(In this article Blavatsky makes
the distinction between what is high esoteric knowledge and what is sorcery.)
« I oft have
heard, but ne'er believed till now,
There are, who can by potent spells
Bend to their crooked purpose Nature's laws. »
(Milton)
There are, who can by potent spells
Bend to their crooked purpose Nature's laws. »
(Milton)
In this month's
"Correspondence" several letters testify to the strong impression produced on some minds by our last month's article "Practical Occultism"
[which can be read in the previous article to this].
Such letters go far to prove and strengthen two logical conclusions:
a)
There are more well-educated and thoughtful men who
believe in the existence of Occultism and Magic (the two differing vastly) than
the modern materialist dreams of; and
b)
That most of the believers (comprising many
theosophists) have no definite idea of the nature of Occultism and confuse it
with the Occult sciences in general, the "Black art" included.
Their representations of the powers
it confers upon man, and of the means to be used to acquire them are as varied
as they are fanciful.
Some imagine that a master in the
art, to show the way, is all that is needed to become a Zanoni. Others, that
one has but to cross the Canal of Suez and go to India to bloom forth as a
Roger Bacon or even a Count St. Germain.
Many take for their ideal Margrave
with his ever-renewing youth, and care little for the soul as the price paid
for it. Not a few, mistaking "Witch-of-Endorism" pure and simple, for
Occultism — "through the yawning Earth from Stygian gloom, call up the
meager ghost to walks of light," and want, on the strength of this feat,
to be regarded as full blown Adepts. "Ceremonial Magic" according to
the rules mockingly laid down by Eliphas Levi, is another imagined alter-ego
of the philosophy of the Arhats of old.
In short, the prisms through which
Occultism appears, to those innocent of the philosophy, are as multicolored and
varied as human fancy can make them.
Will these candidates to Wisdom and
Power feel very indignant if told the plain truth?
It is not only useful, but it has
now become necessary to disabuse most of them and before it is too late.
This truth may be said in a few words: There are not in the West half-a dozen
among the fervent hundreds who call themselves "Occultists," who have
even an approximately correct idea of the nature of the Science they seek to
master.
With a few exceptions, they are all
on the highway to Sorcery. Let them restore some order in the chaos that reigns
in their minds, before they protest against this statement. Let them first
learn the true relation in which the Occult Sciences stand to Occultism, and
the difference between the two, and then feel wrathful if they still think
themselves right.
Meanwhile, let them learn that
Occultism differs from Magic and other secret Sciences as the glorious sun does
from a rush-light, as the immutable and immortal Spirit of Man reflection of
the absolute, causeless and unknowable ALL —differs from the mortal clay— the
human body.
In our highly civilized West, where
modern languages have been formed, and words coined, in the wake of ideas and
thoughts (as happened with every tongue) the more the latter became
materialized in the cold atmosphere of Western selfishness and its incessant
chase after the goods of this world, the less was there any need felt for the
production of new terms to express that which was tacitly regarded as absolute
and exploded "superstition."
Such words could answer only to
ideas which a cultured man was scarcely supposed to harbor in his mind.
"Magic," a synonym for jugglery; "Sorcery," an equivalent
for crass ignorance; and "Occultism," the sorry relic of
crack-brained, medieval Fire-philosophers, of the Jacob Boehme and the St.
Martins, are expressions believed more than amply sufficient to cover the whole
field of "thimble-rigging."
They are terms of contempt, and used
generally only in reference to the dross and residues of the dark ages and its
preceding eons of paganism. There fore have we no terms in the English tongue
to define and shade the difference between such abnormal powers, or the
sciences that lead to the acquisition of them, with the nicety possible in the
Eastern languages — pre-eminently the Sanskrit.
What do the words
"miracle" and "enchantment" (words identical in meaning
after all, as both express the idea of producing wonderful things by breaking
the laws of nature (!!) as explained by the accepted authorities)
convey to the minds of those who hear, or who pronounce them?
