Theosophy : a modern revival of ancient wisdom

Preface

Since this work was designed to be one of a series of studies in American religions, the treatment of the subject was consciously limited to those aspects of ‘Theosophy which are in some manner distinctively related to America. ‘This restriction has been difficult to enforce for the reason that, though officially born here, Theosophy has never since its inception had its headquarters on this continent. The springs of the movement have emanated from foreign sources and influences. Its prime inspiration has come from ancient Oriental cultures. America in this case has rather adopted an exotic cult than evolved it from the conditions of her native milieu. The main events in American ‘Theosophic history have been mostly repercussions of events transpiring in English, Continental, or Indian Theosophy. It was thus virtually impossible to segregate American Theosophy from its connections with foreign leadership. But the attempt to do so has made it necessary to give meagre treatment to some of the major currents of world-wide Theosophic development. The book does not purport to be a complete history of Theosophy, but it is an attempt to present a unified picture of the movement in its larger aspects. No effort has been made to weigh the truth or falsity of Theosophic principles, but an effort has been made to understand their significance in relation to the historical situation and psychological disposition of those who have adopted it.

The author wishes to express his obligation to several persons without whose assistance the enterprise would have been more onerous and less successful. His thanks are due in largest measure to Professor Roy F. Mitchell of New York University, and to Mrs. Mitchell, for placing at his disposal much of their time and of their wide knowledge of Theosophic material; to Mr. L. W. Rogers, President of the American Theosophical Society, Wheaton, Illinois, for cordial

vill vill PREFACE co-operation in the matter of the questionnaire, and to the many members of the Society who took pains to reply to the questions; to Mr. John Garrigues, of the United Lodge of Theosophists, New York, for valuable data out of his great store of Theosophic information, and to several of the ladies at the U.L.T. Reading Room for library assistance; to Professor Louis H. Gray, of Columbia University, for technical criticism in Sanskrit terminology; to Mr. Arthur E. Christy, of Columbia University, for data showing Emerson’s indebtedness to Oriental philosophy; and to Professor Herbert W. Schneider, of Columbia University, for his painstaking criticism of the study throughout.

A. B. K.

New York City

September, 1930

CHAPTER I. THEosopuy, AN ANCIENT TRADITION

II. THe AMERICAN BacKGOUND OF THEOSOPHY

By g Bo oF IL We 4 8, SA aN RO

IV. From SpiriruALismM TO THEOSOPHY .

MST SE INV ETD oboe [ie ley hyes eae VI. Toe Manatmas AND THEIR LETTERS VII. Storm, Wreck, AND REBUILDING. .

IX. Evotution, REBirTH, AND KARMA .

X. Esoteric WispomM AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE

XI. THEOosopHY IN ETHICAL PRACTICE. .

XII. Later THEosopuicaL History. . .

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INDEX e e e e ° ° e e e . e e e e

IIS 147

194 232

301 341

351 375

THEOSOPHY

CHAPTER I

In the mind of the general public Theosophy is classed with Spiritualism, New Thought, Unity and Christian Science, as one of the modern cults. It needs but a slight acquaintance with the facts in the case to reveal that Theosophy is amenable to this classification only in the most superficial sense. Though the Theosophical Society is recent, theosophy, in the sense of an esoteric philosophic mystic system of religious thought, must be ranked as one of the most ancient traditions. It is not a mere cult, in the sense of being the expression of a quite specialized form of devotion, practice, or theory, propagated by a small group. Itisa summation and synthesis of many cults of all times. It is as broad and universal a motif, let us say, as mysticism. It is one of the most permanent phases of religion, and as such it has welled up again and again in the life of mankind. It is that “wisdom of the divine” which has been in the world practically continuously since ancient times. The movement of today is but another periodical recurrence of a phenomenon which has marked the course of history from classical antiquity. Not always visible in outward organization— indeed never formally organized as Theosophy under that name until now—the thread of theosophic teaching and temperament can be traced in almost unbroken course from ancient times to the present. It has often been subterranean, inasmuch as esotericism and secrecy have been essential elements of its very constitution. The modern presentation of theosophy differs from all the past ones chiefly in that it has lifted the veil that cloaked its teachings in mystery, and offered alleged secrets freely to the world. Theosophists tell us that before the launching of the latest ‘‘drive”’ to promulgate Theosophy in the world, the councils of the Great White Brotherhood of Adepts, or Mahatmas, long debated whether the times were ripe for the free propagation of the secret Gnosis; whether the modern world, with its Western dominance and with the prevalence of materialistic standards, could appropriate the sacred knowledge without the risk of serious misuse of high spiritual forces, which might be diverted into selfish channels. We are told that in these councils it was the majority opinion that broadcasting the Ancient Wisdom over the Occidental areas would be a veritable casting of pearls before swine; yet two of the Mahatmas settled the question by undertaking to assume all karmic debts for the move, to take the responsibility for all possible disturbances and ill effects.

