Theos-Talk Archives (September 1999 Message tt00182)

Sept 28th

		MAGIC  and The Evolution of Religion


The Secret Doctrine teaches history, says H.P.B. in SD I  267 (top).

"The Secret Doctrine (or Wisdom-Religion) is not a series of vague
theories or treatises, but is all that can be given out in this
century.  It will be centuries before much more is given."  (SD I
xxxviii).

Mr. Judge in THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY ( p. 1 )  states:  "Theosophy 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."

In the most early times Wisdom and Religion were synonymous.  In the
development of language, the word "maga," says the Secret Doctrine,
was used in Atlantis to signify the wise "priests of the Sun" (SD II
322-3).  In ancient Persia the term was used by the first Zarathustra
(Zoroaster)  It is derived from the Sanskrit: 'guru-istar' or
"Star-wisdom teacher." Later it was used to designate the Magi who
were the "Sons of God"  (SD II  772), and  "magic" was the word used
to denote their collective wisdom.

In the course of the last 10,000 years (since the deluge that
signalized the submersion of Poseidonis, the last significant
island-mass of great Atlantis, (9,566 BC -- SD II 406, 444fn,  ISIS I
589-94)  and the formation in central Asia of the Gobi desert),
tribes that emigrated from India into the areas now known as
Afghanistan, Iran, and the "Near East" carried with them aspects of
this knowledge.  (SD I  319,  444-5,   II   200, 470-1)

We can trace its existence in the teachings and  traditions of the 14
Zoroasters of ancient Persia, the last, (600 BC) being a contemporary
of Gautama the Buddha, Lao-tse and Pythagoras. (SD II  6fn, 241, 266,
470-1, SD  I  319).  The fabled wisdom of the Druids in Europe and
Britain, was a part of the universal "magic" that was the common
property of all races and all nations in the history of the world. (SD
II  756)  So to was the wisdom of the ancient Maya and Inca
civilizations. (SD II 34-5fn, 50fn,  SD I  267fn, 390, 745, also HPB's
article A LAND OF MYSTERY, "Theosophist,"  1880, March/August)

One of the marks of that knowledge is the establishment of
astronomical observatories -- which can be found all around the world
on every continent (SD I 646, 659-68,  II  534-5, 620-1, 699)   The
ancient Greeks traced their ancestry to the Pelasgians -- Atlantean
refugees and settlers fleeing from that last great cataclysm. (SD II
345 745-6).  Cyclopean buildings, temples, forts, cities, and other
monuments are evidence of the vast ancient achievements which cannot
be wholly denied.   Another lies in the use of terracing mountains and
the diverting of rivers over the land as they emerge from mountains in
Asia, China, India, Burma, Thailand, Philippines, Peru, Equador,
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, etc.  All are irrigation
projects of extreme antiquity.

Ancient Egypt and its many monuments can only be accounted for as
proof of the establishment there of an early Atlantean colony (SD II
344, 431-2, 436, 743, 750).  The universal representation of the
Zodiac on archaic monuments and temples shows that those same
"ancients" (who were ourselves in earlier incarnations) had a
knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, calculus, physical science,
chemistry, engineering, architecture, hydrodynamics and
astro-physics -- and, some of these sciences we have been refining,
verifying and using in the past 70 years. (SD I  647-50,  II  66, 332,
431-2, 435-6, 620-1, 750)  In ISIS UNVEILED, HPB has devoted many
pages to displaying the evidence of Egyptian wisdom and its practical
use.  (ISIS  I  518 - 574.)

We have been playing "catch-up" after a very great period of almost
1500 years of obscurity, and ignorance, in the West, while those
sciences were still well-known and practiced in China and India.
There are manuscripts available to prove this.  (ISIS I  593-628)  It
is now found that Theological craft, in Europe and elsewhere,  made
itself responsible for this state of affairs.  Since the Renaissance
in Europe, beginning in the 16th Century, the increasing freedom in
study of the laws inherent in Nature has brought about our present
technological excellence.  We might call this "Western occultism."

The Perennial Philosophy -- the Secret Doctrine of the Wise -- has
always taught that the whole Universe, every aspect of it, from the
smallest atom up into the most universal of forms, is alive, conscious
and participates cooperatively,  to the level of its inherent
consciousness in the great thrust of complex and universal Evolution.
Every least being is to be considered a living being, a "spark" of the
Original ONE LIFE.  In Theosophical terms, it is a "Monad."
(Atma-Buddhi or SPIRIT-WISDOM).  It/they, everything, is conscious.
(SD I  274, 628-33).  The form used by any one of these can be
dispersed, but it is impossible to kill the ever-living Spirit-Soul.
This, when re-embodied, draws together the necessary "materials" so
that it may have a 'body' which it can use for its further progress in
evolution.  It is only natural to conclude that many of those
reacquired "materials" are the Karmic aggregates ("skandhas") which it
was using in its earlier life.

It, the eternal "Spark," is immortal.  As a "Pilgrim" it travels from
embodiment to embodiment until, at the final extreme of any one
evolution (and there are many such--SD I  43,  II  449fn), it becomes
"wise" with the perfection of the power to perceive and to know, all
that a particular "evolutionary cycle" provides.  (SD I  106).   It
makes itself, by self-effort, into a "WISE-ONE"-- one of the many true
MAGI, a "Great Soul" (or MAHATMA) and assumes the responsibilities of
a DHYANI.  Its beneficence is then shared and shed on all other
evolving Monads (SD I  207-210,  II  502).  It assumes the role of
friend and teacher to those who are destined to attain its state and
knowledge.  In the human it can be recognized as the ever warning
"Voice of Conscience."

