Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00323)

One should compare the text below (written by Brian/Brigitte ???)
about the "Occult Hierarchy" with the actual testimonies of witnesses 
who said they saw and encountered HPB's Teachers.

See:

"A Casebook of Encounters with the Theosophical Mahatmas"
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/mastersencounterswith.htm

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://hpb.cc

Brian/Brigitte (???) wrote:

> The Mahatma Letters introduced and exhibited to the world a small 
> company of persons variously called "The Universal Brotherhood", 
> the "Masters of the Wisdom" and the "Occult Hierarchy". Whether or 
not 
> there are such orders of beings; it is sufficient to say that if 
Blavatsky 
> had on her own authority compel the world to believe her, by 
attempting 
> to create an objective demonstration of the existence and work of 
> certain Mahatmas, and to cast a glamour over her contemporaries by 
a 
> series of marvels which many were unable to resist. Thus the occult 
> hierarchy was organized and revealed with a wealth of personal 
detail, 
> until it became fixed in the imagination of believers. The two 
Masters of 
> 1880 were soon multiplied to ten, and later to sixteen; they 
> included "Hilarion" the Greek (identified with lamblichus, the 
> Neoplatonist) and the "Count" (identified with the Comte de St. 
Germain 
> of the eighteenth century). As a concession to Christians, "the 
Master 
> Jesus", after due trial and probation, was admitted into the 
company of 
> the elect.
> 
> As soon as the Indian belief in Reincarnation had been definitely 
> accepted by Mr. Sinnett and his successors, Madame Blavatsky's 
> Masters were provided by Mr. Leadbeater with an occult genealogy of 
> their previous lives, which embedded her inventions more deeply in 
> reality. K.H. was declared to be a reincarnation of the Chinese 
> Philosopher Lao-tze, while, by the bounty of fortune, he appeared 
in 
> Europe in the flesh of Pythagoras of Samos. Thus we had the 
surprising 
> spectacle of a Mahatma's ancestral "double" gracing two continents 
at 
> once, as soon as historians were able to show that the Chinese sage 
> and the Greek philosopher had been contemporaries in the sixth 
century 
> B.C.
> 
> Above the Tibetan Masters-who, after all, with their earthly 
jollity, their 
> swearing and smoking, were very human creatures-Madame Blavatsky 
> had given us faint glimpses of other and greater beings. In the 
course of 
> time, through Mr. Sinnett and the smaller literary fry of his day, 
we have 
> been told the names and functions of the occult officials who 
govern the 
> world.
> 
> H. P. Blavatsky's "Chohans" and the "MahaChohan" are still in 
being, but 
> we have also been allowed to hear of The Lord Vaivasvata Manu 
> (extracted from Vedic legend), The Bodhisattva, The Lord Maitreya 
(both 
> adopted from Mdhaya-na Buddhism), "The Director of Evolution", and 
> even of "the Great King" of the Universe Himself. 
> 
> The Pauline and Gnostic hierarchies were similarly patronized and 
> incorporated into the Theosophical Superstructure., to secure the 
> adherence of both orthodox and heretical Christians.
> 
> Blavatsky must have smiled* to see poor Mr. Sinnett patiently 
building 
> up, storey by storey, the pagodas of The Occult World and Esoteric 
> Buddhism-with nothing more substantial than a pack of cards out of 
her 
> own cabinet of magic. And what will the Theosophists think and say-
-
> who have made Mr. Sinnett's two books the Leviticus and Deuteronomy 
> of their Bible-when they see these paper edifices collapse before 
the 
> first breath of truth?
> 
> The ethnologists and anthropologists of Science, who were ever 
doing 
> their best to present a reasoned history of man, received scant 
respect 
> from Blavatsky, Sinnett, Besant and the hundreds of neo-
Theosophical 
> leaders since then . just as the Mahatmic theory about chains and 
> rounds of planets has become the stuff out of which thousands 
> of "propaganda lectures" have been made, so the history of the 
human 
> race, on Blavatsky's initiative, has been dislocated from the 
beginning. 
> Yet H.P.B. made her Mahatmas reproach Mr. Sinnett for rushing into 
> print with his books. When critics found fault with Esoteric 
Buddhism she 
> and Subba Row defended it in The Theosophist. But when she 
published 
> The Secret Doctrine she threw him over, and wrote to the critics 
> (Maitland and Kingsford): "We were obliged to support him then 
> because he represented us, but when the secret doctrine was 
> concerned it was necessary to tell the truth" (Life of AX, Vol. n, 
p. 16o).
> 
> 
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