why Mr. Huxley, the author of the word, should have con-

nected his great intellect with "the soul. it

;

the exaggerated humility of the

modern

.

.divested of reason," which dies?

materialist?

Is

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY the lower

reflection

of Manas.

95

That which the ancient

Greek philosophers termed Soul, in general, we call Spirit, Buddhi, as the vehicle of Atma; the To or Spiritual Soul Agathon, or Plato's Supreme Deity. The fact that Pythagoras and others state that phren and thumos are shared by us with the brutes proves that in this case the loiver manasic

—

reflection

Kama Rupa

and

(instinct)

sions) are meant.

And

as Socrates

(animal living pas-

and Plato accepted the namely. To Agathon

—

and followed it, if to these five (Deity or Atma), psuche (soul in its collective sense). Nous (Spirit or Mind), phre^i (physical mind), and thumos {Kawe add the eidolon of the Mysteries ma Rupa or passions) (the shadowy form or human double), and the physical body,

clue

—

will be easy to demonstrate that the ideas of both Pythagoras and Plato were identical with ours. Even the EgypThey taught that the tians held to the septenary division. it

through its seven chambers or principles both those it left behind and those it took along with itself. The only difference is that, ever bearing Soul (Ego) in

its

—

exit

had

to pass

mind the penalty of revealing Mystery-doctrines, w^hich was death, they gave out the teaching in broad outline, while we elaborate it and explain it in its details. But though we in

do give out to the world as much as is lawful, even in our doctrine more than one important detail is withheld, which those who study the Esoteric Philosophy and are pledged to silence, arc alone entitled to knozv.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

96

THE GREEK TEACHINGS I NO.

We How

have magnificent Greek and Latin, Sanskrit and Hebrew scholars. is it that we find nothing in their translations that would afford

us a clue to what you say?

Because your translators, their great learning notwiththe Greeks esstanding, have made of the philosophers Take as an inpecially viisty instead of mystic writers.

ThEo.

—

—

what he says of the "principles" of man. What he describes is accepted literally and attribLet me uted to metaphysical superstition and ignorance. give you an illustration in point from this author: stance Plutarch, and read

Man is compound and they are mistaken zvho think him to be compounded of two parts only. For they imagine that the understanding ;

[brain-intellect] this

no

those

less

is

a part of the soul [the upper triad]

than those

who make

who make

but they err in

body

[i.e.,

of the triad part of the corruptible mortal quaternary].

For the understanding [nous]

as far exceeds the soul as the soul

better and diviner than the body. [•A^X^]

;

the soul to be a part of the

with the understanding

body [or thunws, the animal

Now [vous]

this

makes reason, and with

soul] passion; of

is

composition of the soul

which the one

is

the

the be-

ginning or principle of pleasure and pain, and the other of virtue and vice.

Of

these three parts conjoined and compacted together, the earth

has given the body, the to the generation of

moon

the soul, and the sun the understanding,

man.

This last sentence is purely allegorical, and will be comprehended only by those who are versed in the esoteric science of correspondences and know what planet is related to every .

principle.

Plutarch divides the principles into three groups,

and makes of the body a compound of physical frame, astral shadow and breathy or the triple lower part, which " from

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

97

earth was taken and to earth returns;" of the middle principle and the instinctual soul, the second part, derived from and through, and ever influenced by, the moon;^^ and only of the higher part, or the Spiritual Soul (Buddhi), with the Atmic and manasic elements in it, does he make a direct emanation of the Sun, who stands here for To Agafhon, the Supreme Deity. This is proven by what he says further as

follows

Now

of the deaths

we

the other one of [out of] two. diction of

one makes The former is

die, the

Demeter; whence the name given

resembled that given to death,

reXevrav.

in the

moon

of three and

in the region and juris-

to the Mysteries,

The Athenians As for the

fore called the deceased sacred to Demeter. it is

man two

reXetv,

also hereto-

other death,

or region of Persephone.

which shows man a septenary during life; a quintile just after death, in Kamaloka; and a threefold Ego, Spirit-Soul and consciousness in Devachan. This separation, first in the " Meadows of Hades," as Plutarch calls the Kamaloka, then in Devachan, was part and parcel of the performances during the sacred Mysteries, wdien the candidates for initiation enacted the whole drama of death and the resurrection as a glorified spirit, by which name we mean Consciousness. This is what Plutarch means

Here you have our

when he And

doctrine,

says:

as with the one, the terrestrial, so with the other, celestial,

Hermes doth

dwell. This suddenly and with violence plucks the soul from the body; but Proserpina mildly and in a long time disjoins the

26.

The the as

Kabalists

who know

Moon, and

much

the relation of Jehovah, the life and children giver, to

the influence of the latter on generation, will again see the point

as will

some

astrologers.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

98

understanding from the

For

soul.^^

this

reason

is

she called monogenes,

only begotten, or rather begetting one alone; for the better part of man becomes alone zvhen it is separated by her. Now both the one

and the other happens thus according to nature. It is ordained by Fate [Fatum or Karma] that every soul, whether with or without understanding [mind], when gone out of the body, should wander for a in the region lying between the time though not all for the same For those who have been unjust and earth and moon [Kamaloka].^^ dissolute suffer then the punishment due to their offenses but the good and virtuous are there detained till they are purified and have, by expiation, purged out of them all the infections they might have conliving in tracted from the contagion of the body, as if from foul health the mildest part of the air, called the Meadows of Hades, where they must remain for a certain prefixed and appointed time. And then, as if they were returning from a wandering pilgrimage or long exile into their country, they have a taste of joy, such as they principally receive who are initiated into Sacred Mysteries, mixed with trouble, admiration, and each one's proper and peculiar hope.

—

—

;

—

and no Theosophist could describe in plainer though esoteric language the mental joys of Devachan, where every man has his paradise around him, created by his consciousness. But you must beware of the general error into which too many even of our Theosophists fall. Do This

is

Nirvanic

bliss,

not imagine that because tuple

and a

triad, that

man

he

is

called septenary, then quin-

is

a

compound of

seven, five or

three entities; or, as well expressed by a Theosophical writer,

The

of skins to be peeled off like the skins of an onion. 27.

Proserpina, or Persephone, stands here for post-mortem Karma, which regulate the separation of the lower as Nephcsh, the breath of animal

life,

from the higher compound Ego, which goes 28.

into the state of

Until the separation of the higher, spiritual "principle"

which remain

in the

Kama-loka

is

—

said to

the soul, from the higher "principles" which remains for a time in Kama-loka,

until disintegrated.

Devachan, or

from the lower

bliss.

principles,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY "principles," as already said

the astral eidolon,

all

— save

99

the body, the life and

of which disperse at death

— are sim-

There is but one real man, enduring through the cycle of life and immortal in essence, if not in form, and this is Manas, the Mind-man or embodied Consciousness. The objection made by the materialists, who deny the possibility of mind and consciousness acting without matter, is worthless in our case. We do not deny the soundness of their argument, but we simply ask our opponents Are you acquainted zvith all the states of matter you who knew hitherto but of three? And how do you know whether that which we refer to as Absolute Consciousness or Deity, forever invisible and unknowable, be not that which, though it forever eludes our human finite ply aspects and states of consciousness.

:

—

conception,

is

still

universal Spirit-matter or matter-Spirit

in its absolute infinitude f in its

paradise

—

But what

mental to,

is

is

bliss.

Bgo may be,

the conscious

a fools' paradise,

it

that creates still

its

a state of

this

own bliss.

Devachan?

The "land of gods,"

ThKo.

one of the lowest, and

manvantaric manifestations fractioned, aspects of

Spirit-matter which

Inq.

It is, then,

literally;

a condition, a state of

Philosophically, a mental condition analogous

but far more vivid and real than, the most vivid dream.

It is

the state after death of

most mortals.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV

100

VII

ON THE VARIOUS POST-MORTEM STATES THE PHYSICAL AND THE SPIRITUAL MAN Inq.

I

Theo.

am

glad to hear you believe in the immortality of the soul.

Not of "the

in the Inq.

What

Theo.

a

soul," but of the divine Spirit; or rather

immortaHty of the reincarnating Ego. is

the difference?

very great one in our philosophy

;

but this

is

too ab-

and difficult a question to touch lightly upon. We have to analyze them separately, and then in conjunc-

struse shall tion.

We

We

may

begin with Spirit.

say that the Spirit

— or Atman

— the "Father

in secret" of

Jesus

no individual property of any man, but is the is impondinvisible and indivisible, that which does not exist is

divine essence which has no body, no form, which erable,

and yet is, as the Buddhists say of Nirvana. It only overshadows the mortal that which enters into him and pervades the whole body being but its omnipresent rays, or light, radiated through Biiddhi, its vehicle and direct emanation. This is the secret meaning of the assertions of almost all the an;

cient philosophers

when they

said that " the rational part of

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

101

man's soul ""^ never enters wholly into the man, but only overshadows him more or less through the irrational spiritual Soul, or Bnddhi.^° Inq.

I

labored under the impression that the "animal soul" alone was

irrational

and not the divine Soul.

You have

Theo.

to learn the difiference

between that which

is

negatively or passively irrational, because undififerentiated,

and that which

Man

is

is

irrational because too active

relation of chemical

by what we

tion Inq.

I

and

positive.

a correlation of spiritual powers, as well as a cor-

and physical

forces,

brought into func-

call "principles."

have read a good deal upon the subject, and

it

seems to me that from those

the notions of the older philosophers differed a great deal

of the mediaeval Kabalists, though they do agree in some particulars.

ThKo.

The most substantial difiference between them and us is While we believe, with the Neo-Platonists and the Eastteachings, that the Spirit {Atma) never descends hypo-

this.

ern

man, but only showers more or less the psychic and spiritual radiance on the inner man

statically into the living its

compound of that the

—

the astral principles

human

Spirit,

29.

In

its

itself

in the astral capsule.

All

generic sense, the term "rational" meaning something emanating from the

Eternal 30.

Kabalists maintain

from the ocean of enters man's Soul, where it re-

detaching

and Universal Spirit, mains throughout life imprisoned

light

— the

Wisdom.

Irrational in the sense that as a pure emanation of the Universal

Mind

it

can have

no individual reason of its own on this plane of matter, but, like the Moon, who borrows her light from the Sun and her life from the Earth, so Buddhi, receiving its light of Wisdom from Atma, gets its rational qualities from Manas. Per se, as something homogeneous, it is devoid of attributes.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

102

Christian Kabalists

still

maintain the same, as they are un-

able to break quite loose

from

their

anthropomorphic and

Biblical doctrines. Inq.

And what do you

We

ThDo.

say that

say?

we

only allow the presence of the radiation

of Spirit, or Atma, in the astral capsule, and so far only as that spiritual radiancy

is

We

concerned.

say that

man and

Soul have to conquer their immortality by ascending toward the unity with which, if successful, they will be finally linked,

and

into

which they are

individualization of

man

not on his soul and body. in the sense in if

which

it is

finally, so to

speak, absorbed.

after death depends on the spirit,

Although the word usually understood,

applied literally to our immortal essence,

''

is

still

personality,"

an absurdity the latter

as our individual Ego, a distinct entity, immortal

per

The

is,

and eternal

It is only in the case of black magicians or of crimbeyond redemption criminals who have been such during a long scries of lives that the shining thread which links the spirit to the personal soul from the moment of the birth of the child is violently snapped, and the disembodied entity becomes divorced from the personal soul, the latter se.

—

inals

—

being annihilated without leaving the smallest impression of

on the former.

between the lower or personal Manas and the individual reincarnating Ego has not been effected during life, then the former is left to share the fate of the lower animals to dissolve gradually into ether and have its personality annihilated. But even then the spiritual Ego remains a distinct being. It (the spiritual itself

If this union

—

Ego) only

loses

— after that

special,

and

in that case, indeed,

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHY

— one

163

would otherwise have enjoyed as that idealized personality, and is rein-

useless, life

Devachanic

state

which

it

carnated almost immediately, after enjoying for a short time its freedom as a planetary spirit. Inq.

It is stated in Isis Unveiled that such planetary spirits or angels, " the gods of the Pagans or the Archangels of the Christians," will

will

Theo.

never be

men on our

Quite right.

planet.

Not

''such planetary

classes of higher Planetary Spirits.

spirits,"

but some

They will never be

men

because they are liberated spirits from a previous, earlier world, and as such they cannot re-become men on this earth. Yet all these will live again in the next and

on

this planet,

far higher

mahmianvantara, after

this "

Great

Age

"

and

period of sixteen figures or so)

Brahmic pralaya (a little For you must have heard, of course, that Eastern philosophy teaches us that mankind consists of such " Spir-

its

are over.

its

" imprisoned in

animals and

men

human

is

this:

bodies.

The

difference between

the former are ensouled by the

^'principles" potentially, the latter actually.^^

Do you now

understand the difference? Inq.

Yes; but

this specialization

has been in

all

ages the stumbling-block

of metaphysicians.

Theo.

It has.

The whole

esotericism of the Buddhistic philo-

based on this mysterious teaching, understood by so few, and so totally misrepresented by many of the most learned modern scholars. Even metaphysicians are too in-

sophy

is

clined to 31.

This

is

confound the

fully explained in the

effect

with the cause.

An Ego who

Commentaries of The Secret Doctrine, volume

II.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

104

won

has

his

immortal

life

as spirit will remain the

same Inner

Self throughout all his rebirths on earth; but this does not imply necessarily that he must either remain the Mr. Smith or Mr. Brown he was on earth, or lose his individuality.

Therefore the astral soul and the terrestrial body of a man may, in the dark hereafter, be absorbed into the cosmical ocean of sublimated elements, and he may cease to feel his

Ego (if it did not deserve to soar higher) and yet the divine Ego may still remain the same unchanged entity, though this terrestrial experience of its emanation may last

personal

;

be totally obliterated at the instant of separation from the

unworthy Inq.

vehicle.

If the " Spirit," or the divine portion of the soul,

a distinct being from

all eternity,

is

as Origen, Synesius,

Christians and semi-Platonic philosophers taught, and

pre-existent as

and other semiif it is

the same,

and nothing more than the metaphysically objective soul, how can it be otherwise than eternal? And what matters it in such a case, whether man leads a pure or an animal life, if, do what he may, he can never lose his individuality?

Theo. in

This doctrine, as you have stated it, is just as pernicious its consequences as that of vicarious atonement. Had

the latter dogma, in

company with

the false idea that

we

are

immortal, been demonstrated to the world in its true light, humanity would have been bettered by its propagation. Let me repeat to you again: Pythagoras, Plato, Timaeus of Locris, and the old Alexandrian school derived the Soul of man (or his higher ''principles" and attributes) from the Universal World-Soul, the latter being, according to their teachings, Mthcr (Pater-Zeus). Therefore none of these "principles" can be the unalloyed essence of the Pythagorean all

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

105

monas, or our Atma-Buddhi, because the aniiiia niundi is but the subjective emanation, or rather radiation the effect

—

—

of the monas. Both the

human

Spirit,

or the individuaHty, the

reincarnating Spiritual Ego, and Buddhi, the Spiritual soul,

But while the former

are pre-existent.

exists as a distinct

an individualization, the soul exists as pre-existing Both breath, an unscient portion of an intelligent whole.

entity,

were originally formed from the Eternal Ocean of

light;

but as the Fire-Philosophers, the mediaeval Theosophists, ex-

pressed

it,

there

They made

is

a visible as well as invisible spirit in

fire.

anima bruta and the Empedocles firmly believed all men and animals to possess two souls; and in Aristotle we find that he calls one the reasoning soul (vovs) and the other the animal soul i^xn)' According to these philosophers, the reasoning soul comes from zvithin the Universal Soul, and the other from zvithoiit.

anima

Tnq.

Would you you

a difference between the

divina.

call the

call the

Soul,

i.

e.,

the

human

thinking Soul, or what

Ego, matter?

Theo. Not matter, but substance, assuredly; nor would the word ''matter," if prefixed with the adjective primordial, be This matter, we say, is coeternal with a word to avoid. Spirit, and is not our visible, tangible and divisible matter, but its extreme sublimation. Pure Spirit is but one remove from the no-Spirit, or the absolute All. Unless you admit that man was evolved out of this primordial spirit-matter, and represents a regular progressive scale of "principles" from w^^a-Spirit down to the grossest matter, how can we ever come to regard the inner man as immortal, and at the same time as a spiritual entity and a mortal man ?

THE KnV TO THBOSOPHV

106

Inq.

Then why should you not beheve

God

in

Theo.

as such

an Entity?

Because that which is infinite and unconditioned can have no form, and cannot be a being not in any Eastern philosophy worthy of the name, at any rate. An "entity" is

—

immortal, but

so only in

is

When

dividual form.

sorbed into it

loses its Its

its

its

ultimate essence, not in

at the last point of its cycle

primordial nature

name

;

and

it

becomes

it

spirit

its inis

ab-

when

of Entity.

immortality as a form

is

limited only to

or the mahdmanvantara, after which

it

is

its life-cycle

one and identical

with the Universal Spirit, and no longer a separate entity.

As

— by which we mean the spark of the Spiritual Ego the idea preserves incarnation — as of the

to the personal Soul

consciousness that of the personal "

in

I "

this lasts,

last

a separate distinct recollection, only throughout the Deva-

chanic period, after which time

added to the series of other innumerable incarnations of the Ego, like the remembrance in our memory of one of a series of days at the end of a year. Will you bind the infinitude you claim for your God to finite conditions? That alone which is indissolubly cemThe is immortal. viz., Buddhi-Manas ented by Atma soul of man —

—

i.

e.,

— — per of the personality

mortal, eternal nor divine.

The

soul,

when

is

it

sent to this

se

is

neither im-

Says the Zohar: earth,

puts on an earthly garment,

to preserve herself here; so she receives

above a shining garment,

in

order to be able to look without injury into the mirror, whose light

proceeds from the Lord of Light.

Moreover, the Zohar teaches that the soul cannot reach the abode of bliss unless she has received the *'holy kiss," or the reunion of the soul ivith the substance from zvhich she

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY emanated is

—

All souls are dual; and while the soul

spirit.

a feminine principle, the spirit

prisoned in body

10?

man

is

While im-

masculine.

a trinity, unless his pollution

is

such as to have caused his divorce from the to the soul which prefers to her divine husband

''

spirit.

is

Woe

[spirit] the

earthly wedlock with her terrestrial body," records a text of the

Book of

the

Keys

— a Hermetic work.

Woe

indeed; for

nothing will remain of that personality to be recorded on the imperishable tablets of the Ego's Inq.

memory.

How can that which, if not breathed by God into man, yet is on your own confession of an identical substance with the divine, fail to be immortal?

ThKo. is

Every atom and speck of matter, not of substance imperishable in

sciousness. ness,

its

essence, but not in

Immortality

is

its

individual con-

but one's unbroken conscious-

and the personal consciousness can hardly

than the personality

itself,

only,

can

it?

And

last

longer

such consciousness, as

have already told you, survives only throughout Devachan, which it is reabsorbed, first in the individual, and then Better inquire of your theoin the universal consciousness. logians how it is that they have so sorely jumbled up the Jewish Scriptures. Read the Bible, if you would have a Genesis good proof that the writers of the Pentateuch that which God especially never regarded nephesh breathes into Adam (Gen. ii. 7) as the immortal soul. I

after

—

—

—

—

every Here are some instances And God created " life \nephesh] that moveth (Gen. i. 21), meaning animals. "And man became a living soul [nephesh] " (Gen. ii. 7), which shows that the word nephesh was indififerently applied *'

.

:

to

immortal

man and

to mortal beast.

"

And

.

.

surely your

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

108

blood of your lives [ncpheshim] will of every beast will

(Gen.

ix. 5).

*'

require

I

and

it,

Escape for thy

I

hand the hand of man."

require; at the

at

[nephesh] " (Gen. xix.

life

"Let us not kill him" (Gen. xxxvii. 21). "Let us "Nephesh for not kill his nephesh" is the Hebrew text. 17).

nephesh," says Leviticus. surely be put to death "

nephesh of a

man"

that killeth any man shall literally, " He that smiteth the

"

—

He

"And

(Lev. xxiv. 17).

he that

killeth

make it good; beast for beast" (ibid. text has it "nephesh for nephesh" the original whereas 18), How could man kill that which is immortal ? This explains, a beast [nephesh] shall

also,

why

the Sadducees denied the immortality of the soul,

and also affords another proof that very probably the Mosaic never believed in the the uninitiated, at any rate Jews

—

—

soul's survival at

all.

ON ETERNAL REWARD AND PUNISHMENT, AND ON NIRVANA Inq.

It is

hardly necessary,

the Christian

I

suppose, to ask you whether you believe in

dogmas of Paradise and

Hell, or in future rewards

and

punishments as taught by the orthodox churches?

we

them absolBut we utely; least of all would we accept their eternity. and in Refribiition, believe firmly in what we call the Lazv of the absolute justice and wisdom guiding this Law, or Karma. Hence we positively refuse to accept the cruel and unphilosophical belief in eternal reward or eternal punishment. We say with Horace:

TiiKO.

As

described in your catechisms,

Let rules be fixed that

And

may our

reject

rage contain,

punish faults with a proportion d pain;

TMB KEY TO THBOSOPHY

109

But do not flay him who deserves alone A whipping for the fault that he has done.

men, and a just one. Have we to believe that God, whom you make the embodiment of wisdom, love and mercy, is less entitled to these attributes than mortal This

a rule for

is

all

man? Inq.

Have you any

ThDo.

Our

ation.

other reasons for rejecting this

chief reason for so doing

As

we

already stated,

is

the fact of Reincarn-

new

reject the idea of a

We

created for every newly-born babe.

human

dogma?

soul

believe that every

Bgo coeval with Egos are of the same essence and belong to the primeval emanation from one universal infinite Ego. Plato calls the latter the Logos (or the second manifested God) and we, the manifested Divine Principle, which is one with the Universal Mind or Soul not the anthropomorphic, extra-cosmic and personal God in which being

is

the bearer, or vehicle, of an

every other Ego; because

all

;

so Inq.

many

—

Pray do not confuse.

theists believe.

But where

the difficulty, once you accept a manifested Principle,

is

in believing that the soul of ciple, as all the

Souls before

every it

new mortal

created by that Prin-

is

have been so created?

Theo. Because that which is impersonal can hardly create, plan and think, at its own sweet will and pleasure. Being a universal Lazv, immutable in

its

periodical manifestations

those of radiating and manifesting

ginning of every new cycle of create men, only to repent a

them.

If

must be

we have

in

life

is

own

— It

few years

to believe in a

one which

its

is

essence at the be-

not supposed to

later of

having created

Divine Principle

as absolute

—

harmony,

at all,

logic

it

and

:

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHV

110

justice, as

absolute love,

it is

God who would

wisdom and

impartiality;

and a

create every soul for the space of one brief

span of life, regardless of the fact whether it has to animate the body of a wealthy, happy man or that of a poor suffering wretch, hapless from birth to death, though he has done nothing to deserve his cruel fate, would be rather a senseless

Why,

fiend than a God.^^ believers in the

even the Jewish philosophers,

Mosaic Bible

have Moreover, they believed in

(esoterically, of course),

never entertained such an idea. Reincarnation, as Inq.

Can you

Theo.

we

me some

give

Most decidedly The

air

is

do. instances as a proof of this?

can.

I

Philo Judseus says

of them [of souls]

full

;

.

.

.

those which are nearest the

earth, descending to be tied to mortal bodies, to other bodies,

In the

being desirous to live in

Zohar

the soul

is

made

iraXivSpoixoOaiv

aCfiiis,

return

themP

to plead her

freedom before

God: Lord of

the universe

I

!

am happy

go into another world, where

I shall

in this world,

and do not wish

to

be a handmaid, and be exposed

to all kinds of pollutions.^"*

The law,

is

doctrine of fatal necessity, the everlasting immutable asserted in the answer of the Deity:

Against thy

thou becomest an embryo, and against thy will thou

will

art born. 2^

"

32.

See,

33.

De

34.

Zohar,

35.

Mishna, Aboth,

further,

Gignat, ii,

p.

On

the

222 c;

De

96. iv,

29.

Reward and Punishment of Somniis, 455

d.

the

Ego."

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

HI

Light would be incomprehensible without darkness to make it manifest by contrast good would be no longer good ;

without

evil to

show the

priceless nature of the boon;

so personal virtue could claim

no merit unless

and

had passed

it

through the furnace of temptation. Nothing is eternal and unchangeable save the concealed Deity. Nothing that is

— whether because had a an end — can remain stationary; finite

it

beginning or must have

it

must

either progress or

recede and a soul which thirsts after a reunion with its spirit, which alone confers upon it immortality, must purify itself ;

through cyclic migrations onward towards the only land of bliss and eternal rest, called in the Zohar the " Palace of b'2^r\\ in the Hindii religion, "Moksha;" among the Gnostics, the " Pleroma of Eternal Light ;" and by the Buddhists, " Nirvana." And all these states are temporary,

Love," n::nK

not eternal. Yet there

Inq.

ThEo. is,

a

is

soul

must he

occasion.

no Re-incarnation spoken of

which pleads pre-existent,

in all this.

to be allowed to

remain where she

and not have been created for the

In the Zohar, however, there

is

a

still

better proof.

Speaking of the reincarnating Egos, the rational

whose

last personality

has to fade out entirely,

souls, those it is

said:

All souls which are not guiltless in this world have already alienated

themselves in heaven from the Holy

thrown themselves ticipated the time

36.

into

an abyss

when they

are to

61 b. The above quotations are pedia, art. " Kabalah."

iii,

One

they have and have andescend (once more) on earth.^*^ (blessed be he)

;

at their very existence,

from K. R. H. Mackenzie's Masonic Cyclo-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

112

Holy One Atmd-Buddhi.

The

Inq.

'*

"

means

here, esoterically, the

Atman, or

Moreover, it is very strange to find Nirvana spoken of as something synonymous with the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Paradise, since according to every Orientalist of note Nirvana is a synonym of annihilation

The:o.

!

Taken

Hterally, with

regard to the personaHty and dif-

These ideas on Reinheld by many of the early Christian Fathers. It is the jumble made by the translators of the New Testament and ancient philosophical treatises between soul and spirit that has occasioned the many misunderstandings. It is also one of the many reasons why Buddha, Plotinus and so many other Initiates are now accused of having longed for the total extinction of their souls " absorption unto the Deity," or " reunion with the Universal Soul," meaning, according to modern ideas, annihilferentiated matter

;

but not otherwise.

carnation and the trinity of

man were

—

ation.

The personal

into

particles before

its

soul must, of course, be disintegrated

ever with the immortal

it is

the Acts and the Epistles,

Kingdom

able to link

spirit.

who

its

purer essence for-

But the translators of both laid the

foundation of the

of Heaven, and the modern commentators on the Buddhist Sutta of the Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness, have muddled the sense of the great apostle of Christianity as of the great reformer of India. The former have smothered the word psuchikos (i/'vxtKos ) so that no reader imagines it to have any relation with soul; and with this confusing together of soul and spirit, Bible readers get only a perverted sense of anything on the subject. On the other hand, the interpreters of Buddha have failed to understand

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

113

meaning and object of the Buddhist four degrees of Ask the Pythagoreans: Can that spirit which DJiydua. gives Hfe and motion and partakes of the nature of hght be

the

reduced to nonentity ? Can even that sensitive spirit in brutes one of the rational faculties which exercises memory

—

—

and become nothing? observe the Occultists. In Buddhistic philosophy annihilation means only a dispersion of matter, in whatever form or semblance of form it may be; for everything that has form is temporary, and is, therefore, For in eternity the longest periods of really an illusion. wink of an eye. So with form. Before we are as the time have time to realize that we have seen it, it is gone like an instantaneous flash of lightning, and passed forever. When the Spiritual entity breaks loose forever from every particle of matter, substance or form, and re-becomes a Spiritual breath, then only does it enter upon the eternal and unchange-

die

able Nirvana, lasting as long as the cycle of life has lasted

— an

eternity, truly.

And

Spirit,

is

nothing because

shape,

it

is

then that Breath, existing in

it is

all;

as a form, a semblance, a

completely annihilated; as absolute Spirit

it

still

The for it has become, to coin a word, Be-ness itself. very phrase " absorbed in the universal essence," when used

is,

of the Soul as Spirit, means union with. annihilation, for that Inq,

Do you

can never mean

not lay yourself open to the accusation of preaching annihil-

ation by the language

the Soul of

Theo.

It

would mean eternal separation.

man

you yourself use?

returning to

its

You have

just

spoken of

primordial elements.

But you forget that I have given you the differences between the various meanings of the word " Soul," and shown the loose way in which the term " Spirit " has been hitherto

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

114

We speak of an animal, a human and a spiritual

translated.

and distinguish between them. Plato, for instance, Soul " that which we call Buddhi, adding to " spiritual," however but that which we call it the adjective the reincarnating Ego, Manas, he calls Spirit, Nous, etc., whereas we apply the term Spirit, when standing alone and Pythagoras rewithout any qualification, to Atma alone. soul,

calls " rational

;

peats our archaic doctrine

when

stating that the

Bgo (nous)

is eternal with Deity; that the soul only passed through various stages to arrive at divine excellence; while thuinos

returned to the earth, and even the phren, the lower Manas,

was

Again, Plato defines Soul {Buddhi) as " the " Soul," he adds {Laws, able to move itself."

eliminated.

motion that

is

most ancient of all things, and the commencethus calling Atma-Buddhi Soul, and ment of motion " Manas Spirit, which we do not. X.), "is the

—

Soul was generated prior to body, and body

is

posterior and second-

by the ruling soul. things that are moved, in every way,

ary, as being, according to Nature, ruled over

The

soul which administers

all

administers likewise the heavens.

.

.

its

movements

.

.

.

Soul, then, leads everything in heaven,

by

.

— the names of which

and on

earth,

and

in the sea,

are, to will, to consider, to take

care of, to consult, to form opinions true and false, to be in a state of joy, sorrow, confidence, fear, hate, love, together with all such

movements

as are allied to these.

.

.

.

ever takes as an ally nous, a god, and disciplines

and happily

;

but

when with anoia

primary

Being a goddess herself, she

[not nous]

it

all

things correctly

works out everything

the contrary.

In this language, as in the Buddhist texts, the negative treated as essential existence. similar exegesis.

The

is

Annihilation comes under a

positive state

is

essential being, but

THE KBY TO THEOSOPHY

When

no manifestation as such. parlance, enters Nirvana,

it

To

115

the spirit, in Buddhistic

loses objective existence, but re-

minds this is becoming absolute "nothing;" to subjective, No-thing, nothing to be displayed to sense. Thus their Nirvana means the certitude of individual immortality in Spirit, not in Soul, which, though " the most ancient of all things," is still along with all the other Gods a finite emanation in forms and individuality, tains subjective being.

objective

—

—

if

Inq,

I

not in substance. do not quite

explain this to

seize the idea yet,

me by some

No doubt it one brought up

ThEo.

is

very

in the

and would be thankful

to

have you

illustrations.

difficult to

understand, especially to

regular orthodox ideas of the Christ-

Moreover, I must tell you one thing; and this you have studied thoroughly well the separate functions assigned to all the human ''principles," and the state of all these after death, you will hardly realize our Eastern philosophy. ian church. is

that unless

ON THE VARIOUS "PRINCIPLES" Inq.

I

as

MAN

have heard a good deal about this constitution of the "inner man," you call it, but could never make " head or tail on't," as Gabalis

expresses

it.

Of course

Theo. to

IN

it is

most

difficult

and, as you say, "puzzling"

understand correctly and distinguish between the various

aspects, called

the

more

by us the "principles," of the

real

Ego.

so as there exists a notable difference in the

It is

num-

bering of these principles by various Eastern schools, though

THE KHY TO THBOSOPHY

116

the bottom there

at

is

same

the

identical

substratum of

teaching. Inq.

Do you mean

the V^edantins, as an instance?

Don't they divide your

seven "principles" into five only?

They do but though

Theo.

;

I

would not presume

point with a learned Vedantin,

I

may

yet state as

opinion that they have an obvious reason for it

only that

is

compound

spiritual

of various mental aspects that

is

to dispute the

my

private

With them

it.

aggregate which consists

called

Man

at

all,

the phys-

body being, in their view, something beneath contempt, and merely an illusion. Nor is the Vedanta the only philosophy to reckon in this manner. Lao-Tze, in his Tao-teKing, mentions only five principles, because he, like the Vedantins, omits to include two principles, namely, the Spirit (Atmd) and the physical body, the latter of which, moreover, he calls the "cadaver." Then there is the Taraka Raja Yoga ical

school.

Its

teaching recognizes only three "principles," in

fact; but then, in reality, their sthiilopddhi, or physical body,

sukshmopddhi, the same and their kdranopddhi, or "causal body," or that which passes from one incarnation to another, are all dual in their aspects, and thus make six. Add to this Atmd, the impersonal Divine Principle or the immortal element in man, undistinguished from the Universal waking, conscious

in its

body

Spirit,

come Inq.

Then

state,

and you have the same seven again.

to hold to their division it

Christians

37.

state, their

svapna, or the dreaming

in

;

we

•^^

They are

wel-

hold to ours.

seems almost the same as the division made by the mystic body, soul and spirit. :

See,

for a clearer explanation,

The Secret Doctrine,

i,

157.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY ThEo.

We

Just the same.

could easily

make

117

of the body the

vehicle of the ''vital Double;" of the latter the vehicle of

Prana; of Kama Riipa, or animal soul, the vehicle of the higher and the lower mind; and make of this six prinIn ciples, crowning the whole with the one immortal spirit. Occultism every qualificative change in the state of our consciousness gives to man a new aspect; and if it prevails and becomes part of the living and acting Ego, it must be (and Life, or

given a special name, to distinguish the man in that particular state from the man he is when he places himself in is)

another Inq.

state.

It is just that

which

is

so difficult to understand.

It seems to me very easy, on the contrary, once that you have seized the main idea, i. e., that man acts on this or another plane of consciousness in strict accordance with his mental and spiritual condition. But such is the materialism of the age that the more we explain the less people seem

ThEo.

capable of understanding what trial

being called

man

we

say.

Divide the terres-

into three chief aspects, if

you

like;

and unless you make of him a pure animal you cannot do

Take

body: the thinking principle in him only a little higher than the instinctual element

his objective

which

is

the animal places

mal,

less.

him

i.e.,

— or

so

— in

the vital conscious soul; and that which

immeasurably beyond and higher than the ani-

his reasoning soul or "spirit."

Well,

if

we

take

these three groups or representative entities, and subdivide

them according First of

all,

to the occult teaching,

— the sense of the Absolute and can neither be All — or Atma. As

Spirit

fore indivisible

what do we get?

there-

in

this

loc-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

118

ated nor limited in philosophy, being simply that which iS in Eternity, and which cannot be absent from even the tiniest

geometrical or mathematical point of the universe of matter "

ought not to be called, in truth, a " human Rather, and at best, it is, in metaphysics, principle at all. that point in space which the human Monad and its vehicle,

or substance,

it

man, occupy for the period of every life. Now that point is as imaginary as man himself, and in reality is an illusion,

may a; but then, for ourselves, as for other personal Egos, we are a reality during that fit of illusion called life, and we in our own fancy, at have to take ourselves into account To make it more conceivif no one else does. any rate able to the human intellect when first attempting the study of Occultism, and to solve the A B C of the mystery of man.

a

—

—

Occultism sixth,

Now

seventh principle the synthesis of the for vehicle the Spiritual Soul (Buddhi).

calls this

and gives

it

the latter conceals a mystery which

is

never given to

any one, with the exception of irrevocably pledged chelds, Of course or those, at any rate, who can be safely trusted. there would be less confusion could it only be told; but as this is directly concerned with the power of projecting one's double consciously and at will, and as this gift, like the " ring of Gyges," would prove very fatal to man at large and to the possessor of this faculty in particular, it is careBut let us proceed with the "principles." fully guarded. This divine

soul, or

Buddhi, then,

is

the vehicle of the Spirit.

In conjunction these two are one, impersonal and without

any attributes (on

this

spiritual "principles."

Manas

plane, of course), but

If

we

pass on to the

make two

Human

Soul,

or mens, every one will agree that the intelligence of

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY man

is

dual, to say the least

—

e.g., the

ll9

high-minded

man

can hardly become low-minded the very intellectual and spiritually minded man is separated by an abyss from the obtuse, dull and material, if not animal-minded, man. ;

Inq.

But why should not man be represented by two "principles" or two aspects rather?

Every man has these two principles in him, one more active than the other; and in rare cases one of them is en-

Theo.

growth, so to say, or paralyzed by the strength and predominance of the other aspect in every di-

tirely stunted in its

rection.

These, then, are what

we

call

the two principles or

Manas, the higher and the lower the former, the higher Manas, or the thinking, conscious Ego, gravitating toward the spiritual Soul (Buddhi) and the latter, or its

aspects of

;

;

Kama, the seat of animal Thus we have four principles desires and passions in man. justified, the last three being ( 1 ) the " Double," which we instinctual principle, attracted to

have agreed

to call

Protean or Plastic Soul, the vehicle of

Of course (2) the life principle; and (3) the physical body. no physiologist or biologist will accept these principles, nor can he make head or

tail

of them.

And

this is

why, perhaps,

day understand either the functions of the spleen, the physical vehicle of the Protean Double, or those of a certain organ on the right side of man, the seat of the above-mentioned desires nor yet do they know anything of the pineal body, which is described as a horny gland with a little sand in it, whereas it is in truth the very seat of the

none of them

to this

;

spiritual

and all-embracing mind.

—

his omniscient, man And this shows you still

highest and divinest consciousness in

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV

120

more

we have neither invented these seven printhey new in the world of philosophy, as we

plainly that

ciples,

nor are

can easily prove. Inq.

But what

is it

that reincarnates, in your belief?

Theo. The spiritual, thinking Ego, the permanent principle in man, or that which is the seat of Manas. It is not Atma, or even Atma-Buddhi, regarded as the dual monad, which is the individual or divine man, but Manas for Atman is the Universal All, and becomes the Higher Self of man only in con;

junction with Buddhi, dividuality or divine

its

vehicle,

man.

For

which is

it

the united fifth and sixth principles

links It to the in-

the

Buddhi-Manas

— which

Causal Body by the Vedantins, and which

is

is

—

called the

consciousness,

that connects It with every personality It inhabits on earth.

Therefore, soul being a generic term, there are in aspects of soul soul;

:

( 1 )

and (3) the

one soul

the terrestrial or animal

;

men three human

(2) the

spiritual soul; these, strictly speaking, are

Now

in its three aspects.

of the

first

aspect nothing

remains after death; of the second, nous or Manas, only

its

divine essence, if left unsoiled, survives; while the third, in

addition to being immortal, becomes consciously divine, by the assimilation of the higher

we have Inq.

You

will

to say a

do

few words

well, as

it is

Manas.

first

of

all

But

to

make

it

clear

about Reincarnation.

against this doctrine that your enemies fight

the most ferociously.

know; and many are the absurd objections laboriously spun by them over the pages of their journals. So obtuse and malicious are some One of them reof them that they will stop at nothing.

ThEo.

You mean

the Spiritualists?

I

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY cently found a contradiction in a letter to

Light —

He

ent's lectures.

in

— which

121

he gravely discusses

two statements picked out of a stud-

discovers this grave contradiction in the

"

Premature returns to earth-life, in the may be due to karmic complication;" " and There is no accident in the supreme act of divine justice guiding evolution." So profound a thinker would surely see a contradiction of the law of gravitation if a man stretched out his hand to stop a falling stone from crushing the head

two sentences

cases

:

when they

of a child!

occur,

THE KHY TO THMOSOPHY

122

VIII

ON REINCARNATION OR REBIRTH WHAT Inq.

IS

MEMORY ACCORDING TO THBOSOPHICAL TEACHING?

The most

difficult

thing for you will be to explain and give reason-

No Theosophist has ever yet succeeded in bringing forth a single valid proof to shake my skepticism. First of all, you have against this theory of Reincarnation the fact able grounds for such a belief.

man has yet been found to remember who he was, during his previous life.

that no single

of

least

Theo.

all

that he has lived,

Your argument, I see, tends to the same old objection: memory in each of us of our previous incarnation.

the loss of

You it

be Inq.

I

ThEo.

think

it

invalidates our doctrine?

My

answer

is

that

does not; or that, at any rate, such an objection can not final.

should like to hear your arguments.

They are

short and few.

Yet when you take

eration (a) the utter inability of the best

into consid-

modern psycho-

world the nature of mind, and {h) their complete ignorance of its potentialities and higher states, you have to admit that this objection is based on an a priori conclusion drawn from prima facie and circumstantial evidence more than anything else. Now, what is memory in your conception, pray? logists to explain to the

:

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY Inq.

123

That which the generally accepted definition explains: the faculty in our mind of remembering and of retaining the knowledge of previous thoughts, deeds and events.