If we look at the matter through Theosophic eyes, we are led to believe that when in the fall of 1875 Madame Blavatsky, Col. H. S. Olcott, and Mr. W. Q. Judge took out the charter for the Theosophical Society in New York, the world was witnessing a really major event in human history. Not only did it signify that one more of the many recurrent waves of esoteric cultism was launched but that this time practically the whole body of occult lore, which had been so sedulously guarded in mystery schools, brotherhoods, secret societies, religious orders, and other varieties of organization, was finally to be given to the world en pleine lumiére! At last the lid of antiquity’s treasure chest would be lifted and the contents exposed to public gaze. There might even be found therein the solution to the riddle of the Sphynx! The great Secret Doctrine was to be taught openly; Isis was to be unveiled!

To understand the periodical recurrence of the theosophic tendency in history it is necessary to note two cardinal features of the Theosophic theory of development. The first is that progress in religion, philosophy, science, or art is not a direct advance, but an advance in cyclical swirls. When you view progress in small sections, it may appear to be a development in a straight line; but if your gaze takes in the whole course of history, you will see the outlines of a quite different method of progress. You will not see uninterrupted unfolding of human life, but advances and retreats, plunges and recessions. Spring does not emerge from winter by a steady rise of temperature, but by successive rushes of heat, each carrying the season a bit ahead. Movement in nature is cyclical and periodic. History progresses through the rise and fall of nations. The true symbol of progress is the helix, motion round and round, but tending upward at each swirl. But we must have large perspectives if we are to see the gyrations of the helix.

The application of this interpretation of progress to philosophy and religion is this: the evolution of ideas apparently repeats itself at intervals time after time, a closed circuit of theories running through the same succession at many points in history. Scholars have discerned this fact in regard to the various types of government: monarchy working over into oligarchy, which shifts to democracy, out of which monarchy arises again. The round has also been observed in the domain of philosophy, where development starts with revelation and proceeds through rationalism to empiricism, and, in revulsion from that, swings back to authority or mystic revelation once more. Hegel’s theory that progress was not in a straight line but in cycles formed by the manifestation of thesis, antithesis, and then synthesis, which in turn becomes the ground of a new thesis, is but a variation of this general theme.

Theosophists, then, regard their movement as but the renaissance of the esoteric and occult aspect of human thought in this particular swing of the spiral.

The second aspect of the occult theory of development is a method of interpretation which claims to furnish a key to the understanding of religious history. Briefly, the theory is that religions never evolve; they always degenerate. Contrary to the assumptions of comparative mythology, they do not originate in crude primitive feelings or ideas, and then transform themselves slowly into loftier and purer ones. They begin lofty and pure, and deteriorate into crasser forms. They come forth in the glow of spirituality and living power and later pass into empty forms and lifeless practices. From the might of the spirit they contract into the materialism of the letter. No religion can rise above its source, can surpass its founder; and the more exalted the founder and his message, the more certainly is degeneration to be looked for. There is always gradual change in the direction of obscuration and loss of primal vision, initial force. Religions tend constantly to wane, and need repeated revivals and reformations. Nowhere is it possible to discern anything remotely like steady growth in spiritual unfolding.

It is the occult theory that what we find when we search the many religions of the earth is but the fragments, the dissociated and distorted units of what were once profound and coherent systems. It is difficult to trace in the isolated remnants the contour of the original structure. But it is this completed system which the Theosophist seeks to reconstruct from the scattered remnants.