A Christian —breaking "of
the laws of nature," notwithstanding— while believing firmly in the miracles,
because said to have been produced by God through Moses, will either scout
the enchantments performed by Pharaoh's magicians, or attribute them to the
devil. It is the latter whom our pious enemies connect with Occultism, while
their impious foes, the infidels, laugh at Moses, Magicians, and Occultists,
and would blush to give one serious thought to such "superstitions."
This, because there is no term in
existence to show the difference; no words to express the lights and shadows
and draw the line of demarcation between the sublime and the true, the absurd
and the ridiculous.
The latter are the theological interpretations
which teach the "breaking of the laws of Nature" by man, God, or
devil; the former--the scientific "miracles" and enchantments
of Moses and the Magicians in accordance with natural laws, both
having been learned in all the Wisdom of the Sanctuaries, which were the
"Royal Societies" of those days — and in true OCCULTISM.
This last word is certainly
misleading, translated as it stands from the compound word Gupta-Vidya,
"Secret Knowledge."
But the knowledge of what?
Some of the Sanskrit terms may help
us. There are four (out of the many other) names of the
various kinds of Esoteric Knowledge or Sciences given, even in the esoteric
Purânas. There is:
1) Yajna-Vidya,[1] knowledge of the occult powers
awakened in Nature by the performance of certain religious ceremonies and
rites.
2) Maha-vidya, the "great knowledge," the magic of the
Kabalists and of the Tantrika worship, often Sorcery of the worst
description.
3) Guhya-Vidya, knowledge of the mystic powers residing in Sound
(Ether), hence in the Mantras (chanted prayers or incantations) and depending
on the rhythm and melody used; in other words a magical performance based on
Knowledge of the Forces of Nature and their correlation; and
4) Atma-Vidya, a term which is
translated simply "knowledge of the Soul," true Wisdom by the
Orientalists, but which means far more.
This last is the only kind of
Occultism that any theosophist who admires Light on the Path, and
who would be wise and unselfish, ought to strive after. All the rest is some
branch of the "Occult Sciences," i.e., arts based on the
knowledge of the ultimate essence of all things in the Kingdoms of Nature — such
as minerals, plants and animals--hence of things pertaining to the realm of material
nature, however invisible that essence may be, and howsoever much it has
hitherto eluded the grasp of Science.
Alchemy, Astrology, Occult
Physiology, Chiromancy, exist in Nature and the exact Sciences — perhaps
so called, because they are found in this age of paradoxical philosophies the
reverse--have already discovered not a few of the secrets of the above arts.
But clairvoyance, symbolized in
India as the "Eye of Siva," called in Japan, "Infinite
Vision," is not Hypnotism, the illegitimate son of Mesmerism, and
is not to be acquired by such arts.
All the others may be mastered and
results obtained, whether good, bad or indifferent; but Atma-Vidya sets
small value on them. It includes them all and may even use them occasionally,
but it does so after purifying them of their dross, for beneficent purposes,
and taking care to deprive them of every element of selfish motive.
Let us explain: Any man or woman can
set himself or herself to study one or all of the above specified "Occult
Arts" without any great previous preparation, and even without adopting
any too restraining mode of life. One could even dispense with any lofty
standard of morality. In the last case, of course, ten to one the student would
blossom into a very decent kind of sorcerer, and tumble down headlong into
black magic.
But what can this matter?
The Voodoos and the Dugpas
eat, drink and are merry over heca-tombs of victims of their infernal arts.
And so do the amiable gentlemen vivisectionists and the diploma-ed "Hypnotizers"
of the Faculties of Medicine; tube only difference between the two classes
being that the Voodoos and Dugpas are conscious, and the
Charcot-Richet crew unconscious, Sorcerers.