Please add to

ThEO.

it

that there

is

a great difiference between

memory. Besides memory in general you have Remembrance, Recollection and ReminHave you ever thought over the difiscence, have you not? ference? Memory, remember, is a generic name.

the three accepted forms of

Inq,

Yet,

Thko.

all

these are only synonyms.

Indeed, they are not

— not

in philosophy, at all events.

simply an innate power in thinking beings, and even in animals, of reproducing past impressions by an association of ideas principally suggested by objective things or

Memory

is

by some action on our external sensory organs. Memory is a faculty depending entirely on the more or less healthy and normal functioning of our physical brain and remembrance and recollection are the attributes and handmaidens of this memory. But reminiscence is an entirely different thing. Reminiscence is defined by the modern psychologist as some;

thing intermediate between remembrance and recollection, or

A full

conscious process of recalling past occurrences, but ivithoiit that

and varied reference

to particular things

which characterizes

recol-

lection.

Locke, speaking of recollection and remembrance, says:

When an idea again recurs without the operation of the like object on the external sensory, it is remembrance; if it be sought after by the mind, and with pain and endeavour found and brought again into view, it

is

recollection.

But even Locke leaves reminiscence without any clear de-

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

124

because

finition,

it

memory, but an

is

no faculty or attribute of our physical from and out-

intuitional perception apart

side our physical brain

;

a perception which, being called into

action by the ever-present knowledge of our spiritual Ego,

covers

all

man which

those visions in

are regarded as ab-

— from the pictures suggested by genius the ravings of fever and even madness — and are classed by science

normal

to

as having no existence outside of our fancy.

Occultism and

Theosophy, however, regard reminiscence in an entirely different light. For us, while memory is physical and evanescent, and depends on the physiological conditions of the brain a fundamental proposition with all teachers of mnemonics, who have the researches of modern scientific psychologists to back them reminiscence is the memory of the soul. And it is this memory which gives the assurance to almost every human being, whether he understands it or not, of his having lived before and having to live again. Indeed, as Wordsworth has it

—

—

Our

birth

is

but a sleep and a forgetting;

The Soul that rises with us, our Hath elsewhere had its setting,

And Cometh from Inq.

If

it

is

on

own

your

this

kind of

ThKO.

I

I

am

and

— poetry

and abnormal fancies, on you base your doctrine, then you will

afraid.

did not "confess"

physiologists

Star,

afar.

memory

confession — that

convince very few,

life's

it

was a fancy.

scientists in general

I

simply said that

regard such reminis-

cences as hallucinations and fancy, to which learned conclusion they are welcome.

We

do not deny that such visions of

the past and glimpses far back into the corridors of time are

THH KHY TO THBOSOPHV

125

abnormal, as contrasted with our normal daily

experience

life

But we do maintain, with Professor " W. Knight, that the absence of memory of any action done in a previous state cannot be a conclusive argument against our having lived through it." And every fair-minded opponent must agree with what is said in Butler's Lectures on

and physical memory.

Platonic Philosophy, "that the feeling of extravagance with

which

it

(pre-existence) affects us has

terialistic

its

secret source in

Besides which,

or semi-materialistic prejudices."

that memory is, " phantasy, "^^ and the most unreliable thing in us.

we maintain

ma-

as Olympiodorus called

man

ius Saccas asserted that the only faculty in

it,

simply

Ammon-

directly op-

posed to prognostication, or looking into futurity, is memory. Furthermore, remember that memory is one thing and mind or thought is another: memory is a recording machine, a register which very easily gets out of order but thoughts are ;

Would you refuse to believe in the existence of certain things or men only because your physical eyes have not seen them ? Would not the collective testimony of past generations who have seen Julius Caesar eternal

and imperishable.

be a sufficient guaranty that he once lived ? the

"

should not

same testimony of the psychic senses of the masses be

taken into consideration

38.

Why

?

phantasy," says Olympiodorus, in Plato's Ph(edo, " is an impediment to our intellectual conceptions; and hence, when we are agitated by the inspiring influence of the Divinity, if the phantasy intervenes, the enthusiastic energy Should it ceases for enthusiasm and the ecstasy are contrary to each other. be asked whether the soul is able to energize without the phantasy, we reply that its perception of universals proves that it is able. It has perceptions, therefore, independent of the phantasy at the same time, however, the phantasy attends in its energies, just as a storm pursues him who sails on the sea."

The

;

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

12fl

Inq.

But don't you

that these are too fine distinctions to be ac-

tliink

cepted by the majority of mortals?

Theo. Say, rather, by the majority of materiahsts. And to them we say Behold, even in the short span of ordinary existence memory is too weak to register all the events of a lifetime. How frequently do even most important events lie dormant in our memory until awakened by some association of ideas, or aroused to function and activity by some other :

This

link!

age,

who

especially the case with people of

is

advanced

are always found suffering from feebleness of re-

When,

collection.

then,

we bear

in

mind what we know

about the physical and the spiritual principles in man, it is not the fact that our memory has failed to record our pre-

and

cedent

life

trary,

were

it

lives that

ought

to surprise us, but the con-

to happen.

WHY DO WE NOT REMEMBER OUR PAST Inq.

You have given me a how do they account

LIVES

f

bird's-eye view of the seven principles.

Now

for our complete loss of any recollection of

having lived before?

Theo.

Very

easily.

Those "principles" which we

call

phys-

icaP^ are disintegrated after death together with their constituent elements,

vanished neither 39.

memory

and memory along with the

brain.

This

of a vanished personality can consequently

remember nor record anything

in the

subsequent re-

Namely, the body, life, passional and animal instincts, and the astral eidolon of every man, whether perceived in thought or our mind's eye, or objectively and separate from the physical body; which principles we call Sthula Shanra, Prana, Kama Riipa and Linga Shorira. None of these is denied by science, though it calls them by different names.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY incarnation of the Ego.

127

Reincarnation means that the

Ego

furnished with a neiv body, a nczu brain and a nczv memory. Therefore it would be as absurd to expect this will be

remember that which it has never recorded examine under a microscope a shirt which as it would had never been worn by a murderer, and seek on it for the nezv

memory

to

be to

found only on the clothes he has worn. It is not the clean shirt that we have to question, but the clothes worn during the perpetration of the crime; and if these are burned and destroyed, how can you get at stains of blood

which are

to be

them ? Inq.

Aye, and how can you get at the certainty that the crime was ever committed at all, or that the man in the clean shirt ever lived before?

Not by physical

ThEo.

processes, most assuredly, nor by relying

on the testimony of that which exists no longer.

But there

such a thing as circumstantial evidence, since our wise laws accept it, more, perhaps, even than they should. To is

get convinced of the fact of Reincarnation and past lives,

one must put oneself en rapport with one's real permanent Ego, not with one's evanescent memory. Inq.

But how can people believe that which they do not knozv, nor have ever seen, far less put themselves en rapport with it?

Theo.

and they the most learned, will believe in the abstracwhat not of Science tions and working hypotheses which they have neither seen, why should not other touched, smelled, heard nor tasted people believe, on the same principle, in the permanent Ego, a far more logical and important "working hypothesis" than any other ? If people,

—

Gravity, Ether, Force, and

—

:

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

128

What

Inq.

plain

Theo.

finally,

is,

The Ego which

sonal — and

Can you ex-

mysterious eternal principal?

this

nature so as to

its

make

comprehensible to all?

it

reincarnates, the individual "

immortal

I

"

— not

per-

the vehicle, in short, of the

;

Atma-Buddhic Monad that which is rewarded in Devachan and punished on earth; and that, finally, to which the reflec;

tion only of the

attaches Inq.

Skandhas, or

attributes,'*°of

every incarnation

itself.

What do you mean by skandhas?

ThEo.

Just what

I

said

— "attributes," among which

memory. a flower, leaving behind them only a very difficult for a Western mind to

All of these perish like feeble perfume.

[It is

grasp the Eastern teachings

;

for the

West has

is

only a science

of the material world and, so far as the inner nature of things

is

concerned,

it

has nothing better than the science of

—

you can call that a science which The deals only in abstractions and intellectual conceptions. West has no idea of treating the mind, the passions, and all the numerous factors that go to make up the personality of man, as actual existences. Nevertheless they are so, and

metaphysics for a guide

if

they are as objective, to the eye of the trained seer, as physical body to the eye of the perishable personality of nita to our science,

There are

science.

And,

if

the

even

such an utter terra incog-

is

how much more

so must the immortal

William Q. Judge says

Self be. 40.

modern

man

is

five

Skandhas, or

attributes, in the

Buddhist teachings:

"

rupa (form

or body), material qualities; vedana, sensation; sauna, abstract ideas; samkhara,

Of these we are formed; by them and through them communicate with the world

tendencies of mind; vinnana, mental powers.

we

are conscious of existence

about us."

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

129

The body includes one set of the skandhas, the astral man another, kdma principle is another set, and still others pertain to other parts. In kama are the really active and important ones which control re-

the

and circumstance upon each to day under the law that every thought combines instantly with one of the elemental forces of nature, becoming to that extent an entity which will endure in accordance with the strength of the thought as it leaves the brain, and all

births

and lead

to all the varieties of life

They are being made from day

rebirth.

of these are inseparably connected with the being that evolved them. There is no way of escaping; all we can do is to have thoughts of

good quality, for the highest of the Masters themselves are not exempt from this law, but they "people their current in space" with entities powerful for good alone.

Now

in

Kdma-loka

this

mass of desire and thought exists very and then the re-

definitely until the conclusion of its disintegration

mainder consists of the essence of these skandhas, connected of course, They can no more be with the being that evolved and had them. done away with than we can blot out the universe. Hence they are said to remain until the being comes out of Devachan, and then at once by the law of attraction they are drawn to the being, who from them as germ or basis builds up a new set of skandhas for the

new

life.

.

.

.

Struggling out of the body the entire

man

goes into Kdma-loka,

where he again struggles and loosens himself from the The very nature of Manas requires a Dcvachanic lower skandhas; state as soon as the body is lost, and it is simply the effect of loosening the bonds placed upon the mind by its physical and astral encasement.

to purgatory,

.

In

life

we can

.

.

but to a fractional extent act out the thoughts we have still less can we exhaust the psychic energies en-

each moment; and

The energy thus gendered by each day's aspirations and dreams. Manas, but the in is stored annihilated, but or engendered is not lost of the force. development full permit no body body, brain, and astral bonds weakened from the bursts then it Hence, held latent until death, and plunges Manas, the thinker, into the expansion, ment of the thought- force set up in life.]

use,

and develop-

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

130

This proves to you that while the undying quahties of the attach such as love, goodness, charity, etc. personaHty themselves to the immortal Ego, photographing on it, so to speak, a permanent image of the divine aspect of the man those which generate the who was, his material skandhas

—

—

—

—

are as evanescent as a flash most marked karmic effects the new brain of the new impress cannot lightning, and of personality; yet their failing to do so impairs in no way the identity of the reincarnating Ego.

Do you mean to infer that that which survives is only the Soulmemory, as you call it, that Soul or Ego being one and the same,

Inq.

while nothing of the personality remains?

— —

unless the Not quite something of each personality latter was an absolute materialist, with not even a chink in must surhis nature for a spiritual ray to pass through

ThKO.

;

vive, as

it

leaves

its

eternal impress on the incarnating per-

Ego/^ The personality, with its skandhas, is ever changing with every new birth. It is, as said before, only the part played by the actor, the true Ego, for one night. This is why we preserve no memory on the physical plane of our past lives, though the real " Ego " has lived them over and knows them all.

manent Self or

Spiritual

Then how does it happen that the real or Spiritual man does not new personal " I " with this knowledge ?

Inq,

impress his

Th^o. 41.

Or

How

is

it

that the servant-girls in a poor farm-house The student must not Higher Selp, which is Atma, the God

the Spiritual in contradistinction to the personal self.

confuse this Spiritual

Ego with

the

within us, and inseparable from the Universal Spirit.

Post-mortem and Post-natal Consciousness.")

(See Section IX,

"On

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Hebrew and play the violin in state, and knew neither when

could speak

somnambulic

their trance or in their

normal

Because, as every genuine psychologist of the

condition? old

131

— not your modern — school

will tell you, the Spiritual

Ego can act only when the personal Ego is paralyzed. The Spiritual " I " in man is omniscient and has every knowledge innate in

it,

while the personal self

the creature of

is

its

en-

vironment and the slave of the physical memory. Could the former manifest itself uninterruptedly and without impediment, there would be no longer men on earth, but we should all

Inq.

be gods.

Still

Theo.

some ought

there ought to be exceptions, and

And

so they do.

But who believes

to

remember.

in their report?

Such

sensitives are generally regarded as hallucinated hysteriacs,

as crack-brained enthusiasts or humbugs, by

modern mater-

Let them read, however, works on this subject, preeminently Reincarnation: A Study of Forgotten Truth, by ialists.

E. D. Walker, and see in

mass of proofs which the able Speak to some What is Soul ? Have you ever

the

it

author brings to bear on this vexed question. people of soul, and they ask.

proved those

its

who

existence?

when

lection of all

a

your

is

But even

life,

useless to argue with to

them

I

would put

first

thoughts or deeds, or that you lived at

eighteen months or two years of your ex-

Then why not deny

babe, on the

it

Can you remember what you were or what you baby? Have you preserved the smallest recol-

during the

istence?

course

are materialists.

the question.

did

Of

same principle?

you have ever lived as a W'hen to all this we add that

that

the reincarnating Ego, or individuaVity, retains during the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

132

Devachanic period merely the essence of the experience of its past earth-life or personality, the whole physical experience involving into a state of in potentia, or being, so to

speak, translated into spiritual formulas further, that the term between

;

when we remember,

two rebirths is said to extend which the physical consciousness is totally and absolutely inactive, having no organs to act through, and therefore no existence the reason for the absence of all remembrance in the purely physical

from ten

fifteen centuries

to

— during

—

memory Inq.

You is

Theo. of

apparent.

is

just said that the

Spiritual Ego was omniscient. Where, then, its Devachanic life, as you call it?

that vaunted omniscience during

During that time all,

it is

latent

the Spiritual Ego, the

and

potential, because, first

compound of Buddhi-Manas,

is

not the Higher SELF, which being one with the Universal

Soul or Mind,

Devachan

is

is

alone omniscient; and, secondly, because

the idealized continuation of the terrestrial life

and a rewrongs and sufferings undergone in that

just left behind, a period of retributive adjustment,

ward

for unmerited

special life. in

The

Devachan;

it

Spiritual

Ego

is

omniscient only potentially

enjoys actual omniscience in Nirvana alone

Ego is merged in the Universal Mind-Soul. NevEgo re-becomes quasi-oxnn\sc\tnt during those hours on earth when certain abnormal conditions and physiological changes in the body make it free from the trammels of matter. Thus the examples cited above of somnambulists when

the

ertheless the

— a poor servant speaking Hebrew, and another playing the — give you an This of the case violin

does not

illustration

mean

in point.

that the explanations of these

two

facts of-

fered us by medical science have no truth in them, for one

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY girl had,

133

years before, heard her master, a clergyman, read

and the other had heard an artist playBut neither could have done so as perfectly as they did had they not been ensouled by That which, owing to the sameness of its nature with the Universal Mind, is omniscient. In the former case the higher principle acted on the skandhas and moved them; in the latter, the

Hebrew works

aloud,

ing a violin at their farm.

personality being paralyzed, the individuality manifested

it-

Pray do not confuse the two.

self.

ON INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY Inq.

But what still

is

the difference between the

two?

I

confess that I

am

in the dark,

have long tried to impress the distinction between the individuality and personality on people's minds; but alas! it is harder with some of them than to make them feel a rever-

Theo.

I

ence for childish impossibilities, only because they are orthodox, and because orthodoxy the idea well, you have ciples"

:

is

first to

respectable.

To understand

study the dual sets of "prin-

the spiritual, or those which belong to the imperish-

Ego; and the material, or those principles which make up the ever-changing bodies or the series of personalities of that Ego. Let us fix permanent names to these, and say that

able

I.

Atma, the "Higher Self,"

is

neither your Spirit nor mine,

on all. It is the universally Divine Principle, and is inseparable from its

but, like sunlight, shines dififused

one and absolute M^fa-Spirit, as the sunbeam arable from sunlight.

is

insep-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

134

II.

Buddhi, the spiritual soul, is only its vehicle. Neither Atmd nor Buddhi separately, nor the two collectively, are of any more use to the body of man than sunlight

beams are for a mass of granite buried in the Duad is assimilated by, and reNeither Atmd nor Budflected in, some consciousness. the former is the because Karma, by dhi is ever reached highest aspect of Karma, the zvorking agent of iTSELiP in one aspect, and the latter is unconscious on this plane. This consciousness or mind is and

its

earth, unless the divine

Manas,'*^ the derivation or product, in a reflected form, of ahamkdra, " the conception of I " or " Ego-ship.''

III.

It is therefore,

when

inseparably united to the

first

two,

called the Spiritual Ego, and Taijasa (the radiant).

This is

is

this

the real Individuality, or the divine man.

Ego

the senseless

which — having

originally

human form animated

It

incarnated in

by, but unconscious

presence in itself of the dual monad, since it had no consciousness made of that human-like form a real man. It is this Ego, this " Causal Body," which overshadows every personality into which Karma forces it to incarnate. It is this Ego which is held responsible for all the sins committed through and in every new of, the

42.

Mahat,

—

or the " Universal Mind,"

is the source of Manas. The latter is Mahat, man. Manas is also called Kshetrajna, embodied spirit, because it " Sons of the Universal is, according to our philosophy, the Manasa-putras, or " manu" by incarnator rather produced, the thinking created, man, who Mind," ing in the third Race mankind in our Round. It is Manas, therefore, which is the real incarnating and permanent Spiritual Ego, the individuality, and our various and numberless personalities only its external masks. t.

e.,

mind,

in

THE KBY TO THBOSOPHY body or personality

135

— the evanescent masks which hide

the true Individual through the long series of rebirths. Inq.

But

this just?

is

result of deeds

Theo.

Why

which

it

misdeeds as well as

memory

because the

it

called "

pounds

body

Ego

receive punishment as the

?

knows and remembers its you remember what you did yesterday.

has not forgotten them;

It

Is

should this

has forgotten

it

of that bundle of physical com-

" does not recollect

the personality that zvas, did, that

what its predecessor, you imagine that the real

Ego has forgotten them? As well say new coat on the back of a boy who is

it

apples should be punished for that of which Inq.

is

unjust that the

flogged for stealing it

knows nothing.

But are there no modes of communication between the Spiritual and

human

consciousness or

Of

ThKo.

memory?

course there are; but they have never been recognized

by your modern

scientific psychologists.

attribute intuition, the

''

To what do you

voice of conscience," premonitions,

vague, undefined reminiscences, etc., if not to such communications ? Would that the majority of educated men, at least,

had the

how

fine spiritual perceptions

intuitional he

is in

some of

of Coleridge,

his

comments.

he says with respect to the probability that "

who shows Hear what all

thoughts

are in themselves imperishable:" If the intelligent faculty [sudden "revivals" of

rendered more comprehensive,

— — to bring before every human soul the

propriate organization trial

memory] should be

would require only a different and apthe body celestial instead of the body terresit

collective experience of its

whole past existence [existences, rather].

And

this

body

celestial is

our Manasic Ego.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

136

ON THE REWARD AND PUNISHMENT OF THE EGO Inq.

I have heard you say that the Ego, whatever the Hfe of the person he incarnated in may have been on Earth, is never visited with postmortem punishment.

Theo.

we in

Never, save

very exceptional and rare cases, of which

in

" speak here, as the nature of the " punishment approaches any of your theological conceptions of

will not

no way

damnation. Inq.

But

if it is

punished

vious Hves, then

here or

Theo.

when

And

so

it

is

Inq.

Ego

that ought to be rewarded also, whether

disincarnated.

it

is.

If

outside of this earth,

we do it is

knows of hereafter

Self

Hfe for the misdeeds committed in pre-

in this

this

not admit of any punishment

because the only state the Spiritual

is

that of unalloyed bliss.

What do you mean?

Theo.

crimes and sins committed on a plane of objectivity and in a world of matter cannot receive punish-

Simply

ment

this:

in a ivorld of

pure subjectivity.

or paradise as localities that never die, nor in

;

in

We

no objective

hell-fires

any Jerusalems with

sapphires and diamonds.

What we

no

believe in

streets

believe in

is

hell

and worms paved with a post-mor-

tem state or mental condition such as we are in during a We believe in an immutable law of absolute Love, Justice and Mercy. And believing in it, we say Whatever was the sin and whatever were the dire results of the

vivid dream.

:

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY original karmic transgression of the

now

137

incarnated Egos/^

no man — or the outer material and periodical form of the with any degree of Spiritual Entity — can be held,

justice,

responsible for the consequences of his birth.

He

does not

ask to be born, nor can he choose the parents that will give him life. In every respect he is a victim to his environment, the child of circumstances over which he has if it

no control and ;

each of his transgressions were impartially investigated, in nine out of every ten cases he was

would be found that

the one sinned against, rather than the sinner. best a heartless play, a stormy sea to cross,

Life

is

at

and a heavy bur-

den often too difficult to bear. The greatest philosophers have tried in vain to fathom and find out its raison d'etre, and except those who had the key to it, namely, the Eastern sages have all failed. Life is, as Shakespeare de-

—

—

scribes

it

....

but a walking shadow

—

a poor player, hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

That

struts

and

frets

Signifying nothing

43.

It is

on

—

this transgression that the cruel

has been

built,

which

is

his

and

illogical

dogma

of the Fallen Angels

explained in the second volume of The Secret Doctrine.

Egos " are thinking and rational entities (Mdnasa-putras) who had whether under human or other forms, in the precedent life-cycle (Manvantara), and whose Karma it was to incarnate in the man of this one. It was taught in the Mysteries that, having delayed in complying with this law (or having "refused to create," as Hinduism says of the Kumaras and Christian i.e., having failed to incarnate in due time legend of the Archangel Michael) Hence the original sin of the bodies predestined for them became defiled. the senseless forms and the punishment of the Egos. What is meant by the reAll our " lived,

—

—

bellious angels being hurled Spirits or

down

Egos being imprisoned

into Hell

is

simply explained by these pure

in bodies of unclean matter, flesh.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

138

nothing

in its separate parts, yet

of the greatest importance

in its collectivity or series of lives.

In any case, almost every

development, a sorrow. And are poor helpless man, after being tossed about like a piece of rotten timber on the angry billows of life, is, if he prove too weak to resist them, to be punished by a scuipiternity of damnation, or even a temporary punishment? individual life

we

is,

in its full

to believe that

Never

!

Whether

a great or an average sinner, good or bad,

guilty or innocent, once delivered of the burden of physical life, the tired and worn-out Manu, or " thinking Ego," has

won the right to a period of absolute rest and bliss. The same unerringly wise and just, rather than merciful, Law which inflicts upon the incarnated Ego the karmic punishment for every sin committed during the preceding life on earth has provided for the lease of mental rest,

event

—

now disembodied

and the

Entity a long

entire oblivion of every sad

aye, to the smallest painful thought

— that

place in its last life as a personality, leaving in the

soul-mem-

ory nothing but the reminiscence of that which was

which

led to happiness.

Plotinus,

who

took

bliss,

or

said that our body

was the true river of Lethe, for " souls plunged into it forget all," meant more than he said. For, as our terrestrial body on earth is like Lethe, so and much more. Inq.

Then am divine and

ThEo.

Who

I to

is

our

celestial

body

in

Devachan,

understand that the murderer, the transgressor of law in every shape, is allowed to go unpunished?

human

ever said that?

Our philosophy has

a doctrine

of punishment as stern as that of the most rigid Calvinist, only far more philosophical and consistent with absolute

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY No

justice.

deed, no sinful thought even, will go unpunished.

In fact, the latter are even

former, as a thought sults

than

deeds.'*''

ution, called

139

far

is

more severely punished than more potent in creating evil

the re-

We believe in an unerring law of Retrib-

Karma, which

asserts itself in a natural concat-

enation of causes and their unavoidable results.

And how,

Inq.

Theo.

or where, does

Every laborer

is

it

act?

worthy of

his hire, saith

gospel; every action, good or bad, the

Wisdom

of the Ages.

find the "

is

Wisdom

in the

a prolific parent, saith

Put the two together and you

will

when escaped

why." from the pangs of personal life, a sufficient aye, a hundredfold compensation. Karma, with its army of skandhas, waits at the threshold of Devachan, whence the Bgo reemerges to assume a new incarnation. It is at this moment After allowing the Soul,

—

—

now rested Ego trembles in the as it now falls once again under

that the future destiny of the scales of just Retribution,

the

sway of

ready

active karmic law.

which is this mys-

It is in this rebirth

— a rebirth selected and prepared by for inexorable, the equity and wisdom of of the previous LAW — that the it

terious,

but, in

crees, infallible

Ego

sins

its

life

de-

of

Only it is into no imaginary Hell, with theatrical flames and ridiculous tailed and horned devils, that the Ego is cast, but verily onto this earth, the plane and region of his sins, where he will have to atone for every bad thought and deed. As he has sown, so will he reap. Reincarnation will gather around him all those other Egos who the

44.

"

are punished.

But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matt., v, 28.)

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

140

have suffered, whether directly or indirectly, at or even through the unconscious instrumentality, personality. They will be thrown by Nemesis in the nezv man, concealing the old, the eternal Ego, Inq.

But where

is

the equity

you speak

of, since these

new

the hands,

of the past the

and

way .

.

of .

"personalities"

are not aware of having sinned or been sinned against?

Theo.

who

Has

the coat torn to shreds from the back of the

stole

it,

by another

man who was

robbed of

it

and recog-

nizes his property, to be regarded as fairly dealt with

new

man

?

The

no better than a fresh suit of clothes, with form and qualities but the real man who wears it is the same culprit as of old. It is the individuality which suffers through its "personality." And it is this, and this alone, that can account for the terrible seeming injustice in the distribution of lots in life to man. When your modern philosophers will have succeeded in showing us good reason why so many apparently innocent and good men are born only to suffer during a whole lifetime; why so many are born poor unto starvation in the slums of great cities, abandoned by fate and men; why, while these are born in the gutter, others open their eyes to the light in palaces; why a noble birth and fortune seem often given to the worst of men and only rarely to the worthy; why there are beggars whose inner selves are peers to the highest and noblest of men when this, and much more, is satisfactorily explained by either your philosophers or theologians, then only, but not till then, you will have the right to reject the theory of Reincarnation. The highest and grandest poets have dimly perceived this truth of truths. Shelley believed ''personality"

its specific

is

characteristics, color,

—

;

:

THE KHY TO THBOSOPHY in it;

Shakespeare must have thought of

the worthlessness of birth.

Why

should

Are not

all

my

birth keep

now

Alter the truth.

word

spirit?

of beggars on the earth,

their original did spring

riffraff

words

down my mounting

from

And many monarchs now, whose The

his

when writing on

creatures subject unto time?

There's legions

That

Remember

it

ui

kings,

fathers

were

of their age.

" fathers " into Egos,

and you

will

have the

THB KEY TO THUOSOPHY

142

IX

ON KAMALOKA AND DEVACHAN ON THB PATH OF THE LOWER "PRINCIPLES" You

Inq.

spoke of Kamaloka; what

When

Theo.

—

man

the

is

it?

dies his three lower principles leave

i.e., body, life and body or the double of the

forever astral

him

the vehicle of the latter, the

man.

living

And

then his

— the central or middle four (the animal or Kama Rupa), with what has assimilated from the — themselves Kalower Manas and the higher principles

principle

soul

it

triad

maloka.

The

latter is

astic theology, the

an astral

Hades of

find

limhus of schol-

the ancients, and, strictly speak-

ing, a locality only in a relative sense. finite

in

locality, the

It

has neither a de-

area nor boundary, but exists zvithin subjective space,

and it is there that the astral eidolons of all the beings that have lived, animals included, await their second death. For the animals it comes with the disintegration and the entire fading out of their astral particles to the last. For the human eidolon it begins when the Atma-Buddhi-Manasic triad is said to "separate" itself from its lower principles, or the reflection of the ex-personality, by falling into the Devachanic i.

e., is

state.

beyond our sensuous perceptions.

Still

it

exists,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

And what happens

Theo.

Then

143

after this?

the Kama-rilpic phantom, remaining bereft of

its

informing, thinking principle, the higher Manas, and the

lower aspect of the

latter,

the animal intelligence, no longer

from the higher mind, and no longer having a physical brain to work through, collapses. receiving light

Inq.

In what way?

Theo.

Well,

tions of

it

falls into the state

of the frog

when

certain por-

brain are taken out by the vivisector.

its

It

can

Hencethink no more, even on the lowest animal plane. forth it is no longer even the lower Manas, since this " lower " Inq.

And

is it

is

nothing without the " higher."

this nonentity

which we

find materializing in seance-rooms

with mediums?

Theo.

It is this

nonentity

— a true nonentity, however, only as

and cogitating powers still an Entity, however astral and fluidic. This is shown in certain cases when this entity, being magnetically and unconsciously drawn toward a medium, is revived for a time and lives in him by proxy, so to speak. This "spook," or the Kama Rijpa, may be compared with the jellyfish, which has an ethereal gelatinous ap-

to reasoning

;

pearance so long as it is in its own element, or water (the mcdiiun's specific AURA) no sooner is it thrown out of the ;

water, however, than

it

dissolves in the

hand or on the sand,

In the medium's Aura it lives a kind and reasons and speaks either through the medium's brain or those of other persons present. But this would lead us too far, and upon other people's grounds, especially in sunlight.

of vicarious

life,

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

144

whereon

have no desire

I

to trespass.

Let us keep to the sub-

ject of Reincarnation.

Inq.

What

How

of the latter?

long does the incarnating

Ego remain

in

the Devachanic state?

Thko. This, we are taught, depends on the degree of spirituaHty and the merit or demerit of the last incarnation. The average time is from ten to fifteen centuries, as I have already told you. Inq.

But why could not

this

Ego manifest and communicate with mortals

What is there to prevent a mother from communicating with the children she left on earth, a husband with his wife, and so on? It is a most consoling belief, I must confess; nor do I wonder that those who believe in it are so averse to give it up. as Spiritualists will have it?

Thko.

Nor

are they forced

unless they happen to prefer

to,

however "consoling."

Uncongenial our doctrines may be to Spiritualists yet nothing of what we believe in and teach is half as selfish and cruel as what they preach. truth to fiction,

;

Inq.

I

Thko.

do not understand you.

is

selfish?

Their doctrine of the return of

alities," as

—

What

call

it

supreme

they say; and

"paradise," felicity," if

if it is

spirits, the real ''person-

I will tell

you

you why.

If

Devachan and of

like; a "place of bliss

anything

—

is

such a place, or say

no sorrow, nor even a shade of pain, can be experienced therein. " God shall wipe away all tears" from the eyes of those in paradise, we read in the book of many promises. And if the " spirits of the dead " are able to return and see all that is going on on earth, and especially in their homes, what kind of bliss can be in store for them ?

state, logic tells us that

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

145

BELIEVE IN THE RETURN OF PURE

WHY THEOSOPHISTS DO NOT

"SPIRITS" Inq.

Why

What do you mean?

ThEo.

It is quite

simple

leaving behind her

;

let

little

should this interfere with their bliss?

us take an instance. helpless children

perhaps a beloved husband also.

— that

We

A mother dies,

whom

she adores

say that her "spirit"

which is now wholly impregperiod, with the noblest feelDevachanic nated, for the entire ings held by its late personality, with love for her children, is now entirely separpity for those who suffer, and so on ;" " that its future bliss consists vale of tears ated from the Spirin the blessed ignorance of all the woes it left behind. itualists, on the contrary, say that it is as vividly aware of or

Bgo

individuality

—

them, and more so than before, for " spirits see more than say that the bliss of the Dez'amortals in the flesh do." chani consists in its complete conviction that it has never left

We

and that there is no such thing as death at all that the post-mortem spiritual consciousness of the mother will cause her to think that she lives surrounded by her children and all those whom she loved; that no gap, no link, will be missing to make her disembodied state the most perfect and The Spiritualists deny this point-blank. absolute happiness. the earth,

;

According to their doctrine, unfortunate man is not liberated even by death from the sorrows of this life. Not a drop from the life-cup of pain and suffering will miss his lips; and nolens volens, since he sees everything then, shall he drink

it

Thus

to the bitter dregs.

ing her lifetime

was ready

price of her heart's blood, lessness, his despair,

and

the loving wife,

to save her

is

who

husband sorrow

now doomed

dur-

at the

to see, in utter help-

to register every hot tear

he sheds

!

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHY

146

Worse than

for her loss.

soon,

that, she

may

see the tears dry too

and another beloved face smile on him, the father of

her children

find another

;

woman

replacing her in his affec-

name

tions; doomed to hear her children give the holy

''mother" to one indifferent to them, and to see those

ones neglected,

not ill-treated.

if

According

of

little

to this doctrine,

the "gentle wafting to immortal life" becomes without any

way

transition the

into a

yet the columns of the

new path

of mental suffering

Banner of Light,

of the American Spiritualists, are

very happy they are! ent with bliss

Then

?

Is

with messages from

filled

the dead, the "dear departed ones,"

And

!

the veteran journal

who

all

write to say

how

such a state of knowledge consist-

" bliss " stands, in

such a case, for the

greatest curse, and orthodox damnation must be a relief in

comparison Inq.

to

it

But how does your theory avoid

How

this?

theory of the Soul's omniscience with

its

can you reconcile the

blindness to that which

is

taking place on earth?

Because such is the law of love and mercy. every Devachanic period the Ego, omniscient as it

During

ThKo.

is

per

sc,

clothes itself, so to say, with the reflection of the personality

have just told you that the and therefore undying or attributes such as love and mercy, the true, and the beautiful which ever that was. all

I

the abstract,

—

—

ideal efBorescence of

and eternal

qualities

the love of the good,

spoke

in the

heart of

the living "personality," after death cling to the Ego, and

therefore follow the

Ego becomes

was when it

it

that,

it

last

into

For the time being,

Devachan.

the ideal reflection of the

on earth, and that

would never be

is

in the state

then,

human being it Were

not omniscient.

we

call

Devachan

at

all.

!

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

What

147

are your reasons for it?

you want an answer on the strict lines of our philoI would say that it is because everything is illusion (mdyd) outside of eternal truth, which has neither form, He who has placed himself beyond the color, nor limitation. and such are the highest Adepts and Initiveil of mdyd can have no Devachan. As to the ordinary mortal, his ates bliss in Devachan is complete. It is an absolute oblivion of all that gave it pain or sorrow in the past incarnation, and even oblivion of the fact that such things as pain or sorrow exist The DevacJiani lives its intermediate cycle between at all. two incarnations surrounded by everything it had aspired to in vain, and in the companionship of everyone it loved on

ThEO.

If

sophy, then

—

—

earth.

And

It

has reached the fulfilment of

thus

it

lives

felicity

soul-yearnings.

throughout long centuries an existence of

unalloyed happiness, which in earth-life.

all its

In short,

it

is

the reward for

its

sufferings

bathes in a sea of uninterrupted

spanned only by events of

still

greater felicity in

degree. Inq.

But

this

is

more than simple delusion;

it

is

an existence of insane

hallucinations

Theo.

From your

standpoint

it

may

be; not so

from that of

philosophy. Besides, is not our whole terrestrial life filled with such delusions? Have you never met men and women living for years in a fool's paradise ? And because you should happen to learn that the husband whom a wife adores, and believes herself loved in turn by him, is untrue to her, would

you go and break her heart and beautiful dream by rudely awakening her to the reality? I think not. I say it again,

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

148

such oblivion and hallucination,

law of Nature and

ciful

if

you

call

so, is

it

At any

strict justice.

only a merrate,

it

is

a

more fascinating prospect than the orthodox golden harp

far

The assurance

with a pair of wings.

that " the soul that

ascends frequently and runs familiarly through the

lives

streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, visiting the patriarchs

prophets, saluting the apostles, and admiring the

may seem

martyrs,"

Nevertheless

it is

and

army of

of a more pious character to some.

a hallucination of a far

more

delusive char-

since mothers love their children with an immortal

acter,

we

know, while the personages mentioned in the heavenly Jerusalem " are still of a rather doubtful nature. But I would still rather accept the " new Jerusalem," with its streets paved like the show-windows of a jeweler's shop, love,

all

*'

than find consolation in the heartless doctrine of the Spirit-

The

ualists.

idea alone that the intellectual conscious souls

of one's father, mother, daughter, or brother find their bliss in a

"summer-land"

as ridiculous as the

would be enough

to

" departed ones."

To

happy while doomed and, above

all,

Inq.

There seen

Theo.

it

is

natural, but just its

description

—

respect for one's

believe that a pure spirit can

feel

to witness the sins, mistakes, treachery,

the sufiferings of those

ered by death, and to help them,

—

only a little more "new Jerusalem" in make one lose every

whom

it

from

whom

it

is

sev-

loves best, without being able

would be a maddening thought.

something

in

your argument;

I

confess to having never

in this light.

Just so; and one must be selfish to the core, and utterly

devoid of the sense of retributive justice, to have ever im-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY agined such a thing.

We

are with those

149

whom we

have

lost

in material form, and far, far nearer to them

now than when

And it is not only imagine, but in may some

For pure divine

fancy of the Deva-

they were alive.

in the

chant, as

reality.

love

is

not merely the blossom of a

human

Spiritual holy love

roots in eternity.

sooner or later brings

all

those

is

who

heart, but has

immortal, and

its

Karma

loved each other with

such a spiritual affection to incarnate once more in the same family group. Again we say that love beyond the grave,

though you may call it, has a magic and divine poA mother's Ego filled tency which reacts on the living. with love for the imaginary children it sees near itself, living a life of happiness as real to it as when on earth, will ever cause that love to be felt by the children in flesh. It will maniillusion

—

in "profest in their dreams, and often in various events " protections and escapes for love is a strong shield, vidential ;

not limited

As with this Devachanic human relationships and at-

by space or time.

and "mother," so with the is

rest of

tachments, save the purely selfish or material.

suggest to you the Inq.

Analogy

will

rest.

In no case, then, do you admit the possibility of the communication of the living with the disembodied spirit?

ThKo. Yes, there The first case

is

a case, and even two exceptions to the rule.

is

during the few days that immediately

fol-

low the death of a person, and before the Bgo passes into the Devachanic state. But whether any living mortal has derived

much

benefit

plane

is

from the return of the spirit into the objective another question. Perhaps it may be so in a few ex-

ceptional cases,

when

the intensity of the desire in the dying

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

ISO

person to return for some purpose forced the higher con-

was really the But in genSpirit," that communicated. individuality, the eral the spirit is dazed after death, and falls very soon into what w^e call " pre-devachanic unconsciousness." The second exception is found in the Nirmanakayas. sciousness to remain azvake, and therefore

it

*'

What

Inq.

Thko.

of them?

It is the

the right to

What

does the

name given

Nirvana and

to those cyclic

signify for

you?

who, though they have won

rest,''^

yet, out of pity for

man-

on earth, renounce this nirvanic Such an Adept, or saint, or whatever you may call

kind and those they have state.

name

him, believing

it

left

a selfish act to rest in bliss while mankind

groans under the burden of misery produced by ignorance, renounces Nirvana, and determines to remain invisible in spirit

on

this earth.

for they have left all

it

Nirmanakayas have no material body, behind; but otherwise they remain with

such can and do communicate with a few surely not with ordinary mediums. Inq.

And

their principles, even in astral life, in our sphere.

elect ones, but

I have put you the question about Nirmanakayas because I read in some German and other works that it was the name given in Northern Buddhistic teachings to the terrestrial appearances or bodies assumed

by Buddhas.

ThEo.

This

is so,

only the Orientalists have confused this

''

ter-

restrial "

body by understanding it to be objective and physical instead of purely astral and subjective.

45.

Not Devachan,

as the latter

and as those who are

fit

is

an illusion of our consciousness, a happy dream,

for Nirvana must have lost entirely every desire or

possibility of desire for the world's illusions.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

And what good

ISi

can these Nirmdnakayas do on earth?

Not much, as regards individuals, as they have no right to interfere with Karma, and can only advise and inspire mortals for the general good. Yet they do more beneficent actions than you imagine.

Thdo.

Inq.

To this Science would never subscribe, not even modern psychology. For science and psychology, no portion of intelligence can survive the What would you answer them? physical brain.

Theo. I would not even go to the trouble of answering, but would simply say, in the words given to " M. A. Oxon.": Intelligence

is

perpetuated after the body

a question of the brain only. ...

human

destructibility of the

Inq.

"

But

Theo.

