[Illustration: William Judge, July 1895]
THE OCEAN
OF
THEOSOPHY
BY
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
TWENTIETH THOUSAND
THE UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS
METROPOLITAN BLDG., BROADWAY AT FIFTH ST.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1915
COPYRIGHT, 1893,
BY
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT, 1915,
BY
THE UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS
PREFACE.
An attempt is made in the pages of this book to write of Theosophy
in such a manner as to be understood by the ordinary reader. Bold
statements are made in it upon the knowledge of the writer, but at
the same time it is distinctly to be understood that he alone is
responsible for what is therein written: the Theosophical Society is
not involved in nor bound by anything said in the book, nor are any
of its members any the less good Theosophists because they may not
accept what he has set down. The tone of settled conviction which may
be thought to pervade the chapters is not the result of dogmatism or
conceit, but flows from knowledge based upon evidence and experience.
Members of the Theosophical Society will notice that certain theories
or doctrines have not been gone into. That is because they could not
be treated without unduly extending the book and arousing needless
controversy.
The subject of the Will has received no treatment, inasmuch as that
power or faculty is hidden, subtle, undiscoverable as to essence,
and only visible in effect. As it is absolutely colorless and varies
in moral quality in accordance with the desire behind it, as also it
acts frequently without our knowledge, and as it operates in all the
kingdoms below man, there could be nothing gained by attempting to
enquire into it apart from the Spirit and the desire.
No originality is claimed for this book. The writer invented none of
it, discovered none of it, but has simply written that which he has
been taught and which has been proved to him. It therefore is only a
handing on of what has been known before.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
PREFACE TO NEW EDITION.
Some twenty-two years ago, the first edition of “The Ocean of
Theosophy” was published by its author, Wm. Q. Judge. Since that time
thousands of books dealing with Theosophy have been published by more
or less prominent students of Theosophy, but unfortunately for the
public, none of these show the knowledge, grasp and range which is
so evident in the present volume,—and still more unfortunately, the
methods pursued by these latter-day writers have served to obscure
the fact of the existence of an exposition of Theosophy written by a
Teacher of that Science of Life.
As the Author’s Preface shows, the book was written in such a manner
as to be understood by the ordinary reader; the simplicity of the
terms used, however, should not mislead the reader into thinking that
the work is an elementary one, for behind and within every statement
there is a depth of meaning that the careless and superficial fail
to perceive. It is really a simplified text-book of the fundamental
teachings of Theosophy, and is found by students of the “Secret
Doctrine” to be a true abridgment of that great work and a wonderful
aid in its comprehension; it was written with that end in view by the
only one competent to do so and is therefore earnestly recommended to
every student of Theosophy.
The passage of years has served to show, not only the value of this
little book, but the status of Mr. Judge as a Teacher. Everything
he has written bears impress of his deep knowledge to every real
student of Theosophy. Even the ordinary reader cannot fail to perceive
that only “One Who Knows” could have so applied Theosophy to the
circumstances and conditions of every-day human existence.
There are but few books whose issuance is due to Mr. Judge; these
few however, are most valuable aids to the student in living the
Theosophic life. “Letters That Have Helped Me,” are two small
volumes containing letters written to students, with comments by the
compiler; “Echoes From the Orient,” is a broad outline of Theosophical
doctrines, 64 pages; “The Bhagavad-Gita” is a rendition, much better
and clearer than any literal translation extant; “Patanjali’s Yoga
Aphorisms,” is an ancient treatise on the Soul and its powers, from
which modern psychology has much to learn. In addition Mr. Judge
wrote a great number of articles dealing with the philosophy in its
practical application to daily life; these can be found in the magazine
“Theosophy.”
The earnest student will do well to study conjointly the writings of
H. P. Blavatsky and Wm. Q. Judge; from them he will learn Theosophy
pure and simple; will recognize the community of knowledge and complete
accord that existed between them and will more fully appreciate the
mission and nature of those two Personages.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
THEOSOPHY AND THE MASTERS.
Theosophy generally defined. The existence of highly developed
men in the Universe. These men are the Mahatmas,
Initiates, Brothers, Adepts. How they work and why they
remain now concealed. Their Lodge. They are perfected
men from other periods of evolution. They have had various
names in history. Apollonius, Moses, Solomon, and others
were members of this fraternity. They had one single doctrine.
