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
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