Theos-Talk Archives (October 2006 Message tt00121)

For those interested, the following was printed in the Fall 2005 issue
of Fohat.

     Islands of Theosophy in a Pseudo-Theosophical World

In 1999, J. Ramon Sordo sent Richard Robb a letter describing his
introduction to and experience with theosophy in various parts of the
world.  Questions that arise from this letter are: Does a non-sectarian
society have any business endorsing or supporting ritual?; What does it
mean to have an Esoteric Section of the T.S. when there is no link to
any further esoteric teachings?; What does it mean when a spiritual
society ignores the teachings of its spiritual founders?; What does it
mean when a spiritual society is concerned about the epi-phenomena of
geopolitics?  Consider these questions and others as you read the
following letter.

Dear Richard,

I am enclosing for you, the last 3 issues of our magazine, Atma Vidya,
and Deity Cosmos and Man, by Geoffrey Farthing.  I believe you received
already the first 3 issues.  I am a Mexican, and about twenty years ago,
I met an Australian born Hungarian girl.  We soon got married and later
on, in less than one year, we went to live in Australia, where we stayed
for eight years.  She is an artist painter, and I am an Architect.

When I met her in Mexico City, she was about to publish a books in
Spanish on yoga and meditation.  She introduced to me for the first
time, the concepts of reincarnation, karma and then Madame Blavatsky.

Soon after our arrival in Australia, and through the yellow pages we
found the address of the T.S. and began to attend its lectures every
week.  Later we joined the Society.  At that time, we didn't know
the existence of any other Theosophical Organization nor did we
understand the difference between Theosophy and pseudo-theosophy.

My wife, Maritza, had already the S.D. and Isis in Spanish; we thought
that Blavatsky and the T.S. were one and same thing.  During those days
we began to buy most of H.P.B.'s original works in English,
including the Collected Writings, but unfortunately we also bought many
books belonging to the so called "second generation theosophy." 
At that time we discovered your magnificent Secret Doctrine Reference
Series of which we bought about twenty books.

After three or four years, we were invited to belong to the Esoteric
Section of the T.S. (1986).  In 1988, the year of the Australian
Bicentenary, we had the opportunity to stay at the Manor, in Mosman,
Sydney, the headquarters of the E.S. in Australia.  In 1989, we went
back to Mexico.

As you know, the Manor was the main residence of the infamous
Leadbeater.  His memory roams about the place and is still alive in
every corner of the house.  On almost every wall hangs a portrait of
him, together with those of his initiated pupils like Annie Besant,
Jinarajadasa, Arundale, etc.

One day, I was reading the Biobibliography of G.R.S. Mead in the
Collected Writings, Vol. XIII; I was puzzled by certain words written by
Boris de Zirkoff concerning C.W.L.'s oblique practices, and later at
the Manor`s Library — which is at the top floor, overlooking a
magnificent view of Sydney`s Harbour — I found out the confirmation
of the statement made in several books like: The Theosophical Movement:
1875-1925,  The Theosophical Movement: 1875-1950, The Elder Brother,
etc.

During the next months of our sojourn at the Manor, Maritza and I
launched ourselves in an in depth research, using almost all our free
time commenting daily on the fruits of our inquiry.  In the end, we were
both happy and sad.  Happy because we were able to get rid of so much
accumulated garbage that we had picked up since we joined the T.S.; and
sad, because nobody at the Manor was willing to listen to our findings.

Although the Manor is referred by the members as the "Occult Center
for the Southern Hemisphere", most of the classes are based on the
most anthropomorphic conceptions written by Annie Besant and C.W.
Leadbeater.  It is something similar to a brain washing.  They try to
convince you, for instance, that Mahatma Gandhi was evil, and that it is
good to kill in certain occasions.  They talk about occult geopolitics,
etc.

There is a so called Egyptian Rite invented by C.W. Leadbeater and
Wedgwood.  It is like a masquerade or carnival where people of the E.S.
will disguise themselves like Egyptians to perform a promiscuous rite,
that is half Masonic and half Roman Catholic Mass.  It is a secret
organization within the E.S.  Originally this rite had two degrees: the
blue and the red, but now there is only one left.  The celebration of
the E.R. takes place in a large room in the ground floor of the Manor,
called "The Temple".  The ceremony is presided by the head of
the Manor.  The rite is considered by the members to be: "very
powerful".  The climax of the celebration is when the chalice is
hold by the priestess and the brethren take communion from the chalice
and the host.  After that all brethren present, raise their arms —
as one can see in the Egyptian vignettes — and "send forces to
the world".

