Theosophy the mother of all religions.....
From immemorial time, and in all races of men — whether civilized, barbarian, or savage — there has been current, especially among minds more receptive and thoughtful than the average run, an intuition, an intimation, persistent and ever-enduring, that there exists somewhere a body of sublime Teaching or Doctrine which can be had by those who qualify to receive it, by becoming worthy depositaries of it. Like those vague yet undying rumors, found in all religious and philosophic literatures, of the existence of mysterious Personages, who seem to come for a while and then to vanish, and whose names flash out into dimly seen lineaments of individuality in the annals of history and then fade away into indistinguishable traces in the mists of time, just so have these intuitions, these intimations, of the existence of a sublime Wisdom-Teaching appeared at frequent intervals in the annals of both history and story, but, and in this being somewhat different from the mysterious Personages just mentioned, these intuitions, intimations, instead of vanishing, have frequently found lodgment in legend and myth, so called, and thus have become enshrined or crystallized in the different religious and philosophical records of the human race.
There is probably no single group of religious and philosophical works which does not contain some more or less clear record, given either in open statement or by vague hint, of the existence of this Wisdom-Teaching; and it is one of the most interesting of literary pursuits to trace out and to assemble together these scattered and usually imperfect records, found everywhere; and by juxtaposition to discover in them distinct and easily verifiable proof that they are indeed but fragments of an archaic Wisdom common to the human race. The literary historian, the mythologer, the anthropologist, all know of the existence of these scattered fragments or
disjecta membra of archaic thought, but being utterly unable to make anything coherently sensible of them, they are usually ascribed — and utterly falsely ascribed — to the inventive genius of so-called 'primitive' man weaving myths and legendary tales about natural phenomena which had occurred, and which, because of the fear and awe their appearance had aroused in the mind of primitive man, were thought to be the workings of gods and genii, godlings and demons, some friendly and some inimical to man himself. This is the usually inexpressibly trite and unimaginative explanation given of these universally found but disconnected relics of ancient human thought.
Running in a directly contrary direction is the teaching brought again to the Western World by H. P. Blavatsky, who showed in her marvelous books and proved in them the real existence, and continuing existence in the world, of such a body of Wisdom-Teaching, full and complete, coherent throughout and throughout logically satisfying, and comprising in its totality a marvelous System of very difficult teaching, of information dealing not only with cosmogonic matters embracing the noumena and the phenomena of the Universe, but, because naturally included in this totality, likewise a complete historical story of the origin, nature, and destiny of Man himself.
This great System of Teaching is commonly called by its students — and has been so called in different ages — the Esoteric Philosophy, or the Wisdom-Religion, or the Secret Doctrine, or the Ancient Wisdom, or again, the Esoteric Tradition — the title of this present work — or by other more or less descriptive names.
As stated by H. P. Blavatsky herself in the 'Introductory' to her
The Secret Doctrine:
The "Wisdom Religion" is the inheritance of all the nations, the world over. . . .
. . . the Esoteric philosophy is alone calculated to withstand, in this age of crass and illogical materialism, the repeated attacks on all and everything man holds most dear and sacred, in his inner spiritual life. . . . Moreover, Esoteric philosophy reconciles all religions, strips every one of its outward, human garments, and shows the root of each to be identical with that of every other great religion. It proves the necessity of an absolute Divine Principle in nature. . . .
Time and human imagination made short work of the purity and philosophy of these teachings, once that they were transplanted from the secret and sacred circle. . . .
That doctrine was preserved secretly — too secretly, perhaps — within the sanctuary. . . .
This is the true reason, perhaps, why the outline of a few fundamental truths from the Secret Doctrine of the Archaic ages is now permitted to see the light, after long millenniums of the most profound silence and secrecy. I say "a few truths," advisedly, because that which must remain unsaid could not be contained in a hundred . . . volumes, nor could it be imparted to the present generation of Sadducees. But, even the little that is now given is better than complete silence upon those vital truths. The world of to-day, in its mad career towards the unknown . . . is rapidly progressing on the reverse, material plane of spirituality. It has now become a vast arena — a true valley of discord and of eternal strife — a necropolis, wherein lie buried the highest and the most holy aspirations of our Spirit-Soul. That soul becomes with every new generation more paralyzed and atrophied. . . . there is a fair minority of earnest students who are entitled to learn the few truths that may be given to them now; . . .
. . . The main body of the Doctrines given is found scattered throughout hundreds and thousands of Sanskrit MSS., some already translated — disfigured in their interpretations, as usual, — others still awaiting their turn. . . .
. . . The members of several esoteric schools — the seat of which is beyond the Himalayas, and whose ramifications may be found in China, Japan, India, Tibet, and even in Syria, besides South America — claim to have in their possession the sum total of sacred and philosophical works in MSS. and type: all the works, in fact, that have ever been written, in whatever language or characters, since the art of writing began; from the ideographic hieroglyphs down to the alphabet of Cadmus and the Devanagari. . . .
. . . The Secret Doctrine was the universally diffused religion of the ancient and prehistoric world. Proofs of its diffusion, authentic records of its history, a complete chain of documents, showing its character and presence in every land, together with the teaching of all its great adepts, exist to this day in the secret crypts of libraries belonging to the Occult Fraternity. . . .
. . . it is not a religion, nor is its philosophy new; for, as already stated, it is as old as thinking man. Its tenets are not now published for the first time, but have been cautiously given out to, and taught by, more than one European Initiate. . . .
. . . Yet there remains enough, even among such mutilated records, to warrant us in saying that there is in them every possible evidence of the actual existence of a Parent Doctrine. Fragments have survived geological and political cataclysms to tell the story; and every survival shows evidence that the now Secret Wisdom was once the one fountain head, the ever-flowing perennial source, at which were fed all its streamlets — the later religions of all nations — from the first down to the last.
It would be impossible to express in more striking language than the above citations from H. P. Blavatsky, just what the character and nature of the Esoteric Tradition is. An exhaustive and genuinely critical examination, conducted in a wholly impersonal and impartial spirit, of even the remains of the religious and literary relics of ancient times, will convince one that the statements made in the preceding paragraphs are founded on truth and fact; and the conviction grows upon the impartial student that it is a marvel that scholars could have been so blind as to allow the actual existence of the Esoteric Tradition to escape observation and discovery for so long. What is needed, very evidently, is more intuition and less merely brain-mind analysis of dates and grammar and names and spellings; for these, howsoever important they may be and often truly are, all too frequently distract the searching mind from the underlying mine of truth to the overlying details of literary rubble and historical literary detritus. It is intuition that is needed indeed!