M. A. Oxon."

Quite

we may

so,

still

Apart from

is

It is

spirit

no

Though

it

is

not

from what we

know."*^

a Spiritualist?

and the only true this,

dead.

reasonable to propound the in-

Spiritualist I

disagree from him on

truths than he does.

is

Spiritualist

many

know

of,

though

a minor question.

comes nearer

to the occult

Like any one of us, he speaks inces-

santly "of the surface dangers that beset the ill-equipped,

who crosses the Our only disagree-

feather-headed muddler with the occult, threshold without counting the

ment I,

cost.'"*^

rests in the question of " spirit identity."

Otherwise,

for one, almost entirely agree with him, and accept the

three propositions he embodied in his address of July, 1884. It is this

not

eminent Spiritualist, rather,

we from

disagrees from us,

him.

46.

Spirit Identity, p. 69.

47.

"

Some

who

things that

I

do know of Spiritualism, and some that

1

do not."

THE KEY TO TH BO SOPHY

1S2

Inq.

What

are these propositions?

They are

Theo.

as follows:

That there

1.

a Hfe coincident with, and independent of, the

is

physical Hfe of the body,

That, as a necessary corollary, this

2.

life

That there

3.

[We

of the body. is

say

it

extends beyond the

life

extends throughout Devachan.]

communication between the denizens of that and those of the world in which we now live.

state of existence

and secondary aspects Everything depends on the views we take of Spirit and Soul, or Individuality and personality. Spiritualists confuse the two "into one;" we separate them, and say that, with the exceptions above enumerated, no Spirit will revisit the earth, though the animal All depends, you see, on the minor

of these fundamental propositions.

But let us return once more the Skandhas.

soul may. ject,

Inq.

I

begin to understand better now.

It

is

to

our direct sub-

the spirit,

so to say, of

those Skandhas which are the most ennobling, which attaching itself to the

incarnating Ego, survives and

angelic experiences. erial

Skandhas, with

from the

field

And

is

it

selfish

is

added

to the

stock of

its

the attributes connected with the mat-

and personal motives, which, disappearing

of action between two incarnations, reappear at the

subsequent incarnation as Karmic results to be atoned for; and therefore the Spirit will not leave Devachan.

Is

it

so?

Very nearly so. If you add to this that the law of reKarma, rewarding the highest and most spiritual attributes in Devachan, never fails to reward them again on earth by giving them a further development, and by furn-

ThEo.

tribution, or

ishing the

Ego with

quite correct.

a body fitted for

it,

then you will be

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

153

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE SKAN DMAS Inq.

What becomes

of the other, the lower Skandhas of the personaHty,

after the death of the

body?

Are they

quite destroyed?

—

a fresh metaphysical Theo. They are and yet they are not They are destroyed as the and occult mystery for you. working stock in hand of the personaHty; they remain as Karmic effects, as germs, hanging in the atmosphere of the terrestrial plane, ready to come to life, as so many avenging fiends, to attach

when Inq.

it

themselves to the

new

personality of the

Ego

reincarnates.

This really passes

my

comprehension, and

difficult to

under-

the details.

For

very

is

stand.

Theo.

Not once

that

you have assimilated

all

then you will see that for logic, consistency, profound philosophy, divine mercy, and equity, this doctrine of Reincarnation has not

its

equal on earth.

It is

a belief in a perpetual

progress for each incarnating Ego, or divine soul, in an evolution

from the outward

into the inward,

erial to the Spiritual, arriving at the

from the mat-

end of each stage at

absolute unity with the divine Principle.

From

strength to

from the beauty and perfection of one plane to the greater beauty and perfection of another, with accessions of new glory, of fresh knowledge and power, in each cycle such is the destiny of every Ego, which thus becomes its own savior in each world and incarnation. strength,

—

Inq.

But Christianity teaches the same.

TiTKO.

It also

preaches progression.

Yes, only with the addition of something

else.

It tells

us of the impossibility of attaining Salvation without the aid

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

154

of a miraculous Savior, and, moreover, all

who

those

dooms

to perdition

dogma. This is just the and Theosophy. The

will not accept the

difference between Christian theology

former enforces into the

belief in the

Lower

Descent of the Spiritual Ego

Self; the latter inculcates the necessity of

endeavoring to elevate one's

self to the Christos or

Buddhi

state.

Inq.

teaching the annihilation of consciousness in case of failure, how-

By

do you not think that

ever,

in the opinion of the

Theo.

From

the standpoint of those

body artery and atom of

rection of the

and

literally,

to the annihilation of Self,

who

believe in the resur-

insist that

every bone, every

flesh will be raised bodily

ment-day, of course perishable

amounts

it

non-metaphysical?

it

form and

does.

If

you

still

finite qualities that

on the judg-

insist that

it

is

the

make up immortal

And if man, then we you do not understand that, by limiting the existence of every Ego to one life on earth, you make of Deity an ever-drunken Indra of the Puranic dead letter, a cruel Moloch, a god who makes an inextricable mess on earth, and yet claims thanks for it, then the sooner we drop the conversation the better. shall hardly understand each other.

Inq.

But

let

us return,

now

to the question of the consciousness

which

the point which interests most people.

ledge in

Theo.

Devachan than we do

In one sense

we can

we can

and

life,

is

disposed of,

survives death.

This

is

Do we possess more know-

in Earth-life?

acquire

more knowledge

develop further any faculty which

strove after during stract

Skandhas

that the subject of the

provided

it

is

we

— that

is,

loved and

concerned with ab-

ideal things, such as music, painting, poetry, etc..

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Devachan

since

is

155

merely an idealized and subjective con-

tinuation of earth-life.

But

Inq.

if in

possess

ThEo.

all

Devachan the knowledge?

Because, as

the

memory

what

of

I

Spirit

is

free

told you, the

its last

from matter, why should

Ego

incarnation.

is,

it

not

wedded to you think over together, you will

so to say,

Thus,

if

and string all the facts that the Devachanic state is not one of omniscience, have

I

realize

said,

but a transcendental continuation of the personal life just It is the rest of the soul from the toils of life. terminated. But the

Inq.

scientific materialists assert that after the

man

death of

no-

comthing remains that the human body temporary merely is a ponent elements and that what we call soul self-consciousness produced as a by-product of organic action, which Is not theirs a strange state of mind? will evaporate like steam. simply disintegrates into

;

its

;

Not

ThEo.

If they say that self-

at all strange, as far as I see.

consciousness ceases with the body, then in their case they simply utter an unconscious prophecy for once that they are ;

what they assert, no conscious after-life For there arc exceptions to every rule. for them.

firmly convinced of is

possible

ON POST-MORTEM AND POST-NATAL CONSCIOUSNESS Inq.

But

if

human

self-consciousness survives death as a rule,

"^^

why

should

there be exceptions? 48.

A

few portions of this chapter and of the preceding were published in Lucifer in the shape of a " Dialogue on the Mysteries of the After-life," in the January number, 1889. The article was unsigned, as if it were written by the editor, but

it

came from the pen of the author of

the present volume.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

156

ThKo.

In the fundamental principles of the spiritual world no

exception

and Inq.

rules

Quite

who

But there are rules for those who for those who prefer to remain blind. is

so, I

possible.

This

understand.

is

see,

but an aberration of the bHnd man,

denies the existence of the sun because he does not see

after death his spiritual eyes will certainly compel

him

it.

But

to see.

Is this

he see anything.

Hav-

what you mean?

ThEO.

He

will not be compelled,

ing persistently during

life

nor

will

denied the continuance of exist-

ence after death, he will be unable to see

it,

because his spir-

having been stunted in life, cannot develop after death, and he will remain blind. By insisting that he must see it, you evidently mean one thing and I another. You speak of the spirit from the Spirit, or the flame from the of Atma, in short and you confuse it with the Klame human soul, Manas. You do not understand me let me it clear. The whole gist of your question is to try to make know whether, in the case of a downright materialist, the complete loss of self-consciousness and self-perception after I answer, it is possible. death is possible. Is it not so? which refers to Believing firmly in our Esoteric Doctrine the post-mortem period, or the interval between two lives or I say that whether that births, as merely a transitory state itual capacity,

—

—

.

.

.

;

—

—

post-mortem interval between two acts of the illusionary drama of life lasts one year or a million, it may, without any breach of the fundamental law, prove to be just the same state as that of a man in a dead faint. Inq.

But since you have

just said that the

death state admit of no exceptions,

fundamental laws of the afterthis be?

how can

THE KHY TO THBOSOPHY

157

ThEo. Nor do I say now that it does admit of an exception. But the spiritual law of continuity applies only to things which are truly real. To one who has read and understood Mundaka Upanishad and Veddnta Sara all this becomes very more: it is sufficient only to understand what we mean by Buddhi and the duality of Manas to gain a clear perception why the materialist may fail to have a selfSince Manas, in its lower conscious survival after death. clear.

I

will say

aspect,

is

the seat of the terrestrial mind,

it

can therefore give

only that perception of the Universe which

evidence of that mind;

is

based on the

can not give spiritual vision. It is said in the Eastern school that between Buddhi and Manas, the Bgo, or Ishvara and Prajfia,''^ there is in reality no more it

difference than hetiveen a forest ivatcrs, as the

dead from

Mundaka

still

stand

ThEO.

its

a forest.

it.

You

Ishvara

—

is

cannot, because you will

trine;

mix up an

abstract repre-

the collective consciousness of the manifested deity,

the collective consciousness of the Host of

50.

a lake and

or a hundred trees

But, as I understand it, Buddhi represents in this simile the forest, and Manas-Taijasa^° the trees. And if Buddhi is immortal, how can i.e., Manas-Taijasa entirely lose its that which is similar to it consciousness till the day of its new incarnation? I can not under-

—

49.

its trees,

One

loss of vitality, or uprooted, are yet incapable of

preventing the forest from being Inq.

and

teaches.

and Prajna

is

their individual

Dhyan Chohans

Brahma —

i.

e.,

of The Secret Doc-

wisdom.

—

i.e., Manas, its union with Buddhi by the radiance of the divine soul. Tlierefore Manas-Taijasa may be described as radiant mind, the human reason lit by the light of the spirit and Buddhi-Manas is the revelation of the divine plus human intellect and self-consciousness.

Taijasa means the radiant in consequence of the

human

illuminated

soul,

;

THE KEY TO THHOSOPHY

158

sentation of the whole with

member

that

if it

its

Re-

casual changes of form.

can be said of Buddhi-Manas that

it is

un-

same cannot be said of the lower of Taijasa, which is merely an attribute.

conditionally immortal, the

Manas,

still

less

Neither of these

— neither

Manas nor Taijasa

apart from Buddhi, the divine Soul, because the is,

— can

first

exist

(Manas)

lower aspect, a qualificative attribute of the terrespersonality, and the second (Taijasa) is identical with

in its

trial

same Manas, only with the light of Buddhi reflected in it. In its turn, Buddhi would remain only an impersonal spirit without this element which it borrows from the human soul, which conditions and makes of it, in this illusive Universe, as it were something separate from the

first,

because

it is

the

the universal soul for the whole period of the cycle of in-

Say, rather, that Buddhi-Manas can neither die

carnation.

nor lose

its

united self-consciousness in Eternity, nor the

recollection of the previous incarnations in

the spiritual and the

e.,

i.

linked together.

whose human

But

it is

human

soul

—

—

which the two had been closely

not so in the case of a materialist,

soul not only receives nothing

from the divine

You can soul, but even refuses to recognize its existence. hardly apply this axiom to the attributes and qualifications of human

the

must

it would be like saying that because your immortal therefore the bloom on your cheek

soul, for

divine Soul

is

whereas simply a transitory phenomenon.

Inq.

Do the

ThEo.

I

also be immortal,

bloom,

like Taijasa, is

we must not confuse in our minds phenomenon, the cause with its effect?

understand you to say that

noumenon with I

this

do say

so,

the

and repeat

that, limited to

Manas

or the hu-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY man

159

soul alone, the radiance of Taijasa itself becomes a

mere

question of time, because both immortality and consciousness after death become, for the terrestrial personality of man,

simply conditioned attributes, as they depend entirely on conditions

and

the life of

by the human soul

beliefs created its

body.

Karma

during

itself

we reap

acts incessantly;

in

our after-life only the fruit of that which we have ourselves

sown Inq.

But

in this.

if

my Ego

ment for the

ThEo. the

my body, become plunged where can be the punish-

can, after the destruction of

in a state of entire unconsciousness, then

sins of

my

past life?

Our philosophy teaches that Karmic punishment reaches Ego only in its next incarnation. After death it rereward for the unmerited sufferings endured past incarnation.^* The whole punishment after

ceives only the

during

its

death, even for the materialist, consists, therefore, in the ab-

sence of any reward, and the utter loss of the consciousness

of one's bliss and

Karma

rest.

is

the child of the terrestrial

Ego, the fruit of the actions of the tree which personality visible to

thoughts and is

as

the objective

;

also the tender

mother who heals the wounds

her during the preceding 51.

is

much

as the fruit of even motives of the spiritual " I " but all,

Some Theosophists have

life

all

the

Karma

inflicted

by

before she begins to torture the

taken exception to this phrase, but the words are those of

one of the Teachers, and the meaning attached to the word " unmerited

" is that

given above.

In a recent pamphlet, a phrase, criticized subsequently in Lucifer, used which was intended to convey the same idea. In form, however, it

was was awkward and open to the criticism directed against it; but the essential idea was that men often suffer from the effects of the actions done by others, effects which thus do not

strictly

belong to their

they of course deserve compensation.

own Karma; and

for these sufferings

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

160

Ego by is

inflicting

new wounds.

If

it

may

be said that there

not a mental or physical suffering in the

which

is

life

of a mortal

not the direct fruit and consequence of some sin in

a preceding existence, on the other hand, since the not preserve the slightest recollection of feels

it

man

does

in his actual life,

himself not deserving of such punishment, and therefore

thinks he suffers for no guilt of his own, he

is

thus

suffici-

ently entitled to the fullest consolation, rest and bliss in his post-mortem existence. Death ever comes to our spiritual selves as a deliverer and friend. For the materialist who, notwithstanding his materialism, was not a bad man, the interval between the two lives will be like the unbroken and

placid sleep of a child

—

either entirely dreamless, or filled

with pictures of which he will have no definite perception; while for the average mortal life,

Inq.

and

Then

full

will be a

dream

as vivid as

of realistic bliss and visions.

man must always go on suffering which the Ego has incurred?

the personal

penalties

it

blitidly the

karmic

ThEo. Not quite so. At the solemn moment of death every man, even when death is sudden, sees the whole of his past life marshaled before him in its minutest details. For one short instant the personal becomes one with the individual and all-knowing Bgo. But this instant is enough to show

him

the whole chain of causes which have been at

work

life. He sees and now understands himself as he unadorned by flattery or self-deception. He reads his life, remaining as a spectator looking down into the arena he is quitting; he feels and knows the justice of all the suffering

during his is,

that has overtaken him.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

Does

ThEo.

we

this

happen

to every

161

one?

Very good and holy men

Without any exception. are taught, not only the

life

see,

they are leaving, but even

several preceding lives in which were produced the causes

made them what they were

that

They recognize the law of

in

Karma

the life just closing. in

all

its

majesty and

justice.

Inq.

Is

ThEO.

there anything corresponding to this before re-birth?

There

As

is.

the

man

at the

moment

of death has a

retrospective insight into the life he has led, so, at the

moment

reborn onto earth, the Bgo, awaking from the state of Devachan, has a prospective vision of the life which awaits

he

is

him, and realizes

all

the causes that have led to

it.

He

real-

izes them, and sees futurity, because it is between Devachan and rebirth that the Bgo regains his full inanasic consciousness, and re-becomes for a short time the god he was, before in compliance with karmic law he first descended into matter " and incarnated in the first man of flesh. The " golden thread sees all its " pearls " and misses not one of them.

WHAT Inq.

IS

REALLY MEANT BY ANNIHILATION

have heard some Theosophists speak of a golden thread on which What do they mean by this? their lives were strung. I

ThEo.

In the

Hindu sacred books

it is

said that that which un-

means reinthe of synonym It is a literally the ''Thread Soul." which abManas conjoined with Buddhi carnating Ego

dergoes periodical incarnation

—

is

the sutrdtmd, which

—

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

162

sorbs the manasic recollections of is

our preceding

all

so called because, like the pearls on a thread, so

series of

human

is

lives.

It

the long

lives strung together on that one thread.

In one of the Upanishads these recurrent births are likened to the life of a mortal

sleep Inq.

which

oscillates periodically

between

and waking.

This, I must say, does not seem very clear, and I will tell you why. For the man who awakes, another day commences, but he is the same whereas at every incarnin soul and body as he was the day before ;

ation a full change takes place not only of the external envelope, sex

and personality, but even of the mental and psychic capacities. The The man who arises from simile does not seem to me quite correct. sleep remembers quite clearly what he has done yesterday, the day But none of us has the before, and even months and years ago. slightest recollection of a preceding life or of any fact or event concerning it. I may forget in the morning what I have dreamed during the night; still I know that I have slept, and have the certainty that I lived during sleep; but what recollection can I have of my past incarnation until the moment of death? How do you reconcile this?

ThHo.

Some

life;

people do recollect their past incarnations during

what the Sanihuddha, or the knowledge of the

but these are Buddhas and Initiates.

This

is

Raja Yogis call Samma whole series of one's past incarnations. Inq.

But we ordinary mortals who have not reached

how

ThEo.

are

we

By

studying

Samma Samhuddha,

to understand this simile? it

and trying

to

understand more correctly

the three kinds and characteristics of sleep.

Sleep

is

a gen-

and immutable law for man as for beast, but there are different kinds of sleep and still more different dreams and eral

visions.

: ;

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY Inq.

163

But this takes us to another subject. Let us return to the materiaUst yet which he could hardly do who, though not denying dreams denies immortality in general and the survival of his own individuality.

—

—

Theo. one

And the materialist, without knowing it, who has no inner perception of and faith in

is

In

right.

the immortal-

of his soul, that soul can never become Buddhi-Taijasa, but will remain simply Manas, and for Manas alone there is ity

no immortality possible. In order to live a conscious life in the world to come, one has first of all to believe in that life during the terrestrial existence. On these two aphorisms of the Secret Science all the philosophy about the post-mortem consciousness and the immortality of the soul

is built.

Ego

After the

receives always according to

its

deserts.

solution of the body there commences for

awakened consciousness, or a

it

The dis-

a period of full

state of chaotic dreams, or

an

utterly dreamless sleep undistinguishable from annihilation and these are the three kinds of sleep. If our physiologists

dreams and visions in an unconscious preparation for them during the waking hours, why cannot the same be admitted for the post-mortem dreams ? I repeat it find the cause of

death

is

sleep.

After death, before the spiritual eyes of the

performance according to a program learned and very often unconsciously composed by ourselves: the practical carrying out of correct beliefs or of illusions which soul, begins a

have been created by ourselves. Methodist, the

some

Mohammedan

a

The Methodist Mohammedan, at

time, in a perfect fool's paradise of each

will

be a

least for

man's crea-

These are the post-mortem fruits of the Naturally our belief or unbelief in the fact of conscious immortality is unable to influence the uncondi-

tion

and making.

tree of

life.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

164

tioned reality of the fact

once that

itself,

it

exists;

but the

belief or unbelief in that immortality as the property of in-

dependent or separate that fact in

you begin Inq.

think

I

I

its

to

cannot

fail to

give color to

application to each of these entities.

understand The

do.

entities

Now

do

it ?

materialist,

disbelieving in everything that can

not be proven to him by his five senses, or by scientific reasoning

based exclusively on the data furnished by these senses, in spite of

and rejecting every

spiritual manifestation, accepts

as the only conscious existence.

Therefore according to their

their inadequacy, life

beliefs so will

and it

will

it

be unto them.

They

lose their personal

will

Ego,

plunge into a dreamless sleep until a new awakening.

Is

so?

Almost so. Remember the practically universal teaching of the two kinds of conscious existence the terrestrial and the spiritual. The latter must be considered real from the very fact that it is inhabited by the eternal, changeless and immortal Monad; whereas the incarnating Ego dresses itself up in new garments which are entirely different from those of its previous incarnations, and in which all except its spiritual prototype is doomed to a change so radical as to leave no trace behind.

Thko.

—

How

Inq.

so?

Can my conscious

terrestrial " I " perish not only for a

time, like the consciousness of the materialist, but so entirely as to

leave no trace behind

Thdo.

According

?

to the teaching,

it

must

entirety, all except the principle which,

the

so perish

by uniting

Monad, thereby becomes a purely

structible essence,

case of an

one with

it

spiritual

in the Eternity.

out-and-out materialist, in

and itself

in its

with

and indeBut in the

whose personal

"

" I

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY no Buddhi has ever carry

away

reflected itself,

spiritual " I "

personaHty ?

Your

present self

can carry away

it

of the flower that has been

The

flower, as

blossomed and the sutratma,

turn to dust. not the body

would Inq.

call

that

Buddhi

is

will

immortal but from your which ;

into Eternity only that

— namely, the aroma alone

mown down

Well, and the flower, the terrestrial "

The:o.

how can

into the Eternity one particle of that terrestrial

has become worthy of immortality

Inq.

165

by death.

I " ?

past and future flowers which have

all

have

to

blossom on the mother-bough

—

—

will rechildren of one root or Buddhi " Your present I," as you yourself know, is

all

now

sitting before

me, nor yet

is

it

what

I

Manas-Sijtratma, but SiJtratma-Buddhi.

or illusion;

all, why you call life after death and the terrestrial life a simple phantom since even that post-mortem life has limits, however much

wider they

may

But

this

does not explain to me, at

immortal, infinite and

ThKo.

No

like a if

doubt.

real,

be than those of terrestrial

The

spiritual

Ego

of

life.

man moves

in eternity

pendulimi between the hours of birth and death.

these hours,

marking the periods of

life terrestrial

and

But life

and even if the very number of such stages in Eternity between sleep and aw^akening, illusion and reality, has its beginning and its end, on the And so the only other hand the spiritual pilgrim is eternal. reality in our conception is the hours of man's post-morfein life, when, disembodied during the period of that pilgrimage he stands face to face which we call "the cycle of rebirths" with truth, and not the mirages of his transitory earthly existences. Such intervals, however, their limitation notwithspiritual, are limited in their duration,

—

—

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

166

standing, do not prevent the Ego, while ever perfecting

itself,

from following undeviatingly, though gradually and slowly, its last transformation, when, having reached its These intervals and stages goal, it becomes a divine being. help toward this final result instead of hindering it and withthe path to

;

out such limited intervals the divine

Ego

could never reach

have given you once already a familiar illustration by comparing the Bgo, or the individuality, to an actor, and its numerous and various incarnations to the parts it plays. Will you call these parts or their costumes the individuality of the actor himself? Like that actor, the Ego is forced, during the cycle of necessity, which continues up its

ultimate goal.

I

to the very threshold of paranirvana, to play

many

parts

which may be unpleasant to it. But as the bee collects its honey from every flower, leaving the rest as food for the earthly worms, so does our spiritual individuality, whether we call it sutratma or Ego. Collecting from every terrestrial personality into which Karma forces it to incarnate, the nectar alone of the spiritual qualities and self-consciousness, it unites all these into one whole, and emerges from its chrysalis as the glorified Dhyan Chohan. So much the worse for those terrestrial personalities from which it could collect nothing. Such personalities assuredly cannot consciously outlive their terrestrial existence.

Inq.

Thus, then, is

still

it

seems

conditional.

Not

that, for the terrestrial personality,

Is,

immortality

then, immortality itself not unconditional?

But immortality cannot touch the non-existent; for all that which exists as Sat, or emanates from Sat, Matter is the opposimmortality and Eternity are absolute.

Theo.

at

all.

THE KBY TO THBOSOPHV

167

and yet the two are one. The essence of all this I. e., Spirit, Force and Matter, or the three in one but the form acquired by is as endless as it is beginningless ite

pole of spirit,

—

—

;

this triple unity

during

incarnations,

its

its

externality,

is

certainly only the illusion of our personal conceptions. There-

fore do

we

call

Nirvana and the Universal

relegating the terrestrial

and even

cluded,

realm of Inq.

But why

Theo.

It is

its

life,

life

its terrestrial

Devachanic existence,

alone a reality, personality in-

to the

phantom

illusion. in

such a case

call sleep the reality,

simply a comparison

made

and waking the

to facilitate the

illusion?

grasping

of the subject, and from the standpoint of terrestrial conceptions Inq.

And

a very correct one.

it is

still

I

can not understand,

and merited retribution for case of materialists,

many

of

men, there should remain of a faded flower.

ThEo.

all

the life to come is based on justice our terrestrial suffering, how in the

if

whom

are really honest and charitable

their personality nothing but the refuse of

Such a thing was never

No

stated.

materialist,

how-

ever unbelieving, can die forever in the fulness of his spiritual

individuality.

What was

said

is

can disappear either fully or partially ialist

Inq.

so that

But surely

Theo. eral

no conscious remains of

that consciousness

in the case of a

mater-

his personality survive.

this is annihilation?

Certainly not.

One can

sleep a

dead sleep and miss sev-

stations during a long railway journey, without the

slightest recollection or consciousness,

station

and awake

at

another

and continue the journey past innumerable other

ing-places until the end of the journey or the goal

is

halt-

reached.

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHY

168

—

the dreamless, Three kinds of sleep were mentioned to you the chaotic and the one which is so real that dreams become full realities to the sleeper. If you believe in the latter, why can you not believe in the former? According to the after-life a man has believed in and expected, such is the life he will have. He who expected no life to come will have an absolute blank, amounting to annihilation, in the interval between the two births. This is just the carrying out of the a program created by the materialprogram we spoke of there are various kinds of materialists, But ists themselves. A selfish, wicked Egoist, one who never shed a as you say. tear for any one but himself, thus adding entire indifference to the whole world to his unbelief, must, at the threshold of This personality having death, drop his personality forever. no tendrils of sympathy for the world around, and hence no-

—

thing to attach

it

to siltrdtma,

it

follows that with the last

breath every connection between the two

is

broken.

There

being no Devachan for such a materialist, the sutratmd will reincarnate almost immediately. But those materialists who erred in nothing but their disbelief will oversleep but one

come when such ex-materialists perceive themselves in the Eternity, and perhaps repent they lost even one day, one station, from the life eternal.

station. will

that

Inq.

Still

new The;o.

And

would

life,

it

the time will

not be more correct to say that death

is

birth into a

or a return once more into eternity?

You may

if

you

like.

Only remember

that births differ,

and that there are births of "still-born" beings, which are Moreover, with your fixed Western ideas failures of nature. being " are living " and about material life, the words ''

''

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

i69

quite inapplicable to the pure subjective state of post-mortem existence.

Save

the many, and

in a

who

few philosophers who are not read by

themselves are too confused to present a

distinct picture of it, your Western ideas of life and death have become so narrow that on the one hand they have led to crass materialism, and on the other to the still more material conception of the other life which the Spiritualists have formThere the souls of men eat, ulated in their " Summer-land." drink, marry and live in a paradise quite as sensual as that of Mohammed, and even less philosophical. Nor are the average conceptions of the uneducated Christians any better; if possible, they are still more material. What between truncated angels, brass trumpets, golden harps and material hellfires, the Christian heaven seems like a fairy scene at a Christmas pantomime. It is

such

because of these narrow conceptions that you find

difficulty in

understanding.

It is just

of the disembodied soul, while possessing of reality, as in certain dreams,

is

because the all

life

the vividness

devoid of every grossly

form of terrestrial life that the Eastern phers have compared it with visions during sleep.

objective

philoso-

DEFINITE WORDS FOR DEFINITE THINGS Inq,

Don't you think that it is because there are no definite and fixed terms to indicate each " Principle " in man, that such a confusion of ideas arises in our

minds with respect

these " Principles "

?

Thko.

I

to the respective functions of

have thought of this myself. The whole trouble has from our having begim with Sanskrit names in our

arisen

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

170

expositions of and discussion about the " Principles," instead

of immediately coining, for the use of Theosophists, their equivalents in English. Inq.

You

will

do

well, as

sophical writers, " Principle "

Theo.

may

it

seems

it

We

must

try

and remedy

avoid further confusion

;

to me, have hitherto agreed to

this

now.

no two Theocall the same

by the same name.

The confusion

more apparent than

is

real,

however.

I

have heard some of our Theosophists expressing surprise, and criticizing several essays speaking of these " principles." When examined, however, there was no worse mistake in them than the use of the word " soul " to cover the three principles,

without specifying the distinctions.

tral teachings

[One of the cen-

of Theosophy around which everything of hu-

man interest seems to revolve is that of the Angel and the Demon in every one. Human nature is dual; man stands between the higher and the lower, with power such as

is

to

choose to

In his ordinary normal

identify himself with either.

lived today, he alternates

life

between the two to

greater or less degree; at one time the spiritual nature pre-

dominates and at another the animal, or lower nature, or the mere mentality divorced from all higher influences of the heart.

As man

lives

centres

more of

his consciousness in the body, identifying

himself with the

pondingly as he

life

more the

of the lower nature, he

of sensation or mere intellect.

lives a

lower nature and

life

more

spiritual life

he

rises

Corres-

above the

no longer enchained by physical sensation or enslaved by animal impulse: he becomes more and more freed from the influence of physical, material life. Man thus appears under three aspects: (a) the ordinary is

m

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY human

we see it today, between swayed now by this, now by that;

condition as

the lower,

the higher and

{h) above

this,

a state of relatively spiritual consciousness; and (c) the low may name these three conditions, the huanimal state.

We

man

soul, the spiritual soul,

But there

is

and the animal

soul respectively.

a state or condition higher than these, which

approaches as his nature becomes purified from

all

man

the lower

elements, becoming spiritual in the highest sense, and which though unknown to the majority of men is yet the source of

This

their highest inspiration. is,

as

it

we

were, the Divine Root of

BJwgavad Gifd expresses

it,

underlying

The

"

It

in all

;

not different in you and

men, the essential Divinity

all life.]

Higher Self

erializable.

the Higher Self.

being, existing, as the

" alike imperishable in all per-

ishable things;" non-materializable

me, but one and the same

call all

"

is

Even more,

Atma, and it

of course

it is

non-mat-

can never be objective under any

For is really Brahma, the AbsolHigher Atman, In hours of samadhi the ute, and indistinguishable from it. circumstances, even to the highest spiritual perception. or the "

Self "

higher spiritual consciousness of the Initiate sorbed in the

one

essence,

which

is

is

entirely ab-

Atman, and

therefore,

being one with the whole, there can be nothing objective for it. Now some of our Theosophists have got into the habit of using the words " Self " and "

Ego

" as

synonymous of ;

associating the term " Self " with only man's higher individual or even personal " Self " or Bgo, whereas this term ought

never to be applied except to the One universal Self. Hence the confusion. When speaking of Manas, the "causal body,"

and connecting

it

with the Buddhic radiance,

we may

call

it

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

172

the "

the " Higher Self."

Higher Ego." never

For even

Buddhi, the " Spiritual Soul," only of Self. idual self

is not the SelF, but the vehicle " such as the IndivSelves " All the other

and personal

self

— — ought never

to be

spoken or

written of without their qualifying and characteristic ad-

Higher Self " as applied by some to the sixth principle or Buddhi (of course in conjunction with Manas, as without such union there would be no thinking jectives.

The term

**

principle or element in the spiritual soul) has given rise to

much misunderstanding. To avoid henceforth such misapprehensions,

I

propose to

translate the occult Eastern terms into their English equivalents,

and

of¥er these for future use.

The Higher Sele

is

the f Atma, the inseparable ray of

and

One

It is the

SelE.

than within,

Happy

us.

God

the

ceeds in saturating his inner

The

Universal

above,

more

man who sucEgo with it!

the spiritual soul or Buddhi, in close union

Spirit-

ual Ego

divine is

with

Manas, the

mind-principle,

which the former is no Ego the Atmic Vehicle.

Manas, the

at

all,

without but only

" fifth " Principle, so called, in-

The Mind-Principle Ego when merged info

dependently of Buddhi.

The

Higher Eeo " is

or "

only the Spiritual one with Buddhi; no materialist being sup-

is

Inner,

posed to have in him such an Ego, however great his intellectual capacities. the permanent

It is

Individuality or the " Rein-

^carnating Ego."

m

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV the physical er Self —

The LowKR,

i.

sires, etc.

man e.,

in

conjunction with his

animal

lozv-

instincts, passions, de-

It is called the " false

personal-

Manas comand operating through the physical body and its phantom

or PersonaIv- ity," and consists of the lozver "

Ego

"

is

bined

Kama

with

Riipa,

or " double."

The remaining

''principle,"

Prdna, or " Life,"

speaking, the radiating force or energy of

Universal Life and the

Onk Self

is,

strictly

Atma — as

— Its lower, or rather

the (in

its effects) more physical, because manifesting, aspect. Prdna, or Life, permeates the whole being of the objective Universe, and is called a ''principle" only because it is an

indispensable factor and the deus ex viachind of the living

man. Inq.

This division will answer better, in

its

combinations.

The

other

is

I believe,

much

as

it

is

so

much

simplified

too metaphysical.

ThEo. If outsiders as well as Theosophists would agree to it, would certainly make matters much more comprehensible.

it

THE KBY TO THBOSOPHY

174

X ON THE NATURE OF OUR THINKING PRINCIPLE THE MYSTERY OF THE EGO Inq.

have heard it stated that the Skandhas change with every new incarnation. And yet I

we

reflection of the past Hves, which,

of Skandhas, "must survive." clear in like to

my mind

have

it

as to

what

explained.

At

it is

What

— memory it

asserted that the

made up

am

not quite

the present

moment

I

precisely that survives, is

it?

—

are told, are entirely

Is

it

and

I

should

only that "reflection/' or

those Skandhas, or always that same Ego, the

Theo.

is

included

Manas?

have just explained that the reincarnating Principle, or that which we call the divine man, is indestructible throughout the life-cycle indestructible as a thinking Bntity, and even as an ethereal form. The "reflection" is only the spiritualized remembrance, during the Devachanic period, of the ex-personality with which the Bgo Mr. A or Mrs. B identifies itself during that period. Since the Devachanic I

—

—

period

is

—

but the continuation of the earth-life, so to say

—

the very acme and pith, in an unbroken series, of the few happy moments in that now past existence the Ego has to

—

identify itself with the personal consciousness of that earthlife if

Inq.

anything shall remain of

it.

This means that the Ego, notwithstanding

its

divine nature, passes

every such period between two incarnations in a state of mental obscuration or temporary insanity?

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY You may

The:o. the

regard

it

as

you

175

Believing that, outside

like.

One ReaHty, nothing is more than a passing iUusion — the

—

we do not view it as insanity, but whole Universe included as a very natural sequence or development of the terrestrial life. What is life? A bundle of the most varied experiences, of daily changing ideas, emotions and opinions. In our youth we are often enthusiastically devoted to an ideal, a to some hero or heroine whom we try to follow and revive ;

few years

later,

when

the freshness of our youthful feelings

has faded out and sobered down,

And

our fancies.

we

are the

laugh at

first to

was a day when we had

yet there

so thor-

oughly identified our own personality with that of the ideal in that our mind especially if it was that of a living being it Can be it became entirely merged and lost in our ideal. said of a man of fifty that he is the same being that he was at

—

—

The

twenty? sonality

is

inner

man

is

the

also call these changes in the Inq.

same the outward ;

completely transformed and changed.

human mental

living per-

Would you

states insanity

?

How the

Theo.

would you name them, and especially how would you explain permanence of the one and the evanescence of the other?

We

have our own doctrine ready, and

The

difficulty.

to us

it

oflfers

no

clue lies in the double consciousness of our

mind, and also in the dual nature of the mental ''principle."

— the manasic mind ined by the of Buddhi — which subjectively perceives abstractions, and a sentient consciousness — the lower man— inseparable from our physical brain and

There

is

a spiritual consciousness

illum-

light

senses.

asic light

The

latter consciousness

is

held in subjection by the brain and

physical senses and, being in

its

turn equally dependent on

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

176

them, must of course fade out and finally die with the disap-

pearance of the brain and physical senses.

only the

It is

whose root lies in eternity, which forever, and may therefore be regarded as

spiritual consciousness,

survives and lives

immortal. Inq,

Everything

What do you

ThEO.

really

[That which

is

else

belongs to passing illusions.

understand by illusion in

this case?

not permanent, the transitory, the evan-

escent and phenomenal.

Under

this

category will come,

therefore, our fleeting earth-lives which are, as

it

were, the

The

flowers of an existence whose roots are in eternity.

world

is

the world of causes, of noumena.

real

Just as in the

natural world at the appointed season the plants, whose roots are hid in the earth, send up their shoots and leaves and then

blossom and

die, so the soul, the root

inner spiritual world, sends out

its

of whose being

is

in the

shoots and blossoms into

These blossoms live out their transitory day and then fade away and die, and the life essence, just as in the plant, is indrawn into the root to be again sent forth in due season. One having cognizance of these two aspects would be merely justified in declaring these transitory blossoms of earth-life illusions, and the only real life, that which lies behind.] This is what I mean. It is not the world in which blossom the transitory and evanescent flowers of personal lives which is the real permanent world, but that one in which we find the root of consciousness, the root which is beyond illusion and dwells in the eternity. the world of material physical existence.

Inq.

What do you mean by

ThHo.

I

mean by

the root dwelling in eternity?

this root the thinking entity, the

Ego which

;

m

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY incarnates, whether

Of

a Force.

we regard

as an "Angel," a " Spirit " or

it

that which falls under our sensuous perceptions

only what grows directly from, or root above can partake of

its

is

attached

immortal

to, this invisible

life.

Hence every

noble thought, idea and aspiration of the personality

in-

it

forms, proceeding from and fed by this root, must become

As

permanent. ity

to the physical consciousness, as

of the sentient but lower "principle"

it is

— Kama

a qual-

Rupa, or

by the lower mdnasic reflection, must disappear. It is the higher consciousness which displays activity while the body is asleep or paralyzed, our memory registering but feebly and inaccurately such experiences, and because automatically animal or the

instinct, illuminated

human

soul

—

it

—

—

often failing to be even slightly impressed by them. Inq.

But how

is it

weak during by

its

body

that

its

Manas, although you

call

it

Nous, a

"

God,"

is

so

incarnations as to be actually conquered and fettered

?

might retort with a similar question, and ask. How is it that he whom you regard as " God of gods " and the One living God is so zvcak as to allow evil (or the Devil) to have

Theo.

I

him as much as of all his creatures, both while in heaven, and also during the time he was incarnated on this earth? You are sure to reply again. This is a mystery, and we are forbidden to pry into the mysteries of God. But as

the best of

we

are not forbidden to do so by our religious philosophy, I

answer

that, unless a

God descends

principle can be otherwise than

turbulent animal matter. the upper

as an Az'atcira, no divine cramped and paralyzed by

Heterogeneity will always have

hand over homogeneity on

and the nearer an essence

is

to

its

this plane of illusions

root-principle, Primordial

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

178

Homogeneity, the more difficult it is for the latter to assert Spiritual and divine powers lie dormant in itself on earth. every human Being; and the wider the sweep of his spiritual But few vision, the mightier will be the God within him. men can feel that God. As an average rule, deity is always bound and limited in thought by earlier conceptions, ideas inculcated in us from childhood therefore it is so difficult for you to understand our philosophy. ;

Inq.

And

Not

ThEo.

Ego of ours which

is it this

at all

'' ;

a

God

"

is

our God?

is

not the universal deity, but only

Our God within our Father in Secret " is what we call the " Higher Self/' Atmd. Our incarnating Ego was a God in its origin, as were all the primeval emanations of the One Unknown

a spark from the one ocean of Divine Fire. us, or "

But since

Principle.

its

" fall into matter," having to in-

carnate throughout the cycle, in succession, from

first to last,

no longer a free and happy God, but a poor pilgrim on his way to regain that which he has lost. I can answer you more fully by repeating what is said of the Inner Man in it is

Isis

Unveiled

(ii,

593)

From the remotest antiquity mankind as a whole have ahvays been convinced of the existence of a personal spiritual entity ivithin the personal physical man. This inner entity was more or less divine, according to

its

serene

proximity to the crown.

man's

This belief

is

destiny,

the

less

.

.

.

The

dangerous

closer the union, the

the

external

neither bigotry nor superstition, only an ever-present,

instinctive feeling of the proximity of another spiritual

world, which, though

man,

is

more

conditions.

it

and

invisible

be subjective to the senses of the outward

perfectly objective to the Inner Ego.

lieved that there are external

Furthermore, they be-

and internal conditions which

affect the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

179

They rejected fatalism, some still blinder power. But they believed in destiny (or Karma), which from birth to death every man is weaving thread by thread around himself, as a spider does his cobweb; and this destiny is guided either by that presence termed by some the guardian angel, or by our more intimate astral inner man, determination of our unll upon our actions.

for fatalism implies a blind course of

who

is

but too often the evil genius of the

man

of flesh (or the per-

man, but one of them must preBoth these lead on beginning of the invisible affray the stern and from the very vail and implacable law of compensation {and retribution) steps in and takes its sonality).

