Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt01576)

In The Key to Theosophy published in 1889, H.P.B. 
wrote about the confusion among many students of 
Theosophy, esotericism and occultism:

"Look around you and observe. While two-thirds of 
civilized society ridicule the mere notion that 
there is anything in Theosophy, Occultism, Spiritualism, 
or in the Kabala, the other third is composed of the most 
heterogeneous and opposite elements. Some believe in 
the mystical, and even in the supernatural (!), but each 
believes in his own way." 

"Others will rush single-handed into the study of the 
Kabala, Psychism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, or some form 
or another of Mysticism. Result: no two men think alike, 
no two are agreed upon any fundamental occult principles, 
though many are those who claim for themselves the ultima 
thule of knowledge, and would make outsiders believe that 
they are full-blown adepts. . . . ."

"Some limit ancient wisdom to the Kabala and the Jewish 
Zohar. . . . .Others regard Swedenborg or Boehme as the ultimate 
expressions of the highest wisdom; while others again see in 
mesmerism the great secret of ancient magic. One and all of those 
who put their theory in practice are rapidly drifting, through 
ignorance, into black magic."

"Happy are those who escape from it, as they have neither test nor 
criterion by which they can distinguish between the true and the 
false. . . . "

"A portion of the true [Esoteric or Theosophical] sciences is better 
than a mass of undigested and misunderstood learning. An ounce of 
gold is worth a ton of dust. . . . " 

original 1889 edition, pp. 21-22