Theos-Talk Archives (February 2003 Message tt00004)

Part II

-------------------------------------


12 CONVERSATIONS ON OCCULTISM


RULES IN OCCULTISM


Student. - Are there any rules, binding on all, in white magic or good
occultism? I mean rules similar to the ten commandments of the
Christians, or the rules for the protection of life, liberty, and
property recognized by human law.

Sage. - There are such rules of the most stringent character, the
breaking of which is never wiped out save by expiation. Those rules
are not made up by some brain or mind, but flow from the laws of
nature, of mind, and of soul. Hence they are impossible of
nullification. One may break them and seem to escape for a whole life
or for more than a life; but the very breaking of them sets in motion
at once other causes which begin to make effects, and most unerringly
those effects at last react on the violator. Karma here acts as it
does elsewhere, and becomes a Nemesis who, though sometimes slow, is
fate itself in its certainty.


Student. - It is not, then, the case that when an occultist violates a
rule some other adept or agent starts out like a detective or
policeman and brings the culprit to justice at a bar or tribunal such
as we sometimes read of in the imaginative works of mystical writers
or novelists?

Sage. - No, there is no such pursuit. On the contrary, all the
fellow-adepts or students are but too willing to aid the offender, not
in escaping punishment, but in sincerely trying to set counteracting
causes in motion for the good of all. For the sin of one reacts on the
whole human family. If, however, the culprit does not wish to do the
amount of counteracting good, he is merely left alone to the law of
nature, which is in fact that of his own inner life from which there
can be no escape. In Lytton's novel, Zanoni, you will notice the grave
Master, Mejnour, trying to aid Zanoni, even at the time when the
latter was falling slowly but surely into the meshes twisted by
himself that ended in his destruction. Mejnour knew the law and so did
Zanoni. The latter was suffering from some former error which he had
to work out; the former, if himself too stern and unkind, would later
on come to the appropriate grief for such a mistake. But meanwhile he
was bound to help his friend, as are all those who really believe in
brotherhood.


Student. - What one of those rules in any way corresponds to "Thou
shalt not steal"?

Sage. - That one which was long ago expressed by the ancient sage in
the words, "Do not covet the wealth of any creature." This is better
than "Thou shalt not steal," for you cannot steal unless you covet. If
you steal for hunger you may be forgiven, but you coveted the food for
a purpose, just as another covets merely for the sake of possession.
The wealth of others includes all their possessions, and does not mean
mere money alone. Their ideas, their private thoughts, their mental
forces, powers, and faculties, their psychic powers - all, indeed, on
all planes that they own or have. While they in that realm are willing
to give it all away, it must not be coveted by another.

You have no right, therefore, to enter into the mind of another who
has not given the permission and take from him what is not yours. You
become a burglar on the mental and psychic plane when you break this
rule. You are forbidden taking anything for personal gain, profit,
advantage, or use. But you may take what is for general good, if you
are far enough advanced and good enough to be able to extricate the
personal element from it. This rule would, you can see, cut off all
those who are well known to every observer, who want psychic powers
for themselves and their own uses. If such persons had those powers of
inner sight and hearing that they so much want, no power could prevent
them from committing theft on the unseen planes wherever they met a
nature that was not protected. And as most of us are very far from
perfect, so far, indeed, that we must work for many lives, yet the
Masters of Wisdom do not aid our defective natures in the getting of
weapons that would cut our own hands. For the law acts implacably, and
the breaches made would find their end and result in long after years.
The Black Lodge, however, is very willing to let any poor, weak, or
sinful mortal get such power, because that would swell the number of
victims they so much require.


Student. - Is there any rule corresponding to "Thou shalt not bear
false witness"?

Sage. - Yes; the one which requires you never to inject into the brain
of another a false or untrue thought. As we can project our thoughts
to another's mind, we must not throw untrue ones to another. It comes
before him, and he, overcome by its strength perhaps, finds it echoing
in him, and it is a false witness speaking falsely within, confusing
and confounding the inner spectator who lives on thought.


Student. - How can one prevent the natural action of the mind when
pictures of the private lives of others rise before one?

Sage. - That is difficult for the run of men. Hence the mass have not
the power in general; it is kept back as much as possible. But when
the trained soul looks about in the realm of soul it is also able to
direct its sight, and when it finds rising up a picture of what it
should not voluntarily take, it turns its face away. A warning comes
with all such pictures which must be obeyed. This is not a rare rule
or piece of information, for there are many natural clairvoyants who
know it very well, though many of them do not think that others have
the same knowledge.


Student. - What do you mean by a warning coming with the picture?

Sage. - In this realm the slightest thought becomes a voice or a
picture. All thoughts make pictures. Every person has his private
thoughts and desires. Around these he makes also a picture of his wish
for privacy, and that to the clairvoyant becomes a voice or picture of
warning which seems to say it must be let alone. With some it may
assume the form of a person who says not to approach, with others it
will be a voice, with still others a simple but certain knowledge that
the matter is sacred. All these varieties depend on the psychological
idiosyncrasies of the seer.


Student. - What kind of thought or knowledge is excepted from these
rules?

Sage. - General, and philosophical, religious, and moral. That is to
say, there is no law of copyright or patent which is purely human in
invention and belongs to the competitive system. When a man thinks out
truly a philosophical problem it is not his under the laws of nature;
it belongs to all; he is not in this realm entitled to any glory, to
any profit, to any private use in it. Hence the seer may take as much
of it as he pleases, but must on his part not claim it or use it for
himself. Similarly with other generally beneficial matters. They are
for all. If a Spencer thinks out a long series of wise things good for
all men, the seer can take them all. Indeed, but few thinkers do any
original thinking. They pride themselves on doing so, but in fact
their seeking minds go out all over the world of mind and take from
those of slower movement what is good and true, and then make them
their own, sometimes gaining glory, sometimes money, and in this age
claiming all as theirs and profiting by it.

