Since the mind of every religionist of whatever faith, is firmly impressed with the superiority of his own creed, his mind is firmly closed to the truths of other beliefs. This is the root-cause of sectarianism and intolerance. Theosophists, instead of preaching they own religion, they implore everyone to first study his own and remain in it, whatever it is — for Theosophy is not only compatible with every religion, nay, being the pristine stream from the Mother-Source, it is the informing life and creed of all religions — pure and convincing in its simplicity. While modern science has no knowledge of an “Intelligent Being” or “Spirit,” the science of metaphysics rejects entirely the possibility of the Infinite having any relation whatsoever with the finite, whether conscious or otherwise.
Western Orientalists keep claiming papal authority over of Buddhist doctrines. Here are four quick and easy steps on how anyone can become an authority on Buddhism. The “authority” is ready and ignorant Mrs. Grundy, “soft on whose lap her laureate sons recline,” will crown the new Pope, and force him upon the acceptance of the ignorant public. For example, a squib review of Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism” called “The Cosmogony of an Artificial Fifth Rounder,” is no review but a totally meaningless ex-cathedra chaff. The witty criticaster reminds us of that naive witness, a tailor, who claimed better acquaintance with the defendant’s murdered father than his son, on the ground that the old coat and hat of the victim had been made and bought at his establishment. Between the diametrically opposed views of Mr. Lillie’s “Buddha and Early Buddhism,” and Mr. Rhys-Davids’ “Buddhism,” “M.A., Oxon.” shows no preference. Both are good as weapons against the Theosophists.
Parabrahman (Absoluteness) is the One and Only Reality, an unthinkable and unspeakable state of Ultimate Subjectivity. Ishvara is Conscious Universal Mind (Second Logos), not the personal God and Master. Vishishtadvaita Philosophy in a nutshell. 1 The Vishishtadvaitis are a sect of Vedantins; refusing to accept dualism, they place willy-nilly the origin of evil and good in Parabrahman. 2 They believe that the sun-souls attract lost earth-souls, and direct them to the path that leads to Nirvana. 3 They refer to Advaitis as Buddhists in disguise. 4 Refined Vishishtadvaitism is Ancient Magianism. Madame Blavatsky comments on the non-dualistic philosophy of Vishishtadvaita, and distinction between Impersonal and Personal God. With key metaphysical concepts by the Series Editor.
Man is truly the temple of God, for the Divine Principle can only be manifested (objectivised) to our consciousness through our senses, physical and spiritual. The “personal God” of Theosophist can only be perceived by his Higher Self, through his spiritual senses, i.e., the Divine Self is perceived by the self of the virtuous man. With diagram on “Theosophia: Fountain, Perspectives, Practice.”
Part 1. Abbe Roca’s ecclesiastical views upon the Esotericism of Christian Dogma. Part 2. Madame Blavatsky refutes the “Word made flesh” of the Catholic Church. Christian texts are allegories to the archaic mysteries of the Cycle of Initiation, and keys to the once universal mystery-language. When esoterically interpreted, they reveal their fundamental identify with the same Universal Truths. By imposing the dogma of the “Word made flesh,” the Latin Church is diametrically opposed to the tenets of Eastern Occultism, thus maintaining an abyss between East and West as long as neither yields an inch. Today’s Christians are the usurpers of a name they no longer understand. By denying the Divine Logos to any other man, except Jesus of Nazareth, the Churches carnalised the Christos of the Gnostics, and that alone prevents them having any point in common with the disciples of the Archaic Wisdom. The Church of Rome was Gnostic, just as much as the Marcionites were, until the middle of the second century. Further evidence that Rome has wandered farthest from the real religion of the mystical Christ is that it adopted the solar tonsure proper to the Egyptian priests of the public temples, and to the lamas and bonzes of the popular Buddhist cult. No “sacrificial victim” can be united with Christ triumphant before passing through the stage of the suffering Chrēst, who was put to death on the cross of his passions. It is the light of the glorious Christ-Spirit that directs the modern Theosophical movement. The Astronomical Christ can have only one anniversary of birth and resurrection in years because his parents are the Sun and the Moon, the heavenly bodies that accompany “the Man crucified in Space.” Paul had been converted not to the Jesus of Nazareth but to the Christos of the Gnostics. In his Epistles he has been made to fulminate against the heretics — Peter, James, and the other Apostles! The sacred fire which Prometheus “stole” from the gods is the flame of self-consciousness, the spark that quickened the human mind. The supposed “theft” of the sexual flame is the outcome of evolution, of which the Darwinian theory is but the rough exterior husk on the material plane. Since men had discovered the secret of physical creation, and were procreating in their turn, what was the use of god-creators? The true Christ is the glorious Ego, triumphant over the flesh. We solemnly reject the dogma of Ascension, which degrades the great mystery of Universal Unity. Mysteries were invented by those who are bend on exercising power in order to manipulate the ignorant by arrogating the prerogative of gods. Did you know that the “mysteries” of the Catholic Church are those of the Brahmanas, though under other names? Part 3. Abbe Roca counter-responds to Madame Blavatsky’s observations. Part 4. Madame Blavatsky debunks Abbe Roca’s mistaken notions concerning her observations. The Abbé has consigned the theological Christ to the background, and has not breathed a word about the esoteric Christos. Moreover, he bears me a grudge for having displayed what he pleases to call “such erudition.” He deceives himself in fancying he understands