A
PRIVATE LETTER
Dear Countess
Wachtmeister,
As you are
preparing a book upon H.P.B’s method of writing The Secret Doctrine you may like to include a sketch of her method
of personally teaching her pupils at a distance.
Nothing has
heretofore been printed upon this subject, nor could I do so if my name were
appended to the account. Yet I think you and others will accept my statements
especially as some of you have had proof that I was so taught, as, I doubt not,
were others, though I do not know of them.
It is because
this method in part resembles her description of how she was taught herself,
and how she wrote Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, that I think it
will be interesting in this connection.
Living some
thousand of miles from England, I never met Madame Blavatsky in person. It is
now seven years since first I heard her name, and the word "
Theosophy." Like others of my acquaintance, I first heard of both by
coming across the S.P.R. pamphlet denouncing her as an impostor and asserting
the Hodgson-Coulomb slander as a true fact.
Against this
weak background with its feeble personalities, her colossal individuality stood
sharply out-lined, astonishing the spectators of this shallow age. It is not my
habit to judge of persons by any specific acts, but by the whole tendency of
their teaching or their lives.
H.P.B. herself
wrote at about that time:
-
"Follow the path I show, the Masters who
are behind: do not follow me or my path."
I first took
this as pointing out in herself, that common human liability to fail in living
the truths it teaches and would fain attain, and I was willing to extend to
Madame Blavatsky, the courageous Messenger, that lenient judgment which we ourselves
ask for in like case.
Soon,
however, I began to realise, through my own experience, that she was not what
she seemed to be. Upon this point I will not dwell, further than to say that the
evidence I had, caused me to ask H.P.B. to teach me; and the fact that I fully
trusted in and believed her, is precisely what gained for me the fulfilment of
my wish.
The mental
attitude of belief sets up, in our aura and in our inner bodies, magnetic and
attractive conditions, very different to those of contraction and
densification, which exist where doubt or criticism fill the mind.
A literal
quickening of my aura and inner body took place; the former was felt even by
persons to whom my thoughts and Theosophic interests were all unknown.
The
contraction in which men and women enfold themselves is too little understood. To
be known, faith and devotion must first be had.
I have heard
tell of one of her readers who said that Madame Blavatsky never published
anything about the human aura. What a ripple of amusement then went the rounds
of those who have any clues to The Secret
Doctrine or knowledge of certain other matters!
The situation
was then this. I was at a great distance from H.P.B. Madame Blavatsky died
before I ever met her.
I was not, I
never became a "Psychic" as that word is generally used. I had no
wish for "powers," never sat for "meditation" or "concentration."
It is, however, natural for me to concentrate upon whatever I do, and Theosophy
is never out of my mind. I was not and I am not a vegetarian. I had taken no
ascetic vows.
I had never
had any "psychic," clairvoyant or subjective experiences (except
those of thought) in my life. I lived quite another life until Theosophy
expanded my mind and urged me to strenuous efforts in study and Theosophical
Society work, in order that help might come to all those minds obscured by the
chill sense of being alone and helpless in a world of chance, where no internal
peace could be gained sive through the narcotization of Dogma, Doctrine or
Convention.
The use of
narcotics (even for the mind) becomes in time a new form of suffering.
After H.P.B.
accepted me as a pupil, no rules were laid down, no plans formulated. I
continued my daily routine, and at night, after I fell into a deep sleep, the
new life began.
On waking in
the morning from a sleep so profound that the attitude of the previous night
was still retained, I would vividly remember that I had gone, as it were, to
H.P.B. I had been received in rooms which I could and did describe to those who
lived with her — described, even to the worn places or holes in the carpet.
On the first
occasion of this kind she signified to me her acceptance of me as a pupil and
in no other way. After that, she would receive me in varying fashion, showing
me pictures which passed like panoramas across the walls of the room.
There are but
few that I could verbally describe, containing as they do methods of Motion, of
vibration, of the formation of a world from the first nucleolus, of "Spirit
moulding matter" into form, of Motion that was Consciousness and that was
precipitated in my brain as a picture of a fact or a truth.