.

.

.

;

course, following faithfully the fluctuations (of the conflict).

the last strand

work of empire of

his

is

own

this

man

is

When

in the net-

doing, then he finds himself completely under the

self-made destiny.

shell against the

in a

woven, and

seemingly inwrapped

It

then either fixes him like the inert

immovable rock, or

whirlwind raised by his

own

like a feather carries

him away

actions.

—

the true Ego, not the Such is the destiny of the Man Automaton, the shell that goes by that name. It is for this Man to become the conqueror over matter.

THE COMPLEX NATURE OF MANAS Inq.

But you wanted to tell me something of the essential nature of Manas, and of the relation in which the Skandhas of physical man stand to it.

Theo. It is this nature, mysterious, Protean, beyond any grasp, and almost shadowy in its correlations with the other principles, that is so difficult to realize, and still more difficult to " explain. Manas is a "principle," and yet it is an " Entity and individuality, or Ego. He is a " God," and yet he is doomed to an endless cycle of incarnations, for each of which he is made responsible, and for each of which he has to suffer.

THE KEY TO THEOSOFHY

180

All this seems as contradictory as

it is

puzzling; nevertheless,

there are hundreds of people, even in the West,

who

realize

comprehend the Ego not only in its integrity, but in its many aspects. But if I would make myself comprehensible, I must begin at the beginning and give you the genealogy of this Ego in a few lines. perfectly, for they

all this

Inq.

Say on.

Thko.

Try

to imagine a " Spirit," a celestial Being,

whether we

by one name or another, divine in its essential nature, yet not pure enough to be one with the Ahh, and consequently having to purify its nature so that it may finally reach that call

it

goal. ally,

—

It i.

can do so only by passing individually and persone.,

spiritually

and physically

— through

every ex-

perience and feeling that exists in the manifold or differentiated Universe. in the

It has, therefore, after

gaining experience

lower kingdoms, and having ascended higher and

still

higher with every rung on the ladder of being, to pass

through every experience on the human planes.

In

its

very

thought, and is therefore called in its plurality "Sons of the (Universal) mind." This " Thought " is what we Theosophists call the individualized

essence

it is

Manasa-piitras, or

real

human Ego,

the thinking Entity imprisoned in a case of

and bones. This is surely a Spiritual Entity, not Matter, and such Entities are the incarnating Egos, in-

flesh

forming the bundle of animal matter called mankind, and whose names are nidnasa, or " Minds." But once imprisoned or incarnate, their essence becomes dual that is to say, the rays of the eternal divine Mind, considered as individual entities, assume a twofold attribute: (a) their essential, in;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV herent, characteristic, heaven-aspiring

181

mind or higher Manas,

and (b) the human quaHty of thinking, or animal cogitation, rationahzed owing to the superiority of the human brain, the ^oma-tending or lower Manas. One gravitates toward Buddhi, the other tends downward to the seat of passions and animal desires. The latter have no room in Devachan, nor can they associate with the divine triad which ascends as oni=: Yet it is the Ego, the Manasic Entity, into mental bliss. which is held responsible for all the sins of the lower attributes, just as a parent

is

answerable for the transgressions

of the child so long as the latter remains irresponsible. Inq.

Is this "child" the personality?

Theo.

It

is.

But when

it

is

stated that the '^personality" dies

not all. The body, which was only the Mr. A or Mrs. B, fades away with all the material skandhas, which are the visible expressions of it. But all that which during life constituted the spiritual bundle of experiences, the noblest aspirations, undying affections and unselfish nature of Mr. A or Mrs. B, clings for the time of the Devachanic period to the Ego, and the Ego is identified with the spiritual portion of the terrestrial Entity, which has now passed away out of sight. The Actor is so imbued with the role he has lately played that he dreams of it during the whole Devachanic night, and this 7'isio}i continues until the hour strikes for him to return to the stage of life to enact

with the body, that

is

objective symbol of

another part. Inq.

But how is it that this doctrine, which you say is as old as thinking men, has found no room, say, in Christian theology?

ThEo.

You

are mistaken

—

it

has

;

only theology has disfigured

!

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

182

it

out of

Theology

all

many other Angel that God gives

recognition, as

calls the

Ego

the

it

has

doctrines. us, at the

moment

Theological of our birth, to take care of our Soul. " Angel " responsible for the logic, instead of holding that transgressions of the poor helpless " Soul," makes the latter

punishable for

all

the sins of both flesh

Soul, the immaterial breath of God,

and

and mind

which, by some most amazing intellectual jugglery, to

burn

in

It is the

!

his alleged creation, is

doomed

a material hell without ever being consumed,"

while the " Angel " escapes scot-free, after folding his white pinions and wetting them with a few tears. Aye, these are " " our ministering spirits," the messengers of mercy " who

Mant

are sent, Bishop

tells

us

—

.... Good

for salvation's heirs

Grieve

Yet

when we

;

to fulfil

for us they

sin, rejoice

when we

still

repent.

becomes evident that if all the bishops the world over were asked to define once for all what they mean by Soul and its functions, they would be as unable to do so as to show us any shadow of logic in the orthodox belief it

THE DOCTRINE Inq.

52.

IS

TAUGHT IN

ST.

JOHN'S GOSPEL

To this the adherents of this beHef might answer that, if even the orthodox dogma does promise the impenitent sinner and materiaHst a bad time of it in a rather too realistic Inferno, it gives them, on the other hand, a chance for repentance to the last minute. Moreover,

Being of " an ashestos-Wkt nature," according to the eloquent and of a modern English Tertullian.

fiery expression

;

THE KBY to THnoSOPHV

183

they do not teach annihilation, or loss of personality, which

is

all

the

same.

Church teaches nothing of the hand, Jesus does; and that is something

ThEO.

If the

who Inq.

kind, on the other to those, at least,

place Christ higher than Christianity.

Does Christ teach anything of the sort?

He

Thko.

Occultist

does; and every well-informed

and even

Christ, or the fourth Gospel at any Kabalist will tell you so. rate, teaches Reincarnation and also the annihilation of the personality, if you will only forget the dead letter and hold to

Remember

the esoteric spirit.

What upper triad in man ?

1

and 2

in chapter xv.

does the parable speak about

of St. John. the

verses

Atma

is

the

if

Husbandman,

not of

the spir-

itual Ego, or Biiddhi (Christos), the Vine, while the animal and vital soul, the personality, is the " branch." " I am the

true vine, in

me

and

my

Father

is

the

Every branch

Husbandman.

that beareth not fruit he taketh away.

branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I the branches. as a branch,

...Ha man abide not and

is

withered"

— and

in

it

... As

the

abide in the vine

am

the Vine, ye are

me, he

is

cast forth

cast into the fire

and

burned.

Now we

explain

it

in this

way.

Disbelieving in the hell-

which theology discovers as underlying the threat to the branches, we say that the " Husbandman " means Atma, the Symbol for the infinite, impersonal Principle,^"' while the fires

53.

During the Mysteries it is the hierophant, the " Father," who planted the Vine. Every symbol has Seven Keys to it. The discloser of the Plcroma was always called " Father."

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

184

Vine stands for the Spiritual Soul, Christos, and each " branch " represents a Inq.

But what proofs have you

new

to support such

Universal symbology

Theo.

incarnation. an arbitrary interpretation?

a warrant for

is

its

correctness and

Hernias God " that he In the i. e., he created mankind. " Kabalah it is shown that the Aged of the Aged, or the Long Face," plants a "vineyard," typifying mankind, and a "vine," that it is not arbitrary. " planted the Vineyard "

says of "

—

meaning Life. The Spirit of " King Messiah " is therefore shown as washing his garments in tJie zvine from above, from the creation of the world.^"* And King Messiah is the Ego purified by zvashing his garments i. e., his personalities in Adam, or in the zvi7ie from above, or Buddhi. rebirth

—

—

A-Dam,

is

" blood."

The

Life of the flesh

Noah

Nasarcens.

same

vineyard — the

also plants a

As

hotbed of future humanity. tion of the

allegory,

Seven vines

Saviors or Buddhas

in the

And Adam Kadmon

nephesh, soul (Lev. xvii.). Begotten.

is

we

is

—

the Only-

allegorical

a consequence of the adop-

find

it

reproduced

in the

— our Seven Races with

— are

blood

procreated.

Codex

their seven

These seven vines

spring from Jukabar Zivo, and Aebel Zivo waters them.^'

When

the blessed will ascend

among

the creatures of Light,

they shall see Javar Zivo, Lord of Li^K, and the First Vine.^^

These

kabalistic

metaphors are thus naturally repeated St. John (xv, 1).

Gospel according to

Let us not forget that

— even according

54.

Zohar,

55.

Codex Nazarceus, Liber Adami Appellatus

56.

Ibid.,

xl,

ii,

to those philoso-

10.

281.

—a

in the

Matth. Norberg,

iii,

60, 61.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

185

phies which ignore our septenary division

system the Ego, or thinking man,

is

—

human

in the

called the Logos, or the

Manas is the adopted son of King Son of Soul and Spirit. " (the esoteric equivalents for and Queen Atma and Buddhi), says an occult work. He is the "mangod " of Plato, who crucifies himself in Space, or the duration of the life-cycle, for the redemption of Matter. This he does by incarnating over and over again, thus leading mankind onward to perfection, and making thereby room for lower forms to develop into higher. Not for even one life does he cease progressing himself and also helping all physical Nat''

ure to progress; even the occasional, very rare event of his in the case of the latter losing one of his personalities

—

being entirely devoid of even a spark of spirituality

— helps

towards his individual progress. Inq.

But

surely, if the

personalities,

it

Ego

is

held responsible for the transgressions of

has to answer also for the

loss,

its

or rather the complete

annihilation, of one of such.

Theo.

Not

fate.

at

But

unless

all, if,

it

has done nothing to avert this dire

notwithstanding

all its efforts, its

voice, that

of our conscience, has been unable to penetrate through the wall of matter, then the obtuseness of the latter, which proceeds from the imperfect nature of the material,

with other failures of nature.

The Ego

is

is

classed

sufficiently

pun-

ished by the loss of Devachan, and especially by having to

incarnate almost immediately. Inq.

This doctrine of the possibility of losing one's soul

—

— or

personality,

do you call it? militates against the ideal theories of both Christians and Spiritualists, though Swedenborg adopts it to a certain extent in

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

186

what he accept

Th^o.

calls "Spiritual death."

Christians and Spiritualists will never

it.

This can

no way

in

alter a fact in nature, if

be a fact,

it

The

or prevent such a thing occasionally taking place.

verse and everything in Spiritual,

is

As

mony.

built

it,

uni-

moral, mental, physical, psychic or

on a perfect law of equilibrium and har-

said before in Isis Unveiled, the centripetal force

could not manifest

itself

without the centrifugal in the har-

monious revolutions of the spheres, and all forms and the progress of such forms are products of this dual force in Nature. Now the Spirit, or Buddhi, is the centrifugal, and the soul, or Manas, the centripetal spiritual energy; and to produce one result they have to be in perfect union and harmony. Break or damage the centripetal motion of the earthly soul tending toward the centre which attracts it arrest its progress by clogging it with a heavier weight of matter than it can bear, or than is fit for the Devachanic state, and the harmony of the whole will be destroyed. Personal life, or ;

perhaps rather

can only be continued if sustained by the twofold force; that is, by the close union of its

ideal reflection,

Buddhi and Manas in every rebirth or personal life. The least deviation from harmony damages it and when it is destroyed beyond redemption the two forces separate at the moment of death. During a brief interval the personal form the called indifferently kama rfipa and niayaz'i rupa ;

—

—

spiritual ef^orescence of which, attaching itself to the

follows uality ofif

For

to

it

its

into

remain

it is

Devachan and gives

personal coloring {pro in

Kdmaloka and

to the

tern.,

Ego,

permanent individ-

so to speak),

is

carried

to be gradually annihilated.

after the death of the utterly depraved, the unspir-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

187

and the wicked beyond redemption that the critical and supreme moment arrives. If during Hfe the ultimate and desperate effort of the Inner Self (Manas) to unite something of the personality with itself and the high glimmering ray of the divine Buddhi is thwarted if this ray is allowed to be more and more shut out from the ever-thickening crust of the physical brain, the Spiritual Ego or Manas, once freed from the body, remains severed entirely from the ethereal relic of the personality; and the latter, or Kama Rupa, following its earthly attractions, is drawn into and remains in Hades, which we call Kamaloka. These are the withered branches " mentioned by Jesus as being cut off from the Vine. Annihilation, however, is never instantaneous, and may require centuries sometimes for its accomplishment. But there the personality remains along with the remnants of other more fortunate personal Egos, and becomes with them a As said in Isis Unveiled, it is these sJiell and an Elementary. two classes of " spirits," the shells and the Blementaries, which are the leading " Stars " on the great spiritual stage of " materializations." And, you may be sure of it, it is not they who incarnate; and therefore it is that so few of these ''dear departed ones" know anything of reincarnation, and itual

;

*'

thereby mislead the Spiritualists. Inq.

But does not the author of Isis Unveiled stand accused of having preached against Reincarnation?

TiiEO.

At

By

those

who have misunderstood what was

the time that

said, yes.

work was written Reincarnation was not

believed in by any Spiritualists, either English or American,

and what

is

there said of Reincarnation

was

directed against

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

188

the French Spiritists,

whose theory

and absurd as the Eastern teaching dent in

its

truth.

The

is

as unphilosophical

and

logical

is

self-evi-

Reincarnationists of the Allan Kardec

school believe in an arbitrary and immediate reincarnation.

With them,

the dead father can incarnate in his

own unborn

They have neither Devachan, Karma, nor any philosophical theory that would warrant or prove daughter, and so on.

the necessity of consecutive rebirths.

thor of his Unveiled argue against at long intervals

Then you

Karmic

reincarnation,

varying between one thousand, and

hundred years, when it Buddhists and Hindus? Inq.

But how can the au-

is

fifteen

the fundamental belief of both

reject the theories of both the Spiritists

and the

Spirit-

ualists in their entirety?

ThEo.

Not

in their entirety, but only

spective fundamental beliefs.

Both

with regard to their rerely

on what their

''spir-

them, and both disagree as much from each other we Theosophists disagree from both. Truth is one; and when we hear the French spooks preaching Reincarnation, its" tell

as

and the English spooks denying and denouncing the doctrine, we say that either the French or the English ''spirits" do not know what they are talking about. We believe, with the vSpiritualists and the Spiritists, in the existence of " spirits," or invisible beings endowed with more or less intelligence. But while in our teachings their kinds and genera are legion, our opponents admit of no other than human disembodied " spirits," which, to our knowledge, are mostly Kamalokic Shells. Inq.

You seem

very bitter against " Spirits."

As you have

given

me your

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

189

views and your reasons for disbelieving in the materialization of, and direct communication in seances with, the disembodied spirits, or the "spirits of the dead,"

Why

fact?

ous

is

would you mind enlightening me as

are some Theosophists never tired of saying

intercourse with spirits, and mediumship?

to

one more

how

danger-

Have they any

par-

Owing

my

ticular reason for this?

Theo.

We

must suppose

so.

I

know

/ have.

to

familiarity for over half a century with these invisible but only too tangible and undeniable " influences," from the con-

and semi-conscious shells down senseless and nondescript spooks of all kinds,

scious Elementals utterly

a certain right to Inq.

Can you

my

give an instance or instances to

claim

show why

over the history of Spiritualism for the

reappearance

for yourself whether

in this it

these practices

?

Theo. This would require more time than Every cause must be judged by the effects its

I

views.

should be regarded as dangerous

since

the

to

can give you.

it

produces.

Go

last fifty years,

ever

century in America, and judge

has done

Pray understand me.

I

its

votaries

more good or

do not speak against real spiritualism, but against the modern movement which goes

harm.

I

under that name, and the so-called philosophy invented explain its phenomena. Inq.

Do you

not believe in their

phenomena

to

at all?

them with too good reason, and know them to be save some cases of deliberate fraud as true as that 5^ou and I live, that all my being revolts against them. Once more I speak only of physical, not mental or even psychic phenomena. Like attracts like. There are

ThKo.

—

It is

because

I

believe in

—

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

190

good men and women, known to me personally, who have passed years of their lives under the direct guidance and even protection of high " Spirits," whether disembodied or planetary. But these Intelligences " are not of the type of the "John Kings" and the Ernests who figure in seance-rooms.. These Intelligences guide and control mortals only in rare and exceptional cases to which they are attracted and magnetically drawn by the Karmic past of the individual. It is not enough to sit for develop" ment in order to attract them. That only opens the door to a swarm of spooks, good, bad, and indifferent, to which the medium becomes a slave for life. It is against such promiscuous mediumship and intercourse with goblins that I several high-minded, pure,

''

''

raise

my

voice, not against Spiritual Mysticism.

The

latter

the former is of just the same nature phenomena of two centuries ago, for which so many witches and wizards have been made to suffer. Read Glanvil and other authors on the subject of witchcraft, and you

is

ennobling and holy

;

as the

Inq.

if not all, of the " Spiritualism."

will find

recorded there the parallels of most,

physical

phenomena of nineteenth-century

Do you mean

ThEO.

mean

to suggest that

it

is

all

witchcraft and nothing more?

whether conscious or unconscious, all this is necromancy, and a most dangerous practice. For ages before Moses such raising of the dead was regarded by all the intelligent nations as sinful and cruel, inasmuch as it disturbs the rest of the souls and interferes with their evolutionary development into higher states. The collective wisdom of all past centuries has ever been loud Finally, I say, what I have in denouncing such practices. I

that,

dealing with the dead

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY never ceased repeating orally and

While some

i91

in print for fifteen years:

of the so-called "spirits"

do not know what they

are talking about, repeating merely, like poll-parrots, what they find in the mediums' and other people's brains, others are most dangerous and can only lead one to

evil.

These are

two self-evident facts. Go into spiritualistic circles of the Allan Kardec school, and you find "spirits" asserting Reincarnation and speaking like Roman Catholics born. Turn to the "dear departed ones" in England and America, and you will hear them denying Reincarnation through thick and thin, denouncing those who teach it, and holding to Protestant views. Your best, your most powerful mediums have Think of the sad all sufifered in health of body and mind. end of Charles Foster, who died in an asylum, a raving luthe best medium natic; of Slade, an epileptic; of Eglinton Look back now in England subject to the same disease.

—

—

over the in gall

life

and

of D. D.

bitterness,

Home,

a

man whose mind was

who never had

a good

word

steeped

to say of

anyone whom he suspected of possessing psychic powers, and who slandered every other medium to the bitter end. This Calvin of Spiritualism sufifered for years from a terrible spinal disease, brought on by his intercourse with the " spirits," and died a perfect wreck. Think again of the sad fate of poor Washington Irving Bishop.

New York when

I

knew him

in

he was fourteen, and he was undeniably medium. It is true that the poor man stole a march on his "spirits" and baptized them " unconscious muscular action," to the great gandhim of all the corporations of highly learned and scientific fools, and to the replenishment of his own pocket. But de mortuis nil nisi honuni his end was a sad one.

a

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

192

He had

strenuously concealed his epileptic

fits

— the —

first

and who and strongest symptom of genuine mediumship knows whether he was dead or in a trance when the post-

mortem examination was performed? His relatives insist that he was alive, if we are to believe Renter's telegrams. Finally, behold the veteran mediums, the founders and prime After the Fox sisters. movers of modern Spiritualism more than forty years of intercourse, the **angels" have led them to become incurable sots, who are now denouncing, in public lectures, their own lifelong work and philosophy as a fraud. What kind of "spirits" must they be who prompted them, I ask you ?

—

Inq.

But

The:o.

is

your inference a correct one?

What would you

infer

if

the best pupils of a particular

school of singing broke down from overstrained sore throats ? That the method followed was a bad one? So I think the in-

ference

is

equally fair with regard to Spiritualism

see their best

only say

:

mediums

Let those

fall

who

We

We

can

are interested in the question judge

the tree of Spiritualism by lesson.

when we

a prey to such a fate.

its

fruits,

and ponder over the

Theosophists have always regarded the Spirit-

having the same mystic tendency as ourselves; but they have always regarded us as enemies. We, being in possession of an older philosophy, have tried to help and warn them but they have repaid us by reviling and traducing us and our motives in every possible way. Nevertheless the best English Spiritualists say just as we do, wherualists as brothers

;

ever

they

treat

of

Oxon." confessing

their

belief

this truth:

seriously.

Hear

"

M. A.

m

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Spiritualists are too

much

inclined to dwell exclusively

on the

inter-

vention of external spirits in this world of ours, and to ignore the

powers of the incarnate

Why same?

Spirit.^^

and abuse us, then, for saying precisely the Henceforward we will have nothing more to do with

vilify

Spiritualism.

And now 57.

let

us return to Reincarnation.

Second Sight, Introduction.

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHY

194

XI

ON THE MYSTERIES OF REINCARNATION PERIODICAL REBIRTHS Inq.

You mean,

then, that

we have

all

lived

on earth before

in

many

past

incarnations, and shall go on so living?

ThEo.

I

The

do.

life-cycle, or rather the cycle of

conscious

begins with the separation of the mortal animal-man

life,

and

end with the close of the last generation of men in the seventh romid and seventh race of mankind. Considering we are only in the fourth round and fifth race, into sexes,

its

Inq.

duration

And we

ThEo.

is

will

more

easily

keep on incarnating

Most assuredly

imagined than expressed. in

new

personalities

all

the time?

so; because this life-cycle or period of

may be best compared to human life. As each composed of days of activity separated by nights of sleep or of inaction, so in the incarnation-cycle an active life is followed by a Devachanic rest. incarnation

such

Inq.

And

life is

it

is

this succession

of births that

is

generally defined as Rein-

carnation ?

ThEo.

Just so.

It is

only through these births that the perpet-

ual progress of the countless millions of

Egos toward

final

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY and a

perfection,

final rest

(as long as

195

was the period of

activity) can be achieved,

And what

Inq.

is it

incarnations

Theo. Inq.

Is

Karma, it

an

that regulates the duration or special qualities of these

?

the universal law of retributive justice.

intelligent

law?

For the Materialist, who calls the law of periodicity which regulates the marshaling of bodies, and all the other laws in Nature, blind forces and mechanical laws, no doubt Karma would be a law of chance and no more. For us no adjective or qualification could describe that which is impersonal and not an entity, but a universal operative law. If you question me about the causative intelligence in it, I must answer you, I do not know. But if you ask me to define its effects and tell you what these are in our belief, I may say that the experience of thousands of ages has shown us that they are absolute and unerring equity, zvisdom and intelligence. For Karma in its effects is an unfailing redresser of human injustice, and of all the failures of Nature; a stern adjuster of wrongs; a retributive law which rewards and

Theo.

punishes with equal impartiality.

It

is,

in the strictest sense,

"

no respecter of persons," though, on the other hand, it can neither be propitiated nor turned aside by prayer. This is a belief common to Hindijs and Buddhists, who believe in

Karma. Inq.

In this Christian dogmas contradict both, and

I

doubt whether any

Christian will accept the teaching.

ThEo.

No; and Inman gave

As he

puts

it

the reason for

it

many

years ago.

THE KEY TO THHOSOPHY

196

The

Christians will accept any nonsense,

promulgated by the

if

the Buddhists hold that nothing which church as a matter of faith is contradicted by sound reason can be a true doctrine of Buddha. ;

The Buddhists do not

.

.

.

.

any pardon for their sins, except after an adequate and just punishment for each evil deed or thought in a future incarnation, and a proportionate believe in

compensation to the parties injured. Inq.

Where

is it

so stated?

Theo. In most of their sacred works. In the Wheel of the Law, (p. 57) you may find the following Theosophical tenet: Buddhists believe that every

act,

word, or thought has

its

conse-

quence, which will appear sooner or later in the present or in the future state.

Evil acts will produce evil consequences, good acts will

produce good consequences prosperity [Devachan] .... in the future state. :

Inq.

Christians believe the

Theo.

Oh

all sins.

same

in

heaven

thing, don't they?

They are promised

that

if

they only believe in the

— an innocent victim — !

by him for the expiation of the will

world or birth

no; they believe in the pardon and the remission of

blood of Christ

it

in this

atone for every mortal

in the

sins of the

sin.

blood offered

whole of mankind,

And we

believe neither in

vicarious atonement, nor in the possibility of the remission not even by a " personal of the smallest sin by any God

—

Absolute " or " Infinite," if such a thing could

have any eximpartial justice. and istence. What we Our idea of the unknown Universal Deity, represented by Karma, is that it is a Power which cannot fail, and can therefore have neither wrath nor mercy, but only absolute Equity, which leaves every cause, great or small, to work out its inbelieve in

is strict

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY evitable effects.

ye mete,

it

The saying

shall be

measured

of Jesus, " to

197

With what measure

you again" (Matt.

vii.

2),

neither by expression nor implication points to any hope of

future mercy or salvation by proxy.

This

is

why, recogniz-

we do in our philosophy the justice of this statement, we cannot recommend too strongly mercy, charity and foring as

giveness of mutual offenses.

good for in

" Resist not evil "

and

"'

render

Buddhist precepts, and were first preached view of the implacability of karmic law. For man to take evil " are

own hands is in any case a sacrilegious presumption. Human law may use restrictive, not punitive measures but a man who, believing in Karma, still revenges the law into his

;

himself,

still

refuses to forgive every injury, whereby he

would render good for himself.

As Karma

is

evil,

is

a criminal, and only hurts

sure to punish the

man who wronged

an additional punishment on his enemy, he who, instead of leaving that punishment to the great Law, adds to it his own mite, only begets thereby a cause for the future reward of his own enemy and a future him, by seeking to

inflict

punishment for himself.

The

unfailing Regulator in each

incarnation affects the quality of

its

successor,

and the sum

of the merit or demerit in preceding incarnations determines the following rebirth. L\Q.

Are we,

Theo.

then, to infer a man's past

Only so far as

from

his present?

to believe that his present life

justly should be, to atone for the sins of the past

— seers

—

is

what

life.

it

Of

we cannot, as and great Adepts excepted average mortals, know what those sins were. From our paucity of data it is impossible for us to determine even what

course

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

198

an old man's youth must have been neither can we, for Hke reasons, draw final conclusions, merely from what we see in the life of some man, as to what his past life may have been. ;

WHAT Inq.

But what

Thko.

As

is

KARMA?

Karma?

have

I

IS

said,

we

consider

it

as the Ultimate Lazv of

the Universe, the source, origin and fount of

all

other laws

which exist throughout Nature. Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental and spirAs no cause remains without its due itual planes of being. effect from greatest to least, from a cosmic disturbance down to the movement of your hand, and as like produces like, Karma is that unseen and unknown law which adjusts zviscly, intelligently and equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the Though itself unknowable, its latter back to its producer. action Inq.

is

perceivable.

Then it is much value

On Karma

Theo.

the "Absolute," the "

the contrary. is

Unknowable," again, and

as an explanation of the problems of

per se and in

its

we do know hozv it works, its mode of action with ac-

essence,

and we can define and describe We only do not know

its

ultimate Cause, just as

modern philosophy universally admits

Inq.

And what

is

not of

For though we do not know what

curacy.

of a thing

is

life.

that the ultimate cause

"unknowable."

has Theosophy to say in regard to the solution of the more

practical needs of

humanity?

What

is

the explanation which

of the awful suffering and dire necessity prevalent

"lower classes"

?

among

it

offers

the so-called

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHY To

Theo.

be pointed

— the sexes the and of labor — social evils

:

199

according to our teaching,

these great

all

distinction of classes in society,

and of the

affairs of life, the unequal distribution of capital

in

all

are due to what

we

tersely but truly de-

nominate Karma. Inq.

But surely all these evils which seem to fall upon the masses somewhat indiscriminately are not actual merited and individual Karma?

Theo. to

No, they cannot be so

show

strictly defined in their effects as

that each individual environment,

conditions of

which each person

in

life

nothing more than the retributive ual has generated in a previous

of the fact that every atom

is

and the particular finds himself, are

Karma which

the individ-

We must not

life.

lose sight

subject to the general law gov-

erning the whole body to which

it

belongs, and here

we come

Do you not Karma becomes

upon the wider track of the karmic law.

per-

ceive that the aggregate of individual

that

of the nation to which that the

The

sum

those individuals belong and, further,

of National

total

Karma

is

that of the

World?

you speak of are not peculiar to the individual more or less universal; and it is upon this broad line of Himian interdependence that the law of Karma finds its legitimate and equable issue. evils that

or even to the Nation; they are

Inq.

Do

I,

then, understand that the law of

Karma

is

not necessarily an

individual law?

Theo.

That

is

just

what

I

mean.

It is

impossible that

life

and

line of action.

It

could readjust the balance of power in the world's

progress unless is

it

had a broad and general

held as a truth

ence of Humanity

among Theosophists is

the cause of

what

Karma

that the interdependis

called Distributive

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

200

Karma, and

it

is

this

law which

afifords the solution to the

great question of collective suffering and occult law, moreover, that

no

man

can

its relief.

It is

an

rise superior to his

individual failings without lifting, be

it

ever so

little,

the

whole body of which he is an integral part. In the same way no one can sin, nor suffer the effects of sin, alone. In reality there is no such thing as " Separateness ;'' and the nearest approach to that selfish state which the laws of life permit is in the intent or motive. Inq.

And are there no means by which the distributive or national Karma might be concentrated or collected, so to speak, and brought to its natural and legitimate fulfilment without all this protracted suffering?

As

ThEo.

a general rule, and within certain limits which define

the age to which

we

hastened or retarded tain

:

belong, the law of in its fulfilment.

Karma

But of

can not be

this I

am

cer-

the point of possibility in either of these directions has

never yet been touched. Inq.

There seems then no immediate hope of any

relief short of

an earth-

quake, or some such general engulf ment.

ThEo.

What

manity

is

right have

we

to think so while

in a position to effect

one half of hu-

an immediate

privations which are suffered by their fellows

?

relief of the

When

every

good what he can of money, of labor and of ennobling thought, then, and only then, will the balance of National Karma be struck, and tmtil then we have no right, nor any reasons, for saying that there It is is more life on the earth than Nature can support. reserved for the heroic souls, the Saviors of our Race and individual has contributed to the general

Nation, to find out the cause of this unequal pressure of re-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY tributive

Karma, and by a supreme

201

effort to readjust the bal-

ance of power, and save the people from a moral engulfment a thousand times more disastrous and more permanently evil than the

the only possible outlet for this Inq.

Well, then,

Theo.

We

which you seem accumulated misery.

like physical catastrophe, in

tell

me

describe

generally

Karma

how you

as that

describe this law of

Law

to see

Karma.

of readjustment which

ever tends to restore disturbed equilibrium in the physical,

and broken harmony

ma

in the

moral world.

We

say that Kar-

way always, but Harmony and pre-

does not act in this or that particular

that

it

always does act so as to restore

serve the balance of equilibrium, in virtue of which the Uni-

verse exists. Inq.

Give

ThEo.

me an

illustration.

Later on

I will

A

of a pond.

give you a full illustration.

Think now

stone falls into the water and creates disturb-

These waves oscillate backward and forward until at last, owing to the operation of what physicists call the law of the dissipation of energy, they are brought to rest, and the water returns to its condition of calm tranquillity. ing waves.

on every plane, produces disturbance in the balanced harmony of the Universe, and the vibrations so produced will continue to roll backward and forward, if But since the area is limited, until equilibrium is restored. Similarly

all action,

each such disturbance starts from some particular point, it is clear that equilibrium and harmony can only be restored

by the reconverging to that same point of all the forces which were set in motion from it. And here you have proof that the consequences of a man's deeds, thoughts, etc., must all

:

THB KHY TO THBOSOPHY

202

upon himself with the same force with which they

react

were Inq.

But

set in

motion.

see nothing of a moral character about this law.

I

It

looks to

me

like the simple physical law that action and reaction are equal

and

opposite.

The;o.

I

am

not surprised to hear you say that.

Westerners

have got so much right and wrong, good and evil, as matters of an arbitrary code of law laid down either by men or imposed upon them by a Personal God. We Theosophists, however, say that " Good " and " Harmony," and " Evil " and " Dis-harmony," Further, we maintain that all pain and are synonymous. suffering are results of want of Harmony, and that the one into the ingrained habit of considering

and only cause of the disturbance of Harmony is Hence Karma gives back selfishness in some form or other. terrible

to

every

man

the actual consequences of his

own

actions,

without any regard to their moral character; but since he receives his due for all, it is obvious that he will be made to sufferings which he has caused, just as he will and gladness the fruits of all the happiness and harmony he had helped to produce. I can do no better than quote for your benefit certain passages from books and articles written by those of our Theosophists who have a correct

atone for

all

reap in joy

idea of Inq.

I

Karma.

wish you would, as your literature seems to be very sparing on

this

subject.

The;o.

Because

it is

the most difficult of

all

our tenets.

Some

short time ago there appeared the following objection from a Christian pen

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY Granting that the teaching that "

man must

the evil that

man

in

regard to Theosophy

saviour,

must overcome

is

self

correct, and and conquer

dual nature, to obtain the emancipation of his

in his

is

— what

own

be his

203

do after he has been awakened and converted How is he to get emanevil or wickedness? cipation, or pardon, or the blotting out of the evil or wickedness he soul "

is

to a certain extent

to

from

has already done?

To

this a

Theosophical writer replies very pertinently that to "

make the Theosophical engine run on track." As he has it:

no one can hope the theological

The

possibility of shirking individual responsibility

concepts of Theosophy.

In this faith there

is

not

among

the

no such thing as pardon-

is

ing, or " blotting out of evil or wickedness already done," otherwise than by the adequate punishment therefor of the wrong-doer and the restoration of the harmony in the universe that had been disturbed by

his

wrongful

"

The

act.

evil

has been his own, and while others must

made by nobody but himself. The condition contemplated, ... in which a man shall have been awakened and converted to a certain extent from evil or wicked-

suffer

ness,"

its

is

consequences, atonement can be

that in

which a man

shall

have realized that his deeds are

In that realization a sense of per-

and deserving of punishment. is inevitable, and just in proportion to the extent of his awakening or "converting" must be the sense of that awful While it is strong upon him is the time when he is responsibility. evil

sonal responsibility

urged to accept the doctrine of vicarious atonement. He is told that he must also repent; but nothing is easier than that. It is an amiable weakness of human nature that we are quite prone to regret the evil we have done when our attention is called and we have either suffered

from

it

ourselves or enjoyed

its

fruits.

Possibly close

would show us that that which we regret is rather the necessity that seemed to require the evil as a means of attainment of our selfish ends than the evil itself.

analysis of the feeling

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

204

Attractive as this prospect of casting our burden of sins " at the foot of the cross " itself to the

may

it does not commend does not apprehend why the sin-

be to the ordinary mind,

Theosophic student.

He

ner by attaining knowledge of his evil can thereby merit any pardon for, or the blotting out of, his past

and future

right living entitle

him

wickedness

;

or

why

universal law of relation between cause and effect. his evil deeds continue to exist

wickedness

;

The

results of

the suffering caused to others by his

The Theosophical

not blotted out.

is

repentance

to a suspension in his favor of the

student takes the

wickedness upon the innocent into his problem. siders not only the guilty person, but his victims.

result of

He

con-

Evil is an infraction of the laws of harmony governing the universe, and the penalty thereof must fall upon the violator of that law himself. Christ uttered the warning, " Sin no more, lest a worse thing come ;" unto thee," and St. Paul said, " Work out your own salvation " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." That, by the way is a fine metaphoric rendering of the sentence of the Puranas, far

antedating him

—

that " every

man

reaps the consequences of his

own

acts."

This

is

osophy.

the principle of the law of Karma which is taught by Thehas been called " the law of ethical causation." " The

Karma

law of retribution," as

Madame

Blavatsky translates

its

meaning,

is

power which.

It is the

better.

Just,

though mysterious, leads us on unerring,

Through ways unmarked, from

guilt to punishment.

rewards merit as unerringly and amply as it punoutcome of every act, of thought, word, and deed, and by it men mold themselves, their lives and happenings. Eastern philosophy rejects the idea of a newly created soul for every baby born. It believes in a limited number of monads, evolving and grow-

But

it

is

more.

ishes demerit.

ing

It

It is the

more and more perfect through their assimilation of many sucThose personalities are the product of Karma,

cessive personalities.

and

it

is

by Karma and Reincarnation that the human monad

returns to

its

source

— absolute

deity.

in

time

:

THE KEY To TH BO SOPHY

205

E. D. Walker, in his Reincarnation, offers the following

explanation Briefly, the doctrine of

Karma

that

is

we have made

ourselves what

are by former actions, and are building our future eternity by presThere is no destiny but what we ourselves determine. ent actions.

we

There about.

no salvation or condemnation except what we ourselves bring Because it offers no shelter for culpable actions and necesa sterling manliness, it is less welcome to weak natures than

is .

sitates

.

.

the easy religious tenets of vicarious atonement, intercession, forgiveness, and death-bed conversions. ... In the domain of eternal justice

and the punishment are inseparably connected as the same is no real distinction between the action and its outcome. ... It is Karma, or our old acts, that draws us back into The spirit's abode changes according to its Karma, and earthly life. forbids any long continuance in one condition, because it Karma this changing. So long as action is governed by material and is always the offense

event, because there

long must the effect of that action be maniOnly the perfectly selfless man can elude fested in physical rebirths. Few have attained this, but it is the gravitation of material life. selfish motives, just so

—-"—='

the goal of mankind.

And

then the writer quotes from The Secret Doctrine:

Those who self, as

Karma have to believe in man is weaving, thread by

believe in

birth to death, every

destiny, which,

from

thread, around him-

a spider does his cobweb; and this destiny

is

guided either by

the heavenly voice of the invisible prototype outside of us, or by our more intimate astral or inner man, who is but too often the evil genius

Both these lead on the outward

of the embodied entity called man.

man, but one of them must prevail; and from the very beginning of the invisible affray the stern and implacable law of compensation steps in

and takes

its

the last strand

work of

his

empire of

course, faithfully following the fluctuations.

is

own

this

woven, and

man

is

When

seemingly enwrapped in the net-

doing, then he finds himself completely under the

self-made destiny.

.

.

.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

206

An

speak of the goodness or

occultist or a philosopher will not

cruelty of Providence

but, identifying

;

teach that, nevertheless, this as in future lives

it

— so

to his seventh rebirth

with Karma-Nemesis, he will

guards the good and watches over them

and that

;

it

punishes the evil-doer

it

— aye,

in

even

long, in short, as the effect of his having

thrown into perturbation even the smallest atom in the infinite world of harmony has not been finally readjusted. For the only decree of is absolute harmony in Karma an eternal and immutable decree

—

—

the world of matter as

Karma

it is

in the

world of

that rewards or punishes, but

ourselves according to whether

it

spirit.

is

we work

It is not, therefore,

we who reward

or punish

with, through,

and along

with Nature, abiding by the laws on which that harmony depends, or

— break

them.

the ways of Karma be inscrutable were men to work in union and harmony, instead of disunion and strife. For our ignorwhich one portion of mankind calls the ways of ance of those ways

Nor would

—

while another sees in them the action and a third, simple chance, with neither gods nor would surely disappear if we would but atguide them

Providence, dark and intricate of blind fatalism devils to

;

;

—

tribute all these to their correct cause.

We

.

.

.

own making and and then accuse the great But verily there is not an accident of our

stand bewildered before the mystery of our

the riddles of life that

we

will not solve,

Sphinx of devouring us. not a misshapen day or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another life. lives,

.

The law of Karma ation. ...

It is

is

.

.

inextricably interwoven with that of Reincarn-

only this doctrine that can explain to us the mysterious

and reconcile man to the terrible and apparNothing but such certainty can quiet our reFor, when one unacquainted with the noble volted sense of justice. looks around him and observes the inequalities of birth and doctrine fortune, of intellect and capacities when one sees honor paid to fools and profligates on whom fortune has heaped her favors by mere privilege of birth, and their nearest neighbor, with all his intellect and noble perishing for want and far more deserving in every way virtues problem of good and ent injustice of

evil,

life.

;

—

—

:

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

207

and has

away, and heart aching with the cries of pain around him, that blessed knowledge of Karma alone prevents him from cursing life and men as well as their

sympathy

for lack of

;

when one

sees all this

to turn

helpless to relieve the undeserved suffering, one's ears ringing

supposed creator. This law, whether conscious or unconscious, predestines nothing .

.

