IU = Isis Unveiled
EotO = Echoes of the Orient
SOP = Studies in Occult Philosophy
SD = The Secret Doctrine
Quote 1
There is no absolute separateness in nature. All things are made of the same essence, have the same spiritual-divine potential, and are interlinked by magnetic ties of sympathy. It is impossible to realize our full potential, unless we recognize the spiritual unity of all living beings and make universal brotherhood the keynote of our lives.
Quote 2
IU p. xii (week 22 nov 2012)
Beyond all finite existences and secondary causes, all laws, ideas, and principles, there is an intelligence or mind [νοῦς, nous, the spirit], the first principle of all principles, the supreme idea on which all other ideas are grounded; … the ultimate substance from which all things derive their being and essence, the first and efficient Cause of all the order, and harmony, and beauty, and excellence, and goodness, which pervades the universe — which is called, by way of preeminence and excellence, the Supreme Good, the God (ὁ θεός [ho theos]) ‘the God over all’ (ὁ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεός [ho epi pasi theos]).
– Cocker, Christianity and Greek Philosophy, xi., p. 377.
Quote 3
IU 1p. xiv
The soul cannot come into the form of a man if it has never seen the truth. This is a recollection of those things which our soul formerly saw when journeying with Deity, despising the things which we now say are, and looking up to that which really is. Wherefore the nous, or spirit, of the philosopher (or student of the higher truth) alone is furnished with wings; because he, to the best of his ability, keeps these things in mind, of which the contemplation renders even Deity itself divine. By making the right use of these things remembered from the former life, by constantly perfecting himself in the perfect mysteries, a man becomes truly perfect — an initiate into the diviner wisdom.
– Plato, Phaedrus § 249b&c
Quote 4
IU 1: xvi
Plato declared that the final cause was the Supreme Goodness — τὸ ἀγαθόν [to agathon].: “Ideas are objects of pure conception for the human reason, and they are attributes of the Divine Reason.” [He never said] that “forms are numbers.” What he did say may be found in the Timaeus: “God formed things as they first arose according to forms and numbers.”
– V. Cousin, Cours de l’histoire de la philosophie moderne, Ser. 2, Paris, 1847, p. 93-4.
Quote 5
IU 1 p. xvi
When the dissolution — Pralaya — had arrived at its term, the great Being — Para-Ātma or Para-Puruṣa — the Lord existing through himself, out of whom and through whom all things were, and are and will be . . . resolved to emanate from his own substance the various creatures.
– Mānava-Dharma-Śāstra, book i., ślokas 6 and 7).
Quote 6
IU 1: Ch.2 p. 39
But why should the operations of nature be changed? There may be a deeper philosophy than we dream of — a philosophy that discovers the secrets of nature, but does not alter, by penetrating them, its course.
– Bulwer-Lytton
Quote 7
IU 1: Ch. 2 p. 58
In reality there is neither matter nor spirit. The tendency to gravitation in a stone is as unexplainable as thought in human brain. . . . If matter can — no one knows why — fall to the ground, then it can also — no one knows why — think. . . . As soon, even in mechanics, as we trespass beyond the purely mathematical, as soon as we reach the inscrutable, adhesion, gravitation, and so on, we are faced by phenomena which are to our senses as mysterious as the will and thought in man — we find ourselves facing the incomprehensible, for such is every force in nature. Where is then that matter which you all pretend to know so well; and from which — being so familiar with it — you draw all your conclusions and explanations, and attribute to it all things? . . .
– Schopenhauer
Parerga und Paralipomena, Berlijn, 1851, deel 2, blz. 89-90.
Quote 8
IU 1: Ch. 3 p. 91
In the primordiate state of the creation, the rudimental universe, submerged in water, reposed in the bosom of the Eternal. Sprang from this chaos and darkness, Brahmā, the architect of the world, poised on a lotus-leaf floated (moved?) upon the waters, unable to discern anything but water and darkness. … Perceiving such a dismal state of things, Brahmā soliloquizes in consternation: “Who am I? Whence came I?” Then he hears a voice: “Direct your prayer to Bhagavant — the Eternal, known, also, as Parabrahm.” Brahmā, rising from his floating position, seats himself upon the lotus in an attitude of contemplation, and reflects upon the Eternal, who, pleased with this evidence of piety, disperses the primeval darkness and opens his understanding. After this Brahmā issues from the universal egg — (infinite chaos) as light, for his understanding is now opened, and he sets himself to work; he moves on the eternal waters, with the spirit of God within himself; in his capacity of mover of the waters he is Nārāyaṇa
– Mme & Col. Poliers:
Mythologie des Indous, F. Schoel, Paris 1809
Quote 9
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 170
In our dreams we are like the plants, which have also the elementary and vital body, but possess not the spirit. In our sleep the astral body is free and can, by the elasticity of its nature, either hover round in proximity with its sleeping vehicle, or soar higher to hold converse with its starry parents, or even communicate with its brothers at great distances. Dreams of a prophetic character, prescience, and present wants, are the faculties of the astral spirit. To our elementary and grosser body, these gifts are not imparted, for at death it descends into the bosom of the earth and is reunited to the physical elements, while the several spirits return to the stars. The animals … have also their presentiments, for they too have an astral body.
– Paracelsus
Quote 10
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 171
The stars consist equally of the elements of earthly bodies and therefore the ideas attract each other. . . . Influences only go forth through the help of the spirit; but this spirit is diffused through the whole universe and is in full accord with the human spirits. The magician who would acquire supernatural powers must possess faith, love, and hope. . . . In all things there is a secret power concealed, and thence come the miraculous powers of magic.
– Cornelus Agrippa: De occulta philosophia, 1531, p.. 17, 18, 23, 254
Quote 11
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 171
Robert Fludd, Grand Master of the Rosicrucians of England, the fire-filosopher says: “When two men approach each other, their magnetism is either passive or active; that is, positive or negative. If the emanations which they send out are broken or thrown back, there arises antipathy. But when the emanations pass through each other from both sides, then there is positive magnetism, for the rays proceed from the centre to the circumference. In this case they not only affect sicknesses but also moral sentiments. This magnetism or sympathy is found not only among animals but also in plants and in minerals.”
– Robert Fludd, Philosophia Mosaica, 1638, Quoted by Ennemoser, History of Magic, Vol. 2, p. 257.
Quote 12
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 172-3
1. There exists a mutual influence between the heavenly bodies, the earth, and living bodies.
2. A fluid, universally diffused and continued, so as to admit no vacuum, whose subtility is beyond all comparison, and which, from its nature, is capable of receiving, propagating, and communicating all the impressions of motion, is the medium of this influence.
3. This reciprocal action is subject to mechanical laws, unknown up to the present time.
– Franz Anton Mesmer, from his Letter to a Foreign Physician, 1775
Quote 13
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 177-8
Here the question is of a very subtile spirit which penetrates through all, even the hardest bodies, and which is concealed in their substance. Through the strength and activity of this spirit, bodies attract each other, and adhere together when brought into contact. Through it, electrical bodies operate at the remotest distance, as well as near at hand, attracting and repelling; through this spirit the light also flows, and is refracted and reflected, and warms bodies. All senses are excited by this spirit, and through it the animals move their limbs. But these things cannot be explained in few words, and we have not yet sufficient experience to determine fully the laws by which this universal spirit operates.
– Isaac Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,
ed. A. Motte, 1729, in ‘General Scholium’.
Quote 14
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 182
In announcing to the public his great discovery, Professor Buchanan, confining himself to the power of psychometry to delineate human character, says: “The mental and physiological influence imparted to writing appears to be imperishable, as the oldest specimens I have investigated gave their impressions with a distinctness and force, little impaired by time. Old manuscripts, requiring an antiquary to decipher their strange old penmanship, were easily interpreted by the psychometric power. . . . The property of retaining the impress of mind is not limited to writing. Drawings, paintings, everything upon which human contact, thought, and volition have been expended, may become linked with that thought and life, so as to recall them to the mind of another when in contact.” … “This discovery, in its application to the arts and to history, will open a mine of interesting knowledge.”
