Theos-Talk Archives (October 1999 Message tt00077)

Oct 19th 1999

Dallas observes:

Inasmuch as there have been some conflicting views as to what
Theosophy has to say on the subject of Sex and Celibacy, I would like
to offer some of its original statements on these subjects for general
consideration and application to the two camps--as I read and listen
to them.

It seems to me that there are those who speak from the point of view
of the personality and its wants, desires and entrenched emotions.
Then there are those who glimpse a higher purpose to living than mere
selfish enjoyment during this one life.  Perhaps they hope that
Theosophy in its view of the human soul as a struggling, aspiring,
learning, searching immortal, can find in the ancient records some
statement, some laws, some reasonable expressions that turns an
undefined sense of ignorance into one that is certain and sure.  One
might say that goaded by this intuition they seek for such laws and
rules in all-encompassing and ancient Nature that might give a wider
view of the whole matter.

Writing in the SECRET DOCTRINE, Mme. Blavatsky says:  "Creative powers
in man were the gift of divine wisdom...Nor was the curse of Karma
called down upon them for seeking natural union, as all the mindless
animal-world does in its proper seasons;  but, for abusing the
creative power, for desecrating the divine gift, and wasting the
life-essence for no purpose except bestial personal
gratification...For the seed of woman or lust, bruised the head of the
seed of the fruit of wisdom and knowledge, by turning the holy mystery
of procreation into animal gratification;  hence the law of Karma
"bruised the heel" of the Atlantean race,  by gradually changing
physiologically, morally., physically and mentally the whole nature of
the Fourth Race of mankind * (footnote)

* How wise and grand, how far-seeing and morally beneficent are the
laws of Manu on connubial life, when compared with the license tacitly
allowed to man in civilized countries.  That those laws have been
neglected for the last two millenniums does not prevent us from
admitting their forethought.  The Brahmin was a grihastha, a family
man, till a certain period of his life, when, after begetting a son,
he broke with married life and became a chaste Yogi.  His very
connubial life was regulated by his Brahmin astrologer in accordance
with his nature...until, from the healthy King of animal creation of
the Third Race, man became in the Fifth, our race, a helpless,
scrofulous being, and has now become the wealthiest heir on this globe
to constitutional and hereditary diseases, the most consciously and
intelligently brutal of all animals."	SD II 410-11
[ other references in The Secret Doctrine that can be consulted: SD  I
382  405-6;  SD II  216   262  295-6  410-1  458  549-50. ]

	DETERMINATION OF THE SEX OF THE PERSONALITY

Some have wondered whether we have an hand in the determination of the
sex in a new incarnation.  We find that   "Karma--from other
lives--determines where, how, and when we shall be born...the tendency
set up in a prior life will determine the tendency toward a particular
family, next birth.  And we must also look at the question of male and
female character essentially... to my limited vision the female
character is per se concrete;  that is, its tendency in thought,
speech, and act is toward the concrete;  while the male character
seems to me to be per se the opposite.  The Kabalists...support this
view.  And the existence of exceptions in both sexes does not
contradict the opinion, but rather goes to sustain it, forasmuch as we
so easily recognize a woman who has a man's character or a man who has
a woman's.  The difference was not invented by tyrannical men, but
seems actually to exist in the race...whether you admit or deny the
particular description by concreteness and abstractness, it still
remains true that the essential female character...is totally
different from the essentially male one... It might be that the Ego
could, as man in prior life, incarnate next as woman, but that would
mean that he had set up a tendency to whatever is the essential
character of the female...concreteness of thought, in the depths of
his nature--or for other of many reasons.  It is not wise to set down
such fixed and iron rules.  Nature does not thus work.  She is always
about to break some rule we have foolishly thought to be of eternal
duration.  So I conclude on this that the Ego will go on as woman or
man just so long as its deeper nature is of the same cut, fashion, and
tendency as the particular sex in general in which it incarnates...the
regular alternation theory is wholly without foundation...."      WQJ
FORUM ANS . 44-5