Religion, then, is a phase of human life which is alleged to operate on a principle exactly opposite to evoluticn, and theosophy believes this key makes it intelligible. Religions never claim to have evolved from human society; they claim to be gifts to humanity. They come to man with the seal of some divine authority and the stamp of supreme perfection. Not only are they born above the world, but they are brought to the world by the embodied divinity of a great Messenger, a Savior, a World-Teacher, a Prophet, a Sage, a Son of God. These bring their own credentials in the form of a divine life. Their words and works bespeak the glory that earth can not engender.

The two phases of theosophic explanation can now be linked into a unified principle. Religions come periodically; and they are given to men from high sources, by supermen. The theory of growth from crude beginnings to spirituality tacitly assumes that man is alone in the universe and left entirely to his own devices; that he must learn everything for himself from experience, which somehow enlarges his faculties and quickens them for higher conceptions. This view, says occultism, does unnatural violence to the fundamental economy.of the universe, wrenching humanity out of its proper setting and relationship in an order of harmony and fitness. Humankind is made to be the sole manipulator of intelligence, the favored beneficiary of evolution, and as such is severed from its natural connection with the rest of the cosmic scheme. So small and poor a view does pitiable injustice to the wealth of the cosmic resources. Bruno, Copernicus, and modern science have taught us that man is not the darling of creation, nor the only child in the cosmic family, the pampered ward of the gods. Far from it; he is one among the order of beings, occupying his proper place in relation to vaster hierarchies than he has knowledge of, above and below him.!

What is the character of that relationship? It is, says the esoteric teaching, that of guardian and ward; of a young race in the tutelage of an older; of infant humanity being taught by more highly evolved beings, whose intelligence is to that of early man as an adept’s to a tyro’s. It is the relationship of children to parents or guardians. Throughout our history we have been the wards of an elder race, or at least of the elder brothers of our own race. The members of a former evolutionary school have turned back often, like the guardians in Plato’s cave allegory, to instruct us in vital knowledge. The wisdom of the ages, the knowledge of the very Ancients of Days, has at times been handed down to us. The human family has produced some advanced Sages, Seers, _ Adepts, Christs, and these have cared for the less-advanced classes, and have from time to time given out a body of deeper wisdom than man’s own. Theosophy claims that it

1 The same idea is voiced by William James (Pragmatism, p. 299): “I thoroughly disbelieve, myself, that our human experience is the highest form of experience extant in the universe. I believe rather that we stand in much the same relation to the whole of the universe as our canine and feline pets do to the whole of human life. They inhabit our drawing rooms and libraries. They take part in scenes of whose significance they have no inkling. They are merely tangent to curves of history, the beginnings and ends and forms of which pass wholly beyond their ken. So we are tangent to the wider life of things.”’

is the traditional memory of these noble characters, their lives and messages, which has left the ancient field strewn with the legends of its Gods, Kings, Magi, Rishis, Avatars and its great semi-divine heroes. Such wisdom and knowledge as they could wisely and safely impart they have handed down, either coming themselves to earth from more ethereal realms, or commissioning competent representatives. And thus the world has periodically been given the boon of a new religion and a new stimulus from the earthly presence of a savior regarded as divine. And always the gospel contained milk for the babes and meat for grown men. There was both an exoteric and an esoteric doctrine. The former was broadcast among the masses, and did its proper and salutary work for them; the latter, however, was imparted only to the fit and disciplined initiates in secret organizations. Much real truth was hidden behind the veil of allegory; myth and symbol were employed. This aggregate of precious knowledge, this innermost heart of the secret teaching of the gods to mankind, is, needless to say, the Ancient Wisdom—is Theosophy. Or at least Theosophy claims the key to all this body of wisdom. It has always been in the world, but never publicly promulgated until now.

To trace the currents of esoteric influence in ancient religious literature would be the work of volumes. Theosophic or kindred doctrines are to be found in a large number of the world’s sacred books or bibles. The lore of India, China, Persia, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, yields material for Theosophy.

Philosophy, not less than religion, bears the stamp of theosophical ideology. Traces of the occult doctrine permeate most of the thought systems of the past. All histories of philosophy in the western world begin, with or without brief apology to the venerable systems of the Orient, with Thales of Miletus and the early Greek thinkers of about the sixth century B.c. In the dim background stand Homer and Hesiod and Pindar and the myths of the Olympian pantheon. Contemporary religious faiths, too, such as the cult of

Pythagoreanism,? and the Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries, influenced philosophical speculation.

