Theos-Talk Archives (September 2003 Message tt00227)

W Q J - H P B ON MESSAGES FROM THE MASTERS

 
 
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W Q J on H P B
 
 

H.P.B. -- A LION-HEARTED COLLEAGUE PASSES


 


On the shore stood Hiawatha,
Turned and waved his hand at parting;
On the clear and luminous water
Launched his birch canoe for sailing,
>From the pebbles of the margin
Shoved it forth into the water;
Whispered to it, "Westward! Westward!"
And with speed it darted forward.
And the evening sun descending
Set the clouds on fire with redness,
Burned the broad sky, like a prairie,
Left upon the level water
One long track and trail of splendor,
Down whose stream, as down a river,
Westward, Westward Hiawatha
Sailed into the fiery sunset,
Sailed into the purple vapors,
Sailed into the dusk of evening.
* * *
Thus departed Hiawatha,
Hiawatha the beloved, . . .
To the Islands of the Blessed.
That which men call death is but a change of location for the Ego, a
mere transformation, a forsaking for a time of the mortal frame, a short
period of rest before one reassumes another human frame in the world of
mortals. The Lord of this body is nameless; dwelling in numerous
tenements of clay, it appears to come and go; but neither death nor time
can claim it, for it is deathless, unchangeable, and pure, beyond Time
itself, and not to be measured. So our old friend and fellow-worker has
merely passed for a short time out of sight, but has not given up the
work begun so many years ago - the uplifting of humanity, the
destruction of the shackles that enslave the human mind.
I met H.P.B. in 1875 in the city of New York where she was living in
Irving Place. There she suggested the formation of the Theosophical
Society, lending to its beginning the power of her individuality and
giving to its President and those who have stood by it ever since the
knowledge of the existence of the Blessed Masters. In 1877 she wrote
Isis Unveiled in my presence, and helped in the proof reading by the
President of the Society. This book she declared to me then was intended
to aid the cause for the advancement of which the Theosophical Society
was founded. Of this I speak with knowledge, for I was present and at
her request drew up the contract for its publication between her and her
New York publisher. When that document was signed she said to me in the
street, "Now I must go to India."
In November, 1878, she went to India and continued the work of helping
her colleagues to spread the Society's influence there, working in that
mysterious land until she returned to London in 1887. There was then in
London but one Branch of the Society - the London Lodge - the leaders of
which thought it should work only with the upper and cultured classes.
The effect of H.P.B.'s coming there was that Branches began to spring
up, so that now they are in many English towns, in Scotland, and in
Ireland. There she founded her magazine Lucifer, there worked night and
day for the Society loved by the core of her heart, there wrote the
Secret Doctrine, the Key to Theosophy, and the Voice of the Silence, and
there passed away from a body that had been worn out by unselfish work
for the good of [not only] the few of our century but of the many in the
centuries to come.
It has been said by detractors that she went to India because she merely
left a barren field here, by sudden impulse and without a purpose. But
the contrary is the fact. In the very beginning of the Society I drew up
with my own hand at her request the diplomas of some members here and
there in India who were in correspondence and were of different faiths.
Some of them were Parsees. She always said she would have to go to India
as soon as the Society was under way here and Isis should be finished.
And when she had been in India some time, her many letters to me
expressed her intention to return to England so as to open the movement
actively and outwardly there in order that the three great points on the
world's surface - India, England, and America - should have active
centres of Theosophical work. This determination was expressed to me
before the attempt made by the Psychical Research Society on her
reputation, - of which also I know a good deal to be used at a future
time, as I was present in India before and after the alleged exposé -
and she returned to England to carry out her purpose even in the face of
charges that she could not stay in India. But to disprove these she went
back to Madras, and then again rejourneyed to London.
That she always knew what would be done by the world in the way of
slander and abuse I also know, for in 1875 she told me that she was then
embarking on a work that would draw upon her unmerited slander,
implacable malice, uninterrupted misunderstanding, constant work, and no
worldly reward. Yet in the face of this her lion heart carried her on.
Nor was she unaware of the future of the Society. In 1876 she told me in
detail the course of the Society's growth for future years, of its
infancy, of its struggles, of its rise into the "luminous zone" of the
public mind; and these prophecies are being all fulfilled.
Much has been said about her "phenomena," some denying them, others
alleging trick and device. Knowing her for so many years so well, and
having seen at her hands in private the production of more and more
varied phenomena than it has been the good fortune of all others of her
friends put together to see, I know for myself that she had control of
hidden powerful laws of nature not known to our science, and I also know
that she never boasted of her powers, never advertised their possession,
never publicly advised anyone to attempt their acquirement, but always
turned the eyes of those who could understand her to a life of altruism
based on a knowledge of true philosophy. If the world thinks that her
days were spent in deluding her followers by pretended phenomena, it is
solely because her injudicious friends, against her expressed wish, gave
out wonderful stories of "miracles" which can not be proved to a
skeptical public and which are not the aim of the Society nor were ever
more than mere incidents in the life of H. P. Blavatsky.
Her aim was to elevate the race. Her method was to deal with the mind of
the century as she found it, by trying to lead it on step by step; to
seek out and educate a few who, appreciating the majesty of the Secret
Science and devoted to "the great orphan Humanity," could carry on her
work with zeal and wisdom; to found a Society whose efforts - however
small itself might be - would inject into the thought of the day the
ideas, the doctrines, the nomenclature of the Wisdom Religion, so that
when the next century shall have seen its 75th year the new messenger
coming again into the world would find the Society still at work, the
ideas sown broadcast, the nomenclature ready to give expression and body
to the immutable truth, and thus to make easy the task which for her
since 1875 was so difficult and so encompassed with obstacles in the
very paucity of the language, - obstacles harder than all else to work
against.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
Path, June, 1891
_____  