Section I
Intuition, be it active or relatively inactive, is the source of all human understanding of truth. It lives in the heart of man, i. e., in the core of his being; and it is the working of this intuition which gives to him all his highest and best ideas regarding the nature of man and the universe. Doubtless every one has at some time thought: In the name of all that is holy, is there no truth in the universe that a thinking man can find and understand? Is there in fact nothing but uncertainty, and vague surmises, and speculations without number, all based upon a mere researching, albeit faithful enough, among natural facts? The answer comes like the 'still small voice' saying: There must be, in a Cosmos of order, in a Universe regulated and ruled by 'law' and consequence, some means of arriving at a fully satisfying explanation of that Universe, because it is One, and therefore wholly and throughout consistent with itself. Where then may be found the truth about the Universe — in other words some satisfactory explanation of THINGS AS THEY ARE?
There can be but one Truth, and if we can find a formulation of that truth in logical, coherent, and consistent form, obviously we then can understand it, or at any rate comprehend portions of it equal to our capacity of comprehension. It is the Esoteric Tradition, today called Theosophy, which may be proved to be this formulation of truth — formulated in our present age according to the spiritual-intellectual fashions and manners of the time, it is true, but nevertheless conveying the age-old Message of Wisdom and cosmic Reality.
The subjects of which it treats deal with the Universe, and,
de facto, with man collectively as an offspring of that Universe. It tells us what man is, what his inner constitution is, how the latter is held together in a coherent unity, whence it comes, what becomes of its various principles and elements when the great liberator, Death, frees the imprisoned spirit-soul; and, telling us all this, it teaches us likewise how properly to understand men: and, understanding them, this comprehension enables us to go behind the veil of outer appearances and under the surface of the seeming into the realms of reality. It teaches us likewise of the nature of civilizations, the productions of man, and how they arise, and what they are based on, and of the working of the energies springing from human hearts and minds which form civilization. It offers, moreover, an explanation of what to the materialist are the unsolved or unsolvable riddles of life, an explanation which is entirely based upon that Mother-Nature which is the source and background of all our being.
Theosophy is not an invention; it was not discovered; it was not composed or formed by some finely intellectual and spiritual mind. Nor is it a mere syncretistic aggregate of philosophical and religious doctrines, taken piecemeal from the various religions and philosophies of the world. This last absurdity — for such it really is — has been put forth as a theory in an attempt to explain its appearance in the modern world, by one or two mild lunatics, whose intellectual powers of penetration were far weaker than their wish to denigrate, and probably arose because they saw in Theosophy doctrines parallel with, similar to, and in cases identical with, other doctrines in the various ancient religions and philosophies. They took, or pretended to take, this well-known fact as an explanation of the entire Theosophic system. They did not see that the alternative explanation, to wit: that these religions and philosophies were originally derived from the mystical archaic Theosophical system, the Esoteric Tradition of antiquity, is equally and indeed far more reasonable, and that upon examination it is found to be the only possible explanation. They did not see that Theosophy is that original formulation of truth, that Mohlier-System, from which all the great religions and philosophies of antiquity sprang in their origin.
The average reader may ask: "What is this Theosophy which pretends to be the fountain-head and source of the world's philosophies and religions? These claims seem to us to be greater, more inclusive by far, than the most ambitious claims ever made by any religionist or philosopher."
So far as the truly illimitable field of thought covered by archaic divine Theosophy is concerned, its 'claims,' which nevertheless rest upon demonstrable facts, are indeed greater than any that have ever been made by any exoteric religionist or philosopher; but they are not unsupported claims unduly made for a merely syncretistic philosophy-religion-science: that is to say, for an invented system; they are not claims made for a system of thought or belief which has been put together piecemeal from parts or portions taken by some great mind, or by a number of great minds, from either various religions or philosophies which preceded it in time. Never would a true Theosophist explain his sublime philosophy in such a manner, for the simple reason that it would not be true.
We aver, and base our averments upon demonstrable facts, that this majestic Wisdom-Religion, indifferently today called Theosophy or the Esoteric Tradition, is as old as thinking man, far older than the so-called enduring hills; because races of thinking men have existed in times so far past that continents have been submerged under the water of the oceans and new lands have arisen to take the places of those which disappeared, and these geologic convulsions were long posterior to the first appearance of
homo sapiens on this globe. As every educated man today knows, Geology tells us somewhat of the wondrous story of the rocks and of the seas; how continents replaced seas and oceans which in their turn now again roll their waters over what was once vast stretches of plain and mountain — and, Theosophy adds, lands which were the habitats of highly civilized races of men.
Indeed, this Wisdom-Religion, this Ancient Doctrine, this Esoteric System, this Esoteric Tradition, was delivered to the first human protoplasts, the first thinking human beings on this earth, by highly intelligent spiritual entities from superior spheres; and it has been passed down from Guardians to Guardians to Guardians thereof, until our own time. Furthermore, portions of this original and majestic System have been given out at various periods of time to various races in various parts of the world by those Guardians when humanity stood in need of some new extension and cyclical renewal of spiritual verities.
Who are these Guardians of the Wisdom-Religion? They are those whom we call 'the Elder Brothers' of the human race, and by other names, and are men in all senses of the word and not excarnate spirits; but they are, relatively speaking, fully evolved or perfected men — men who have, more successfully than we as yet have, run the evolutionary race and are therefore now in point of spiritual and intellectual grandeur, where we shall be many ages hence.
To put it briefly: there has existed in the world for almost innumerable ages, a completely coherent and fully comprehensive system of religious philosophy, or of philosophical, scientific religion, which from time to time has been given out to man when the world needed a fuller revealing of spiritual truth than it then at such time had. Further, this wonderful system has been for all those past ages in the safe guardianship of the relatively perfected men mentioned above; and, still further, the present Theosophical Movement is, in our age, one of such fuller revelations or renewals of that wonderful System, because the conditions in the world warranted its appearance in our age; and H. P. Blavatsky was the Messenger who brought this new revealing of the age-old Truth to the world from the secret Brotherhood of these Masters or Guardians or Elder Brothers, who are likewise commonly called by the Sanskrit word Mahatmans, signifying Great Selves or Great Souls.
