Theos-Talk Archives (August 2008 Message tt00080)

Can there be such a thing as Pseudo-Theosophy, false teachings even 
false teachers?

What did H.P. Blavatsky write about such things?

BELOW are some excerpts from her writings:

"Look around you and observe. While two-thirds of civilized society 
ridicule the mere notion that there is anything in Theosophy, 
Occultism, Spiritualism, or in the Kabala, the other third is 
composed of the most heterogeneous and opposite elements."

"Some believe in the mystical, and even in the supernatural (!), but 
each believes in his own way. Others will rush single-handed into the 
study of the Kabala, Psychism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, or some form 
or another of Mysticism."

"Result: no two men think alike, no two are agreed upon any 
fundamental occult principles, though many are those who claim for 
themselves the ultima thule of knowledge, and would make outsiders 
believe that they are full-blown adepts. . . . "

"Some limit ancient wisdom to the Kabala and the Jewish 
Zohar. . . . .Others regard Swedenborg or Boehme as the ultimate 
expressions of the highest wisdom; while others again see in 
mesmerism the great secret of ancient magic. One and all of those who 
put their theory in practice are rapidly drifting, through ignorance, 
into black magic."

"Happy are those who escape from it, as they have neither test nor 
criterion by which they can distinguish between the true and the 
false. . . . "

"A portion of the true [esoteric] sciences is better than a mass of 
undigested and misunderstood learning. An ounce of gold is worth a 
ton of dust. . . . " (1) 
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"With the spread of the spiritualistic cult, the Messiah craze has 
vastly increased, and men and women alike have been involved in its 
whirlpools. Given, a strong desire to reform somehow the religious or 
social aspect of the world, a personal hatred of certain of its 
aspects, and a belief in visions and messages, and the result was 
sure; the 'Messiah' arose with a universal panacea for the ills of 
mankind. If he (very often she) did not make the claim, it was made 
for him. Carried away by the magnetic force, the eloquence, the 
courage, the single idea of the apostle pro tem, numbers, for very 
varied reasons, accepted him or her as the revelator of the hour and 
of all time." 

". . . To distinguish the white rays of truth from influx from the 
astral sphere, requires a training which ordinary sensitives, whether 
avowed spiritualists or not, do not possess. Ignorance emboldens, and 
the weak will always worship the bold."

"Some of these apostles denounce alike Spiritualism and Theosophy; 
some accept the latter, but weave it anew into a version of their 
own; and some have apparently arisen, independently of any other 
cult, through the force of their own or somebody else's 
conviction...."

"There is an avowed re-incarnation of Buddha in the United States, 
and an avowed re-incarnation of Christ. Both have followers; both 
have been interviewed and said their best. They and others like unto 
them have had signs, illuminations, knowledge not common to men, and 
events pointing in a marked way to this their final destiny. There 
has even been a whisper here and there of supernatural births. . . . 
And the result is sorry to behold, for each seems to be putting the 
crown upon his own head."

"Wherever [genuine] Theosophy spreads, there it is impossible for the 
deluded to mislead, or the deluded to follow. It opens a new path, a 
forgotten philosophy which has lived through the ages, a knowledge of 
the psychic nature of man, which reveals alike the true status of the 
Catholic saint, and the spiritualistic medium the Church condemns. It 
gathers reformers together, throws light on their way, and teaches 
them how to work towards a desirable end with most effect, but 
forbids any to assume a crown or sceptre, and no less delivers from a 
futile crown of thorns."

"Mesmerisms and astral influences fall back, and the sky grows clear 
enough for higher light. It hushes the 'Lo here! and lo there!' and 
declares the Christ, like the kingdom of heaven, to be within. It 
guards and applies every aspiration and capacity to serve humanity in 
any man, and shows him how. It overthrows the giddy pedestal, and 
safely cares for the human being on solid ground. Hence, in this way, 
and in all other ways, it is the truest deliverer and saviour of our 
time."

"To enumerate the various 'Messiahs' and their beliefs and works 
would fill volumes. It is needless. When claims conflict, all, on the 
face of it, cannot be true. Some have taught less error than others. 
It is almost the only distinction. And some have had fine powers 
imperilled and paralyzed by leadings they did not understand." (2)
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"Great are the desecrations to which the names of two of the Masters 
[Koot Hoomi and Morya] have been subjected. There is hardly a medium 
who has not claimed to have seen them."

"Every bogus swindling Society, for commercial purposes, now claims 
to be guided and directed by 'Masters' often supposed to be far 
higher than ours! Many and heavy are the sins of those who advanced 
these claims, prompted either by desire for lucre, vanity, or 
irresponsible mediumship . . . ."