 
 
 
 
 
 
WHO USED THE BODY THAT WAS NAMED H.P. BLAVATSKY ?
 
 
 
H.P.B. wrote to Mr Sinnett (M L. pp. 465-6, Barker Edn. ) 
 
 
"Do you believe that, because you have fathomed---as
you think---my physical crust and brain; that shrewd
analyst of *human* nature though you be---you have
ever penetrated even beneath the first cuticles of my
REAL SELF ? You would gravely err, if you did...You
DO NOT KNOW me; for whatever there is INSIDE it, is
NOT WHAT YOU THINK it is; and---to judge of me
therefore, as of one UNTRUTHFUL is the greatest
mistake in the world besides being a flagrant 
injustice. I (the inner real "I") am in prison and
cannot show myself as I am with all the desire I may
have to. Why, then, should I, because speaking for
myself AS I AM and feel myself to be, why should I be
held responsible for the OUTWARD jail-door and ITS
appearance, when I have neither built nor yet
decorated it ?"   
 
 
Julia Keightley, better known as "Jasper Niemand," who edited Mr.
Judge's LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME, narrated an experience she had
after the death of Mme. Blavatsky:
 
 
"A few days after Madame Blavatsky died, H.P.B. awoke
me at night. I raised myself, feeling no surprise,
but only the sweet accustomed pleasure. She held my
eyes with her leonine gaze. Then she grew thinner,
taller, her shape became masculine; slowly then her
features changed, until a man of height and rugged
powers, stood before me, the last vestige of her
features melting into his, until the leonine gaze, the
progressed radiance of her glance alone remained. The
man lifted his head and said: 'Bear witness!' He
then walked from the room, laying his hand on the
portrait of H.P.B. as he passed." 
>From REMINISCENCES OF H.P. BLAVATSKY AND 
THE SECRET DOCTRINE, 1893, p. 127.
 