– J.R. Buchanan, MD.: Outline of Lectures on the Neurological System of Anthropology,
Cincinatti, 1854, p. 124-5
Quote 15
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 183
Not a leaf waves, not an insect crawls, not a ripple moves, but each motion is recorded by a thousand faithful scribes in infallible and indelible scripture. This is just as true of all past time. From the dawn of light upon this infant globe, when round its cradle the steamy curtains hung, to this moment, nature has been busy photographing everything. What a picture-gallery is hers!
– William and Elizabeth M. F. Denton (geologist): The Soul of Things;
or Psychometric Researches and Discoveries. Boston, 1873, Vol 1, p. 31.
Quote 16
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 185
When speaking of the influences of light upon bodies, and of the formation of pictures upon them by means of it [prof. Hitchcock says]: “It seems, then, that this photographic influence pervades all nature; nor can we say where it stops. We do not know but it may imprint upon the world around us our features, as they are modified by various passions, and thus fill nature with daguerreotype [photographic – Ed.] impressions of all our actions; . . . it may be, too, that there are tests by which nature, more skillful than any photographist, can bring out and fix these portraits, so that acuter senses than ours shall see them as on a great canvas, spread over the material universe. Perhaps, too, they may never fade from that canvas, but become specimens in the great picture-gallery of eternity.”
– Edward Hitchcock in The Religion of Geology and its Connected Sciences, 1851, blz. 391.
Quote 17
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 187
We have driven the operation of that mystery called Life out of the objective universe. The mistake made, lies in imagining that by this process [we] completely get rid of a thing so driven before [us], and that it disappears from the universe altogether. It does no such thing. It only disappears from that small circle of light which we may call the universe of scientific perception. Call it the trinity of mystery: mystery of matter, the mystery of life and — the mystery of God — and these three are One.
– The Unseen Universe, ed. 1876, § 234, p. 84, et seq.
Quote 18
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 187-8
Now, is it not natural to imagine, that a universe of this nature, which we have reason to think exists, and is connected by bonds of energy with the visible universe, is also capable of receiving energy from it? . . . May we not regard Ether, or the medium, as not merely a bridge [FNOTE] between one order of things and another, forming as it were a species of cement, in virtue of which the various orders of the universe are welded together and made into one? In fine, what we generally called Ether, may be not a mere medium, but a medium plus the invisible order of things, so that when the motions of the visible universe are transferred into Ether, part of them are conveyed as by a bridge into the invisible universe, and are there made use of and stored up. Nay, is it even necessary to retain the conception of a bridge? May we not at once say that when energy is carried from matter into Ether, it is carried from the visible into the invisible; and that when it is carried from Ether to matter it is carried from the invisible into the visible?
— (Art. 198, The Unseen Universe.)
Precisely; and were Science to take a few more steps in that direction and fathom more seriously the “hypothetical medium” who knows but Tyndall’s impassable chasm between the physical processes of the brain and consciousness, might be — at least intellectually — passed with surprising ease and safety.
H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Univeiled Vol. 1: Ch. 6 p. 187-8
Quote 19
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 188
I hold a discovery which frightens me. There are two kinds of electricity; one, brute and blind, is produced by the contact of metals and acids (the gross purgation) . . . the other is intelligent and CLAIRVOYANT! . . . Electricity has bifurcated itself in the hands of Galvani, Nobili, and Matteuci. The brute force of the current has followed Jacobi, Bonelli, and Moncal, while the intellectual one was following Bois-Robert, Thilorier, and the Chevalier Duplanty. The electric ball or globular electricity contains a thought which disobeys Newton and Mariotte to follow its own freaks. . . . We have, in the annals of the Academy, thousands of proofs of the intelligence of the electric bolt . . . But I remark that I am permitting myself to become indiscreet. A little more and I should have disclosed to you the key which is about to discover to us the universal spirit.
– Jobard, L’ami des sciences, 2nd March 1856, p. 67
Quote 20
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 189
Prof. Sterry Hunt “We are, in many respects, approximating the phenomena of the organic world to those of the mineral kingdom; and we at the same time learn that these so far interest and depend upon each other that we begin to see a certain truth underlying the notion of those old philosophers, who extended to the mineral world the notion of a vital force, which led them to speak of the earth as a great living organism, and to look upon the various changes of its air, its waters, and its rocky depths, as processes belonging to the life of our planet.”
– in: Cooke: New Chemistry, p. 113
Quote 21
IU 1: Ch.2 p. 58
That, which can be fully realized by our reason and senses, is but the superficial: they can never reach the true inner substance of things. Such was the opinion of Kant. If you consider that there is in a human head some sort of a spirit, then you are obliged to concede the same to a stone. If your dead and utterly passive matter can manifest a tendency toward gravitation, or, like electricity, attract and repel, and send out sparks — then, as well as the brain, it can also think. In short, every particle of the so-called spirit, we can replace with an equivalent of matter, and every particle of matter replace with spirit.
– Schopenhauer, Parerga, ii., pp. 111, 112.
Quote 22
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 195
The authors of The Unseen Universe [Stewart,B.; Tait,P.G. Or Physical Speculations Of A Future State – London, 1984] have scientifically demonstrated the possibility of certain alleged psychological phenomena through the medium of the universal ether. Mr. Wallace has as scientifically proved that the whole catalogue of assumptions to the contrary, including the sophisms of Hume, are untenable if brought face to face with strict logic. Mr. Crookes has given to the world of skepticism his own experiments, which lasted above three years before he was conquered by the most undeniable of evidence — that of his own senses.
Quote 23
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 195
I do not hesitate to affirm my conviction, based on a personal examination of the subject, that any scientific man who declares the phenomena denominated ‘magnetic,’ ‘somnambulic,’ ‘mediumic,’ and others not yet explained by science, to be impossible, is one who speaks without knowing what he is talking about, and also any man accustomed, by his professional avocations, to scientific observations — provided that his mind be not biased by pre-conceived opinions, nor his mental vision blinded by that opposite kind of illusion, unhappily too common in the learned world, which consists in imagining that the laws of Nature are already known to us, and that everything which appears to overstep the limit of our present formulas is impossible, may require a radical and absolute certainty of the reality of the facts alluded to.
– Camille Flammarion
Quote 24
IU 1: Ch.6 p. 195
As the organism is itself moved and directed within the structure by a force — which either is, or is not controlled by — the soul, spirit, or mind . . . which constitutes the individual being we term ‘the man,’ it is an equally reasonable conclusion that the force which causes the motions beyond the limits of the body is the same force that produces motion within the limits of the body. And, as the external force is often directed by intelligence, it is an equally reasonable conclusion that the directing intelligence of the external force is the same intelligence that directs the force internally.”
– Sergeant Cox quoted in Crookes:
Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism (p.101)
Quote 25
IU 1: Ch.7 p. 208
In 1643, there appeared among the mystics a monk, Father Kircher, who taught a complete philosophy of universal magnetism. His numerous works embrace many of the subjects merely hinted at by Paracelsus. His definition of magnetism is very original, for he contradicted Gilbert’s theory that the earth was a great magnet. He asserted that although every particle of matter, and even the intangible invisible “powers” were magnetic, they did not themselves constitute a magnet. There is but one MAGNET in the universe, and from it proceeds the magnetization of everything existing. This magnet is of course what the cabalists term the central Spiritual Sun, or God. The sun, moon, planets, and stars he affirmed are highly magnetic; but they have become so by induction from living in the universal magnetic fluid — the Spiritual light.