Referring to the case of HPB, it is said  "...I know from her own lips
that she cared not whether she  as in a male or female body, but took
that body (regardless of sex) which would enable her to do the most
work;  and also she said that given the power to control a female
incarnation and all that that implies, more could now be done in such
than in the male form, but such control and ability were impossible
for the general run of people..." 	WQJ FORUM ANS. 66

	QUALITY AND REFINEMENT OF THE PERSONALITY

In general, then, we can observe that Theosophy teaches:  "No Ego
differs from another Ego, in its primordial or original essence and
nature.  That which makes one mortal a great man and of another a
vulgar silly person is...the quality and make-up or the physical shell
or casing, and the adequacy or inadequacy of brain and body to
transmit and give expression to the light of the real, Inner man;  and
this aptness or ineptness is, in its turn, the result of
Karma...physical man is the musical instrument, and the Ego, the
performing artist.  The potentiality of perfect melody of sound, is in
the former--the instrument--and no skill of the latter can awaken a
faultless harmony out of a broken or badly made instrument.  This
harmony depends on the fidelity of transmission, by work or act, to
the objective plane, of the unspoken divine thought in the very depths
of man's subjective or inner nature."... "the divine imprisoned
Spirit, the exiled "god" within that personality....the Ego...though
omniscient in its essence and nature, it still requires experience
through its personalities of the things of earth, earthy on the
objective plane, in order to apply the fruition of that abstract
omniscience to them."  HPB  -- GENIUS  -- ART.  II  120-2

	HISTORICAL :  RELIGIOUS LAWS ON MARRIAGE

Theosophy teaches history (SD I 267 top)  we therefore find that HPB
states in the SD :  "...the "half-adepts" [are shown] going back to
the world, marrying and laying the first foundation of the "left-hand"
science or sorcery, the misuse of Holy Knowledge...The chosen few, the
hierophants--the imperium in imperio--remaining celibates, the
exoteric priests make of marriage a law, an attempt to perpetuate
adepts by hereditary descent, and fail sadly in it.  Thus we find
Brahmins and Magi, Egyptian priests and Roman hierarchs and Augurs
enjoining married life and inventing religious clauses to prove its
necessity...there is still a nucleus left...the priests and gods of
old, the last of whom manifested openly and defiantly during the
Christian era in the person of Apollonius of Tyanna."  (THEOSOPHIST
IV, 225 fn)  HPB -  THEOS ARTICLES & NOTES, p. 92

	SELF-CONTROL AND INDIVIDUAL PROGRESS

What then, does Theosophy recommend be adopted as a common-sense view?
"But, Companion, I remind you of the power of the lure...Thus even
after weeks or months of devotion, or years of work, we are surprised
at small seeds of vanity or any other thing which would be easily
conquered in other years of inattentive life, but which now seem to
arise as if helped by some damn-able intelligence.  This great power
of self-illusion is strong enough to create a roaring torrent or a
mountain of ice between us and our Master.

In regard to the question of sex...In the True there is no
sex...neither one nor the other [is] predominant, but the two are
coalesced, so to say into one...in the psychical states there are
still distinctions, as the psychical, though higher than the material,
is not as high as Spirit, for it partakes of matter.  In the Spirit or
Atma all experiences of all forms of life and death are found at
once,, and he who is one with the Atma knows the whole manifested
Universe at once. "WQJ - LETTERS, p. 58

"The question of sex is not the most difficult.  The person-al one is
still harder.  I mean the purely personal, that relating to "me".  The
sexual really relates only to a low plane of gratification.  If Nature
can beat you there, then she need not try the other, and vice versa;
if she fails on the personal she may attempt the other, but then with
small chance of success."
WQJ  -  LETTERS. p. 120