Path, January, 1895 (W. Q. Judge)


==================================

13 CONVERSATIONS ON OCCULTISM


THE POWER TO KNOW


Student. - What is the effect of trying to develop the power of seeing
in the astral light before a person is initiated?

Sage. - Seeing in the astral light is not done through Manas, but
through the senses, and hence has to do entirely with sense-perception
removed to a plane different from this, but more illusionary. The
final perceiver or judge of perception is in Manas, in the Self; and
therefore the final tribunal is clouded by the astral perception if
one is not so far trained or initiated as to know the difference and
able to tell the true from the false. Another result is a tendency to
dwell on this subtle sense-perception, which at last will cause an
atrophy of Manas for the time being. This makes the confusion all the
greater, and will delay any possible initiation all the more or
forever. Further, such seeing is in the line of phenomena, and adds to
the confusion of the Self which is only beginning to understand this
life; by attempting the astral another element of disorder is added by
more phenomena due to another plane, thus mixing both sorts up. The
Ego must find its basis and not be swept off hither and thither. The
constant reversion of images and ideas in the astral light, and the
pranks of the elementals there, unknown to us as such and only seen in
effects, still again add to the confusion. To sum it up, the real
danger from which all others flow or follow is in the confusion of the
Ego by introducing strange things to it before the time.


Student. - How is one to know when he gets real occult information
from the Self within?

Sage. - Intuition must be developed and the matter judged from the
true philosophical basis, for if it is contrary to true general rules
it is wrong. It has to be known from a deep and profound analysis by
which we find out what is from egotism alone and what is not; if it is
due to egotism, then it is not from the Spirit and is untrue. The
power to know does not come from book-study nor from mere philosophy,
but mostly from the actual practice of altruism in deed, word, and
thought; for that practice purifies the covers of the soul and permits
that light to shine down into the brain-mind. As the brain-mind is the
receiver in the waking state, it has to be purified from
sense-perception, and the truest way to do this is by combining
philosophy with the highest outward and inward virtue.


Student. - Tell me some ways by which intuition is to be developed.

Sage. - First of all by giving it exercise, and second by not using it
for purely personal ends. Exercise means that it must be followed
through mistakes and bruises until from sincere attempts at use it
comes to its own strength. This does not mean that we can do wrong and
leave the results, but that after establishing conscience on a right
basis by following the golden rule, we give play to the intuition and
add to its strength. Inevitably in this at first we will make errors,
but soon if we are sincere it will grow brighter and make no mistake.
We should add the study of the works of those who in the past have
trodden this path and found out what is the real and what is not. They
say the Self is the only reality. The brain must be given larger views
of life, as by the study of the doctrine of reincarnation, since that
gives a limitless field to the possibilities in store. We must not
only be unselfish, but must do all the duties that Karma has given us,
and thus intuition will point out the road of duty and the true path
of life.


Student. - Are there any Adepts in America or Europe?

Sage. - Yes, there are and always have been. But they have for the
present kept themselves hidden from the public gaze. The real ones
have a wide work to do in many departments of life and in preparing
certain persons who have a future work to do. Though their influence
is wide they are not suspected, and that is the way they want to work
for the present. There are some also who are at work with certain
individuals in some of the aboriginal tribes in America, as among
those are Egos who are to do still more work in another incarnation,
and they must be prepared for it now. Nothing is omitted by these
Adepts. In Europe it is the same way, each sphere of work being
governed by the time and the place.


Student. -What is the meaning of the five-pointed star?

Sage. - It is the symbol of the human being who is not an Adept, but
is now on the plane of the animal nature as to his life-thoughts and
development inside. Hence it is the symbol of the race. Upside down it
means death or symbolizes that. It also means, when upside down, the
other or dark side. It is at the same time the cross endowed with the
power of mind, that is, man.


Student. - Is there a four-pointed star symbol?

Sage. - Yes. That is the symbol of the next kingdom below man, and
pertains to the animals. The right kind of clairvoyant can see both
the five- and the four-pointed star. It is all produced by the
intersections of the lines or currents of the astral light emanating
from the person or being. The four-pointed one means that the being
having but it has not as yet developed Manas.


Student. - Has the mere figure of a five-pointed star any power in
itself?

Sage. - It has some, but very little. You see it is used by all sorts
of people for trademarks and the like, and for the purposes of
organizations, yet no result follows. It must be actually used by the
mind to be of any force or value. If so used, it carries with it the
whole power of the person to whom it may belong.


Student. - Why is the sword so much spoken of in practical Occultism
by certain writers?

Sage. - Many indeed of these writers merely repeat what they have
read. But there is a reason, just as in warfare the sword has more use
for damage than a club. The astral light corresponds to water. if you
try to strike in or under water with a club, it will be found that
there is but little result, but a sharp knife will cut almost as well
under water as out of it. The friction is less. So in the astral light
a sword used on that plane has more power to cut than a club has, and
an elemental for that reason will be more easily damaged by a sword
than by a club or a stone. But all of this relates to things that are
of no right value to the true student, and are indulged in only by
those who work in dark magic or foolishly by those who do not quite
know what they do. It is certain that he who uses the sword or the
club will be at last hurt by it. And the lesson to be drawn is that we
must seek for the true Self that knows all Occultism and all truth,
and has in itself the protecting shield from all dangers. That is what
the ancient Sages sought and found, and that is what should be striven
after by us.

Path, November, 1894 (W. Q. Judge)

===================================================