I.

Within the symbols and doctrines of the Christian Church may indeed lie hidden all the truths of the Occult Philosophy, and another and abler pen has already traced the correspondences, but it is necessary to realize differences as well as likenesses, and while Christianity, as a definite system, has embodied for the world many noble ideas, it seems to the writer to have been able to display only one fact of the divine jewel of Truth—to have been able to trace only a short line of the celestial circle of Wisdom.

Putting aside all such unphilosophical dogmas, as a personal anthropomorphic God—atonement by the vicarious sacrifice of another—eternal damnation and such like, which may be regarded as the outworks of the Creed, and which indeed many of its own professors deny or minimize, and coming to the essential kernel of the system—the inner stronghold of the faith—that which would be regarded as such by all its truest sons throughout these nearly nineteen centuries of its existence, it would yet seem to be but a one-sided statement—a partial view—compared with the all-embracing Catholicity of the Occult Wisdom.

Unfortunately the outworks and excrescences above referred to, have, during these many centuries, so warped the thoughts and feelings of the populations professing this religion that it is no longer the pure and exalted doctrine as preached by its founder, but something very different. There are, no doubt, here and there good and noble souls, who practice the higher virtues of Christianity, but they are in such a minority that they are quite unable to affect the popular standard.

When one begins to analyse the stupendous outgrowth called Western Civilization, of which steam and electricity, in their practical uses, may be regarded as the types, and to ask how and by what means this vast fabric has arisen, we are informed by those who are able to see below the mere surface of things that the setting of men’s minds in a certain direction must have been the factor, and it is only logical that if a man’s highest religious duty is put before him as the saving of his own soul from perdition, a tendency of mind which may be characterized as the supremely selfish must naturally be set in motion. When the converging lines of heredity through many generations have so strengthened this tendency that it has become a potent factor, the development “_in excelsis_” of the purely intellectual faculties as dissociated from the moral will be seen to be the inevitable result, and from this has naturally evolved the Western Civilization which is spoken of with so much pride. But are not nations like trees to be known by their fruits? “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?”

What sins are dwelt on with more emphatic reprobation throughout the whole teachings of Christ than those of hypocrisy and cupidity? And where is hypocrisy deeper than within the Christian fold? So deep indeed, that it has become an integral part of the nature, and is no more recognized as a vice than it was by the Pharisees of old. And where is the worship of mammon more rampant than throughout the length and breadth of Christendom? The preachers of the Churches may utter faint-hearted protests, but the nations nevertheless remain prostrate before their idol, and as steam and electricity extend their sway, and new countries are laid open to modern progress, the more primitive races, to avoid extinction, join in the mad competition for wealth. But whether conspicuously shown in the acts of States lustful to conquer fresh territory, or hidden in the individual character, where it displays itself in the haste to grow rich by fair means or foul, it remains none the less a gnawing canker at the heart of Christendom.

What a gulf there lies between the practice of modern Europe and the divine teachings of the Master.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon Earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

And again: “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.”

There is probably no teaching more thoroughly altruistic in its character, and which, if it could be literally applied, would exercise so direct and beneficial an influence on the human race as the teaching of Christ, but to the impartial student there seems to be none, the spirit of whose revelation has been more perverted and degraded by his followers of all denominations, and following the spiritual law whose complement on the physical plane may be recognized in the axiom that action and reaction are equal, the moral light to which Christ’s teachings soared is the measure which decides the depth to which such teaching, when perverted, must inevitably fall, and Christendom may veritably be said to have become Anti-Christian.[162] All the religions of the world have more or less lost the divine afflatus by which they were originally vivified, but it has been reserved for Christianity to mould the life of the nations from the very blackness of the shadows cast by the “Light of the World.”

When we ask to what goal or catastrophe this Western Civilization is hurrying, it is still more necessary to have the eyes of those who are able to read the signs of the times. The following is an extract from a letter to which many of the above ideas may be traced which was signed “a Turkish Effendi” (in the absence of any right to suggest the real and more authoritative name), and was published by his correspondent in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine of January, 1880:

“The persistent violation for centuries of the great altruistic laws propounded and enjoined by the great founder of the Christian religion, must inevitably produce a corresponding catastrophe; and the day is not far distant when modern civilization will find, that in its great scientific discoveries and inventions, devised for the purpose of ministering to its own extravagant necessities, it has forged the weapons by which it will itself be destroyed. No better evidence of the truth of this can be found than in the fact that Anti-Christendom alone is menaced with the danger of a great class revolution: already in every so-called Christian country we hear the mutterings of the coming storm, when labor and capital will find themselves arrayed against each other—when rich and poor will meet in deadly antagonism, and the spoilers and the spoiled solve, by means of the most recently invented artillery, the economic problems of modern ‘progress.’ It is surely a remarkable fact that this struggle between rich and poor is specially reserved for those whose religion inculcates upon them as the highest law—the love of their neighbor—and most strongly denounces the love of money. No country which does not bear the name of Christian is thus threatened.”

But to return from this long digression, take Christianity, I say, in its loftiest ideal, as taught and practiced by its founder—and it certainly is a very lofty one—altruism in its most sublimated form—self-sacrifice incarnate upon Earth—giving of its life-blood to raise the sons of men, and drawing all to Him by the sheer force of divine love, until the believer’s heart is set on flame, and nothing seems worthy in his eyes short of absolute union with this divine personality who is at once his Saviour, his brother and his God.

Yet were you to analyse the thoughts and feelings of the most ecstatic saint, would they display more than an ardent soul, a devout mind and a holy life?

Those of the Dualist Philosophy might indeed argue that such an one had his feet well planted on the narrow way—but the students of the wider Philosophy of Nature know well that everything on Earth—religion included—is under the governance of natural law. The attainment of perfection is not to be achieved by sentiment alone—_it is a scientific process_, and knowledge is the supreme enlightener.

The devotion of Bhakti is indeed a necessary prelude to progress in the religious life, under the guidance of whichever special cult the neophyte may aspire, but it is as it were the outer court of the Temple, and the Holy of Holies cannot be reached by any save those who have attained knowledge.

