Theos-Talk Archives (November 2006 Message tt00914)

Dear Friends,


In his book ?Inner Life?, Mr. Charles Leadbeater made extraordinary  revelations about life on the Planet Mars. 

At the time these  ?revelations? were first published, in 1910, most Adyar Theosophists believed them all  to be literally true, as the author emphatically claimed. Few dared question him. After all, Leadbeater seemed to have frequent personal conversations with ?Lord Christ? and other great spiritual authorities.   
 
Yet for some undeclared reason between the 1960s and the 1970s the  Adyar TS editors got rather timid and   decided to quietly  remove CWL?s Mercurian and Martian revelations from any new editions of  his book  ?Inner Life?.  
 
During his several personal though fake and imaginary visits to the planet Mars, C. W. L. ? who was the main founder of the Liberal Catholic Church ?  could see and observe the development of daily life on the red planet.  He reports that some  Martians use metal sandals in their feet, and that others look like Norwegian people on earth.  See  what he wrote in his book  ?Inner Life?: 
 
?The whole civilized population of Mars is one  race, and there is practically no difference in features or complexion, except that, just as among ourselves, there are blondes and brunettes, some of the people having a  faintly yellowish  skin and black hair, while the majority have yellow hair and blue or violet eyes ?  somewhat Norwegian in appearance.  They dress mostly in brilliant colours and both sexes wear an almost shapeless garment of some very soft material which falls straight from the shoulders down to the feet. Generally the feet are bare,  though they sometimes use a sort of metal sandal or slipper,  with a thong round  the ankle.? 
 
Perhaps C.W.L. was representing  his Liberal Catholic Church (L.C.C.)  during his several travels to the neighbour planet ?  but we don?t have his confirmation  about this. Instead,  Bishop Leadbeater comments on the Martian?s  flowers, gardens and city-planning: 
 
?They  are very fond of flowers, of which there is a great variety, and their towns are built on the general plan of the garden-city, the houses usually being one-storeyed only, but built round inner courtyards and straggling over a great deal of ground. These houses look exteriorly as though built of coloured glass, and indeed the material which is used is transparent, but it is somehow so fluted that while the person inside enjoy an almost unimpeded view of their gardens, no one from the outside can see what is going on in the house.? 
 
The remarkable clairvoyant does not tell his readers whether he wanted  to have his own books published  by the  Martian Publishing Houses.  Yet  it is  certain that he got interested in the cultural life of the red planet?s inhabitants,  for he writes:
 
?They have two methods of recording their thoughts.  One is to speak into a small box with a mouthpiece on one side of it, something like that of a telephone.  Each word so spoken is by the mechanism expressed as a kind of complicated sign upon a little plate of metal (...) which can  easily be read by those who are familiar with the scheme. The other plan is actually to write by hand, but  that is an enormously more difficult acquirement,  for the script is a very complicated kind of shorthand which can be written as  rapidly as one can speak.  It is in this latter script that all their books are printed, and  these latter are usually in the shape of rolls made of very thin flexible metal.  The engraving of them is exceedingly minute, and it is customary to read it through a magnifier, which is  fixed conveniently upon a stand. In the stand there is the machinery which unrolls the  scroll before the magnifier at any desired rate, so that one reads without needing to touch the book at all.? 
 
On the possibility of communication between Martians and terrestrians, the somewhat delirious Bishop  writes that this is not difficult.  After mentioning that there is a secret society in Mars, he explains, carried on by some feverish imagination: 
 
?Some at least of the members of the secret society have learnt how to cross without great difficulty the space which separates us from Mars, and have therefore  at various times tried to manifest themselves through mediums at spiritual seances, or have been able, by the methods which they have learnt, to impress their ideas on poets and novelists.?
 
In the next paragraph, Leadbeater describes the first-hand character of his personal  description about physical life on Mars.   
 
?The information which I have given above is based upon observation  and enquiry during various visits to the planet; yet nearly all of it might be found in the works of various writers within the last thirty or forty years, and in all such cases it has be en communicated or impressed by someone from Mars, although the very fact  of such impression  was (at least in some cases) quite unknown to the physical writer.? 
 
An important aspect of the Bishop?s mission to Mars may refer to religion. Mr. Leadbeater, who modestly used to confess that  he had regular talks with Lord Christ,  writes about Martians:  
 
?One of the most remarkable things about this people is that they have absolutely no religion. There are no churches, no temples, no places of worship of any sort whatever, no priests, no ecclesiastical power.? 
 
This leads us to raise a question or two to the Historians of the Adyar Society.  We all know Mr. Leadbeater had strong  Christian missionary impulses.  Is is possible, then,  that during his several visits to Mars he was actually preparing a religious mission to that Planet, a mission  to be developed by well-trained  priests of the Liberal Catholic Church?  In  that case,  could there be,  right now,  a group of L.C.C. priests celebrating Mass and feverishly  preaching the Gospel  among Martians? I leave this question  for  Historians to investigate.  
 
In any case, one thing is certain: the degree of ?accuracy?  we find in C.W. Leadbeaters?  wild  descriptions of life on Mars, is the same degree of irresponsible imagination with which he  described his talks with Masters of the Wisdom,  and created the several ritualistic schemes even now existing behind the scenes of the Adyar Theosophical Society.  
 
For some unknown reason,  it is these ritualistic quarters which seem to be most  interested in adopting the 19th century libels against H. P. Blavatsky as if they were part of the theosophical literature, something which the Adyar President Ms. Radha Burnier does not approve of.  Yet  the Adyar President  told me in a 2004 letter  that ?  she can?t  do anything  about that.   
 
 (See the bibliographical note below) 

 
 Best regards,    Carlos.    

ooooooooooooooooooooo


A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE : 
 
All the paragraphs quoted above are from the book ?Inner Life?, by C. W. Leadbeater, Section Ten.  The text was published  by the magazine ?Theosophical History?, London, January 1988; see pages 144-148 for the sentences quoted above.  I have the same text in the Spanish edition of ?Inner Life?, by CWL,  published in Buenos Aires by Editorial Glem (pp. 389-394). In  later years the USA T.P.H. editions of the book ?Inner Life? have silently eliminated this description,  as well as the brief but astonishing description of physical life on Mercury. Yet a  Brazilian edition of the book ?The Solar System?, by Mr. Arthur Powell ? a follower of C.W.L.?s ?  can still be bought in Brazil with this description of physical life on Mars.  
 
Another author and leading Adyar clairvoyant, Mr. Geoffrey Hodson,  followed the same track at least up to the 1950s. In 1954-1955, Mr. Hodson delivered a series of talks and classes to students in the international headquarters of the Adyar Society, in Madras/Chennai, southern India. It was part of the  ?School of the Wisdom?. The content of his lectures was published by the T.P.H. in India, in 1955, in two large volumes under the title of ?Lecture Notes -- The  School of the Wisdom?, with 616 pp. in the volume I and 582 pp. in volume II.  On pages 445-442 of  volume I, Mr. Geoffrey Hodson quotes and adopts, though  in a somewhat cautious way,  the same vividly absurd  description made by Mr. Leadbeater about a civilization on the red planet.    (CCA)
 
 
 
O o o O o o O o o O o o O
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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