.

and no one. It exists from and in eternity truly, for it is eternity itself and as such, since no act can be coequal with eternity, it cannot be said to act, for it is action itself. It is not the wave which drowns ;

the man, but the personal action of the wretch

who

goes deliberately

and places himself under the impersonal action of the laws that govern the ocean's motion.

man who

Karma

creates nothing, nor does

it

design.

and creates causes, and Karmic law adjusts the It is adjustment is not an act, but universal harmony, tending effects, which ever to resume its original position, like a bough, which, bent down If it happen to too forcibly, rebounds with corresponding vigor. dislocate the arm that tried to bend it out of its natural position, shall we say it is the bough which broke our arm, or that our own folly has plants

brought us to grief?

and individual

has not involved shall

trary,

it

Karma

has never sought to destroy intellectual

liberty, like the its

God

invented by the monotheists.

It

decrees in darkness purposely to perplex man, nor

who dares to scrutinize its mysteries. On the conwho through study and meditation unveils its intricate paths,

punish him

he

on those dark ways, in the windings of which so owing to their ignorance of the labyrinth of life, is working for the good of his fellow men. Karma is an absolute and eternal law in the world of manifestation; and as there can be only

and throws

many men

light

perish,

one Absolute, as one eternal, ever-present Cause, believers in Karma cannot be regarded as atheists or materialists, still less as fatalists for Karma is one with the Unknowable, of which it is an aspect, in its

effects in the

phenomenal world.

[In Vol.

The Path

1

of

is

an

article

on " Karma," unsigned,

from which we give the following extracts Karma, broadly speaking, may be

said

to

be the continuance of

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

208

and each act contains within itself the past and Every defect which can be realized from an act must be

the nature of the act, future. implicit

Effect

the

act

Karma ;

or

itself,

it

could never

come

existence.

into

but the nature of the act and cannot exist distinct from

is

cause. exists

in

its

only produces the manifestation of that which already

being action

it

its operation in time, and Karma may thereIt same action from another point of time.

has

fore be said to be the

must, moreover, be evident that not only

is

there a relation between

also a relation between If it were and the individual who experiences the effect. otherwise any man would reap the effect of the actions of any other man. We may sometimes appear to reap the effects of the action

the cause and the effect, but there

must be

the cause

of others, but this

is

In point of fact

only apparent.

it

is

our

own

action.

"... None

None

else compels,

other holds you that ye live and die."

therefore necessary in order to understand the nature of

It is

Karma

and Beyond the mind there is no Every act proceeds from the mind. The basis of every act is desire. action, therefore no Karma. The plane of desire or egotism is itself action and the matrix of every its

act.

relation to the individual to consider action in all

This plane

may

its

consequences.

aspects.

be considered as non-manifest, yet having a

dual manifestation in what

and

its

we

call

cause and

effect, that is the act

In reality, both the act and

are the effect, the cause being on the plane of desire. fore the basis of action in

its first

its

consequences

Desire

is

there-

manifestation on the physical plane

and desire determines the continuation of the act in its karmic relaFor a man to be free from the effects of the tion to the individual. Karma of any act he must have passed to a state no longer yielding The ripples in the water caused a basis in which that act can inhere. by the action of the stone will extend to the furthest limit of its exTheir course panse, but no further: they are bounded by the shore. is ended when there is no longer a basis or suitable medium in which they can inhere they expend their force and are not. Karma is therefore, as dependent upon the present personality for its fulfilment, as ;

:

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY was upon the former for the first initial be given which will help to explain this.

it

A

209

An

act.

seed, say for instance mustard, will produce a

nothing

but in order that

else,

it

illustration

mustard

should be produced,

it

is

tree

may and

necessary

and culture should be equally present. however much the ground may be tilled and watered,

that the co-operation of soil

Without the it

seed,

will not bring forth the plant, but the seed is equally inoperative

without the joint action of the

The

first

soil

and

culture.]

mentioned writer proceeds

The believers in a religion based upon such doctrine are willing it should be compared with one in which man's destiny for eternity is determined by the accidents of a single, brief, earthly existence, during which he is cheered by the promise that "as the tree in which his brightest hope, when he wakes up lie"

falls,

so shall

it

knowledge of his wickedness, is the doctrine of vicarious atonement; and in which even that is handicapped, according to the Presbyterian Con;

to a

fession of Faith " By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory,

men and

angels

are predestinated

unto everlasting

life

some and others

fore-ordained to everlasting death. "

These angels and men thus predestinated and fore-ordained are and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished. neither are any other As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, particularly

.

.

.

.

.

.

redeemed by Christ effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified and saved but the elect only. " The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice."

This

is

what the

able defender says.

Nor can we do any

: ;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

210

better than

wind up the subject as he

As he

from a magnificent poem.

by a quotation

does,

says

The exquisite beauty of Edwin Arnold's exposition of Karma in The Light of Asia tempts to its reproduction here, but it is too long Here is a portion of it: for quotation in full. Karma — all that total of Which is the things

a soul did, the

it

thoughts

it

had,

******

The

" self "

wove with woof of viewless time Crossed on the warp invisible of acts. it

if

Before beginning and without an end, As space eternal and as surety sure. Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good. Only its laws endure. It will

not be contemned of any one;

Who

thwarts it loses, and who serves it The hidden good it pays with peace and bliss, The hidden ill with pains.

gains;

everywhere and marketh all Do one wrong recompenseth right it The equal retribution must be made, It seeth

—

Do

!

Though Dharma It

tarry long.

knows not wrath nor pardon;

Or Such

is

its

faultless balance

— to-morrow

after

many

the law

Which none

The

utter-true.

****

measures mete, Times are as naught Its

—

it

will

weighs; judge

—

days.

which moves to righteousness.

can turn aside or stay; end of it Obey. Is peace and consummation sweet. heart of

it

at last

is

love, the

And now I advise you to compare our Theosophic views upon Karma, the law of Retribution, and say whether they are not both more philosophical and just than this cruel and

!

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY dogma which makes

idiotic

of "

God

211

" a senseless fiend

—

the tenet, namely, that the "elect only" will be saved, and the rest Inq.

doomed

Yes,

what you mean generally

see

I

to eternal perdition ;

but

I

wish you could give some

concrete example of the action of Karma.

We

can only feel sure, as I said before, that our present lives and circumstances are the direct results of our own deeds and thoughts in lives that are But we, who are not Seers or Initiates, cannot know past.

That

Theo.

I

cannot do.

anything about the details of the working of the law of

Karma. Inq.

Can any

one, even an

Adept or Seer, follow out

this

Karmic process

of readjustment in detail?

Those who knozv " can do so by the exercise of powers which are latent even in all men.

Theo.

Certainly

;

"

WHO ARE THOSE WHO KNOW ? Inq.

Does

Theo.

this

hold equally of ourselves as of others?

As

Equally.

all,

just said, the

save for those

who have

same limited vision

exists for

reached, in the present incarn-

and clairvoyance. We can only perceive that, if things ought to have been different with us, they would have been different; that we are what we have made ourselves, and have only what we have earned ation, the

acme of

spiritual vision

for ourselves. Inq.

I

Theo.

am I

afraid such a conception would only embitter us.

believe

it

is

precisely the reverse.

It is disbelief in

the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV

212

law of retribution that is more likely to awaken every in man. A child, as much as a man, resents a punishment, or even a reproof he believes to be unmerited, far more than he does a severer punishment, if he just

combative feeling

feels

that

is

it

merited.

Karma

is

the highest

lot in this life,

and the very

Belief in

motive for reconcilement to one's

strongest incentive toward effort to better the succeeding

Both of supposed that our

these, indeed,

rebirth.

Law, Inq.

just

if

we

was the result of anything but strict was in any other hands than our own.

lot

or that destiny

You have

would be destroyed

asserted

that

this

system of Reincarnation under

Karmic law commended itself to reason, But, if so, is it not at some sacrifice of pathy and pity, and thus a hardening of

justice

and the moral

sense.

the gentler qualities of symthe finer instincts of

human

nature ?

Theo.

Only apparently, not

really.

No man

can receive more

or less than his deserts without a corresponding injustice or

and a law which could be averted through compassion would bring about more misery than it saved, more irritation and curses than thanks. Remember, also, that we do not administer the law, if we do create causes for its effects; it administers itself; and again, that the most copious provision for the manifestation of just compassion partiality to others

and mercy Inq.

You

ThEo.

shown

is

in the state of

Devachan.

speak of Adepts as being an exception to the rule of our general

ignorance.

and

;

Do

they really

know more than we do

of Reincarnation

after-states ?

They do

sess,

indeed.

but which

By

the training of faculties

we

all

pos-

they alone have developed to perfection, they

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

213

have entered in spirit these various planes and states we have been discussing. For long ages one generation of Adepts after another has studied the mysteries of being, of life, death and rebirth, and all have taught in their turn some of the facts so learned. Inq.

And

is

the production of Adepts the

aim of Theosophy?

Theosophy considers humanity as an emanation from At an advanced point divinity on its return path thereto. upon the path Adeptship is reached by those who have deFor, rememvoted several incarnations to its achievement.

Theo.

ber well, no

man

Sciences in one

has ever reached Adeptship in the Secret but many incarnations are necessary for

life;

and the beginmen and women in the very midst of our Society who have begun this uphill work toward illumination several incarnations ago, and who yet, owing to the personal illusions of the present life, are either ignorant of the fact, or on the road to losing every chance, in this existence, of progressing any farther. They feel an irresistible attraction toward Occultism and the Higher Life, and yet are too personal and self-opinionated, it

after the formation of a conscious purpose

ing of the needful training.

too life

much

in love

Many may

with the deceptive allurements of mundane

and the world's ephemeral pleasures,

and so

their chance

lose

be the

in

to give

the present birth.

ordinary men, for the practical duties of daily far-off result

is

them up, But,

life,

for

such a

inappropriate as an aim and quite ineffective

as a motive. Inq.

What,

then,

may

be their object or distinct purpose in joining the

Theosophical Society?

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

214

Th^o.

Many

are interested in our doctrines, and feel instinct-

any dogmatic religion. Others have formed a fixed resolve to attain the highest ideal of man's duty. ively that they are truer than those of

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE; OR BLIND AND REASONED FAITH Inq.

You But

say that they accept and believe in the doctrines of Theosophy.

as they

do not belong to those Adepts you have just mentioned, In what does

then they must accept your teachings on blind faith. this differ from that of conventional religions?

ThEo. on

As

it

on almost all the other points, so it differs What you call " faith," and that which is blind

differs

this one.

faith, in reality,

with regard to the dogmas of the Christian

religions,

becomes with us " knozvlcdgc," the

logical sequence

of things

we

Your Doctrines

knozv, about facts in Nature.

are based upon interpretation, therefore upon the second-

hand testimony of Seers ours upon the unvarying and invar;

The ordinary

iable testimony of Seers.

for instance, holds that

component parts his integrity and

man

— body, all,

is

soul

Christian theology,

a creature of God, of three

and

spirit

either in the gross

—

all

essential to

form of physical

earthly existence or in the etherealized form of post-resurrection experience, needed so to constitute

him

forever, each

man having thus a permanent existence separate from other men and from the Divine. Theosophy, on the other hand, holds that man, being an emanation from the

Unknown,

yet

ever-present and infinite Divine Essence, his body and every-

!

•

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY impermanent, hence an

2iS

illusion; Spirit alone in

thing else

is

him being

the one enduring substance, and even that losing

its

moment

separated individuality at the

of

its

complete re-

union with the Universal Spirit. Inq.

If

Theo.

we

lose

even our individuality, then

I

say

it

becomes simply annihilation.

it

I speak of separate, not of uniThis individuality becomes as a part

does not, since

versal individuality.

transformed into the whole; the dezvdrop but becomes the sea.

from a

foetus he

Is

is

not evaporated,

man annihilated when man? What kind of Sa-

physical

becomes an old

must be ours if we place our infinitesimally small consciousness and individuality higher than the universal and infinite consciousness

tanic pride

Inq.

It follows, then, that

Theo.

You

there

are mistaken.

It

de facto, no man, but

;

its

right to the

so long as the smallest particle and atom of

festing substance entiation. Inq.

Spirit?

follows that the union of Spirit

universal manifested substance, Spirit loses

name

all is

is but temporary or, to put it more clearly, since and matter are one, being the two opposite poles of the

with matter Spirit

is,

To

still

clings to

any form, the

believe otherwise

is

its

mani-

result of differ-

blind faith.

Thus it is on knowledge, not on faith, that you assert that the permanent principle, the Spirit, simply makes a transit through matter?

Theo.

I

would put

it

otherwise and say:

We

assert that the

appearance of the permanent and one principle as matter lusion.

is

transient,

and therefore no

—

Spirit

better than an

—

il-

;

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

216

Inq.

Very

and

well;

this

given out on knowledge, not faith?

what you are driving at, I may just as well tell you that we hold faith such as you advocate to be a mental disease, and real faith i. e., the pistis of the Greeks as '^ belief based on knowledge," whether

Theo.

Just

But as

SO.

I

see very well

—

—

supplied by the evidence of physical or spiritual senses. Inq.

What do you mean?

Thko.

If

know,

the difference between the two that you

it is

mean

I

one's spiritual intuition there Inq.

What

man

to

a very great difference.

is

is it?

One

Theo.

want

that between faith on authority and faith on

human

is

and

belief

credulity

and

superstition, the other hu-

As Professor Alexander Wilder

intuition.

says in his Introduction to the Bleusinian Mysteries: It

ignorance which leads to profanation.

is

they do not properly understand.

world

is

towards one goal

set

power almost

infinite,

;

.

.

and inside

.

Men

ridicule

what

The undercurrent of of human credulity ...

this is

a

a holy faith capable of apprehending the suprem-

est truths of all existence.

Those who dogmas alone ceive plane, rules

limit that "credulity" to will

in their natures.

it

and it;

And

is

it

authoritative

It

is

stuck fast to the external

unable to bring forth into play the essence that for to do this they have to claim their right of is

private judgment, Inq.

human

never fathom that power, nor even per-

and

this they

that "intuition"

never dare to do.

which forces you to

reject

God

as a per-

sonal Father, Ruler and Governor of the Universe?

Theo.

Precisely.

We believe in

an ever-unknowable Principle

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY for only blind aberration can

Universe, thinking

man and

all

217

make one maintain

that the

the marvels contained even in

the world of matter, could have grown without some intelligent powers to bring about the extraordinarily wise arrange-

ment of all its parts. Nature may err, and often does, in its details and the external manifestations of its materials, never Ancient pagans held far in its inner causes and results. than modern philquestion this on more philosophical views osophers, whether agnostics, materialists or Christians; and no pagan writer has ever yet advanced the proposition that cruelty and mercy are not finite feelings, and can therefore be made the attributes of an infinite God. Their gods, thereThe Siamese author of the Wheel of fore, were all finite. the Laiv expresses the same idea about your personal God as ourselves; he says (p. 25)

A

Buddhist might believe in the existence of a God sublime above a perfect God, above love and all human qualities and attributes in a quietude that nothing could hatred and jealousy, calmly resting

—

disturb; and of such a

God he would speak no

disparagement, not

from a desire to please him or fear to offend him, but from natural But he cannot understand a God with the attributes and veneration.

God who loves and hates and shows anger; a whether described as by Christian missionaries or by Mahometans or Brahmins^s or Jews, falls below his standard of even an ordinary good man. qualities

of men; a

Deity who,

Inq.

Faith for faith,

human

Heaven who 58.

Sectarian

Deity

we

is

not the faith of the Christian

who

believes, in his

and humility, that there is a merciful Father in protect him from temptation, help him in life, and

helplessness will

Brahmans are here meant. accept and believe

in.

The Parabrahman

of the Vedantins

is

the

:

218

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

.

forgive

him

than the cold and proud, ahnost

and Theosophists ?

Persist in calling our belief " faith "

Theo.

once

my

his transgressions, better

faith of the Buddhists, Vedantins

fataUstic,

we

turn

if

you

:

Faith for faith,

and reason

is

But

will.

are again on this ever-recurring question,

I

ask in

not the one based on strict logic

better than the one

which

human authority or — hero-worship?

is

based simply on

Our "faith" has

all

two will produce four. Your faith is like the logic of some emotional women, of whom Tourgenyeff said that for them two and two were generally five, and a tallow candle into the bargain. Yours is a faith, moreover, which clashes not only with every conceivable view of justice and logic, but which, if analyzed, leads man to his moral perdition, checks the progress of mankind, and positively making of might right, the logical force of the arithmetical truism that two and

transforms every second

man

into a

Cain to his brother Abel.

HAS GOD THE RIGHT TO FORGIVE Inq.

To what do you

Theo.

To

allude?

the Doctrine of ''Atonement."

gerous dogma

?

I

allude to that dan-

in which you believe, and which teaches us no matter how enormous our crimes against the laws of God and of man, we have but to believe in the self-sacrifice of Jesus for the salvation of mankind, and his blood will wash out every stain. It is now twenty years that I have preached against it, and I may now draw your attention to This is a paragraph from Isis Unveiled, written in 1875. combat and what we what Christianity teaches,

that

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY God's mercy

boundless and unfathomable.

is

human

219

It

is

impossible to

damnable that the price paid in advance for the redemption of the sinner would not wipe it out if a thousandfold worse. And, furthermore, it is never too late to repent. Though the offender wait until the last minute of the last hour of the last day of conceive of a

sin so

his mortal life before his blanched lips utter the confession of faith, to Paradise the dying thief did so, and so may all others These are the assumptions of the church and of the clergy assumptions banged at the heads of your countrymen by England's

he

may go

;

as vile.

favorite preachers, right in the " light of the nineteenth century"

most paradoxical age of

this

Now, Inq.

Does

it

No

ThKo.

to not

what does make

it

—

all!

lead?

the Christian happier than the Buddhist or

Brahman?

not the educated man, at any rate, since the majority

;

of these have long since virtually lost

dogma.

But

it

leads those

who

still

cruel

all belief in this

believe in

it

more

easily

of every conceivable crime than any other I Let me quote to you from Isis Unveiled once more

to the threshold

know (ii.,

If

of.

542, 543):

we

step outside the

little

circle of creed

and consider the uni-

verse as a whole balanced by the exquisite adjustment of parts, all

sound

logic,

how

against this vicarious atonement! himself, and

how

the faintest glimmering sense of justice, revolts If the criminal sinned only against

wronged no one but himself;

if

by sincere repentance he

could cause the obliteration of past events, not only from the

memory

— not

of man, but also from that imperishable record which no deity

even the Supremest of the Supreme

— can cause

to disappear, then this

dogma might not be incomprehensible. But to maintain that one may wrong his fellow-man, kill, disturb the equilibrium of society and the

— through — out the other blood

natural order of things, and then pulsion matters not

blood washes

— be

cowardice, hope or com-

forgiven by believing that the spilling of one spilled

this is

preposterous

!

Can

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

220

the results of a crime be obliterated even though the crime itself should

The

be pardoned?

effects of a

cause are never limited to the bound-

aries of the cause, nor can the results of crime be confined to the

offender and his victim.

trite,

but

it

is

;

as well as evil action has

the best ever conceived, so

circles are greater

smaller

Every good

us use

it.

and swifter as the disturbing object

but the smallest pebble

And

let

— nay,

its

The simile is The eddying

palpably as the stone flung into calm water.

effects, as

is

the tiniest speck

greater or

— makes

its

and on the surface. direction outward and downward drop Below, unseen, in every force. pushes drop until the sides and bottom are touched by the More, the air above the water is agitated, and this disturbance passes, as the physicists tell us, from stratum to stratum out into space for ever and ever an impulse has been given to matter, and that is ripples.

this disturbance is not alone visible

—

—

;

never

lost,

can never be recalled

So with crime and so with

its

taneous, the effects are eternal. into the pond,

we can

recall

it

!

.

.

.

opposite.

When,

The

to the hand, roll

erate the force expended, restore the etheric state of non-being,

missile, so that

then, then

action

back the

waves

is

be instanonce flung

ripples, oblit-

to their previous

and wipe out every trace of the act of throwing the

Time's record shall not show that

we may

may

after the stone

it

ever happened,

patiently hear Christians argue for the efficacy of

atonement

this

— cease

As it now stands, to believe in Karmic Law. upon the whole world to decide which of our two doctrines is the most appreciative of deific justice, and which is more reasonable, even on simple human evidence and logic. and

we

Inq.

call

Yet millions believe

in the Christian

dogma and

are happy.

Pure sentimentalism overpowering their thinking faculwhich no true philanthropist or Altruist will ever accept. It is not even a dream of selfishness, but a nightmare of the human intellect. Look where it leads to, and tell me the

ThEo.

ties,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV

221

pagan country where crimes are more easily committed or more numerous than in Christian lands. Look at the long and ghastly annual records of crimes committed in European countries; and behold Protestant and Biblical America. There conversions effected in prisons are more numerous than those made by public revivals and preaching.

name of

See

handed

that

how

the ledger-balance of Christian justice

demons of

murderers, urged on by the

mere brutal

fanaticism, or

thirst for blood,

( !)

lust,

who

kill their

most cases, without giving them time to repent or These, perhaps, died sinful and, of

stands.

call

course — consistently

— met the reward of their greater or

Red-

revenge, cupidity, victims, in

on Jesus. with theo-

But the murderer, overtaken by human justice, is imprisoned, wept over by sentimentalists, prayed with and at, pronounces the charmed words of conversion, and goes to the scaffold a redeemed child of Jesus! Exlogical logic

murder he would not have been prayed

cept for the

pardoned.

lesser offenses.

man And how

Clearly this

eternal happiness

!

about the victim, and his or her family,

relatives, dependents, social relations; has justice

On

this

mental belief and hope

Inq.

and

in

for

this

And now you know why earth,

no recompense

world and the next, while he who " holy thief " of Calvary and is forever question the clergy keep a prudent silence.^^

them? Must they suffer in wronged them sits beside the blessed?

with, redeemed,

did well to murder, for thus he gained

Karma —

is

Theosophists

justice for

reject this

all,

— whose in

funda-

heaven as on

dogma.

The ultimate destiny of man, then, is not a Heaven presided over by God, but the gradual transformation of matter into its primordial element, spirit?

ThEo.

It is to

that final goal to 59.

Isis

which

Unveiled,

all

ibid.

tends in nature.

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

222

Inq.

Do

not some of you regard this association or "

matter " as

Theo.

Some

evil,

do,

and therefore

probation on earth. since

it

of spirit into

fall

and rebirth as a sorrow ? strive to shorten their period of

It is not,

however, an unmixed

insures the experience upon which

ledge and wisdom.

I

mean

we mount

to

that experience which teaches

that the needs of our spiritual nature can never be

other than spiritual happiness.

body we are subjected

As long

to pain, suffering

pointing incidents occurring during palliate this,

we

evil,

know-

finally acquire

life.

as

and

we all

met

by-

are in the the disap-

Therefore, and to

knowledge which alone can

afTord us relief and hope of a better future.

m

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

XII

WHAT

IS

PRACTICAL THEOSOPHY

?

DVTY Inq.

Why,

then, the need for re-births, since all alike fail to secure a

permanent peace?

Because the final goal cannot be reached in any way but through life-experiences, and because the bulk of these consists in pain and suffering. It is only through the latter that we can learn. Joys and pleasures teach us nothing; are they evanescent, and can only in the long run bring satiety. Moreover, our constant failure to find any permanent satisfaction in life which would meet the wants of our higher nature shows us plainly that those wants can be to wit, the spiritual. met only on their own plane

ThDo.

—

Inq.

Is the natural result of this a desire to quit life

another

Theo.

If

by one means or

?

you mean by such desire "suicide," then I say, most Such a result can never be a "natural" one, ever due to a morbid brain-disease, or to most decided

decidedly not.

but

is

and strong materialistic views. It is the worst of crimes, and dire in its results. But if by desire you mean simply aspiration to reach spiritual existence, and not a wish to quit

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

224

the earth, then

would

I

call

it

a very natural desire indeed.

Otherwise voluntary death would be an abandonment of our present post and of the duties incumbent on us, as well as an attempt to shirk karmic responsibilities, and thus involve the creation of Inq.

But

actions on the material plane are unsatisfying, why should which are such actions, be imperative?

if

duties,

Theo.

new Karma.

First of

all,

because our philosophy teaches us that the

object of doing our duties to last is

all

men

first

and

to ourselves

not the attainment of personal happiness, but the hap-

piness of others; the fulfilment of right for the sake of right,

not for what tentment,

may

it

may

bring us.

Happiness, or rather con-

indeed follow the performance of duty, but

not and must not be the motive for Inq.

What do you

is

it.

understand precisely by "duty"

in

Theosophy?

It

can

not be the Christian duties preached by Jesus and his apostles, since you recognize neither.

ThEo.

You

are once

more mistaken.

What you

call " Christ-

ian duties "

were inculcated by every great moral and religious Reformer ages before the Christian era. All that was

was in days of old, not only talked about and preached from pulpits as in our own time, but acted upon, sometimes by whole nations. The history of the Buddhist reform is full of the most noble and most heroically " Be ye all of one mind, having compassion unselfish acts. great, generous, heroic,

one of another; love as brethren, be not rendering evil for trariwise blessing,"

evil,

was

pitiful,

be courteous:

or railing for railing: but con-

practically carried out

lowers of Buddha several centuries before Peter.

by the

The

fol-

Ethics

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

225

of Christianity are grand, no doubt; but, as undoubtedly, they are not new, and have originated as Inq.

And how would you define these you understand the term?

duties, or

'*

Pagan

"duty"

" duties.

in general,

as

—

to our fellowdue to Humanity men, neighbors, family and especially that which we owe to all those who are poorer and more helpless than we are

ThEo.

Duty

is

that which

This

ourselves.

is

is

—

a debt which,

leaves us spiritually insolvent

Theosophy

next incarnation. Inq.

So

ThKo. tice,

is

Christianity

No

doubt

when

it is

;

fortunately

fewer

still

unpaid during

and moral bankrupts

but then, were little

life,

in

our

the quintessence of duty.

is

rightly understood

Theosophy would have

their duty

if left

it

to

and carried

out.

not a lip-religion in prac-

Un-

do amid Christians.

Those who practise and for duty's own sake, are few and are those who perform that duty, remaining conit

is

toward

but such lip-ethics. all,

;

tent with the satisfaction of their

own

secret consciousness.

It is

The

which

public voice

Of

praise, that

is

ever uppermost in the minds of the " world-re-

nowned

honors virtue and rewards

" philanthropists.

Modern

it,

ethics are beautiful to

read about and hear discussed; but what are words unless converted into actions?

Finally, if

you ask me how we and in view of

understand Theosophical duty practically

Karma,

I

last drop, life

may answer you

that our duty

is

to drink to the

without a murmur, whatever contents the cup of

may have

in store for us, to

for the fragrance they

may

pluck the roses of

life

only

shed on others, and to be our-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

226

selves content but with the thorns,

if

that fragrance cannot

be enjoyed without depriving some one else of Inq.

All this

Theo.

is

It is

very vague.

not what

What do you do more

we members

it.

than Christians do?

of the Theosophical Society

— though some of us try our best — but how much farther Theosophy leads good than modern Christianity say action — enforced instead of mere intention and — the most worldly, A man may be what he and hardhearted of men, even a deep-dyed rascal — and do

does.

to

I

action,

likes

talk.

self-

ish it

will not

prevent him from calling himself a Christian, or

others from so regarding him. right to this

name

unless he

is

But no Theosophist has the thoroughly imbued with the

correctness of Carlyle's truism,

''

The end

of

man

is

an

were the noblest," and The life upon this truth. profession of a truth is not yet the enactment of it and the more beautiful and grand it sounds, the more loudly virtue or duty is talked about instead of being acted upon, the more forcibly it will always remind one of the Dead Sea fruit. Cant is the most loathsome of all vices, and cant is the most prominent feature of the greatest Protestant country of this and not a thought, though unless he sets and models his daily action

it

;

century Inq.

— England.

What do you

ThEo.

consider as due to humanity at large?

Full recognition of equal rights and privileges for

all,

without distinction of race, color, social position or birth. Inq.

When

ThEo.

would you consider such due not given?

When

there

be that other a

is

the slightest invasion of another's right,

man

or a nation;

when

there

is

any failure

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY show him the same mercy which we desire

justice,

to

227

kindness, consideration or

The whole present on the oblivion of such rights and The French the most fierce assertion of national selfishness. say, " Like master, like man ;" they ought to add, " Like nasystem of

for ourselves.

politics is built

tional policy, like citizen." Inq.

Do you

ThKo.

As

take any part in politics?

we

a Society

carefully avoid them, for the reasons

To seek to achieve political reforms before we have effected a reform in human nature, is like putting nezv wine into old bottles. Make men feel and recognize in their innermost hearts what is their real, true duty to all men, and every old abuse of power, every iniquitous law in the national policy based on human, social or political selfishness, will disappear of itself. Foolish is the gardener who tries to weed his flower-bed of poisonous plants by cutting them oft* from the surface of the soil, instead of tearing them out by the roots. No lasting political reform can be ever achieved with the same selfish men at the head of affairs as of old. given below.

THE RELATIONS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY TO POLITICAL REFORMS Inq.

The Theosophical

ThEo.

Society

Certainly not.

in that its

is

not, then, a political organization?

It is international in

the highest sense,

members comprise men and women of all races, who work together for one ob-

creeds and forms of thought, ject

— the improvement of humanity

;

but as a society

absolutely no part in any national or party politics.

it

takes

THE KBY TO THEOSOPHV

228

Inq.

Why

is

this?

Theo.

For the very reasons I have mentioned. Moreover, polaction must necessarily vary with the circumstances of the time and with the idiosyncrasies of individuals. While, from the very nature of their position as Theosophists, the members of the Theosophical Society are agreed on the principles of Theosophy, or they would not belong to the Society at all, it does not thereby follow that they agree on every itical

other subject.

As

matters which are self

;

a society they can only act together in

common

as individuals, each

to all

is left

— that

is,

in

Theosophy

it-

perfectly free to follow out

his or her particular line of political

thought and action, so

long as this does not conflict with Theosophical principles or hurt the Theosophical Society. Inq.

But surely the Theosophical Society does not stand altogether aloof from the social questions which are now so fast coming to the front?

Theo.

The very

proof that

do not

it

principles of the Theosophical Society are a

does not

— so stand

— or

aloof.

rather, that

If

most of

members

its

humanity can only be developed

mentally and spiritually by the enforcement,

first

of

the soundest and most scientific physiological laws,

bounden duty of

all

who

strive for this

it

development

all,

is

to

of the

do

their utmost to see that those laws shall be generally carried out.

All Theosophists are only too sadly

aware

that,

in

Occidental countries especially, the social condition of large

masses of the people renders

it

impossible for either their

bodies or their spirits to be properly trained, so that the

development of both

and development

is

is

thereby arrested.

As

this training

one of the express objects of Theosophy,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY the Theosophical Society

mony with Inq,

all

is

in

229

thorough sympathy and har-

true efforts in this direction.

But what do you mean by "true efforts"? Each social reformer has own panacea, and each believes his to be the one and only thing which can improve and save humanity. his

TiiEO.

Perfectly true;

and

work

satisfactory social

this is the real is

reason

accomplished.

why

so

little

In most of these

panaceas there

is no really guiding principle, and there is no one principle which connects them all. Valuable time and energy are thus wasted; for men, instead of co-operating, strive one against the other, often it is to be

certainly

feared, for the sake of fame and reward rather than for the great cause which they profess to have at heart, and

which should be supreme Inq.

How,

in their lives.

then, should Theosophical principles be applied so that social

may

co-operation

be promoted and true efforts for social ameHoration

be carried on?

Theo.

Let

me

briefly

remind you what these principles are:

Universal Unity and Causation Human Solidarity the Law of Karma Reincarnation. These are the four links of the ;

;

;

golden chain which should bind humanity into one family, one Universal Brotherhood. Inq.

How?

Theo.

In the present state of society, especially in so-called civ-

ilized countries,

we

are continually brought face to face with

the fact that large

numbers of people are suffering from misery, poverty and disease. Their physical condition is wretched, and their mental and spiritual faculties are often almost dormant.

On

the other hand,

many

persons at the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

230

opposite end of the social scale are leading lives of careless

and selfish indulgence. Neither Both are the is mere chance. effects of the conditions which surround those who are subject to them, and the neglect of social duty on the one side is most closely connected with the stunted and arrested development on the other. In sociology, as in all branches of true But this science, the law of universal causation holds good. indifference, material luxury,

of these forms of existence

causation necessarily implies, as

man

its

logical outcome, that hu-

on which Theosophy so strongly insists. If all and this is the true scientific idea then it is only by all men becoming brothers and all women sisters, and by all practising in their daily lives true brotherhood and true sisterhood, that the real human solidarity which lies at the root of the elevation of the race can ever be attained. It is this action and interaction, this true brotherhood and sisterhood, in which each shall live for all and all for each, which is one of the fundamental solidarity

the action of one reacts on the lives of

—

—

Theosophical principles that every Theosophist should be

bound not only dividual

Inq.

ah it

this

life.

is

very well as a general principle, but

in a concrete

Thho.

to teach, but to carry out in his or her in-

Look

facts of

how would you

apply

way?

for a

human

moment society.

at

what you would

call

the concrete

Contrast the lives not only of the

masses of the people, but of many of those who are called what they might be under

the middle and upper classes, with

and nobler conditions, where justice, kindness, and were paramount, instead of the selfishness, indifference.

healthier

love

rnn key to thbosophy

231

and brutality which now too often seem to reign supreme. All good and evil things in humanity have their roots in human character, and this character is, and has been, conditioned by the endless chain of cause and effect. But this conditioning applies to the future as well as to the present and the past.

and brutality can never believe so would be to des-

Selfishness, indifference,

be the normal state of the race

;

to

and that no Theosophist can do. Progress can be attained, and only attained by, the development of the nobler qualities. Now, true evolution teaches us that by altering the surroundings of the organism we can alter and improve the organism; and in the strictest sense this is true with regard to man. Every Theosophist, therefore, is bound to do his utmost to help on, by all the means in his power, every wise and well-considered social effort which has for its object the amelioration of the condition of the poor. Such pair of humanity,

efforts should be

made with

a view to their ultimate social

emancipation, or the development of the sense of duty in those

of Inq.

who now

it

in

nearly every relation

life.

But who

Agreed. unwise?

Theo.

so often neglect

No

is

to decide

whether

social efforts are wise or

one person and no society can lay down a hard-and-

fast rule in this respect.

the individual judgment.

be given

Much must One

necessarily be left to

general test may, however,

Will the proposed action tend to promote that true brotherhood which it is the aim of Theosophy to bring about ? No real Theosophist will have much difficulty in applying such a test; once he is satisfied of this, his duty will lie in the :

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

232

forming public opinion. And this can be attained only by inculcating those higher and nobler conceptions of public and private duties which lie at the root of all spiritual and material improvement. In every conceivable case he himself must be a center of spiritual action, and from him and his own daily individual life must radiate those higher spiritual forces which alone can regenerate his fellow-men. direction of

Inq.

But why should he do this? Are not he and all, as you teach, conKarma, and must not Karma necessarily work itself out on certain Hnes?

ditioned by their

ThEO.

It is this

that

I

have

very law of said.

The

Karma which

gives strength to

all

individual cannot separate himself

The law though all are not equally developed. In helping on the development of others the Theosophist believes that he is not only helping them to fulfil their Karma, but that he is also, in the strictest sense, fulfilling his own. It is the development of humanity, of which both he and they are integral parts, that he has always in view, and he knows that any failure on his part to respond from the

of

Karma

race,

nor the race from the individual.

applies equally to

to the highest within in their progressive

either

more

difficult

all,

him retards not only

march. or

By

more easy

himself, but

his actions he can

all,

make

it

for humanity to attain the

next higher plane of being. Inq.

How viz.,

does this bear on the fourth of the principles you mentioned,

Reincarnation?

The connection

most intimate. If our present lives depend upon the development of certain principles which are a growth from the germs left by a previous existence, the

ThEo.

is

;

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

233

law holds good as regards the future. Once grasp the idea that universal causation is not merely present, but past, present, and future, and every action on our present plane falls naturally and easily into its true place, and is seen in its true relation to ourselves and to others. Every mean and selfish action sends us

backward and not forward, while every noble

thought and every unselfish deed are stepping-stones to the higher and more glorious planes of being. If this life were all, then in many respects it would indeed be poor and mean but regarded as a preparation for the next sphere of existence,

it

may

— — fellows

may

pass

be used as the golden gate through which we not selfishly and alone but in company with our

to the palaces

which

lie

beyond.

ON SELF-SACRIFICE Inq.

Is equal justice to all

and love

to every creature the highest standard

of Theosophy?

Theo. Inq.

No;

What

The;o.

there

can

it

is

an even far higher one.

be?

The giving

to others rnore

than to one's

self

—

self-sacri-

Such was the standard and abounding measure which fice. marked so pre-eminently the greatest Teachers and Masters such as Gautama Buddha in History, and of humanity Jesus of Nazareth as in the Gospels. This trait alone was enough to secure them the perpetual reverence and gratitude of the generations of men that came after them. We say,

—

however, that self-sacrifice has to be performed with discrimination; and such a self-abandonment, if made without jus-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

234

tice,

prove not only to have been made harmful.

One

justice to one's

self

Inq.

in vain, but

often

even to be

of the fundamental rules of Theosophy self

— viewed

manity, not as a personal self less,

may

or blindly, regardless of subsequent results,

is

as a unit of collective hu-

—

justice,

not more, but not

than to others; unless, indeed, by the sacrifice of the one

we can

benefit the

many.

Could you make your idea clearer by giving an instance?

There are many instances to illustrate it in history. Selfgood of many or several people, Theosophy holds far higher than self-abnegation for a sectarian idea, such as that of " saving the heathen from damnation," for instance. In our opinion. Father Damien, the who offered his whole life in sacrifice young man of thirty for the benefit and alleviation of the sufferings of the lepers at Molokai; who, after living for eighteen years alone with them, finally caught the loathsome disease and died, has not He has given relief and relative happiness died in vain. to thousands of miserable wretches. He has brought to them He threw a streak of light consolation, mental and physical. into the black and dreary night of an existence the hopelessness of which is unparalleled in the records of human suffering. He was a true Theosophist, and his memory will live

Thdo.

sacrifice for the practical

for ever in our annals.

In our sight this poor Belgian priest

stands immeasurably higher than, for instance, cere but vain-glorious fools, the missionaries

all

those sin-

who have

sacri-

South Sea Islands or China. What good have they done? They went in one case to those who were not yet ripe for any truth and in the other to a nation ficed their lives in the

;

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY whose systems of if

only the

235

religious philosophy are as

men who have them would

live

up

They

of Confucius and their other sages.

grand as any,

to the standard

died victims of

and savages, and of popular fanaticism and hatred; whereas, by going to the slums of Whitechapel, or some other such locality of those that stagnate right under the blazing sun of our civilization, full of Christian savages and mental leprosy, they might have done real good and preserved their lives for a better and worthier cause. irresponsible cannibals

Inq.

But the Christians do not think

Of

ThEo.

so.

course not, for they act on an erroneous

belief.

They

think that by baptizing the body of an irresponsible savage

they save his soul from damnation.

One church

forgets her

martyrs, the other beatifies and raises statues to such

who

Labre,

sacrificed his

the vermin which

would saint,

it

body for forty years only

Had we

raise a statue to

memory

his

plar of Theosophical heroism

mercy and

like

Inq.

to benefit

the

forever as a living exem-

and of Buddha- and Christ-

self-sacrifice.

Then you regard

We

as

means to do so, we Father Damien, the true practical

bred.

and perpetuate

men

self-sacrifice as a

duty?

by showing that altruism is an integral part of self-development. But we have to discriminate.

The;o.

do and explain ;

A

man has no man may have more useful

it

right to starve himself to death that another

food, unless the life of that

to the

man

is

obviously

many than is his own life. But it is his own comfort, and to work for others,

duty to sacrifice his if

they are unable to

give

all

that

is

work

wholly his

for themselves.

own and can

benefit

It is his

duty to

no one but him-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

236

from

Theosophy teaches self-abnegation, but does not teach rash and useless self-sache selfishly keeps

self if

nor does

rifice,

Inq.

But how are we

ThEo.

By

it

it

others.

justify fanaticism.

to reach such

an elevated status?

the enlightened application of our precepts to prac-

tice; by the use of our higher reason, spiritual intuition, and moral sense; and by following the dictates of what we call " the still small voice " of our conscience, which is that of our Ego, and speaks louder in us than the earthquakes and the thunders of Jehovah, wherein " the Lord is not."

Inq.

If such are our duties to humanity at large, what do you understand by our duties to our immediate surroundings?

The;o.

Just the same, plus those that arise

from

special obliga-

tions with regard to family ties. Inq,

Then

it

is

not true, as

it is

said, that

no sooner does a man enter the

Theosophical Society than he begins to be gradually severed from his wife, children

ThEo. first

and

It is

and family duties?

a groundless calunmy, like so

of the Theosophical duties especially

by those

to

is

whom

to

many

others.

do one's duty by

all

The men,

one's specific responsibilities

are due, because one has either voluntarily undertaken them

— such as marriage — or because one's destiny has parents or next of one them — such as those we owe

allied

ties

to

to

kin.