This likewise means that every one of the great world-religions and every one of the great world-philosophies of antiquity issued originally from this Brotherhood of Sages or Guardians, and that all such religions and philosophies in consequence, have, each one at its core, the Theosophical System of thought, a statement that any earnest and determined student can prove for himself and as fully as he may wish, by adequate study and reflexion, as has already been stated elsewhere.
Thus then, it may be said that there are three sources from which the Truth about Life and hence about Man, flows forth into the world; or, preferably, one single Source which may be divided into three branches:
1. The primeval 'Revelation,' if we may use that much-abused word, delivered to primordial humanity by Beings from higher spheres, of glorious spiritual and intellectual capacities and power, who inspired and taught the then youthful mankind, and who finally withdrew to their own spheres, leaving behind them the highest and best of their pupils, chosen from among selected individuals of the youthful humanity.
2. The Elder Brothers, Teachers, Masters, who are the particular and especial Guardians and Deliverers of this Primeval Wisdom to men, whenever the times permit a new impulse of spiritual and intellectual teaching to be given to the world.
3. The esoteric or hid meanings of the fundamental tenets of the great world-religions, all of which contain various aspects of the Truth about the Universe and Man, but which inner meanings are virtually unattainable unless the student have the esoteric, Theosophical key enabling him to read these esoteric tenets correctly.
Section II
Theosophy is not infrequently spoken of by its students as Esotericism or the Esoteric Philosophy, when reference is made to its deeper, more recondite, more hid, and more difficult doctrines; and this manner of qualifying it is done with the intent of distinguishing those parts from the exoteric or outer forms of religious or philosophic or scientific belief, or it may be faith, that have existed in the world at various times, and exist today. Esotericism, therefore,
reveals the truth; exotericism — that is to say, the outward and popular formulation of religious and philosophic doctrines —
re-veils the truth; the self-assurance of ignorance, alas, whether it be learned ignorance or mere folly, always
reviles the truth. All pioneers of thought in every age have experienced this; many a human heart has broken under the cruel revilings of the ignorant; but the greater ones of mankind, the Seers, have marched steadily onwards through time and have transmitted the torchlight of truth from race to race. Thus has it come down to our own time as 'Theosophy' in the guardianship and charge of these Great Seers who today even, yea, even in our own time, compose what it is customary among Theosophists to call, with somewhat affectionate familiarity, the 'Great White Lodge.'
Lest there be some misunderstanding of the above, a misunderstanding running to the idea that the entirety of the Theosophical Doctrines is now given out publicly to the world, let it be stated here, once for all, that this supposition wanders far and wide from the truth. The complete unveiling or delivery of the Esoteric Tradition simply could not be made — because of its magnitude, quite outside of other reasons; and therefore is it, that following of necessity the ancient custom or tradition of reticence, a certain most holy portion of this Doctrine is reserved, retained, kept back, withheld, for those who have proved themselves, by their lives and unselfish work for humanity, capable of understanding it at least in part, and incapable of misusing it for personal advancement or individual profit.
This reticence is not motivated by any spirit of selfishness, but merely by the necessities of the situation. No conscientious chemist, for a simple instance by way of illustration, would publish dangerous secrets concerning explosives to all and sundry; the situation is bad enough as it is where some of the latest discoveries in that noble branch of science are misused, in war and otherwise, for destruction of life and property. It is only to those who have proved themselves worthy, spiritually and intellectually capable of grasping these more recondite and difficult teachings, that they are entrusted by their Guardians, because such selected men and women — selected not by favor, but because of intrinsic merit — have proved themselves, by their lives and impersonal work for their fellow human beings, to be worthy depositaries of that holy trust. Knowledge itself is not wrong; it is the abuse of knowledge that works widespread mischief in the world. All knowledge of itself is holy, but it can be made a very instrument of demons of hell when employed for selfish purposes by conscienceless men and women.
To those who are worthy receptacles of it, such holy knowledge would not be abused when given to them, nor misused. Money would not be made out of it, nor would it be employed as an instrument for gaining evil or malevolent influence for selfish purposes over the minds of their fellow-men.
Alas! such misuse and abuse of knowledge have only too often occurred, despite all the safeguards that the Guardians of this Wisdom have thrown around it. History records many cases where even simple religious teaching has been abused, as in the lamentable history made by periods of religious persecution, and power and influence of vast extent gained over the minds of those who had it not, who thus suffered pitiably and helplessly because they thought that others had religious wisdom in greater degree than themselves.
The fact is that as the ages passed, every religion or philosophy fell from its state of pristine purity and suffered more or less complete degeneration, each one of them in later times needing re-interpretation by men less great than the original Founders of such religions and philosophies; and the result has been what we see around us today — religions from which the life and inner meaning have fled, more or less, and philosophies whose appeal to the human intellect and heart no longer is imperatively strong as once it was.
Yet despite this universal degeneration, if we search the records enshrined in the literatures belonging to these various religions and philosophies, we shall find underneath the words and technical phrases in which they are couched, behind the expressions which once conveyed their full and luminous meaning, the same fundamental truths everywhere over the earth's surface and in all races of men — we shall find the same Message, indeed the same identic Messages, given to the men of this or of that or of another historical period for their inspiration and guidance and for mental comfort and peace, and for the consolation and inspiration of the heart in all lines of higher human endeavor that it may at any time follow.
The words varied indeed, the expressions varied, in which the inner sense lay, according to the age and the characteristic intellects of the men who promulgated the primal truths, but the Message behind the words and the expressions was essentially the same in them all: a religious, philosophic, and scientific Doctrine; fundamentally the same moral system everywhere; hence fundamentally the same truths based on the structure and operations of visible and invisible Nature, which had been investigated and tested by generations of Seers.
Moreover, if one examine the religions and philosophies of all past time, as far as we know them from the literatures of them that have survived to our day, it will invariably be found that they all tell of a Secret Doctrine, give hints of an Esoteric System, containing a wonderful and sacred body of teachings delivered by great human individuals who were the respective founders of those religions and philosophies; and that this Wisdom was handed down from generation to generation of men in each particular race as the most holy and precious possession that they had.
