Early theosophical doctrines expounded by H.P. Blavatsky


Book Description

The Secrets of Nature and of Occult Sciences cannot be revealed to the profane, who will desecrate them and turn into a weapon against humanity. They can only be imparted to a regular chela of many years’ standing, pledged to silence and secrecy during his successive initiations. Such Secrets do exist and are defended with one’s life. Occult Truth is Nature without the illusory veil of the Five Senses. Reason is purely human; instinct, an endowment of Deity. Sixth Sense is Reason over instinct, i.e., Mental Fire perceiving and registering the other Five. The Sixth Sense is spiritual clairvoyance, as opposed to psychic. The former is normal and real; the latter, abnormal and counterfeit. Not before developing his Sixth Sense, will the man of science concede the error of his theories as to the solar spectrum, unless he retracts his marked weakness for conditional and disjunctive syllogisms ending in eternal dilemmas. Appearances are deceitful, says a Master of Wisdom. While the astronomer has elucidated the visible relations of the orbs of space, he knows nothing of their inner constitution. Similarly, the knowledge of geologist and physiologist is confined to man’s outer shell. The Adept cannot cross bodily the limits of the solar system, yet he knows that far stretching beyond the telescopic power of detection there are systems upon systems, the smallest of which would, when compared with the system of Sirius, make the latter seem like an atom of dust imbedded in the great Gobi desert. Divine Wisdom alone can carry us to the perfect state of Jivanmukta, by teaching us what is true and what is false. Till then, the next best thing to learning what is true is to ascertain what is not true. With biographical notes on Frederick W.H. Myers, Sir William Crookes, and Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner.




Madame Blavatsky and coevals on how the “Light on the Path” was written


Book Description

“Light on the Path” is a treatise written for the personal use of those who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom, and who desire to enter within Its influence, authored by Mabel Collins, nom de plume of Kenningale R. Cook. Warning by Boris de Zirkoff: The use of the physical senses as a stepping-stone to spirituality is fraught with danger and disappointment. H.P. Blavatsky defends the Cause of Truth and its detractors. The sparkle of that precious jewel, “Light on the Path,” has been dimmed by an indelible dark stain. Madame Blavatsky is the origin and fountainhead of all Esoteric Knowledge, and has the means and the necessary knowledge to teach. Mabel Collins may have been “studying” Madame Blavatsky for a time but she never “studied under” her, as she claims to have done. See how those whom god wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason. Firstly, out of the blue, Dr. Coues proudly proclaimed himself “Perpetual President of the Esoteric Theosophical Society of America.” He then began casting slurs upon Madame Blavatsky and upon the Section of which she is the Head, in order to destroy one through the other. Secondly, for a woman to confess to the world that she has been deliberately deceiving it for years, simply for the pleasure of fathering the cause of a deception upon a supposed enemy, is a psychic riddle in itself. While the latter publicly proclaimed her own untruthfulness in order to slander a hated enemy, the former jumped at the opportunity to gratify his wounded vanity at the cost of breaking the pledge and his word of honour to the Theosophical Society, which he took upon joining it.




Madame Blavatsky


Book Description

The life and times of Helena Blavatsky, the controversial religious guru who cofounded the Theosophical Society and kick-started the New Age movement. Recklessly brilliant, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky scandalized her 19th century world with a controversial new religion that tried to synthesize Eastern and Western philosophies. If her contemporaries saw her as a freak, a charlatan, and a snake oil salesman, she viewed herself as a special person born for great things. She firmly believed that it was her destiny to enlighten the world. Rebelliously breaking conventions, she was the antithesis of a pious religious leader. She cursed, smoked, overate, and needed to airbrush out certain inconvenient facts, like husbands, lovers, and a child. Marion Meade digs deep into Madame Blavatsky’s life from her birth in Russia among the aristocracy to a penniless exile in Europe, across the Atlantic to New York where she became the first Russian woman naturalized as an American citizen, and finally moving on to India where she established the international headquarters of the Theosophical Society in 1882. As she chased from continent to continent, she left in her aftermath a trail of enthralled followers and the ideas of Theosophy that endure to this day. While dismissed as a female messiah, her efforts laid the groundwork for the New Age movement, which sought to reconcile Eastern traditions with Western occultism. Her teachings entered the mainstream by creating new respect for the cultures and religions of the East—for Buddhism and Hinduism—and interest in meditation, yoga, gurus, and reincarnation. Madame Blavatsky was one of a kind. Here is her richly bizarre story told with compassion, insight, and an attempt to plumb the truth behind those astonishing accomplishments.




The Western Esoteric Traditions


Book Description

Western esotericism has now emerged as an academic study in its own right, combining spirituality with an empirical observation of the natural world while also relating the humanity to the universe through a harmonious celestial order. This introduction to the Western esoteric traditions offers a concise overview of their historical development. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke explores these traditions, from their roots in Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism, and Gnosticism in the early Christian era up to their reverberations in today's scientific paradigms. While the study of Western esotericism is usually confined to the history of ideas, Goodrick-Clarke examines the phenomenon much more broadly. He demonstrates that, far from being a strictly intellectual movement, the spread of esotericism owes a great deal to geopolitics and globalization. In Hellenistic culture, for example, the empire of Alexander the Great, which stretched across Egypt and Western Asia to provinces in India, facilitated a mixing of Eastern and Western cultures. As the Greeks absorbed ideas from Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, and Persia, they gave rise to the first esoteric movements. From the late sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, post-Reformation spirituality found expression in theosophy, Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. Similarly, in the modern era, dissatisfaction with the hegemony of science in Western culture and a lack of faith in traditional Christianity led thinkers like Madame Blavatsky to look East for spiritual inspiration. Goodrick-Clarke further examines Modern esoteric thought in the light of new scientific and medical paradigms along with the analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung. This book traces the complete history of these movements and is the definitive account of Western esotericism.




A Most Unusual Life


Book Description

Born on a sugar plantation in Java at the turn of the 20th century, psychic, alternative healer, and writer Dora van Gelder Kunz was to become one of the most unique and unforgettable women of her age. This biography traces her life from her signs of clairvoyant ability in early childhood through her pioneering development, with Delores Krieger, of Therapeutic Touch; her presidency of the Theosophical Society in America; and, finally, her death at ninety-five. Among her several seminal books in the genre of modern esoteric literature are The Real World of Fairies, The Personal Aura, and Spiritual Healing. Those who knew Dora were captivated by her blunt honesty, tremendous perception, deep compassion, and infinite capacity for hilarity. As this book lovingly chronicles, hers was indeed a most unusual life.




Date of Gautama Buddha's disincarnation


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Madame Blavatsky on the Book of Enoch


Book Description

Enoch is the “Son of man,” the first; and, symbolically, the first sub-Race of the Fifth Root Race. he Book of Enoch is the origin and foundation of Christianity.




Madame Blavatsky on Egyptian Magic, Good and Bad


Book Description

Initiation teaches us to live a better life and to die with better hope. The Mysteries were known to unveil the operations of nature and lead to the contemplation of celestial powers. Magic was considered a Divine Science which led to a participation in the attributes of the Divinity itself. But it was Black Magic that led finally to the abolition of the Mysteries, and not Christianity, as is often erroneously thought.