– See: Athanasius Kircher: Magnes sive de arte magnetici,
opus tripartitum. Coloniae, 1654
Quote 26
IU I: 212
Paracelsus teaches: “Three spirits live and actuate man,” “three worlds pour their beams upon him; but all three only as the image and echo of one and the same all-constructing and uniting principle of production. The first is the spirit of the elements (terrestrial body and vital force in its brute condition); the second, the spirit of the stars (sidereal or astral body — the soul); the third is the Divine spirit (Augoeides).”
Quote 27
IU I: 213
“Man,” says Van Helmont, “is the mirror of the universe, and his triple nature stands in relationship to all things.” The will of the Creator, through which all things were made and received their first impulse, is the property of every living being. Man, endowed with an additional spirituality, has the largest share of it on this planet. It depends on the proportion of matter in him whether he will exercise its magical faculty with more or less success.
Quote 28
IU I: 215
Maxwell, in his Medicina Magnetica, expounds the following propositions, all which are the very doctrines of the alchemists and kabalists.
“That which men call the world-soul, is a life, as fire, spiritual, fleet, light, and ethereal as light itself. It is a life-spirit everywhere; and everywhere the same. . . . All matter is destitute of action, except as it is ensouled by this spirit. This spirit maintains all things in their peculiar condition. It is found in nature free from all fetters; and he who understands how to unite it with a harmonizing body, possesses a treasure which exceeds all riches.”
Quote 29
EotO III: 460-1
‘Much study will lead to book-knowledge, but unless the waking man follows to the best of his ability the ethical precepts he will lose most of his work by death. . . . The middle course should be pursued; by attending to right philosophy so as to inform the brain and mind, and by also studying and fully practicing ethics and all the virtues.’ (William Quan Judge in Echoes of the Orient Vol III:460-1)
Quote 30
IU I:216
And now let us see what are these abuses of mesmeric and magnetic powers in some healing mediums.
Healing, to deserve the name, requires either faith in the patient, or robust health united with a strong will, in the operator. With expectancy supplemented by faith, one can cure himself of almost any morbific condition. The tomb of a saint; a holy relic; a talisman; a bit of paper or a garment that has been handled by the supposed healer; a nostrum; a penance, or a ceremonial; the laying on of hands, or a few words impressively pronounced — either will do. It is a question of temperament, imagination, self-cure. In thousands of instances, the doctor, the priest, or the relic has had credit for healings that were solely and simply due to the patient’s unconscious will. The woman with the bloody issue who pressed through the throng to touch the robe of Jesus, was told that her “faith” had made her whole.
Quote 31
IU I: 216
The influence of mind over the body is so powerful that it has effected miracles at all ages.
“How many unhoped-for, sudden, and prodigious cures have been effected by imagination,” says Salverte. “Our medical books are filled with facts of this nature which would easily pass for miracles
Philosophie des Sciences Occultes [The Philosophy of Magic, Londen, 1846, deel 2, p. 87.]
Quote 32
IU I: 217
But, if the patient has no faith, what then? If he is physically negative and receptive, and the healer strong, healthy, positive, determined, the disease may be extirpated by the imperative will of the operator, which, consciously or unconsciously, draws to and reinforces itself with the universal spirit of nature, and restores the disturbed equilibrium of the patient’s aura.
– H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled I 216-7
Quote 33
SOP: 374
‘One of the greatest objectives of the Theosophical Society, and of our teaching, both esoteric and exoteric, is to awaken man to know himself; what he is, what is in him, what his duty in the world is, and how to live his life not merely nobly and grandly, but how so to live it that he may bring out from within himself the more than human qualities, i.e., the buddhic splendor . . .’ (Gottfried de Purucker in Studies in Occult Philosophy p. 374)
Quote 34
IU I: 233
“That the spirits of the dead occasionally revisit the living, or haunt their former abodes, has been in all ages, in all European countries, a fixed belief, not confined to rustics, but participated in by the intelligent. . . . If human testimony on such subjects can be of any value, there is a body of evidence reaching from the remotest ages to the present time, as extensive and unimpeachable as is to be found in support of anything whatever.”
– Draper, The History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, p. 121.
Quote 35
IU I: 253
Think not my magic wonders wrought by aid
Of Stygian angels summoned up from Hell;
Scorned and accursed by those who have essay’d
Her gloomy Divs and Afrites to compel.
But by perception of the secret powers
Of mineral springs, in nature’s inmost cell,
Of herbs in curtain of her greenest bowers,
And of the moving stars o’er mountain tops and towers.”
— Tasso, La Gerusalemme Liberata, Canto XIV., xliii.
Quote 36
SOP: 597
‘The loss of soul usually is caused in its beginnings by a loss of ideals; and for a similar reason I have always highly approved of the study of the cosmic structure and therefore of planetary chains and rounds and races, and similar fundamental teachings, for they elevate the mind out of matter, induce feelings of a common unity or of universal brotherhood, and are therefore seen to have immense and powerful ethical or moral value, with its consequent effect on us.’
– Gottfried de Purucker in Studies in Occult Philosophy p. 597
Quote 37
IU I: 258
.. all minerals in this spark of life have the rudimentary possibility of plants and growing organisms; thus all plants have rudimentary sensations which might (in the ages) enable them to perfect and transmute into locomotive new creatures, lesser or higher in their grade, or nobler or meaner in their functions; thus all plants, and all vegetation might pass off (by side roads) into more distinguished highways as it were, of independent, completer advance, allowing their original spark of light to expand and thrill with higher and more vivid force, and to urge forward with more abounding, informed purpose, all wrought by planetary influence directed by the unseen spirits (or workers) of the great original architect.”
– Robertus di Fluctibus quoted in: Hargrave Jennings, The Rosicrucians, 1870, p. IU I: 204.
Quote 38
IU I: 284
Since Pythagoras, as Iamblichus informs us, was initiated in all the Mysteries of Byblus and Tyre, in the sacred operations of the Syrians, and in the Mysteries of the Phoenicians, and also that he spent two and twenty years in the adyta of temples in Egypt, associated with the magians in Babylon, and was instructed by them in their venerable knowledge, it is not at all wonderful that he was skilled in magic, or theurgy, and was therefore able to perform things which surpass merely human power, and which appear to be perfectly incredible to the vulgar.”
– Iamblichus’ Life of Pythagoras, p. IU I: 296-7, translated by Thomas Taylor
Quote 39
IU I: 253
“Whoever is unacquainted with my law,” says Buddha, “and dies in that state, must return to the earth till he becomes a perfect Samanean. To achieve this object, he must destroy within himself the trinity of Māyā.1 He must extinguish his passions, unite and identify himself with the law (the teaching of the secret doctrine), and comprehend the religion of annihilation.” Here, annihilation refers but to matter, that of the visible as well as of the invisible body; for the astral soul (périsprit) is still matter, however sublimated.
–H.P. Blavatsky in Isis Univeilded, I 289
Quote 40
For (Buddha) meant to say that “the primitive substance is eternal and unchangeable. Its highest revelation is the pure, luminous ether, the boundless infinite space, not a void resulting from the absence of forms, but, on the contrary, the foundation of all forms, and anterior to them. But the very presence of forms denotes it to be the creation of Māyā, and all her works are as nothing before the uncreated being, SPIRIT, in whose profound and sacred repose all motion must cease forever.”
-H.P. Blavatsky in Isis Unveiled I 289
Quote 41
‘I have heard it said sometimes that what theosophists should do is to concentrate on the ethical or moral values, and that rounds and races and that kind of thing are merely high-brow intellectual studies. Don’t believe it! There is inspiration in these teachings about the rounds and races. They are exercises for the higher intellect. They are exercises for the spirit-part of us; and, best of all, they teach us our perfect unity with all that is. They show us the reason for ethics, how ethics are based on the common brotherhood of all things that exist and are.