Without some previous study of occult writings, this word knowledge will entirely fail to carry home the idea which it is intended to express, and let alone the liability to misinterpretation from this cause, how can anyone pretend to describe it who has himself none of this knowledge, who has not yet trodden one step of the path that leads there, and who can only strain with vague imagination towards the sublime conception of the inmost workings of Nature through her manifold diversity laid bare before the intuitive vision? However, although it is an act of temerity on the writer’s part, these few words may convey some idea to those who are no further on the path than himself.

When the lower states of consciousness have been so welded in the fire of supreme emotion that duty, though involving the most appalling sacrifice, is no longer a thing to strive after with pain and struggle, but is a natural outcome of the life—the absolute expression of unity with nature—when the higher faculties, emotional, ethical and intellectual, whose respective functions may be said to be the perceiving of the Beautiful, the Good, and the True, have been so merged in one that the Buddhi or divine spark which hitherto flickered, becomes a bright, steady, luminous flame—when the “Explosion,” as St. Martin called it, has taken place, “by which our natural will is forever dispersed and annihilated by contact with the divine,”—then and then only is one fit to begin to tread the path of knowledge.

That it leads altogether beyond human experience, and entirely transcends what we can conceive is but too apparent.

The 15th and 16th Rules in the second part of “_Light on the Path_” may help towards a vague apprehension of what this knowledge means.

15th. Inquire of the earth, the air and the water of the secrets they hold for you. The development of your inner senses will enable you to do this.

16th. Inquire of the holy ones of the earth of the secrets they hold for you. The conquering of the desires of the outer senses will give you the right to do this.

And the final secret of all may be said to be wrapped up in the mystery of “self.” When the knowledge of the individualization of Being is reached, man has learned all that this world can teach him, and in the words “Know thyself” lie folded the ultimate possibilities of Humanity. Knowledge is indeed the supreme enlightener.

“There is no purifier like thereto In all this world, and he who seeketh it Shall find it—being grown perfect—in himself.”

Whether any intelligible idea as to the knowledge itself can be evolved from what is here written—it will at least be apparent that a goodness so exalted as to be scarcely imaginable as a human attribute is required as the necessary qualification for the commencement of the search.

Well did Shelley write in his Prometheus:

“The good want power but to weep barren tears The powerful goodness want—worse need for them. The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom. And all best things are thus confused to ill. Many are strong and rich, and would be just But live among their suffering fellow-men As if none felt: they know not what to do.”

and the current Theologies of the world have not been able to remove the reproach. In the case of Christianity the failure may, to a great extent, be owing to its sentimentality and its failure to realize that to be supremely good it is necessary to be wise—though wise with a higher wisdom than that referred to in the above lines.

But Christianity’s greatest fall has probably been its disregard of the facts of Reincarnation. Whatever interpretation may be put on the great Master’s utterance on this subject, and however the early church may have regarded it, it is notorious that Christianity, as interpreted by its mediæval and modern professors alike, has entirely ignored the evolution of the soul progressing through innumerable earthly existences, and has instead adopted the illogical and unphilosophic dogma of a human soul born into the world from nothingness and meriting by its 70 or 80 years of earth-life an Eternity of bliss or an Eternity of misery.

But one does not expect of the child the reason-guided actions of mature manhood—its teachings must be given in the form of dogma, to which it must yield implicit obedience. Nor do we expect the infant school to provide the same training that the University does for the cultured intellect. Similarly the various Religions of the world have been the infant schools for growing Humanity until the complete stature of manhood should be reached.

It has been remarked by some Christians who are much enamored of the self-devoted love exhibited by the Founder of their faith, and the strong feeling of personal love and attachment thereby called forth from them, that Theosophy is cold because it does not dwell exclusively on that side of the nature, but while each separate Religion that has existed in the world may be regarded as the analysis of one special characteristic of the mind, the occult philosophy gathers into one synthetical whole all its varied characteristics. The different religions accentuating as they do different truths may be regarded at the same time—according as one looks at them from the scientific or religious standpoint—and both views are equally tenable and mutually comprehensive—as natural evolutions of the peoples among whom they arose, and as revelations from the unseen universe of partial truths which have to be received and assimilated before mankind can be fitted to comprehend the Supreme Truth in its abstract purity.

It will be seen from the foregoing that what we call Theosophy is the supreme expression of all Religion, as it is the final synthesis of all Science—for it is faith merged in Knowledge.

When one looks abroad on the world and sees how few even among the Religious, the Cultured and the Intellectual are able to grasp the Truth by intuitive vision—while the masses of mankind are sunk in degradation and semi-barbarity, the mind is lost in the vistas of the future, during which the present Religions or those which may have taken their place will have to continue their work of teaching.

Education is slow and Evolution is tardy, and the whole circle of wisdom is slow to trace; but the march of Nature has been as it was bound to be—for the best—and the line of Pope

“One truth is clear, whatever is is right.”

seems more and more to be borne in upon the mind as an Eternal verity.

Destiny has guided us till now, and has made us what we are, but we who now realize the omnipotence of the divinely guided _Will_, have become potentially the makers—let us take it in our hands and shape our own career, for the sooner we rise to the heights of our Being, the sooner shall we be able to stretch down helping hands to the suffering Humanity of To-day. PILGRIM.

TEA TABLE TALK.

THE TENDENCY OF THE PRESENT CIVILIZATION.—AN ANCIENT HINDU STORY.

Pretty much every subject comes up for discussion at our afternoon tea-table. Hence I was not surprised lately, walking in upon our five-o’clock callers, to find an argument on crime going the rounds with the bread and butter.

“What is the worst thing you have seen in the papers lately?” This question imparted the flavor of caviare to the mild refreshment of the ladies. The Club Bachelor held a certain divorce case to be——; the mother drowned the rest in the peremptory rattle of her tea-cups and instanced cruelty to the child slave of an Italian padrone. Sue let off a pyrotechnic series of wrath-compelling wrongs to animals, whom she considers “miles above horrid humans.” The widow pilloried that brutal subject of recent press dispatches “who murdered his fifth wife at her tea-table. Fancy! What an invasion of the Sanctuary.” Pretty Polly was also heard battling _vi et armis_ with the Medical Student over a breach of promise case, and all were moderately heated over these comparative claims to condemnation when the professor entered. Tumultuously appealed to, he replied in his serious way that if he must discriminate between evils, he should give precedence to the matter of the Chicago Anarchists. First, because of the blood-shed and riot; second, because of recent manifestations of incipient public sympathy with the criminals. “For,” said he, “considering the infectious nature of the evil, a crime which strikes at principles as well as at humanity is a thousandfold crime.”