There were
definite things too, facts given in The
Secret Doctrine and in other teachings, none of these being published at
the time.
Many more
things than I can name were thus taught to me, such as future events, events
then actually occurring, and facts still unknown relative to the lives of other
persons or of the Theosophical Society.
At other times,
times more rare, I would awake to find her standing at the foot of my bed, and
as I leaned upon my elbow, her sign-language would begin.
The harmonies
of Nature would fill the moonlit room, while the wondrous living pictures
passed across the wall. All this was perfectly objective to me. I was fully
awake to all the surroundings, to all the natural sounds of the night, and I
have taken my pet dog into my arms because it shivered and whimpered at sight
of her.
All the
expressions of H.P.B.'s face became familiar to me. I can see her now, her old
bedgown — what dingy old gown was ever so cherished? — folded about her, as she
opened out space before me, and then, too, expanded into her own real being.
I have hardly
more than half-a-dozen letters from her, and these contain no teaching; they
bore upon external theosophic affairs and have this peculiarity. At night she
would tell me to advise certain persons of certain things.
I would obey,
giving her as my authority, and a few days afterwards, but never long enough
for the full voyage, would come her letter giving in writing the instructions
previously heard at night. Thus I was enabled to prove that I really heard her
wish over seas, for always the request concerned some sudden emergency which
had just arisen a day, two days at most, before.
I was able to
check off my experience in this way, as I was also able to speak at times
before an event occurred.
I never went
into a trance but once, and that was after Madame Blavatsky's death. I never
had anything to do with spiritualism or mediums. After a short time, I was able
to see and to hear at will, without training or effort, as simply and as easily
as one breathes. I could see a distant place or person or hear a reply to a
question at will.
I never made
a mistake, though those who had the right, tested me. But let me hasten to add
also that I never did any of these things for idle curiosity, but only for the
work of Theosophy, and that such use of force at will is with me comparatively
infrequent. I do not know how far it extends, simply because I do not care to know.
There are
persons who hope to turn us to the belief that H. P. B. was no more than a
chela, deserted at the last. But to this day the things she foretold keep on
coming true, aye, even to their tempting us, even to definite events for which
she prepared us by forewarning us.
So all the
clatter and chatter, the turmoil and revelations leave us undisturbed, and the
apostles of a revised teaching reveal their ignorance of what she taught as
clues, clues which they cannot find. The proof, the ever-recurring, ever-living
proof, is ours.
There were
thus two classes of events:
First, those
in which she taught me, or in which persons, to me objective, would appear and
would show me certain things, or when voices would speak bringing news which
came again later on, by post or otherwise.
The second
class was made up of those minor occasions in which I used my own will.
Well do I
remember that night when H. P. B. commanded me to use the developing powers for
the Theosophical Society only, and to beware of the psychic will-o'-the-wisp.
What I write
may seem vague. I will give instances:
1) I was
about to enter upon a plan of work with a person whom I was meeting for the
first time. All at once I saw in the air H.P.B.'s beautiful hand —the hand with
the seal ring upon it— drawing along the atmosphere, just at the height of my
eyes, a series of pictures.
These
pictures represented a course of events and caused me to change my plans; some
time after I verified the occurrences.
2) Once I was
forewarned of a death which took place at some distance, at the very hour of
the warning. Again, I trusted and leaned much upon a certain person, who was
gaining an influence over my mind as one learned in spiritual things.
One night
H.P.B. came, leading this person by the hand, and drawing the skin away from
the body of her companion, showed me the internal organs in a hideous state of
disease.
H.P.B. then
pointed to the corner of the room; a bright star seemed to shoot from the heavens
and to fall into an abyss.
H.P.B. made a
sign (and her language was one of signs which vibrated through the ether and
seemed to fall into my brain as thoughts), the sign and gesture meant: "Trust
not the fallen star. " All this came true, horribly, sadly true.
These events
continue to take place, but I must note a difference in their method of
occurrence since the death of Madame Blavatsky.