-Gottfried de Purucker in Fundamentals of the Esoterc Philosophy Vol II: 336-7
Quote 42
Annihilation means, with the Buddhistical philosophy, only a dispersion of matter, in whatever form or semblance of form it may be; for everything that bears a shape was created, and thus must sooner or later perish, i.e., change that shape; therefore, as something temporary, though seeming to be permanent, it is but an illusion, Māyā; for, as eternity has neither beginning nor end, the more or less prolonged duration of some particular form passes, as it were, like an instantaneous flash of lightning. Before we have the time to realize that we have seen it, it is gone and passed away for ever; hence, even our astral bodies, pure ether, are but illusions of matter, so long as they retain their terrestrial outline. The latter changes, says the Buddhist, according to the merits or demerits of the person during his lifetime, and this is metempsychosis. When the spiritual entity breaks loose for ever from every particle of matter, then only it enters upon the eternal and unchangeable Nirvāṇa. He exists in spirit, in nothing; as a form, a shape, a semblance, he is completely annihilated, and thus will die no more, for spirit alone is no Māyā, but the only REALITY in an illusionary universe of ever-passing forms.
– H.P. Blavatsky in Isis Unveiled I 290
Quote 43
“Belief in the supernatural is a fact natural, primitive, universal, and constant in the life and history of the human race. Unbelief in the supernatural begets materialism; materialism, sensuality; sensuality, social convulsions, amid whose storms man again learns to believe and pray.”
— Guizot, IU I: 293
Quote 44
Such are the glimpses which anthropology affords us of men, either arrived at the bottom of a cycle or starting in a new one. Let us see how far they are corroborated by clairvoyant psychometry. Professor Denton submitted a fragment of fossilized bone to his wife’s examination, without giving Mrs. Denton any hint as to what the article was. It immediately called up to her pictures of people and scenes which he thinks belonged to the stone age. She saw men closely resembling monkeys, with a body very hairy, and “as if the natural hair answered the purpose of clothing.” “I question whether he can stand perfectly upright; his hip-joints appear to be so formed, he cannot,” she added.
— IU I: 295
Quote 45
There is no single doctrine of theosophy that can be completely understood alone. You can understand them with relative perfection only when you know something of them all; and the skilled theosophical thinker and student is he who remembers a few simple fundamental lines of the thought, of the doctrine, and unifies his ideas, synthesizes the doctrines, and thus gets a relatively complete picture.
( G. de Purucker in Esoteric Teachings, Point Loma Publications 1987 Vol. 10:15)
— ET Vol. 10: 15
Quote 46
Occasionally I see part of the body of one of those beings that looks comparatively smooth. I can see the skin, which is lighter colored . . . I do not know whether he belongs to the same period. . . . At a distance the face seems flat; the lower part of it is heavy; they have what I suppose would be called prognathous jaws. The frontal region of the head is low, and the lower portion of it is very prominent, forming a round ridge across the forehead, immediately above the eyebrows. . . . Now I see a face that looks like that of a human being, though there is a monkey-like appearance about it. All these seem of that kind, having long arms and hairy bodies.
— IU I: 295
Quote 47
Lowest in the scale of being are those invisible creatures called by the kabalists the “elementary.” There are three distinct classes of these. The highest, in intelligence and cunning, are the so-called terrestrial spirits, of which we will speak more categorically in other parts of this work. Suffice to say, for the present, that they are the larvae, or shadows of those who have lived on earth, have refused all spiritual light, remained and died deeply immersed in the mire of matter, and from whose sinful souls the immortal spirit has gradually separated.
— IU I: 310
Quote 48
As to the human spirit, the notions of the older philosophers and medieval kabalists while differing in some particulars, agreed on the whole; so that the doctrine of one may be viewed as the doctrine of the other. The most substantial difference consisted in the location of the immortal or divine spirit of man. While the ancient Neo-platonists held that the Augoeides never descends hypostatically into the living man, but only sheds more or less its radiance on the inner man — the astral soul — the kabalists of the middle ages maintained that the spirit, detaching itself from the ocean of light and spirit, entered into man’s soul, where it remained through life imprisoned in the astral capsule. This difference was the result of the belief of Christian kabalists, more or less, in the dead letter of the allegory of the fall of man. The soul, they said, became, through the fall of Adam, contaminated with the world of matter, or Satan. Before it could appear with its enclosed divine spirit in the presence of the Eternal, it had to purify itself of the impurities of darkness. They compared “the spirit imprisoned within the soul to a drop of water enclosed within a capsule of gelatine and thrown in the ocean; so long as the capsule remains whole the drop of water remains isolated; break the envelope and the drop becomes a part of the ocean — its individual existence has ceased. So it is with the spirit. As long as it is enclosed in its plastic mediator, or soul, it has an individual existence. Destroy the capsule, a result which may occur from the agonies of withered conscience, crime, and moral disease, and the spirit returns back to its original abode. Its individuality is gone.
— IU I: 315
Quote 49
‘What the masters are now imparting are, so to speak, elementary fragments of the ancient wisdom religion. Much of the teaching they are now giving us is in the form of problems for ourselves to solve . . .’ (William Quan Judge in Echoes of the Orient Vol. 2:439)
‘Solving paradoxes quickens our intuition, and that is one of the main aims and purposes of this system of teaching . . .’ (Gottfried de Purucker in Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy p. 339)
— EotO II: 439; FEP 339
Quote 50
Pythagoras, Plato, Timaeus of Locris, and the whole Alexandrian school derived the soul from the universal World-Soul; and the latter was, according to their own teachings — ether; something of such a fine nature as to be perceived only by our inner sight. Therefore, it cannot be the essence of the Monas, or cause, because the anima mundi is but the effect, the objective emanation of the former. Both the human spiritand soul are preexistent. But, while the former exists as a distinct entity, an individualization, the soul exists as preexisting matter, an unscient portion of an intelligent whole. Both were originally formed from the Eternal Ocean of Light; but as the theosophists expressed it, there is a visible as well as invisible spirit in fire. They made a difference between the anima bruta and the anima divina. Empedocles firmly believed all men and animals to possess two souls; and in Aristotle we find that he calls one the reasoning soul — νοῦς [nous], and the other, the animal soul — ψυχή [psuche]. According to these philosophers, the reasoning soul comes from without the universal soul, and the other from within.
– HPB, IU I 316-7
Quote 51
Man is a microcosm, or a little world; he carries in him a fragment of the great All, in a chaotic state. The task of our half-gods is to disentangle from it the share belonging to them by an incessant mental and material labor. They have their task to do, the perpetual invention of new products, of new moralities, and the proper arrangement of the crude and formless material furnished them by the Creator, who created them in His own image, that they should create in their turn and so complete here the work of the Creation; an immense labor which can be achieved only when the whole will become so perfect, that it will be like unto God Himself, and thus able to survive to itself. We are very far yet from that final moment, for we can say that everything is to be done, to be undone, and outdone as yet on our globe, institutions, machinery, and products.
