Theos-Talk Archives (March 2004 Message tt00755)

According to AAB herself, the campaign against her got into high gear
when she and her husband backed the wrong political party in
Theosophical politics. She claims to have been taught by some of the
same people that HPB personally taught, but she was against the
extreme right wing theosophists who thought that HPB and Judge had
written the very last word ever to be written about Theosophy, much
the same as the right wing "Born Again" Christians think that God
wrote the King James Edition of the bible, and not a comma or a period
must be changed. The classic story of the Fundamentalist against the
Liberal. Those people who taught her thought that the Liberal
interpretation was the correct position. Her position lost, and she
has been attacked ever since.


Here is her thoughts from her "Unfinished Autobiography" starting at
about page 190,
"
All this time Foster was acting as secretary to the Theosophical
Association of New York-an unofficial independent organization-and I
was cooking, sewing, doing house-keeping and writing books at home.
Every Monday morning Foster and I would get up at 5 o'clock and do the
weekly wash including the sheets for there was little money coming in
and it has been only within the last year or so of my life that I have
been free of some of my housework.

Foster at this time organized the Committee of 1400-a committee
pledged to endeavor to swing the Theosophical Society to its original
principles. This committee was in miniature a tiny replica of the
major world cleavage which has climaxed since 1939 in the World War.
It was essentially a fight between the reactionary, conservative
forces in the Society and the new liberal forces which were working to
see the original principles of the Society restored. It was a fight
between a selective, isolationist, superior group who regarded
themselves as wiser and more spiritual than the rest of the membership
and those who loved their fellow-men, who believed in progress and the
universality of truth. It was a fight between an exclusive faction
and an inclusive group. It was not a fight of doctrines; it was a
fight of principles and Foster spent much time organizing the fight.

[Page 189] B. P. Wadia returned from India and we were at first
hopeful that he would give strength to what we were trying to do. We
found, however, that he planned to take over, if possible, the
presidency of the T.S. in this country with the help of Foster and the
Committee of 1400. Foster, however, had not organized in order to put
into power a man who would represent the committee. The committee was
organized to present the issues involved and the principles at stake
to the membership of the T.S. When Wadia discovered that this was so
he threatened to throw his interest and weight into the United Lodge
of Theosophists, a rival and most sectarian organisation. They
represent the fundamentalist attitude in the T.S. along with one or
two other Theosophical groups who represent the point of view of the
orthodox theologian, holding that the last word was spoken by H.P.B.,
that there is nothing more to give out and that unless their
interpretation of what H.P.B. said and meant was accepted one cannot
be a good Theosophist. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that all
these fundamentalist groups have remained very small.

The Committee of 1400 went ahead with its work. The next election
took place, the membership named its choice (or rather the E.S.
dictated its choice) and the work of the Committee, therefore, came to
an end. Wadia threw his weight, as he had said he would, into the
United Lodge of Theosophists, and eventually went back to India where
he started one of the best magazines along occult lines extant today.
It is called "The Aryan Path" and is exceedingly fine. The word Aryan
here has nothing to do with Hitler's use of the word. It concerns the
Aryan method of spiritual evaluation and the way in which people
belonging to the Fifth Root Race make their approach to reality.

I, in the meantime, had started a Secret Doctrine class and had rented
a room on Madison Avenue where we could [Page 190] hold classes and
see people by appointment. This Secret Doctrine class was started in
1921 and was exceedingly well-attended. People from the various
Theosophical societies and occult groups came regularly. Mr. Richard
Prater, an old associate of W. Q. Judge and a pupil of H. P. Blavatsky
came to my class one day and the next week turned his entire Secret
Doctrine class over to me.

I mention this for the benefit of United Lodge of Theosophists and for
those who claim that the true Theosophical lineage descends from
H.P.B. via W. Q. Judge. All the Theosophy that I knew had been taught
me by personal friends and pupils of H.P.B. and this Mr. Prater
recognised. Later he gave me the esoteric section instructions as
given to him by H.P.B. They are identical with those I had seen when
in the E.S. but they were given to me with no strings attached to them
at all and I have been at liberty to use them at any time and have
used them. When he died many years ago his theosophical library came
into our hands with all the old Lucifers and all the old editions of
the Theosophical magazine, plus other esoteric papers which he had
received from H.P.B.

