Theos-Talk Archives (August 1998 Message tt00321)

Dear Jake,

I won't cut and paste from such a long digest, but want to reply
to the gist of your remarks about schools and HPB.  What you said
about a single claim by her constituting *proof* of the nature of
her associations with occult schools is based on three
assumptions none of which I can accept:
1)  That HPB always told the truth about who and what the Masters
were, how she knew them, and how they knew one another.
If you make that assumption you immediately remove the subject
from any scholarly analysis and place it squarely in the domain
of "things accepted on faith."  Which would be quite in
opposition to what HPB, Olcott and the Masters' letters say we
should do with such topics.  It is "cutting the Gordian knot" as
she liked to say.
2)  That HPB would not only always told the truth but always
clearly understood the issues under discussion; i.e. that she
couldn't through misunderstanding end up misrepresenting things.
3)  That all HPB's statements on this topic are to be taken at the
same literal level of historical truth, and that there is no need
to weigh them and evaluate some as more symbolic/mythical than
others.

These are all debatable assumptions, as I hope you will agree.

Cheers,
Paul