It needs no extraordinary erudition to trace the stream of esoteric teaching through the field of Greek philosophy. What is really surprising is that the world of modern scholarship should have so long assumed that Greek speculation developed without reference to the wide-spread religious cult systems which transfused the thought of the near-Eastern nations. Esotericism was an ingrained characteristic of the Oriental mind and Greece could no more escape the contagion than could Egypt or Persia. The occultist endeavors to make the point that practically all of early Greek philosophy dealt with materials presented by the Dionysiac and Orphic Mysteries and later by the Pythagorean revisions of these.’

Thales’ fragments contain Theosophical ideas in his identification of the physis with the soul of the universe, and in his affirmation that “the materiality of physis is supersensible.” Thales thought that this physis or natural world was “full of gods.”’* Both these conceptions of the impersonal and the personal physis, the latter a reasoning substance approaching Nous, came out of the continuum of the group soul, as a vehicle of magic power.> Man was believed to stand in a sympathetic relation to this nature or physis, and the deepening of his sympathetic attitude was supposed to give him nothing less than magical control over its elements.

Prominent among the Orphic tenets was that of reincarnation, possibly a transference to man of the annual rebirth

2 See in particular such works as From Religion to Philosophy, by F. M. Cornford (London, 1912), and From Orpheus to Paul, by Prof. Vittorio D. Macchioro (New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1930).

$“ The work of philosophy thus appears as an elucidation and clarifying of religious material. It does not create its new conceptual tools; it rather discovers them by ever subtler analysis and closer definition of the elements confused in the original datum.”—From Religion to Philosophy, by F. M. Cornford, p. 126.

4 Ibid., pp. 94 ff.

5“ Physis was not an object, but a metaphysical substance. It differs from modern ether in being thought actual. It is important to notice that Greek speculation was not based on observation of external nature. It is more easily understood as an echo from the Orphic teachings.”—Jbid., pp. 136 ff.

in nature. Worship of heavenly bodies as aiding periodical harvests found a place here also.6 The conception of the wheel of Dike and Moira, the allotted flow and apportionment in time as well as place, of all things, nature and man together, was underlying in the ancient Greek mind. Persian occult ideas may have influenced the Orphic systems.’

Anaximander added to the scientific doctrines of Thales the idea of compensatory retribution for the transgression of Moira’s bounds which suggests Karma. The sum of Heraclitus’ teaching is the One Soul of the universe, in everrunning cycles of expression—“ Fire § lives the death of air, air lives the death of fire; earth lives the death of water, water lives the death of earth.” ® And interwoven with it is a sort of justice which resembles karmic force. ™

Dionysiac influence brought the theme of reincarnation prominently to the fore in metaphysical thinking."

Socrates, in the Phaedo, speaks of “the ancient doctrine that souls pass out of this world to the other, and there exist, and then come back hither from the dead, and are born again.” In Hesiod’s Works and Days there is the image of the Wheel of Life. In the mystical tradition there was prominent the wide-spread notion of a fall of higher forms of life into the human sphere of limitation and misery. The Orphics definitely taught that the soul of man fell from the stars into the prison of this earthly body, sinking from the upper regions of fire and light into the misty darkness of this dismal vale. The fall is ascribed to some original sin, which

6 “The fate of man was sympathetically related to the circling lights of heaven.”— [bid., p. 171.

7 Tbid., pp. 176 ff.

8The universal soul substance.

® Quoted by F. M. Cornford, From Religion to Philosophy, p. 185.

10 For the Orphic origin of Heraclitus’ philosophy consult From Orpheus to Paul, by Prof. Vittorio D. Macchioro, pp. 169 ff.

11 “The most primitive of these (cardinal doctrines of mysticism) is Reincarnation (palingenesis). This life, which is perpetually renewed, is reborn out of that opposite state called ‘death,’ into which, at the other end of its arc, it passes again. In this idea of Reincarnation . . . we have the first conception of a cycle of existence, a Wheel of Life, divided into two hemicycles of light and darkness, through which the one life, or soul, continuously revolves.”—From Religion to Philosophy, p. 160.

entailed expulsion from the purity and perfection of divine existence and had to be expiated by life on earth and by purgation in the nether world.”

