Theos-Talk Archives (January 2003 Message tt00283)

Jan 14 2003

Re: H P B on "God" from, ISIS UNVEILED onward.


Dear Friends:

When in 1877 H P B first launched her great book ISIS UNVEILED we find
at the very beginning in the PREFACE, p. vi:

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ISIS UNVEILED p. vi Vol. I
When, years ago, we first travelled over the East, exploring the
penetralia of its deserted sanctuaries, two saddening and
ever-recurring questions oppressed our thoughts: Where, WHO, WHAT is
GOD? Who ever saw the IMMORTAL SPIRIT of man, so as to be able to
assure himself of man's immortality?
It was while most anxious to solve these perplexing problems that we
came into contact with certain men, endowed with such mysterious
powers and such profound knowledge that we may truly designate them as
the sages of the Orient. To their instructions we lent a ready ear.
They showed us that by combining science with religion, the existence
of God and immortality of man's spirit may be demonstrated like a
problem of Euclid. For the first time we received the assurance that
the Oriental philosophy has room for no other faith than an absolute
and immovable faith in the omnipotence of man's own immortal self. We
were taught that this omnipotence comes from the kinship of man's
spirit with the Universal Soul -- God! The latter, they said, can
never be demonstrated but by the former. Man-spirit proves God-spirit,
as the one drop of water proves a source from which it must have come.
Tell one who had never seen water, that there is an ocean of water,
and he must accept it on faith or reject it altogether. But let one
drop fall upon his hand, and he then has the fact from which all the
rest may be inferred. After that he could by degrees understand that a
boundless and fathomless ocean of water existed. Blind faith would no
longer be necessary; he would have supplanted it with KNOWLEDGE. When
one sees mortal man displaying tremendous capabilities, controlling
the forces of nature and opening up to view the world of spirit, the
reflective mind is overwhelmed with the conviction that if one man's
spiritual Ego can do this much, the capabilities of the FATHER SPIRIT
must be relatively as much vaster as the whole ocean surpasses the
single drop in volume and potency. Ex nihilo nihil fit; prove the soul
of man by its wondrous powers -- you have proved God!
In our studies, mysteries were shown to be no mysteries. Names and
places that to the Western mind have only a significance derived from
Eastern fable, were shown to be realities. Reverently we stepped in
spirit within the temple of Isis; to lift aside the veil of "the one
that is and was and shall be" at Sais; to look through the rent
curtain of the Sanctum Sanctorum at Jerusalem; and even to interrogate
within the crypts which once existed beneath the sacred edifice, the
mysterious Bath-Kol. The Filia Vocis -- the daughter of the divine
voice -- responded from the mercy-seat within the veil,* and science,
theology, every human hypothesis and conception born of imperfect
knowledge, lost forever their authoritative character in our sight.
The one-living God had spoken through his oracle -- man, and we were
satisfied. Such knowledge is priceless; and it has been hidden only
from those who overlooked it, derided it, or denied its existence....
Centuries of subjection have not quite congealed the life-blood of men
into crystals around the nucleus of blind faith; and the nineteenth is
witnessing the struggles of the giant as he shakes off the Liliputian
cordage and rises to his feet. Even the Protestant communion of
England and America, now engaged in the revision of the text of its
Oracles, will be compelled to show the origin and merits of the text
itself. The day of domineering over men with dogmas has reached its
gloaming.
Our work, then, is a plea for the recognition of the Hermetic
philosophy, the anciently universal Wisdom-Religion, as the only
possible key to the Absolute in science and theology. To show that we
do not at all conceal from ourselves the gravity of our undertaking,
we may say in advance that it would not be strange if
The Christians, who will see that we question the evidences of the
genuineness of their faith.
The Scientists, who will find their pretensions placed in the same
bundle with those of the Roman Catholic Church for infallibility, and,
in certain particulars, the sages and philosophers of the ancient
world classed higher than they.
Pseudo-Scientists will, of course, denounce us furiously.
Broad Churchmen and Freethinkers will find that we do not accept what
they do, but demand the recognition of the whole truth.
Men of letters and various authorities, who hide their real belief in
deference to popular prejudices.
The mercenaries and parasites of the Press, who prostitute its more
than royal power, and dishonor a noble profession, will find it easy
to mock at things too wonderful for them to understand; for to them
the price of a paragraph is more than the value of sincerity. From
many will come honest criticism; from many -- cant. But we look to the
future.
The contest now going on between the party of public conscience and
the party of reaction, has already developed a healthier tone of
thought. It will hardly fail to result ultimately in the overthrow of
error and the triumph of Truth. We repeat again -- we are laboring for
the brighter morrow.
And yet, when we consider the bitter opposition that we are called
upon to face, who is better entitled than we upon entering the arena
to write upon our shield the hail of the Roman gladiator to Caesar:
MORITURUS TE SALUTAT!

H P Blavatsky
New York, September, 1877.
This at least shows H P B's consistency
Best wishes,
Dallas
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-----Original Message-----
From: S S
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 6:51 PM
To:
Subject:: His own divine Ego Boehme, like so many other untrained
mystics, mistook for God

Daniel:

Kudos for bringing up what I suspect is the most deeply insidhtful
comment Blavatsky ever made. I was thinking of posting this very
quote and am glad you thought of it. The reason it is so important
is that it can be used as the basis for an entirely rational
assessment of the whole matter of spirituality.

It is impossible to say whether there is or there is not a God, but
we can say with certainty that there is something in us which causes
a lot of people to want to believe in God. In his essay ON THE
MYSTERIES the Egyptian Neo Platonist Iamblichus pointed out that this
sense exists prior to any sort of reasoned demonstration and seems to
persist in the face of logical argument to the contrary. It is
therefore possible to say that as a psychological fact there is
something in us which impels us to believe in a spiritual reality
whether that reality exists or not. Thus, Jung argued in his
writings that people who abandon all spirituality, even though they
may be right scientifically, from a psychological perspective have
denied or disowned a part of themselves.

CUT