Inq.

And what may

ThEo.

To

self; to

be the duty of the Theosophist to himself?

and conquer, through the Higher, the lower purify himself inwardly and morally to fear no one,

control

and naught, save the tribunal of

;

his

own

conscience; never

THE KEY TO THnoSOPHY

237

—

i. e., if he thinks it the right thing do a thing by halves to do, let him do it openly and boldly; and if wrong, never touch it at all. It is the duty of a Theosophist to lighten his burden by thinking of the wise aphorism of Epictetus, who

to

says

:

Be not diverted from your duty by any

may make upon

idle reflection the silly

world

you, for their censures are not in your power, and

consequently should not be any part of your concern.

Ino.

But suppose a member of your Society should plead inability to pracaltruism to other people on the ground that " charity begins at home;" urging that he is too busy, or too poor, to benefit mankind or even any of its units; what are your rules in such a case?

tise

No man,

on any pretext whatever, has a right to say that he can do nothing for others. " By doing the proper duty in the proper place, a man may make the world his debtor," says an English writer. A cup of cold water given in time to a thirsty wayfarer is a nobler duty, and of more worth,

ThEO.

than a dozen dinners given away, out of season, to men who can afiford to pay for them. No man who has not got it in him will ever become a Theosophist ; but he may remain a have no rules by member of our society all the same.

We

which we can force any man to become a practical Theosophist if he does not desire to be one. Inq.

Then why does he

enter the Society at all?

That is best known to him who does so. For, here again, we have no right to prejudge a person, not even if the voice of a whole community should be against him, and I may tell so far as regards the you why. In our day vox populi is no longer vox dci, voice of the educated, at any rate

TiiEO.

— —

THE KBY TO THBOSOPHY

238

but ever that of prejudice, of selfish motives, and often sim-

Our duty

ply of unpopularity.

is

to

sow seeds broadcast

for the future, and see they are good; not to stop to enquire

we

zvhy

to lose to

should do

so,

and how and wherefore we are obliged

our time, since those

come

will

who

will

reap the harvest in days

never be ourselves.

ON CHARITY Inq.

How

'1^

rHEo.

What

I

charity do

you mean

— charity of mind, or prac-

charity on the physical plane

tical

Inq.

do you Theosophists regard the Christian duty of charity?

mean

would

practical

charity,

as

?

your idea of Universal brotherhood

include, of course, charity of mind.

Then you have in your mind the of the commandments given by Jesus Mount?

ThDO.

Inq.

practical carrying out in the

Sermon on

the

Precisely so.

them " Christian " ? For, although their Savior preached them and practised them, the last thing the Christians of today think of is to carry them out in their lives.

The:o.

Inq. ^rA

Then why

And

ThEO.

yet

many

call

are those

who

pass their lives in dispensing charity.

Yes, out of the surplus of their great fortunes.

point out to

me

who would

give the shivering and starving thief

that Christian,

among

who

his coat his cloak also, or offer his right cheek to

smites

him on the

left,

But

the most philanthropic,

and never think of resenting

steals

him who it.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

Ah! but you must remember Hterally.

Then why

The:o.

that these precepts are not to be taken

Times and circumstances have changed

Moreover, he spoke

239

since Christ's day.

in Parables.

don't your Churches teach that the doctrine of

damnation and hell-fire is to be understood as a parable too? do some of your most popular preachers, while virtually allowing these parables to be understood as you take them, insist on the literal meaning of the fires of Hell and the physical tortures of an "Asbestos-like" soul? If one is

Why

a "parable," then the other

then Christ's

have

to be

is.

commandments

obeyed to the very

If Hell-fire in the

letter.

is

a literal truth,

Mount you that many

Sermon on

And

I tell

the

— Count — do carry out Leo Tolstoi and more than one Theosophist

who do

not believe in the Divinity of Christ

these noble and universal precepts literally; and

like

many more

good men and women would do so were they not more than certain that such a walk in life would very probably land them in a lunatic asylum so Christian are your laws!

—

Inq.

But surely every one knows that millions and millions are spent annually on private and public charities?

ThDo.

Oh yes and half of ;

it

sticks to the

hands

it

passes through

before getting to the needy, while a good portion of the re-

mainder gets into the hands of professional beggars, who are too lazy to work, thus doing no good whatever to those who are really in misery and suffering. Haven't you heard that the first result of the great outflow of charity toward the East End of London was to raise the rents in JJliifcchapcl by some twenty per cent? Inq.

What would you

do, then?

:

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

240

Theo.

Act individually and not

collectively; follow the

North-

ern Buddhist precepts Never put food into the mouth of the hungry by the hand of another. Never let the shadow of thy neighbour [a third person] come between thyself and the object of thy bounty. Never give to the sun time to dry a tear before thou hast wiped it. Never give money to the needy, or food to the priest, who begs at thy door, through thy servants, tude,

Inq.

and thy food turn

But how can

this

thy

money should diminish

means personal exermercy and kindness; personal in-

idea of charity

tion for others; personal

terest in the welfare of those

who

suffer; personal sympathy,

forethought, and assistance in their troubles or needs. osophists do not believe in giving ple's

hands or organizations.

money through

We

is

who need

believe in relieving the starvation of the soul, as

not more than, the emptiness of the stomach

does more good to the it

other peo-

effectiveness by

our personal contact and sympathy with those if

felt.

Where

is

man who

feels

The-

believe in giving to the

money a thousandfold greater power and

We

grati-

be applied practically?

The Theosophical

Theo.

lest

to gall.

it

;

it.

much,

for gratitude

than to him for

whom

the gratitude which your "millions of

pounds" should have called forth, or the good feelings provoked by them? Is it shown in the hatred of the East End poor for the rich, in the growth of the party of anarchy and disorder, or by those thousands of unfortunate workinggirls, victims to the "sweating" system, driven daily to eke out a living by going on the streets? Do your helpless old men and women thank you for the workhouses or your poor for the poisonously unhealthy dwellings in which they are ;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY allowed to breed

and rickety

new

241

generations of diseased, scrofulous,

money

children, only to put

the insatiable Shylocks that every sovereign of

into the pockets of

who own houses? all

Therefore

it

is

those ''millions" contributed by

good and would-be charitable people falls like a burning curse instead of a blessing on the poor whom it should relieve.

We be

call this,

its

generating national Karma, and terrible will

on the day of reckoning.

results

THEOSOPHY FOR THE MASSES Inq.

And you

think that Theosophy would, by stepping

in,

help to remove

these evils, under the practical and adverse conditions of our

modern

life?

ThEo.

Had we more money, and had

ists to

Inq.

work

for their daily bread,

I

not most of the Theosophfirmly believe

we

could.

How? Do

you expect that your doctrines could ever take hold of the uneducated masses, when they are so abstruse and difficult that well-educated people can hardly understand them?

ThEO.

You

forget one thing:

education to

is

precisely that

understand Theosophy.

ual subtleties

that your much-boasted

which makes

it

Your mind

so full of intellect-

is

and preconceptions that your natural

and perception of truth cannot act. physics or education to

modern you

difficult for

It

intuition

does not require meta-

make a man understand

the broad

Look at the millions truths of Karma and Reincarnation. of poor and uneducated Buddhists and Hindus, to whom Karma and Reincarnation are solid realities, simply because their minds have never been cramped and distorted by being forced into an unnatural groove. They have never had the

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

242

human

innate

sense of justice perverted in them by being

told to believe that their sins

man had

other

would be forgiven because an-

been put to death for their sakes.

And

the

Buddhists, note well, live up to their beliefs without a mur-

mur

against

Karma

or what they regard as a just punish-

ment; whereas the Christian populace neither lives up to its moral ideal, nor accepts its lot contentedly. Hence murmuring and dissatisfaction, and the intensity of the struggle for

Western

existence in Inq.

But with

Theo.

this contentedness,

lands.

which you praise so much, would do away

motive for exertion and bring progress to a

all

And we

standstill.

Theosophists say that your vaunted progress and

civilization are

ering over a

no better than a host of

will-o' the-wisps flick-

marsh which exhales a poisonous and deadly

miasma. This because we see selfishness, crime, immorality, and all the evils imaginable, pouncing upon unfortunate mankind from this Pandora's box which you call an age of progress, and increasing pari passu with the growth of your material civilization. At such a price, better the inertia and inactivity of Buddhist countries, which have resulted only as a consequence of ages of political slavery. Inq.

Then

is

all this

metaphysics and mysticism with which you occupy

yourself so much, of no importance?

Theo.

To

the masses,

support, they are

who need only practical guidance and not of much consequence; but for the

educated, the natural leaders of the masses, those

modes of thought and action

will

whose

sooner or later be ad-

opted by those masses, they are of the greatest importance.

It

is

only by means of the philosophy that an in-

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY telligent

and educated man can avoid the

of believing on blind faith; and

and

the strict continuity if

it

is

243

intellectual suicide

only by assimilating

logical coherence of the Eastern,

not esoteric, doctrines that he can realize their truth.

Conviction breeds enthusiasm, and " enthusiasm," says Bulwer Lytton, " is the genius of sincerity, and truth accom-

no victories without it;" while Emerson most truly remarks that " every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm." And what is more calculated to produce such a feeling than a philosophy so grand, so consistent, so logical, and so allembracing as our Eastern doctrines ? plishes

Inq.

And

yet

acquires

its

enemies are very numerous, and every day Theosophy

new opponents.

ThKO. And this is precisely what proves its intrinsic excellence and value. People hate only the things they fear, and no one goes out of his way to overthrow that which neither threatens nor Inq.

rises

above mediocrity.

Do you hope

to impart this enthusiasm,

one day, to the masses?

—

since history tells us that the masses adopted ThEO. Why not ? Buddhism with enthusiasm, while, as said before, the practical effect upon them of this philosophy of ethics is still shown by the smallness of the percentage of crime among Buddhist populations as compared with every other religion. The chief point is to uproot that most fertile source of all

crime and immorality

— the

belief that

that greatest of

all

laws.

besides feeling in themselves

possible for

men

own actions. Once teach Karma and Reincarnation, and the true dignity of human na-

to escape the consequences of their

them

it is

THE KHV TO THBOSOPHV

244

ture, they will turn

from

evil

and eschew

it

as they

would a

physical danger.

HOW MEMBERS CAN HELP THE Inq.

How

Theo.

SOCIETY

do you expect the Fellows of your Society

First,

work?

by studying and comprehending the Theosophical

doctrines, so that they

people.

to help in the

may

teach others, especially the young

Secondly, by taking every opportunity of talking to

others and explaining to it

them what Theosophy is and what not; by removing misconceptions and spreading an in-

is

terest in the subject.

Thirdly, by assisting in circulating

our literature by buying books when they have the means, by lending and giving them, and by inducing their friends to do so. Fourthly, by defending the Society from the unjust aspersions cast upon

power. of their Inq.

But

all

Fifthly,

own

it by every legitimate device in their and most important of all, by the example

lives.

this literature, to the

importance, does not seem to

mankind.

The:o.

We

This

is

spread of which you attach so

me

of

much

much

practical use in helping

not practical charity.

think otherwise.

We

hold that a good book which

gives people food for thought, which strengthens and clears their minds,

and enables them

grasp truths which they but could not formulate we hold that such to

have dimly felt, a book does a real, substantial good.

—

As

to

what you

call

practical deeds of charity, to benefit the bodies of our fellow-

men, we do what little we can but, as I have already told you, most of us are poor, while the Society itself has not even the money to pay a staflf of workers. All of us who toil for it ;

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY give our labor gratis, and in most cases

245

money

as well.

The

few who have the means of doing what are usually called and do their work themselves not by proxy or by subscribing publicly What a Theosophist has to do above to charitable funds.

charitable actions follow the Buddhist precepts

—

all is to

forget his personality.

WHAT A THEOSOPHIST OUGHT NOT Inq.

Have you any

TO DO

prohibitory laws or clauses for Theosophists in your

Society ?

Theo.

Many;

but alas! none of them are enforced.

They

ex-

press the ideal of our organization; but the practical application of such things

we

are compelled to leave to the discre-

tion of the Fellows themselves.

men's minds

in the present

Unfortunately, the state of

century

is

such that, unless

allow these clauses to remain, so to speak, obsolete, no or

woman would

we

man

dare to risk joining the Theosophical So-

This is precisely why I feel forced to lay such a stress on the difference between true Theosophy and its hardstruggling and well-intentioned but still unworthy vehicle, the

ciety.

Theosophical Society. Inq.

May

I

be told what are these perilous reefs in the open sea of

Theosophy ?

Well may you call them reefs, as more than one otherwise sincere and well-meaning Fellow of the Theosophical Society has had his Theosophical canoe shattered into splinters on them! And yet to avoid certain things seems the easiest thing in the world to do. For instance, here is a

ThEo.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

246

of such negatives, screening positive Theosophical

series

duties:

No

Theosophist should be

silent

when he hears

evil reports

or slanders spread about the Society or innocent persons,

whether they be his colleagues or outsiders. Inq.

But suppose what one hears knowing it?

is

the truth, or

may

be true without one

ThEo. Then you must demand good proofs of the assertion, and hear both sides impartially, before you permit the accusation to go uncontradicted. until

evil

You have no

right to believe in

you get undeniable proof of the correctness of

the statement. Inq.

And what

ThEo.

Pity and forbearance, charity and long-suffering, ought

to be ren,

should you do then?

always there to prompt us to excuse our sinning breth-

and

to pass the gentlest sentence possible

A

upon those is due

who err. Theosophist ought never to forget what to the shortcomings and infirmities of human nature. Inq.

Ought he

Theo. Inq.

to forgive entirely in such cases?

In every case, especially he

who

is

sinned against.

But if by so doing he risks injuring or allows others what ought he to do then?

Theo.

—

to

be injured,

His duty that which his conscience and higher nature suggest to him; but only after mature deliberation. Justice consists in doing no injury to any living being; but justice commands us also never to allow injury to be done to the many, or even to one innocent person, by allowing the guilty one to go unchecked.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

What

247

,

are the other negative clauses?

Theosophist ought to be contented with an idle or frivolous life, doing no real good to himself and still less to He should work for the benefit of the few who need others.

No

Theo.

his help,

if

he

is

unable to

for

toil

Humanity, and thus work

for the advancement of the Theosophical cause. Inq.

This demands an exceptional nature, and would come rather hard upon some persons.

Theo.

Then

they had better remain outside of the Theosophical

No

Society, instead of sailing under false colors.

asked to give more than he can afford, whether time, Inq.

one

is

in devotion,

work or money.

What comes

next?

should set too great value on his personal progress or proficiency in Theosophic studies; but

Theo.

No working member

must be prepared, rather,

to

do as much

altruistic

work

as

He

should not leave the whole of the heavy burden and responsibility of the Theosophical movement on the shoulders of the few devoted workers. Each lies

in his

power.

member ought to feel it the common work, and Inq.

This

Theo.

is

No

but just.

what share he can in by every means in his power.

his duty to take

help

What comes

it

next?

Theosophist should place his personal vanity or

ings above those of his Society as a body.

He who

feel-

sacrifices

the latter, or other people's reputations, on the altar of his personal vanity, worldly benefit or pride, ought not to be al-

lowed to remain a member. the whole body.

One cancerous

limb diseases

;

THE KHY TO THnOSOPHV

248

Inq.

Is

Theo.

it

the duty of every

It is

indeed.

member

No

to teach others

and preach Theosophy?

Fellow has a right to remain

excuse that he knows too

little

to teach.

idle

on the

For he may always

who know still less than himuntil a man begins to try to teach his own ignorance and tries to re-

be sure that he will find others

And

self.

also

it

is

not

others that he discovers

move Inq.

it.

But

What do you

this is a

minor

clause.

consider, then, to be the chief of these negative

Theo-

sophical duties?

Theo.

To be

ever prepared to recognize and confess one's faults

through exaggerated praise than through too never to backlittle appreciation of one's neighbor's efforts bite or slander another person; always to say openly and direct to his face anything you have against him; never to to sin rather

;

make

yourself the echo of anything you

may hear against who happen to

another, nor harbor revenge against those injure you. Inq.

But it is often dangerous to tell people the truth to their faces. Don't you think so? I know of one of your members who was bitterly offended, left the Society, and became its greatest enemy, only because he was told some unpleasant truths to his face, and was blamed for them.

Of such we have had many. minent or insignificant, has ever our bitter enemy.

Theo.

Inq.

How

Theo.

do you account for

It is

No member, left

whether pro-

us without becoming

it?

simply this: having been, in most cases, intensely

devoted to the Society at

first,

and having lavished upon

it

the most exaggerated praises, the only possible excuse such

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY a backslider can

make

short-sightedness

is

for his subsequent behavior and past

to pose as

tim, thus casting the

249

an innocent and deceived

blame from his

those of the Society in general, and

own its

vic-

shoulders onto

leaders especially.

Such persons remind one of the old fable about the man with a distorted face, who broke his looking-glass in the belief that

Inq.

it

reflected his

countenance crookedly.

But what makes these people turn against the Society?

ThEO.

Wounded

every case.

vanity in some form or another, almost in

Generally because their dicta and advice are and authoritative, or else because they are

not taken

as final

of those

who would

rather reign in Hell than serve in

cannot bear to stand second Heaven. Because, a So, for instance, one member to anybody in anything. every defamed almost and criticized true *' Sir Oracle" in short, they

—

—

member

in the

Theosophical Society to outsiders as

to Theosophists, under the pretext that they were

much

as

all iintheo-

blaming them precisely for what he was himself doing all the time. Finally he left the Society, giving as his reason a profound conviction that we were all (the founders Another one, after intriguing in every especially) Frauds! possible way to be placed at the head of a large section of the Society, finding that the members would not have him, turned against the founders of the Theosophical Society and became their bitterest enemy, denouncing one of them whenever he could, simply because the latter could not, and would not, This was simply a case of an force him upon the members. outrageous wounded vanity. Still another wanted to, and sophical,

virtually did, practise black

magic

—f

e.,

undue personal psy-

THE KBY TO THEOSOPMV

2S0

chological influence

— on

certain Fellows, while pretending

When

devotion and every Theosophical virtue. a stop to, the ders and

lies

this

was put

member broke with Theosophy, and now

slan-

against the same hapless leaders in the most

virulent manner, endeavoring to break

blackening the reputation of those

whom

up the Society by that worthy person

was unable to deceive. Inq.

What would you do

with such characters?

Theo.

Leave them to their Karma. Because one person does evil, that is no reason for others to do so.

Inq.

But

to return to slander,

where

is

backbiting and just criticism to be

warn

one's friends

the line of demarcation between

drawn?

and neighbors against those

Is

it

not one's duty to

whom

one knows to be

dangerous associates?

go on unchecked, other persons may be thereby injured, it is certainly our duty to obviate the danger by warning them privately. But, true or false, no ac-

ThEo.

If

by allowing them

to

cusation against another person should ever be spread abroad.

and the fault hurts no one but the sinner, then leave him to his Karma. If false, then you will have avoided adding to the injustice in the world. Therefore keep silent If true,

about such things with every one not directly concerned. But if your discretion and silence are likely to hurt or en-

danger others, then I add. Speak the truth at all costs, and say with Annesley, " Consult duty, not events." There are cases when one is forced to exclaim, " Perish discretion rather than allow it to interfere with duty." Inq.

Methinks,

if

you carry out these maxims, you are

nice crop of troubles!

likely to reap a

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY ThEo.

And

to the

so

we

We have

do.

to

admit that we are

same taunt as the early Christians were.

these Theosophists love one another

!

"

may now

251

now open how

" See

be said of

us without a shadow of injustice. Inq.

Admitting yourself that there is at least as much, if not more, backand quarreling in the Theosophical Society as in the Christian churches, let alone scientific societies What kind of Bro-

biting, slandering

therhood

Theo.

a

is this,

—

may

ask

?

very poor specimen indeed as at present, and, until

carefully sifted 60.

I

[The Society was President for

first

life,

and reorganized,^^ no re-organized in 1895,

and when the

first

better than others. Re-

when William Q. Judge was

elected

great sifting took place.

As the work increased a further sifting became necessary and more protective means had to be adopted for preserving the work and the larger and ever growing interests of the Theosophical Movement. To this end Katherine Tingley reorganized it and formulated the Constitution under which it is now active. This further sifting and reorganization took place February 18th, 1898 at Chicago, when the Theosophical Society, at its Annual Convention, accepted the Constitution of the Universal Brotherhoood and Theosophical Society and by that action

became an

integral part thereof.

many people use the name of Theosophy and of our Organization for self-interest, as also that of H. P. Blavatsky, the Foundress, to This they do in privattract attention to themselves and to gain public support. ate and public speech and in publications, also by lecturing throughout the country. It is

a regrettable fact that

Without being in any way connected with the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, in many cases they permit it to be inferred that they are, thus misleading the public, and many honest inquirers are hence led away from the truths of Theosophy as presented by H. P. Blavatsky and her successors, W. Q. Judge and Katherine Tingley, and practically exemplified in their Theosophical work for the uplifting of humanity. It should be distinctly understood that the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society recognizes no other society or body using the name of Theosophy; and that its members are in no wise affiliated with any other society or body calling itself Theosophical and not recognizing Katherine Tingley as the Leader and Official Head of the international Theosophical Movement. The International Headquarters of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society are at Point Loma, California.]

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

252

member, however, that human nature Theosophical Society as out of

it.

they are at best sinners trying to

same in the Its members are no saints do better, and Hable to fall is

the

back owing to personal weakness. Add to this that our " Brotherhood " is no " recognized " or established body, and Bestands, so to speak, outside of the pale of jurisdiction. sides which,

it

is

unpopular than any other body. those

and more unjustly What wonder then, that

in a chaotic condition,

members who

fail to

carry out

its

ideal should, after

leaving the Society, turn for sympathetic protection to our

enemies, and pour willing ears!

all

their gall

Knowing

and bitterness

into their too

that they will find support, sym-

pathy and ready credence for every accusation, however absurd, that

it

may

them

please

to launch against the

Theowrath

sophical Society, they hasten to do so, and vent their on the innocent looking-glass which reflected too faithfully their faces. People never forgive those whom they have wronged. The sense of kindness received, and repaid by them with ingratitude, drives them into a madness of selfjustification before the world and their own consciences. The former is but too ready to believe in anything said against a society it hates. The latter but I will say no more, fearing I have already said too much.

—

Inq.

Your

ThEo.

position does not

It is not.

seem

to

me

a very enviable one.

But do you not think that there must be some-

thing very noble, very exalted, very true, behind the Society

and

its

philosophy,

when

the leaders and the founders of the

movement still continue to work for it with all their strength ? They sacrifice to it all comfort, all worldly prosperity and sue-

THB KHV TO THEOSOPHY

253

cess,

even to their good name and reputation

their

honor

—

to receive in return incessant

—

aye, even to

and ceaseless ob-

loquy, relentless persecution, untiring slander, constant in-

—

blows and misunderstanding of their best efforts and buffets from all sides when by simply dropping their work they would find themselves immediately released from every responsibility, shielded from every further attack. gratitude,

Ino.

I

confess such a perseverance seems to

wondered why you did

Thdo.

—

me

very astounding, and

I

all this.

Believe me, for no self-gratification

;

training a few individuals to carry on our

only in the hope of

work

for humanity

original program when the founders are dead and They have already found a few such noble and devoted souls to replace them. The coming generations, thanks

with

its

gone.

to these few, will find the path to peace a

little less

thorny,

and the way a little widened, and thus all this suffering will have produced good results, and their self-sacrifice will not have been in vain. At present the main, fundamental object of the Society is to sow germs in the hearts of men which may in time sprout and, under more propitious circumstances, lead to a healthy reform conducive of more happiness to the masses than they have hitherto enjoyed.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

254

XIII

ON THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY" THEOSOPHY AND ASCETICISM Inq.

I

have heard people say that your rules required all members to be but you have not told me

vegetarians, celibates and rigid ascetics

anything of the sort

yet.

Can you

tell

;

me

the truth once for

all

about

this?

The truth is that our rules require nothing of the kind. The Theosophical Society does not even expect, far less require, of any of its members that they should be ascetics in

ThKo.

—

—

any way, except if you call that asceticism that they should try and benefit other people and be unselfish in their

own Inq.

But

avow

lives. still

many

of your members are strict vegetarians, and openly

their intention of

the case with those

work of your

remaining unmarried.

who

This, too,

is

most often

take a prominent part in connection with the

Society.

That is only natural, because most of our really earnest workers are members of the Inner Section of the Society, about which I told you before.

Theo.

61.

See note

60.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

Oh, then you do require

255

ascetic practices in that Inner Section?

No, we do not require or enjoin them even there. But I I had better give you an explanation of our views on the subject of asceticism in general, and then you will under-

Theo.

see that

stand about vegetarianism and so on. Inq.

Please proceed.

most people who become Theosophy and active workers in our Society wish to do more than study theoretically the truths we teach. They wish to ktiozv the truth by their own direct personal experience, and to study Occultism with the object of acquiring the wisdom and power which they feel they need in order to help others effectually and judiciously, Therefore, sooner or instead of blindly and at haphazard.

Th^o.

As

have already

I

told you,

really earnest students of

later,

Inq.

they join the Inner Section.

But you

said that "ascetic practices"

are not obligatory even in that

Inner Section.

ThEO.

No more

learn there

is

they are

;

but the

first

thing which the

members

a true conception of the relation of the body,

or physical sheath, to the inner, the true man.

The

relation

and mutual interaction between these two aspects of human nature are explained and demonstrated to them, so that they soon become imbued with the supreme importance of the inner

man

over the outer case or body.

They are taught

that

mere folly; that such conduct as that of St. Labre, of which I spoke before, or that of the Indian fakirs and jungle ascetics, who cut, burn and macerate their bodies in the most cruel and horrible manner, blind, unintelligent asceticism is

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

256

is

simply self-torture for selfish ends

power

— but

is

—

to develop will-

i.e.,

perfectly useless for the purpose of assisting

true spiritual or Theosophic development.

Inq,

I

see

you regard only moral asceticism as necessary.

It is as

a

means

an end, that end being the perfect equilibrium of the inner nature of man, and the attainment of complete mastery over the body, with to

all

its

ThKo.

passions and desires.

Just

wisely,

But these means must be used

so.

intelligently

not blindly and foolishly; like an athlete

and

who

is

training and preparing for a great contest, not like the miser

who

starves himself into illness that he

may

gratify his

passion for gold. Inq.

I it

understand

now your

in practice.

One

The:o.

How

general idea; but

let

how you

us see

apply

about vegetarianism, for instance?

of the great

German

scientists

kind of animal tissue, however you

has shown that every

may cook

it,

still

retains

marked characteristics of the animal to which it beApart longed, and these characteristics can be recognized. from that, also, every one knows by the taste what meat he is eating. We go a step farther, and prove that when the

certain

flesh of

animals

is

assimilated by

man

as food,

it

imparts to

him, physiologically, some of the characteristics of the animal

Moreover, occult science teaches and proves this to its students by ocular demonstration, showing also that this "coarsening" or "animalizing" efifect on man is it

came from.

greatest still

all

less

from the flesh of the larger animals, less for birds, for fish and other cold-blooded animals, and least of

when he

eats only vegetables.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

Then he had

Theo.

better not eat at

257

all.

If he could live without eating, of course he had.

as the matter stands, he

must

But

and so we advise and have the smallest ef-

eat to live,

really earnest students to eat such food as will least clog

weight their brains and bodies, and fect in

will

hampering and retarding the development of and powers.

their

intuition, their inner faculties

Inq.

Then you do not adopt

all

the arguments which vegetarians in general

are in the habit of using?

Theo. Certainly not. Some of their arguments are very weak, and often based on assumptions which are quite false. But, on the other hand, many of the things they say are quite true. For instance, we believe that much disease, and especially the great predisposition to disease which is becoming so marked a feature in our time, is very largely due to the eating of meat, and especially of tinned meats. But it would take too long to go thoroughly into this question of vegetarianism on its merits so please pass on to something else. ;

Inq.

question more: What are your members of the Inner Section do with regard to their food when they are ill?

One to

Theo.

Follow the best practical advice they can get, of course. Do you not grasp yet that we never impose any hard-and-fast obligations in this respect? Remember once for all that in all such questions we take a rational, and never a fanatical, view of things. If from illness or long habit a man cannot go without meat, why, by all means, let him eat it. It is no crime it will only retard his progress a little for after all is said and done, the purely bodily actions and functions are of ;

far less importance than

;

what

a

man

fhiuks and fccis;

what

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

258

desires he encourages in his mind,

grow Inq,

and allows

to take root

and

there.

Then with regard

to the use of

wine and

spirits

I

:

suppose you do

not advise people to drink them?

ThEo.

They are worse

and spiritual growth forms has a direct, marked

for a man's moral

than meat, for alcohol in

all its

and very deleterious influence on his psychic condition. Wine and spirit drinking is only less destructive to the development of the inner powers than the habitual use of hashish, opium and similar drugs.

THEOSOPHY AND MARRIAGE Inq.

Now

another question:

Must a man marry or remain a

celibate?

man you mean.

If you refer who, even though to one who intends to live in the world one a good, earnest Theosophist, and an ardent worker for our cause, still has ties and wishes which bind him to the world; who, in short, does not feel that he has done forever with what men call life, and that he desires one thing and one

ThEo.

It

depends on the kind of

;

help others be thing only — know the truth and — then for such a one say there no reason why he should to

to

I

not marry,

if

there are so

he

able to

is

where Surely you

likes to take the risks of that lottery

many more

blanks than prizes.

cannot believe us so absurd and fanatical as to preach against marriage altogether ? On the contrary, save in a few exceptional cases of practical

Occultism, marriage

remedy against immorality.

is

the only

THE KEY TO TH BO SOPHY Inq.

But why cannot one acquire a married

this

250

knowledge and power when

living

life?

ThEO. My dear sir, I cannot go into physiological questions with you but I can give you an obvious and, I think, a sufficient answer, which will explain to you the moral reasons we give Can a man serve two masters? No! Then it is for it. equally impossible for him to divide his attention between If he tries to, he will the pursuit of Occultism and a wife. ;

assuredly

you, practical Occultism

study for a earnest,

gain his

man

is

to take

and ready But end.

Inner Section.

mined

I

far too serious

up unless he

to sacrifice all

is

— himself

first

of

all

—

does not apply to the members of our only referring to those who are deter-

am

Most,

if

not

all,

of those

which leads

who

to the

join our Inner

Section are only beginners, preparing themselves in this to enter in reality

to

this

to tread that path of discipleship

highest goal.

let me remind and dangerous a in the most deadly

doing either properly; and,

fail in

upon that path

in lives to

life

come.

THEOSOPHY AND EDUCATION Inq.

One of your strongest arguments for the inadequacy of the existing forms of religion in the West, as also to some extent the materialistic philosophy which is now so popular, but which you seem to consider as an abomination of desolation, is the large amount of misery and wretchedness which undeniably exists, especially in our great cities. But surely you must recognize how much has been and is being done to remedy this state of things by the spread of education and the diffusion of intelligence.

The;o.

The

future generations will hardly thank you for such a

THB KBY TO THBOSOPMY

26Q

" diffusion of intelligence," nor will your present education

do much good to the poor starving masses. Inq.

Ah! but you must give us time. began to educate the people.

ThEO.

And

It is

only a few years since

we

what, pray, has your Christian religion been doing

ever since the fifteenth century, once you acknowledge that the education of the masses has not been attempted

till

now

— the very work, ever there could be one, which a Christa Christ-following — church and people ought ian — if

to

i.e.,

perform? Inq.

Well, you

Theo.

Just

may

let

be right

;

but

now

—

us consider this question of education from a

broad standpoint, and I will prove to you that you are doing harm, not good, with many of your boasted improvements. The schools for the poorer children, though far less useful than they ought to be, are good in contrast with the vile surroundings to which they are doomed by your modern society. The infusion of a little practical Theosophy would help a hundred times more in life the poor suffering masses than all this

Inq.

But

ThEO.

diffusion of (useless) intelligence.

really

Let

—

me

finish, please.

You have opened

a subject on

and I must have my say. to a small child advantage I quite agree that there is a great bred in the slums, having the gutter for play-ground, and livmg amid continued coarseness of gesture and word, in being placed daily in a bright, clean school-room hung with pictures,

which we Theosophists

and often gay with

feel deeply,

flowers.

There

it is

taught to be clean,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY gentle, orderly

that

awaken

;

its

there

it

261

learns to sing and to play

intelligence; learns to use

its

has toys

;

fingers deftly;

frown is gently rebuked is or coaxed instead of cursed. All this humanizes the children, arouses their brains, and renders them susceptible to intelThe schools are not all they lectual and moral influences. might be and ought to be but compared with the homes they are paradises; and they are slowly reacting on the homes. But while this is true of many of the board-schools, your spoken to with a smile instead of a

;

;

system deserves the worst one can say of Inq.

So be

it

;

go on.

What

ThEo.

it.

is

the real object of

modern education?

Is

it

to

and develop the mind and hapless people to carry with fortitude the burden of life (allotted them by Karma) to strengthen their will to inculcate in them the love of one's neighbor and the feeling of mutual interdependence and brotherhood and thus to train and form the character for practical life? Not in the right direction

cultivate

;

to teach

the disinherited

;

;

;

a bit of

it.

And

yet these are undeniably the objects of

No

all

your educationalists admit it, and talk very big indeed on the subject. But what Every young man and is the practical result of their action ? true education.

—

one denies

it;

all

boy nay, every one of the younger generation of schoolmasters will answer, " The object of modern education is to pass examinations " a system not to develop right emulation, but to generate and breed jealousy, envy, hatred almost, in young people for one another, and thus train them for a life of ferocious selfishness and struggle for honors

—

—

and emoluments instead of kindly Inq.

I

must admit you are

right there.

feeling.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

262

—

the terror of modern ThEo. And what are these examinations boyhood and youth? They are simply a method of classification by which the results of your school-teaching are tabu-

In other words, they form the practical application

lated.

of the modern science method to the genus homo, qua lection.

Now

"science" teaches that intellect

is

a result of the

mechanical interaction of the brain-stuff; therefore logical that

—a

anical

intellect is

modern education should be almost sort of automatic

by the ton.

enough

to

show

Very

intel-

it is

entirely

only

mech-

machine for the fabrication of

little

experience of examinations

that the education they produce

is

simply

a training of the physical memory, and, sooner or later,

all

As to any real, sound and reasoning power, it is simply impossible while everything has to be judged by the results

your schools

will sink to this level.

cultivation of the thinking

as tested by competitive examinations.

ing

Again, school train-

of the very greatest importance in forming character,

is

moral bearing. Now, from first to last, your modern system is based on the so-called scientific revelations the "struggle for existence" and the "survival of the fittest." All through his early life every man has these driven into him by practical example and experience, as well as by especially in

its

—

direct teaching, till it the idea that " self "

is

impossible to eradicate from his

— the lower, personal, animal

the end-all and be-all of

of

all

life.

the after-misery, crime,

you admit as much as again,

is

I

do.

Here you

self

mind

—

and heartless

which and over

selfishness,

Selfishness, as said over

the curse of humanity, and the prolific parent of

the evils and crimes in this life

;

and

are the hotbeds of such selfishness.

it is

is

get the great source

all

your schools which

THE KBY To THEOSOPHV Inq.

That

very fine as generalities, but

is all

to learn also,

TheIo.

Very

how

all

this

I

should

263

like a

few

facts,

and

can be remedied.

well, I will try

and

great divisions of scholastic

satisfy you.

There are three

establishments — board, middle-

and public schools, running up the scale from the most grossly commercial to the idealistic classical, with many permutations and combinations. The practical commercial begets the modern side, and the ancient and orthodox classical reflects its heavy respectability even as far as the schoolboard pupil-teacher's establishments. Here we plainly see the scientific and material commercial supplanting the effete orthodox and classical. Neither is the reason very far to seek. The objects of this branch of education are, then, pounds, shillings, and pence, the sumuium bomtui of the nineteenth class,

century.

of

its

Thus

the energies generated by the brain-molecules

adherents are

all

concentrated on one point, and are

some extent, an organized army of educated and speculative intellects of the minority of men, trained against the hosts of the ignorant, simple-minded masses doomed to be vampirized, lived and sat upon by their intellectually stronger brethren. Such training is not only untheosophical; it is simply unchristian. Result: the direct outcome of this branch of education is an overflooding of the market with money-making machines, with heartless, selfish men animals who have been most carefully trained to prey on their fellows and take advantage of the ignorance of their weaker brethren! therefore, to

—

Inq.

—

Well, but you cannot assert that of our great public schools, at

any

rate.

— THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

264

Theo.

But though the form is different, untheosophical and unsame christian, whether Eton and Harrow turn out scientists or divines and theologians.

Not

exactly,

it is

the animating spirit

Inq.

true. is

the

Surely you do not mean to

Theo.

Of

No.

It still

Eton and Harrow "commercial"

course the Classical system

and

respectable,

call

in the present

remains the favorite at

is

above

things

day is productive of some good. our great public schools, where

not only an intellectual, but also a social education able.

all

?

is

obtain-

therefore of prime importance that the dull boys

It is

of aristocratic and wealthy parents should go to such schools to

meet the

rest of the

young

life

of the " blood " and

But, unfortunately, there

classes.

is

money

a huge competition

even for entrance; for the moneyed classes are increasing, and poor but clever boys seek to enter the public schools by the rich scholarships, both at the schools themselves and

them Inq.

from

to the universities.

According

to this view, the wealthier "dullards"

have to work even

harder than their poorer fellows.

Theo.

It is so.

But, strange to say, the faithful of the cult of

the ''survival of the fittest" do not practise their creed; for

whole exertion is to make the naturally unfit supplant the fit. Thus, by bribes of large sums of money, they allure the best teachers from their natural pupils to mechanicalize their naturally unfit progeny into professions which they uselessly overcrowd. their

Inq.

And you

attribute all this to

what?

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY Theo.

All this

owing

is

265

to the perniciousness of a

system which

turns out goods to order, irrespective of the natural proclivities

and

talents of the youth.

The poor

this progressive paradise of learning

from the nursery

little

candidate for

comes almost straight

to the treadmill of a preparatory school

Here he

for sons of gentlemen.

is

immediately seized upon

by the workmen of the materio-intellectual factory, and crammed with Latin, French, and Greek Accidence, Dates and Tables, so that if he have any natural genius it is rapidly squeezed out of him by the rollers of what Carlyle has so well called " dead vocables." Inq.

But surely he of that which

taught something besides "dead vocables," and

is

may

lead

him

direct to

Theosophy,

if

much

not entirely into

the Theosophical Society?

Theo.

Not much.

For of history he

will attain only sufficient

knowledge of his own particular nation to fit him with a steel armor of prejudice against all other peoples, and be steeped in the foul cesspools of chronicled national hate and bloodthirstiness

;

and surely you would not

call that

— Tlico-

sophy? Inq.

What

Theo.

are your further objections?

Added

inated.

It

this

to

biblical facts, is

teacher being a Inq.

is

a

smattering of

from the study of which simply a

Why

memory

selected, so-called intellect is elim-

all

lesson,

the

Why

of the

of circumstances and not of reason.

Yes but I have heard you congratulate yourself at the ever-increasnumber of Agnostics and Atheists in our day, so that it appears ;

ing

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

266

that even people trained in the system

to think

you abuse so heartily do learn

and reason for themselves.

Yes; but it is rather owing to a healthy reaction from that system than due to it. We immeasurably prefer agnostics, and even rank atheists, in our Society to bigots of whatever religion. An agnostic's mind is ever opened to the truth whereas the latter blinds the bigot like the sun does an owl. The best most truth-loving, philanthropic, and i. e., the honest of our Fellows were, and are, agnostics and atheists,

Theo.

—

—

in the sense of disbelievers in a personal God. But there are no free-ih.m\dng boys and girls, and generally early training will leave its mark behind in the shape of a cramped and distorted mind. A proper and sane system of education should produce the most vigorous and liberal mind, strictly trained in logical and accurate thought, and not in blind faith. How can you ever expect good results while you pervert the reasoning faculty of your children by bidding them believe in the miracles of the Bible on Sunday, while for the six other days of the week you teach them that such things are scientifically

impossible Inq.

?

What would you

Theo.

If

have, then?

we had money we would found

schools which would

turn out something else than reading and writing candidates for starvation.

Children should above

all

be taught self-

men, altruism, mutual charity, and, more think and reason for themselves. We would reduce the purely mechanical work of the memory to an absolute minimum, and devote the time to the development and training of the inner senses, faculties, and latent

reliance, love for all

than anything

else, to

m

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

We

capacities.

would endeavor

to deal with each child as a

and to educate it so as to produce the most harmonious and equal unfoldment of its powers, in order that its special

unit,

We

aptitudes should find their full natural development.

would aim

at creating free

lectually, free all

men and women

morally; unprejudiced in

things, unselfish.

