Theos-Talk Archives (November 2005 Message tt00057)

November 11, 2005


Dear Friends:

It has been asked how and why the occult and esoteric teachings have been handled with such secrecy. This will be found in the SECRET DOCTRINE :


"The so-called Forces, with Light and Electricity heading them, and the constitution of the Solar orb must be carefully examined; as also Gravitation and the Nebular theories. The Natures of Ether and of other Elements must be discussed: thus contrasting scientific with other Occult teachings, whilerevealing some of the hitherto secret tenets of the latter. (Vide Addendum.) 

Some fifteen years ago, the writer was the first to repeat, after the Kabalists, the wise Commandments in the Esoteric Catechism. 

"Close thy mouth, lest thou shouldst speak of this (the mystery), and thy heart, lest thou shouldst think aloud; and if thy heart has escaped thee, bring it back to its place, for such is the object of our alliance." (Sepher Jezireh, Book of Creation.) And again:—"This is a secret which gives death: close thy mouth lest thou shouldst reveal it to the vulgar; compress thy brain lest something should escape from it and fall outside." (Rulesof Initiation.) 

A few years later, a corner of the Veil of Isis had to be lifted; and now another and a larger rent is made. . . . 

But old and time-honoured errors—such as become with every day moreglaring and self-evident—stand arrayed in battle-order now, as they did then. Marshalled by blind conservatism, conceit and prejudice, they are constantly on the watch, ready to strangle every truth, which, awakeningfrom its age-long sleep, happens to knock for admission. Such has been thecase ever since man became an animal. That this proves in every case moraldeath to the revealers, who bring to light any of these old, old truths, is as certain as that it gives LIFE and REGENERATION to those who are fit toprofit even by the little that is now revealed to them. “ S D I 299



“ For it is not the fault of the initiates that these documents are now “lost” to the profane; nor was their policy dictated by selfishness, or [xxxv] any desire to monopolise the life-giving sacred lore. There were portions of the Secret science that for incalculable ages had to remain concealed from the profane gaze. But this was because to impart to the unprepared multitude secrets of such tremendous importance, wasequivalent to giving a child a lighted candle in a powder magazine.
The answer to a question which has frequently arisen in the minds of students, when meeting with statements such as this, may be outlined here.

“We can understand,” they say, “the necessity for concealing from the herd such secrets as the Vril, or the rock-destroying force, discovered by J. W. Keely, of Philadelphia, but we cannot understand how any danger could arise from the revelation of such a purely philosophic doctrine, as, e.g., the evolution of the planetary chains.”

The danger was this: Doctrines such as the planetary chain, or the seven races, at once give a clue to the seven-fold nature of man, for each principle is correlated to a plane, a planet, and a race; and the human principles are, on every plane, correlated to seven-fold occult forces—those of the higher planes being of tremendous power. So that any septenary division at once gives a clue to tremendous occult powers, the abuse of whichwould cause incalculable evil to humanity. A clue, which is, perhaps, no clue to the present generation—especially the Westerns—protected as they are by their very blindness and ignorant materialistic disbelief in the occult; but a clue which would, nevertheless, have been very realin the early centuries of the Christian era, to people fully convinced of the reality of occultism, and entering a cycle of degradation, which made them rife for abuse of occult powers and sorcery of the worst description.

The documents were concealed, it is true, but the knowledge itself and its actual existence had never been made a secret of by the Hierophants of the Temple, wherein MYSTERIES have ever been made a discipline and stimulus to virtue. This is very old news, and was repeatedly made known by the great adepts, from Pythagoras and Plato down to the Neoplatonists. It was the new religion of the Nazarenes that wrought a change for the worse—in the policy of centuries.

…. Is it a new religion, we are asked? By no means; it is not areligion, nor is its philosophy new; for, as already stated, it is as old as thinking man. Its tenets are not now published for the first time, but have been cautiously given out to, and taught by, more than one European Initiate—especially by the late Ragon.