In ancient Greece and in the countries under the sway of Rome, for instance, one finds that the greatest men during many centuries have left it on record in unequivocal and direct language, and in phrasing that never varies from the one line of thought, that there is indeed such an Esoteric System; in the Greek and Latin countries that Esoteric System went under the name of 'the Mysteries' — most carefully guarded, considered most holy, restricted to those men and in certain cases to those women (because in Greece and in the Roman Empire the women had esoteric mysteries of their own and for their own sex in particular) who had proved themselves worthy depositaries of that holy trust, worthy to be the receptacles of that original and most majestical System which the earth has ever known, and which, because it was universal, was as much the spiritual heirloom of Initiates in the Mediterranean countries as it was in other parts of the globe.
In India, 'the mother-land of religions and philosophies,' as it has been so often called, is found the same tradition, the same body of teachings — a wonderful Doctrine kept holy, secret, esoteric; therefore, as in Greece and Rome, called 'a Mystery,'
rahasya — not in the sense of something non-understandable or that no one actually understood, as the word 'mystery' is commonly used or misused today in the European tongues, but in the original ancient sense which the Greek word
mysterion had: something kept for the mystai or mystics, those initiated in the Mystery-Schools, to study and to follow as the supreme ethical guidance in life.
For in Hindusthan, all religious and philosophical teaching from time immemorial has been divided into two parts: that for the multitude and that for the Dwijas, i. e., the 'twice-born,' the initiated. This inner, secret, sacred, holy teaching, properly withheld from the thoughtless multitude, given only to worthy depositaries selected for merit from amongst the multitude — this holy teaching was called in India, as above stated,
rahasya, a Sanskrit word meaning esoteric doctrine or mystery. Examples of literary works in which such teachings were imbodied are the Hindu Upanishads,
upanishad being a Sanskrit compound word meaning verbally 'according to the sitting down,' or 'following upon the sitting down.' The figure is that of pupils who sat in the Oriental style at the feet of the Teacher, who taught them in secret and in strict privacy, and in forms and manners of expression that later were reduced to writings and promulgated for private reading in the manner still rendered customary by universal tradition.
If the Sanskrit compound
upanishad be analysed, it is found to be composed of the prepositional particle
upa, 'according to,' the prepositional particle
ni, 'down,' and the verbal root
sad, 'to sit,' which becomes
shad, by the rules of Sanskrit grammar when preceded by the particle
ni: the entire compound thus signifying 'following upon or according to the teachings which were received when we were sitting down at the feet of the teacher.'
Every great Teacher or Seer who has publicly come into the outer world of men from the Brotherhood of the Sages has founded an inner circle, an inner school, if you will: i. e., gathered together a select company of worthy disciples, and taught to these disciples of the inner school, in more open form than was given to the outer world, the solution of the riddles of the universe and of human life.
As the Christian New Testament has it in substance, quoting a saying of Jesus the Avatara, the Initiate Syrian: "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables: that seeing they might not see, and though hearing they might not understand."
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How cruel the latter part of this quotation sounds to the careless ear — 'that seeing they might not see, and though hearing they might not understand'! Yet if the meaning be understood it is readily seen that there is nothing cruel or selfishly restrictive in these words. One understands clearly that the phrasing is merely veiled language expressing some recondite truth. The idea was that certain doctrines might be and could be and should be taken from the Mysteries and given at appropriate time-periods to the mass of the people for their great help and inspiration; but even then in veiled language only; for an unveiled exposition of the full meaning would have amounted to a betrayal of the Mystery-teaching to those who had not been educated to understand it, and thus would have led on step by step to thoughts and acts and practices detrimental not alone to themselves but to those with whom they were in daily association.
To the disciples of Jesus, who had been secretly taught by him, were given the Mysteries 'of the Kingdom of God,' as Jesus is alleged to have expressed it, but the same truth was given to the others in parables or metaphors, because they had not been educated to understand; and it is thus that though they saw, they did not see with the inner vision and understand, and although they heard the words and obtained some help therefrom, their relative lack of training in the mystical language brought them no esoteric understanding of the Secret Doctrine behind the words. It was inevitable, based on immemorial tradition, and could not safely be otherwise. "To you, 'little ones,' 'my children,'" said Jesus in substance, "I tell you plainly the mysteries of the Kingdom of the Heavens."
It must be understood that this symbolic language is the speech even of the Greek Mysteries; such words as 'little ones,' or 'children,' were technical terms in and of the Mysteries, and referred to those who were newly born in, or who had begun to tread the pathway of, the secret teachings. This very word 'mysteries,' is taken directly from the Greek esoteric rites and doctrines; and in the original Greek, as found in
Luke in the Christian New Testament, the word 'mysteries' is there used as having been employed by Jesus, while the expression 'the Kingdom of the Heavens' is a phrase belonging to the esoteric system of the Hither East. All these are words and phrases, which, among others, were religious and philosophical commonplaces in the time and to the people to whom this great Sage, Jesus, was then speaking, or to whom he was alleged in the New Testament to have so spoken. All of which proves that even Christianity had such an inner or esoteric doctrine, but no longer has, nor has it had for centuries, at least as a recognised branch or department of Christian study.
Section III
Now, although it is not generally recognised, it is yet true that the early doctrines that the Christian scheme during the first centuries of its existence promulgated in the world, were not so very far removed from the Neo-Platonic and Neo-Pythagorean teachings so generally current among the Greeks and Romans of that period. But as the years went by and dropped one by one into the ocean of the past, the real meaning of these Neo-Pythagorean and Neo-Platonic doctrines became deeply obscured in the Christian system, in which literalism and blind faith with increasing rapidity took the place of the original religious idealism. Mere metaphor and literal interpretation finally supplanted the intuitive feeling, and in many cases the knowledge, among those early Christians, that there was indeed a secret truth behind the writings which passed current as canonical — or indeed apocryphal — in the Christian Church.
There were during the earliest centuries a number of remarkable men in their respective ways, who sought to stem this tide of the growing crystallization of religious thought: to effect, in so far as they could, a spiritual, that is to say, a doctrinal-spiritual reconciliation between the highest teachings of the philosophies and religions of the peoples surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, with the new religious scheme which had come to parts of those peoples and which in later time was called Christianity. Such men were, for instance, Clement of Alexandria, who lived in the second century of the Christian era. Another was the very famous Origen, likewise of the Alexandrian school, who lived in the second and third centuries of the same era. A third was the Neo-Platonist Christian bishop, Synesius, who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries of Christian times.