As we were very disappointed with the Adyar Society, on our way back to
Mexico City, at the L.A. airport, I made a phone call to the United
Lodge of Theosophists, inquiring if they had any lodge in Mexico City. 
They gave me two names and an address.

In May 1991, one afternoon, we were driving through a certain street in
Mexico City, when I told Maritza: "Look, that house is the T.S.
Adyar in Mexico."  The address was given to me in Sydney.  So,
without thinking one second, Maritza told me: "Stop the car, let us
see what they are doing."  As we entered into the place, we were
lucky to be received by the General Secretary himself.  He is the one
who sent to you the first issues of Atma Vidya.  At that moment he was
engaged in preparing an International Congress on Theosophy, to take
place in a luxury hotel in Mexico City.  After a very animated
conversation, and knowing that Maritza is Australian, he immediately
invited her to give a lecture, putting her name in the program.  She
gave her lecture in English.

As the smog in Mexico City was becoming thicker at every day, we decided
to migrate south.  We bought a plot of land in a village called
Tepoztlan, which is located forty minutes south of Mexico City and
thirty minutes east of Cuernavaca.  The village is surrounded by
beautiful mountains and with a pyramid on top.

The T.S. General Secretary, Carlos Lopez Cerdan, had a house in
Cuernavaca, so we met frequently.  I was able to give him a manuscript
that I had written at the time, showing the difference between real
Theosophy and the altered one.  This had a positive impact on him, and
very soon he asked me to start a Secret Doctrine course at the
headquarters in Mexico City and Cuernavaca.

On one occasion, he showed me the first issue of the Vidya Magazine
which he was preparing.  He asked my opinion.  I felt that all his
efforts were useless, as most of his articles were written by second
generation Theosophists.  He then asked me to be editor.  The first
thing needed to do was to change the title of the magazine from Vidya to
Atma Vidya, and then to change the contents, presenting articles on
Original Theosophy.  After that, we had many meetings in his house and
ours.  I designed the cover, Maritza chose the colors and a photo of
H.P.B.  I was supposed to translate only a couple of articles, and the
rest will be done by other people; but when we received the translations
I saw that they were faulty, so I had to do the job myself.  All of a
sudden I was engaged in a work that I never dreamt of doing before.  By
the time we reached the fourth issue, Carlos was finishing his term as
General Secretary and the T.S. was unable to pay the expenses involved
in printing the magazine.

By this time we were in contact with Geoffrey Farthing from London and
his Blavatsky Trust.  Thus, to be able to print Atma Vidya — being
inspired by Geoffrey Farthing — we formed the "Fundación
Blavatsky" (The Blavatsky Foundation), an independent Theosophical
organization.  This association consisted of most of the people in the
S.D. classes, both from Cuernavaca and Mexico City.  Each person gave
some amount of money so that we were able to print issue five and six. 
Currently, we are preparing issue seven.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Farthing asked me to translate his Deity Cosmos and
Man which I think is a very good introduction to Theosophy.  Since our
return to Mexico, we soon realized that there were very few works in
Spanish about  real Theosophy, whereas practically all the works of 
pseudo-theosophy are available in translations from Spain, Argentina,
Mexico, etc.  The few original works that were translated were faulty,
for example, Isis Unveiled was practically reinvented by the translator.
When you compare (page by page) the English and Spanish versions, they
are totally two different books.

The Secret Doctrine has a better translation but it is based on the
revised edition of Annie Besant and arranged in six volumes which
includes the so called third volume of the S.D.  Perhaps the statement
of the U.L.T. to the effect that the third and revised?  Edition of the
S.D. has more than 40,000 changes could be a bit exaggerated, but I
think it is not far away from the truth.  Even the Stanzas have been
tampered with.  We have also The Voice of the Silence in Spanish
translated by Don Francisco Montoliú from Spain around 1890.  It is a
good translation, although maybe too plain.  The Key to Theosophy was
translated around the same time in Spain by Don Jose Xifré; it is a
good translation.  A few years back in 1993, a new translation was
issued in Spain.  Although these translations are in general good, they
give in Spanish a wrong rendering of the English word Self, and they
pass unnoticed many important subtle distinctions like for instance the
difference in translation of words like remembrance, recollection, and
reminiscence.