More than one great scholar has stated that there never was a religiousfounder, whether Aryan, Semitic or Turanian, who had invented a new religion, or revealed a new truth. These founders were all transmitters, not original teachers. 

They were the authors of new forms and interpretations, while the truths upon which the latter were based were as old as mankind. 

Selecting one or more of those grand verities—actualities visible only to the eye of the real Sage and Seer—out of the many orally revealed to man in the beginning, preserved and perpetuated in the adyta of the temples through initiation, during the MYSTERIES and by personal transmission—they revealed these truths to the masses. 

Thus every nation received in its turn some of the said truths, under the veil of its own local and special symbolism; which, as time went on, developed into a more or less philosophical cultus, a Pantheon in mythical disguise. Therefore is Confucius, a very ancient [xxxvii] legislator in historicalchronology, though a very modern Sage in the World’s History, shown by Dr. Legge *—who calls him “emphatically a transmitter,not a maker”—as saying: “I only hand on: I cannot create new things. I believe in the ancients and therefore I love them.”† (Quoted in “Science of Religions” by Max Müller.)

The writer loves them too, and therefore believes in the ancients, and the modern heirs to their Wisdom. And believing in both, she now transmits that which she has received and learnt herself to all those who will acceptit. 

… This first installment of the esoteric doctrines is based upon Stanzas, which are the records of a people unknown to ethnology; it is claimed that they are written in a tongue absent from the nomenclature of languages and dialects with which philology is acquainted; they are said to emanate from a source (Occultism) repudiated by science; and, finally, they are offered through an agency, incessantly discredited before the world by all those who hate unwelcome truths, or have some special hobby of their own to defend. Therefore, the rejection of these teachings may be expected, and must be accepted beforehand. …

… The same will be said of the Secret Archaic Doctrine, when proofs are given of its undeniable existence and records. But it will take centuries before much more is given from it. Speaking of the keys to the Zodiacal mysteries as being almost lost to the world, it was remarked by the writer in “Isis Unveiled” some ten years ago that: “The said key must be turned seven times before the whole system is divulged. We will give it but one turn, and thereby allow the profane one glimpse into the mystery. Happy he, who understands the whole!”

The same may be said of the whole Esoteric system. One turn of the key,and no more, was given in “ISIS.” Much more is explained in these volumes. …

In those days the writer hardly knew the language in which the work was written, and the disclosure of many things, freely spoken about now, was forbidden. 

… the SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories, but contains all that can be given out to the world in this century.

It would be worse than useless to publish in these pages even those [xxxix] portions of the esoteric teachings that have now escaped from confinement, unless the genuineness and authenticity—at any rate, the probability—of the existence of such teachings was first established. 

Such statements as will now be made, have to be shown warranted by various authorities: those of ancient philosophers, classics and even certain learned Church Fathers, some of whom knew these doctrines because they had studied them, had seen and read works written upon them; and some of whom had even been personally initiated into the ancient Mysteries, during the performance of which the arcane doctrines were allegorically enacted. 

The writer will have to give historical and trustworthy names, and to cite well-known authors, ancient and modern, of recognized ability, good judgment, and truthfulness, as also to name some of the famous proficients in the secret arts and science, along with the mysteries of the latter, as they are divulged, or, rather, partially presented before the public in their strange archaic form.” S D I xxxiv -- xxxix


“The true philosopher, the student of the Esoteric Wisdom, entirelyloses sight of personalities, dogmatic beliefs and special religions. Moreover, Esoteric philosophy reconciles all religions, strips every one of itsoutward, human garments, and shows the root of each to be identical with that of every other great religion. 

It proves the necessity of an absolute Divine Principle in nature. It denies Deity no more than it does the Sun. Esoteric philosophy has never rejected God in Nature, nor Deity as the absolute and abstract Ens. 

It only refuses to accept any of the gods of the so-called monotheistic religions, gods created by man in his own image and likeness, a blasphemous and sorry caricature of the Ever Unknowable. 

