Theos-Talk Archives (October 2006 Message tt00129)

The notes on the ER posted to theos-talk were based on a section of a
paper, "The Esoteric Within the Exoteric: Secret Societies in the
Theosophical Movement" which I wrote many years ago, and which I have been
revising and expanding ever since. There were many secret groups in
Theosophical organizations - from Sinnett's London Lodge's ES to the ULT's
DES. I presented parts of the paper, including that on the ER, at a
Theosophical History conference in California. John Algeo was in the
audience and he, and various other Adyar TS (and presumably ER) members,
let their severe disapproval of my reference to the ER be known - not, of
course, directly to me. Fortunately, over the years I have been able to
acquire much more information on the ER, including copies of its rituals.
Dr Brendan French, in his PhD thesis on "The Theosophical Masters",
provides a detailed, scholarly analysis of Leadbeater's original
intentions for this "most powerful occult rite in the world". It sought to
"make Masters" by ritual means - it was the culmination of Leadbeater's
theory that ritual magic provides a technology for "spiritualization" or
occult evolution without much conscious effort on the part of individuals
being thus "spiritualized". In the same way, he taught that the Liberal
Catholic Mass poured forth into the world powerful vibrations which
hastened the evolution of those in the vicinity (even those outside the
church and unconscious of any such vibrations).
I was interested to note how effectively the secrecy of the ER had been
maintained - until "The Elder Brother" there seems not to have been a
single reference in print to it. Leadbeater's "The Hidden Life in
Freemasonry" contains some information about the ER, albeit only
identifiable as such by those "in the know".

Dr Gregory Tillett