We are confronted with the universal fact of sensitivity.  The thrust
of all evolution leads every being from unconsciousness to
self-consciousness, and then, individual growth through experience
becomes a matter of self-determination. (SD I  274)  Therefore the
Wisdom-Religion states that our physical universe is based on an
ethical and moral counterpart.  On this sensitive material (called
"astral" in Theosophy) are recorded the impressions our feelings,
thoughts and actions.  Every Monad associated with us is so impressed.

Being thus impressed, the many life-atoms (Monads) that form our
bodies and our environment, become the carriers of our Karma. (SD I
274, 669)  The great law is:  All that is received from any being as a
cause, must be returned to it as an effect.  Learning consists in
careful observation of the effects which impinge on us as we live our
lives.  Nothing escapes this law of fairness and justice.  Hence, it
is recommended that all our motives (in feeling and thought) be clear
and friendly when we make choices.  The invisible power of our thought
and feeling far exceeds any physical acts we may do.

The idea of universal sensitivity (SD I  274)  invites, in its view of
all-inclusiveness,  the logical concept of universal brotherhood.
Every least thing is essential to the well-being of everything else.
When we grasp this concept, our life thereafter ought to become one of
care for others.  Care for them is care for ourselves.  We depend on
them.  Consider, for example the condition of our physical bodies
which are wholly dependent on the life-giving cooperation of air,
water, food and shelter for our continued existence.  Many beings can
be seen to be giving up their individual life to provide us with the
material that keeps our physical life going.  To them we owe the debt
of benevolence.  We need to learn what responsibilities we owe to
them.

These concepts and teachings will be found inherent in the earliest of
the religious notions, starting with the 3rd. Race named the
"Lemurians." (SD I  113,  II 272-3)  To give this a time-frame let us
recall that the "Lighting up of Manas (mind) -- the "gift" of the mind
faculty by the Manasputra -- the "Sons of Universal Mind", the Dhyanis
to infant humanity (ourselves, then),  which occurred around the
middle of the 3rd Race (Lemurian) cycle, and this was 18, 618,742
years prior to 1888 when the book the "Secret Doctrine" was published.
(SD I  150fn)  [ 18,618,854 years ago as of 1999 ].

The next Race which emerged was the 4th, named the "Atlanteans." (SD I
463,  II 271-6, 483)   Following that the 5th or "Aryan" Race came (a
little over a million years ago -- SD II  470, 600, 743) on the scene.
(SD I  272-3,  II  743, 774)  In each case it is the reincarnation of
ourselves in those times and in those types of bodies that occurred.
The Secret Doctrine is, in effect, reviewing our own past history.  In
each case we developed there the kind of faculties which the
conditions that there and then prevailed, provided as opportunities of
fresh levels of experience and learning.

In this vast period of time universal and impersonal Wisdom was
concretized, materialized and made a matter of selfish and exclusive
tenets and dogmas.  (SD II  492 471,  I   xxiii-v, 422-3, 578).  In
this way the abuse of knowledge and power became sorcery.  Struggles
between adherents of the esoteric and the exoteric then occurred and
are represented as ancient wars. (SD I  419, II 93-4fn, 224fn, 225,
350, 377, 384, 492-5, 501-3)

These systems were then held closely by a group of Priests.  The
Original and pure priests were the Dhyanis, the Wise (SD II  605fn).
It is only later as the personal disciplines declined that the caste
of priests (originally selected through a rigorous process of
initiation--SD I  xxxvi, 164, 206, 574,  SD II  51, 529 578-80)
turned from their original character of tutors and teachers to one of
elitism, and prideful ambition.  This decline is to be found copied in
the more recent history of the deterioration of the Mystery Schools in
Greece and the great wisdom-temples in Egypt.

They, the false priests, forgot that all beings are subject to Karma
and are immortal, and  are reincarnating Soul-minds. (SD II  179, 281)
They turned their acquired knowledge into something that gave their
group an ascendancy for one life -- the present. (SD II  211-12,
502-3)  In turn it also induced in their own ranks the scramble to
ascend at the cost of others to the pinnacle of personal power and
ambition, while making a heartless use of them in the process.

Theosophy holds that rites, ceremonies, "ceremonial magic,"
incantations, postures, discipline of the breath, mantras, etc. are
all profitless.  At best they engage the attention of the embodied
mind, the Kama-manasic aspect of the Mind.  Their benefit, if any,
dies and disappears with the death of the physical man.  The
esotericism of the Secret Doctrine, being addressed to the purposes of
the immortal Pilgrim -- the Higher-Manas (Buddhi-Manas) in Man will be
found to reconcile all differences by means of the white light of
truth and fact.  (SD I  77, 610)  It teaches objective idealism.  (SD
I  631)  It places the universal divine perfection (Paramitas of the
Buddha, as an example) as standards for personal discipline and
objectives of possible attainment.  It makes each human being into a
"priest unto himself."  All responsibility for any spiritual progress
is placed entirely on the individual's choices.



Dallas
dalval@nwc.net 


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