Furthermore, the records we mean to place before the reader embrace the esoteric tenets of the whole world since the beginning of our humanity, and Buddhistic occultism occupies therein only its legitimate place, and no more.Indeed, the secret portions of the “Dan” or “Jan-na”* (“Dhyan”) of Gautama’s metaphysics—grand as they appear to one unacquainted with the tenets of the Wisdom Religion of antiquity—are but a very small portion of the whole. The Hindu Reformer limited his public teachings to the purely moral and physiological aspect of the Wisdom-Religion, to Ethics and MAN alone. 

Things “unseen and incorporeal,” the mystery of Being outside our terrestrial sphere, the great Teacher left entirely untouched in hispublic lectures, reserving the hidden Truths for a select circle of his Arhats. The latter received their Initiation at the famous Saptaparna cave (the Sattapanni of Mahavansa) near Mount Baibhâr (the Webhâra of the Pali MSS.). This cave was in Rajagriha, the ancient capital of Mogadha, and was the Cheta cave of Fa-hian, as rightly suspected by some archæologists.†” S D I xx



“Thus the reader is asked to bear in mind the very important difference between orthodox Buddhism—i.e., the public teachings of Gautama the Buddha, and his esoteric Budhism. His Secret Doctrine, however, differed in no wise from that of the initiated Brahmins of his day. The Buddha was a child of the Aryan soil; a born Hindu, a Kshatrya and a disciple of the “twice born” (the initiated Brahmins) or Dwijas. His teachings, therefore, could not be different from their doctrines, for the whole Buddhist reform merely consisted in giving out a portion of that which had been kept secret from every man outside of the “enchanted” circle of Temple-Initiates and ascetics. 

Unable to teach all that had been imparted to him—owing to his pledges—though he taught a philosophy built upon the ground-work of thetrue esoteric knowledge, the Buddha gave to the world only its outward material body and kept its soul for his Elect. (See also Volume II.) Many Chinese scholars among Orientalists have heard of the “Soul Doctrine.” None seem to have understood its real meaning and importance.

That doctrine was preserved secretly—too secretly, perhaps—within the sanctuary. “ S D I xxi



“ This is the true reason, perhaps, why the outline of a few fundamental truths from the Secret Doctrine of the Archaic ages is now permitted to see the light, after long millenniums of the most profound silence and secrecy. I say “a few truths,” advisedly, because that which must remain unsaid could not be contained in a hundred such volumes, nor could it be imparted to the present generation of Sadducees. But, even the little that is now given is better than complete silence upon those vitaltruths. 

The world of to-day, in its mad career towards the unknown—which itis too ready to confound with the unknowable, whenever the problem eludes the grasp of the physicist—is rapidly progressing on the reverse, material plane of spirituality. It has now become a vast arena—a true valley of discord and of eternal strife—a necropolis, wherein lieburied the highest and the most holy aspirations of our Spirit-Soul. That soul becomes with every new generation more paralyzed and atrophied. …but there is a fair minority of earnest students who are entitled to learn the few truths that may be given to them now; and now much more than tenyears ago, when “Isis Unveiled,” ….were published.
    
One of the greatest, and, withal, the most serious objection to the correctness and reliability of the whole work will be the preliminary STANZAS: 

“How can the statements contained in them be verified?” 

True, if a great portion of the Sanskrit, Chinese, and Mongolian works quoted in the present volumes are known to some Orientalists, the chief work—that one from which the Stanzas are given—is not in the possession of European Libraries. The Book of Dzyan (or “Dzan”) is utterly unknown to our Philologists, or at any rate was never heard of by them under its present name. This is, of course, a great drawback [xxxiii] to those who follow the methods of research prescribed by official Science; but to the students of Occultism, and to every genuine Occultist, this will be of little moment. 