They are possible because man may at last be as they
are. They keep the true doctrine and cause it to reappear at
the right time. Pages 1 to 13.
CHAPTER II.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES.
A view of the general laws governing the Cosmos. The
sevenfold division in the system. Real Matter not visible and
this always known to the Lodge. Mind the intelligent portion
of the Cosmos. In the universal Mind the sevenfold plan of
the Cosmos is contained. Evolution proceeds upon the plan
in the universal Mind. Periods of Evolution come to an end;
this is the Night of Brahma. The Mosaic account of cosmogenesis
has dwarfed modern conceptions. The Jews had merely
one part of the doctrine taken from the ancient Egyptians.
The doctrine accords with the inner meaning of Genesis. The
general length of periods of Evolution. Same doctrine as
Herbert Spencer’s. The old Hindu chronology gives the details.
The story of Solomon’s Temple is that of the evolution
of man. The doctrine far older than the Christian one. The
real age of the world. Man is over 18,000,000 years old. Evolution
is accomplished solely by the Egos within that at last
become the users of human forms. Each of the seven principles
of man is derived from one of the seven great divisions of
the Universe. Pages 14 to 22.
CHAPTER III.
THE EARTH CHAIN.
The doctrine respecting the Earth. It is sevenfold also. It
is one of a chain of seven corresponding to man. The whole
seven are not in a chain separated as to members, but they
interpenetrate each other. The Earth chain is the reïncarnation
of a former old and now dead chain. This old chain was
one of which our moon is the visible representative. Moon
now dead and contracting. Venus, Mars, etc., are living
members of other similar chains to ours. A mass of Egos for
each chain. The number, though incalculable, is definite.
Their course of evolution through the seven globes. In each
a certain part of our nature is developed. At the fourth globe
the process of condensation is begun and reaches its limit.
Pages 23 to 28.
CHAPTER IV.
SEPTENARY CONSTITUTION OF MAN.
The constitution of man. How the doctrine differs from the
ordinary Christian one. The real doctrine known in the first
centuries of this era, but purposely withdrawn from a nation
not able to bear it. The danger if the doctrine had not been
withdrawn. The sevenfold division. The principles classified.
The divisions agree with the chain of seven globes. The lower
man is a composite being. His higher trinity. The lower
four principles transitory and perishable. Death leaves the
trinity as the only persistent part of us. What the physical
man is, and what the other unseen mortal man is. A second
physical man not seen but still mortal. The senses pertain to
the unseen man and not to the visible one. Pages 29 to 34.
CHAPTER V.
BODY AND ASTRAL BODY.
The body and life principle. The mystery of life. Sleep
and death are due to excess of life not bearable by the organism.
The body an illusion. What is the cell. Life is universal.
It is not the result of the organism. The Astral Body.
What it is made of. Its powers and functions. As a model
for the body. It is possessed by all kingdoms of nature. Its
power to travel. The real sense organs are in the astral body.
The place the astral body has at spiritualistic _séances_. The
astral body accounts for telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience,
and all such psychical phenomena. Pages 35 to 44.
CHAPTER VI.
KAMA-DESIRE.
The fourth principle. Kama Rupa. In English, the Passions
and Desires. Kama Rupa is not produced by the body
but is the cause for body. This is the balance principle of the
seven. It is the basis of action and mover of the will. Right
desire leads to right act. This principle has a higher and a
lower aspect. The principle is in the astral body. At death
it coalesces with the astral body and makes of it a shell of the
man. It has powers of its own of an automatic nature. This
shell is the so-called “spirit” of _séances_. It is a danger to the
race. Elementals help this shell at _séances_. No soul or conscience
present. Suicides and executed criminals leave very
coherent shells. The principle of desire is common to all the
organized kingdoms. It is the brute part of man. Man is
now a fully developed quaternary with the higher principles
partially developed. Pages 45 to 51.
CHAPTER VII.
MANAS.
