A Warning from History
from
A.P. Sinnett
Would any of the Theosophical Societies be what they are today if a series of
letters purporting to emanate from certain Mahatmas had not been written to Mr.
A.P. Sinnett? I doubt it very much. They may have developed, but, as he himself
tells us, The original society formed in 1875 had quite different ideas about
its possible role than any Theosophical Society of today.
After C.W.Leadbeater had resigned, but before A.P.Sinnett himself had left
the Society along with some 200 members of the British Section in protest at the
reinstatement of CWL, he clearly had some serious concerns about the
developments the Theosophical Society was taking. Presumably he regarded this of
such importance that he rushed into print in July, 1907, an article that would
have seen the light of day quite soon in the natural course of events, and
ensured that it was circulated among the members of the T.S. His insights, way
back in 1907, are of more than passing interest today, and it might be said by
some that some of his greatest concerns as to the future of the Society have
proved to be more than justified.
In any event, it is an insightful and worthwhile publication with which to
conclude what I have called "The CWL Affair" and to put in place as a reminder
to the dwindling membership of the latter-day theosophical societies.
Alan Bain, 1996
----------------------------------
THE VICISSITUDES OF THEOSOPHY.
[By A.P.Sinnett]
THE following article will appear in the next - the August number - of BROAD
VIEWS, but having so important a bearing on recent events it has seemed to me
desirable to circulate it in advance as an independent address to the members of
the Theosophical Society:-
Hitherto in these pages I have said but little concerning the history or work
of the Theosophical Society, choosing rather as my task the effort to show how
occult research in the last thirty years has illuminated a great many other
problems besides those to which it is specifically related, and has been
effective very often in putting a new complexion on problems of science,
politics and sociology. But in view of recent events within the Society, it
seems worth while to attempt a survey of its past history, its present
condition, and its possible future, for the information, not merely of those who
may be looking on at its progress from the outside, but also for that of the
vast majority within its pale, who have lost sight of the circumstances under
which that progress has been accomplished. As almost the only survivor of those
associated with the early growth of the Society, much that I might say if the
subject were to be reviewed with entire candour would probably be surprising to
many of those in whose minds a mythological period of theosophical history has
gradually been evolved. By many of those who have been attracted to theosophy
since its literature has been abundant, an impression has certainly been
derived, no matter how for the moment, to the effect that this mighty wave of
regenerating thought is the product of clearly designed, specific action, in the
first instance, by those representing accomplished evolutionary progress, spoken
of in theosophical writing as the great Masters of Wisdom, sometimes as the
Elder Brethren of Humanity, or the Adept Chiefs of that "Occult World,"
concerning which I wrote more than a quarter of a century ago. People have been
led to believe that a certain Russian lady, of very wonderful gifts and
characteristics was chosen by the adept Masters as their representative in the
world of ordinary life and sent out to inaugurate the theosophical movement. As
we see it now, spreading its branches all over the world, those coming at late
date within the range of its influence have been encouraged to believe that the
seed was sown in the beginning with a conscious foresight concerning the nature
of the tree that would grow.
Beliefs of this kind belong to the mythology of the theosophical movement.
The little society founded in America in the year 1875, and happily selecting
the word "Theosophical" as its designation, had no very clear idea concerning
its own purpose, was professedly aiming at the study of Egyptian antiquities,
and seems to have interested its original members, chiefly because it was
associated with a wonder-working magician, Madame Blavatsky. A scoffing crowd
has always supposed that because the doings attributed to her were of a kind
that seemed miraculous, she must be an impostor. This stupid misconception,
culminated much later on in misleading publications issued by the Psychic
Research Society, but meanwhile those who were in personal touch with the lady
in question, and who knew that she possessed extraordinary and abnormal power
over hidden laws of nature as yet unfamiliar to physical science, were carried
away with enthusiasm on her behalf and invested her in their imagination with
attributes as foreign to her real nature as those of a contrary order imputed to
her by the representatives of contemptuous incredulity.
During the earliest period of bewildered excitement amongst the little group
personally cognisant of Madame Blavatsky's wonder-working powers, she and her
staunch ally, Colonel Olcott, drifted to India, vaguely believing that important
results would ensue if they attached themselves to a Hindoo religious
association, the Arya Sumaj, of which a certain native philosopher, Swami
Dyanand Saraswati, was the chief. The scheme ultimately came to nothing; but the
fact that at one time it engrossed the zealous efforts of those generally spoken
of as the "founders" of the Theosophical Society will be enough to show how
tentative in the beginning were the efforts they were concerned in making. They
had indeed attempted, on their way out to India, to establish a European branch
of the Theosophical Society in London, but the handful of people whose excited
interest in Madame Blavatsky's wonder working induced them to constitute
themselves members of this branch, had no definite purpose in view, and their
organisation faded almost out of existence within the next few years. But then
it came to pass that in India, becoming acquainted with Madame Blavatsky, I came
through her intervention into close relations with some of those great Elder
Brethren of the Adept world, of whom, for the first time, I had heard from her.
