Theos-Talk Archives (September 2005 Message tt00242)

The following two emails by Jerry Schueler were 
recently posted to Theos-L. I have Jerry's permission 
to post these again.

Jerry is referring to an article titled "The
Resurgence of Pseudo-Theosophy" which was
written by Jerome Wheeler and published in the
latest (Fall 2005) issue of FOHAT, a Canadian
Theosophical magazine. 

In the article, Jerome Wheeler criticizes my
book THE ESOTERIC WORLD OF MADAME BLAVATSKY and
even "criticizes" me apparently questioning my
motivations, etc.

The 2 postings by Jerry are now given:

------------------------------------------------------
Mon,26 Sep 2005 20:38:36 -0400

Author: "Gerald Schueler" <gschueler@earthlink.net>

Subject: The Resurgence of Pseudo-Theosophy

Now we all know that pseudo-Theosophy is a nasty word,
one that requires a mouth cleansing at the very least.
Well, its back according to Jerome, who posted an
article by this name in the latest Fohat.

Once again Theosophists are circling the wagons and
opening salvos on a trouble making SOB who is
obviously stirring up a hornet's nest of lies and
deceit. Trouble is, this SOB is one of us -- or was
until he wrote a book publishing the pros and cons of
HPB; and it is her critics, the cons in his book, here
that have apparently stirred up otherwise good
Theosophists like Jerome. And Dan [Caldwell], you know who you
are, my historian friend. Perhaps, now that you are
feeling the brunt of Theosophical wrath yourself, you
can appreciate what Paul Johnson recently went
through.

Jerome opens up his article in Fohat with the phrase
"this batch of known liars" and it goes downhill from
there. He contimues later with "similar
incidents of known liars are presented as if they were
respectable sources of evidence." Presumably Jerome
considers anyone who says bad things about
HPB as :"known liars" and anyone who says good things
about her as "respectable sources of evidence." Nice.
Real open mind there. It was at this point that I quit
reading his hate-filled artcle.

Now, whether we believe that Dan was honestly
presenting the good and bad, both sides of the story,
or whether we believe he had a secret agenda, what
Jerome calls "his policy," (scary thought, eh?) a
fellow Theosophist is not supposed to sling mud at
another fellow Theosophist. What ever happened to
"universal brotherhood?" What happened to compassion?
Jerome, and people like him, reveal the lie of our
lip-service to brotherhood. 

I have my own views as to what HPB said and did, and I
alone will decide for myself if she was right or wrong
in her writings. I have read the works
of her detractors, and have formed ny own opinions of
them. That is my choice to make for myself, not
Jerome's to make for me. 

Instead of writing an open friendly article that
presented his personal views on the historical work
of a well-intentioned fellow Theosophist,
Jerome undoes exactly what he was trying to do and
loses his entire case, at least for me. He seems too
filled full with emotion, the chief of which
appears to be hatred and vindictiveness aimed at Dan
this time, and at Paul before this, to be objective. I
find the article to be offensive and am
sorry that Fohat published it.

For what its worth, 

Jerry S. 

[Additional comments from Jerry S follows:]

Tue, 27 Sep 2005 14:40:04 -0400

Author: "Gerald Schueler" <gschueler@earthlink.net>

Subject: Re: The Resurgence of Psudo-Theosophy

................................................

The argument of the ULT folks seems to be that Dan,
together with [John] Algeo and the Adyar branch, have a
hidden agenda and deliberately published the book
with malicious intent. The truth is, there are no
"lies" in the book, only possible ommissions in the
introductions. The intent of the editor and
publisher was to present a balanced view. One has the
right to agree or disagree as to how well this intent
was carried out, but one does not have the right to
throw stones at editors and publishers. And to suggest
that John or Dan deliberately intended to mislead the
reader is downright nonsense, and reminds me of the
old witch hunts that the puritans went
through. Sometimes our ethics gets carried away and
our worldview becomes one of white and black and we
forget or ignore the grey areas of life, and
then such things as burning witches and books take
place, and it always does so in the name of "justice."

Jerry S.

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Daniel
http://blavatskyarchives.com