– Anonymus, cited in: Isis Unveiled I 323-4
Quote 52
One of the first rules that a neophyte is taught is never to ask a question until he has tried earnestly and repeatedly to answer it. Because the attempt to do so is an appeal to the intuition. It is also an exercise. It strengthens one’s inner powers.’ (Gottfried de Purucker in Studies in Occult Philosophy p. 38)
– Studies in Occult Philosophy p. 38
Quote 53
We live in this life, in an ambient, intellectual centre, which entertains between human beings and things a necessary and perpetual solidarity; every brain is a ganglion, a station of a universal neurological telegraphy in constant rapport with the central and other stations by the vibrations of thought. (Anonymus, cited in: Isis Unveiled I 324)
– IU I: 324
Quote 54
The spiritual sun shines for souls as the material sun shines for bodies, for the universe is double and follows the law of couples. The ignorant operator interprets erroneously the divine dispatches, and often delivers them in a false and ridiculous manner. Thus study and true science alone can destroy the superstitions and nonsense spread by the ignorant interpreters placed at the stations of teaching among every people in this world. These blind interpreters of the Verbum, the WORD, have always tried to impose on their pupils the obligation to swear to everything without examination in verba magistri. (Anonymus, cited in: Isis Unveiled I 324
– Isis Unveiled I 324
Quote 55
The secret doctrine teaches that man, if he wins immortality, will remain forever the trinity that he is in life, and will continue so throughout all the spheres. The astral body, which in this life is covered by a gross physical envelope, becomes — when relieved of that covering by the process of corporeal death — in its turn the shell of another and more ethereal body. This begins developing from the moment of death, and becomes perfected when the astral body of the earthly form finally separates from it. This process, they say, is repeated at every new transition from sphere to sphere. But the immortal soul, “the silvery spark,” observed by Dr. Fenwick in Margrave’s brain, and not found by him in the animals, never changes, but remains indestructible “by aught that shatters its tabernacle.
– IU I: 329
Quote 56
The descriptions by Porphyry and Iamblichus and others, of the spirits of animals, which inhabit the astral light, are corroborated by those of many of the most trustworthy and intelligent clairvoyants. Sometimes the animal forms are even made visible to every person present at a spiritual circle, by being materialized.
– IU I: 329
Quote 57
The Theosophical Society was founded to destroy dogmatism. . . . If our effort is to succeed, we must avoid dogmatism in theosophy as much as in anything else, for the moment we dogmatise and insist on our construction of theosophy, that moment we lose sight of universal brotherhood and sow the seeds of future trouble. . . . ‘ (William Quan Judge in Echoes of the Orient Vol. I:206-7)
– Echoes of the Orient Vol. I:206-7
Quote 58
Why should not all … molecules have an equal future before them; the mineral becoming plant, the plant, animal, and the animal, man — if not upon this earth, at least somewhere in the boundless realms of space? The harmony which geometry and mathematics — the only exact sciences — demonstrate to be the law of the universe, would be destroyed if evolution were perfectly exemplified in man alone and limited in the subordinate kingdoms.
– HPB IU I 330
Quote 59
If the student will accept the primary truths of theosophy, and will seek to live according to them, every page and every line of The Secret Doctrine will have its message for him. But mere book study will avail little; something more than that is required and demanded: the full understanding of the teachings is possible only as the life conforms to those teachings. The true doctrine is secret, hidden; not by the teacher, but in the very nature of the teaching itself, and to gain it, the student must enter by the only door which gives entrance to the living of the life.
– (Katherine Tingley in Theosophy: The Path of the Mystic, 3rd ed. p. 41-2)
Quote 60
Who is able to controvert the theory previously suggested, that the earth itself will, like the living creatures to which it has given birth, ultimately, and after passing through its own stage of death and dissolution, become an etherealized astral planet? “As above, so below”; harmony is the great law of nature.
– HPB in IU I 330
Quote 61
Harmony in the physical and mathematical world of sense, is justice in the spiritual one. Justice produces harmony, and injustice, discord; and discord, on a cosmical scale, means chaos — annihilation.
– HPB in IU I 330
Quote 62
It is most interesting to note that these subjects, which so many people have misunderstood to be merely interesting questions for intellectual entertainment, are intimately involved with the moral, and with the spiritual, nature of man; and no man can have a proper comprehension of ethics and morals without understanding his proper place in the universe: his origin, his nature, and his destiny. What morals need in Occidental thought is a foundation based on science and philosophy. (Gottfried de Purucker in Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy p. 450)
– FEP: 450
Quote 63
Says Professor Denton, when speaking of the future of psychometry: “Astronomy will not disdain the assistance of this power. As new forms of organic being are revealed, when we go back to the earlier geologic periods, so new groupings of the stars, new constellations, will be displayed, when the heavens of those early periods are examined by the piercing gaze of future psychometers. An accurate map of the starry heavens during the Silurian period may reveal to us many secrets that we have been unable to discover. . . . Why may we not indeed be able to read the history of the various heavenly bodies . . . their geological, their natural, and, perchance, their human history? . . . I have good reason to believe that trained psychometers will be able to travel from planet to planet, and read their present condition minutely, and their past history (W. Denton, The Soul of Things, deel 1, blz. 273.)
– IU I: 331-2
Quote 64
In studying these teachings we should constantly endeavor to keep the processes of our thought and consciousness fluid, thus avoiding the danger of mental crystallization, or the perilous self-satisfaction of believing that there is “not very much more to learn.” This feeling arises in the astral-material brain-mind, which dearly loves to pigeonhole facts – although, admittedly, having one’s ideas in order is very necessary. The attempt to keep the mind fluid, while often making us uncomfortable, puts the brain-mind in its proper place and makes it a flexible servant instead of a rigid taskmaster.’ (Gottfried de Purucker in Fountain Source of Occultism p. 603)
– FSO: 603
Quote 65
If there is a developed immortal spirit in man, it must be in every thing else, at least in a latent or germinal state, and it can only be a question of time for each of these germs to become fully developed.
– HPB in IU I: 330
Quote 66
Herodotus tells us that in the eighth of the towers of Belus, in Babylon, used by the sacerdotal astrologers, there was an uppermost room, a sanctuary, where the prophesying priestesses slept to receive communications from the god. … This would seem to indicate that psychometry was known and extensively practiced by the ancients. We have somewhere seen it stated that the profound knowledge possessed, according to Draper, by the ancient Chaldean astrologers, of the planets and their relations, was obtained more by the divination of the betylos, or the meteoric stone, than by astronomical instruments.
– HPB in IU I 331-2
Quote 67
As Professor Buchanan truthfully remarks of psychometry, it will enable us ” . . . to detect vice and crime. No criminal act . . . can escape the detection of psychometry, when its powers are properly brought forth . . . the sure detection of guilt by psychometry (no matter how secret the act) will nullify all concealment.” – Buchanan in Outlines of Lectures on the Neurological System of Anthropology, p. 125.
– IU I: 332
Quote 68
The language of Porphyry, who was himself a direct disciple of Plotinus, is still more explicit as to the nature of these spirits: “Demons,” he says, “are invisible; but they know how to clothe themselves with forms and configurations subjected to numerous variations, which can be explained by their nature having much of the corporeal in itself. Their abode is in the neighborhood of the earth . . . and when they can escape the vigilance of the good daemons, there is no mischief they will not dare commit. One day they will employ brute force; another, cunning. … It is a child’s play for them to arouse in us vile passions, to impart to societies and nations turbulent doctrines, provoking wars, seditions, and other public calamities, and then tell you ‘that all of these is the work of the gods.’ . . . These spirits pass their time in cheating and deceiving mortals, creating around them illusions and prodigies; their greatest ambition is to pass as gods and souls (disembodied spirits).”
– IU I: 333
Quote 69
O soul, While it is true that you have a boundless desire to seek knowledge, It is also true that you seek knowledge of the wrong things. This is why you end up taking birth after birth in the quagmire of samsara. If you wish to attain liberation, set the direction to your quest for knowledge towards truth.
– Acaranga Sutra 54
Quote 70
Iamblichus, the great theurgist of the Neo-platonic school, a man skilled in sacred magic, teaches that good daemons appear to us in reality, while the bad ones can manifest themselves but under the shadowy forms of phantoms.” Further, he corroborates Porphyry, and tells that ” . . . the good ones fear not the light, while the wicked ones require darkness. . . . The sensations they excite in us make us believe in the presence and reality of things they show, though these things be absent. Iamblichus in De mysteriis aegyptorum, 2 10.