"The sacred names of Occultism and the holy keepers thereof have been 
dragged in this filthy mire, polluted by being associated with sordid 
motives and immoral practices, while thousands of men and women have 
been held back from the path of truth and light through the discredit 
and evil report which such shams, swindles, and frauds have brought 
upon the whole subject." (3)
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". . . A new and rapidly growing danger. . . is threatening . . . the 
spread of the pure Esoteric Philosophy and knowledge. . . . I allude 
to those charlatanesque imitations of Occultism and Theosophy. . . . "

"By pandering to the prejudices of people, and especially by adopting 
the false ideas of a personal God and a personal, carnalized Saviour, 
as the groundwork of their teaching, the leaders of this 'swindle' 
(for such it is) are endeavoring to draw men to them and in 
particular to turn Theosophists from the true path." 

". . . A close examination will assuredly reveal. . . materials 
largely stolen . . . from Theosophical writings. . . [and] distorted 
and falsified so as to be palmed off on the unwary as revelations of 
new and undreamed of truths. But many will neither have the time nor 
the opportunity for such a thorough investigation; and before they 
become aware of the imposture they may be led far from the Truth."

". . . Nothing is more dangerous to Esoteric Truth than the garbled 
and distorted versions disfigured to suit the prejudices and tastes 
of men in general." (4)
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"?.save us from the impudent distortion of our theosophical 
teachings?."

"....deliver us. . . from . . . the 'Solar Adepts' as they dub 
themselves, and their sun-struck followers. . . ." 

". . . . They plagiarized from our books, set up sham schools of 
magic, waylaid seekers after truth by deceiving them with holy 
names. . . [and] misused and desecrated the sacred science?."

"?.Before the appearance of modern Theosophical literature it 
was 'Spirits' and 'Controls' that were ever in the mouths of these 
folk; now the living 'adepts' are served up with every sauce. It is 
ever and always Adepts here, Hierophants there. . . ." 

"The angels from the 'Summer Land' are going out of fashion just now, 
for Spiritualists begin to know better and to discriminate. But 
because the 'adept' idea, or rather their philosophy, begins to gain 
ground, this is no reason why pretenders of every description should 
travesty in their . . . productions the teachings, phraseology, and 
Sanskrit terms out of theosophical books; or why, again, they should 
turn round and make people believe that these were given them by 
other 'Hierophants,' in their opinion, far higher, nobler and grander 
than our teachers."

"The great evil of the whole thing is, not that the truths of 
Theosophy are adopted by these blind teachers, for we should gladly 
welcome any spread, by whatever means, of ideals so powerful to wean 
the world from its dire materialism - but that they are so interwoven 
with mis-statements and absurdities that the wheat cannot be winnowed 
from the chaff, and ridicule, if not worse, is brought to bear 
upon. . . [the Theosophical] movement. . . ."

"How shall men discern good from evil, when they find it in its close 
embrace?"

"The very words, 'Arhat,' 'Karma,' 'Maya,' 'Nirvana,' must turn 
enquirers from our threshold when they have been taught to associate 
them with such a teeming mass of ignorance and presumption. . . ." 

"Though false coin is the best proof of the existence of genuine 
gold, yet, the false deceives the unwary. . . ." (5)
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"?.If the 'false prophets of Theosophy' are to be left untouched, the 
true prophets will be very soon--as they have already been--confused 
with the false. It is nigh time to winnow our corn and cast away the 
chaff." 

"? We do not believe in allowing the presence of sham elements in 
Theosophy, because of the fear, forsooth, that if even 'a false 
element in the faith' is ridiculed, the latter 'is apt to shake the 
confidence' in the whole?."

"?However it may be, let rather our ranks be made thinner, than the 
Theosophical Society go on being made a spectacle to the world 
through the exaggerations of some fanatics, and the attempts of 
various charlatans to profit by a ready-made programme. These, by 
disfiguring and adapting Occultism to their own filthy and immoral 
ends, bring disgrace upon the whole movement?."

"?.One . . . such [bogus Esoteric and Occult Society] just sprung 
up . . . is now being nipped in the bud and exposed by our own 
Theosophists." 

"These are the 'Solar adepts' . . . No event could vindicate the 
policy of our journal [Lucifer] better than the timely exposure of 
these pseudo-adepts, those 'Sages of the Ages' who bethought 
themselves of trading upon the public hunger for the marvellous ad 
absurdum. "

". . . . For we have averted thereby a great and new danger to the 
Society--namely that of unscrupulous charlatans being taken for 
Theosophists.  Misled by their lies and their publications filled 
with terms from Eastern philosophy and with ideas they had bodily 
stolen from us only to disfigure and misapply them--the American 
press has already referred to them as Theosophists. . . ."  (6) 
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(1) Blavatsky, H.P. The Key to Theosophy, original 1889 edition, pp. 
21-22.

(2) Blavatsky, H.P. "Modern Apostles and Pseudo-Messiahs," Lucifer 
(London), July, 1890.

(3) Blavatsky, H.P. The Key to Theosophy, original 1889 edition, p. 
301. 

(4) Blavatsky, H.P. E.S. Instruction No. I., 1889.

(5) Blavatsky, H.P. "The Year Is Dead, Long Live The Year!," Lucifer 
(London), January, 1889.

(6) Blavatsky, H.P. "On Pseudo-Theosophy,"  Lucifer (London), March, 
1889.

Daniel
http://hpb.cc