Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00061)

Thanks Chuck and MKR
I think the reason for HPB's statement may have been because 
apolostolic succession is a belief system that has tried to maintain 
power and authority by claiming a special spiritual status and power 
to 'forgive sins' and bestow 'spiritual grace'.
A concept that is completely anathema to the idea of karma, and the 
idea that a priest can have a special spiritual link with the Christ 
or Buddhic principle through the exoteric enactment of a ritual is 
not only from a theosophical perspective unsustainable but goes 
against any sense of justice and lawfulness.

This teaching of priests having special powers is to me a fraud that 
needs to be exposed as it has enamored and glamorized people's minds 
in to subservience to external authorities rather than recognizing 
the internal Christ within that no priest needs to invoke on our 
behalf.
Rituals while they can be used as meditations for transformation can 
also become crutches.
It can be debated that the church no longer has this power over 
peoples minds, however the recent selection of the new Pope in Rome 
showed to me how much this sort of subservience people are still very 
much prone to giving to assumed authorities.
(The gold and braiding and jewels are still a powerful tool it seems.)

This is not to imply that some clergy are not committed and selfless 
workers on social issues and some like Bede Griffiths tried to open 
the church up to a more wider view of Christianity and other 
religions by taking a more theosophical approach, however still the 
above points have been the cause of many burnings and torture 
throughout history in order to maintain suppression of freedom of 
inquiry and stifle empowerment to the individual.

While people are of course free to believe priests have these special 
powers and links it is also the right of those who don't to critique 
these beliefs that have entrapped peoples minds for centuries.
HPB in her statement seemed to see this as quite important.
This for me does not imply that a Priest can not be a theosophist but 
rather that the belief in priestly power can and should be questioned.

Perry

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Drpsionic@a... wrote:
> Years ago at Summer School, someone came up a with one of those 
bright ideas 
> that fly like an empty balloon and this one was to have us break up 
into 
> groups and someone would come up with a question for the rest of 
the group to 
> answer.
> 
> Well, as luck (or someone else's bad karma) would have it, the 
person who 
> made up the question in our group was some poor fool heavily 
involved in the LCC 
> and his question was what did Theosophy think of "the saving blood 
of Jesus."
> 
> Well, everyone else in the group was being polite and hemming and 
hawing and 
> then it came to my turn. By that time I was thoroughly disgusted 
and I looked 
> him square in the eye and said, "To quote HPB, 'FLAPDOODLE!'"
> 
> Chuck the Heretic