	CONTINENCE:  EVIDENCE OF HUMAN CONTROL

HPB has also considered this matter and says in one place:  "...THE
LAW OF CONTINENCE as taught by Jesus (and Occultism) in its esoteric
meaning--which most Christians are unable to
perceive...Nothing can be more moral or more conducive to human
happiness and perfectibility than the applications of this law.  It is
one ordained by Nature herself.  Animals follow it instinctively, as
do also the savage tribes.  Once pregnant, to the last day of the
nursing of her babe, i.e., for 18 or 20 months, the savage squaw is
sacred to her husband;  the civilized and semi-civilized man alone
breaking through this beneficent law.  Therefore, speaking of the
immorality of marriage relations as at present practiced, and of
unions performed on commercial bases, or, what is worse, on mere
sensual love...they must make perfect chastity their law.  When he has
arrived at the last degree of subjection we shall have moral
marriages...."HPB ARTICLES, --"Diagnosis and Palliative"  July 1890,
Lucifer;  HPB Articles, III  120

In the VOICE OF THE SILENCE the supreme law teaches:  "Do not believe
that lust can ever be killed out if gratified or satiated, for this is
an abomination inspired by Mara.  It is by feeding vice that it
expands and waxes strong, like to the work that fattens on the
blossom's heart."
VOICE  p. 18  "There is but one road to the Path;  at its very end the
"Voice of the Silence" can be heard.  The ladder by which the
candidate ascends is formed of rungs of suffering and pain;  these can
be silenced only by the voice of virtue.  Woe, then, to thee,
Disciple, if there is one single vice thou hast not left behind."
VOICE  p. 16

We find this strong statement made:  "MARA (Sk.)  The god of
Temptation, the Seducer who tries to turn away Buddha from his PATH.
He is called the "Destroyer" and "Death" (of the Soul).  One of the
names of Kama, God of love."  	THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY, p.  206
( see also SD II 579, GLOS 170, "Karabtanos" GLOS 173)

	ELEMENTALS AND SEX-KARMA

Permeating our atmosphere in and around the earth are nature sprites
called the elementals,   They are forces of nature, and follow their
own laws in their relations to mankind and to the rest of the
evolutionary scheme present in each man-bearing world.  Of these it is
said:  "It would seem that all the sex vagaries that come up in
various directions, and the many visions and "communications" of
"Masters" spoken of by persons so thinking are of that nature...very
little information was given out about the elementals for the reason
that the mind, by directing the consciousness, can segregate the
various planes and arouse the elementals to action in relation to the
Thinker.  Sex ideas strongly held and attempted to be
"spiritualized"--as the saying is--might easily...attract beings of
that nature which would assume the coloring of one thinking in that
relation, adding to the main point of
attraction--generation--anything that would serve to keep the close
contact.  Being elemental they respond to their own peculiar stimuli,
without any sense of responsibility--not knowing man's nature.  The
safe road is the one pointed our by the Messengers:  you remember H P
B said, "Beware of the path of the Star Rishis."	F P  184	  [  See
also SD II 549-50,  TM Vol. 12, p. 58  ]

	SEXUAL FORCE AND PSYCHICAL PHENOMENA

In a discussion with HPB, Mr. Judge reports:
"Quest.:  -  What is the relation between sexual force and phenomena?
Sage:     -    It is at the bottom.  This force is vital, creative,
and a sort of reservoir.  It may be lost by mental action as well as
by physical.  In fact its finer part is dissipated by mental
imaginings, while the physical acts only draw off the gross part, that
which is the "carrier" (upadhi) for the finer.
"WQJ ART  I  387

	"SPIRIT" BRIDES AND HUSBANDS

The curious notion that there may be "spirit brides or bridegrooms"
has flourished, and Theosophy offers the following"  "The "Brides" of
the Medieval adepts are an allegory, while those of the modern mediums
are astral realities of black magic...the "Lilies" and others are
astral spooks,
semi-substantial "influences," semi-creations of the surexcited brains
of unfortunate hysteriacs and "sensitives"...[these descend] from
Kamaloka, to hysterical epileptics.  The less one has to do with
[this] class--the better.  Let "sensitives" talk as poetically as they
like, the naked truth is that such unnatural sexual unions, between
the living man and the beauteous being of the Elemental world, arise
from the abnormal surexitation of the nervous system and animal
passions, through the unclean imagination of the "sensitive."   In the
Kabalistic world [they] have always been called by the harsh names of
Succubi and Incubi...There are some such unions between mediums and
their "controls"...and some involuntarily submitted to, under
obsession.  The tie is a psycho-
physiological one, and can be broken by an exercise of the will-power,
either by the victim or a friendly mesmerizer...Amiable hysteriacs and
certain religious ecstatics may give free run to their diseased fancy,
and construct [such beings] out of the opalescent aura of their
brains;  but all the same they are not unconscious sorcerers;  they
enjoy lustful animal feelings by working black magic upon themselves.
It they admit that these unnatural unions, or rather hysterical
hallucinations of such are disease, then they are on a level with the
insane nymphomaniacs;  if they deny it, then, accepting
responsibility, they place them-selves on a far lower level.
[THEOSOPHIST  III 131]
Theosophical Articles & Notes, p. 199

"Were the mediums and spiritualists but to know...that with every new
"angel guide" they welcome with rapture, they entice the latter into
an upadana which will be productive of untold evils for the Ego that
will be reborn under its nefarious shadow;  that...they multiply the
causes for misery, causes that will make the unfortunate Ego fail in
his spiritual birth or be reborn into a far worse existence than ever;
they would perhaps be less lavish in their hospitality...It is through
this that the gross and pernicious doctrine of spirit brides and
husbands arises.  But one day it will return to curse those who now
are guilty of thus attracting these wandering shades into the vehicle
of a medium's body' it is now cursing many men who find themselves
forever in a mental hell, at war with themselves and with their best
thoughts, they know not why..."	 Master  [ML 112-4];  Theosophical
Articles & Notes, p. 238

	"FREE LOVE"

Writing on the subject of promiscuity and liberalized sex, we find
that HPB wrote:  "Victoria Woodhull...If she indeed preached free
love, she only preached woman's damnation.  If she merely tore down
the social veils...she did the human race a service.  Man has fallen
to so material a level that it is impossible to suppress sexual
passion--but its exaltation is manifestly his ruin.  Some saw in her
teachings a way of liberty dear to their own sympathies and desires,
and their weaknesses and follies have for ever dealt a death-blow to
any real or imagined doctrine of free love, upheld no matter by
whom...in the spiritualistic field...some openly advocated sexual
freedom, and were surrounded by influences of a most dangerous
order...They wrecked the weak and unwary, who reaped hours of
agony...the disguised poison creeps about in underhand channels, and
is one of the first snares of the mediumistic inquirer...to beware
of...And certain of these are mad vortices in which the inexperienced
are at last engulfed.  The apotheosis of passion, from the bitter
fruit of which man has everlasting need to be redeemed, is the surest
sign of moral degradation.  Liberty to love according to the impulse
of the senses, is the most profound slavery.  From the beginning
nature has hedged that pathway with disease and death.  Wretched as
are countless marriages, vile as are the man-made laws...the salvation
of free-love is the whisper of the snake anew..."
HPB ART II 514-6     "...in our theosophical opinion, such casual
union on momentary impulse is essentially bestial.  It is no longer
love but lust, leaving out of account every higher feeling and
quality."     HPB ARTICLES  III 130

	ADULTERY

On finds that the Mahatma writing to a correspondent has a strong
warning to offer:  "Adulterers distill a poisonous aura which inflames
every bad passion and maddens their lust.  The only way to success is
absolute separation:  not a meeting, a sight from a distance, a word
or even a letter will I permit.  The moment you break either of these
orders, you will have ceased to be my chela.  To retain an old letter,
a talisman, a keepsake, especially a lock of hair--is pernicious:  it
becomes a smoldering spark.  You are in danger if you are in the same
town, or anywhere within accessible distance.  You cannot trust your
moral energy, for if you had had moral stamina you would have fled the
house at the moment when the first lustful thought tempted your
loyalty..."
LETTERS FROM THE MASTERS OF WISDOM, 2nd Series, p. 150-1

"What physical desires are to be abandoned, and in what order ?...Next
in order come the sexual desires;  for these, in addition to the great
diversion of energy (vital force) into other channels, in many
different ways, beyond the primary one (as, for instance, the waste of
energy in expectation, jealousy, etc.), are direct attractions to a
certain gross quality of the original matter of the universe, simply
because the most pleasurable physical sensations are only possible at
that stage or density. "
5 YRS OF THY. p. 12   [ see also:  "THE ELIXIR OF LIFE"   5 YRS THY.
p. 1 ]

	CELIBACY AND OCCULTISM

A student asked:  	"Is celibacy necessary to the highest spiritual
life and attainment?  Is this your idea of true occultism ?  Mr. Judge
answered:  "By no single way is the highest spiritual life attained.
The highest Adept and the true occult student, have at some time been
wedded to woman.  The highest attainment is never reached until a man
has passed through this experience.  Under certain conditions and at a
certain time celibacy is a great aid, but if the student is wedded
then it is his duty to continue in that condition and instead of
proving a barrier it will be an assistance to his progress if he
rightly comprehends its significance.  All the lessons which are
taught the true occult student are given in daily life and through
nature's laws.  The celibate loses some of these lessons--lessons
which he must inevitably learn--because he violates a great law of
nature.

	The result of celibacy is that the student works by intellect alone.
It is necessary for true occult work that the heart be used also.  One
of the greater of the "mysteries" can never be learned by the
celibate, for he never stands as hand in hand with God a controller of
a creative force.
(see discussion ISIS  II  330)  WQJ ART II 451   "You must renounce
all carnal Commerce with Women." (de Gabalis)  This is a sine qua non
with practical Occultists--Rosicrucians or Yogis...[ HPB explains why
this is necessary in deal-ing with the elementals related to this
matter and especially the Incubi and the Succubi. ]	HPB ARTICLES  II
167-171

"The aspirant has to choose absolutely between the life of the world
and the life of Occultism.  It is useless and vain to endeavour to
unite the two, for no one can serve two masters and satisfy both.  No
one can serve his body and the higher Soul, and do his family duty and
his universal duty, without depriving either one or the other of its
rights.. For, whoever indulges after having pledged himself to
Occultism in the gratification of a terrestrial love or lust, must
feel an almost immediate result;  that of being irresistibly dragged
from the impersonal divine state down to the lower plane of matter.
Sensual, or even mental self-gratification, involves the immediate
loss of the powers of spiritual discernment;  the voice of the MASTER
can no longer be distinguished from that of one's passions or even
that of a Dugpa;  the right from wrong;  sound morality from mere
casuistry."	HPB ARTICLES  II  107-

	GENERAL RULE ON USE OF CREATIVE POWERS

	"Creative powers in man were the gift of divine wisdom...Nor was the
curse of Karma called down upon them for seeking natural union, as all
the mindless animal-world does in its proper sea-sons;  but, for
abusing the creative power, for desecrating the divine gift, and
wasting the life-essence for no purpose except bestial personal
gratification...For the seed of woman or lust, bruised the head of the
seed of the fruit of wisdom and knowledge, by turning the holy mystery
of procreation into animal gratification;  hence the law of Karma
"bruised the heel" of the Atlantean race,  by gradually changing
physiologically, morally., physically and mentally the whole nature of
the Fourth Race of mankind * [* How wise and grand, how far-seeing and
morally be-neficent are the laws of Manu on connubial life, when
compared with the license tacitly allowed to man in civilized
countries.  That those laws have been neglected for the last two
millenniums does not prevent us from admitting their forethought.  The
Brahmin was a grihastha, a family man, till a certain period of his
life, when, after begetting a son, he broke with married life and
became a chaste Yogi.  His very connubial life was regulated by his
Brahmin astrologer in accordance with his nature...] until, from the
healthy King of animal creation of the Third Race, man became in the
Fifth, our race, a helpless, scrofulous being, and has now become the
wealthiest heir on this globe to constitution-al and hereditary
diseases, the most consciously and intelligent-ly brutal of all
animals."	SD II 410-11
[ References in The Secret Doctrine to be consulted:  SD  I  382
405-6
SD II  216   262  295-6  410-1  458  549-50

	I hope that these ideas will prove to be useful to all

Dallas



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