A murmur of approbation showed that as usual, he had conveyed the ultimate sense of the tea-table,—minus a paltry minority. For the widow fixing her eyes on me where I had edged between Polly and the Student, remarked that Mr. Julius looked “as if he sympathised with incitors of riots rather than with their victims.”

The prompt horror visible on Polly’s face nettled me into this reply. “Madam, your discrimination merits my homage, I am not totally devoid of all sympathy with the incitors of riots,”(gutturals of dismay from every throat,) “for those incitors,” here I bowed in a semi circle, “are yourselves.”

The silent indignation of my peers was brought presently home to my recreant soul by the mother’s gentle—“Really, Mr. Julius, you will excuse me if I regret what you have just said.”

“Excuse _me_, you who are Charity itself, and read my clumsy speech in the light of a declaration made by a Hindu theosophist—Mr. Mohini: “Whence springs the great diversity of conditions, the contemplation of which breeds Socialism? Is it not the direct outgrowth of the passion of acquisitiveness? The more a Western man gets, the more he wants, and while your world holds to this principle you can never be free from the danger and fear of socialism. The Brotherhood of Man which Jesus Christ believed in has become unthinkable to you, with your millionaires at one end of the scale and your tramps at the other.”[163]

“Do I understand you to conclude that Society, being responsible for crime, should permit criminals to go unpunished?”

“By no means, Professor, but if you will excuse another quotation,—‘Give moral restraint to moral maladies, and not impious chastisements. Do not travel in a bloody circle in punishing murder by murder, for so you sanction assassination in one sense and you perpetuate a war of cannibals.’ * * Remember the condemned man who said: ‘In assassinating I risked my head. You gain; I pay; we are quits.’ And in his heart he added: ‘we are equals.’”

“Who said that?” queried the widow.

“Eliphas Levi, at your service.”

“Thanks. I’ve no use for _French morals_!” Under cover of this dart she retired. What I love most in woman is her way of retreating from the field of defeat with all the honors of war!

“Seems to me,” said Sue, emerging from a monopoly of tea bun, “that things are just perfectly awful anyhow.”

“My Dear! What can you know about it?” remonstrated the mother. Sue silently pointed a sticky and accusing finger towards those philanthropic journals which cheerfully fulfil their mission of household enlightenment] _ad nauseam_.

“Things are as they always were,” said the Professor smoothing his philosophic beard.

The old Lady ruffled up in her shady corner. “By no means. When I was young—”

The mother looked deprecatingly at me. “Mr. Julius, have you never wondered why Life should be so dark? And yet there was once a Golden Age!”

“The occultists say that every age has its own characteristics. This is Kali Yuga, the dark age. In the Satwa Yuga, cycle of causes or truth, the highest of the three conditions or states, known as Satwa Guna, prevailed.[164] Consequently in that age, men lived longer, happier and more spiritual lives. In Treta, the second age, prevailed Raja Guna the second condition, and the life period and happiness of men decreased. In the Dwarapa, (third age) there was less of Raja Guna. In the present Kali Yuga, there is more of Tamo Guna, and this is the worst of the cycles.

“The characteristics of these grand cycles and the different minor cycles are elaborately described in the sacred literature of the Hindus. If it would not weary you I could tell a story which gives some idea of the nature of cyclic influence and how coming events cast their shadows before.”

Popular opinion, led by Sue, clamored for the story.

“This story is taken from a secret sanscrit book, called the Diary of the Pandavas. It gives a diurnal account of the 18 years forest life of five exiled princely brothers immediately previous to our dark age. This book contains 18 x 360 stories describing the cumulative tendency of sin, and it is said was used in the last yugas as the first book of morals for boys;[165] every story has its moral; the series reveals the genealogy of evil, or of the descent of spirit into matter.

“The volume is secretly preserved for the training of occultists, and the entire order in which the stories are arranged is only revealed during initiations. An initiate who has passed three initiations and is preparing for the fourth, is only shown that series treating of such especial elements of his evil nature as he is then preparing to convert into higher energies. In this story, the five brothers are ideal kings. The eldest is regarded as an embodiment of Dharma, (the Law itself,) an incarnation of the God of Justice, yet so strong was the influence of the coming dark cycle, that one Adharma, (transgression of law, injustice) occurred daily within the palace. Late one evening the Maharaja, (elder brother) had retired and was chatting with his wife. The four younger brothers were as usual respectively guarding the four palace gates. Bhima, (the terrible) _wisest_ of the younger brothers was invariably at the chief gate during the first three hours. To him comes a poor injured Brahmin who asks to see the Maharaja immediately and knocks the “Bell of Complaint.” The Maharaja sends a servant to say that he is in bed and will hear the complaint next morning. The Brahmin saw that the shadow of Kali Yuga had come and smiling, turned away.[166] But Bhima would not let him go without knowing whether justice had been done him. The Brahmin refused to reply; he would not sit in judgment nor reveal the king’s faults. Bhima knew from the petitioner’s silence that no attention had been paid to his case, and ordered that a trumpet be sounded and a proclamation be thus issued: “Strange that our just brother the Monarch has relied upon to-morrow and sacrificed duty to pleasure.” The king heard the cry of the trumpeter and coming hastily on foot, he overtook the Brahmin, fell at his feet, heard and redressed his complaint, then walked sullenly back. Kali’s influence was thus doubly seen. First in the Monarch’s conduct and secondly, in that the younger brother should presume to judge and to teach the elder. If even in the palace of the five most law abiding persons, Kali played so powerful a part, we may imagine her influence in other circles of life, amongst the ignorant, or amongst us later mortals now when her momentum has full swing.”

