THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT in its inclusive sense
means the triple course of evolution pursued by self-conscious Egos from the
dawn to the close of a Manvantara. "Being is an endless cycle within
the one absolute eternity, wherein move numberless inner cycles, finite and
conditioned."
The Movement in our times is a cycle of 100 years
which began in 1875, and is the sixth in a series which began in the last
quarter of the fourteenth century. It will be followed by a seventh commencing
in 1975. The present centenary cycle, and the series to which it belongs, are
both included in the "Messianic cycle" of 2,155 years, itself but a phase in a
still larger one, and so on throughout the life-period of a whole Race, of a
series of Races, and of our entire solar system, of which this earth and its
inhabitants comprise but a portion. The whole mass of Egos collectively, in
Races, Sub-races, Family-races, nations, etc.; the individual Egos in their
various stages -- all these represent cycles upon cycles, wheels within wheels,
which "down to their smallest ramifications, overlap and are entangled with
each other until it is nearly impossible to separate them." The key of cycles,
otherwise of Karma and Reincarnation, underlies and pervades the entire
teachings of the Wisdom-Religion whose partial re-presentation in our times by
H. P. Blavatsky was by her named Theosophy.
All cycles, the most transitory as well as the
longest, are repetitions on an ascending and descending scale, and run their
course in strict mathematical sequence. Three statements on this subject in
The Secret Doctrine are of the utmost importance to all theosophical
students. They are:
The reincarnationists and believers in Karma alone
dimly perceive that the whole secret of Life is in the unbroken series of
its manifestations: whether in, or apart from, the physical body. (I, 238.)
...the first law in nature is uniformity in
diversity, and the second -- analogy, "As above, so below." (II, 699.)
Analogy is the guiding law in Nature, the
only true Ariadne's thread that can lead us, through the inextricable paths
of her domain, toward her primal and final mysteries. (II, 153.)
If these generalizations are true, then not only was
there neither miracle nor chance in the mission and message of H. P. Blavatsky,
but the whole course of the Movement with all its confusions, contradictions,
and bewilderments is nevertheless the orderly development of Karma. That
course must have been fully foreseen by the Masters of Wisdom, must have
governed Their Messenger in all her conduct, and must correspond to former
messages, messengers, and cyclic repetitions of the Movement -- and must be
understandable by those who conscientiously make use of the keys provided by
the teachings and example of H.P.B. in their own efforts to do more than "dimly
perceive" the uninterrupted concatenation of causes in the agglomerate of
effects heaped up in the events of our cycle as so far in evidence.
Our cycle, like all others, must pass through four
phases, each represented by a mixed generation of adult theosophists. Two
generations have produced their effects; the third is now engaged both with
those transmitted results and with the making of causes on its own account --
to be followed in due course by the fourth and final phase and generation. All
overlap, otherwise there could not be continuity, diversity, or uniformity in
the diversities. All the ramifications of the Movement can be looked at from
below up, that is to say, from the personal standpoint; or from the point of
view that all those engaged are reincarnating Egos who, in this life, are but
renewing and continuing courses individually and collectively pursued in
former cycles and former lives on earth.
These two opposite planes of perception, the human or
personal, and the impersonal or Egoic, represent the two antagonistic elements
in the Movement as in the man, the exoteric and esoteric aspects of both. "The
human being constantly confuses effects with causes, the genuine Occultist
never." The contrast, and the way to deal with it, is clearly put in the "Introductory"
to The Secret Doctrine (I, xx):
The true philosopher, the student of the Esoteric
Wisdom, entirely loses sight of personalities, dogmatic beliefs and special
religions.
When this attitude of mind is adopted and adhered to,
then men, things, methods, policies, actions and events can be studied with
profit and what otherwise is merely controversial becomes truly educational.
Had theosophists of every degree taken to heart the fundamental distinction
between their own human point of view and that represented in H. P. Blavatsky
and her Theosophy, the course of the Movement would have been far different.
It is just as possible to the student of today to take the impersonal attitude
toward theosophical Karma made, in the making, and to be made, as it was in
the beginning of the Movement. A few at all times did; a few do now; that
their number may increase is the object of this attempt to survey the course
of the Movement since 1925. It is an effort to face the making of recent
theosophical history in the light of Theosophy as recorded by H.P.B.; to
benefit by the lessons which may be learned in that way and in no other, and
to point out the application of those lessons to the immediate present and the
unfolding future.
The course of the Movement from 1875 to 1925
developed the causes set in motion by H.P.B., both by her writings and by her
own application of Theosophy in relation to persons and events contacted
during her career, the first phase; the second quarter witnessed the
understanding and the use made by her immediate disciples and others of the
assets and liabilities thus accruing and added to. Each phase has its own
distinguishing features more or less determinative in their influence on the
next. The mid-point of any cycle being reached, the opposing influences are at
their maximum, and one or other must prevail, in the individual and in any
group of individuals, during the remaining half of the term.