Thus, since both have to reap the
fruits of their labors and achievements in the black art, the Western
practitioners should not have the punishment and reputation without the profits
and enjoyments they may get there from. For we say it again, hypnotism
and vivisection as practiced in such schools, are schools, are Sorcery
pure and simple, minus a knowledge that the Voodoos and Dugpas
enjoy, and which no Charcot-Richet can procure for himself in fifty years of
hard study and experimental observation.
(Note: Charcot and Richet were
two famous hypnotist doctors of the nineteenth century, and the word
"dugpa" is a Tibetan term that Blavatsky uses here to refer to black
magicians.)
Let then those who will dabble in
magic, whether they understand its nature or not, but who find the rules
imposed upon students too hard, and who, therefore lay Atma-Vidya or Occultism aside--go without it. Let them become
magicians by all means, even though they do become Voodoos and Dugpas
for the next ten incarnations.
But the interest of our readers will
probably centre on those who are invincibly attracted towards the "Occult,"
yet who neither realize the true nature of what they aspire towards, nor have
they become passion-proof, far less truly unselfish.
How about these unfortunates, we
shall be asked, who are thus rent in twain by conflicting forces?
For it has been said too often to
need repetition, and the fact itself is patent to any observer, that when once
the desire for Occultism has really awakened in a man's heart, there remains
for him no hope of peace, no place of rest and comfort in all the world. He is
driven out into the wild and desolate spaces of life by an ever-gnawing unrest
he cannot quell. His heart is too full of passion and selfish desire to permit
him to pass the Golden Gate; he cannot find rest or peace in ordinary life.
Must he then inevitably fall into
sorcery and black magic, and through many incarnations heap up for himself a
terrible Karma?
Is there no other road for him?
Indeed there is, we answer. Let him
aspire to no higher than he feels able to accomplish. Let him not take a burden
upon himself too heavy for him to carry. Without ever becoming a
"Mahatma," a Buddha or a Great Saint, let him study the philosophy
and the "Science of Soul," and he can become one of the modest
benefactors of humanity, without any superhuman powers. Siddhis (or the
Arhat powers) are only for those who are able to "lead the life," to
comply with the terrible sacrifices required for such a training, and to comply
with them to the very letter.
Let them know at once and remember
always, that true Occultism or Theosophy is the "Great
Renunciation of SELF," unconditionally and absolutely, in thought as in
action. It is ALTRUISM, and it throws him who practices it out of calculation
of the ranks of the living altogether. "Not for himself, but for the
world, he lives," as soon as he has pledged himself to the work.
Much is forgiven during the first
years of probation. But, no sooner is he "accepted" than his
personality must disappear, and he has to become a mere beneficent force in
Nature. There are two poles for him after that, two paths, and no midward
place of rest.
He has either to ascend laboriously,
step by step, often through numerous incarnations and no Devachanic break,
the golden ladder leading to Mahatmaship (the Arhat or Bodhisatva condition),
or — he will let himself slide down the ladder at the first false step, and
roll down into Dugpaship. . . .
All this is either unknown or left
out of sight altogether. Indeed, one who is able to follow the silent evolution
of the preliminary aspirations of the candidates, often finds strange ideas
quietly taking possession of their minds.
There are those whose reasoning
powers have been so distorted by foreign influences that they imagine that
animal passions can be so sublimated and elevated that their fury, force, and
fire can, so to speak, be turned inwards; that they can be stored and shut up
in one's breast, until their energy is, not expanded, but turned toward higher
and more holy purposes: namely, until their collective and unexpanded
strength enables their possessor to enter the true Sanctuary of the Soul and
stand therein in the presence of the Master — the HIGHER SELF!
For this purpose they will not
struggle with their passions nor slay them. They will simply, by a strong
effort of will put down the fierce flames and keep them at bay within their natures,
allowing the fire to smolder under a thin layer of ashes. They submit joyfully
to the torture of the Spartan boy who allowed the fox to devour his entrails
rather than part with it. Oh, poor blind visionaries!