The main body of the Doctrines given is found scattered throughout hundredsand thousands of Sanskrit MSS., some already translated—disfiguredin their interpretations, as usual,—others still awaiting their turn. Every scholar, therefore, has an opportunity of verifying the statements herein made, and of checking most of the quotations. …

However … one fact is quite certain. The members of several esoteric schools—the seat of which is beyond the Himalayas, and whose ramifications may be found in China, Japan, India, Tibet, and even in Syria, besides South America—claim to have in their possession the sum total of sacred and philosophical works in MSS. and type: all the works, in fact, that have ever been written, in whatever language or characters, since the art of writing began; from the ideographic hieroglyphs down to the alphabet of Cadmus and the Devanagari. 

It has been claimed in all ages that ever since the destruction of the Alexandrian Library (see Isis Unveiled, Vol. II., p. 27), every work of a character that might have led the profane to the ultimate discovery and comprehension of some of the mysteries of the Secret Science, was, owing to thecombined efforts of the members of the Brotherhoods, diligently searched for. It is added, moreover, by those who know, that once found, save three copies left and stored safely away, such works were all destroyed. In India,the last of the precious manuscripts were secured and hidden during the reign of the Emperor Akbar.*

It is maintained, furthermore, that every sacred book of that kind, whose text was not sufficiently veiled in symbolism, or which had any [xxiv] direct references to the ancient mysteries, after having been carefully copied in cryptographic characters, such as to defy the art of the best and cleverest palæographer, was also destroyed to the last copy. During Akbar’s reign, some fanatical courtiers, displeased at the Emperor’s sinful prying into the religions of the infidels, themselves helped the Brahmans to conceal their MSS. Such was Badáonì, who had all undisguised horror for Akbar’s mania for idolatrous religions.
 
* Prof. Max Müller shows that no bribes or threats of Akbar could extort from the Brahmans the original text of the Veda; and boasts that European Orientalists have it (Lecture on the “Science of Religion,” p. 23), Whether Europe has the complete text is very doubtful, and the future may have very disagreeable surprises in store for the Orientalists.
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Moreover in all the large and wealthy lamaseries, there are subterranean crypts and cave-libraries, cut in the rock, whenever the gonpa and the lhakhang are situated in the mountains. Beyond the Western Tsaydam, in the solitary passes of Kuen-lun † there are several such hiding-places. Along the ridge of Altyn-Toga, whose soil no European foot has ever trodden so far, there exists a certain hamlet, lost in a deep gorge. It is a small cluster of houses, a hamlet rather than a monastery, with a poor-looking temple in it, with one old lama, a hermit, living nearby to watch it. Pilgrims say that the subterranean galleries and halls under it contain a collection of books, the number of which, according to the accounts given, is too large to find room even in the British Museum. ” S D I xxii - xxiv





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In the SECRET DOCTRINE 


Sacred. 
Mysteries, 

Alexandrian, texts destroyed I xxiii-iv 
astrology secret of II 500n 
blinds conceal real II 310 
custodians of II 281-2 
desecration of II 503 
a discipline & stimulus to virtue I xxxv 
founders of II 267n 
gave rise to religions I xxxvi 
geography part of II 9 
great, & candidate's death II 462 
Greek sages initiated in I 117 
ideal & practical I 363 
ineffable name & I 346 
initiation into I xxxvi; II 795-6 
lunar, & occult knowledge I 228n 
Masonry once based on II 795-6 
origin of II 281, 560 
philosophers initiated into I 326-7 
psychic & spiritual element belong to I 229 
pyramids symbolize I 314-15, 317-18n 
rounds & races taught in II 435 
secrecy re II 124-5, 451, 518, 535 
unlocked w seven keys II 632 
records of the East II 314 
science, ancient origin in II 794 
spark given man II 95 

Sacred Animals I 362  
meaning of I 442 
Mexican & Egyptian II 399n 
plants change into I 238 
of Zodiac I 92, 446n; II 23, 181n, 625n

Sacred Four
Dhyanis remain to serve mankind II 281-2 
swastika emblem of II 587 
Tetraktis or I 88, 99; II 621

Sacred Name II 126; seven letters of I 438-9

Sacred Numbers, Figures, Signs 
I 60, 66, 89, 114, 168, 384, 649; 
II 34-5, 57n, 410, 553, 580, 598-604, 622. 