There was a brief silence. Then a shooting fire ray revealed a divine gem in the Mother’s eye and her soft voice said lowly; “After all, it seems that we _are_ our brother’s keeper.” And no one gainsayed her. JULIUS.

* * * * *

NOTE.—Any one desirous of having queries answered, or of relating authentic dreams, experiences, etc., is invited to communicate with “Julius, Care THE PATH, P. O. Box 2659.” No attention will be paid to anonymous letters.

THEOSOPHICAL WORK IN AMERICA.

BOSTON.—The Boston T. S. meets every Friday evening. Mr. Mohini M. Chatterji is stopping quietly with friends in Boston. He is not here on a public mission, feeling that a different instrument is needed for arousing general interest in Theosophy. He is always glad to see Theosophists, however, and has set apart Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons to receive them and other earnest inquirers. He has a small class in the _Bhagavat-Gita_ Tuesdays and Thursdays. Interest in occult subjects is largely increasing this winter. Some experiments by Mr. W. I. Bishop in “Thought Transference” have done their share in directing public interest that way. It is amusing to observe the crude theories to account for the phenomenon put forward by some of the members of the American Society for Psychical Research, which seems to have been organized for the special purpose of not finding out anything. One of the members, Rev. Minot J. Savage, however, comes out with the declaration that three things are proven beyond doubt; Thought Transference, Hypnotism, and Clairvoyance. There are rumors of a notable book by a strictly anonymous author, and of special interest to Theosophists, soon to be issued by a Boston publisher.

On Tuesday evening, December 21, by invitation of a well known theosophist, the Boston and Malden Societies held a largely attended joint meeting, to listen to Mr. Mohini Chatterji, who spoke on various phases of Theosophy, and with his spiritual insight, eloquence and learning, afforded questioners much light in the course of the discussion that followed.

In the field of psychical research much interest has been aroused by an able article by Mr. Charles Howard Montague, city editor of THE GLOBE, describing the results and nature of experiments by which, after a few days’ trial, he was enabled to accomplish all that was done by Mr. W. I. Bishop, in his so-called feats of mind-reading. Mr. Montague says that it is not “muscle-reading,” but “impulse reading,” or close attention to unconscious impulses given by the subject. As it is absurd to seek a psychical explanation for what proves to be physical phenomena, it is well for the public to know the truth and not be deluded by the claims of Mr. Bishop and other public performers. Mr. Montague does not pretend to account, by his solutions, for the well-known cases of genuine thought transference.

* * * * *

MALDEN.—A largely attended open meeting of the Malden Branch, T. S., held Monday evening, December 6, was addressed by Mohini M. Chatterji on the Theosophical Aspects of the Christian Religion, based on a study of the New Testament. The broad and tolerant attitude of the speaker made a deep impression. At one of the recent previous meetings a record of some religious conversations held by the three Zuñi Indians who have been spending the summer on the neighboring coast with Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing, the Ethnologist, was read and discussed, with one of their beautiful folktales, both showing deep veins of pure Theosophy.

* * * * *

NEW YORK.—The Aryan Theosophical Society continues to hold bi-monthly meetings, which have been well attended. In November, Brother Mohini M. Chatterji and Col. Aymé addressed meetings. Col. Aymé gave an address on Theosophy and Mathematics, with illustrations on the blackboard. On the first meeting in December, Bro. C. H. A. Bjerregaard read a paper upon the Elementals, which was of great value and interest; the first part of it is printed in this number and will be finished in February.

* * * * *

CALIFORNIA.—The work here is being carried on by the Branches in Los Angeles and Oakland, and some new members are reported.

* * * * *

THE AMERICAN THEOSOPHICAL COUNCIL.—In October, a Convention was held at Cincinnati, O., at which all the active Branches were represented. The American section of the General Theosophical Council was then formed, to take the place of the Board of Control, which went out of existence. Dr. Buck acted as Chairman, and a General Secretary who is to act as the means of communication between Branches and Headquarters was elected. The choice fell upon Mr. William Q. Judge, of New York, to whom hereafter all application and official communications should be sent. Since this convention, new applications have been coming in and the work shows no signs of abatement.

It is expected that another meeting of the Council will be held very soon for the purpose of carrying out some proposals for slight changes in the management of formal matters. The Council assumes no control of Branches who are left perfectly free so long as they act within the general rules of the Society.

* * * * *

CHICAGO.—At the annual election of this Branch, held December 4th, 1886, the following officers were elected: President, Stanley B. Sexton; Vice-President, Annie G. Ordway; Recording Secretary, Ursula N. Gestefeld; Corresponding Secretary, M. L. Brainard; Treasurer and Librarian, Mrs. A. V. Wakeman. Address all official correspondence to the Corresponding Secretary, 376 W. Adams St.

REVIEWS AND NOTES.

THE THEOSOPHIST.—The leading article in _The Theosophist_ for November is again by Madame Blavatsky—a notable contribution on animated images, in the course of which it is shown that some of the circumstances in that amusing travesty of Occultism, Anstey’s “Fallen Idol,” are based on true occult principles. By the way, every Theosophist should read Mr. Sinnett’s “_Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky_,” for thereby a clearer conception of the character of that illustrious and heroic woman will be gained, with a better understanding of her nature and mission. Col. Olcott’s second and concluding article on “The Seeress of Prevorst,” is a careful and scholarly piece of work, throwing some light from Eastern sources on that remarkable case of occult development in an obscure German village. Dr. Hartman has a paper on “Occultism in Germany,” in which he gives an important hint concerning one of the methods of practically developing one’s higher nature. Srinivas Rao’s new story opens interestingly. The Eliphas Levy series continue, and a second article on Hypnotic Experiments is given. Several other interesting contributions must remain unnoticed. It is a valuable number. _The Theosophist_ deserves to increase its circulation with the increasing interest in Theosophy.

NOTES AND QUERIES.—Brother Gould continues this useful and interesting publication. We are indebted to him for November and December numbers. Many of the replies are by our old friend, Prof. Alex. Wilder, who is learned in all that is curious in history, archæology and philology. The December number has 40 pages of extremely valuable matter. Address S. C. & L. M. Gould, Manchester, N. H.; price $1 a year.