 
 
TWO EGOS IN MADAME BLAVATSKY
 
 
In a letter dated Feb. 23, 1887, HPB wrote to William Q. Judge:
 
 
"Yes there are 'two persons' in me. But what of that?
So are there two in you; only mine is conscious &
responsible & yours is not." Reprinted from an entry in
THE THEOSOPHICAL FORUM, July 1932, p. 226 .
 
 
In the Secret Doctrine Vol. II, p. 167 and also in the 
2nd printing of THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, (2nd Edition)  
HPB added a GLOSSARY. There (under EGO) she writes 
about the two Egos in man:
 
 
"Esoteric philosophy teaches the existence of two Egos
in man, the mortal or personal, and the higher, the
divine or impersonal, calling the former 'personality,'
and the latter 'individuality.' "  
 
 
In another definition (INDIVIDUALITY), HPB writes that 
It is "one of the names given in Theosophy and Occultism 
to the human Higher Ego. We make a distinction between 
the immortal and divine and the mortal human Ego. . . ."
 
 
And in another place: "The Individuality is the Higher 
Ego (Manas) of the Triad considered as a Unity...the
Individuality is our imperishable Ego which
reincarnates and clothes itself in a new Personality
at every new birth."
 
 
A few more statements from Theosophical literature 
may help round out some idea of the inner nature of H.P.B. 
 
 
"...I am enough of an occultist to know that
before we find the Master within our own hearts and
seventh principle---we need an outside Master...I got
my drop from my Master (the living one)...He is a
Saviour, he who leads you to finding the Master within
yourself..." Letter of H.P.B. to Franz Hartmann, 
THE PATH, VOLUME X, p. 367.
 
 
". . . I venerate the Masters, and worship MY
MASTER--the sole creator of my inner Self which but
for His calling it out, awakening it from its slumber,
would never have come to conscious being--not in this
life, at all events..." Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to
A.P. Sinnett, p. 104
 
 
"Several times a day I feel that besides me there is
someone else, quite separable from me, present in my
body. I never lose the consciousness of my own
personality; what I feel is as if I were keeping
silent and the other one -- the lodger who is in me --
were speaking with my tongue. For instance, I know
that I have never been in the places which are
described by my 'other me', but this other one -- the
second me -- does not lie when he tells about places
and things unknown to me, because he has actually seen
them and knows them well. I have given it up: let my
fate conduct me at its own sweet will; and besides,
what am I to do? It would be perfectly ridiculous if I
were to deny the possession of knowledge avowed by my
No. 2, giving occasion to the people around me to
imagine that I keep them in the dark for modesty's
sake. In the night, when I am alone in my bed, the
whole life of my No. 2 passes before my eyes, and I do
not see myself at all, but quite a different person --
different in race and different in feelings."  
--H.P.B. THE PATH, December 1894,
 
 
 
>From another of her letters (Sept 1887) to Mr. Judge we read:
 
 
"Begin by being elected both of you ... It 
means that unless you consent, you force me to a
miserable life & a miserable death with the idea
preying on my mind that there is an end of theosophy.
That for several years I will not be able to help it
on & [steer] its course, because I will have to act in a
body which will have to be assimilated to the
Nirmanakaya, because even in Occultism there are such
things as a failure, & a retardment, and a misfit. But
you don't understand me, I see."  
 
 
Concerning Nirmanakayas, H.P.B. writes in the Glossary in 
the KEY:
 
"NIRMANAKAYA ...Occultism...says...that Nirmanakaya, although 
meaning literally a transformed "body," is a state.
 
The form is that of the Adept or Yogi who enters, or
chooses, that post-mortem condition in preference to
the Dharmakaya or absolute Nirvanic state. 
 
He does this because the latter [form gives] him a state of 
selfish bliss, in which no other living being can
participate, the Adept being thus precluded from the
possibility of helping humanity, or even devas. 
 