In what manner Synesius managed to reconcile his strong NeoPlatonic convictions with the new Christian scheme and the duties of his episcopal position, is something which offers to the student of history an interesting example of mental and psychological gymnastics; but he did so, and apparently managed to retain for all that the respect of all sides, for he seems to have been at heart a good and sincere man, as these terms go. Synesius remained a Neo-Platonist until the day of his death. He was and always continued the warm friend of the noble woman-philosopher, Hypatia, whose misfortunate and tragic end Charles Kingsley, the English novelist, has made so well known to the general reader in English-speaking countries. Hypatia in fact was Synesius' early teacher in philosophy.
The Alexandrian scholar and Church-Father, Origen, who preceded Synesius by two centuries, taught many things so curiously alike in certain respects to the Theosophical doctrines, that were one to change names and manner of phrasing, one could probably find in these particular Origenistic teachings a good deal of the esoteric philosophy.
What was it that then happened to the new Christian religion, as time passed, which brought about the deterioration or decrement in mystical and esoteric thought, which, as far as it went, prevailed so strongly in the very earliest Christian writers, as for instance in Justin Martyr and others? It was the loss of the key to the esoteric meaning of the Christian scriptures, this esoteric or secret or mystical portion being their best and holiest part. Origen fought all his life in order to keep some at least of these esoteric keys imbodied in the doctrines of his church and in their interpretation, to work as a living spiritual power in the hearts and minds of Christians; and as long as he lived and could personally direct the movement of which he was the brilliant head, there were always in the Christian Church some numbers of men and women who followed these inner teachings devoutly, for this inner sense they felt to answer the inward call of their souls for a larger and greater revealing of truth than was usually expressed in the outward or literal word.
But in the year 538 — it may have been in 540, it may have been in 542, for there are differences of opinion as regards this particular date — some two hundred years or more after the death of Origen, there was held in Constantinople what has been called the Home-Synod, convened under the Patriarch Mennas, in obedience to an imperial Rescript issued by the Emperor Justinian setting forth in official statement the complaints that had reached the imperial palace alleging that certain doctrines ascribed to the Alexandrian Origen were 'heretical,' and that, if the Council then convoked by him should in fact find them to be such, these doctrines were by the said Synod to be placed under the ban and prohibition of the ecclesiastical anathema.
The doctrines complained of were duly set forth and hotly discussed in this Home-Synod held under Mennas in Constantinople in, let us say, 538, and after long and envenomed dispute, the result of the deliberations was that the specified teachings of Origen, so strongly objected to, were finally and formally condemned and anathematized.
It is noteworthy that even during the time when this controversy over the alleged Origenistic heresies was taking place, and from a day preceding the above-mentioned synod, a new line of spiritual teachings of closely similar type with the Origenistic doctrines pronounced heretical by this Home-Synod, was attempting to find an entrance into the growing crystallization of Christian dogma, and in fact in time did so find a successful entrance therein. These new doctrines, which then came into popular ecclesiastical and theological acceptance, were imbodied in the writings of the individual whom scholars today call the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.
These Dionysian teachings, as has just been set forth, did succeed in gaining a firm foothold in the minds and hearts of the Christians of succeeding centuries, and became indeed so respected and theologically popular that in due time they were accepted universally as at least quasi-canonical and orthodox and became the source, at least the most important source, whence the greatest of later Christian theologians drew their material for religious thought and exegesis.
It is said by many scholars that Origen was likewise condemned and anathematized at the Fifth Oecumenical or General Council of the Christian Church, held in 553, likewise convoked in obedience to a Rescript of the Emperor Justinian. This second anathematization and condemnation at this Fifth General Council of the Christian Church, probably did actually take place. Certain it is that Origen's name in connexion with his alleged heretical teachings is mentioned also in the Reports of the Acts of that Fifth General Council; but he was in fact first formally condemned for these certain specified so-called heresies in 538 or thereabouts at the Home-Synod, as before stated.
The first anathema was pronounced against Origen's doctrine running to the following effect:
1. The pre-existence of the soul before its present earth-life; and its ultimate restoration to its original spiritual nature and condition.
The second anathema was directed against the following:
2. The derivation of all rational entities from high spiritual beings, which latter at first were incorporeal and non-material, but are now existing in the universe in descending degrees of substantiality and which are differentiated into various orders called Thrones, Principalities, Powers, and in other grades or orders called by other names.
The third anathema was directed against this doctrine of Origen:
3. That the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and the other heavenly bodies, are the visible encasements of spirits now more or less degenerated from their former high condition and state.
The fourth anathema was directed against the following:
4. That man now has a material or physical body as a retributive or punitive result of wrong-doing, following upon the soul's sinking into matter.
The fifth anathema was directed against the following:
5. That even as these spiritual beings formerly fell into matter, so may and will they ultimately rise again to their former spiritual status.
The tenth anathema was directed against this doctrine of Origen:
10. The body of Christ in the resurrection was globular or spherical; and so will our bodies likewise finally be.
The eleventh anathema was directed against this:
11. The Judgment to come is the vanishing of the material body; and there will be no material resurrection.
The twelfth anathema was directed against this doctrine:
12. All inferior orders of entities in the vast hierarchy of Being are united to the divine Logos (whether such beings be of Heaven or Earth) as closely as is the Divine Mind; and the Kingdom of Christ shall have an end when all things are resolved back into the Divinity.
The thirteenth anathema was directed against this:
13. That the soul of Christ pre-existed like the souls of all men; and that Christ is similar in type to all men in power and substance.
The fourteenth anathema was directed against the following:
14. All intelligent beings wheresoever they be, ultimately will merge into the Divine Unity, and material existence will then vanish.
The fifteenth and last anathema was directed against this:
15. That the future life of all spiritual beings will be similar to their original existence; and hence the end of all things will be similar to the original state or condition of all things.
All these doctrines of Origen find a perfect and satisfactory explanation in the wonderful Theosophical Teachings, where they are, of course, far more fully elaborated and unfolded, thus illustrating the perfect universality and philosophical and religious applicability of the Theosophical System. This System is a true spiritual touchstone by which, if we be skilled enough so to do, we may test the reality and truth of the doctrines of any religious or philosophical system that the minds of men, however great and grand, have formulated on this earth.