PSYCHOMETRY AND THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE, by N. C. F. T. S., with an introduction by H. S. Olcott, is one of the Adyar series. It has been compiled with a view of putting in a small compass the main facts available relating to these two subjects, with an outline of the occult explanation of the same.

ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.—A new American edition of this book has been brought out by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., containing all the new matter and notes of the latest English edition, besides a special introduction; it is sold at a less price. Inquirers can order through THE PATH.

THE PLATONIST is to be revived, and will shortly appear in a new shape—octavo, 56 pp.; $3 per year. Thos. M. Johnson, Osceola, St. Clair Co., Mo.

CORRESPONDENCE.

AN IMPORTANT CORRECTION. TO ALL THE READERS OF THE PATH.

In the November number of Path in my article “_Theories about Reincarnation and Spirits_,” the entire batch of elaborate arguments is upset and made to fall flat owing to the mistake of either copyist or printer. On page 235, the last paragraph is made to begin with these words: “Therefore the _reincarnating_ principles are left behind in _Kama-loka_, etc.,” whereas it ought to read “Therefore the NON-_reincarnating_ principles (the false personality) are left behind in Kama-loka, etc.,” a statement fully corroborated by what follows, since it is stated that those principles fade out and _disappear_.

There seems to be some fatality attending this question. The spiritualists will not fail to see in it the guiding hand of their dear departed ones from “Summerland;” and I am inclined to share that belief with them in so far that there must be some mischievous spook between me and the printing of my articles. Unless immediately corrected and attention drawn to it, this error is one which is sure to be quoted some day against me and called a _contradiction_. Yours truly, _November 20th, 1886._ H. P. BLAVATSKY.

NOTE.—The MS. for the article referred to was written out by some one for Mme. Blavatsky and forwarded to us as it was printed, and it is quite evident that the error was the copyist’s, and not ours nor Madame’s; besides that, the remainder of the paragraph clearly shows a mistake. We did not feel justified in making such an important change on our own responsibility, but are now glad to have the author do it herself. Other minor errors probably also can be found in consequence of the peculiar writing of the amanuensis, but they are very trivial in their nature.—[ED.]

* * * * *

For thoughts alone cause the round of rebirths in this world; let a man strive to purify his thoughts. What a man thinks, that he is: this is the old secret.—_Maitrayana Brahmana Upanishad_, vi _Prap._, 34.

OM.

FOOTNOTES:

[157] Dr. G. Weil: The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud.

[158] Leibnitz was born 1646 at Leipzig, and died 1716. According to Schwegler’s Hist. of Phil. he was, next to Aristotle, the most highly gifted scholar that ever lived, and according to F. Papillon (“Nature and Life”) modern students in various departments of science and philosophy have verified his ideas and endorsed then to a large extent.

[159] See July and August PATH.

[160] _Light on the Path._

[161] Letter from a friend.

[162] It is an old declaration of the esoteric doctrine that “the counterfeit religion will last as long as the true one.”—[ED.]

[163] See _N. Y. Tribune_, Nov. 28. 1886.

[164] See _Bag.-Gita_, Ch. 14.

[165] The numbers used here are significant. In _Bagavad-Gita_ are 18 chapters, and Krishna as there revealed has a special meaning under the No. 18. The five Pandavas are the same as those who are concerned in the _Gita_ story. If the product of 18 x 360 be added, the sum is 18. The correspondences in all the Hindu stories will repay study.—[ED.]

[166] This injured Brahmin was a sage who assuming that disguise desired to make a test.—[ED.]

AUM

There is not anything amongst the hosts of heaven which is free from the influence of the three qualities which arise from the first principles of nature.—_Bagavad-Gita_, ch. xviii.

Know that there is no enlightenment from without; the secret of things is revealed from within. From without cometh no Divine Revelation, but the spirit heareth within. Do not think I tell you that which you know not; for except you know it, it cannot be given you. To him that hath it is given, and he bath the more abundantly.—_Hermetic Philosophy._

THE PATH.

VOL. I. FEBRUARY, 1887. NO. 11.

_The Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or declaration in this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document._

Where any article, or statement, has the author’s name attached, he alone is responsible, and for those which are unsigned, the Editor will be accountable.

THE ELEMENTALS, THE ELEMENTARY SPIRITS,

AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM AND HUMAN BEINGS.

_A paper read before the Aryan Theosophical Society of New York, December 14th, 1886._

BY C. H. A. BJERREGAARD.

(_Continued._)

There are several designations for “angels” in the Bible, which clearly show that beings like the elementals of the Kabbala and the monads of Leibnitz, must be understood by that term rather than that which is commonly understood. They are called “morning stars,” (Job 38, 7); “flaming fires,” (Ps. 104, 4.); “the mighty ones,” (Ps. 103, 20) and St. Paul sees them in his cosmogonic vision (1 Col. 1, 16) as “principalities and powers.” Such names as these preclude the idea of personality, and we find ourselves compelled to think of them as impersonal existences, in the same way as we conceive the angel that troubled the waters of the pool of Bethesda, as an _influence_, a spiritual substance or _conscious_ force.

I stated above that the Kabbala taught that all events in Nature and History were under the immediate superintendence of spirits, elementals and elementary. It was in harmony with such teachings, that the translators of the Septuagint translated Deuteronomy 32, 8-9, thus: “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, he set the bounds of the Heathen according to the number of the spirits, but He Himself took His abode in Israel.”

According to this translation, which differs radically[167] from the orthodox, spirits _i.e._ Elementals and Elementary Spirits, are the rulers, the principalities and powers, among the heathen, _i. e._ all people outside of Israel. Whatever we may think of the exclusiveness of this passage, and the work given the “chosen people” to perform, we can verify this passage historically.

All people of the earth—so far as we know their religious and philosophical ideas—have drawn their spiritual life from sources very different from those whence the leaders of Israel derived _their_ inspiration. I say the leaders of Israel, for the Israelites as a people, never comprehended the mission imposed upon them, they constantly fell back into what has been called the “idolatry” of the nations around. The people, as a people, were true to their natural instincts, which led them to follow the guiding influence of natural _ideas_, (_i. e._ Elementals and Elementary Spirits).

