Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00507)

stevestubbs wrote:
> She mentions him in the SD and in several articles, but never has 
> anything interesting to say.
>
> The person who told the truth about St. Germain was Casanova, who met 
> him when he was trying to swindle the Marquise d'Urfe. St. Germain 
> was a crank and anyone who says otherwise will be accused by Eldon 
> Tucker of hubris.
That's more or less what I thought, but I was willing to be convinced 
otherwise.

There is a story in the New Testament about the temptation of Jesus, by 
Satan, in the desert. I have the following take on it:

Most people don't want to hear a spiritual message that emphasizes 
altruism and evolution. They want one that emphasizes self-interest and 
empowerment. This can be very frustrating to the teacher with a message 
of altruism and evolution. And the teacher, being a human being, is 
frustrated. But getting the audience they want has a price; in order to 
attract people who are not ready for their message, and make them ready, 
they must compromise their principles. And every time you give into 
temptation, it becomes a little easier the next time. Blavatsky, I 
believe, gave into temptation numerous times, but had the Mahatmas to 
help her from falling over the deep end (which is why, once again as I 
believe, she started de-emphasizing magic).

We see, today, a number of teachers who started out with what we, as 
Theosophists, consider to be an admirable message, and allowed their 
zeal to reach the people corrupt them. People like Sai Baba, Rajneesh, 
and Andrew Cohen (the last I include because it was my misfortune to 
witness his transformation first-hand) all succumbed to the temptations 
of the material, to the detriment of their teachings.

Now, my primary source material on Cagliostro was not from people who 
were trying to push forward some spiritual message. It was from what for 
all intents and purposes was an engineering standpoint, and ignored the 
political and spiritual aspects entirely. However, whatever your opinion 
is, the fact is that Cagliostro was much clearly more interested in 
getting in good with kings and those of wealth and power than he was in 
spreading any kind of spiritual message. And, regardless of his own 
spiritual advancement, that was his undoing.

Bart