As well hope that a band of drunken
chimney-sweeps, hot and greasy from their work, may be shut up in a Sanctuary
hung with pure white linen, and that instead of soiling and turning it by their
presence into a heap of dirty shreds, they will become masters in and of the
sacred recess, and finally emerge from it as immaculate as that recess. Why not
imagine that a dozen of skunks imprisoned in the pure atmosphere of a Dgon-pa
(a monastery) can issue out of it impregnated with all the perfumes of the
incenses used?
Strange aberration of the human mind.
Can it be so?
Let us argue.
The "Master" in the
Sanctuary of our souls is "the Higher Self"--the divine spirit whose
consciousness is based upon and derived solely (at any rate during the mortal
life of the man in whom it is captive) from the Mind, which we have agreed to
call the Human Soul (the "Spiritual Soul" being the
vehicle of the Spirit).
In its turn the former (the personal
or human soul) is a compound in its highest form, of spiritual aspirations,
volition, and divine love; and in its lower aspect, of animal desires and terrestrial
passions imparted to it by its associations with its vehicle, the seat of all
these.
It thus stands as a link and a
medium between the animal nature of man which its higher reason seeks to
subdue, and his divine spiritual nature to which it gravitates, whenever it has
the upper hand in its struggle with the inner animal.
The latter is the instinctual
"animal Soul" and is the hotbed of those passions, which, as just
shown, are lulled instead of being killed, and locked up in their breasts by
some imprudent enthusiasts.
Do they still hope to turn thereby
the muddy stream of the animal sewer into the crystalline waters of life?
And where, on what neutral ground
can they be imprisoned so as not to affect man?
The fierce passions of love and lust
are still alive and they are allowed to still remain in the place of their
birth--that same animal soul; for both the higher and the lower
portions of the "Human Soul" or Mind reject such inmates, though they
cannot avoid being tainted with them as neighbors.
The "Higher Self" or
Spirit is as unable to assimilate such feelings as water to get mixed with oil
or unclean liquid tallow. It is thus the mind alone, the sole link and medium
between the man of earth and the Higher Self--that is the only sufferer, and
which is in the incessant danger of being dragged down by those passions that
may be re-awakened at any moment, and perish in the abyss of matter.
And how can it ever attune itself to
the divine harmony of the highest Principle, when that harmony is destroyed by
the mere presence, within the Sanctuary in preparation, of such animal
passions?
How can harmony prevail and conquer,
when the soul is stained and distracted with the turmoil of passions and the
terrestrial desires of the bodily senses, or even of the "Astral
man"?
For this "Astral" — the
shadowy "double" (in the animal as in man) is not the companion of
the divine Ego but of the earthly body. It is the link between
the personal SELF, the lower consciousness of Manas and the Body, and is
the vehicle of transitory, not of immortal life. Like the shadow
projected by man, it follows his movements and impulses slavishly and
mechanically, and leans therefore to matter without ever ascending to Spirit.
It is only when the power of the passions
is dead altogether, and when they have been crushed and annihilated in the
retort of an unflinching will; when not only all the lusts and longings of the
flesh are dead, but also the recognition of the personal Self is killed out and
the "astral" has been reduced in consequence to a cipher, that the
Union with the "Higher Self" can take place.
Then when the "Astral"
reflects only the conquered man, the still living but no more the longing,
selfish personality, then the brilliant Augoeides, the divine
SELF, can vibrate in conscious harmony with both the
poles of the human Entity--the man of matter purified, and the ever pure
Spiritual Soul--and stand in the presence of the MASTER SELF, the Christos of
the mystic Gnostic, blended, merged into, and one with IT forever.[2]
How then can it be thought possible
for a man to enter the "straight gate" of occultism when his daily
and hourly thoughts are bound up with worldly things, desires of possession and
power, with lust, ambition and duties, which, however honorable, are still of
the earth earthy?