As a Nirmanakaya, however, the adept leaves behind him only 
his physical body, and retains every other "principle"
save the Kamic, for he has crushed this out for ever
from his nature during life, and it can never
resurrect in his post-mortem state. Thus, instead of
going into selfish bliss, he chooses a life of
self-sacrifice, an existence which ends only with the
life-cycle, in order to be enabled to help mankind in
an invisible, yet most effective, manner... Thus a
Nirmanakaya is...verily one who, whether a Chutuktu or
a Khubilkhan, an adept or a Yogi during life, has
since become a member of that invisible Host which
ever protects and watches over humanity within Karmic
limits. Mistaken often for a "Spirit," a Deva, God
himself, &c., a Nirmanakaya is ever a protecting,
compassionate, verily a guardian, angel to him who is
worthy of his help...."
 
 
The Masters writing to Mr. Sinnett and referring to  
H.P.B. wrote:
 
"After nearly a century of fruitless search, our
CHIEFS had to avail themselves of the only opportunity
to send out a European BODY upon European soil to
serve as a connecting link between that country and
our own." The M L, p. 203, Barker Edn.
 
 
In another letter, we read
 
 
"The TCHANG-CHUB (an adept who has, by the power of
his knowledge and soul enlightenment, become exempt
from the curse of UNCONSCIOUS transmigration) --- may,
at his will and desire, and instead of reincarnating
himself only after bodily death, do so, and repeatedly
--during his life if he chooses. He holds the power
of choosing for himself NEW BODIES--whether on this
or any other planet--while in possession of his old
form, that he generally preserves for purposes of his
own." The M L . p. 285, Barker Edn..
 
 
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H.P.B. WAS NOT DESERTED BY THE MASTERS


 


 


 

THERE are certain things connected with the personality of the great
leader which have to be referred to and explained every now and again
even in a Society whose effort is as much as possible to avoid the
discussion of personalities. Sometimes they are disagreeable, especially
when, as in the present instance, some other persons have to be brought
in. And when the great leader is H.P. Blavatsky, a whole host of
principles and postulates as to certain laws of nature cluster around
her name. 
 
For not only was she one who brought to us from the wiser brothers of
the human family a consistent philosophy of the solar system, but in
herself she illustrated practically the existence of the supersensuous
world and of the powers of the inner and astral man. 
 
Hence any theory or assertion touching on her relations with the unseen
and with the Masters she spoke for inevitably opens up the discussion of
some law or principle. This of course would not be the case if we were
dealing with a mere ordinary person.
 
Many things were said about H.P.B. in her lifetime by those who tried to
understand her, some of them being silly and some positively pernicious.
The most pernicious was that made by Mr. A.P. Sinnett in London in the
lifetime of H.P.B., and before the writing of the Secret Doctrine, that
she was deserted by the Masters and was the prey of elementals and
elemental forces. He was courageous about it, for he said it to her
face, just as he had often told her he thought she was a fraud in other
directions.
 
This theory was far-reaching, as can be seen at a glance. For if true,
then anything she might say as from the Masters which did not agree with
the opinion of the one addressed could be disposed of as being only the
vaporing of some elementals. And that very use was made of it. 
 
It was not discussed only in the charmed seclusion of the London Lodge,
but was talked of by nearly all of the many disciples and would-be
disciples crowding around H.P.B. It has left its mark even unto this
day. 
 
And when the total disagreement arose between H.P.B. and Mr. Sinnett as
to the relation of Mars and Mercury to this earth, and as to the
metaphysical character of the universe - H.P.B. having produced an
explanation from the Master - then the pernicious theory and others like
it were brought forward to show she was wrong, did not have word from
the Master, and that Mr. Sinnett's narrow and materialistic views of the
Master's statement - which had been made before the alleged desertion
and elemental possession - were the correct ones. 
 
The dispute is imbedded in the Secret Doctrine. The whole philosophy
hangs upon it. The disagreement came about because Mr. Sinnett held that
his view of one of the letters from the Master received in India -
through the hand of H.P.B. - was the correct view, whereas she said it
was not. 
 
