Theos-Talk Archives (December 2006 Message tt00673)

   No one will ever be in a position to fully evaluate what takes place in ritual work until they are directly participating in that ritual themselves. How else could it be?.  When HPB made her statements about ritual she was doing it in the context of what she saw historically as what was limiting and hindering to true spirtual progress. Does her statements mean that without any exception that no matter what the circumstances all rituals are useless and empty? The very fact that she qualifies these empty and meaningless acts that are of "modern Masonary" implies that there may have been  true Masonic rituals that were not entirely empty and meaningless at some period earlier. Using her quote to argue against all Masonic ritual work is ludicrous and does not do HPB's broad and synthentic thinking justice. Many  of those who post here on theos-talk have a very narrow and dogmatic definition of what ritual may be.
   
  Ritual as seen from "above down" is done in an attempt to create a serious of intermediate places  that energy can  lawfully descend in controled increments. The Masters and senior members of this advance esoteric work do not need ritual  for there benefit. It is a stepping down procees for those who living  within the form side of things  need something tangible with which to build or grasps onto. It is not working with ritual that constitutes the problem for the senior member of the group who knows exactly what each student needs and how the whole process works. The error lies in the use of ritual by lesser students or dsiciples who cannot discern when that ritual that they are presently using should be abandoned for a more refined one. This confusion is often the result of students who participate in ritual work without the guidance and safety of the Masters aura. If we look at the esoteric definition of ritual  which "is the repeticious enactment of certain forms with
 the exspectation or intent of  a desired outcome" we can see that ritual is very multi-dimensional and can be applied on many different levels. A ritual can be creative and full of power under one set of circumstances and dead and hindering under another. It's all relative. Because the majority of the exoteric rituals performed by religious institutions are  hindering or limited does not mean that there may not be more esoteric groups or organizations that we know nothing about  that may be exsperiencing quite the contrary.  Thinking itself is a ritual is it not? It is simply carried out on the mental plane which to us may seem largely fromless but to the Masters is not and is composed of clearly deliniated Thought-forms. "Energy follows thought" is one of the key statements of all ritual work. On the mental plane ritual  work is carried out using mental symbols instead of physical ones. We think a word and that word through the creative imagination creates on the mental
 plane something vastly more exspansive then just the word itself.  This magic is achieved througfh the law of correspondence  and sympathetic vibration. Like attracts like. Unless we are trained in the art of meditation and spirtual energy invocation ritual can have no life.These laws of energy invocation are all laid out to the serious student of Yoga is the Sutras of Patanjali.  I am quite familiar with all the glamors and distortions of C. Leadbeater and others. However rituals can never be any more powerrful then those who preside at the the officiating moment or the disciples or students who are about to enter into the ritual . Those who have passed through the lesser intiations and can work on mental levels will do all of there work unseen and without  the need of the preperatory rituals. Hence by law they will find those set of earlier rituals empty and meanningless because they have mastered them in an earlier cycles. The first intiation on the threshold will
 require rituals with full personal participation and a wide variety of physical instuments and accouterments. At the second intiation it will take place on the emotional plane and lower mental.  At the third initiation it will be on the high mental plane and buddhic.The higher you go on the spiritual spectrum the less need for visible supports or guidance because the work is now taking place on hidden casual levels.
   
  I have suggested that there may be exsperiments in ceremonial magic now taking place all over the world in a somewhat limited and exsperimental form. Why would they  prefer to remain anonymous ? For the very controversial reasons  we can see here posted on a dailey bases. Unless one is directly participating in a ritual that has a subjective counterpart it is well high  impossible to judge its potency or effect on the participants. A candidate for true initiation is contacted by the Master or one of his senior disciples when the student has shown  sufficient progress in tolerance - abstract thinking and above all else his or her capacity to Love  Many of the very qualities the average Theosophical students is attempting to master and develope.
   
   
  "R. Bruce MacDonald" <robert.b.macdonald@hotmail.com> wrote:
          Daniel,

For an historian of theosophy, sometimes you are not very good with the 
big picture.

To remind you, in 1893 when Judge wrote this passage, The Theosophical 
Society was, from outward appearances, an harmonious group working in a 
"noble and altruistic spirit." Besant had not yet made her spurious 
charges against Judge and Olcott had not come out with his 1895 attack 
on the good name of Madame Blavatsky. The attacks against HPB were weak 
attacks coming from outside the Society. No one took them seriously. 
If Olcott and Besant had not made their blunderous moves and things had 
remained steady, today we would not even remember the names of Coulomb 
or Solovyoff, and Hastings, Carrithers and the rest would never have had 
to spend countless hours fending off attacks from lunatics within the 
Society.

Judge knew exactly what he was saying because he understood history and 
he understood human behavior! Sadly, that wisdom appears to have been 
lost in the intervening years.

Bruce

"I believe Judge had a good sense of
things when he wrote..."?????

Bruce, you wrote:

==========================================================
I believe Judge had a good sense of things when he wrote:

"In the years that are gone, necessity existed for repelling mean
personal attacks on H. P. Blavatsky's character. To take up arms in
her behalf was wise. Now her works remain. The necessity for constant
repulse of attacks on her does not exist. Judgment can be used in
doing so. Loyalty is not thrown to the winds when good judgment says
there is no need to reply. One of the best replies is to carry on the
work in the noble and altruistic spirit she always pointed out . . ."
- Williaim Quan Judge, Lucifer, Vol. XIII, December,
1893, p. 305. (Quoted in Theosophia #139)
========================================================

Bruce, I'm sorry but I don't agree that Judge "had a good sense of
things" when he wrote what he did in LUCIFER.

AND THANK GOD THAT BEATRICE HASTINGS, K.F. VANIA, ADLAI WATERMAN
(WALTER A. CARRITHERS, JR), VERNON HARRISON, etc. DID NOT FOLLOW
JUDGE'S ADVISE. INSTEAD THEY PRODUCED IMPORTANT WORKS DEFENDING
MADAME BLAVATSKY!!!!

Judge wrote:

"The necessity for constant repulse of attacks on her does not exist."

But if no one repulses the "attacks" what are new people, new
inquirers to rely on???

Vague appeals to "work in the noble and altruistic spirit"??

Certainly such WORK needs to be done but ALSO reasonable and
intelligent replies to "attacks" against Madame Blavatsky.

There are always new generations of inquirers and seekers who need to
have access to material about these "attacks".

Some in each generation will ask the same questions again. There
should be answers available.

Daniel


         

 __________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]