Manas the fifth principle. The first of the real man. This
is the thinking principle and is not the product of brain. Brain
is only its instrument. How the light of mind was given to
mindless men. Perfected men from older systems gave it to
us as they got it from their predecessors. Manas is the storehouse
of all thoughts. Manas is the seer. If the connection
between Manas and brain is broken the person is not able to
cognize. The organs of the body cognize nothing. Manas is
divided into upper and lower. Its four peculiarities. Buddha,
Jesus, and others had Manas fully developed. Atma the Divine
Ego. The permanent individuality. This permanent individuality
has been through every sort of experience in many bodies.
Manas and matter have now a greater facility of action
than in former times. Manas is bound by desire, and this
makes reïncarnation a necessity. Pages 52 to 59.
CHAPTER VIII.
OF REINCARNATION.
Why is man as he is, and how did he come. What the Universe
is for. Spiritual and physical evolution demand reïncarnation.
Reïncarnation on the physical plane is reëmbodiment
or alteration of form. The whole mass of matter of the globe
will one day be men in a period far distant. The doctrine ancient.
Held by the early Christians. Taught by Jesus. What
reïncarnates. Life’s mysteries arise from incomplete incarnation
of the higher principles. It is not transmigration to lower
forms. Explanation of Manu on this. Pages 60 to 69.
CHAPTER IX.
REINCARNATION CONTINUED.
Objections urged. Desire cannot alter law. Early arrivals
in heaven. Must they wait for us. Recognition of the soul not
dependent on objectivity. Heredity not an objection. What
heredity does. Divergences in heredity not recognized. History
goes against heredity. Reïncarnation not unjust. What
is justice. We do not suffer for another’s but for our own
deeds. Memory. Why we do not remember other lives. Who
does? How to account for increase of population. Pages 70 to 78.
CHAPTER X.
ARGUMENTS SUPPORTING REINCARNATION.
From the nature of the soul. From the laws of mind and
soul. From differences in character. From the necessity for
discipline and evolution. From differences of capacity and
start in life at the cradle. Individual identity proves it. The
probable object of life makes it necessary. One life not enough
to carry out Nature’s purposes. Mere death confers no advance.
A school after death is illogical. The persistence of
savagery and decay of nations give support to it. The appearance
of geniuses is due to reïncarnation. Inherent ideas
common to man show it. Opposition to the doctrine based
solely on prejudice. Pages 79 to 88.
CHAPTER XI.
KARMA.
Definition of the word. An unfamiliar term. A beneficent
law. How present life is affected by past acts of other lives.
Each act has a thought at its root. Through Manas they react
on each personal life. Why people are born deformed or
in bad circumstances. The three classes of Karma and its
three fields of operation. National and Racial Karma. Individual
un-happiness and happiness. The Master’s words on Karma.
Pages 89 to 98.
CHAPTER XII.
KAMA LOKA.
The first state after death. Where and what are heaven and
hell? Death of the body only the first step of death. A second
death after that. Separation of the seven principles into
three classes. What is _Kama Loka_? Origin of Christian purgatory.
It is an astral sphere with numerous degrees. The
_Skandhas_. The astral shell of man in _Kama Loka_. It is devoid
of soul, mind, and conscience. It is the “spirit” of the
_séance_ rooms. Classification of shells in _Kama Loka_. Black
magicians there. Fate of suicides and others. Pre-devachanic
unconsciousness. Pages 99 to 108.
CHAPTER XIII.
DEVACHAN.
The meaning of the term. A state of _Atma-Buddhi-Manas_.
Operation of Karma on Devachan. The necessity for Devachan.
It is another sort of thinking with no physical body to
clog it. Only two fields for operation of causes—subjective
and objective. Devachan is one. No time there for the soul.
Length of stay therein. Mathematics of the soul. Average
stay therein is 1500 mortal years. Depends on psychic impulses
of life. Its use and purpose. On the last thoughts at death
the devachanic state is fashioned. Devachan not meaningless.
Do we see those left behind? We bring their images before
us. Entities in Devachan have a power to help those they
love. Mediums cannot go to those in Devachan except in rare
cases and when the person is pure. Adepts only can help
those in Devachan. Pages 109 to 116.
CHAPTER XIV.
CYCLES.
One of the most important doctrines. Corresponding words
in the Sanskrit. Few cycles known to the West. They cause
the reäppearance of former living personages. They affect
life and evolution. When did the first moment come. The first
rate of vibration determines the subsequent ones. When man
leaves the globe the forces die. Convulsions and cataclysms.
Reïncarnation and karma intermixed with cyclic law. Civilizations
cycle back. The cycle of Avatars. Krishna, Buddha,
and others come under cycles. Minor personages and great
leaders. Intersection of cycles causes convulsions. The Moon,
Sun, and Sidereal cycles. Individual cycles and that of reïncarnation.
The motion through the constellations, and the
meaning of the story of Jonah. The Zodiacal clock. How the
ideas are impressed and preserved by nations. Cause for
earthquakes, Cosmic Fire, Glaciation, and Floods. The Brahmanical
Cycles. Pages 117 to 126.
CHAPTER XV.
DIFFERENTIATION OF SPECIES—MISSING LINKS.
Ultimate origin of man not discoverable. Man not derived
from a single pair, nor from the animals. Seven races of men
appeared simultaneously on the globe. They are now amalgamated
and will differentiate. The Anthropoid Apes. Their
origin. They came from man. They are the descendants of
offspring from unnatural union in the third and fourth rounds.
The Delayed Races. The secret books on the question. Human
features of apes accounted for. The lower kingdoms
from other planets. Their differentiation by intelligent interference
by the Dhyanis. The midway point of evolution.
Astral forms of old rounds solidified in physical rounds.
Missing links, what they are and why Science cannot discover
them. The aim of Nature in all this work. Pages 127 to 134.
CHAPTER XVI.
PSYCHIC LAWS, FORCES, AND PHENOMENA.
No true psychology in the West. It exists in the Orient.
Man the mirror of all forces. Gravitation only a half law.
Importance of polarity and cohesion. Rendering objects invisible.
Imagination all powerful. Mental telegraphy. Reading
minds is burglary. Apportation, clairvoyance, clairaudience,
and second-sight. Pictures in the Astral Light. Dreams
and visions. Apparitions. Real clairvoyance. Inner stimulus
makes outer impression. Astral Light the Register of
everything. Pages 135 to 146.
CHAPTER XVII.
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA AND SPIRITUALISM.
Spiritualism wrongly named. Should be called necromancy
and the worship of the dead. This cult did not originate in
America. The practice long known in India. The facts recorded
deserve examination. Theosophists admit the facts but
interpret them differently from the “spiritualist.” The examination
confined to the question of whether the dead return.
The dead do not return thus. The mass of communications
are from the astral shell of man. Objections stated to the
claims made by mediums. The record justifies the ridicule of
science. Materialization and what it is. A mass of electric
magnetic matter with a picture upon it from the astral light.
Or it is the astral body of the medium extruded from the
living body. Analysis of the laws to be known before the
phenomena can be understood. The _timbre_ of the “independent
voice.” Importance of the astral realm. The Dangers of
mediumship. Attempt to get these powers for money or
selfish ends also dangerous. Cyclic law ordains the slackening
of the force at this time. The purpose of the Lodge.
Pages 147 to 154.
THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY.
CHAPTER I.
Theosophy is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to shore
of the evolution of sentient beings; unfathomable in its deepest
parts, it gives the greatest minds their fullest scope, yet, shallow
enough at its shores, it will not overwhelm the understanding of a
child. It is wisdom about God for those who believe that he is all
things and in all, and wisdom about nature for the man who accepts the
statement found in the Christian Bible that God cannot be measured
or discovered, and that darkness is around his pavilion. Although it
contains by derivation the name God and thus may seem at first sight
to embrace religion alone, it does not neglect science, for it is the
science of sciences and therefore has been called the wisdom religion.
For no science is complete which leaves out any department of nature,
whether visible or invisible, and that religion which, depending solely
on an assumed revelation, turns away from things and the laws which
govern them is nothing but a delusion, a foe to progress, an obstacle
in the way of man’s advancement toward happiness. Embracing both the
scientific and the religious, Theosophy is a scientific religion and a
religious science.
It is not a belief or dogma formulated or invented by man, but is a
knowledge of the laws which govern the evolution of the physical,
astral, psychical, and intellectual constituents of nature and of man.
The religion of the day is but a series of dogmas man-made and with no
scientific foundation for promulgated ethics; while our science as yet
ignores the unseen, and failing to admit the existence of a complete
set of inner faculties of perception in man, it is cut off from the
immense and real field of experience which lies within the visible and
tangible worlds. But Theosophy knows that the whole is constituted of
the visible and the invisible, and perceiving outer things and objects
to be but transitory it grasps the facts of nature, both without and
within. It is therefore complete in itself and sees no unsolvable
mystery anywhere; it throws the word coincidence out of its vocabulary
and hails the reign of law in everything and every circumstance.
That man possesses an immortal soul is the common belief of humanity;
to this Theosophy adds that he is a soul; and further that all nature
is sentient, that the vast array of objects and men are not mere
collections of atoms fortuitously thrown together and thus without law
evolving law, but down to the smallest atom all is soul and spirit
ever evolving under the rule of law which is inherent in the whole.
And just as the ancients taught, so does Theosophy; that the course of
evolution is the drama of the soul and that nature exists for no other
purpose than the soul’s experience. The Theosophist agrees with Prof.
Huxley in the assertion that there must be beings in the universe whose
intelligence is as much beyond ours as ours exceeds that of the black
beetle, and who take an active part in the government of the natural
order of things. Pushing further on by the light of the confidence had
in his teachers, the Theosophist adds that such intelligences were once
human and came like all of us from other and previous worlds, where
as varied experience had been gained as is possible on this one. We
are therefore not appearing for the first time when we come upon this
planet, but have pursued a long, an immeasurable course of activity
and intelligent perception on other systems of globes, some of which
were destroyed ages before the solar system condensed. This immense
reach of the evolutionary system means, then, that this planet on which
we now are is the result of the activity and the evolution of some
other one that died long ago, leaving its energy to be used in the
bringing into existence of the earth, and that the inhabitants of the
latter in their turn came from some older world to proceed here with
the destined work in matter. And the brighter planets, such as Venus,
are the habitation of still more progressed entities, once as low as
ourselves, but now raised up to a pitch of glory incomprehensible for
our intellects.
The most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never, then, been
without a friend, but has a line of elder brothers who continually
watch over the progress of the less progressed, preserve the knowledge
gained through aeons of trial and experience, and continually seek
for opportunities of drawing the developing intelligence of the race
on this or other globes to consider the great truths concerning the
destiny of the soul. These elder brothers also keep the knowledge they
have gained of the laws of nature in all departments, and are ready
when cyclic law permits to use it for the benefit of mankind. They have
always existed as a body, all knowing each other, no matter in what
part of the world they may be, and all working for the race in many
different ways. In some periods they are well known to the people and
move among ordinary men whenever the social organization, the virtue,
and the development of the nations permit it. For if they were to come
out openly and be heard of everywhere, they would be worshipped as gods
by some and hunted as devils by others. In those periods when they do
come out some of their number are rulers of men, some teachers, a few
great philosophers, while others remain still unknown except to the
most advanced of the body.
It would be subversive of the ends they have in view were they to make
themselves public in the present civilization, which is based almost
wholly on money, fame, glory, and personality. For this age, as one of
them has already said, “is an age of transition”, when every system
of thought, science, religion, government, and society is changing,
and men’s minds are only preparing for an alteration into that state
which will permit the race to advance to the point suitable for these
elder brothers to introduce their actual presence to our sight. They
may be truly called the bearers of the torch of truth across the ages;
they investigate all things and beings; they know what man is in his
innermost nature and what his powers and destiny, his state before
birth and the states into which he goes after the death of his body;
they have stood by the cradle of nations and seen the vast achievements
of the ancients, watched sadly the decay of those who had no power to
resist the cyclic law of rise and fall; and while cataclysms seemed
to show a universal destruction of art, architecture, religion, and
philosophy, they have preserved the records of it all in places
secure from the ravages of either men or time; they have made minute
observations, through trained psychics among their own order, into
the unseen realms of nature and of mind, recorded the observations
and preserved the record; they have mastered the mysteries of sound
and color through which alone the elemental beings behind the veil of
matter can be communicated with, and thus can tell why the rain falls
and what it falls for, whether the earth is hollow or not, what makes
the wind to blow and light to shine, and greater feat than all—one
which implies a knowledge of the very foundations of nature—they know
what the ultimate divisions of time are and what are the meaning and
the times of the cycles.
