Theos-Talk Archives (November 2006 Message tt00281)

Dr Tillett,

There used to been (now sent to Pasadena), an old copy in Stockholm. 
This is/was the property of the Swedish Section of TS Pasadena. The 
library was closed last year, and they send away several documents 
to Pasadena and the ritual was among them. If they have photocopies 
of them are I not sure, but ask Mr. Herbert Edlund in Gothenburg. 
But any way, they have them in Pasadena now. 

I was shown for some years ago one paper (from the papers above) 
with a ritual from the early 1880's, and it looked very similar to 
the later ES-ritual.

Regards,

Carl Ek

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, gregory@... wrote:
>
> In its early days the TS worked as a secret society.  At a meeting 
on
> January 12, 1876 a resolution was passed: That in future the 
Society adopt
> the principle of secrecy in connection with its proceedings and
> transactions, and that a Committee be appointed to draw up and 
report upon
> details necessary to give effect to such a change.
> 
> Thereafter, Fellows were admitted through a ritual initiation in 
which
> they were given passwords, grips and signs which they undertook to 
keep
> secret and by which they were enabled to recognize other members. 
But
> there was little practical effort to maintain secrecy, even though
> applicants for membership signed a document in which they 
pledged "to ever
> maintain ABSOLUTE SECRECY respecting [the Society's] proceedings,
> including its investigations and experiments, except in so far as
> publication may be authorized by the society or council".
> 
> At the 1885 Convention the rules were revised, and the Objects 
more or
> less as presently held were adopted. The Initiation ceremony was 
abandoned
> "as giving rise to misunderstanding on the part of the public, and 
the
> form of obligation being repugnant to many." But the signs and 
passwords
> were retained.
> 
> Has anyone seen the texts of the ritual initiations from 1876-
1885? Or the
> signs and passwords that were retained (until when?) after 1885?
> 
> Dr Gregory Tillett
>