Sanctuary. See also Adytum, 

arts & sciences preserved in II 572 
unbroken traditions & records of II 443, 470, 
womb of nature I 382, II 234

Secrecy. See also Secret
about life & death II 451 
re certain symbols I 306, 363 
Egyptian priests pledged to II 763 
esoteric catechism on I 299 
fear of desecration II 124 
of initiates II 586 
re mysteries of nature II 518 
reasons for I xxxiii-v; II 451 
reticence in giving truth I 167; II 571 
rules on, strict I 163-4, 168, 170 

Secret(s)

books in temple libraries II 444, 529 
complete, record of Lemurians II 334-5 
data fr generations of adepts II 700 
description of, Lemurian records II 334-5 
documents hidden, knowledge not I xxxv 
dual power of, wisdom II 364 
figures kept I 163-4, 168, 170; II 251 
Kabbala's secret of II 282n 
knowledge confined to temples II 532-3 
"Mirror of Futurity" one of, records II 49 
of nature II 319 
records & seven keys to man's genesis I 323 
sciences, history of II 503 
teachings, portion only given I 480 
works & esoteric cycles II 70 
works unknown in Europe II 439


Silence
Gnostics on II 569n, 573-4 
reasons for II 451 
of sages re higher themes II 589 
on secret invisible things I 95 
worship in I 280


Secret Doctrine. See also Esoteric, Occultism
accumulated wisdom of ages I xxii, 272-3 
basis & source of all things I 46 
Buddhism, Upanishads rest on I 47 
Church Fathers tried to destroy I xl 
common property of mankind II 794 
on cosmogenesis (Isis Unveiled) I 4 
dates incompatible w science II 794 
defined & described I 272-3 
difficulties in describing II 794-8 
of the East II 127 
found in thousands of Sanskrit manuscripts I xxiii 
generations of seers checked I 272 
intelligent powers rule universe I 287 
interprets archaic symbols II 96-7 
key to theogonies & sciences II 767 
manus, races, etc II 307 
more given each century I xxxvii-viiin 
Nabathean Agriculture & II 455 
teaches no atheism I 279 
teaches progressive development I 43 
teaches reliable history I 267 
three fundamental propositions I 14-18 
three fund prop re evolution II 1, 274-5 
universally diffused religion of mankind I xxxiv 
Word: one number fr no number I 94


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I hope this may prove to be useful.

Best wishes,


DTB




Dallas
 

-----Original Message-----
From: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com [mailto:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Piali Mukherjee
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 7:12 PM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Theos-World RE: Piali Muk... C H E L A S and C H E L A S H I P

Thanks Dallas,

You seem to be deeply delved in theosophy and working steadily 


I will need quite some time to go through the data you have prvided me ,
particularly the Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. 

A lot of food for thought.

But I am still baffled at the secrecy of the subject. Why is it that only a
few people get attracted to Theosophy, when the root of divinity is among
us all and all are equal. 

Why is it that occultism is shrouded in a veil of mystery and is not to be discussed among all. 

I understand that our knowledge is thoroughly incomplete and inadequate. 

But it is through discussions and interactions of constructive kind that webecome aware of newer horizons. 

If I have missed out a pont on a doctrine or a concept, my friend can alwways
point it out and in this way, we both can grow faster rather that working
alone.

Please opine

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On 11/9/05, W.Dallas TenBroeck <dalval14@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
> 11/9/05
>
> RE: Piali Muk...
>
> Thanks for the good comments on C H E L A S and C H E L A S H I P
>
>
> Look at this, please, I hope it helps.
>
> DTB
>
> ----------------------------