I need not tell you that the _Ideas_ now spoken of are not merely Conceptions, such as we, according to common usage, are wont to believe. Ideas to the antique world, were exactly the same thing as Leibnitz called monads, and the Kabbala Elements and Elementary Spirits. Plato, for instance, attributes to ideas an independent, singular existence and hypostative power. He calls them Gods (in the Timœus), and asserts that movement, life, animation, and reason belong to them, (in the Sophistes).

The nations of the earth, all those not belonging to the chosen few, have indeed been—for good and for evil—guided by the Spirits, now called Elementals, now Ideas and now Gods. Therefore, if any one will study the history of mankind, he must begin with a knowledge of these occult powers. If any one will guide mankind’s history, he must follow the laws of these occult forces.

If we recognize the translation of the Septuagint as given above, and find ourselves outside the pale of the chosen people, whose work is in “the plan of salvation,” we know where to look for the intermediate powers between ourselves and the Deity, we know that they are the Elementals, the powers of Nature, the silent, but invincible giants of the Elements.

The importance to Theosophists of the modern school of clear conceptions on these points are evident. I need not point out to you why and wherefore.

In the Zohar it is stated that, “when spirits come down, they clothe themselves with air or wrap themselves in Elements.” It is also stated that, “some spirits have a natural affinity for the air-(elements), others for fire-(elements), and when they come down to the earth, they envelop themselves either in air-(elements) or fire-(elements), according to their nature.”

These statements, which can easily be supplemented with many more like them, are of the greatest importance, when the question is of spirit manifestations, for it becomes a matter of grave consequence by what kind of monads we are surrounded.

But, before speaking of the atmosphere of monads that surround us, I must define the auras or emanations that proceed from all objects in nature.

As an aromatic scent emanates from a flower, so all other bodies emit either colors or rays of “imponderable” matter. Copper and Arsenic send out auras of red matter; Lead and Sulphur emit a blue colored substance; Gold, Silver Antimony green, etc. In short, Science teaches that all matter is luminous, _i. e._ shines by its own light.

Human beings, be they spiritual-minded or not, are also surrounded by their spheres. We all know this. We have all felt these sphere influences, and some of you have perhaps seen them. It it said that persons of a high and spiritual character have beautiful auras of white and blue, gold and green, in various tints; while low natures emit principally dark red emanations, which in brutal and vulgar persons darken almost to black.

The impulse or motive power, the cause, if you choose, of these emanations is the soul of man, of course. According to the condition of the soul, these emanations are more or less powerful, more or less extensive, more or less clear. The stuff they are made of, what is it? It is of course physical, though they may not be measured and weighed by any scientific instrument known at this day.

_These emanations are soul-rays and they become reflected upon those small_ MONADIC _bodies already described_. I can not prove this to you experimentally, but I can see these reflections as clearly as a physical experiment can demonstrate to you the light-reflection of the sun’s rays upon a raindrop.

Swedenborg claimed to have _smelled_ the inner nature of certain spirits he met with in the spiritual world, and to have determined their moral value by these rays. In his work “Heaven and Hell,” he has recorded several such experiences.

It is an innate power of the soul, that enables it to throw off these rays and it does it by necessity, for without going beyond itself, to express itself, the soul would never realize itself.

The soul can, however, also be trained to emit these rays or auras, consciously.

If we will believe the famous Norse traveller and explorer of Spiritland, already referred to, Em. Swedenborg, we may learn from his Arcana Celestia, that “the particular quality of a spirit is perceived immediately on his entrance into the other life, _from his sphere_,” that “the sphere is _the image_ of the spirit extended beyond him;” “indeed, it is the image of _all_ that is in him.” The cause of the spheres around spirits, the same author states to be from “the activity of things in the interior memory,” from “_the ruling love_.”

Swedenborg further states, that “by the sphere which exhales from the spirit of man, even while he lives in the body, every deed, however secret, becomes manifest in clear light,” and that good or evil spirits recognize him by his sphere; and that good spirits can not be present with those who are in worldly and corporeal loves, however pious exteriorly, because they instantly perceive their sphere of evil as something filthy; and, on the other hand, that good spirits readily associate with those surrounded by pure and heavenly spheres. But it is not necessary to have recourse to the seers and those spiritually illuminated, most of us have some knowledge of these facts from daily life. Who has not perceived the low and filthy sphere that surrounds the sensual, or the intolerable atmosphere of a proud and haughty spirit, or been depressed in the surroundings of a melancholy and passionate man or woman? Indeed, we all have perceptions as to these things; some stronger, some less developed.

It is, as I said, the very life of the soul to diffuse itself through all its surroundings. Without such an activity it would not be soul. An inactive, an inert soul has no existence.

Next, the soul, while thus actualizing itself, takes its material from the monads, just described, and moulds them into such shapes and forms as are requisite for its own life and the influence it endeavors to exert. The Soul has the power to mould and shape them into any possible condition. (More about this later on.) This faculty is its image-making power or the form-making power of the soul.

In order to understand this image-making power, let it first be remembered, that it is an axiom in all mystical and spiritual philosophy, that the spiritual degree in man (Atman) contains in its unity with the Universal soul, the patterns of all things and that these are reflected through the soul (Buddhi and Manas).

This being so, _the soul (Buddhi and Manas) to understand the principle of creation has only to descend to its own deep, the spirit (Atman), there to find it reflected_. Having found and realized the idea of creation, the soul may take material from the ethereal world, called by the Orientals Akasa, and out of it build any form—image, I call it—it likes.

Unless the soul gives such form and shape to the ideas and life, that dwells in its own inner deep, these will remain uncreated and the soul uneducated by not approving of its opportunities.

This is what I call the image-making power of the soul. Upon it depends all Kardialogy or the science of the heart, and all Rationality. Upon it depends our attainment of psychic powers.

It is not only an innate and natural tendency of the soul (Manas) to go beyond its body to find material with which to clothe the life that it wants to give expression to. The soul (Manas) can and must _be trained to do this_ CONSCIOUSLY.

You can easily see that this power possessed _consciously_ will give its possessor the power to work magic.