Section IV
In the religion which is commonly supposed — and wrongly supposed — to be the main fountain-head of Christianity, i. e., in the doctrines of the Jews, can be found clear traces of the same esoteric teaching that exists everywhere else; yet in the case of Judaism it is mainly imbodied in what the Jewish initiates in it called 'the Tradition,' or 'the Secret Doctrine'; the Hebrew word for tradition being Qabbalah, meaning something which is handed down or passed down from generation to generation by traditional transmission.
In this connexion, a short extract from what may be called the principal book of the Qabbalah may be pertinent and useful. This book is called
Zohar, a Hebrew word meaning 'Splendor.' The following is the extract:
Woe unto the son of man who says that the Torah [comprising the first five Books of the Hebrew Bible] contains common sayings and ordinary tales. If this were so, we could even today compose a body of doctrines from profane literature which would arouse greater reverence. If the Law contains only ordinary matter, then there are far nobler sentiments in the profane literatures; and if we went and compiled a selection from them, we could compile a much superior code of doctrine. No. Each word of the Law contains a sublime meaning and a truly heavenly mystery. . . . As the spiritual angels were obliged to clothe themselves in earthly garments when they descended upon earth, and as they could not have remained nor have been understood on earth, without putting on such garments: so is it with the Law. When the Law came to us, it had to be clothed in earthly fashion in order to be understood by us; and such clothing is its mere narratives. . . . Hence, those who understand, look not at such garments [the mere narratives] but to the body under them, [that is, at the inner meaning] whilst the wise, the servants of the heavenly One . . . look only at the soul.
Now, unquestionably, and despite plausible arguments to the contrary, the Jewish Qabbalah existed as a traditional system of doctrine long before the present manuscripts of it and their literary ancestors were written, for these are of comparatively late production and probably date from the European Middle Ages, and one proof of this statement is found in the fact that in the earliest centuries of the Christian era, several of the Church-Fathers of the new Christian religion are found using language which could have been taken only from the Hebrew Theosophy, that is, the Hebrew Qabbalah. The expressions are in some cases identic, and the thought is in all cases the same.
Each and every people in ancient times, such as the Greeks, Hindus, Persians, Egyptians, Babylonians, used differing tongues, used different phrases for expression: used in many cases differing symbols of speech; but in all cases the esoteric Messages were identic; and this esoteric system behind the outward garments is Theosophy, the Esoteric Tradition, the Mother of the world's great religions and philosophies.
In each age which needs it — and these needs recur cyclically due to the revolving wheel of life — there comes a new 'revelation,' a new revealing or unveiling with an accompanying spiritual and mental revolution in the minds and hearts of men, from this great Brotherhood composed of these Sages whom Theosophists call 'Masters' because they truly are Masters of life and wisdom — a mastery gained through the unfolding in the individual of the spiritual and intellectual powers and faculties which are innate and native to all men, but which require 'evolving' or bringing forth or unfolding, partly by self-induced efforts in training, and partly by teaching given in the initiation-chambers.
Human mentality, while differing greatly in individuals, due to differences in individual evolution and because each one follows his own individual path, nevertheless pursues one common type of activity or course of action, because we are all intimately related as human beings: and on account of this fact, our minds do tend, through the natural operations of thinking itself, which make us men, towards one common end; so that the common assent, the universal consent, of men everywhere to certain fundamental principles of doctrine, based on Nature's workings in the human constitution, is a
de facto proof, as far as it goes, that any system of thought comprising fundamental truths, acknowledged by all men, must be a truthful presentation of the elementary workings of Nature, so far as the human intellect can understand and transmit these workings into human mental systematization; and those elementary, or indeed more complicated and developed, workings of Nature: or what comes to the same thing, those natural principles of Universal Being: are what we call Truth — in other words, things and beings AS THEY ARE IN THEMSELVES.
Man's mind is a mirror, when it is clean, pellucid, limpid, and therefore capable of accurately reflecting the thoughts, the impulses, the inspirations, the intuitions, which spring up in the human spirit and flow thence through that mind in order to take shape as innate ideas, intuitive recognitions of verities, finally manifesting as doctrines or teachings of truth. On the other hand, man's mind may likewise be the distorter of such inspirations and intuitions when that mind is imperfectly developed or so filled with mental and passional images that it cannot translate and transmit with fidelity, accuracy, and perfect verisimilitude. There is no Truth which is not based on Universal Nature; and by Nature we mean not alone the shell of things which is the physical universe: we mean rather the vast range of the inner spheres of being, of which the outer physical cosmos or universe is but the living, quivering, and more or less faithful garment or copy.
This Esoteric Doctrine, this Esoteric Tradition, this body of teachings, kept and withheld and reserved for worthy depositaries, yet divulged at cyclical intervals for the common human weal, existing all over the world and in all ages, is the common property of mankind, and from what has preceded is seen always to have been so. Consequently, in all the various great religions and philosophies are to be found fundamental principles which, when placed in juxtaposition and subjected to meticulous examination and analysis, are easily discovered to be identic in substance. This substance is the Esoteric Tradition, the Mother of Religions and Philosophies and Sciences. Every one of such fundamental principles of essential religion or essential philosophy being in each such world-religion or world-philosophy, albeit disguised and screened in doubtful formulation: it becomes clear why all such world-religions or world-philosophies contain the entirety of such fundamental principles, in each and every case more or less clearly expressed or developed as an integral part of the respective systems.
However, all such world-religions or world-philosophies, as we may call them, did not in any one case give out in fulness and in clear and explicit shape or form, the entirety of the body of teachings which are at its heart; one religion emphasizes one or more of such fundamental principles; another religion or philosophy will emphasize other such principles, the remaining principles lying in the background thereof and relatively veiled in formulation. This readily accounts for the reason that the various world-religions and world-philosophies vary in type and characteristics and often, to the unreflecting mind, seem to have little in common, and perhaps to be contradictory the one of others. Another cause of this variety in shape and appearance is the varying manner in which each such religion or philosophy was originally given or promulgated to the world, the form that each took being best for the period in which it was propagated. Each such religion or philosophy, having its own place and period in time, represents, in its later forms, the various human minds who have developed its doctrines, or who, so to say, have translated it to the world in this or that particular form.
These manners or mannerisms of thinking we may discard if we wish, but it is the fundamental principles behind every great religion or great philosophy, the Universal Doctrine, the Esoteric Tradition, which are pointed to here. In this Universal Doctrine lies the mystery-field of each great religion or philosophy, in the sense that has already been set forth thus far in these pages.