1. I do not
see that person.
2. The events
occur almost always in the daytime.
3. I am
almost always fully conscious on the objective material plane as well.
4. The
exceptions to three are when my consciousness seems to function in another time
or place or body, but even then they occupy but a few seconds apparently,
inasmuch as the people about me will have noticed nothing, and I have
apparently continued my previous occupation, while I have, so far as my own
consciousness goes, been living quite a time in other ages, planes or places.
For instance,
while dressing in the morning and thinking of the day's plans, I have at the
same time felt myself to be in the body of a friend who was then in a steamer
in mid-ocean, fastening his collar-button before a mirror, cursing it because
it would not fasten, and thinking of me.
His sea-trunk
lay open behind him. I took a note of the day and hour and subsequently
verified his action. The curious part of it is that I felt myself to be both
persons and continued both trains of thought at one and the same time.
5. I use my
will much more frequently than I did.
And finally,
this. A few days after Madame Blavatsky died, H. P. B. awoke me at night. I
raised myself, feeling no surprise, but only the sweet accustomed pleasure.
She held my
eyes with her leonine gaze. Then she grew thinner, taller, her shape became
masculine; slowly then her features changed, until a man of height and rugged
powers stood before me, the last vestige of her features melting into his,
until the leonine gaze, the progressed radiance of her glance alone remained.
The man lifted his head and said: "Bear witness!"
He then
walked from the room, laying his hand on the portrait of H. P. B. as he passed.
Since then he has come to me several times, with instructions, in broad
daylight while I was busily working, and once he stepped out from a large
portrait of H. P. B.
In closing
this partial sketch of an inner life which goes on pari passu with the outer,
let me impress upon you the fact that I never seek or look for any of these
things, just as I never use my will to see or hear except when impelled from within.
H. P. B.
taught me to be "positive" on the psychic plane and "receptive"
to higher planes or Beings alone. She taught that the mind was all. Whatever
development I gained, came unsought, I never made myself "passive." I
am, when awake, at all times able to use whatever gifts I have; I found them
within myself and I use them instinctively, naturally, although I had no trace
of them before I found H.P.B.
Rarely, very
rarely now, do I get things in dreams.
It is my firm
conviction, based upon experience, that to the sole fact of my devotion to the
Lodge, the T.S. and H.P.B., do I owe any of these teachings. This devotion no
shock can impair, for my double life and all my consciousness daily prove what
these high truths are.
In that
belief and in the hope that my experience may quicken the seeds of devotion in
other minds, I give this out impersonally, for H.P.B. showed me that the mind
was all, and how she came to break the moulds of human minds and to set them
free.
The real
H.P.B. was disclosed, and I am one of those who have no difficulty in
reconciling all the facts of her outer existence, for some there are who can
see behind the veils used by the high occultist when dealing with the unseen at
the heart of material things.
Thus taught,
in the harmonious nights, that H.P.B. who wrote:
"My days
are my Pralayas, my nights are my Manvantaras."
Blessed,
indeed, are those who shared her Manvantaras, and who "have not seen and
yet have beheved."
Note: It has
been suggested to me that this rapid unfolding without ascetic practice, was
due to my '* getting back " what was before known to me. I cannot say yea
or nay to this, for I know nothing about it.
What appears
to be necessary, in occultism, is that each should follow the doctrine of his
own Teacher with regard to himself. There are many souls at various stages of
evolution, each with its own requirements.
Moreover, the
requirements of practical occultism, the evolution of force i:i one's self, are
again different. To these I have not been attracted, in this life at least. But
above all. Devotion to the ideal of the Teachers and to the work, is the firm
ground upon which to stand.
R. S
(“Reminiscences of H.P. Blavatsky and the Secret
Doctrine” by Countess Constance Wachtmeister, appendix I-8, p.121-129)
OBSERVATION
I believe that the astral encounters that Jasper Niemand
said she had with Blavatsky are probable, and that these events, although at
times they sound fantastical, are feasible because with the astral body these
transformations are possible.
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