The philosophies of Parmenides, Empedocles, and Plato came directly out of the Pythagorean movement." Aristotle described Empedocles’ poems as “Esoteric,” and it is thought that Parmenides’ poems were similarly so. Parmenides’ theory that the earth is the plane of life outermost, most remotely descended from God, is re-echoed in theosophic schematism. Also his idea—“‘The downward fall of life from the heavenly fires is countered by an upward impulse which

‘sends the soul back from the seen to the unseen’ ’”—completes the Theosophic picture of outgoing and return. Parmenides “was really the ‘associate’ of a Pythagorean, Ameinias, son of Diochartas, a poor but noble man, to whom he afterwards built a shrine, as to a hero.” 14 “Strabo describes Parmenides and Zeno as Pythagoreans.” 1 Cornford’s comment on the philosophy of Empedocles leaves little doubt as to its origin in the Mysteries.'® Strife causes the fall, love brings the return.

12 “Caught in the wheel of birth, the soul passes through the forms of man and beast and plant.”—From Religion to Philosophy, p. 178.

18 From Religion to Philosophy, p. 197. Also From Orpheus to Paul, Chapter VIII.

14 John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy (London, 1920), p. 138.

16 “That the doctrine (exile of the soul from God) . . . was not invented by Empedocles is certain from the fact that the essential features of it are found in Pindar’s second Olympian, written for Theron of Acragas, where Empedocles was born, at a date when Empedocles was a boy. Throughout the course of that majestic Ode revolves the Wheel of Time, Destiny and Judgment. The doctrine can be classed unhesitatingly as ‘Orphic.’ The soul is conceived as falling from the region of light down into the ‘roofed-in cave,’ the ‘dark meadow of Ate.’ (Frag. 119, 120, 121.) This fall is a penalty for sin, flesh-eating or oath-breaking. Caught in the Wheel of Time, the soul, preserving its individual identity, passes through all shapes of life. This implies that man’s soul is not ‘human’; human life is only one of the shapes it passes through. Its substance is divine and immutable, and it is the same substance as all other soul in the world. In this sense the unity of all life is maintained; but, on the other hand, each soul is an atomic individual, which persists throughout its ten thousand years’ cycle of reincarnations. The soul travels the round of the four elements: ‘For I have been ere now, a boy, and a girl, a bush (earth), a bird (air) and a dumb fish in the sea.’ (Frag. 117.) These four elements compose the bodies which it successively inhabits.

“The soul is further called ‘an exile from God’ and a wanderer, and its offence,

Empedocles was a member of a Pythagorean society or school, for Diogenes tells us that he and Plato were expelled from the organization for having revealed the secret teachings.)

Of Pythagoras as a Theosophic type of philosopher there is no need to speak at any length. What is known of Pythagoreanism strongly resembles ‘Theosophy.

As to Socrates, it is interesting to note that Cornford’s argument “‘points to the conclusion that Socrates was more familiar with Pythagorean ideas than has commonly been supposed.’’!8 Socrates gave utterance to many Pythagorean sentiments and he was associated with members of the Pythagorean community at Phlious, near Thebes.

R. D. Hicks comments on Plato’s “‘imaginative sympathy with the whole mass of floating legend, myth and dogma, of a partly religious, partly ethical character, which found a wide, but not universal acceptance, at an early time in the Orphic and Pythagorean associations and brotherhoods.”’ #

“The Platonic myths afford ample evidence that Plato was perfectly familiar with all the leading features of this strange creed. The divine origin of the soul, its fall from bliss and the society of the gods, its long pilgrimage of penance through hundreds of generations, its task of purification from earthly pollution, its which entailed this exile, is described as ‘following Strife,’ ‘putting trust in Strife.’ At the end of the cycle of births, men may hope to ‘appear among mortals as prophets, song-writers, physicians and princes; and thence they rise up, as gods exalted in honor, sharing the hearth of the other immortals and the same table, free from human woes, delivered from destiny and harm.’ (Frags. 146, 147.) Thus the course of the soul begins with separation from God, and ends in reunion with him, after passing through all the moirai of the elements.”—From Religion io Philosophy, p. 228.