But, asks the busy man of the nineteenth century who reads the
newspapers and believes in “modern progress,” if these elder brothers
are all you claim them to be, why have they left no mark on history nor
gathered men around them? Their own reply, published some time ago by
Mr. A. P. Sinnett, is better than any I could write.
“We will first discuss, if you please, the one relating to the
presumed failure of the ‘Fraternity’ to leave any mark upon the
history of the world. They ought, you think, to have been able, with
their extraordinary advantages, to have gathered into their schools
a considerable portion of the more enlightened minds of every race.
How do you know they have made no such mark? Are you acquainted with
their efforts, successes, and failures? Have you any dock upon which
to arraign them? How could your world collect proofs of the doings of
men who have sedulously kept closed every possible door of approach by
which the inquisitive could spy upon them? The precise condition of
their success was that they should never be supervised or obstructed.
What they have done they know; all that those outside their circle
could perceive was the results, the causes of which were masked from
view. To account for these results, many have in different ages
invented theories of the interposition of gods, special providences,
fates, the benign or hostile influences of the stars. There never
was a time within or before the so-called historical period when our
predecessors were not moulding events and ‘making history,’ the facts
of which were subsequently and invariably distorted by historians to
suit contemporary prejudices. Are you quite sure that the visible
heroic figures in the successive dramas were not often but their
puppets? We never pretended to be able to draw nations in the mass
to this or that crisis in spite of the general drift of the world’s
cosmic relations. The cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental
and moral light and darkness succeed each other as day does night. The
major and minor yugas must be accomplished according to the established
order of things. And we, borne along the mighty tide, can only modify
and direct some of its minor currents.”
It is under cyclic law, during a dark period in the history of mind,
that the true philosophy disappears for a time, but the same law
causes it to reappear as surely as the sun rises and the human mind is
present to see it. But some works can only be performed by the 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 more the
elder brothers have indicated where the truth—Theosophy—could be found,
and the companions all over the world are engaged in bringing it forth
for wider currency and propagation.
The Elder Brothers of Humanity are men who were perfected in former
periods of evolution. These periods of manifestation are unknown to
modern evolutionists so far as their number are concerned, though
long ago understood by not only the older Hindus, but also by those
great minds and men who instituted and carried on the first pure and
undebased form of the Mysteries of Greece. The periods, when out of
the Great Unknown there come forth the visible universes, are eternal
in their coming and going, alternating with equal periods of silence
and rest again in the Unknown. The object of these mighty waves is
the production of perfect man, the evolution of soul, and they always
witness the increase of the number of Elder Brothers; the life of the
least of men pictures them in day and night, waking and sleeping, birth
and death, “for these two, light and dark, day and night, are the
world’s eternal ways.”
In every age and complete national history these men of power and
compassion are given different designations. They have been called
Initiates, Adepts, Magi, Hierophants, Kings of the East, Wise Men,
Brothers, and what not. But in the Sanscrit language there is a word
which, being applied to them, at once thoroughly identifies them with
humanity. It is Mahatma. This is composed of _Maha_ great, and _Atma_
soul; so it means great soul, and as all men are souls the distinction
of the Mahatma lies in greatness. The term Mahatma has come into
wide use through the Theosophical Society, as Mme. H. P. Blavatsky
constantly referred to them as her Masters who gave her the knowledge
she possessed. They were at first known only as the Brothers, but
afterwards, when many Hindus flocked to the Theosophical movement, the
name Mahatma was brought into use, inasmuch as it has behind it an
immense body of Indian tradition and literature. At different times
unscrupulous enemies of the Theosophical Society have said that even
this name had been invented and that such beings are not known of among
the Indians or in their literature. But these assertions are made
only to discredit if possible a philosophical movement that threatens
to completely upset prevailing erroneous theological dogmas. For all
through Hindu literature Mahatmas are often spoken of, and in parts of
the north of that country the term is common. In the very old poem the
_Bhagavad-Gîtâ_, revered by all Hindu sects and admitted by the western
critics to be noble as well as beautiful, there is a verse reading,
“Such a Mahatma is difficult to find.”
