Theos-Talk Archives (February 2008 Message tt00193)

"Many thoughtful students of Theosophy are genuinely 
confused at the discrepancies they find between 
what has become known as second generation Theosophy 
(the Annie Besant / C.W. Leadbeater or AB/CWL system) 
and the teachings of the two Masters instrumental 
in setting up the Theosophical Society and 
introducing Theosophy as given out through H.P. 
Blavatsky (the HPB/Masters system). 

These discrepancies do not come to light as long 
as only one system is studied. 

In the minds of such students there are no 
difficulties or inconsistencies to worry about. 

The attitude can then well be that really there 
cannot be any serious divergences because surely 
the source of data, the main outlines of the 
Esoteric Science,are common to both systems, 
therefore discrepancies are likely to be trivial 
and really inconsiderable. 

This attitude is not really tenable but it is one 
generally held by those who have studied nothing 
but second generation literature. Moreover, it is 
this second generation literature which has become 
the commonly accepted one throughout the Adyar 
Society and generally in the world at large. 

Its classifications of the principles of man and 
the planes of Cosmos are now the commonly accepted 
ones. They do not accord, however, with those 
originally given out in the vast Blavatsky literature. 

Some of the areas of difference are presented and 
examined in this article. It will be seen that 
nearly all hinge on the introduction into the 
AB/CWL literature of the Etheric Body into the 
constitution of man. 

Many alterations not only to that constitution 
but also to the planes of Nature had to be made 
to accommodate this introduction, chiefly to 
preserve a sevenfold classification. 

The purpose of this paper is not only to point out 
the discrepancies but to demonstrate that they are 
unjustified because there is not and cannot be such 
a thing as an Etheric Body constituted as described 
by Leadbeater. The ramifications of the impossibility 
of there being such a body are discussed."

Geoffrey Farthing 

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/metaphys/etheric.htm