Theos-Talk Archives (December 2006 Message tt00082)

Dear Friends, 
 
During his imaginary visits to the red planet,  Charles Leadbeater spent some time observing the political structures of the physical plane Martian civilization he thought he saw.  
 
After discussing  Martian houses, cities and cultural life, his fancy made him write: 
 
“On every hand one sees signs of a very old civilization, for the inhabitants have preserved the tradition of all that was known when the great life-wave of humanity occupied the planet, and have since added to it many discoveries. Electricity seems to be practically the  sole motive power, and all sorts of labor-saving machines are universally employed.”
 
This, by the way,  is  quite similar to the terrestrial conditions in which Leadbeater was living.  
 
It seems that the Bishop was not very fond of the Martians, as he accuses them of being indolent:  
 
“The people are on the whole distinctly indolent, especially after they have passed their first youth. But the comparatively small size of the population enables them to live very easily. They have trained various kinds of domestic animals to a far higher condition of intelligent cooperation  than has yet been achieved on earth, so that a great deal of servant’s and gardener’s work is done by these creatures with comparatively little direction.” 
 
Leadbeater says the Martian government is autocratic,  but there is a monarchy. The interplanetary clairvoyant writes:
 
“One autocratic ruler governs the whole planet, but the monarchy is not hereditary. Polygamy is practiced but it is the custom to hand over the children to the State at a very early age to be reared and educated, so that among the vast majority of the people there is no family tradition whatever, and no one knows who are his father and mother.  There is no law compelling this, but it is considered so decidedly the right thing to do and  the best for the children that the few families who choose to live somewhat more as we do, and  to educate their children at home, are always regarded as selfishly injuring their prospects for the sake of what is considered mere animal affection.”
 
Children educated with no contact with their parents is another “familiar scene” for the clairvoyant visitor on Mars.  CWL was very keen at educating other people’s children at Adyar and elsewhere.  
 
But, it is also possible  that by doing this Leadbeater was only trying hard to introduce this exclusive revolutionary  Martian educational system here on earth -- through  the Adyar Society.   
            
Although there is no hope of democracy on Mars,  Leadbeater does see a Monarchy with its vice-roys, just like in the British empire  where he lived: 
 
“The King has under him what may be called viceroys of large districts, and they in turn have under them governers of smaller districts, and so on, down to what would be equivalent here to the head-man of a village. All these officials are chosen by the King from this group of especially  educated children, and when the time of his own death is considered to be approaching it is from among them or from among the already appointed officials that he chooses his successor.”
 
This is somewhat similar to the Adyar Society, where the international leaders normally choose their successors. In any case, the political power-structure  of Leadbeater’s Martian society  is completely top-down:  
 
“All these rulers are autocratic, each within his own sphere but appeal to a higher official is always possible,  though the right is not frequently exercised,  because the people usually prefer to acquiesce in any fairly reasonable  decision rather than to take the   trouble involved in the appeal.” 
As a political analyst CWL  looks like having extremely conservative views. He fails to imagine idealism in his Martian nightmare: 
 
 “The rulers on the whole seem to perform their duties fairly well, but again one gets the impression that they do so not so much from a pre-eminent sense of right or justice as to avoid the trouble that would certainly ensue from a flagrantly unjust decision.” (1) 
 
The conclusion being that,  whenever authorities cheat and lie, such actions must not be too apparent, in order to avoid trouble.  
 
 
 
Best regards,  Carlos. 
 
 
NOTE: 
 
(1)   All Leadbeater sentences quoted above are taken  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 145-146 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)
 
 
ooooooo     
         
          
 


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