But irrespective of all disputes as to specific names, there is
sufficient argument and proof to show that a body of men having the
wonderful knowledge described above has always existed and probably
exists to-day. The older mysteries continually refer to them. Ancient
Egypt had them in her great king-Initiates, sons of the sun and
friends of great gods. There is a habit of belittling the ideas of the
ancients which is in itself belittling to the people of to-day. Even
the Christian who reverently speaks of Abraham as “the friend of God”,
will scornfully laugh at the idea of the claims of Egyptian rulers to
the same friendship being other than childish assumption of dignity
and title. But the truth is, these great Egyptians were Initiates,
members of the one great lodge which includes all others of whatever
degree or operation. The later and declining Egyptians, of course, must
have imitated their predecessors, but that was when the true doctrine
was beginning once more to be obscured upon the rise of dogma and
priesthood.
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 future generations.
Abraham and Moses of the Jews are two other Initiates, Adepts who had
their work to do with a certain people; and in the history of Abraham
we meet with Melchizedek, who was so much beyond Abraham that he had
the right to confer upon the latter a dignity, a privilege, or a
blessing. The same chapter of human history which contains the names
of Moses and Abraham is illuminated also by that of Solomon. And thus
these three make a great Triad of Adepts, the record of whose deeds can
not be brushed aside as folly and devoid of basis.
Moses was educated by the Egyptians and in Midian, from both of which
he gained much occult knowledge, and any clear-seeing student of
the great Universal Masonry can perceive all through his books the
hand, the plan, and the work of a master. Abraham again knew all the
arts and much of the power in psychical realms that were cultivated
in his day, or else he could not have consorted with kings nor have
been “the friend of God”, and the reference to his conversations with
the Almighty in respect to the destruction of cities alone shows him
to have been an Adept who had long ago passed beyond the need of
ceremonial or other adventitious aids. Solomon completes this triad and
stands out in characters of fire. Around him is clustered such a mass
of legend and story about his dealings with the elemental powers and of
his magic possessions that one must condemn the whole ancient world as
a collection of fools who made lies for amusement if a denial is made
of his being a great character, a wonderful example of the incarnation
among men of a powerful Adept. We do not have to accept the name
Solomon nor the pretense that he reigned over the Jews, but we must
admit the fact that somewhere in the misty time to which the Jewish
records refer there lived and moved among the people of the earth one
who was an Adept and given that name afterwards. Peripatetics and
microscopic critics may affect to see in the prevalence of universal
tradition naught but evidence of the gullibility of men and their
power to imitate, but the true student of human nature and life knows
that the universal tradition is true and arises from the facts in the
history of man.
Turning to India, so long forgotten and ignored by the lusty and
egotistical, the fighting and the trading West, we find her full of the
lore relating to these wonderful men of whom Noah, Abraham, Moses, and
Solomon are only examples. There the people are fitted by temperament
and climate to be the preservers of the philosophical, ethical, and
psychical jewels that would have been forever lost to us had they been
left to the ravages of such Goths and Vandals as western nations were
in the early days of their struggle for education and civilization.
If the men who wantonly burned up vast masses of historical and
ethnological treasures found by the minions of the Catholic rulers
of Spain, 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 all as they did for the Americans, and as their
predecessors attempted to do for the Alexandrian library. Fortunately
events worked otherwise.
All along the stream of Indian literature we can find the names by
scores of great adepts who were well known to the people and who all
taught the same story—the great epic of the human soul. Their names are
unfamiliar to western ears, but the records of their thoughts, their
work and powers remain. Still more, in the quiet unmoveable East there
are to-day by the hundred persons who know of their own knowledge that
the Great Lodge still exists and has its Mahatmas, Adepts, Initiates,
Brothers. And yet further, in that land are such a number of experts in
the practical application of minor though still very astonishing power
over nature and her forces, that we have an irresistible mass of human
evidence to prove the proposition laid down.