– IU I: 334
Quote 71
Ego leads to perdition: If of a man, his ego expands (or diminishes, whichever you please), refines itself, he makes progress. As he retrogresses, his ego, pari passu, grows in concentration, intensity, force, power, until finally it reaches a point where its ferocity, its cold, cruel, calculating selfishness makes a monster in human form, and this is on the precipice where a step further leads to the perdition of the soul.
– G de Purucker in Word Wisdom in the Esoteric Tradition
Quote 72
Since the soul perpetually runs and passes through all things in a certain space of time, which being performed, it is presently compelled to run back again through all things, and unfold the same web of generation in the world . . . for as often as the same causes return, the same effects will in like manner be returned. (Marcilio Ficino, Theologia platonica de immortalitate animae)
– IU I: 336
Quote 73
Evolution means the unfolding, the bringing into active manifestation, of latent powers and faculties ‘involved’ in a previous cycle of evolution. It is the building of ever fitter vehicles for the expression of the mental and spiritual powers of the monad. The more sophisticated the lower vehicles of an entity, the greater their ability to express the powers locked up in the higher levels of its constitution. Thus all things are alive and conscious, but the degree of manifest life and consciousness is extremely varied.
– From: Exploring Theosophy
Quote 74
This philosophy teaches that nature never leaves her work unfinished; if baffled at the first attempt, she tries again. When she evolves a human embryo, the intention is that a man shall be perfected — physically, intellectually, and spiritually. His body is to grow mature, wear out, and die; his mind unfold, ripen, and be harmoniously balanced; his divine spirit illuminate and blend easily with the inner man. No human being completes its grand cycle, or the “circle of necessity,” until all these are accomplished.
– H.P. Blavastky, Isis Ontsluierd I: 345-346
Quote 75
Ether: The ether of science can be regarded as physical matter in its three highest states which three are not yet distinguished by present day science. Beyond that are astral, mental and spiritual matter.
– G. de Purucker, Studies in Occult Philosophy; The Esoteric Tradition.
Quote 76
Thus, like the revolutions of a wheel, there is a regular succession of death and birth, the moral cause of which is the cleaving to existing objects, while the instrumental cause is karma (the power which controls the universe, prompting it to activity), merit and demerit. “It is, therefore, the great desire of all beings who would be released from the sorrows of successive birth, to seek the destruction of the moral cause, the cleaving to existing objects, or evil desire.” They, in whom evil desire is entirely destroyed, are called Arhats. R.S. Hardy, Eastern Monachism.
– IU I: 346
Quote 77
In fear you tremble. You see obstacles and problems whether you go this side or the other. Do not blame things and events from outside yourself. Your own lethargy is the one you should blame. As long as you do not dare to make an effort, you will be followed by fear. This will evaporate if you overcome your tardiness. And then, nothing and no one will be able to hamper your path.
– Acaranga Sutra
Quote 78
Fields: Space is filled with electromagnetic and gravitational fields, and with the all-pervading zero-point field or quantum vacuum – which in some respects amounts to a resurrection of the once-popular ether. A field is defined as a region of space where a force is felt, and forces are said to be mediated by force particles or messenger particles. But what exists between these particles? Either they are separated by an absolute void, or they are separated by a more etheric grade of substance, consisting of particles separated by an even deeper grade of substance, and so on, ad infinitum.
– David Pratt, Exploring Theosophy
Quote 79
Nirvana, the final bliss: To accuse Buddhistical philosophy of rejecting a Supreme Being — God, and the soul’s immortality, of atheism, in short, on the ground that according to their doctrines, Nirvana means annihilation, is simply absurd. The En (or Ayin) of the Jewish En-Soph, also means nihil or nothing, that which is not (quo ad nos); but no one has ever ventured to twit the Jews with atheism. In both cases the real meaning of the term nothing carries with it the idea that God is not a thing, not a concrete or visible Being to which a name expressive of any object known to us on earth may be applied with propriety.
– Isis Unveiled Vol. 1, Page 291
Quote 80
In the Magical and Philosophical Precepts of Psellus, we find one which, warning mankind, says: “Stoop not down, for a precipice lies below the earth, Drawing under a descent of SEVEN steps, beneath which Is the throne of dire necessity.”
– IU I: 353
Quote 81
There is a principle of the soul, superior to all nature, through which we are capable of surpassing the order and systems of the world. When the soul is elevated to natures better than itself. Then it is entirely separated from subordinate natures, exchanging this for another life, and, deserting the order of things with which it was connected, links and mingles itself with another.
– Iamblichus
Quote 82
Spiritual Unity: The fundamental teaching of the ancient wisdom is the spiritual unity of all things. Blavatsky writes: ‘not only humanity — composed as it is of thousands of races — but everything that lives is made of the same essence and substance, is animated by the same spirit, and consequently, everything in nature is bound in solidarity.’
Quote 83
Brotherhood: There is no absolute separateness in nature. All things are made of the same essence, have the same spiritual-divine potential, and are interlinked by magnetic ties of sympathy. It is impossible to realize our full potential, unless we recognize the spiritual unity of all living beings and make universal brotherhood the keynote of our lives.
Quote 84
Karma: All we can say is that every action, or expenditure of energy, generates a chain of effects, which sooner or later will return, by magnetic affinity, to the point of origin, in the form of appropriate consequences. In other words, like begets like. Karma is an automatic, unerring process; it is simply the way nature operates, an expression of the inherent tendency towards equilibrium and harmony.
Quote 85
Kosmos — the noumenon — has nought to do with the causal relations of the phenomenal World. It is only with reference to the intra-cosmic soul, the ideal Kosmos in the immutable Divine Thought, that we may say: “It never had a beginning nor will it have an end.”
– The Secret Doctrine 1: 3 [Sep. 2016]
Quote 86
The soul cannot come into the form of a man if it has never seen the truth. This is a recollection of those things which our soul formerly saw when journeying with Deity, despising the things which we now say are, and looking up to that which really is. Wherefore the nous, or spirit, of the philosopher (or student of the higher truth) alone is furnished with wings; because he, to the best of his ability, keeps these things in mind, of which the contemplation renders even Deity itself divine. By making the right use of these things remembered from the former life, by constantly perfecting himself in the perfect mysteries, a man becomes truly perfect — an initiate into the diviner wisdom.
-Plato, Phaedrus § 249b&c
| Quote 68
IU I: 333 The language of Porphyry, who was himself a direct disciple of Plotinus, is still more explicit as to the nature of these spirits: “Demons,” he says, “are invisible; but they know how to clothe themselves with forms and configurations subjected to numerous variations, which can be explained by their nature having much of the corporeal in itself. Their abode is in the neighborhood of the earth . . . and when they can escape the vigilance of the good daemons, there is no mischief they will not dare commit. One day they will employ brute force; another, cunning. … It is a child’s play for them to arouse in us vile passions, to impart to societies and nations turbulent doctrines, provoking wars, seditions, and other public calamities, and then tell you ‘that all of these is the work of the gods.’ . . . These spirits pass their time in cheating and deceiving mortals, creating around them illusions and prodigies; their greatest ambition is to pass as gods and souls (disembodied spirits).”*
|
| Quote 69
O soul, While it is true that you have a boundless desire to seek knowledge, It is also true that you seek knowledge of the wrong things. This is why you end up taking birth after birth in the quagmire of samsara. If you wish to attain liberation, set the direction to your quest for knowledge towards truth.