Among the papers which he gave me was one in which H.P.B. expressed
her wish that the esoteric section should be called the Arcane School.
It never was and I made up my mind that the old lady should have her
wish and that was how the school came to get its name. I regarded it
as a great privilege and happiness to know Mr. Prater.

Another old pupil of Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott, Miss Sarah
Jacobs, gave me the photographic plates of the Masters' pictures which
were given to her by Col. Olcott so that I have more than a happy
feeling that the personal pupils and friends of H. P. Blavatsky
approved of what I was setting out to do. I had their endorsement and
their help until they passed over to the other side. They [Page 191]
were, naturally, all old people when I first met them. The attitude
of the current Theosophical leaders and membership has always amused
me. They have never approved of what I taught and yet what I taught
came direct from personally trained pupils of H.P.B. and is more
likely to be correct than that which has come from those who have not
known her. I mention this because for the sake of the work I would
like to have its sources recognised.

>From the Secret Doctrine class arose groups of students all over the
country who received the outlined lessons that I was giving to the
class on Madison Avenue. These classes grew and prospered until they
aroused definite Theosophical antagonism and I was warned by Dr. Jacob
Bonggren that the classes were under attack. He was an old pupil of
H.P.B. and his writings are to be found in the earlier magazines and I
am very proud that he stood behind me in those earlier days.

In 1921 we formed a small meditation group of five men and my husband
and myself who used to meet every Tuesday afternoon after business
hours to talk about the things that mattered, to discuss the Plan of
the Masters of the Wisdom and to meditate for awhile on our part in
it. This group met steadily from the summer of 1922 until the summer
of 1923. In the meantime I was continuing to write for the Tibetan
and "Initiation Human & Solar," "Letters on Occult Meditation" and
"The Consciousness of the Atom" had been printed.

People are apt to assume that if you write a book on such a technical
subject as meditation that you know all about it. I began to get
letters from all over the world from people asking me to teach them to
meditate or to put them in touch with the Masters of the Wisdom. The
latter request always amused me. I'm not one of those occult teachers
who claims to know exactly what the Master [Page 192] wants done or to
have the right to introduce the curious and the dumb to the Masters.
The Masters are not contacted that way. They are not the prey of the
curiosity seeker, the gullible or the unintelligent. They can be
found by the selfless server of the race and the intelligent
interpreter of the truth but by no one else.

I have given out the teaching as it has come to me by the Tibetan but
it is His responsibility. As a Master of the Wisdom He knows what I
do not know and has access to records and truths which are sealed to
me. The assumption that I know all that is given out in His books is
a false one. As a trained disciple I may know more than the average
reader but I have no knowledge such as that possessed by the Tibetan.
He has vast knowledge and I frequently give a little chuckle when I
hear myself described by some antagonistic Theosophist (I could
mention names but I will not), as "the peculiar lady who keeps her ear
at the keyhole of Shamballa." It will be a long time before I have
earned that right "to enter into the place where the Will of God is
known," and when I do I shall need no keyhole.

In the summer of 1922 I went away with the family for three months to
Amagansett, Long Island, and undertook to write a letter once a week
to the group of men to study and read during our absence. In many
cases this letter seemed appropriate to send to those inquiring about
meditation, about the way to God and about the spiritual plan for
humanity, so we sent them copies of these letters as we wrote them.
By the time we returned to New York in September 1922 it was necessary
to consider in what way we could possibly handle the correspondence
that was accumulating as a result of the increasing sales of the books
and how to meet the demand for Secret Doctrine classes and how to
handle all the appeals for help along spiritual [Page 193] lines with
which we were confronted. We, therefore, in April 1923, organised the
Arcane School."

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Morten Nymann Olesen" <global-theosophy@adslhome.dk>
To: <theos-talk@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: Theos-World Morten: "Baileys books...can be said to be
WELL-INTENTIONED."


> Hallo all,
>
> My views are:
>
> Yes I sort of agree.
> Theosophy is not primarily dead-letter Bible-study of what some sect
claims
> is the ORIGINAL WRITINGS while pointing their fingers at some quite
physical
> papers.
>
> Blavatsky said in the Key to Theosophy - Section 2:
> "we cull the good we find in each". That is each and every thought
system,
> including new ones.
>
> Can the BLIND lead the Blinder ?