And this leads me directly to the subject of the use of aromas, odors, etc., wherewith to create a suitable atmosphere around us; an atmosphere congenial to the nature of spirits.

You all remember the splendid scene in Bulwer’s Zanoni where Glyndon meets the Dweller of the Threshold. In that scene is described all the mystery of aromatic vapors, their effect upon the human mind, and the assistance they offer to spirit manifestations.

In short, it is of the greatest importance that we produce the right environment by the right kind of emanations or auras, and atmospheres: “As we give, so we shall receive!”

It would require a volume to relate the religious, political, economic, and gallant history of odors and perfumes. I shall mention a few instances only.

From the highest antiquity we find that priests have employed odoriferous substances. The worshippers of light, the Zoroastrians, laid perfumes five times a day upon the sacred flame, that symbolized light and life. The Greeks were very profuse in the use of ambrosia, and believed that the gods always appeared in fragrant clouds. You all know the importance of smoke and perfumes in the rituals used at the Mysteries and around the sacred tripod on which rested the prophetesses at Delphi. The Romans almost carried the use of incense and odoriferous substances too far. From the classic people the custom was borrowed by the Christian Church. There was even a time, when the Romish Church owned large estates in the East, devoted exclusively to the cultivation of balms and essences to be used in the rites of worship.

But it was not only in religious practices that these delicate media were used to facilitate the descent of spiritual beings. All through the Orient, even to this day, they are employed in the private life for the same purpose; not for mere luxury, as some people will have us believe. It was very appropriate indeed, that the Greeks should burn aromatic substances during their banquets, and who can estimate the soothing influence upon the wild and warlike Romans of their beautiful custom of perfuming their baths, their sleeping rooms and beds, and their drinks. It is not at all likely that the Romans should have been ignorant of the high spiritual significance of these practices. Why should they before battle anoint the Roman eagles with the richest perfumes, if they did not think it pleasing to the god of war and his followers, if they did not thereby expect to prepare a suitable atmosphere for their descent.

I pass by the modern use of these things. Among the many abuses with which we are familiar, the strong human instinct asserts itself everywhere. We expect, for instance, that Youth and Beauty shall be surrounded by a sphere, sweet-smelling and elevating; and our instincts are true in this, for there is a close parallel between purity and aromatic odors.

It is a truth well understood that Spirit does not act immediately upon Matter. There always is a medium between them. It seems rational that it should be so. Spirit and Matter being the two poles of one and the same substance need the intermediate middle as a point of conjunction and exchange of energy.

_Applying this general law to the particulars before us, it seems most natural to conclude that the Elementals are the media by means of which all our spiritual efforts are exerted upon Nature, and that nothing can be done without their intervention._

But the question also arises: how do we make the Elementals perform this work for us? By what means do we influence them?

Occult Science teaches that “the pure of heart,” those that, having travelled over “the Path,” have come to “freedom,” can, by a mere mental effort or by stretching out the hand, “do these things.”

In view of this teaching, I shall state a few facts relative to the power of the Mind and the Hand.

(1) The Word spoken consists of the thought or idea we want to convey to the person spoken to, and (2) this thought clothed in a form, a kind of vessel, by means of which we send the thought flying through space. These two elements are the main factors of the Word.

Let us now look a little closer upon each of these two factors.

When an animal in distress calls for another, we, human beings, understand that it throws its desire or animal life into the sounds which proceed from that throat, and the other animal answers _instinctively_, we say quite correctly, for we do not think that the animals _reason_ about their doings.

This kind of “language,” if it can be so called, is not much different from the language of mankind at large. All language as used in ordinary daily life is but slightly higher in character, but not different in degree.

_Language—the Word—is spoken when an Idea or Spiritual Life is communicated._ In the true sense, we only speak or pronounce the Word when the Highest finds a channel into the actual world by means of our vocal organs.

That is the Word! Now, about its Form. Whence comes its material? For form is something substantial. It is not enough that an architect has a design to a building in his mind, he needs actual material with which to erect the house if it is to be realized on the actual side of existence. As surely as he procures stones and wood, etc., so do we also need material substances with which to construct our mental edifices. From what world do we draw these substances? From the astral or ethereal molecules! From the Monads!

By a pre-established harmony, the suitable monads glomerate around the heavenly idea that proceeds to reveal itself upon our tongue when we speak the Word. Thus the thought gets its Form.

Thus far I have spoken of the thought or idea descending to utter itself upon our tongue, we being the mere tools of the idea. And such is almost always the case. We neither originate thought nor its form. Thought or Spirit speaks through us as the passive agents. Yet we all know how we boast of our oracles, of our prophets and our seers, even because they act as passive agents.

But there is a language still higher. It is possible for man to originate thought and to control the form to such thought. The adepts know this secret and they have arrived at that power by getting beyond the “ordinary” laws of life. They are not mere channels for the flux and reflux of thought; they originate and control thought.

Heaven’s first law is order. As we know some of the laws according to which we formulate speech in a logical way, so that other sphere outside (or inside, if you like), which is full of the germs of life, has its laws. Hence the adepts, too, follow certain rules or laws, when they want to originate or control thought and its form. Vulgarly, the laws or methods are called spells or incantations.

Before we consciously can work spells or control spirits and their energies, we must arrive at the state of the adept, where he is beyond the laws that govern, so to say, the surface of things. But we cannot come there on any highroads nor by any short cuts. We must travel the road of self-denial and that of illusion.

As it is possible to enter into the sanctuary of a temple by sheer brutal force, so it is possible to get into possession of formulas and spells which work wonders, though we be neither pure of mind nor strong of heart.

Would formulas and spells under such conditions be useful to us? They may! They may not! They may also work our destruction. We have been taught that they are more dangerous to us than a naked sword in the hands of a child. The child may accidentally do some useful work with its sharp instrument, but it may also destroy itself.

From this we should learn that the true course to pursue in regard to the performing of wonders by means of Elementals or Elementary Spirits is to first to attain to the state of an adept: to learn to control life and thought.

If we should happen to come in possession of spells or incantations without knowing the proper use of them—better not use them!

But how do we attain to that state just described?