And we

all

— free

intel-

respects and above

believe that

much,

if

not

all,

of this could be obtained by proper and truly Theosophical education.

IVHY, THEN, IS

THERE SO MUCH PREJUDICE AGAINST THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Inq,

If

Theosophy

such a terrible than anything

The;o.

It is

;

versaries Society.

is

?

even half of what you say,

ill-feeling against it?

This

is

why should there exist even more of a problem

else.

but you must bear in mind

how many powerful

ad-

we have aroused ever since the formation of our As I just said, if the Theosophical movement were

one of those numerous modern crazes, as harmless at the end as as they are evanescent, it would be simply laughed at

—

now by

who

do not understand its real purport But it is nothing of the kind. left severely alone. Intrinsically, Theosophy is the most serious movement of this age, and one, moreover, which threatens the very life of most of the time-honored humbugs, prejudices, and social evils of the day those evils which fatten and make happy the upper ten and their imitators and sycophants, the wealthy it is

— and

those

still

—

dozens of the middle classes, while they positively crush and

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

268.

Think of

starve out of existence the millions of the poor.

and you

understand the reason of such a reby those others who, more observing and perspicacious, do see the true nature of Theosophy, and therefore dread it. this,

will easily

lentless persecution

Inq.

Do you mean to tell me that it is because a few have understood what Theosophy leads to, that they try to crush the movement? But if Theosophy leads only to good, surely you cannot be prepared to utter such a terrible accusation of perfidious heartlessness and treachery even against those few?

Theo.

I

am

enemies

so prepared, on the contrary.

we have had

to battle with

I

do not

during the

first

call

the

nine or

ten years of the Society's existence either powerful or "dan-

gerous," but only those three or four years.

who have arisen against us in the And these neither speak, write,

preach against Theosophy, but work the backs of the foolish puppets

in silence

who

last

nor

and behind

act as their visible

most of the members of our Society, they are well-known to the true FOUNDERS and the PROTECTORS of our Society. But they must remain, marionettes.

Yet,

if invisible to

for certain reasons, Inq.

And

TiiKo.

I

are they

known

unnamed to

many

at present.

of you, or to yourself alone?

never said that / knew them;

them; but

I

know

of them, and this

I

may

or

may

is sufficient;

not

know

and / defy

them to do their zvorst. They may achieve great mischief and throw confusion into our ranks, especially among the faint-hearted and those who can judge only by appearances. They will not crush the Society, do what they may. Apart dangerous, however, from these truly dangerous enemies

—

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY only to those Theosophists

and whose place ical

Society

is

— the

who

269

are unworthy of the name,

rather outside than ivithin the Theosoph-

number of our opponents

is

more than

considerable. Inq.

Cannot you give me more details about these latter, so that I may to answer when asked a brief history of the Society, in short; and why the world beHeves all this?

—

know what

Thko.

The reason

is

simple.

nothing of the Society

From

its

Most

itself, its

outsiders

know

absolutely

motives, objects or beliefs.

very beginning the world has seen in Theosophy

nothing but certain marvelous phenomena, in which twothirds of the non-spiritualists do not believe.

came

Very soon

the

regarded as a body pretending to the possession of "miraculous" powers. The world never realized Society

to be

that the Society taught absolute disbelief in miracle or even

the possibility of such. Inq.

For what, and

Thdo.

From

the

since when, first

the fact became

do the

Spiritualists hate

you?

day of the Society's existence.

known

No

sooner

that, as a body, the Theosophical Socommunications with the spirits of the dead, but regarded the so-called "spirits" as, for the most part, astral reflections of disembodied personalities, shells, etc., than the Spiritualists conceived a violent hatred to us and especially to the Founders. This hatred found expression in every kind of slander, uncharitable personal remarks and absurd misrepresentations of the Theosophical Teachings in all the American Spiritualistic organs. For years we were persecuted, denounced and abused. This began in 1875 and continues more or less to the present day.

ciety did not believe in

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

270

Inq.

But why should the clergy be

hostile to you,

when, after

all,

the

main

tendency of the Theosophical doctines is opposed to Materialism, the great enemy of all forms of religion in our day?

Theo.

The

who

is

clergy opposed us on the general principle that "

not with

me

is

against me."

not agree with any one Sect or Creed,

enemy of

all alike,

because

it

He

Since Theosophy does it

is

considered the

teaches that they are

all,

more or

The missionaries in India hated and tried to mistaken. crush us because they saw the flower of the educated Indian youth, who are almost inaccessible to them, joining the Soless,

numbers. And yet, apart from class hatred, the Theosophical Society counts many clergymen, and even one or two bishops. ciety in large

Inq.

And what against

some

led the Society for Psychical

You were

you?

Research

this general in its

ranks

to take the field

both pursuing the same line of study, in

and several of the Psychic Researchers belonged

respects,

to

your Society.

Theo.

First of

the S. P. R.

we were very good friends with the leaders of but when the attack on the phenomena appeared

all ;

in the Christian College

Magazine, supported by the pretend-

ed revelations of a menial, the S. P. R. found that they had compromised themselves by publishing in their " Proceedings " too many facts which had occurred in connection with

Their ambition is to pose as an and strictly scientific body; so that they had to choose between retaining that position by throwing overboard the Theosophical Society and even trying to destroy it, and seeing themselves merged, in the opinion of the Sadducees of the grand monde, with the "credulous" Theosophists and the Theosophical Society. authoritatii'c

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

271

There was no way for them out of it, no two It was a matchoices, and they chose to throw us overboard. But so hard pressed were they ter of dire necessity for them. to find any apparently reasonable motive for the life of devotion and ceaseless labor led by the Founder, and for the complete absence of any pecuniary profit or other advantage to Spiritualists.

were obliged to resort to the thriceabsurd, eminently ridiculous, and now famous " Russian spy theory," to explain this devotion. But the old saying, " The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," proved once more correct. After the first shock of this attack, the Theosophical Society doubled and tripled its numbers, but the bad impression produced still remains. A French author was

her, that our enemies

right in saying, " Calomniez, calomniez toujours et encore, il

en restera toujours quelque chose."

Therefore

it

is,

that

unjust prejudices are current, and that everything connected with the Theosophical Society, and especially with H. P. Blavatsky,

its

Founder,

is

so falsely distorted, because based

on malicious hearsay alone. Inq.

Yet in the 14 years [this was written in 1889] during which the Society has existed, you must have had ample time and opportunity to

ThEo.

show yourself and your work

How,

or when, have

in their true light?

we been

given such an opportunity?

Our most prominent members had an

aversion to anything

Their policy that looked like publicly justifying themselves. " ;" " does it What and has ever been must live it down " The Somatter what the newspapers say, or people think ? :

ciety

was

We

too poor to send out public lecturers, and therefore

the expositions of our views and doctrines were confined to

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

272

a few Theosophical works that met with success, but which people often misunderstood, or only say.

Our

journals were, and

knew

of through hear-

are, boycotted

still

;

our literary

works ignored; and to this day [1889] no one seems even to feel quite certain whether the Theosophists are a kind of Ser" pent-and-Devil worshippers, or simply " Esoteric Buddhists

— whatever that may mean.

It

was

useless for us to

go on

denying, day after day and year after year, every kind of inconceivable cock-and-bull stories about us

;

for,

no sooner was

than another, a still more absurd and malicious one, was born out of the ashes of the first. Unfortun-

one disposed

of,

human nature

so constituted that any

good said of a immediately forgotten and never repeated. But one has only to utter a calumny, or to start a story no ately,

person

matter

is

is

how

—

absurd, false or incredible

nected with some unpopular character

it

may

— for

be, if only conit

to be success-

and forthwith accepted as a historical fact. Like Don "Calumnia/" the rumor springs up, at first, as a soft gentle breeze hardly stirring the grass under your feet, and arising no one knows whence then, in the shortest space of time, it is transformed into a strong wind, begins to blow a gale, and forthwith becomes a roaring storm A calumny among news is what an octopus is among fishes it sucks into one's mind, fastens upon our memory, which feeds upon it, leaving indelible marks even after the calumny has been bodily ful

Basilio's

;

!

;

destroyed.

A

calumnious

lie is

the only masterkey that will

open any and every brain. It is sure to receive welcome and hospitality in every human mind, the highest as the lowest, if only a little prejudiced, and no matter from however base a quarter and motive

it

has started.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY Inq.

273

Don't you think your assertion altogether too sweeping?

Hshman has never been over-ready to beheve in anything our nation is proverbially known for its love of fair play. no

legs to stand

upon for

long,

and

—

The Engsaid,

and

A

has

lie

ThEo. The Englishman is as ready to beheve evil as a man of any other nation; for it is human nature, and not a national

As to lies, if they have no legs to stand upon, acfeature. cording to the proverb, they have exceedingly rapid wings; and they can and do fly farther and wider than any other Remember lies and calumny are the only kind of literature we can always get We can make gratis, and without paying any subscription. Will you, who are so interested the experiment if you like. in Theosophical matters, and have heard so much about us, will you put me questions on as many of these rumors and kind of news, in England as elsewhere.

" hearsays " as

you can think of ? and nothing but the truth, subject Inq.

I will

answer you the

truth,

to the strictest verification.

Before we change the subject, let us have the whole truth on this Now, some writers have called your teachings "immoral and pernicious ;" others, on the ground that many so-called "authorities" and Orientalists find in the Indian religions nothing but sex-worship in its many forms, accuse you of teaching nothing better than Phallic one.

worship.

They say

modern Theosophy is so closely allied cannot be free from this taint. Occasionally, to accuse European Theosophists of reviving

that since

with Eastern thought,

it

even, they go so far as

the practices connected with this cult.

How

about this?

have heard and read about this before; and I answer that no more utterly baseless and lying calumny has ever been " Silly people can see but silly invented and circulated. dreams," says a Russian proverb. It makes one's blood boil

Theo.

I

to hear such vile accusations

made without

the slightest foun-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

274

and on the strength of mere inferences. Ask the hundreds of honorable men and women who have been members of the Theosophical Society for years whether an imdation,

moral precept or a pernicious doctrine was ever taught to them. Open The Secret Doctrine, and you will find page after page denouncing those who adopt Phallic rites, due to the dead letter interpretation of nature symbolism, and the grossly materialistic conceptions of her dualism in exoteric creeds.

Such

ceaseless

the

and malicious misrepresent-

ation of our teachings and beliefs Inq.

all

is

really disgraceful.

But you cannot deny that the Phallic element does

exist in the relig-

ions of the East?

Theo. Nor do I deny it; only I maintain that this proves no more than does its presence in Christianity, the religion of the West. Read Hargrave Jennings' Rosicrucians, if you would assure yourself of

it.

In the East, the Phallic symbolism

is,

would But it is not more licentious, nor does it suggest to the Oriental mind the same gross and coarse ideas as to the Western, with perhaps, one or two exceptions, such as the shameful sect

perhaps, more crude, because more true to nature, or, rather say,

known Inq.

a

more ndive and

I

sincere than in the West.

as the " Maharaja," or Vallahacharya sect.

writer in the Agnostic Journal

— one

of your accusers

— has

just

hinted that the followers of this disgraceful sect are Theosophists,

and

" claim true

Theosophic insight."

He

wrote a falsehood, and that's all. There never was, nor is there at present, one single Vallahacharya in our As to their having, or claiming Theosophic insight, Society. that is another fib, based on crass ignorance about the Indian

Theo.

Sects.

Their " Maharaja " only claims a right to the money,

THE KHY TO THEOSOPHY

275

wives and daughters of his foohsh followers and no more.

This sect

is

despised by

all

the other Hindiis.

whole subject dealt with at length in The Secret Doctrine, to which I must again refer you for To conclude, the very soul of Theodetailed explanations. sophy is dead against Phallic worship; and its occult or esoThere teric section even more so than the exoteric teachings.

But you

will find the

never was a more lying statement made than the above.

now Inq.

ask

me some

have heard many Theosophists speak of a " power behind the Society," and of certain " Mahatmas," that are said to have founded the I

Society, to

watch over and protect

You may

Theo. Inq.

And

other questions.

These men, If, then,

they find

like,

I

laugh, but

it is

it.

so.

have heard, are great Adepts, Alchemists, and what not.

they can change lead into gold and besides doing

all

make

kinds of miracles at

as

will,

much money as why do not they

you money, and support the Founders and the Society

in

comfort?

Because they did not found a " miracle club." Because the Society is intended to help men to develop the powers latent in them through their own exertions and merit. Because

Theo.

whatever they

may

or

may

not produce in the

way

of pheno-

mena, they are not false coiners; nor would they throw an additional and very strong temptation on the path of members and candidates: TJieosophy is not to be bought. Hitherto, not a single working member has ever received pay or salary from either the Masters or the Society. Inq.

And now please tell me all you can about the Mahatmas. So many absurd and contradictory things are said about them, that one does not know what

Theo.

to believe,

Well may you

and call

all

sorts of ridiculous stories

them " ridiculous!

"

become current.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV

276

XIV

THE THEOSOPHICAL " MAHATMAS " ARE THEY "SPIRITS OF LIGHT" OR "GOBLINS DAMN'D" Inq.

?

Who are, then, those whom you call your " Masters " ? Some say they are " Spirits," or some other kind of supernatural beings, while them "myths."

others call

They are

ThEo.

neither.

I

once heard one outsider say to an-

other that they were a sort of male mermaids, whatever such a creature will

may

be.

But

if

you Hsten

Inq.

what people say you

never have a true conception of them.

they are living men, born as like

to

we

In the

are born, and

first place,

doomed

to die

every other mortal.

Yes, but

it

is

rumored

that

some of them are a thousand years

old.

Is this true?

Thko.

As

true as the miraculous growth of hair on the head of Truly, like the " Identical," no Theo-

Meredith's Shagpat.

sophical shaving has hitherto been able to crop

we deny

them, the more

we

it.

The more

try to set people right, the

more

absurd do the inventions become. I have heard of Methuselah being 969 years old; but, not being forced to believe

have laughed at the statement, for which I was forthwith regarded by many as a blasphemous heretic. in

it,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Inq.

277

Seriously, though, do they outHve the ordinary age of

What

The;o.

I remember readalmost 190 years was Lancet of a Mexican who

do you

ing in the

men?

call

the ordinary age?

have never heard of mortal man, layman or Adept, who could live even half the years allotted to Methuselah. Some Adepts do exceed, by a good deal, what you would call the ordinary age; yet there is nothing miraculous in it, and very few of them care to live very long.

old

Inq.

;

but

I

But what does the word

"

Mahatma

" really

— great

ThDo. Simply " great soul " and intellectual attainment. drunken

to a

through moral elevation

If the title of

soldier like Alexander,

those " Great "

mean ?

why

''

great "

should

we

is

given

not call

who have

achieved far greater conquests in Nature's secrets than Alexander ever did on the field of battle? Besides, the term is an Indian and a very old word. Inq.

And why do you

We

call

them

"

Masters "

?

them " Masters " because they are our teachers, and because from them we have derived all the Theosophical truths, however inadequately some of us may have expressed, and others understood them. They are men of great learning and still greater holiness of life, whom we term Initiates. They are not ascetics in the ordinary sense, though they certainly remain apart from the turmoil and strife of your Western world.

The:o.

Inq.

But

is

call

it

not selfish thus to isolate themselves?

Where is the selfishness? Does not the fate of the Theosophical Society sufficiently prove that the world is

Theo.

neither ready to recognize

them nor

to profit

by their teach-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

278

Of what

ing?

use would Professor Clerk Maxwell have

been to instruct a class of little boys in their multiplication table? Besides, they isolate themselves only from the West. In their own country they go about as publicly as other people do. Inq.

Don't you ascribe to them supernatural powers?

We

I have told you Edison lived and invented his phonograph two hundred years ago he would most probably have been burned along with it, and the whole attributed to the devil. The powers which they exercise are simply the development of potencies lying latent in every man and woman, and the

ThEo.

believe in nothing supernatural, as

Had

already.

existence of which even Inq.

Is if

true that these

it

not

all,

dictation

men

official

inspire

science begins to recognize.

some of your writers, and that many, works were written under their

of your Theosophical

?

Some

There are passages enso. by them verbatim but in most cases they only inspire the ideas, and leave the literary form to the writers.

Theo.

of them have done

tirely dictated

Inq.

But do

this in itself is

miraculous

;

is,

in fact, a miracle.

How

can they

it?

My dear

Theo. it

;

is

sir,

you are laboring under a great mistake, and

science itself that will refute your arguments at no dis-

tant day.

Why

miracle

supposed to be some operation which

ural,

is

should

whereas there

is

it

be a "miracle," as you

call it?

is

A

supernat-

above or beyond Nature the many forms of the "miracle"

really nothing

and Nature's laws. Among which have come under modern

scientific recognition there is

THE KEY TO TH^OSOPHY

in

and one phase of its power is known as "suggestion," a form of thought transference, which has been successfully used in combating particular physical diseases, etc.

hypnotism

;^^

is not far distant when the World of Science will be forced to acknowledge that there exists as much interaction between one mind and another, no matter at what

The time

distance, as between one

body and another

in closest contact.

When two

minds are sympathetically related, and the instruments through which they function are tuned to respond magnetically and electrically to one another, there is nothing which will prevent the transmission of thoughts from one

mind is not of such a tandistance can divide it from the subject of its

to the other at will

gible nature that

contemplation,

it

;

for since the

follows that the only difference that can

between two minds is a difference of state. So if hindrance is overcome, where is the ''miracle" of tJiought-fransference, at whatever distance? exist

this latter

Inq.

But you will admit that hypnotism does nothing so miraculous or wonderful as that?

Theo.

On

the contrary,

it is

a well-established fact that a hyp-

notist can affect the brain of his subject so far as to

produce

an expression of his own thoughts, and even his words, through the organism of his subject and although the phen;

omena attaching

ence are as yet few in take to say

62.

how

method of actual thought-transfernumber, no one, I presume, will under-

to this

far their action

may

extend

in the future,

[H. P. Blavatsky never failed to point out the danger and pernicious effects of All faithful students of Theosophy follow her and her successors in their protest against the teaching and practice of it] the practice of hypnotism.

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHV

280

when

the laws that govern their production are

more

scien-

And so, if such results can be produced by the knowledge of the mere rudiments of hypnotism, what can prevent the Adept in psychic and spiritual powers from producing results which, with your present limited knowledge of these laws, you are inclined to call " miraculous " ?

tifically established.

Then why do not our physicians experiment and try do as much?"

Inq.

Theo.

Because,

first

of

all,

if

they could not

they are not Adepts, with a thorough

understanding of the secrets and laws of psychic and itual realms,

but materialists, afraid to step outside the nar-

row groove of matter; and at present,

spir-

and indeed

must fail they are brought to acknow-

secondly, because they

until

ledge that such powers are attainable. Inq.

And

Theo.

could they be taught?

Not unless they were

materialistic dross they

swept away to the very This

Inq.

is

very interesting.

dictated to

Theo.

many

No; on

first

of

all

prepared, by having the

have accumulated

last

in

their brains

atom.

Tell me, have the Adepts thus inspired or

of your Theosophists

?

the contrary, to very few.

Such operations

require special conditions. An unscrupulous but skilled Adept " Brothers of the Shadow," of the " Black Brotherhood "

—

63.

Such, for instance, as Professor Bernheim and Dr. C. Lloyd Tuckey, of England; Professors Beaunis and Liegeois, of Nancy; Delboeuf, of Liege; Burot and

Bourru, of Rochefort; Fontain and Sigard, of Bordeaux; Forel, of Zurich; and Drs. Despine, of Marseilles Van Renterghem and Van Eeden, of Amsterdam; Wetterstrand, of Stockholm; Schrenck-Notzing, of Leipzig; and many other physicians and writers of eminence. ;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

281

—

has far less difficulties to labor and Dugpas, we call them For, having no laws of a Spiritual nature to trammel his actions, such a Dugpa "sorcerer" will most unceremoniously obtain control over any mind, and subject it entirely to his evil powers. But our Teachers will never do that. They if they would escape falling into Black Mahave no right gic to obtain entire mastery over anyone's immortal Ego, and can therefore act only on the physical and psychic nature under.

—

—

of the subject, leaving thereby the free will of the latter whol-

Hence, unless a person has been brought

ly undisturbed.

and

into psychic relationship with the Teachers,

ed by virtue of his

full faith in

and devotion

is

assist-

to his teachers,

the latter, whenever transmitting their thoughts to one with

whom

these conditions are not fulfilled, experience great

difficulties in

son's sphere.

nature.

penetrating into the cloudy chaos of that per-

But

Suffice

it

this is

no place

to say that

if

to treat of a subject of this

the

power

exists, then there

(embodied or disembodied) which guide this power, and living, conscious instruments through whom We have only it is transmitted and by whom it is received. to beware of Black magic. are Intelligences

Inq.

But what do you

really

mean by

" black magic "

?

Simply abuse of psychic powers, or of any secret of nature; the fact of applying to selfish and sinful ends the powers of Occultism. A hypnotizer who, taking advantage

Theo.

of his powers of " suggestion," forced a subject to steal or

by us a black magician. The famous "rejuvenating system" of Dr. Brown-Sequard, of Paris, through a loathsome animal injection into human blood

murder would be

called

—

THE KBY TO TM^OSOPHY

282

a

discovery

sing Inq.

—

all

the medical papers of

if true, is

Europe are now

discus-

unconscious black magic.

But this is mediaeval belief in witchcraft and sorcery! law itself has ceased to believe in such things.

Even

the

So much the worse for the law, as it has been led, through such lack of discrimination, into committing more than one judiciary mistake and crime. It is the term alone

Theo.

you with its "superstitious" ring in it. Would not law punish an abuse of hypnotic powers, as I just mentioned? Nay, it has so punished it already in France and Germany; yet it would indignantly deny that it applied pun-

that frightens

You

ishment to a crime of evident sorcery.

cannot believe

powers of suggestion by physicians and mesmerizers or hypnotizers,^'* and then refuse to believe in the same powers when used for evil motives. And if you do, then you believe in sorcery! You cannot believe in good and disbelieve in evil, accept genuine money and refuse to credit such a thing as false coin. Nothing can exist without its contrast; and no day, no light, no good, could have any representation as such in your consciousness were there no night, no darkness, no evil, to offset and conin the efficacy

and

reality of the

trast them.

Inq.

Indeed, I have known men who, while thoroughly believing in that which you call great psychic or magic powers, laughed at the very mention of Witchcraft and Sorcery.

Theo.

What

much

does

it

prove?

Simply that they are

the worse for them, again. 64.

And

[More often than not unconscious

illogical.

we, knowing as

diabolism.]

So

we

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

283

do of the existence of good and holy Adepts, believe as thoroughly in the existence of bad and unholy Adepts, or

—

Dugpas. Inq.

But if the Masters exist, why do they not come out before all men and refute once for all the many charges which are made against Madame Blavatsky and the Society?

What

ThEo. Inq.

charges?

That they do not are all

men this

and that she has invented them. Mahatmas of muslin and bladders."

exist,

of straw, "

That they Does not

injure her reputation?

ThEo. In what way can such an accusation injure her in reality? Did she ever make money on their presumed existence, or derive benefit or fame therefrom? I answer that she has gained only insults, abuse, and calumnies, which would have been very painful had she not learned long ago to remain For what does perfectly indififerent to such false charges. Why, to an implied compliment, it amount to after all? which, if the fools, her accusers, were not carried away by their blind hatred, they would have thought twice before this:

To

say that she invented the Masters comes to that she must have invented every bit of philosophy

uttering.

that has ever been given out in Theosophical literature.

She

must be the author of the letters from which some of the earlier works were written; the sole inventor of every tenet found in The Secret Doctrine, which, if the world were just, would be recognized as supplying many of the missing links By of science, as will be discovered a hundred years hence. of credit saying what they do they are also giving her the being far cleverer than the hundreds of men (many very

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

284

and not a few scientific men) who believe in what inasmuch as she must have fooled them all! If they speak the truth, then she must be several Mahatmas clever,

she says

—

rolled into one, like a nest of Chinese boxes since among the so-called " Mahatma letters " are many in totally different ;

and

distinct styles, all of

which her accusers declare that she

has written. Inq.

what they denounced as

But is it not very painful to her to be most accomplished impostor of the age, whose name deserves to pass to posterity," as is done in the Report of the " Society for Psychical Research " ? It

is

just

publicly

TiiEo.

were true, or came from people rabidly materialistic and prejudiced. As it is, personshe treats the whole matter with contempt, while the

It

less ally

say. " the

might be painful

if it

Mahatmas simply laugh at it. In truth, it is the greatest compliment that could be paid to her. I say so, again. But her enemies claim

Inq.

Theo.

Aye,

it

is

to

have proved their

easy enough to

make such

case.

a claim

when you

have constituted yourself judge, jury, and prosecuting counsel at once, as they did. But who, except their direct followers

and our enemies, believe

But they sent a representative

Inq.

didn't they

Thko.

They

in it? to India to investigate the matter,

?

did,

and

their final conclusion rests entirely

on the

unchecked statements and unverified assertions of this young gentleman. A lawyer who read through his report told a friend of mine that in all his experience he had never seen " such a ridiculous and self -condemnatory document."

It

THE KEY TO THHOSOPHY was found

to be full of suppositions

285

and "working hypo-

theses" which mutually destroyed each other.

Is

this

a

serious charge?

Yet

Inq.

it

has done the Society great harm.

vindicate her

Theo.

own

Why,

then, did she not

character, at least, before a Court of

Firstly, because as a Theosophist,

it is

Law?

her duty to leave

unheeded all personal insults. Secondly, because neither the Society nor Mme. Blavatsky had any money to waste over such a law-suit. And lastly, because it would have been ridiculous for both to be untrue to their principles, because

of an attack wethers,

made on them by

who had been

a flock of stupid old British

led to butt at

them by an over-f rolick-

some lambkin from Australia. Inq.

But do you not think that it would have done real good to the cause of Theosophy, if she had authoritatively disproved the whole thing once for all? This

is

complimentary.

But do you believe that any English jury or judge would have ever admitted the reality of psychic phenomena, even if entirely unprejudiced beforehand? And when you remember that they would have been set against us already by the '* Russian Spy " scare, the charges of Atheism and infidelity, and all the other calumnies that have been circulated against us, you cannot fail to see that such an attempt to obtain justice in a Court of Law would have All this the Psychic Researchers been worse than fruitless knew well, and they took a base and mean advantage of their position to raise themselves above our heads and save them-

ThEO.

Perhaps.

!

selves at our expense.

THE KBY TO THBOSOPHY

286

Inq,

The S. P. R. now denies completely the existence of the Mahatmas. They say that from beginning to end they were a romance which Madame Blavatsky has woven from her own brain?

Theo.

many

Well, she might have done

At any

this.

this theory.

rate,

As

we have

things less clever than

not the slightest objection to

she always says now, she almost prefers that

people should not believe in the Masters. She declares openly that she would rather people should seriously think that the only *' Mahatma-land " is the gray matter of her brain, and that, in short, she

own

has evolved them out of the depths of her

inner consciousness, than that their

ideal should be so

At

sent.

first

names and grand

infamously desecrated as they are at pre-

she used to protest indignantly against any

doubts as to their existence.

Now

way

Let people think what they

to

prove or disprove

it.

she never goes out of her like.

But of course, these Masters do exist?

Inq.

ThKO.

We

much.

affirm they do.

Many

some Theosophists and ex-Theohave never had any proof of their

people, even

sophists, say that they

existence.

Nevertheless, this does not help

Very

this alternative:

well; then

—

Mme. Blavatsky

replies

with

If she has invented them, then she has

and the practical knowledge which some few have acquired and if so, what does it matter whether they do exist or not, since she herself is here, and her oivn existence, at any rate, can hardly be denied? If the knowledge supposed to have been imparted by them is good intrinsically, and it is accepted as such by many persons of more than average intelligence, why should there be also invented their philosophy

;

such a hullabaloo

made over

that question?

The

fact of

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHV

287

her being an impostor has never been proved, and will always remain siih judice; whereas it is a certain and undeniable fact that, by

preached by

the "

invented, the philosophy

whomsoever

Masters "

beneficent philosophies once

is

one of the grandest and most

it is

properly understood.

the slanderers, while moved by the lowest and meanest

ings

— those

Thus feel-

wounded vanity, unaware that they

of hatred, revenge, malice,

or disappointed

ambition — seem

quite

are paying the greatest tribute to her intellectual powers. So be it, if the poor fools will have it so. Really, Mme.

Blavatsky has not the slightest objection to being represented by her enemies as a triple Adept, and a " Mahatma" It is only her unwillingness to pose in her own to boot.

crow parading in peacock's feathers that compels this day to insist upon the truth.

sight as a

her to But

Inq. is

it

if

you have such wise and good men to guide the Society, how many mistakes have been made?

that so

not guide the Society, not even the Founders; and no one has ever asserted that they did; they

ThEO.

The Masters do

amply proved by the fact that no mistakes have been able to cripple it, and no scandals from within, nor the most damaging attacks from without, have been able to overthrow it. The Masters look at the future, not at the present, and every mistake is That so much more accumulated wisdom for days to come.

only watch over and protect

it.

This

man

is

other " Master "

sent the

not

double them, nor did he prevent the

tell

who him how to

from burying wisdom by must acquire Each foolish servant

his his

with the

five talents did

one talent

own

in

the earth.

experience and mer-

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY

288

The

its.

very Holy Ghost

ter," the

claim a far higher " Mas-

itself,

have ever been and are

guilty not only of "mistakes," but of a series of bloody

still

crimes throughout the ages. for

who

Christian Churches,

all that,

Yet no Christian would deny,

his belief in that " Master," I

suppose? although

his existence is far more hypothetical than that of the Mahatmas; as no one has ever seen the Holy Ghost, and his guidance of the Church, moreover, their own ecclesiastical Errare humanum est. Let us history directly contradicts.

return to our subject.

THE ABUSE OF SACRED NAMES AND TERMS Then, what

Inq.

I

have heard, namely, that many of your Theosophical

writers claim to have been inspired by these Masters, or to have seen

and conversed with them,

Theo.

The

tree

is

is

not true?

known by

its

fruits;

and as

all

Theosophists

judged by their deeds and not by what they write or say, so all Theosophical books must be accepted on their merits, and not according to any claim to authority which

Inq.

have

to be

they

may

put forward.

But would Madame Blavatsky apply

this to her

own works

— The

Secret Doctrine, for instance?

Theo.

Certainly; she says expressly in the preface that she

from the Teachwhat she has lately written. As for our best Theosophists, they would also, in this case, far rather that the names of the Teachers had never been mixed up with our books in any way. With few gives out the doctrines that she has learned

ers,

but claims no inspiration whatever for

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

289

works are not only imperfect, but and misleading. Great are the desecrations to which the names of two of the Teachers have been subjected. There is hardly a medium who has not claimed to have seen them. Every bogus swindling society, for commercial purposes, now claims to be guided and directed by exceptions, most of such

positively erroneous

" Masters," often supposed to be far higher than ours

and heavy are the sins of those

!

who have advanced

Many these

prompted either by desire for lucre, vanity, or irresponsible mediumship. Many persons have been plundered of their money by such societies, which offer to sell the secrets of power, knowledge and spiritual truth for worthless gold. Worst of all, the sacred names of Occultism and the holy keepers thereof have been dragged in this filthy mire, polluted by being associated with sordid motives and immoral practices, while thousands of men have been held back from the path of truth and light through the discredit and evil report which such shams, swindles, and frauds have brought upon the whole subject. I say again, every earnest Theosophist regrets today, from the bottom of his heart, that these sacred names and things have ever been mentioned before the public, and fervently wishes that they had been kept secret within a small circle of trusted and devoted friends. claims,

Inq.

The names certainly do occur very frequently now-a-days, and I never remember hearing of such persons as " Masters " till quite recently.

and had we acted on the wise principle of of publishing all we knew, such desecration would never have occurred. Behold, only fourteen years ago, before the Theosophical Society was fovmded, all the

ThEO.

It

is

so;

silence, instead

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

290

was of " Spirits." They were everywhere, in everyone's mouth and no one by any chance even dreamt of talking about living ''Adepts," " Mahatmas," or ''Masters." One hardly heard even the name of the Rosicrucians, while the existence of such a thing as " Occultism " was suspected talk

;

even but by very few.

Now

all

that

sophists were, unfortunately, the

We

changed.

is

first to talk

Theo-

of these things, "

make

the fact of the existence in the East of "Adepts " and Masters " and Occult knowledge known; and now the to

name has become common property. the Karma, the consequences of the

It is

on

now, that

resulting desecration

of holy names and things, has fallen.

you now and there is

All that

find about such matters in current literature

—

us,

—

back to the impulse given in this direction by the Theosophical Society and its Founders. Our enemies profit to this day by it. The most recent book directed against our teachings is alleged to have not a

little

of

it

all

is

to be traced

been written by an Adept of tzventy years' standing. Now, know the amanuensis and his inspirit is a palpable lie.

We

himself too ignorant to have written anything of These "inspirers" are living persons, revengeful and unscrupulous in proportion to their intellectual powers; and these bogus Adepts are not one, but several. The cycle of "Adepts," used as sledge-hammers to break the theosophical heads with, began twelve years ago, with Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten's " Louis " of Art Magic and Ghost-Land, and now ends with the " Adept " and " Author " of The Light of Egypt, a work written by Spiritualists against Theo-

ers (as he

is

the sort).

sophy and

what

is

its

teachings.

done, and

we can

But

it

is

useless to grieve over

only suffer in the hope that our in-

!

THE KHV TO THEOSOPHY may have made

discretions

the

way

it

a

little

2^1

easier for others to find

whose names are now everywhere and under cover of which so many iniquities

to these Masters,

taken in vain,

have already been perpetrated.

Do you

Inq.

We

Theo.

may

saying

as an

Adept?

denounce no one, leaving

enemies.

or

"Louis"

reject

The

spiritualistic

this

noble task to our

author of Art Magic,

etc.,

may

— and years —

not have been acquainted with such an Adept

say far less than what that lady has said and

this, I

written about us and Theosophy for the last few

is her own business. Only when, in a solemn scene of mystic vision, an alleged " Adept " sees " spirits " presum-

that

Lord Rosse's telescope, and never moved from, Parsonstown, Ireland," I may well be permitted to wonder at the ignorance of that " Adept " in matters of science. This beats all the mistakes and blunders committed at times by the chelds of And it is this " Adept " that is used now to our Teachers break the teachings of our Masters

ably at Greenwich, England, through

which was

built in,

!

Inq.

I

and think it only you have said and explained should like to ask you a few

quite understand your feeling in this matter,

natural.

And now,

to me, there

is

in

view of

all

that

one subject on which

I

questions.

Th^o.

If I can

answer them 65.

I will.

Vide, Ghost Land, part

What I, p.

is

that?

133 et seq.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV

292

CONCLUSION THB FUTURE OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Inq.

Tell me,

Thdo.

what do you expect

for

Theosophy

you speak of Theosophy,

If

I

in the future?

answer

that, as

it

has

existed eternally throughout the endless cycles upon cycles

throughout the infinitudes of the Future, because Theosophy is synonymous with

of the Past, so

it

will ever exist

EvERiyASTiNG Truth. Inq.

Pardon me;

I

meant

to ask

you rather about the prospects of the

Theosophical Society.

ThEo.

Its

future will depend almost entirely upon the degree

of selflessness, earnestness, devotion,

and

last,

but not

least,

on the amount of knowledge and wisdom possessed by those on whom it will fall to carry on the work and to direct the Society after the death of the founder. Inq.

I quite see the importance of their being selfless and devoted, but I do not quite grasp how their knowledge can be as vital a factor in the question as these other qualities. Surely the literature which already exists, and to which constant additions are being made, ought

to be sufficient.

Theo.

I

do not refer to technical knowledge of the esoteric though that is most important; I spoke rather of

doctrine,

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

293

the great need which the successors in the guidance of the

Every Society will have of unbiased and clear judgment. such attempt as the Theosophical Society has hitherto ended in failure, because,

sooner or

later,

it

has degenerated into a

up hard-and-fast dogmas of its own, and so lost by imperceptible degrees that vitality which living truth alone can impart. You must remember that all our members have been bred and born in some creed or religion that all are more or less of their generation, both physically and mentally and consequently that their judgment is but too likely to be warped and unconsciously biased by some or all of these inIf, then, they cannot be freed from such inherent fluences. bias, or at least taught to recognize it instantly and so avoid sect, set

;

;

being led

away by

it,

the result can only be that the Society

some sandbank of thought or another, and there remain, a stranded carcase, to molder and die.

will drift

Inq.

But

ThEo.

ofif

if this

Then

on

to

danger be averted?

the Society will live on into and through the twen-

tieth century.

It will

gradually leaven and permeate the great

mass of thinking and intelligent people with its large-minded and noble ideas of religion, duty, and philanthropy. Slowly but surely it will burst asunder the iron fetters of creeds and dogmas, of social and caste prejudices; it will break down racial and national antipathies and barriers, and will open the way to the practical realization of the Brotherhood of all men. Through its teaching, through the philosophy which it has rendered accessible and intelligible to the modern mind the West will learn to understand and appreciate the East at its true value.

Further, the development of the psychic

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHY

294

powers and

faculties, the

premonitory symptoms of which

are already visible in America, will proceed healthily and normally.

Mankind

will

be saved from the terrible dangers,

both mental and bodily, which are inevitable folding takes place, as

it

when

that un-

threatens to do, in a hotbed of self-

Man's mental and psychic ishness and all evil passions. growth will proceed in harmony with his moral improvement, while his material surroundings will reflect the peace and fraternal goodwill which will reign in his mind, instead of the discord and strife which are everywhere apparent around us today. Inq.

a

truly delightful picture

to be

!

But

tell

me, do you really expect

all this

accomplished in one short century?

you that during the last is made by those Teachers of whom I have spoken, to help on the spiritual progress of humanity in a marked and definite way. Toward the close of each century you will invariably find that an out-

Thko.

But

Scarcely.

I

must

tell

quarter of every hundred years an attempt

—

or call it Mysticism, pouring or upheaval of spirituality has taken place. Some one or more persons if you prefer have appeared in the world as their agents, and a greater or less amount of occult knowledge and teaching has been given

—

you care to do so, you can trace these movements back, century by century, as far as our detailed historical out.

If

records extend. Inq.

But how does

Theo.

this

bear on the future of the Theosophical Society?

If the present attempt, in the

ceeds better than

its

form of our

Society, suc-

predecessors have done, then

it

existence as an organized, living, and healthy body

will be in

when

the

!

THE KEY TO TH BO SOPHY

295

time comes for the effort of the twentieth century.

The

general condition of men's minds and hearts will have been

improved and purified by the spread of its teachings and, as I have said, their prejudices and dogmatic illusions will have been, to some extent at least, removed. Not only so, but besides a large and accessible literature ready to men's hands, the next impulse will find a numerous and united body of people ready to welcome the new torch-bearer of Truth. He will find the minds of men prepared for his message, a language ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he brings, an organization awaiting his arrival, which will remove the merely mechanical, material obstacles and difficulties from his path. Think how much one to whom such an opportunity is given could accomplish. Measure it by comparison with what the Theosophical Society actually has

achieved in the last fourteen years, without any of these advantages, and surrounded by hosts of hindrances which would not hamper this

me whether

I

new

am

leader.

Consider

too sanguine

sophical Society survives

and

when

lives true to its mission, to its

original impulses through the next I say, if I

go too far

in the twenty-first

I

and then tell say that if the Theoall this,

hundred years

—

in asserting that earth will be a

century in comparison with what

FINIS

me, heaven

tell

it is

now

GLOSSARY

Absoluteness. When predicated of the Universal Principle, it denotes an abstraction, which is more correct and logical than to apply the adjective "absolute" to that which can have neither attributes nor limitations.

Adam Kadmon (Heb.). Man"

Archetypal Man, humanity.

not fallen into

sin,

Kabalists refer

on the plane of human perception.

it

The "heavenly

to the ten

In the Kabalah

Sephiroth

Adam Kadmon

the manifested logos corresponding to our third logos, the unmani-

is

fested being the

paradigmic, ideal Man, and symbolizing the

first

universe in abscondito, or in

The its

Adept

first

is

its "privation" in the Aristotelian sense. the " light of the world," the second and the third

gradually deepening shadows.

(Lat. adeptus).

initiation

JEtHtR

logos

(Gr.).