He kept rigidly to his position, and she asked the Master for further
explanation. When this was received by her and shown to Mr. Sinnett he
denied its authenticity, and then the desertion theory would explain the
rest.
 
He seemed to forget that she was the channel and he was not.
 
Although wide publicity was not given to the charge then, it was fully
discussed by the many visitors to both camps, and its effect remains to
this day among those who of late have turned in private against H.P.B.
Among themselves they explain away very easily, and in public they
oppose those who adhere firmly to her memory, her honor, and the truth
of her statements about the Masters and their communications to her. 
 
They think that by dragging her down to the mediocre level on which they
stand they may pretend to understand her, and look wise as they tell
when she was and when she was not obsessed. 
 
This effort will, of course, be unsuccessful; and some will think the
matter need not be brought forward. There are many reasons why it should
be discussed and left no longer as a secret poison: because it leads to
a negation of brotherhood; to an upholding of ingratitude, one of the
blackest crimes; and, if believed, will inevitably lead to the
destruction of the great philosophy broadly outlined by the Masters
through H.P.B.
 
If, as claimed by Mr. Sinnett, H.P.B. was deserted by the Masters after
they had used her for many years as their agent and channel of
communication, such desertion would be evidence of unimaginable
disloyalty on their part, utterly opposed to their principles as stated
by themselves. 
 
For when the advisability of similar desertion was in Mr. Sinnett's mind
many years before, when he did not approve of H.P.B.'s methods of
conducting the movement in India, Master K.H. emphatically wrote him
that "ingratitude is not among our vices," asking him if he would
consider it just, "supposing you were thus to come," as H.P.B. did, and
were to "abandon all for the truth; to toil wearily for years up the
hard, steep road, not daunted by obstacles, firm under every temptation;
were to faithfully keep within your heart the secrets entrusted to you
as a trial; had worked with all your energies, and unselfishly to spread
the truth and provoke men to correct thinking and a correct life - would
you consider it just, if, after all your efforts," you were to be
treated as you propose Mdme. Blavatsky should be treated? 
 
But this warning evidently produced only a transient effect, for in a
few years' time, as stated, Mr. Sinnett came to the conclusion that his
suggestion had been acted upon to an even greater extent than he had
originally intended. 
 
At first he had only wished that H.P.B. should be put on one side as a
channel between himself and the Master, leaving a newly organized T.S.
to his own management under those conditions; but he afterwards thought
that H.P.B. had been put on one side as a channel of any sort so far as
the Masters were concerned. 
 
This wholesale later desertion would mean that in the meantime Master
K.H. had entirely changed in character and had become capable of gross
ingratitude, which is absurd. Masters are above all things loyal to
those who serve them and who sacrifice health, position and their entire
lives to the work which is the Master's; and H.P.B did all this and
more, as the Master wrote. 
 
To take the other view and imagine that after years of such service as
is described in the above quotation, H.P.B. was left to be figuratively
devoured by elementals, would prove Masters to be merely monsters of
selfishness, using a tool not made of iron but of a wonderful human
heart and soul, and throwing this tool away without protection the
moment they had done with it.
 
And how about the members and more faithful disciples who were left in
ignorance of this alleged desertion? Would it have been loyal to them?
They had been taught for years to look with respect upon H.P.B. and the
teachings she gave out, and to regard her as the Masters' channel. They
received no warning that the plan Mr. Sinnett had for so long carried in
his mind could possibly be carried out, but on the contrary often
received personally from the Masters endorsements of H.P.B.'s actions
and teachings.
 
Those who harbored constant doubts of her veracity were reproved; and
yet it would seem for no other apparent reason than a necessary
correction by her of Mr. Sinnett's wrong interpretation of earlier
teachings she was abandoned by her old teachers and friends who had
spent years in training her for just this work!
 
