Theos-Talk Archives (December 2008 Message tt00347)

Blavatsky Collected Writings, Volume 14 Page 33

THE SECRECY OF INITIATES

The false rendering of a number of parables and sayings of Jesus is 
not to be wondered at in the least. From Orpheus, the first initiated 
Adept of whom history catches a glimpse in the mists of the pre-
Christian era, down through Pythagoras, Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, 
Apollonius of Tyana, to Ammonius Saccas, no Teacher or Initiate has 
ever committed anything to writing for public use. Each and all of 
them have invariably recommended silence and secrecy on certain facts 
and deeds; from Confucius, who refused to explain publicly and 
satisfactorily

 

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what he meant by his "Great Extreme," or to give the key to the 
divination by "straws," down to Jesus, who charged his disciples to 
tell no man that he was Christ* (Chrestos), the "man of sorrows" and 
trials, before his supreme and last Initiation, or that he had 
produced a "miracle" of resurrection.? The Apostles had to preserve 
silence, so that the left hand should not know what the right hand 
did; in plainer words, that the dangerous proficients in the Left 
Hand Science?the terrible enemies of the Right Hand Adepts, 
especially before their supreme Initiation?should not profit by the 
publicity so as to harm both the healer and the patient. And if the 
above is maintained to be simply an assumption, then what may be the 
meaning of these awful words:

Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God: but 
unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables; 
that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may 
hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted 
and their sins should be forgiven them.?

Unless interpreted in the sense of the law of silence and Karma, the 
utter selfishness and uncharitable spirit of this remark are but too 
evident. These words are directly connected with the terrible dogma 
of predestination. Will the good and intelligent Christian cast such 
a slur of cruel selfishness on his Saviour?§
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* Matthew, xvi, 20.
? Mark, v, 43.
? Mark, iv, 11, 12.
§ Is it not evident that the words: "lest at any time they should be 
converted (or: "lest haply they should turn again"?as in the revised 
version) and their sins be forgiven them"?do not at all mean to imply 
that Jesus feared that through repentance any outsider, or "them that 
are without," should escape damnation, as the literal dead-letter 
sense plainly shows?but quite a different thing? Namely, lest any of 
the profane should by understanding his preaching, undisguised by 
parable, get hold of some of the secret teachings and mysteries of 
Initiation?and even of Occult powers. "Be converted" is, in other 
words, to obtain a knowledge belonging exclusively to the Initiated; 
"and their sins be forgiven them," that is, their sins would fall 
upon the illegal revealer, on those who had helped the unworthy to 
reap there where they have never labored to sow, and had given them, 
thereby, the means of escaping on this earth their deserved Karma, 
which must thus react on the revealer, who, instead of good, did harm 
and failed.
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The work of propagating such truths in parables was left to the 
disciples of the high Initiates. It was their duty to follow the 
keynote of the Secret Teaching without revealing its mysteries. This 
is shown in the histories of all the great Adepts. Pythagoras divided 
his classes into hearers of exoteric and esoteric lectures. The 
Magians received their instructions and were initiated in the far 
hidden caves of Bactria. When Josephus declares that Abraham taught 
Mathematics he meant by it "Magic," for in the Pythagorean code 
Mathematics mean Esoteric Science, or Gnosis.
Professor Wilder remarks:

The Essenes of Judaea and Carmel made similar distinctions, dividing 
their adherents into neophytes, brethren and the perfect . . . . 
Ammonius obligated his disciples by oath not to divulge his higher 
doctrines, except to those who had been thoroughly instructed and 
exercised [prepared for initiation].*

One of the most powerful reasons for the necessity of strict secrecy 
is given by Jesus Himself, if one may credit Matthew. For there the 
Master is made to say plainly:

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your 
pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and 
turn again and rend you.?

Profoundly true and wise words. Many are those in our own age, and 
even among us, who have been forcibly reminded of them?often when too 
late.?
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* New Platonism and Alchemy, 1869, pp. 7, 9.
? Matthew, vii, 6.
? History is full of proofs of the same. Had not Anaxagoras 
enunciated the great truth taught in the Mysteries, viz., that the 
sun was surely larger than the Peloponnesus, he would not have been 
persecuted and nearly put to death by the fanatical mob. Had that 
other rabble which was raised against Pythagoras understood what the 
mysterious Sage of Crotona meant by giving out his remembrance of 
having been the "Son of Mercury"?God of the Secret Wisdom?he would 
not have been forced to fly for his life; nor would Socrates have 
been put to death, had he kept secret the revelations of his divine 
daimôn. He knew how little his century?save those initiated?would 
understand his meaning, had he given out all he knew of the moon. 
Thus he limited his statement to an allegory, which is now proven to 
have been more scientific than was hitherto believed. He maintained 
that the moon was inhabited and that the lunar beings lived
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