In Occultism, one

and become a Master

With

in

has reached the stage of

in the science

of Esoteric Philosophy.

the ancients, the divine luminiferous substance which

pervades the whole universe

Zeus or Jupiter.

who

With

;

the " garment " of the supreme deity,

physics and chemistry, see Webster's or

In esotericism aether

is

meaning of which, some other dictionary.

the moderns, ether, for the

the third principle of the cosmic septenary,

matter (earth) being the lowest, and akasha the highest.

Agathon

(Gr.).

Plato's

supreme deity

or the " soul of the world,"

—

lit.,

the

"Good."

Our

alaya

;

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

300

A

Agnostic.

word

Ahankara

used by Professor Huxley to indicate one who which cannot be demonstrated by the senses.

first

believes nothing

The conception of "I," self-consciousness or selfthe " I," or egoistical and mayavic principle in man, due

{Sans.).

identity

;

which separates our Personality egoism also.

to our ignorance, Self.

" I "

from the Universal OnE-

;

AiN SuPH

(Heb.). The "boundless" or "limitless" Deity emanating and extending. Ain Suph is also written En Soph and Ain Soph for no one, not even the rabbis, is quite sure of the vowels. In the religious metaphysics of the old

Hebrew

One

philosophers the

Prin-

was an abstraction like Parahrahman, though modern Kabalists have succeeded by mere dint of sophistry and paradoxes in making a " Supreme God " of it, and nothing higher. But with the early Chaldsean Kabalists Ain Suph was " without form or being," with "no likeness with anything else." (Franck's Die Kabbah, p. 126.). That Ain Suph has never been considered as the "creator" is proved conclusively by the fact that such an orthodox Jew as Philo gives ciple

name of

the

One

"

and

is

"creator" to the logos, the " second

God."

Suph's] wisdom," says Philo.

—

therefore called Ain

Suph

also Franck, ibid., p.

153.).

Alchemy

"

who stands next The second God

the " Limitless is

in its

[Ain

no-Thing; it is nameless, and the word ain meaning nothing. (See Deity

is

Ul-Khemi) is, as the name suggests, the chemistry Ul-Khemi or Al-Kimia, however, is really an Arabianized word, taken from the Greek x^M"»' from x^/^°^' " juice," extracted from a plant. Alchemy deals with the finer forces of Nature and (in Arabic

of nature.

the various conditions of matter in which they are found to operate.

Seeking under the

veil

to the uninitiated so

of language more or less

much

of the mysterium

artificial to

magnum

as

the hands of a selfish world, the Alchemist postulates as his

is

convey safe in

first

prin-

homogeneous substance from which the elements were evolved, which substance

ciple the existence of a certain universal solvent in the

he

calls

pure gold, or

summum

materice.

This solvent, also called

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY menstruum

universale, possesses the

of disease from the

Such

life.

first

is

human

301

power of removing

all

the seeds

body, of renewing youth and prolonging

the lapis philosophorum (philosopher's stone).

Alchemy

penetrated into Europe through Geber, the great Arabian sage

and philosopher, in the eighth century of our era; but it was known and practised long ages ago in China and Egypt. Numerous papyri on Alchemy, and other proofs that it was the favorite study of kings and priests, have been exhumed, and preserved under the generic name of Hermetic treatises. Alchemy is studied under three distinct aspects, which admit of many different interpretations, viz., the cosmic, the human, and the terrestrial. These three methods were typified under the three alchemical properties sulphur, mercury, and salt. Different writers have stated that there are three, seven, ten, and twelve processes, respectively; but they are all agreed there is but one object in Alchemy, which is to transmute gross metals into pure gold. But what that gold really is very few people understand correctly. No doubt there is such a thing in Nature as transmutation of the baser metal into the nobler; but this is only one aspect of Alchemy the terrestrial or purely material, for we see the same process taking place in the bowels of the earth. Yet, besides and beyond this interpretation, there is in Alchemy a symbolical meaning, purely psychic and spiritual. While the Kabalist-

—

—

Alchemist seeks for the realization of the former, the Occultist- Alchemist, spurning the gold of the earth, gives

all his

attention to,

and

directs his efforts only toward, the transmutation of the baser quater-

man, which, when finally blended, and physical planes of human existence are in Alchemy compared to the four elements, fire, air, water, and earth, and are each capable of a threefold constitution, i. e., fixed, unstable and volatile. Little or nothing is known by the world concerning the origin of this archaic branch of philosophy; but it is certain that it antedates the construction of any known zodiac, nary into the divine upper are one.

The

trinity of

spiritual, mental, psychic,

and, as dealing with the personified forces of Nature, probably also

any of the mythologies of the world.

Nor

is

there any doubt that the

true secrets of transmutation (on the physical plane) were

known

in

a

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

302

days of old, and

before the

lost

Modern chemistry owes

its

dawn of

the so-called historical period.

best fundamental discoveries to

Alchemy;

but regardless of the undeniable truism of the latter that there is but one element in the universe, chemistry placed metals in the class

of elements, and

Even some

is

only

now

beginning to find out

its

gross mistake.

most of the accounts of transmutation are fraud or delusion, "yet some of them are accompanied by testimony which renders them probable. By means encyclopaedists are forced to confess that

if

of the galvanic battery even the alkalies have been discovered to have a metallic basis. The possibility of obtaining metal from other substances which contain the ingredients composing

metal into another, all

.

.

.

must therefore be

Alchemists to be considered impostors.

left

it,

of changing one

undecided.

Many

Nor

are

have labored under

the conviction of obtaining their object with indefatigable patience

and purity of

heart,

which

soundly recommended by Alchemists

is

as the principal requisite for the success of their labors."

Alexandrian Philosophers

(or School).

This famous school arose in

Alexandria (Egypt), which was for long ages a seat of learning and

was famous

founded by Ptolemy Soter (Ptolemy died in 283 B.C.) library which once boasted seven hundred thousand rolls or volumes (Aulus Gellius) for its museum, the first real academy of sciences and arts; for its world-renowned scholars, such as Euclid, the father of scientific geometry, ApoUonius of Perga, the author of the still extant work on Conic Sections, Nichomachus, the arithmetician for

philosophy.

It

for

its

library,

—

at the very beginning of his reign

;

;

astronomers, natural philosophers, anatomists such as Herophilus and

But it became still New-Platonic school, founded by

Erasistratus, physicians, musicians, artists, etc.

more famous

Ammonius and many

for

its

Eclectic or

Saccas in 173 other

a. d.,

whose

men now famous

disciples

in history.

were Origen, Plotinus, The most celebrated

schools of the Gnostics had their origin in Alexandria.

Philo Judaeus,

Josephus, lamblichus, Porphyry, Clement of Alexandria, Eratosthenes the astronomer, Hypatia the virgin philosopher, and numberless other stars

of second magnitude,

all

belonged at various times to these

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV great schools, and helped to justly

renowned

From

AivTRUiSM.

make

of Alexandria one of the most

seats of learning that the

other.

alter,

A

world has ever produced.

quality opposed to egoism.

tending to do good to others, regardless of

Ammonius

Saccas.

a

Actions

self.

who

lived in

Alexan-

and third centuries of our

era, the

founder

great and good philosopher

dria between the second

303

of the Neo-Platonic school of the Philaletheians or " lovers of truth."

He was

of poor birth and born of Christian parents, but endowed

with such prominent, almost divine goodness as to be called Theodi-

He honored that which was good in Christand the churches at an early age, being unable

daktos, the " God-taught." ianity, but broke with

to find in

it

it

any superiority over the old

Analogeticists. The disciples of of their practice of interpreting

religions.

Ammonius all

Saccas, so called because

sacred legends, myths, and mysteries

by a principle of analogy and correspondence, which rule is now found in the Kabalistic system, and pre-eminently so in the schools of Esoteric Philosophy in the East. (See " The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac," by T. Subba Rao,

Ananda ite

(Sans.).

a

Five Years of Theosophy.)

Bliss, joy,

disciple of

Anaxagoras.

in

felicity,

happiness.

The name

of a favor-

Gautama, the Lord Buddha.

famous Ionian philosopher who

lived

500

b.

c, studied

philosophy under Anaximenes of Miletus, and settled, in the days of Pericles, at Athens. distinguished

He was

men and

Socrates,

Euripides,

philosophers were

among

Archelaus, and other his disciples

a most learned astronomer, and was one of the

openly that which was taught secretly by Pythagoras,

and

first to

viz.,

pupils.

explain

the

move-

It was he ments of the planets, the eclipses of the sun and moon. etc. who taught the theory of chaos, on the principle that "nothing comes from nothing" {ex nihilo nihil fit) and of atoms as the underlying essence and substance of all bodies, "of the same nature as the bodies which they formed." These atoms, he taught, were primarily put in motion by nous (universal intelligence, the mahat of the HindiJs), which ;

THB KEY TO THBOSOPHV

304

nous is an immaterial, eternal, spiritual entity by this combination the world was formed, the material gross bodies sinking down, and the ethereal atoms (or fiery ether) rising and spreading" in the upper celestial regions. Antedating modern science by over two thousand years, he ;

taught that the stars were of the same material as our earth, and the

sun a glowing mass; that the receiving

its

moon was

from the sun

light

;

a dark, uninhabitable body,

and beyond the aforesaid science

he confessed himself thoroughly convinced that the real existence of things perceived by our senses could not be demonstrably proved. He died in exile at Lampsacus, at the age of seventy-two.

Anima MuNDi

The "soul

(Lot.).

of the Northern Buddhists

meates, animates and informs

matter to

man and

god.

of the world," the same as the alaya

the divine essence which pervades, per-

;

things, from the smallest a sense " the seven-skinned

all

It is in

atom of Mother "

of the stanzas in The Secret Doctrine; the essence of seven planes

of sentiency, consciousness, and differentiation, both moral and physiIn

cal.

It

its

highest aspect

is

it

nirvana; in

was feminine with the Gnostics, the early

enes

;

bisexual with other sects,

who

its

considered

lower planes, of igneous and ethereal nature of forms, and divine and spiritual in it

is

said that every

anima mundi,

it

is

unknown

its

human

soul

meant

esoterically,

an essence identical with

it,

lowest, the astral light.

Christians, it

and the Nazar-

only in

its

in the objective

three higher planes.

was born by detaching

four

world

When

from the that our higher Egos are of

and that mahait

is

itself

a radiation of the ever

universal Absolute.

"Want of understanding," "folly." The term applied (Gr.). by Plato and others to the lower Manas when too closely allied with Kama, which is characterized by irrationality (anoia). The Greek

Anoia

anoia or agnoia etically,

is

evidently a derivative of the Sanskrit ajndna (phon-

agnydna), or ignorance,

irrationality,

and absence of know-

ledge.

Anthropomorphism. From the Greek anthropos, man. The act of endowing God or the gods with a human form and human attributes or qualities.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Anugita

A

{Sans.).

Upanishad, using the term

305

in a general sense.

One

of the philosophical treatises in the Mahahharata, the great Indian epic. A very occult treatise. It is translated in " The Sacred Books of the East " series,

Of

Apollo Belvedere;.

all

the ancient statues of Apollo

— the

son of

Jupiter and Latona, called Phoebus, Helios, the Radiant, and the Sun the best and most perfect is that of this name, which is in the Bel-

—

vedere Gallery as the god

in the

is

Vatican at Rome.

represented in the

serpent Python.

The

Apollonius of Tyana.

statue

a

It is called the

moment

was found

Pythian Apollo,

of his victory over the

in the ruins

of

Antium

in 1503.

wonderful philosopher born in Cappadocia first century an ardent Pythagorean, who

about the beginning of the

;

studied the Phcenician sciences under Euthydemus, and Pythagorean

philosophy and other subjects under Euxenus of Heraclea.

Accord-

ing to the tenets of the Pythagorean school, he remained a vegetarian the whole of his long life, ate only fruits and herbs, drank no wine, wore vestments made only of plant fibers, walked barefooted, and let his hair grow to the full length, as all the Initiates have done before and after him. He was initiated by the priests of the temple of ^sculapius (Asklepios) at vEgae, and learned many of the "miracles" Having prefor healing the sick wrought by the god of medicine. pared himself for a higher initiation by a silence of five years, and visiting Antioch, Ephesus, and Pamphylia, and other parts by travel

— he

—

repaired via Babylon to India, alone,

all

his

disciples

having

abandoned him, as they feared to go to the " land of enchantments." A casual disciple, Damis, whom he met on the way, accompanied him, however, on his travels. At Babylon he was initiated by the Chaldees and Magi, according to Damis, whose narrative was copied by one named Philostratus one hundred years later. After his return from India he showed himself a true Initiate in that the pestilence, earthquakes, deaths of kings, and other events which he prophesied, duly happened.

At Lesbos the

priests of

Orpheus became jealous of him and

re-

fused to initiate him into their peculiar mysteries, though they did

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

306

He preached to the people of Athens and other and noblest ethics, and the phenomena he produced were as wonderful as they were numerous and well authenticated. " How is it," inquires Justin Martyr, in dismay " how is it that for they prethe talismans (tclesmata) of Apollonius have power? vent, as we see, the fury of the waves, the violence of the winds, and the attacks of wild beasts and while our Lord's miracles are preserved by tradition alone, those of Apollonius are most numerous, and actuBut an answer {Quest., xxiv.) ally manifested in present facts?" so several years later. states the purest

—

—

;

is

easily

found to

this in the fact that, after crossing the

Hindii-Kush,

Apollonius had been directed by a king to the abode of the sages, whose abode it may be to this day, and who taught him their unsurpassed knowledge. His dialogues with the Corinthian Menippus give us truly the esoteric catechism, and disclose (when understood) many

an important mystery of Nature. Apollonius was the friend, correspondent, and guest of kings and queens, and no wonderful or "magic" powers are better attested than his. Toward the close of his long and wonderful life he opened an esoteric school at Ephesus,

and died

Arhat

one hundred years.

Highest, supreme angel.

Archangel. first,

at the ripe old age of

From

the

two Greek words, arch,

and angelos, messenger.

{Sans.).

Also pronounced and written arahat, arhan, rahat, etc. a perfected arya; one exempt from reincarnation,

The "worthy one;"

" deserving divine honors." Jain,

and subsequently

esoteric mysteries.

highest path,

Arians.

The

and

is

Buddhist holy

initiated

is

into the last

and

followers of Arius, a presbyter of the church in Alexandria

One who God the

being, inferior to

man, a true Adept, versed AristobuIvUS.

given to the

first

men

one who has entered the thus emancipated from rebirth.

The Arhat

in the fourth century.

human

This was the name

to the

An

in

all

holds that Christ

is

a created and

Father, though a grand and noble the divine mysteries.

Alexandrian writer and an obscure philosopher.

A

Jew

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY who

tried

to

307

prove that Aristotle explained the esoteric thoughts

of Moses,

Aryan.

" the holy."

Lit.,

Those who had mastered the "noble

truths''

{arya-satyani) and entered the "noble path" (drya-marga) to nirvana

or moksha, the great " fourfold " path. as Rishis

but

;

They were originally known name has become the epithet of a race, and depriving the Hindii Brahmans of their birthright,

now

the

our Orientalists, have made Aryans of

all

Europeans.

Since, in esotericism, the four

paths or stages can only be entered through great spiritual develop-

ment and degrees

"

of

growth

in holiness,"

arhatship,

called

they are called the drya-mdrga. respectively

srotdpatti,

The

sakriddgdmin,

andgdmin, and arhat, or the four classes of Aryas, correspond to the four paths and truths.

The form (rupa) under which any

Aspect.

or Nature manifests

Astral Body.

The

— doppelgdnger.

is

called

principle in septenary

an aspect of that principle

in

man

Theosophy.

ethereal counterpart or double of any physical

body

The science which defines the action of celestial bodies upon mundane aflfairs, and claims to foretell future events from the positions of the stars. Its antiquity is such as to place it among the very earliest records of human learning. It remained for long ages a secret

Astrology.

science in the East, its

and

its

final

expression remains so to this day,

exoteric application only having been brought to any degree of

West during the lapse of time since Varaha Mihira book on Astrology, some fourteen hundred years ago. Claudius Ptolemy, the famous geographer and mathematician who founded the system of astronomy known under his name, wrote his Tetrabiblos, which is still the basis of modern Astrology, a. d. 135. The science of horoscopy is studied now chiefly under four heads, perfection in the

wrote

viz.

:

his

( 1 )

husbandry.

Mundane,

in

its

application

to

meteorology, seismology,

(2) State or Civic, in regard to the future of nations, kings, and rulers. (3) Horary, in reference to the solving of doubts

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

308

mind upon any subject. (4) Genethliacal, in connection with the future of individuals from birth unto death. The Egyptians

arising in the

and the Chaldees were among the most ancient votaries of Astrology, though their modes of reading the stars, and the modern methods, differ considerably. The former claimed that Belus, the Bel or Elu of the Chaldees, a scion of the Divine Dynasty, or the dynasty of the King-gods, had belonged to the land of Khemi, and had left

it

found a colony from Egypt on the banks of the Euphrates, where a temple, ministered by priests in the service of the " lords of the stars," was built. As to the origin of the science, it is known, on the one hand, that Thebes claimed the honor of the invention of to

Astrology, whereas, on the other hand,

Chaldees

who

all

are agreed that

antedated considerably not only "

Ur

where Bel was

—

first

worshiped

it

Now

taught that science to the other nations.

was the Thebes

of the Chaldees," but also Nipur,

Sin,

his

son

(the

moon), being

the presiding deity of Ur, the land of the nativity of Terah, the Sabaean

and

astrolater,

and of Abram,

his son, the great astrologer of biblical

All tends, therefore, to corroborate the Egyptian claim. on the name of astrologer fell into disrepute in Rome and elsewhere, it was owing to the frauds of those who wanted to make money of that which was part and parcel of the Sacred Science of the Mysteries, and who, ignorant of the latter, evolved a system based

tradition.

If later

on mathematics, instead of on transcendental metaphysics Yet, celestial bodies as its upddhi or material basis. persecutions notwithstanding, the number of adherents to Astrology

entirely

with the physical all

among

the most intellectual

great.

If

and scientific minds was always very Cardan and Kepler were among its ardent supporters,

then later votaries have nothing to blush for, even in

its

now

imper-

and distorted form. As said in Isis Unveiled (i, 259) "Astrology is to exact astronomy what psychology is to exact physiology. In astrology and psychology one has to step beyond the visible world of matter and enter into the domain of transcendent spirit." fect

Athenagoras.

:

a

Platonic philosopher of Athens

for the Christians,

in

a. d.

who wrote An Apology

177, addressed to Marcus Aurelius, to

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY prove that the accusations brought against them

were incestuous and ate murdered

Atman,

or

Atma

seventh

**

{Sans.).

—

viz.,

that

they

untrue.

universal spirit, the divine monad, the

principle," so called, in the exoteric septenary classification

The Supreme

of man.

The

children — were

309

Soul.

{Gr. and Lot.). A subtle, invisible essence or fluid that emanates from human, animal, and other bodies. It is a psychic effluvium partaking of both the mind and the body, as there is both an electrovital and at the same time an electromental aura; called in Theosophy the akashic or magnetic aura. In Romanist martyrology, a saint.

Aura

AvATARA

{Sans.).

exalted being into the

Divine incarnation.

who

The descent of a

god, or some

has progressed beyond the necessity for rebirth

body of a simple mortal.

Krishna was an avatara of Vishnu.

The Dalai-Lama is regarded as an avatara of Avalokiteshvara, and the Teschu-Lama as one of Tson-kha-pa, or Amitabha. There are two kinds of avataras, one born from woman and the other "parentless"

— amipadaka.

B Be-NESS.

a

term coined by Theosophists to render more accurately the

meaning of the untranslatable word sat. The latter word does " Being," for the term " Being " presupposes a sentient consciousness of existence. But as the term sat is applied solely to the absolute principle, that universal, unknown and ever unknowable principle which philosophical pantheism postulates, calling it the basic root of cosmos and cosmos itself, it could not be translated by the simple term " Being." Sat, indeed, is not even, as translated by some Orientalists, the "incomprehensible entity" for it is no more an entity essential

not

mean

;

than a non-entity, but both. "

Being

"

;

It

is,

as said, absolute

the one secondless, undivided and indivisible

Be-ness, not

All

;

the root

;

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

310

of Nature both visible and invisible, objective and subjective, comprehensible and never to be fully comprehended.

{Sans.). Lit., the "Lord's Song." A portion of the Mahahhdrata, the great epic poem of India. It contains a dialogue vi^herein Krishna the "charioteer" and Arjuna, his chela, have a discussion upon the highest spiritual philosophy. The work is pre-

Bhagavad-Gita

—

—

eminently occult or esoteric.

Black Magic. selfish still

it

Sorcery, necromancy, or the raising of the dead and other

This abuse may be unintentional has to remain " black " magic whenever anything is produced

abuses of abnormal powers.

phenomenally simply for one's own

Boh ME,

Jakob.

A

gratification.

mystic and great philosopher, one of the most prominent

He was born about 1575 at Old Diedenberg, some two miles from Gorlitz (Silesia), and died in 1624, at the age of nearly fifty. When a boy he was a common shepherd, and, after learning to read and write in a village school, became an apprentice to a poor shoemaker at Gorlitz. He was a natural clairvoyant of the most wonderful power. With no education or acquaintance with science he wrote works which are now proved to be full of scientific truths; but these, as he himself says of what he wrote, he " saw as in a great deep in the eternal." He had " a thorough view of the universe, as in chaos," which yet opened itself in him, from time to time, " as in a young planet," he says. He was a thoroughborn mystic, and evidently of a constitution which is most rare one of those fine natures whose material envelope impedes in no way the Theosophists of the mediaeval ages.

;

direct,

even

if

only occasional, intercommunication between the

intel-

lectual and spiritual Ego. It is this Ego which Jakob Bohme, as so many other untrained mystics, mistook for God. " Man must acknowledge," he writes, " that his knowledge is not his own, but from God, who manifests the ideas of wisdom to the soul of man in zvhat measure he pleases." Had this great Theosophist been born three hundred years later he might have expressed it otherwise. He would

have known that the " God "

who

spoke through his poor uncultured

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

311

and untrained brain was his own Divine Ego, the omniscient deity within himself, and that what that deity gave out was not " what measure he pleased," but in the measure of the capacities of the mortal and temporary dwelling IT informed.

Book of the Keys. er

extant,

An

ancient Kabalistic work.

though there

forgeries of

may

be

spurious

The

original

or disfigured

no long-

is

or

copies

it.

Brahma ma

{Sans.). The student must distinguish between the neuter Brahand the male "creator" of the Indian Pantheon, Brahma. The former Brahma or Brahman is the impersonal, supreme, and uncognizable soul of the universe, from the essence of which all emanates, and into which all returns which is incorporeal, immaterial, unborn, It is all-pervading, animating the eternal, beginningless and endless. Brahma, on the highest god as well as the smallest mineral atom. other hand, the male and the alleged "creator," exists in his mani;

and passes

festation periodically only,

and

is

annihilated

A

Brahma's Day.

— as

into pralaya

—

i.

e.,

disappears

periodically.

period of 4,320,000,000 years, during which Brahma,

having emerged out of his Golden Egg (hiranya-garbha) creates and fashions the material world (for he is simply the fertilizing ,

and creative force in Nature). After this period, the worlds being destroyed in turn by fire and water, he vanishes with objective Nature; and then comes

A period of equal duration, in which Brahma is said Upon awakening he recommences the process, and this an Age of Brahma, composed of alternate " Days " and

Brahma's Night. to be asleep.

goes on for

"Nights," and lasting for 100 years of 3,110,400,000,000 solar years each. It requires fifteen figures to express the duration of such an age, after the expiration of tion sets in,

Brahma-Vidya

and

lasts in its

turn for the same space of fifteen figures.

The knowledge or esoteric science about two Brahmas (Brahma and Brahma),

{Sans.).

true nature of the

which the mahapralaya or Great Dissolu-

the

;

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY

312

''The Enlightened." Generally known as the title of {Sans.). Gautama Buddha, the Prince of Kapilavastu, the founder of modern Buddhism. The highest degree of knowledge and holiness. To become a Buddha one has to break through the bondage of sense and

Buddha

personality; to acquire a comple'te perception of the real Self, and learn

from all the other selves to learn by experience the all phenomena, foremost of all the visible cosmos complete detachment from all that is evanescent and finite, attain a to and to live while yet on earth only in the immortal and everlasting. not to separate

it

;

utter unreality of

BuDDHi

Universal soul or mind.

{Sans.).

mahat; also the the vehicle of

spiritual soul in

Atma

man

Mahahuddhi

is

a

name of

(the sixth principle, exoterically),

(the seventh, according to the exoteric enumera-

tion).

Buddhism is the religious philosophy taught by Gautama Buddha. It is now split into two distinct churches, the Southern and Northern. The former is said to be the purer, as having preserved more reThe Northern ligiously the original teachings of the Lord Buddha. Buddhism tion fact,

is

is

confined to Tibet, China, and Nepaul.

incorrect.

departed

councils

If the Southern

— except,

Church

is

But

this distinc-

nearer, and has not, in

perhaps, in trifling dogmas, due to the

held after the death of the Master

— from

exoteric teachings of Shakyamuni, the Northern

come of Siddhartha Buddha's

esoteric teachings,

many

the public or

Church is the outwhich he confined

and Arhats. Buddhism, in fact, cannot be justly judged in our age either by one or the other of its exoteric popular forms. Real Buddhism can be appreciated only by blending the philosophy of the Southern Church and the metaphysics of the Northern If one seems too iconoclastic and stern, and the other too schools.

to his elect Bhikshus

metaphysical and transcendental, even to being overcharged with the

—

many of the gods of its Pantheon weeds of Indian exotericism it is having been transplanted under new names into Tibetan soil due to the popular expression of Buddhism in both churches. Cor-

—

respondentially they stand in their relation to each other as Protestant-

ism to Romanism.

Both err by an excess of zeal and erroneous

in-

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

313

though neither the Southern nor the Northern Buddhist still less have they acted under the dictates af priestocracy, ambition, or an eye to personal gain and power, as the later churches have. terpretations,

clergy have ever departed from truth consciously

Buddhi-Taijasa

(5*0;/^.).

Avery

mystic term, capable of several inter-

pretations.

In Occultism,

however, and

"principles"

(exoterically),

it

is

relation

in

radiant "

Buddhi, the spiritual

and Manas, becoming

;

is

;

the trinity has

the highest,

it

life,

radiant in

become one

;

bathes in the

it

is

it,

by the

Caste.

its

and, as the element of Buddhi

becomes Buddhi-Taijasa.

light of the Spirit or

" the

union identified with

consequence of

In short,

the

human

human

reason

is

it

soul illuminated by 'the radiance of the divine soul, the lit

human

For Taijasa means

soul.

with Buddhi, and being, so to speak, merged into the latter

the

to

a term to express the state of our

dual Manas, when, reunited during a man's radiance of

;

Divine Self-consciousness.

Originally the system of the four hereditary classes into which

Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Indian population was divided and Shudra (a) descendants of Brahma; {b) warrior; (c) mercanFrom these four, tile; and {d) the lowest or agricultural class. hundreds of divisions and minor castes have sprung. the

:

—

Causal Body.

This " body," which

is

in

reality

objective or subjective, but Buddhi, the

because

it

is

no body

spiritual

soul,

at is

all,

either

so called

the direct cause of the sushupti state, leading to the

tunya

state, the highest state of samadhi. " the basis of the cause," by the Taraka

It is

called karanopadhi,

Raja Yogis, which in

tiie

Vedanta system corresponds to both the vijnanamaya and ananda-

coming next to Atma, and therefore being the vehicle of the universal spirit). Buddhi alone could not be called a " causal body," but becomes one in conjunction with Manas, the inniaya kosha

(the latter

carnating entity or Ego.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

314

Chela

A

(Hindi).

disciple.

The

pupil of a

Guru or sage;

the follower

of some adept or school of philosophy.

Chrestos (Gr.). The early Gnostic term for Christ. This technical term was used in the fifth century b. c. by ^schylus, Herodotus, and others. The mantenmata pythochresta, or the " oracles delivered by a Pythian

god" through

a pythoness, are mentioned by the former (Choeph., Chresterion is not and pythochrestos is derived from chrao. 901), only the " test of an oracle," but an offering to, or for, the oracle. Chrestes is one who explains oracles, a " prophet and soothsayer," and Chresterios, one who serves an oracle or a god. The earliest Christian writer, Justin Martyr, in his first Apology, calls his co" It is only through ignorance that men call religionists ChresHans.

themselves Christians, instead of Chrestians," says Lactantius

The terms

cap. vii.).

(lib, iv.,

Christ and Christians, spelled originally Chrest

and Chrestians, were borrowed from the temple vocabulary of the pagans.

Chrestos meant, in that vocabulary, " a disciple on probation,"

a candidate for hierophantship long

initiation,

trials

and

;

who, when he had attained

it,

through

and had been anointed

suffering,

" rubbed with oil," as Initiates

(i. e.,

and even idols of the gods were, as the the last touch of ritualistic observance), was changed into Christos " purified " in esoteric or mystery language. In mystic symbology, indeed, Christes or Christos meant that the " way," the " path," was already trodden and the goal reached when the fruits of this arduous

—

;

labor tible

— uniting the personality of evanescent clay thereby Individuality — transformed

with the indestruc-

into the immortal Ego.

it

"At the end of the way stands the Christes," the Purifier; and, the union once accomplished, the Chrestos, the " man of sorrow," became Christos himself. ly

when he

until Christ

is

Paul, the Initiate,

made

to say in

knew

this,

bad translation,

be formed in you," (Gal.

iv.

and meant

this precise-

" I travail in birth again

19), the true rendering of

you form the Christos within yourselves." But the which is, profane, who knew only that Chrestos was in some way connected with priest and prophet, and knew nothing about the hidden meaning of Christos, insisted, as did Lactantius and Justin Martyr, on being " until

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

315

Every good individual, there"inner man," as Paul expresses it (Eph.

called Chres'tians instead of Christians.

may

fore, iii.

Christ.

16,

find Christ in his

17), whether he be Jew,

See

Mussulman, Hindii, or Christian.

" Chrestos."

A

newly coined term for denoting the practitionwill. The name is a misnomer, since Buddhist or Jew, Hindii or materialist, can practise this new form of " Western Yoga " with equal success if he can only guide and control his will with sufficient firmness. The " Mental Scientists " are another rival school. These work by a universal denial of every disease and evil

Christian Scientist.

ers of a healing art

by

imaginable, and claim, syllogistically, that since universal spirit cannot

and since every atom is spirit and in are all healers and the healed absorbed in this spirit or deity, there is not, nor can there be, such a thing as disease. This prevents in no wise both Christian and Mental Scientists from succumbing to disease and nursing chronic ailments be subject to the ailings of spirit,

and

for years in their

Clairaudience. ing

The

own

As now

The

used,

— the

—

bodies just like other ordinary mortals.

faculty

— of hearing things

Clairvoyance.

flesh,

since, finally, they

— whether innate or acquired by occult

at

train-

whatever distance.

faculty of seeing with the inner eye, or spiritual sight. it

is

a loose and flippant term, embracing under

its

meaning both a happy guess due to natural shrewdness and intuition, and also that faculty which was so remarkably exercised by Jakob Bohme and Swedenborg. Yet even these two great seers, since they could never rise superior to the general spirit of the Jewish Bible and sectarian teachings, have sadly confused what they saw, and fallen far short of true clairvoyance.

A church father and voluminous writer, who had been a Neo-Platonist and a disciple of Ammonius Saccas. He was one of the few Christian philosophers between the second and third centuries of our era at Alexandria.

Clemens Alexandrinus.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

316

A

College of Rabbis.

college at Babylon,

centuries of Christianity

;

but

its

glory

most famous during the early was greatly darkened by the

Alexandria of Hellenic teachers, such as Philo Judaeus, The former avenged themselves on their successful rivals by speaking of the Alexandrians as Theurgists and unclean prophets. But the Alexandrian believers in thaumaturgy appearance

in

Josephus, Aristobulus and others.

were not regarded as sinners and impostors when orthodox Jews were These were colleges for at the head of such schools of " Hazim." teaching prophecy and occult sciences, Samuel was the chief of such a college at Ramah Elisha at Jericho. Hillel had a regular academy for prophets and seers and it is Hillel, a pupil of the Babylonian college, who was the founder of the sect of the Pharisees and the great orthodox rabbis. ;

;

Cycle

{Gr.).

From

The

kuklos.

wheels within wheels,

all

ancients divided time into endless cycles,

such periods being of various duration, and

each marking the beginning or end of some event, either cosmic,

mundane, physical or metaphysical. There were cycles of only a few and cycles of immense duration. The great Orphic cycle, referring to the ethnological change of races, lasted one hundred and twenty thousand years, and that of Cassandrus one hundred and thirty-

years,

six thousand.

The

latter

brought about a complete change

in plan-

between men and gods — a

etary influences and

their correlations

entirely lost sight of

by modern astrologers.

fact

D Deist.

One who admits know

but claims to nostic of

Deva

{Sans.).

the possibility of the existence of a

God

nothing of either, and denies revelation.

or gods

An Ag-

olden times.

A

god, a "resplendent" deity

root div, to shine.

or indifferent

A

— which

Deva

is

— deva (deus), from the — whether good, bad.

a celestial being

inhabits the three "worlds" or the three planes

THE KEY TO THBOSOPHY above

us.

317

There are thirty-three groups or three hundred and

thirty

milhons of them.

dwelHng of the gods." A state intermediate between into which the Ego (Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or the Trinity made one) enters after its separation from Kama Rupa and the disintegration of the lower principles, on the death of the body on earth.

Devachan,

"

The

two earth-Hves,

Dhammapada

A

(Pali).

work containing various aphorisms from

the

Buddhist scriptures.

Dhyan Chohans.

Lit, the "lords of contemplation."

answering to the archangels of the Roman charged with the supervision of kosmos.

The highest gods, The divine In-

Church.

telligences

Dhyana

One

(Sans).

of the six paramitas or perfections.

abstraction which carries the ascetic practising

it

A

of sensuous perception and out of the world of matter.

The

state of

far above the region Lit.,

"con-

dhyana differ only in the degrees of abstraction of the personal Ego from sensuous life. templation."

Double.

The same

Ecstasis (Gr.).

A

six stages of

as the astral body or doppelg'dnger.

psycho-spiritual state; a physical trance which induces

clairvoyance, and a beatific state which brings on visions.

Ego

" I "; the consciousness in man of the " I am I," or the feel" ing of I-am-ship." Esoteric Philosophy teaches the existence of

(Lat.).

two Egos

in man, the mortal or personal, and the higher, the divine or impersonal; calling the former " personality," and the latter " indi-

viduality."

—

never " personality," as it is Egoity means " individuality " the opposite of egoism or " selfishness," the characteristic par excel-

Egoity.

lence of the latter.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

318

The same

Eidolon (Gr.).

as that which

we term

the

human phantom,

the astral form.

Elementals, Spirits of the elements. The creatures evolved in the four They are called earth, air, fire and water. kingdoms or elements by the Kabalists gnomes (of the earth), sylphs (of the air), salamanExcept a few of the ders (of the fire), and undines (of the water). higher kinds and their rulers, they are rather the forces of Nature than ethereal men and women. These forces, as the servile agents of

—

may produce (Kama Riipas)

if employed by "elewhich case they enslave the mediums they will deceive. All the lower invisible beings generated on the fifth, sixth and seventh planes of our terrestrial atmosphere are called

the occultist,

mentaries"

—

elementals trolls,

—

norns,

various effects; but

—

in

peris, devs, jinns, sylvans, satyrs,

kobolds,

brownies,

nixies,

moss-people, white ladies, spooks, fairies,

fauns, elves, dwarfs,

goblins,

pinkies,

banshees,

etc.

ElEusinia (Gr.). The Eleusinian Mysteries were the most famous and the most ancient of all the Greek Mysteries (with the exception of the Samothracian), and were performed near the hamlet of Eleusis, not Epiphanius traces them to the days of lacchos far from Athens. (1800 B.C.). They were held in honor of Demeter, the great Ceres, and the Egyptian Isis and the last act of the performance referred to a sacrificial victim of atonement and a resurrection, when the Initiate was admitted to the highest degree of Epopt. The festival of the Mysteries began in the month of Boedromion (September), the time of seven days. grape-gathering, and lasted from the 15th to the 22nd ;

—

—

—

in the feast of ingatherings The Hebrew Feast of Tabernacles the month of Ethanim (the seventh), also began on the 15th and ended on the 22nd of that month. The name of the month (Ethanim) is

from adonim, adonia, attenim, ethanim, honor of Adonai, or Adonis (Tham), whose death was

derived, according to some,

and was

in

lamented by the Hebrews in the groves of Bethlehem. The sacrifice of " bread and wine " was performed both in the Eleusinia and during the Feast of Tabernacles.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY Emanation.

This doctrine,

evolution, yet one with lution

metaphysical meaning,

its

is

opposed to

Science teaches that, physiologically, evo-

i't.

of generation in which the

mode

a

is

in

319

germ

that develops the

and final form and characteristics of that germ being accomplished by Nature; and that (as in its cosmology) the process takes place blindly, through the Occultism correlation of the elements and their various compounds. teaches that this is only the apparent mode, the real process being emanfetus pre-exists already in the parent, the development

ation,

guided by intelligent forces under an immutable Law. Thereand Theosophists believe thoroughly in the

fore, while the occultists

doctrine of evolution as given out by Kapila and Manu, they are "emanationists" rather than "evolutionists." The doctrine of emanation

was

one time universal.

at

It

was taught by the Alexandrian as

well as by the Indian philosophers, by the Egyptian, the Chaldsean and

Hebrews

Hellenic hierophants, and also by the

(in their Kabalah,

and

For it is only owing to deliberate mistranslation that the Hebrew word asdt was translated "angels" from the Septuagint, while it means "emanations," "eons," just as with the Gnostics. Indeed, in Deuteronomy (xxxiii, 2) the word asdt or ashdt is transeven

in

Genesis).

lated as " fiery law," while the correct rendering of the passage should be, " from his right went [not a fiery law, but] a fire according to lazv," viz.,

—

that the fire of one flame

like as in a trail

ation, as

shown

imparted to and caught up by another

is

of inflammable substance. Unveiled.

in Isis

ginning to be understood, there

is

pulse to take on a higher form

Manu and

controversy between the tionists

may

*

the

nothing can be evolved it

has

first

spiritual potency

Esoteric.

it

Hidden,

eman-

precisely

in all

it

is

now

the highest antiquity.

of this

followers

or, as the

be-

matter an im-

in the case of the zinc solution.

unknowable

—

is

supposition clearly expressed by

school

'

;

The The

and the emana-

the evolutionist stops

be briefly stated thus:

at the borders of

— except

supposed to be

—a

Hindu philosophers of

other

philosopher's tree illustrates

This

" In evolution, as

all

inquiry

the emanationist believes that

word means, unwombed or born

been involved, thus indicating that

life is

from a

above the whole."

secret.

From

the Greek esoterikos, inner, concealed.

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY

320

Esoteric Bodhism. Secret wisdom or intelligence from the Greek esoferikos, inner, and the Sanskrit hodhi, knowledge, in contradistinction to huddhi, the faculty of knowledge or intelligence, and Buddhism, the philosophy or law of Buddha, the " Enlightened." Also written " Budhism," from budha (intelligence, wisdom), the son of Soma. ;

An

Eurasians.

abbreviation of " European Asians."

races, the children of the white fathers

The mixed

colored

and the dark mothers of India,

and vice versa. Exoteric.

Outward, public; the opposite of

esoteric or hidden.

Outside of kosmos or Nature. A nonsensical word invented to assert the existence of a personal god independent of or

ExTRACOSMic.

outside Nature per se; for as Nature, or the universe, limitless, there

can be nothing outside

The term

it.

is

is

infinite

and

coined in oppos-

to the pantheistic idea that the whole kosmos is animated or informed with the spirit of deity. Nature being but the garment, and matter the illusive shadows, of the real unseen Presence. ition

{Syriacf). The highest and greatest creative power with the Nazarene Gnostics {Codex Nazarceus).

Ferho

Fire-philosophers.

The name given

to the

Hermetists and alchemists

of the middle ages, and also to the Rosicrucians. successors of Theurgists, regarded

was

The

latter,

the

as the symbol of deity.

It

the source not only of material atoms, but the container of the

spiritual is

fire

and psychic forces energizing them.

a triple principle

elements.

As man

fold aspect, so

is

;

Broadly analyzed,

fire

esotericall)% a septenary, as are all the rest of the is

composed of

As

fire.

in the

spirit, soul, and body, phis a fourworks of Robert Flood (Robertus

de Fluctibus), one of the famous Rosicrucians, a visible flame (body)

;

fire

contains, firstly,

secondly, an invisible, astral fire (soul)

;

and

!

THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY thirdly,

spirit.

The four

aspects

are

heat

(a)

321

(Hfe),

{h)

light

(kamic or molecular powers), and (