As you can see, we have a huge task before us.  We would need more
translators.  Most of our members are eager to help, but they do not
know English.  One of them has been very useful.  He has the skill to
bind books and thanks to him, we are able to publish in high quality
photocopies all the supplements of Atma Vidya and the Uruguayan
translation of The Mahatma Letters.

So far we have in print or in process:
Atma Vidya
No. 1 About H.P.B. as a messenger
No. 2 The Masters and Meditation
No. 3 Emblems, Symbols and Diagrams of Theosophy
No. 4 The Yoga of Theosophy
No. 5 Dreams
No. 6 What is Theosophy?
No. 7 Devachan and the Post-Mortem States

My best wishes to you,
Greetings
J. Ramón Sordo

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "carlosaveline" <carlosaveline@...>
wrote:
>
> Bruce,
>
> Could you help us by putting José Ramón Sordo's text on the
Adyar Egyptian Rite here?  The one which was published in your good
FOHAT magazine.
>
> I thank MKR for this testimony -- interesting.
>
>
> Regards,   Carlos.
>
>
>
> De:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
>
> Para:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
>
> Cópia:
>
> Data:Sat, 7 Oct 2006 16:45:31 -0500
>
> Assunto:Re: Theos-World Egyptian Rite and Adyar
>
> > Thanks for quick response. I have seen Tillett's mention in his
book. I have
> > glanced thru Farthing's manifesto and seems to have overlooked his
mention
> > of the subject item.
> >
> > I would be looking forward to Sordo's and anyone else's
writing/info.
> >
> > I recall that couple of years ago, I believe in theos-l, there was a
msg.
> >
> > As I recall, a theosophist ran into a certificate in his mother or
> > grandmother's possession and he brought it to a meeting when one of
the
> > American Section's officers was visiting the TS lodge. When the
officer saw
> > the document, there was a sense of surprise and then the officer and
an
> > officer of local lodge went aside and had a brief conversation and
the
> > officer talked the member to part with the document. The member of
TS, not
> > familiar with the rite, did not think much of the document and
willingly
> > parted with the document. May be one someone on this list may be
able to
> > locate and re-post the msg here.
> >
> > MKR
> >
> > On 10/7/06, carlosaveline wrote:
> > >
> > > MKR, Bruce,
> > >
> > > There is an article written by Ramón Sordo, actually a letter
to Richard
> > > Robb, which was published in FOHAT not long ago. The text tells
something of
> > > Sordo's experience with the "Rite" in Australia.
> > >
> > > Perhaps Bruce, FOHAT's editor, can bring that to us here.
> > >
> > > As to Geoffrey Farthing's, mention to the subject, it is rather
brief and
> > > it is in his Manifesto. I hope someone can Farthing Manifesto and
its
> > > Supplement here.
> > >
> > >
> > > G. Tillett's texts about the E. Rite have been brought here at
Theos-talk
> > > some time ago and I also discussed the issue months ago.
> > >
> > > In time, more can come to light.
> > >
> > >
> > > Regards, Carlos.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > De:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
> > >
> > > Para:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
> > >
> > > Cópia:
> > >
> > > Data:Fri, 6 Oct 2006 20:24:20 -0500
> > >
> > > Assunto:Re: Theos-World Egyptian Rite and Adyar
> > >
> > > > Can someone post any of the material that Farthing and Sordo has
> > > written. It
> > > > would be of general interest to many here.
> > > >
> > > > mkr
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 10/6/06, carlosaveline wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Geoffrey Farthing (UK), José Ramón Sordo (Mexico)
.....publiclly
> > > written
> > > > > about such a Leadbeaterian "Egyptian Rite";
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > E-mail classificado pelo Identificador de Spam Inteligente
Terra.
> > > > Para alterar a categoria classificada, visite
> > > >
> > >
http://mail.terra.com.br/protected_email/imail/imail.cgi?+_u=carlosaveli\
ne&_l=1,1160185106.854168.25661.mindelo.hst.terra.com.br,3981,Des15,Des1\
5
> > > >
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> > > > Proteja o seu e-mail Terra: http://mail.terra.com.br/
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > E-mail classificado pelo Identificador de Spam Inteligente Terra.
> > Para alterar a categoria classificada, visite
> >

> >
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