|
| Quote 70
IU I: 334 Iamblichus, the great theurgist of the Neo-platonic school, a man skilled in sacred magic, teaches that good daemons appear to us in reality, while the bad ones can manifest themselves but under the shadowy forms of phantoms.” Further, he corroborates Porphyry, and tells that ” . . . the good ones fear not the light, while the wicked ones require darkness. . . . The sensations they excite in us make us believe in the presence and reality of things they show, though these things be absent.
|
| Quote 71
Ego leads to perdition: If of a man, his ego expands (or diminishes, whichever you please), refines itself, he makes progress. As he retrogresses, his ego, pari passu, grows in concentration, intensity, force, power, until finally it reaches a point where its ferocity, its cold, cruel, calculating selfishness makes a monster in human form, and this is on the precipice where a step further leads to the perdition of the soul.
|
| Quote 72
IU I: 336 Since the soul perpetually runs and passes through all things in a certain space of time, which being performed, it is presently compelled to run back again through all things, and unfold the same web of generation in the world . . . for as often as the same causes return, the same effects will in like manner be returned.
|
| Quote 73
Evolution Evolution means the unfolding, the bringing into active manifestation, of latent powers and faculties ‘involved’ in a previous cycle of evolution. It is the building of ever fitter vehicles for the expression of the mental and spiritual powers of the monad. The more sophisticated the lower vehicles of an entity, the greater their ability to express the powers locked up in the higher levels of its constitution. Thus all things are alive and conscious, but the degree of manifest life and consciousness is extremely varied. – From: Exploring Theosophy |
| Quote 74
IU I: 346 This philosophy teaches that nature never leaves her work unfinished; if baffled at the first attempt, she tries again. When she evolves a human embryo, the intention is that a man shall be perfected — physically, intellectually, and spiritually. His body is to grow mature, wear out, and die; his mind unfold, ripen, and be harmoniously balanced; his divine spirit illuminate and blend easily with the inner man. No human being completes its grand cycle, or the “circle of necessity,” until all these are accomplished. H.P. Blavastky, Isis Ontsluierd I: 345-346 |
| Quote 75
Ether: The ether of science can be regarded as physical matter in its three highest states which three are not yet distinguished by present day science. Beyond that are astral, mental and spiritual matter. – G. de Purucker, Studies in Occult Philosophy; The Esoteric Tradition. See The theosophical ether, www.davidpratt.info |
| Quote 76
IU I: 346 Thus, like the revolutions of a wheel, there is a regular succession of death and birth, the moral cause of which is the cleaving to existing objects, while the instrumental cause is karma (the power which controls the universe, prompting it to activity), merit and demerit. “It is, therefore, the great desire of all beings who would be released from the sorrows of successive birth, to seek the destruction of the moral cause, the cleaving to existing objects, or evil desire.” They, in whom evil desire is entirely destroyed, are called Arhats. R.S. Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p. 6. |
| Quote 77
In fear you tremble. You see obstacles and problems whether you go this side or the other. Do not blame things and events from outside yourself. Your own lethargy is the one you should blame. As long as you do not dare to make an effort, you will be followed by fear. This will evaporate if you overcome your tardiness. And then, nothing and no one will be able to hamper your path. – Acaranga Sutra |
| Quote 78
Fields: Space is filled with electromagnetic and gravitational fields, and with the all-pervading zero-point field or quantum vacuum – which in some respects amounts to a resurrection of the once-popular ether. A field is defined as a region of space where a force is felt, and forces are said to be mediated by force particles or messenger particles. But what exists between these particles? Either they are separated by an absolute void, or they are separated by a more etheric grade of substance, consisting of particles separated by an even deeper grade of substance, and so on, ad infinitum. – David Pratt, Exploring Theosophy |
| Quote 79
IU I: 352-3 The appearance of the same individual, or rather of his astral monad, twice on the same planet, is not a rule in nature; it is an exception, like the teratological phenomenon of a two-headed infant. It is preceded by a violation of the laws of harmony of nature, and happens only when the latter, seeking to restore its disturbed equilibrium, violently throws back into earth-life the astral monad which had been tossed out of the circle of necessity by crime or accident. Thus, in cases of [natural – Dth] abortion, of infants dying before a certain age, and of congenital and incurable idiocy, nature’s original design to produce a perfect human being, has been interrupted. … the immortal spirit and astral monad of the individual — the astral monad having been set apart to animate a frame and the immortal spirit to shed its divine light on the corporeal organization — must try a second time to carry out the purpose of the creative intelligence. [… If] the new being has not passed beyond the condition of monad [i.e. had normally not reached an age of more than seven years when it died – DTH], or when, as in the idiot, the trinity [Monad, Reincarnating ego and astral soul – DTh] has [had? – DTH] not been completed, the immortal spark which illuminates it, has to reenter on the earthly plane as it was frustrated in its first attempt. Otherwise, the mortal or astral, and the immortal or divine, souls, could not progress in unison and pass onward to the sphere above. The monad, which was imprisoned in the elementary being — the rudimentary or lowest astral form of the future man — after having passed through and quitted the highest physical shape of a dumb animal — say an orang-outang, or again an elephant, [underlined by Ed. DTh] one of the most intellectual of brutes — that monad, we say, cannot skip over the physical and intellectual sphere of the terrestrial man, … – H.P. Blavatsky, IU I 351-352 |
| Quote 80
IU I: 353 In the Magical and Philosophical Precepts of Psellus, we find one which, warning mankind, says: “Stoop not down, for a precipice lies below the earth, Drawing under a descent of SEVEN steps, beneath which Is the throne of dire necessity.” Psellus, 6, Pletho, 2; Cory, Ancient Fragments, ed. 1832, reprint 1975, Wizards Bookshelf, San Diego CA |
| Quote 81
In our secular age many would reduce these intimations of the sacred to a ‘primitive’ participation mystique, but, as James Hillman points out, “even the high intellectualism of the Renaissance, to say nothing of the modes of mind in ancient Egypt and Greece or contemporary Japan allowed for the animation of things, recognizing a subjectivity in animals, plants, wells, springs, trees, and rocks” From: Hillman, J. (1995). A psyche the size of the earth, in T. Roszak, M.E. Gomes, and A.D. Kanner (eds.) Ecopsychology: Restoring the earth and healing the mind (pp.xviii-xxiii). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, p. xxii). |
| Quote 82
IU I: 357 It is for these carnal terrestrial larvae [the earth-bound souls ], degraded human spirits, that the ancient kabalists entertained a hope of reincarnation. [i.e, tried to provide them a new body] But when, or how? At a fitting moment, and if helped by a sincere desire for his amendment and repentance by some strong, sympathizing person, or the will of an adept, or even a desire emanating from the erring spirit himself, provided it is powerful enough to make him throw off the burden of sinful matter. Losing all consciousness, the once bright monad is caught once more into the vortex of our terrestrial evolution, and it repasses the subordinate kingdoms, and again breathes as a living child. |
| Quote 83
There is a principle of the soul, superior to all nature, through which we are capable of surpassing the order and systems of the world. When the soul is elevated to natures better than itself. Then it is entirely separated from subordinate natures, exchanging this for another life, and, deserting the order of things with which it was connected, links and mingles itself with another.
