Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00232)

Pedro wrote, in part: <<Perhaps part of 
the negative reaction generated by
"The Elder Brother" is due to the fact 
that there was, and I think there still 
is, a great deal of gratitude
to CWL in the Adyar Society for his 
many years of dedicated service, his 
many books and his overall contribution. 
Some of his books have ceased to be 
reprinted, like "Man: Whence, How and 
Whither", "The Lives of Alcyone", among 
others. But the fact that there is still 
demand for his books may indicate that 
his message is found useful. In Brazil, 
for example, I have seen his books for 
sale in bus terminals in very remote 
areas of the country. Pedro>>

Seems to me that one person's 
"applicable" could be another person's 
"betrayal"... So if Theosophy is seen as 
instrumental in "helping to bridge" such 
gaps in points of view, then seems to me 
that the Toronto TS might have succeeded 
to some extent in that they have 
"celebrated" the life of Annie Besant by 
way of a special seesion in her honor. 
I didn't attend the meeting, so don't 
know how it went. I was informed of 
that meeting shortly after I had read 
A.L. Cleather's GREAT BETRAYAL, (in 
which Besant/Leadbeater are not exactly 
celebrated), so the invitation to go and 
"celebrate her life" seemed ... uh, I 
think I wanted to think over a few 
things, first, so declined the 
invitation. Thinking back, I think I 
should hage gone to try to find out 
something about the mind-sets of the 
celebrants.

So if Theosophy is seen (among other 
things) as having a role in bridging 
gaps between opinions, seems to that 
that might be nice, but I think that 
most people (or some people ...) might 
have some interest in determing just how 
such bridging might affect the nature of 
the "exoteric version of Theosophy" 
(while the esoteric/experiential 
realities underlying Theosophical 
modeling would remain rooted in the 
Esoteric Tradition and unaffected by 
exoteric variations, interpretations).

In other words, I tend to suspect that
if Besant/Leadbeater had historically 
replaced HPB/Masters in introducing 
Theosophy to the West, then things might 
be very different for Theosophy today. 
And didn't B/L change Theosophy into the 
Liberal Catholic Church, among other 
things ...

I think I'll send an email to the 
Toronto TS asking who they're 
celebrating next, and then go and see 
for myself (maybe intuiting something or 
other about "what really goes on"). Of 
course if I try hard enough I might be 
able to broaden my speculative 
capabilities enough to go and celebrate 
just about anybody's life, I think, 
maybe, but ... ^:-/ ... but I might have 
a hard time believing that anybody else 
around here could do that kind kind of 
broadening sort of sensibly enough ... 
^:-/ ... (us speculators, of course, 
have special capabilities, eh ^:-).

Speculatively,
Mauri