Theos-Talk Archives (December 2006 Message tt00072)

H.P. Blavatsky's Warning 
about the TS from 1891 to 1897-1898

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Let me remind you all once more that such work is now more than ever 
needed. The period which we have now reached in the cycle that will 
close between 1897-8 is, and will continue to be, one of great 
conflict and continued strain. If the T.S. can hold through it, good; 
if not, while Theosophy will remain unscathed, the Society will 
perish -- perchance most ingloriously -- and the World will suffer. I 
fervently hope that I may not see such a disaster in my present body. 
The critical nature of the stage on which we have entered is as well 
known to the forces that fight against us as to those that fight on 
our side. No opportunity will be lost of sowing dissension, of taking 
advantage of mistaken and false moves, of instilling doubt, of 
augmenting difficulties, of breathing suspicions, so that by any and 
every means the unity of the Society may be broken and the ranks of 
our Fellows thinned and thrown into disarray. Never has it been more 
necessary for the Members of the T.S. to lay to heart the old parable 
of the bundle of sticks, than it is at the present time: divided, 
they will inevitably be broken, one by one; united, there is no force 
on Earth able to destroy our Brotherhood. Now I have marked with 
pain, a tendency among you, as among the Theosophists in Europe and 
India, to quarrel over trifles, and to allow your very devotion to 
the cause of Theosophy to lead you into disunion. Believe me, that 
apart from such natural tendency, owing to the inherent imperfections 
of Human Nature, advantage is often taken by our ever-watchful 
enemies of your noblest qualities to betray and to mislead you. 
Skeptics will laugh at this statement, and even some of you may put 
small faith in the actual existence of the terrible forces of these 
mental, hence subjective and invisible, yet withal living and potent, 
influences around all of us. But there they are, and I know of more 
than one among you who have felt them, and have actually, been forced 
to acknowledge these extraneous mental pressures. On those of you who 
are unselfishly and sincerely devoted to the Cause, they will produce 
little, if any, impression. On some others, those who place their 
personal pride higher than their duty to the T.S., higher even than 
their Pledge to their divine SELF, the effect is generally 
disastrous. Self-watchfulness is never more necessary than when a 
personal wish to lead, and wounded vanity, dress themselves in the 
peacock's feathers of devotion and altruistic work; but at the 
present crisis of the Society a lack of self-control and watchfulness 
may become fatal in every case. But these diabolical attempts of our 
powerful enemies -- the irreconcilable foes of the truths now being 
given out and practically asserted -- may be frustrated. If every 
Fellow in the Society were content to be an impersonal force for 
good, careless of praise or blame so long as he subserved the 
purposes of the Brotherhood, the progress made would astonish the 
World and place the Ark of the T.S. out of danger. Take for your 
motto in conduct during the coming year, "Peace with All who love 
Truth in sincerity," and the Convention of 1892 will bear eloquent 
witness to the strength that is born of unity. 

Your position as the forerunners of the sixth sub-race of the fifth 
root-race has its own special perils as well as its special 
advantages. Psychism, with all its allurements and all its dangers, 
is necessarily developing among you, and you must beware lest the 
Psychic outruns the Manasic and Spiritual development. Psychic 
capacities held perfectly under control, checked and directed by the 
Manasic principle, are valuable aids in development. But these 
capacities running riot, controlling instead of controlled, using 
instead of being used, lead the Student into the most dangerous 
delusions and the certainty of moral destruction. Watch therefore 
carefully this development, inevitable in your race and evolution-
period, so that it may finally work for good and not for evil; and 
receive, in advance, the sincere and potent blessings of Those whose 
goodwill will never fail you, if you do not fail yourselves
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Quoted from:  http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/hpb-am/hpb-am4.htm