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| Quote 84
IU I: 361n Every imagination of man comes through the heart, for this is the sun of the microcosm, and out of the microcosm proceeds the imagination into the great world (universal ether) . . . the imagination of man is a seed which is material.” (Our atomical modern scientists have proved it; see Babbage and Professor Jevons.) “Fixed thought is also a means to an end. The magical is a great concealed wisdom, and reason is a great public foolishness. Paracelsus in Les hauts phénomènes de la magie, pp. 144-145. |
| Quote 85
Nirvana, the final bliss: To accuse Buddhistical philosophy of rejecting a Supreme Being — God, and the soul’s immortality, of atheism, in short, on the ground that according to their doctrines, Nirvana means annihilation, [and Svabhavat is NOT a person, but nothing,] is simply absurd. The En (or Ayin) of the Jewish En-Soph, also means nihil or nothing, that which is not (quo ad nos); but no one has ever ventured to twit the Jews with atheism. In both cases the real meaning of the term nothing carries with it the idea that God is not a thing, not a concrete or visible Being to which a name expressive of any object known to us on earth may be applied with propriety. – Isis Unveiled Vol. 1, Page 291 |
| Quote 86
IU I: 362n Ages ago, the old Ennius* was made by Lucretius** say: Two times two are of the man: the ghost, the body, the spirit, and the [spirit’s – Dth] schadow.* These four take four places: the earth covers the body, the shadow flies around the grave, the underworld hosts the ghost, the spirit rises to the stars. [*In Theosophical terms: the kāma-rūpa, the sthūla śarīra, the monad or reincarnating ego (i.e ātma-buddhi + higher manas and the liṅga śarīra – Dth] *Quintus Ennius (c. 239 – 169 BCE) **Lucretius, Roman poet and philosopher. (c. 99 BCE – c. 55 BCE) |
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Quote 87 That we, the devoted followers of that spirit incarnate of absolute self sacrifice, of philanthropy, divine kindness, as of all the highest virtues attainable on this earth of sorrow, the man of men, Gautama Buddha, should ever allow the Theosophical Society to represent the embodiment of selfishness, the refuge of the few with no thought in them for the many, is a strange idea, my brothers.
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| Quote 88
IU I: 362 “Alas, alas! my son!” exclaims the wise Muphti, of Aleppo, to his son Ibrahim, who choked himself with the head of a huge fish. “When will you realize that your stomach is smaller than the ocean?” Or, as Mrs. Catherine Crowe remarks in her Night-Side of Nature, when will our scientists admit that “their intellects are no measure of God Almighty’s designs?” |
| Quote 89
Relativity Distance and time units are also relative: an atom is a solar system on its own scale, reembodying perhaps millions of times in what for us is one second, and our whole galaxy may be a molecule in some supercosmic entity, for which a million of our years is just a second. The range of scale is infinite: matter-consciousness is both infinitely divisible and infinitely aggregative. – From: Exploring Theosophy |
| Quote 90
Even the so-called fabulous narratives of certain Buddhistical books, when stripped of their allegorical meaning, are found to be the secret doctrines taught by Pythagoras. In the Pali Books called the Jatakas, are given the 550 incarnations or metempsychoses of Buddha. They narrate how he has appeared in every form of animal life, and animated every sentient being on earth, from infinitesimal insect to the bird, the beast, and finally man, the microcosmic image of God on earth. Must this be taken literally; is it intended as a description of the actual transformations and existence of one and the same individual immortal, divine spirit, which by turns has animated every kind of sentient being? Ought we not rather to understand, with Buddhist metaphysicians, that though the individual human spirits are numberless, collectively they are one, as every drop of water drawn out of the ocean, metaphorically speaking, may have an individual existence and still be one with the rest of the drops going to form that ocean; for each human spirit is a scintilla of the one all-pervading light? That this divine spirit animates the flower, the particle of granite on the mountain side, the lion, the man?
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| Quote 91
Spiritual Unity: The fundamental teaching of the ancient wisdom is the spiritual unity of all things. Blavatsky writes: ‘not only humanity — composed as it is of thousands of races — but everything that lives is made of the same essence and substance, is animated by the same spirit, and consequently, everything in nature is bound in solidarity.’ |
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Quote 92 Egyptian Hierophants, like the Brahmans, and the Buddhists of the East, and some Greek philosophers, maintained originally that the same spirit that animates the particle of dust, lurking latent in it, animates man, manifesting itself in him in its highest state of activity.
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| Quote 93
Infinite ocean of consciousness: Rejecting the idea of a God existing outside nature, theosophy speaks of an all-pervading divine essence, an infinite ocean of consciousness, from which all things are born and to which they ultimately return. The human kingdom is one of the phases of experience that each god-spark must pass through during its long evolutionary journey through the worlds of matter. |
| Quote 94
IU I: 363 Without the help of any physical organism the “spirit” [a magician’s astral projection – DTh] sees, hears, and if you touch him feels your touch. If you divide him in two, he will feel the pain as would any living man, for he is matter still, though so refined as to be generally invisible to our eye. . . . One thing, however, distinguishes him from the living man, viz.: that when a man’s limbs are once divided, their parts cannot be reunited very easily. But, cut a demon in two, and you will see him immediately join himself together. As water or air closes in behind a solid body passing through it, and no trace is left, so does the body of a demon condense itself again, when the penetrative weapon is withdrawn from the wound. But every rent made in it causes him pain nevertheless. That is why daimons dread the point of a sword or any sharp weapon. Let those who want to see them flee try the experiment.” [Psellus: Dialogus de daemonum energia seu operatione, hfst. ‘Quomodo daemones occupent’.] |
| Quote 95
Study: Much study will lead to book-knowledge, but unless the waking man follows to the best of his ability the ethical precepts he will lose most of his work by death. . . . The middle course should be pursued; by attending to right philosophy so as to inform the brain and mind, and by also studying and fully practicing ethics and all the virtues.’ (W.Q. Judge: Echoes of the Orient 3:460-1) |
| Quote 96
The universe is imbued with creative intelligences and consciousness is inextricably woven into its fabric. Our identification with a separate body-ego is an illusion and our true identity is the totality of existence. This understanding provides a natural basis for reverence for life, cooperation and synergy, concerns for humanity and the planet as a whole, and deep ecological awareness. – Grof, Stanislav(2000). Psychology of the Future,p. 300 Albany: State University of New York Press |
| Quote 97
Parasparopagraho jīvanam: This famous more than 25 centuries old principle of the Jains we find translated in two ways: All living beings are dependent on each other All living beings are there to help each other. This in itself forms the basis of a healthy economy as well as ecology. No discussion, conference, report, study is more valuable than such simple religious principles. Contemplation and meditation on such principles should be part of any educational system. |
| Quote 98
Brotherhood: There is no absolute separateness in nature. All things are made of the same essence, have the same spiritual-divine potential, and are interlinked by magnetic ties of sympathy. It is impossible to realize our full potential, unless we recognize the spiritual unity of all living beings and make universal brotherhood the keynote of our lives. |
| Quote 99
The universe: The universe is not some mechanical apparatus, but is living and organic. Our individual living experience of life is never removed from how the world around us appears (which is unique to each one). A tree will not have the same description when viewed from the east, as it will when viewed from the south, or north, or west. We certainly accept this discrepancy in describing a tree without having to attack the one doing the describing, so when our inner processes are being elucidated, why throw out common sense?
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Quote 100 The Buddhas: To common mortals attached to appearances they [the Buddhas] preach in accordance with what is appropriate. With regard to the Doctrine, the Buddhas are able to exercise complete freedom. They understand the various desires and joys of living beings, as well as their aims and abilities, and can adjust to what they are capable of, employing innumerable similes to expound the Law for them. Utilizing the good roots laid down by living beings in previous existences, distinguishing between those whose roots are mature and those whose roots are not yet mature, they exercise various calculations, discriminations and perceptions. – the Buddha in The Lotus Sūtra |
| Quote 101
Karma: All we can say is that every action, or expenditure of energy, generates a chain of effects, which sooner or later will return, by magnetic affinity, to the point of origin, in the form of appropriate consequences. In other words, like begets like. Karma is an automatic, unerring process; it is simply the way nature operates, an expression of the inherent tendency towards equilibrium and harmony. |
- Illusion; matter in its triple manifestation in the earthly, and the astral or fontal soul, or the body, and the Platonian dual soul, the rational and the irrational one. [↩]