1” By comparison with the passage expounding Empedocles’ theory of rebirth (supra), the following assumes significance: “‘From these (Golden Verses of Pythagoras) we learn that it had some striking resemblance to the beliefs prevalent in India about the same time, though it is really impossible to assume any Indian influence on Greece at this date. In any case the main purpose of the Orphic observances and rites was to release the soul from the ‘wheel of birth,’ that is, from reincarnation in animal or vegetable forms. The soul so released became once more a god enjoyed everlasting bliss.”—John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, p. 82.

18 From Religion to Philosophy, p. 247.

19R, D. Hicks: Introduction to Aristotle’s De Anima, (Cambridge, 1907).

reincarnation in successive bodies, its upward and downward progress, and the law of retribution for all offences . . .”

There is evidence pointing to the fact that Plato was quite familiar with the Mystery teachings, if not actually an initiate.2! In the Phaedrus he says:

“|. . being initiated into those Mysteries which it is lawful to call the most blessed of all Mysteries . . . we were freed from the molestation of evils which otherwise await us in a future period of time. Likewise in consequence of this divine initiation, we become spectators of entire, simple, immovable and blessed visions resident in the pure light.” 7

And his immersion in the prevalent esoteric attitude is hinted at in another passage:

“You say that, in my former discourse, I have not sufficiently explained to you the nature of the First. I purposely spoke enigmatically, for in case the tablet should have happened with any accident, either by land or sea, a person, without some previous knowledge of the subject, might not be able to understand its contents.” 78

2 Tbid. “It is now generally agreed that we may distinguish a group of early dialogues commonly called ‘Socratic’ from a larger group in which the doctrines characteristic of Orphism and Pythagoreanism for the first time make their appearance”—From Religion to Philosophy, p. 242.

“Thus, the Megarian and Eleatic doctrines, though they had not satisfied him, had impelled Plato to look for a point of union of the One and the Many; but he was enabled to find it only by a more thorough acquaintance with the Pythagoreans. It is only after his return from Italy that his doctrine appears fully established and rounded off into a complete system.”—Johann Edward Erdmann: History of Philosophy (London, 1891), Vol. I, p. 231.

21 “Constantly perfecting himself in perfect Mysteries, a man in them alone becomes truly perfect, says he in the Phaedrus.”—Isaac Preston Cory: Ancient Fragments: Plato; Phaedrus, I, p. 328.

22'This passage, from Cory’s Ancient Fragments, is in a translation somewhat different from that of Jowett and other editors, though Jowett (Plato’s Works, Vol. I, Phaedrus, p. 450) gives the following: “. . . and he who has part in this gift, and is truly possessed and duly out of his mind, is by the use of purifications and mysteries made whole and exempt fromevil. . . .” The term “pure light” appears to be a reference to the Astral Light, or Akasha, of the Theosophists. For this term, Astral Light, Madame Blavatsky gives in the Theosophical Glossary the following definition: “‘A subtle essence visible only to the clairvoyant eye, and the lowest but one (v7z., the earth) of the Seven Akashic or Kosmic principles.” She further says that it corresponds to the astral body in man.

231. P. Cory: Ancient Fragments, Plato, Ep. I, p. 312.

Aristotle left the esoteric tradition, and went in the direction of naturalism and empiricism. Yet in him too there are many points of distinctly esoteric idealogy. His distinction between the vegetative animal soul and the rational soul, the latter alone surviving while the former perished; his dualism of heavenly and terrestrial life; his belief that the heavenly bodies were great living beings among the hierarchies; and his theory that development is the passing of potentiality over into actualization, are all items of Theosophic belief.

Greek philosophy is said to have ended with Neo- Platonism—which is one of history’s greatest waves of the esoteric tendency. It would be a long task to detail the theosophic ideas of the great Plotinus. He, Origen and Herrennius were pupils of Ammonius Saccas, whose teachings they promised never to reveal, as being occult. Plotinus’ own teachings were given only to initiated circles of students.*4. Proclus 7° gives astonishing corroboration to a fragment of Theosophic doctrine in an excerpt quoted in Isis Unveiled: