Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00468)

Hey Steve,

On the face of things, the claim by HPB about her sponsors making 
similar efforts in the final quarter of each century doesn't make 
much sense. If the sources of these alleged efforts were from non-
Western cultures, would they use the Western calendar to schedule 
them? But the last quarter of the 20th century did seem to bring a 
flowering of mysticism and a heightened awareness of psychic 
phenomena, holistic health, and such. And that tide does seem to 
have subsided. The demise of Gnosis magazine in 1999 was a sad sign 
of the end of a particular cycle of occult revival.

In thinking about some might-have-beens, I realized that in each of 
the last three decades I placed a lot of hope in one or another 
spiritual movement. In the early 70s, I was a naive teenage Baha'i 
thinking that the world would turn to Baha'u'llah by the end of the 
century. The Baha'i community of the 70s had a tremendous amount of 
vitality, enthusiasm, and youth-- all gone now. By the early 80s, I 
was a student of both Theosophy and Cayce, but put my organizational 
energy into a local TS branch, participating in Theosophical 
conferences, etc. While I didn't have the grandiose visions of world 
domination that Baha'i had encouraged, I have hopes for a 
Theosophical movement that would by the turn of the millennium be 
revivified and have new respect and standing in the world. All gone 
now. And more recently, as my organizational involvement was solely 
with ARE in the 90s, I've watched a movement that entered the decade 
with tremendous expansionary energy face the new millennium in dire 
straits indeed, on the verge of collapse as it now seems.

I don't know how this would jive with others who have placed hopes on 
one or another spiritual movement that failed to live up to its 
apparent promise. But it does resonate with what HPB said about the 
last quarter century, in that I think people in general have less 
enthusiasm for spiritual seeking than they have in recent decades. 
Perhaps Steve is right, and not until 2075 will the pulse quicken 
again. Not expecting to be around then, I figure the best course is 
to work on oneself individually and work for change in society, but 
not look to any religious or spiritual organization as a vehicle to 
change the world. It does seem as if that kind of aspiration is 
outdated now.

Paul