Section V
Complete ignorance, outside of all possible intuition of the existence of this mystic background or mystery-field of Esoteric Wisdom as being the heart of the great religious and philosophic systems of the world, has led some people to say that Theosophy is nothing but old and outworn theories of religion and philosophy, popular five hundred, a thousand, two thousand, five thousand years or more ago. Such would-be critics as these say: "It is useless and foolish to go back to the ancients in our search for truth: only the new has value for our age." Or they say: "Let us turn our faces to the future, and leave the dead past to bury its own decay and its moldering bones!" What a wonderful and soul-stirring declaration is this — perhaps for people who do no real thinking for themselves! Such people are fully under the influence of the now rapidly passing notion of our immediate forefathers that all the past there is to know, which is worth while, is the dying past of the European countries, and that all future knowledge worth while is to be had in investigating physical nature, only the clothing of Reality, in order to discover still other hid forces for practical utilitarian use by man; and, secondly, their minds are enchained by the scientific myth — for such it really is — that man has only very recently, comparatively speaking, evolved from an ape-ancestor, or from a semi-animal ancestor common to both man and the apes, which passed the halcyon times of its freedom from any moral or intellectual responsibility in chewing fruit and insects in its intervals of swinging from branch to branch in some tropical forest-tree; that, therefore, all our future is in what is to come, and that the past holds nothing of worth, and that hence it is a huge waste of time to study it otherwise than in the more or less academic manner of the archaeologist.
What egregious folly! What a perverse and obstinate running counter to all the facts not only of history but also of the most recent scientific discoveries themselves which point with increase of emphasis, as fresh discoveries are accumulated, to the now well recognised fact that the origins of the human race run far back into the night of past time, and that, for all we of the present know to the contrary, these dark corridors and chambers of the now forgotten past, buried in oblivion, may actually, should they ever be opened again, reveal to us what Theosophy teaches to be the fact: that that long past of distant time saw grand and mighty civilizations covering the earth on continents formerly existing where now the turbulent waters of the present oceans roll their melancholy waves.
In architecture, in engineering, in art, in philosophy, in religion, in ethics, in abstract science, and often in technical science also — in other words, in all the things that make life valuable and that refine it: in all the things that form the basis of civilization: in all these various subjects that we still cultivate so ardently, improving upon them it is true, with our own native genius — in them all we find ancient thought and ancient work lying there, the foundation of our own civilization and thinking, and the as yet unrecognised inspiration by heritage and transmission of the best that we have.
Where have we built anything which in magnitude of fine, technical engineering, in grandeur of conception and in wonder of execution, is comparable with the Great Pyramid of Egypt: so stupendous in its colossal pile, so finely orientated to astronomical points, so accurate in the laying of its masonry, so magnificent in the ideal conception which gave it birth, that our modern engineers, technicians, and scholars, stand before it in amazement proportional with their own ability, and wonder, and frankly say that were the utmost resources of modern engineering knowledge and skill brought to bear upon a similar work, doubtless we could not improve upon it, possibly even barely equal it?
How about the Nagkon Wat in Cambodia, of which much the same might be said, albeit in minor degree; and the gigantic and astonishing megalithic monuments in Peru and Central America — yes, even the remarkable archaic structures that still exist in Yucatan and in parts of Mexico, and in other parts of the world? How about the beautiful temple of Boro-Budur in Java — a relatively recent mass, however, of apparently solid masonry, standing in wondrous beauty even yet, after the lapse of centuries and centuries of time and despite the destructive and corroding influences of earthquakes and weathering — literally covered with a wealth of carving which in places is so delicately done that it looks as if the work had been picked out with a needle? It is in places like lace-work in stone.
How about the marvelous temple of Karnak in Thebes, Egypt, quite recent from an archaeological standpoint, of which today but portals and columns and pylons in a more or less ruined state remain, but the ensemble of which still strikes the observer with awe and amazement? As a modern author once graphically said: "They built, these ancients, like giants, and they finished like jewelers!"
We are proud of our own glass; but the Romans had glass which could be molded, so Roman writers have reported, into any desired shape with the hammer or mallet. Just think what such glass would mean to us in the technical arts of our modern industries! The Mediterranean nations of southern Europe likewise had in ancient times a method of hardening copper so that, if we may trust ancient reports, it had the temper and took the edge of our good steel. We know today neither of these two technological secrets.
We heat our houses by means of hot water, among other methods of doing it, and by hot air; but so did the Romans heat their houses in the days of Cicero. We use the microscope and the telescope and are justly proud of our skill in employing them; but we also know that the ancients, the Babylonians, for instance, carved gems with lines and designs so fine and small that the naked eye cannot discern these with any clearness whatsoever, and we must use a microscope or magnifying-glass in order to see clearly the design and line-work. How did they do this, if they had no magnifying facilities? Were their eyes so much more powerful than ours are? That supposition is absurd, and there is no proof whatsoever of it. What then can we conclude but that they did have some kind of magnifying apparatus, of glass or other material? How is it that the ancient astronomers are said to have known not merely of other planets, which indeed the naked eye could see in most cases, but also are stated by certain scholars to have known of their moons, which latter fact we with our improved astronomical instruments have known only for a few score of years? We read in ancient works that the Roman Emperor Nero used a magnifying-glass of some kind — indeed, what we would call an opera-glass — in order to watch the spectacles in the Roman theaters; and legend states that he used this magnifying-glass of his in order to watch the dread spectacle of the burning of the capital of the Roman Empire.
How about shorthand — tachygraphy? The speeches of Cicero and of others also, given in the Roman Forum and elsewhere, were, we well know, taken down in the former case in shorthand or tachygraphical writing by his freedman and beloved Tiro, who later also became the great Roman's biographer. How long have we Europeans employed this most useful means of perpetuating the exact words of human discourse?
We are also told that lightning-rods were placed on the Temple of Janus in Rome by Numa, one of the earliest and according to report greatest and wisest of the Roman kings, who lived in the first ages of Rome according to tradition, centuries before the formation of the Republic.