The originally latent, then germinal, then ripening,
"mental deposits" brought forward from the past reproduce in their turn, each
after its own kind, and must under law continue to do so, until the seeds of
the one or the other are destroyed whether in the Ego or in any group of Egos.
The Theosophical Movement of our period as of all former ones contains both
wheat and tares. The familiar parable on that subject supplies the perfect
analogy, though its correspondence with our cycle has been largely missed by
theosophists. They have made as little application of it to their own problems
as did those who heard the words of Jesus to theirs.
H. P. Blavatsky represented a descent from the plane
of the Masters to that of men, and her message of Theosophy the seeds of the
Wisdom-Religion it was her mission to sow broadcast in the mind of the race.
The Theosophical Society represented those Egos drawn by her presence and her
message to share in her mission. The Theosophical Society and its objects came
from her, not from those who entered it, as did the teachings imparted for
their study and application. Her relation from the beginning and throughout
was that of a Teacher; the relation of all the members was that of pupils to
their teacher: relations wholly self-assumed and voluntary on both sides, the
Society a mere meeting-ground. Facts so simple and plain as these were
misconceived from the start and were increasingly misunderstood as the Society
grew in membership on the one side, and the mission and message unfolded from
the other. The conflict between the esoteric and the exoteric nature of the
Movement, between the human and the divine nature of the members, grew apace.
From the very first the three classes of Egos among the members were naturally
attracted to the particular Object of the Society which corresponded to their
own affinities brought forward from the past. By far the greater part of the
members gave their attention to the Third Object as they conceived that object
to mean -- the cultivation of "psychic powers". So much for America and
Europe. In India it was the Second Object which attracted the interest and
efforts of nearly all the members. Rigidly bound by caste and sect, they could
only misunderstand and misapply in their own way as was being done by the West
in its. Few and far between were those Egos whose past Karma was such that
they felt strongly the inspiration of the great First Object.
By the middle of the first quarter of the Movement
the re-awakened tendencies had produced several violent eruptions; had
resulted in strong lines of cleavage within the Society -- so much so that
H.P.B. declared it had become a "dead failure", one more among the societies "whose
pretensions are great but whose names are simply masks -- nay, even shams."
She therefore formed the "Esoteric Section" or "Eastern School of
Theosophy" whose members were pledged to Theosophy and to the Three Objects of
the Movement. Only about ten per cent of the total membership in the Society
entered the "E.S.", nearly all of them in America, the rest in Great Britain.
Before the end of the first quarter the opposing views of the real purposes of
the Movement had ruptured both the "E.S." and the T.S.
Of the three original leading figures, H.P.B., and
her two associates, Col. H. S. Olcott and William Q. Judge -- the course of
the Movement brought H.P.B. and Judge ever closer together, while Col. Olcott,
the "President-Founder", became more and more the embodiment of the
utilitarian aspect of the society, the ally of those who wished to pursue the
Second and Third Objects. Both H.P.B. and Judge died before the close of the
first quarter, Colonel Olcott surviving them until 1907.
From the death of Judge, in 1896, five years after
H.P.B.'s departure, the visible aspects of the Movement rapidly degenerated;
tangential tendencies flourished unrestrained; the number of segmentations
multiplied; less and less attention was paid to the original teachings and the
original impulse imparted by H.P.B. and Judge, while contradictory dogmas and
doctrines, warring claims and pretensions, absorbed the attention and energies
of leaders and societies alike in their struggles for predominance. In all the
numerous societies were members interested in Theosophy and in the
theosophical Objects, but their efforts were compromised by their affiliations,
unable to make head against the controlling elements. During the years from
1896 to 1925, the lapses and withdrawals of members were enormous, so that at
all times there were ever-increasing numbers of Theosophists who saw no other
course than to keep silent, or to abstain from connection with any of the
sectarian groups. Between 1896 and 1908 the segment ruled by Madam Tingley
shrank more than 80 per cent in membership despite the profusion of schemes
inspired by her to attract followers. Today, after nearly forty years, the
Point Loma following is smaller than the original membership in 1896. The
Olcott-Besant fragment of the original society, at its maximum period of still
more strenuous proselyting and continuous spawning of allegedly inspired
activities, numbered less than 50,000 members. From 1896 to date more than
100,000 persons have joined the Adyar society. Its official reports from year
to year show that the average withdrawals have exceeded the newly acquired
followers. Today the total membership is barely 30,000. In all the numerous
theosophical and off-shoot bodies, the list of ex-members vastly exceeds the
present followings. In all of them there is a continual flux; in none of them
is there single-hearted devotion to the teachings, the objects, the policies
of H.P.B. and Judge.