And if Theosophy—the teaching of this Great Lodge—is as said, both
scientific and religious, then from the ethical side we have still more
proof. A mighty Triad acting on and through ethics is that composed of
Buddha, Confucius, and Jesus. The first, a Hindoo, founds a religion
which to-day 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
of the one single brotherhood, who all have a single doctrine. And
the extraordinary characters who now and again appear in western
civilization, such as St. Germain, Jacob Boehme, Cagliostro,
Paracelsus, Mesmer, Count St. Martin, and Madame H. P. Blavatsky,
are agents for the doing of the work of the Great Lodge at the
proper time. It is true they are generally reviled and classed as
impostors—though 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 to-day if he appeared in some Fifth avenue
theatrical church rebuking the professed Christians. Paracelsus was
the originator of valuable methods and treatments in medicine now
universally used. Mesmer taught hypnotism under another name. Madame
Blavatsky brought once more to the attention of the West the most
important system, long known to the Lodge, respecting man, his nature
and destiny. But all are alike called imposters by a people who have
no original philosophy of their own and whose mendicant and criminal
classes exceed in misery and in number those of any civilization on the
earth.
It will not be unusual for nearly all occidental readers to wonder how
men could possibly know so much and have such power over the operations
of natural law as I have ascribed to the Initiates, now so commonly
spoken of as the Mahatmas. In India, China, and other Oriental lands no
wonder would arise on these heads, because there, although everything
of a material civilization is just now in a backward state, they have
never lost a belief in the inner nature of man and in the power he may
exercise if he will. Consequently living examples of such powers and
capacities have not been absent from those people. But in the West a
materialistic civilization having arisen through a denial of the soul
life and nature consequent upon a reaction from illogical dogmatism,
there has not been any investigation of these subjects and, until
lately, the general public has not believed in the possibility of
anyone save a supposed God having such power.
A Mahatma endowed with power over space, time, mind, and matter, is
a possibility just because he is a perfected man. Every human being
has the germ of all the powers attributed to these great Initiates,
the difference lying solely in the fact that we have in general
not developed what we possess the germ of, while the Mahatma has
gone through the training and experience which have caused all the
unseen human powers to develop in him, and conferred gifts that look
god-like to his struggling brother below. Telepathy, mind-reading, and
hypnotism, all long ago known to Theosophy, show the existence in the
human subject of planes of consciousness, functions, and faculties
hitherto undreamed of. Mind-reading and the influencing of the mind
of the hypnotized subject at a distance prove the existence of a mind
which is not wholly dependent upon a brain, and that a medium exists
through which the influencing thought may be sent. It is under this
law that the Initiates can communicate with each other at no matter
what distance. Its _rationale_, not yet admitted by the schools of
the hypnotizers, is, that if the two minds vibrate or change into the
same state they will think alike, or, in other words, the one who is
to hear at a distance receives the impression sent by the other. In
the same way with all other powers, no matter how extraordinary. They
are all natural, although now unusual, just as great musical ability
is natural though not usual or common. If an Initiate can make a solid
object move without contact, it is because he understands the two laws
of attraction and repulsion of which “gravitation” is but the name for
one; if he is able to precipitate out of the viewless air the carbon
which we know is in it, forming the carbon into sentences upon the
paper, it is through his knowledge of the occult higher chemistry, and
the use of a trained and powerful image making faculty which every man
possesses; if he reads your thoughts with ease, that results from the
use of the inner and only real powers of sight, which require no retina
to see the fine-pictured web which the vibrating brain of man weaves
about him. All that the Mahatma may do is natural to the perfected man;
but if those powers are not at once revealed to us it is because the
race is as yet selfish altogether and still living for the present and
the transitory.
I repeat then, that though the true doctrine disappears for a time
from among men it is bound to reäppear, because first, it is impacted
in the imperishable center of man’s nature; and secondly, the Lodge
forever preserves it, not only in actual objective records, but also in
the intelligent and fully self-conscious men who, having successfully
overpassed the many periods of evolution which preceded the one we
are now involved in, cannot lose the precious possessions they have
acquired. And because the elder brothers are the highest product of
evolution through whom alone, in cöoperation with the whole human
family, the further regular and workmanlike prosecution of the plans of
the Great Architect of the Universe could be carried on, I have thought
it well to advert to them and their Universal Lodge before going to
other parts of the subject.