How about the canon of proportion in art as used by the ancient Greeks? Compare their exquisite and inspired art with our own best, its child and inspired by it, and then turn to our modern artistic vagaries, such as cubism and futurism, and other things that make one think that he is crazily seeing into the Astral Light, when he tries to observe and in observing to understand, what his eye is plagued with. What is, indeed, the fundamental canon that the majority of our artists and technicians follow today, not merely in architecture, but in sculpture also? The Greek canon as we understand it. Where did the best in modern European religion originally come from; where did it take its rise? From the Greek and Latin ancients — modified more or less by us, it is perfectly true, but ultimately from them. They gave to us all the fundamental ideas, greatly modified in recent times by still nobler ideas and far grander principles derived from the Far Orient, mostly from the records of ancient religious and philosophical India. From this same source we moderns derive our universally recognised principles of ethics and morals and their applications to human thinking and conduct.
Thucydides, the Greek historian, taught modern Europeans how to write history: that is, the general style and type of historical writing that Thucydides himself followed has served for ages since his day as the exemplar and copy for all later historians. It is true that a number of historical writers and critics object, and object with a good deal of force, to the manner of writing history that Thucydides pursued: mere records of battles and their military consequences, etc.; and claim that history concerns rather the achievements of the human mind and heart as expressed in civilization, more especially the social, religious, philosophic, moral, and artistic, elements. One such critic, eminent in his own day, although necessarily limited in his vision from lack of wider knowledge, was Count Leo Tolstoi. With a good deal of truth, this eminent Russian said that history should be not merely a record of the dates of battles, and of the reigns of men, many of whom were far from wise; but should be rather a description of the workings of human genius expressed in civilization. One fully agrees with him thus far; but many and perhaps most people as yet do not; they still cling to the old Greek idea of what historical writing should be. At any rate, Thucydides taught Europeans how to write history; and Plato and Aristotle respectively how to write philosophy and how to be scientific.
How about the heliocentric system of our own sun and its planets; the astronomical system which tells us that the sun is at the center of his realms, that the planets circle around the sun, each in its own orbit, and that the earth is a sphere poised in space as a planetary body? It took European thinkers and discoverers a long time, in the face of great persecution and at the cost of the lives of not a few great men, to bring their less intuitive and more unthinking fellows to a recognition of this fact of Nature; but the greatest among the ancient Greeks taught it all — Pythagoras, Philolaus, Ekphantos, Hiketas, Heraklides, Aristarchos, and many more. Others, of equal greatness at least, would have taught it openly had it not been for the fact that the heliocentric system of our solar world was a teaching confined to the Mysteries, and that only a few dared to do more than hint at it.
What again about Archimedes of Syracuse, one of the greatest of physical scientists and discoverers who lived between his time and our own? Again, 'Vimanas,' or flying machines, are found mentioned in very ancient Sanskrit writings of the archaic Hindus as in the
Mahabharata and the
Ramayana, the two greatest epic poems of India; although it is true that these airy vehicles are also spoken of as being the 'vehicles of the gods' when they flew through the air — a statement which should not be considered literally but as referring to men who were god-like in their intellectual and therefore scientific accomplishments; for such allocation of divinity to human beings is well-known as one of the commonest facts in archaic Hindu literature.
So that when it comes to boasting of our prowess in science, discovery, invention, it is well not to forget that modesty is a virtue.
There are other critics, of quite different mental caliber and outlook on life, who, swayed by an equally aggressive and foolish animus, imagine Theosophy to be an outlandish and newfangled religion: that those who teach it do not hold to the 'good old things' of bygone times — a perfectly preposterous asseveration — those more or less recent bygone times which are alleged to have proved their superior worth and permanent value by lasting for a certain number of centuries only: and that the propagandists of this outlandish and newfangled religion are audacious enough to go forth and hunt up new and strange and barbaric words and terms, in which are imbodied the foreign notions which they attempt to promulgate in Occidental lands.
But the truth is that Theosophists are neither moss-covered conservatives on the one hand, nor howling innovators of fantastic theories on the other. For Theosophy is the true and authentic Mother of Religions and Philosophies and Sciences: the great central systemic Source whence all the latter originally derived in past times, and therefore is their Interpreter: it interprets the hid meaning and secret symbology of all these ancient systems.
Yea, verily, the mystery-teaching hid beneath the outward and often varying forms was reserved for the Initiates — that is to say for those who could understand it and who were fit to receive it
because they could understand; and who would never prostitute it to base and ignoble uses. It was held as the most sacred thing that men could transmit to their descendants, for it was found that the revelation of this Mystery-Doctrine under proper conditions to worthy depositaries, worked marvelous changes in their lives. It made men better and different from what they were before they received this spiritual and intellectual treasure. Why? The answer can be found in all the old religions and philosophies — if one study these honestly — under the same metaphor, the same trope, the same figure of speech: the figure of a new birth, a birth into truth, for, indeed, it was a spiritual and intellectual awakening of the powers of the human spirit, and could therefore be called in truth a
re-birth of the soul into spiritual self-consciousness. When this happens, such men were called Initiates or the Reborn. In India, as before said, such 'reborn' men were called Dwijas, a Sanskrit word meaning 'twice-born.' In Egypt such Initiates or reborn men were called 'sons of the Sun.' In other countries they were called by other names.
H.P. Blavatsky wrote as follows in her capacity as the Messenger of the Great Brotherhood of Seers, proclaiming anew the ancient Wisdom-Religion to the modern world:
The Gnosis [or wisdom] supplanted by the Christian scheme was universal. It was the echo of the primordial wisdom-religion [or Theosophy] which had once been the heirloom of the whole of mankind; and, therefore, one may truly say that, in its purely metaphysical aspect, the Spirit of Christ (the divine logos) was present in humanity from the beginning of it. The author of the Clementine Homilies is right; the mystery of Christos — now supposed to have been taught by Jesus of Nazareth — "was identical" with that which from the first had been communicated "to those who were worthy," . . . We may learn from the Gospel according to Luke, that the "worthy" were those who had been initiated into the mysteries of the Gnosis [or Wisdom], and who were "accounted worthy" to attain that "resurrection from the dead" [initiation] in this life . . . "those who knew that they could die no more, being equal to the angels as sons of God and sons of the Resurrection." in other words, they were the great adepts of whatever religion; and the words apply to all those who, without being Initiates, strive and succeed, through personal efforts to live the life and to attain the naturally ensuing spiritual illumination in blending their personality — the ("Son") with (the "Father,") their individual divine Spirit, the God within them. This "resurrection" can never be monopolized by the Christians, but is the spiritual birth-right of every human being endowed with soul and spirit, whatever his religion may be. Such individual is a Christ-man.