Buddhism but he does not know it even exoterically, any more than Hinduism, even in its popular form. Theosophy is neither Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, nor any other –ism: it is the esoteric synthesis of the world’s religions, philosophies, and sciences. Abbé Roca has fabricated for himself a Christianity of his own. Our Masters are far too great to bedizen themselves with the peacock’s feathers of infallibility. The puff of wind which knocks down a house of cards may easily pass for a heavy squall in the eyes of the architect who built it; but if the Abbé lays the blame on the puff, rather than on the weakness of his edifice, this is certainly not my fault. The homage he renders to the wisdom of our Masters, instead of intoxicating me by its heady fumes as he alleges, it made me feel an even deeper mistrust of his motives. A divine Christ has never existed under a human form outside the imagination of blasphemers, who have carnalised a universal and wholly impersonal principle. The Man-God of the Christians was never historical person. He is a deified personification of the glorified type of the great Hierophants of the Temples, and his story as told in the New Testament is a mere allegory, assuredly containing profound esoteric truths, but still an allegory. Matthew’s “strait is the gate and narrow is the way” applies neither to the Abbé nor to his faith. In his Church, the way and the gate to heaven become wider in proportion to the sums paid by the faithful. The Churches, which style themselves “Christian,” are nothing but whited sepulchres filled with the dead bones of esoteric paganism and moral putrefaction. It is infinetly more difficult, more meritorious, and more godlike, to live for the love of, whether man or an ideal, than to die for it. We have thus shown to the Abbé what we, Occultists, know as opposed to what some Fathers of the Church believed they knew. Not only he deceives himself, he is hopelessly optimistic. Though I amply elaborated upon the real Christ, i.e., the impersonal pre-Christian Logos, Abbé Roca keeps reverting back to the ecclesiastical and dogmatic Christ of his Church. Part 5. Abbe Roca’s final response, annotated by Madame Blavatsky. Part 6. Fearless Roca was finally defrocked for coquetting too openly with Theosophy. Alas! His glorious dream of a reconciliation between Pantheistic Theosophy and a Socialistic Latin Church, under a Caesaro-Papal head, came to an abrupt end.
Dr. George Wyld is grim idol of the Jewish Sinai and fanatical Jesuit, whose perceptive faculties are so dusty as to prevent the entrance of a single ray of occult light — he thought of the moon as a dustbin! He even declared to Buddhist philosophers the grand superiority of his “Esoteric Christianity” over Lord Buddha’s system, which he portrayed as fruitful of selfishness, human blindness, misanthropy, and spiritual death. But his shot at Theosophy and the Masters, being badly aimed, flew wide of the mark. After gaining momentum, the raging torrent of religious intolerance, bigotry, and personal rancour resulting from envy from a member of the Theosophical Society and of the medical fraternity, had run dry and his chickens came home to roost. He who unjustly assails the honour of hundreds of his Asiatic Brothers, slurs their religion, and wounds their most sacred feelings, may be a very “Esoteric Christian,” but certainly is a very disloyal Theosophist. Dr. Wyld has been as disloyal to his own Master and Ideal-Christ, as he is to Theosophy.
“Braude has discovered a crucial link between the early feminists and the spiritualists who so captured the American imagination.” —Los Angeles Times In Radical Spirits, Ann Braude contends that the early women’s rights movement and Spiritualism went hand in hand. Her book makes a convincing argument for the importance of religion in the study of American women’s history. In this new edition, Braude discusses the impact of the book on the scholarship of the last decade and assesses the place of religion in interpretations of women’s history in general and the women’s rights movement in particular. A review of current scholarship and suggestions for further reading make it even more useful for contemporary teachers and students. “It would be hard to imagine a book that more insightfully combined gender, social, and religious history together more perfectly than Radical Spirits. Braude still speaks powerfully to unique issues of women’s creativity—spiritual as well as political—in a superb account of the controversial nineteenth-century Spiritualist movement.” —Jon Butler, Howard R. Lamar Professor Emeritus of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies at Yale University “Continually rewarding.” —The New York Times Book Review “A fascinating, well-researched, and scholarly work on a peripheral aspect of the rise of the American feminist movement.” —Library Journal “A vitally important book . . . [that] has . . . influenced a generation of young scholars.” —Marie Griffith, associate director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University “An insightful book and a delightful read.” —Journal of American History
Now in a fully corrected edition, one of the true spiritual classics of the twentieth century. Published for the first time with an index and Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar’s afterword, this new English publication of Meditations on the Tarot is the landmark edition of one of the most important works of esoteric Christianity. Written anonymously and published posthumously, as was the author’s wish, the intention of this work is for the reader to find a relationship with the author in the spiritual dimensions of existence. The author wanted not to be thought of as a personality who lived from 1900 to 1973, but as a friend who is communicating with us from beyond the boundaries of ordinary life. Using the 22 major arcana of the tarot deck as a means to explore some of humanity’s most penetrating spiritual questions, Meditations on the Tarot has attracted an unprecedented range of praise from across the spiritual spectrum.
