Theos-Talk Archives (January 2006 Message tt00014)

In "The Key to Theosophy" published in 1889, H.P.B. 
made the following observations about the confusion, etc. 
among many students of Theosophy, esotericism, occultism, 
etc.:

====================================================

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/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 

Is the situation any better or any worse today in 2005?

Daniel
Blavatsky Study Center
http://blavatskyarchives.com