Even the love for wife and
family--the purest as the most unselfish of human affections — is a barrier to real
occultism. For whether we take as an example the holy love of a mother for
her child, or that of a husband for his wife, even in these feelings, when analyzed
to the very bottom, and thoroughly sifted, there is still selfishness in
the first, and an égoisme à deux in the second instance.
What mother would not sacrifice
without a moment's hesitation hundreds of thousands of lives for that of the
child of her heart?
And what lover or true husband would
not break the happiness of every other man and woman around him to satisfy the
desire of one whom he loves?
This is but natural, we shall be
told. Quite so; in the light of the code of human affections; less so, in that
of divine universal love. For, while the heart is full of thoughts for a little
group of selves, near and dear to us, how shall the rest of mankind fare
in our souls?
What percentage of love and care
will there remain to bestow on the "great orphan"?
And how shall the "still small
voice" make itself heard in a soul entirely occupied with its own
privileged tenants?
What room is there left for the
needs of Humanity en bloc to impress themselves upon, or even receive a speedy
response?
And yet he who would profit by the
wisdom of the universal mind, has to reach it through the whole of Humanity without
distinction of race, complexion, religion or social status. It is altruism, not
ego-ism even in its most legal and noble conception, that can lead the
unit to merge its little Self in the Universal Selves. It is to these needs
and to this work that the true disciple of true Occultism has to devote
himself, if he would obtain theo-sophy,
divine Wisdom and Knowledge.
The aspirant has to choose
absolutely between the life of the world and the life of Occultism. It is
useless and vain to endeavor to unite the two, for no one can serve two masters
and satisfy both. No one can serve his body and the higher Soul, and do his
family duty and his universal duty, without depriving either one or the other
of its rights; for he will either lend his ear to the "still small
voice" and fail to hear the cries of his little ones, or, he will listen
but to the wants of the latter and remain deaf to the voice of Humanity.
It would be a ceaseless, a maddening
struggle for almost any married man, who would pursue true practical
Occultism, instead of its theoretical philosophy. For he would find
himself ever hesitating between the voice of the impersonal divine love of
Humanity, and that of the personal, terrestrial love. And this could only lead
him to fail in one or the other, or perhaps in both his duties.
Worse than this. For, whoever
indulges after having pledged himself to OCCULTISM in the gratification
of a terrestrial love or lust, must feel an almost immediate result;
that of being irresistibly dragged from the impersonal divine state down to the
lower plane of matter.
Sensual, or even mental
self-gratification, involves the immediate loss of the powers of spiritual
discernment; the voice of the MASTER can no longer be distinguished from that
of one's passions or even that of a Dugpa; the right from wrong; sound
morality from mere casuistry. The Dead Sea fruit assumes the most glorious
mystic appearance, only to turn to ashes on the lips, and to gall in the heart
resulting in:
"Depth ever deepening, darkness
darkening still;
Folly for wisdom, guilt for innocence;
Anguish for rapture, and for hope despair."
Folly for wisdom, guilt for innocence;
Anguish for rapture, and for hope despair."
And once being mistaken and having
acted on their mistakes, most men shrink from realizing their error, and thus
descend deeper and deeper into the mire. And, although it is the intention that
decides primarily whether white or black magic is exercised, yet
the results even of involuntary, unconscious sorcery cannot fail to be
productive of bad Karma.
Enough has been said to show that sorcery
is any kind of evil influence exercised upon other persons, who suffer,
or make other persons suffer, in consequence. Karma is a heavy stone
splashed in the quiet waters of Life; and it must produce ever widening circles
of ripples, carried wider and wider, almost ad infinitum. Such causes
produced have to call forth effects, and these are evidenced in the just laws
of Retribution.
Much of this may be avoided if
people will only abstain from rushing into practices neither the nature nor
importance of which they understand. No one is expected to carry a burden beyond
his strength and powers.