I can not define the way nor teach anybody how to do so, but I think that the way must be very much like that travelled by the Lord Buddha and now followed by “the Adepts.”

But, as it is not our immediate duty to prepare for the performance of miracles, we have been warned to abstain from such vain pursuits.

Far better is it for us to follow the directions given for moral life:

“Try to get as near to wisdom and goodness as you can in this life. Trouble not yourself about the gods. Disturb yourself not by curiosities or desires about any future existence. Seek only after the fruit of the noble path of self-culture and of self-control.” These are words from Buddhist Scriptures.

It is not only by mind that we may control the Elementals and the Elementary spirits. The hand forms a most important element among the tools used in occult science.

I shall not define the science of chiromancy, but describe the magnetic points of the fingers.

Have you given any thought and attention to the hand? Generally we consider the head of a man and put our estimate upon him according to the size of his brain. But we neglect the hand. And yet the hand is as important a factor in the execution of spiritual acts as is the brain.

The hand is the executive organ of the dynamico-mysterious actions of the Spirit of man. Through the hand its psychico-somatic operations take place, through it its whole spiritual-psychical energy flows out, when laid upon the sick, for instance.

It may be readily enough understood that the spiritual activity of the spirit of man ultimates itself in acts, and that almost all of these are executed by the hand, but it is probably but little known that in healing, for instance, there is a peculiar physical basis in the hand, upon which the healing power is dependent, _the Pacinian corpuscles_, namely.

It is now many years ago (it was in 1830 and 1840) that Pacini, a physician of Pistola, made his discovery; but with the exception of the literature to which it gave rise, and which is known only to a few learned men and a few librarians of larger libraries, little or nothing is known of his discovery.

Pacini found in all the sensible nerves of the fingers many small elliptical, whitish corpuscles. He compared them to the electrical organs of the torpedo and described them as animal magneto-motors, as organs of animal magnetism. And so did Henle and Kólliker, two German anatomists, who have studied and described these corpuscles very minutely.

In the human body they are found in great numbers in connection with the nerves of the hand, also in those of the foot. Why should they not be in the feet? Let us remember the rythmical structure of the human body, particularly the feet, and it becomes clear why they are there; the ecstatic dances of the enthusiasts and the not-sinking of somnambulists in water or their ability to use the soles of their feet as organs of perception and the ancient art of healing by the soles of the feet—all these facts explain the mystery.

They are found sparingly on the spinal nerves, and on the plexuses of the sympathetic, but never on the nerves of motion.

They are most numerous on the small twigs of nerves and generally placed parallel to them, though often at an acute angle. They are more or less oval, sometimes elongated and bent. They are nearly transparent, with a whitish line traversing their axis. The corpuscles of the human subject are from one-twentieth to one-tenth of an inch in length.

They consist of a series of membranous capsules, from thirty to sixty or more in number, enclosed one within the other. Inside of these capsules there is a single nervous fibre of a tubular kind enclosed in the stalk, and advancing to the central capsule, which it traverses from end to end. Sometimes the capsules are connected by transverse bands.

Anatomists are interested in these Pacinian corpuscles because of the novel aspect in which they present the constituent parts of the nerve-tube, placed in the heart of a system of concentric membranous capsules with intervening fluid, and divested of that layer which they (the anatomists) regard as an isolator and protector of the more potential central axis within.

This apparatus—almost formed like a voltaic pile, is the instrument for that peculiar vital energy, known more or less to all students as Animal Magnetism.

Since the cat is somewhat famous in all witchcraft, let me state, that in the mesentary of the cat, they can be seen in large numbers with the naked eye, as small oval shaped grains a little smaller than hempseeds. A few have been found in the ox (the symbol of the priestly office); but they are wanting in all birds, amphibia and fishes.

Though his discovery was disputed it has since been verified and the theory strongly supported. These organs are the beneficent media through which the Spirit operates.

From time immemorial the human hand has been regarded as the life-point of a mysterious magical power, but not until Pacini’s discovery do we know its seat. These corpuscles are its seat. Are they perhaps agglomerations of such monads as I have described and thus the media by means of which the highest spiritual powers perform their work?

We find the Elementals under all forms of existence, as mere natural forces, totally, to our perceptions, destitute of any self-conscious life; we find them also attaining a form very near the human. There is no valid reason against supposing them to be the stuff out of which we form thoughts, much less against considering them to be the life-giving elements in the Pacinian corpuscles.

Let us maintain the theory that there is no _such thing as a dead or inanimate force_ in the universe. _Every atom, itself a form of power, is alive with force._ Every atom in space _reflects the Universal Self_, who is:

_The Soul of Things._

I shall now come to the end of my paper by a few words which contain the practical purpose of my lecture.

(1) The monads, just described, whether they reflect the auras, that surround us consciously or unconsciously, whether they are used as mind-stuff or be located in the Pacinian corpuscles of the hand, are physical media of intercourse between the Elementaries and the adepts.

Why not! If Eastern adepts and Western mediums are in possession of power to atomize “the body,” to make it become the smallest of the smallest, to enter into a diamond, for instance, if they have power to magnify “the body” to any dimensions; to change the polarity of the body, to make it become the lightest of the lightest as in the well known phenomena of levitation, why should the Elementaries, existing, as they do, under much more favorable circumstances, not be able to enter into matter, to enter into atoms which “contain a Sun” and there, for the time being direct its vital principle and its universal orbs, to such purposes as they choose, to make it serve the adept’s or magician’s will, who seeks aid or enlightenment?

(2) I contend that they do! And I argue for the necessity of producing such surroundings of auras of monads as will facilitate and raise the standard of what is commonly called “Mediumship.”

(3) I argue for a cultivation of the image-making power of the soul, that we may be able to direct and utilize consciously the intercourse with the Elementaries.

(4) I wish to have a knowledge spread abroad about the Pacinian corpuscles, that we may lay our hands upon mankind and cure its ills.

I feel personally convinced that there is both “Light and Life” to be found upon these lines of study and conduct.

POETICAL OCCULTISM.

SOME ROUGH STUDIES OF THE OCCULT LEANINGS OF THE POETS.