So the whole of this far-fetched supposition is alike contrary to
brotherhood and to occultism. It violates every law of true ethics and
of the Lodge, and to crown its absurdity would make the Secret Doctrine
in large measure the work of elementals. Deserted before the explanation
of Mr. Sinnett's mistakes appeared in that book, H. P. B. was obsessed
to some advantage, it may be thought! 
 
But in fact a great depth of ignorance is shown by those who assert that
she was deserted and who add that elementals controlled her, doing the
work for her. They do not know the limitations of the elemental: an
elemental can only copy what already exists, cannot originate or invent,
can only carry out the exact impulse or order given, which if incomplete
will cause the result to be similarly incomplete, and will not start
work unless pushed on by a human mind and will. In no case is this
elemental supposition tenable.
 
The ignorance shown on this point is an example of the mental standing
of most of H.P.B.'s critics. Materialists in their bias, they were
unable to understand her teachings, methods or character, and after
badly assimilating and materializing the ideas they got originally from
her, they proceeded to apply the result to an explanation of everything
about her that they could not understand, as if they were fitting
together the wooden blocks of several different puzzles. 
 
But if in spite of all reason this view of desertion were to be
accepted, it would certainly lead in the end, as I have said, to the
destruction of the Theosophical philosophy. Its indirect effect would be
as detrimental as the direct effect of degrading the ideal of Masters.
This is clearly shown in the SECRET DOCTRINE.
 
After pointing out in her "Introductory" to the Secret Doctrine (p.
xviii) the preliminary mistake made by the author of Esoteric Buddhism
in claiming that "two years ago (i.e., 1883) neither I nor any other
European living knew the alphabet of the Science, here for the first
time put into scientific shape," when as a matter of fact not only
H.P.B. had known all that and much more years before, but two other
Europeans and an American as well; - she proceeds to give the Master's
own explanation of his earlier letters in regard to the Earth Chain of
Globes and the relation of Mars and Mercury thereto (vol. i, pp.
160-170, o.e.). 
 
Mr Sinnett himself confesses that he had "an untrained mind" in
Occultism when he received the letters through H.P.B. on which Esoteric
Buddhism was based. He had a better knowledge of modern astronomical
speculations than of the occult doctrines, and so it was not to be
wondered at, as H.P.B. remarks, that he formed a materialistic view of a
metaphysical subject. 
 
But these are the Master's own words in reply to an application from
H.P.B. for an explanation of what she well knew was a mistake on Mr.
Sinnett's part - the inclusion of Mars and Mercury as globes of the
Earth Chain:
 
 
"Both (Mars and Mercury) are septenary chains, as independent of the
earth's sidereal lords and superiors and as you are independent of the
'principles' of Daumling. [Tom Thumb]" 
 
"Unless less trouble is taken to reconcile the irreconcilable - that is
to say, the metaphysical and spiritual sciences with physical or natural
philosophy, 'natural' being a synonym to them (men of science) of that
matter which falls under the perception of their corporal senses - no
progress can be really achieved. 
 
Our Globe, as taught from the first, is at the bottom of the arc of
descent, where the matter of our perceptions exhibits itself in its
grossest form... Hence it only stands to reason that the globes which
overshadow our Earth must be on different and superior planes. In short,
as Globes, they are in coadunition but not in consubstantiality with our
Earth, and thus pertain to quite another state of consciousness."
 
 
Unless this be accepted as the correct explanation, the entire
philosophy becomes materialistic and contradictory, analogy ceases to be
of any value, and both the base and superstructure of Theosophy must be
swept away as useless rubbish. But there is no fear of this, for the
Master's explanation will continue to be accepted by the large majority
of Theosophists.
 