There are "natural-born
magicians"; Mystics and Occultists by birth, and by right of direct
inheritance from a series of incarnations and æons of suffering and failures.
These are passion-proof, so to say. No fires of earthly origin can fan into a
flame any of their senses or desires; no human voice can find response in their
souls, except the great cry of Humanity.
These only may be certain of
success. But they can be met only far and wide, and they pass through the narrow
gates of Occultism because they carry no personal luggage of human transitory
sentiments along with them. They have got rid of the feeling of the lower
personality, paralyzed thereby the "astral" animal, and the golden,
but narrow gate is thrown open before them.
Not so with those who have to carry
yet for several incarnations the burden of sins committed in previous lives,
and even in their present existence. For such, unless they proceed with great
caution, the golden gate of Wisdom may get transformed into the wide gate and
the broad way "that leadeth unto destruction," and therefore
"many be they that enter in thereby." This is the Gate of the Occult
arts, practiced for selfish motives and in the absence of the restraining and
beneficent influence of ATMA-VIDYA.
We are in the Kali Yuga and its
fatal influence is a thousand-fold more powerful in the West than it is in the
East; hence the easy preys made by the Powers of the Age of Darkness in this
cyclic struggle, and the many delusions under which the world is now laboring.
One of these is the relative
facility with which men fancy they can get at the "Gate" and cross
the threshold of Occultism without any great sacrifice. It is the dream of most
Theosophists, one inspired by desire for Power and personal selfishness, and it
is not such feelings that can ever lead them to the coveted goal.
For, as well said by one believed to
have sacrificed himself for Humanity — "narrow is the gate and
straightened the way that leadeth unto life" eternal, and therefore "few
be they that find it." So straight indeed, that at the bare mention of
some of the preliminary difficulties the affrighted Western candidates turn
back and retreat with a shudder. . . .
Let them stop here and attempt no
more in their great weakness. For if, while turning their backs on the narrow
gate, they are dragged by their desire for the Occult one step in the direction
of the broad and more inviting Gates of that golden mystery which glitters in
the light of illusion, woe to them! It can lead only to Dugpa-ship, and they
will be sure to find themselves very soon landed on that Via Fatale of
the Inferno, over whose portal Dante read the words:
"Per me si va nella citta dolente
Per me si va nell'eterno dolore
Per me si va tra la perduta gente."
Per me si va nell'eterno dolore
Per me si va tra la perduta gente."
FOOTNOTES
1. "The Yajna,"
say the Brahmans, "exists from eternity, for it proceeded forth from the
Supreme One ... in whom it lay dormant from 'no beginning.' It is the
key to TRAIVIDYA, the thrice sacred science contained in the Rig verses, which
teaches the Yagus or sacrificial mysteries. 'The Yajna' exists as an invisible
thing at all times; it is like the latent power of electricity in an
electrifying machine, requiring only the operation of a suitable apparatus in
order to be elicited. It is supposed to extend from the Ahavaniya or
sacrificial fire to the heavens, forming a bridge or ladder by means of which
the sacrificer can communicate with the world of gods and spirits, and even ascend
when alive to their abodes." — Martin Hauge's Aitreya Brahmana.
"This Yajna is again one of the forms of the Akasa; and the
mystic word calling it into existence and pronounced mentally by the initiated
Priest is the Lost Word receiving impulse through WILL-POWER." Isis
Unveiled, Vol. I, Intr. See Aitareya Brahmana, Hauge.
2. Those who
would feel inclined to see three Egos in one man will show themselves
unable to perceive the metaphysical meaning. Man is a trinity composed of Body,
Soul and Spirit; but man is nevertheless one, and is surely not
his body. It is the latter which is the property, the transitory clothing of
the man. The three "Egos" are MAN in his three aspects on the astral,
intellectual or psychic, and the Spiritual planes, or states.
(Lucifer magazine, May, 1888, Collected Writings IX,
p.249)