In 1909, Robert Crosbie with seven associates,
recognizing the universally prevailing sectarianism, began a method of
theosophical study and work which might in time afford a basis for the
restoration of the Movement to unity and harmony. A Declaration of purposes
was drawn up; a name adopted, and public meetings started. No formal bond
existed among the Associates of The United Lodge of Theosophists, the sole
object being the study and dissemination of Theosophy pure and simple. In
1912, the midpoint of the second quarter of the Movement, the magazine THEOSOPHY
was founded to provide a medium for dealing with theosophical philosophy and
history free from sectarian affiliations or influences. Slowly the effort
spread despite all obstacles and opposition, the impregnable basis of
impersonal devotion keeping the work unsullied, an impersonality strictly
continued after the death of Mr. Crosbie in 1919. By the close of the second
quarter of the Movement in 1925, the issues were once more clear to all who
might choose to inquire. Numerous groups of students had arisen in many cities,
thousands of individual theosophists the world around were by then informed
and active in purely theosophical study and work. The Associates of the The
United Lodge of Theosophists included in almost equal proportion ex-members of
the various organizations and newcomers to Theosophy in this incarnation. The
subscribers to the magazine THEOSOPHY included
Associates of U.L.T., non-Theosophists, members and ex-members of the many
theosophical and mystical bodies. No distinctions were made, but all in any
way interested in Theosophy and the facts of theosophical history were dealt
with, irrespective of affiliation or non-affiliation.
So the contrasted elements stood in clear relief in
1925; so they stand today, still more sharply accentuated. All sincere
Theosophists deplore the existing evils in the Movement and long for their
eradication. They "dimly perceive" that these evils have an originating and
sustaining cause which must be counteracted, but so long as their attention is
fixed on effects, how can they, except with "divided mind", study the
producing cause or causes? How are they to learn that the real and continuing
source of the evils in the Movement, as in the world, is precisely this
divided mind in the race and in the individual? They cannot learn what is
necessary to be learned from any extant system, for all these systems are
second-hand. They cannot learn the truth about nature and themselves in any
other school than that provided in Theosophy and in the lessons to be learned
from self-study and the study of theosophical history.
The Theosophists of today are, in large part, merely
repeating the errors of omission and of commission of human nature in general,
and as manifested throughout the course of the present cycle of the Movement.
We are faced with the same inherent difficulties, the same problems, the same
weaknesses, as those drawn into the Movement during its two preceding phases.
Material, both of teaching and of history, are available to us that was not
accessible to our predecessors, but the real lack then is the real lack now --
the disposition to face the facts, to make the necessary effort to gain
first-hand knowledge of Theosophy as a basis and standard of discrimination
and of judgment -- and then the will to act upon those firmly established
principles thus self-perceived.
There was no need for anyone to walk waveringly;
there is no need now. There was no necessity for the mistaken paths taken by
nearly all the leading figures of the past; there is no necessity for our
repeating and transmitting them. The tendency to repeat, to follow the already
beaten path, is strong in human nature. This tendency is the very Karma of the
past, our Skandhas from former lives and if not faced, fought, and
overcome, must inevitably reproduce the failures of the past. From the
beginning, but a handful recognized the gravity of the issues involved, and
that is still the case. Theosophists have succumbed to the influence of the
Skandhas instead of resolutely facing them, recognizing them for what they
are, destroying them by unity, study, and work. Unity is the practical
application of the first Object of the Movement; comparative study the
application of the second; work -- the will to study, apply, and so come to
understand the play of forces in human nature -- is the practical application
of the third object.
Theosophy, says the Key, has "no two beliefs
or hypotheses on the same subject." Yet the Movement today is full of
conflicting beliefs, hypotheses, doctrines and practices -- all labeled
Theosophy and Theosophical. It is now time for all sincere students to
reconsider the causes of prevailing
conditions.
AFTERMATH
(a 10-part series)
Compiler's note: The series you are about to
read here is the third one in a 3-series grouping; this grouping is located
at the lower portion of the "Additional Categories of Articles" Index page
(the link to it is found near the bottom of this page). Here's the grouping:
(1)
The Theosophical Movement (34-part series)
(January 1920, to October 1922)
(2)
The Rising Cycle
(13-part series) (October 1926, to October
1927)
(3) Aftermath (10-part series) (January 1935, to October 1935)
It is highly recommended that you read these three
very important series of articles in the Sequence presented in order to get
the best and most accurate picture of Theosophical history as it unfolds
chronologically.
This third series in the grouping was scanned from
a total of 113 pages in THEOSOPHY magazine, plus 2 pages more for a copy of
an article that follows Part 5, as you see it below, making a total of 115:
Part 1 (Contains Introductory comments by the
Editors.[see above]) You have just read this....continue to part 2 for
the whole series of AFTERMATH
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5 (Note: A copy of an article
entitled "Prevailing Tendencies" has been placed at the end of this article,
because it was referred to by the Editors.)
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Back to the full listing containing all of the
"Additional
Categories of Articles".
Source: Wisdom World
http://www.wisdomworld.org/index.html
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