And as to H.P.B. personally, these words might possibly be remembered
with advantage: "Masters say that Nature's laws have set apart woe for
those who spit back in the face of their teacher, for those who try to
belittle her work and make her out to be part good and part fraud; those
who have started on the path through her must not try to belittle her
work and aim. They do not ask for slavish idolatry of a person, but
loyalty is required. They say that the Ego of that body she uses was and
is a great and brave servant of the Lodge, sent to the West for a
mission with full knowledge of the insult and obloquy to be surely
heaped upon that devoted head; and they add; 'Those who cannot
understand her had best not try to explain her; those who do not find
themselves strong enough for the task she outlined from the very first
had best not attempt it'."
 
William Q. Judge
 
Theosophy, April, 1896
_____  

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

H.P.B. ON MESSAGES FROM MASTERS


 


 

SOME years ago H.P.B. was charged with misuse of Mahâtmâs names and
handwritings, with forgery of messages from the Mahâtmâs, and with
humbugging the public and the T.S. therewith. Those charges had floated
vaguely about for sometime and at last came the explosion. 
 
Afterward when writing on the subject of "Lodges of Magic" in Lucifer
<http://www.blavatsky.net/theosophy/judge/articles/#FNT1> 1 the question
of the genuineness or the opposite of such messages was dealt with, and
what she wrote is here presented for reconsideration. It covers two
matters. 
 
First, it proves out of her own mouth what the PATH not long ago said
that "if one letter has to be doubted then all have" to be doubted.
Hence, if the “Letter to some Brahmans” [MAHATMA LETTERS, pp. 461-2] is
a fraud, as Col. Olcott and another says, then all the rest are, also.
 
Second, it applies precisely to the present state of affairs in respect
to messages from Masters, just as if she had so long ago foreseen the
present and left the article so that tyros in occultism, such as the
present agitators are, might have something to show them how to use
their judgment. The portion selected from her article reads:
 
 
PRECIPITATION OF LETTERS
 
“We have been asked by a correspondent why he should not "be free to
suspect some of the so-called 'precipitated' letters as being
forgeries," giving as his reason for it that while some of them bear the
stamp of (to him) undeniable genuineness, others seem from their
contents and style, to be imitations. 
 
This is equivalent to saying that he has such an unerring spiritual
insight as to be able to detect the false from the true, though he has
never met a Master, nor been given any key by which to test his alleged
communications. The inevitable consequence of applying his untrained
judgment in such cases, would be to make him as likely as not to declare
false what was genuine and genuine what was false. 
 
Thus what criterion has any one to decide between one "precipitated"
letter, or another such letter? Who except their authors, or those whom
they employ as their amanuenses (the chelas and disciples) can tell? For
it is hardly one out of a hundred "occult" letters that is ever written
by the hand of the Master, in whose name and whose behalf they are sent,
as the Masters have neither need nor leisure to write them; and when a
Master says "I wrote that letter" it means only that every word in it
was dictated by him and impressed under his direct supervision. 
 
Generally they make their chela, whether near or far away, write (or
precipitate) them, by impressing upon his mind the ideas they wish
expressed, and if necessary aiding him in the picture-printing process
of precipitation. It depends entirely upon the chela's state of
development, how accurately the ideas may be transmitted and the
writing-model imitated.
 
Thus the non-adept recipient is left in the dilemma of uncertainty,
whether if one letter is false all may not be, for as far as intrinsic
evidence goes, all come from the same source, and all are brought by the
same mysterious means. 
 
But there is another and far worse condition implied. All the so-called
occult letters being supported by identical proofs, they have all to
stand or fall together. if one is to be doubted, then all have, and the
series of letters in the OCCULT WORLD, ESOTERIC BUDDHISM, etc., etc.,
may be, and there is no reason why they should not be in such a case, --
frauds, "clever impostures," and "forgeries" such as the ingenuous
though stupid agent of the "S.P.R." has made them out to be, in order to
raise in the public estimation the scientific acumen and standard of his
"Principles." .....
 
PATH, July, 1895
 

 
 
 
DTB
 
 
 
 
 


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