The results which followed are matters of literary history, although, in the
confusion of later events, the true course of that history has generally been
forgotten. I found the Master who responded to my appeal ready to answer
questions of a penetrating character; ready, also, to give me unmistakable
proofs of his abnormal power, proofs which naturally contributed to render me
eagerly respectful with reference to his teaching. This in the beginning did no
more than illuminate my mind to some extent concerning the place in Nature of
the Adept Brotherhood. Thus my first book, "The Occult World," did no more than
pass on this illumination to my readers.
But after its publication, a more important correspondence began. The Master
encouraged me to inquire more and more boldly concerning the mysteries of life
and evolution, the laws governing re-birth and existence on superphysical
planes. His letters on these great subjects were of thrilling interest to Madame
Blavatsky as well as to myself, for their teaching was as new to her as to me,
as she frequently assured me in the frank conversation of that period. Her magic
powers that rendered her so interesting a personage had been acquired under
circumstances that did not invest her with the theoretical knowledge we have
since accumulated.
When I left India in the beginning of 1883, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel
Olcott, representing the Theosophical Society, were already established in a
comfortable house at Adyar, Madras, bestowed upon them by a wealthy native
sympathiser. There Madame Blavatsky declared, it was her intention to remain for
the rest of her life. She had found her final resting place! Her work she
conceived to lie entirely in the Eastern world. The Western races, and the
European especially, she held to be quite incapable of appreciating occultism,
and altogether outside the pale of her operations. But by this time the
teaching[s] of my Adept Master were embodied in the volume which had so curious
a destiny, "Esoteric Buddhism." It was published immediately on my return to
England, and excited attention to an extent for which I had been but little
prepared. The fact was that far from being incapable of appreciating the results
of occult research, a considerable proportion of the European world was so ripe
for its appreciation, that the moment some of its results were available for
consideration, intelligent readers in considerable numbers eagerly embraced the
magnificent philosophy thus unveiled for the first time. It represented for the
West a new development of thought, though the body of knowledge from which it
sprang had long been in the possession of initiates pledged to secrecy. The
justification of that earlier policy will be found in the literature itself, and
I need not interrupt my present story to review it.
Around the minute nucleus of the British Theosophical Society the influence
of "Esoteric Buddhism" gathered ever increasing numbers, and the new revelation,
for it was little less, was most quickly appreciated by people of the highest
culture. In the beginning the Theosophical movement in Europe first took root in
the classes representative of that culture. Within the first twelve months, the
growth of the Society in London was of a kind at once surprising and
encouraging; associated also, by reason of its character, with magnificent
promise concerning future possibilities. For it had become rooted amongst those
who were capable of exercising influence in the world. The habits of
civilisation have greatly changed during the progress of the Christian era. In
the present day, new views of life and spiritual science are not expected to
emanate from the carpenter's shop. In the Western world no one can be respected
as a teacher unless he has to some extent the prestige of intellectual
achievement, impossible on the lower levels of social life. New thought, to put
the matter crudely, may grow from below upwards in the East, it must descend
from above in the West, and thus it seemed to those of us who were concerned
with the Theosophical movement at its inception, highly desirable that, as far
as Europe was concerned it should become firmly established amongst those whose
social and intellectual prestige would protect it from ridicule and discredit.
Unhappily, however, a curious change soon came over the scene. Madame
Blavatsky changed her mind in regard to the permanent character of her
settlement at Adyar. Attracted by the unforeseen expansion of the movement in
Europe under the circumstances I have described, she, herself, accompanied by
Colonel Olcott, came over to this country. Undoubtedly her presence inspired the
movement with extraordinary force. Her personal magnetism was marvellously
powerful, but while exciting passionate regard with some, it was provocative of
exactly the opposite feeling with others. It is improbable that the inner
history of the events leading up to the dispatch by the Psychic Research
Society, of a Commissioner appointed to investigate Madame Blavatsky's doings in
India, will ever be publicly written. But for the time, the result was the utter
collapse of the Theosophical Society in Europe, as regards the public esteem in
which it was held in the beginning. A mere remnant survived the storms of that
period. But Madame Blavatsky was not a person whom it was easy to crush.
Gathering by degrees around her a few of those who were still faithful to the
original inspiration, Madame Blavatsky, after a stay of some year or two in
seclusion at Wurtzburg and Ostend, was brought back to London by a committee of
admirers, and her personal influence was revived; although the second growth of
the Society bore but little resemblance to that which had been swept away.
For the rest its history comes within the recollection of multitudes besides
myself. Madame Blavatsky published her great work. "The Secret Doctrine," a book
the history of which as regards the circumstances of its production would itself
be not a little surprising for many of those who have been taught to revere its
curiously variegated contents. Later occult research has invested us with
capacities for judgment which show us "The Secret Doctrine," a rather dangerous
study for those who take it up without being fully armed with knowledge enabling
them to steer their course amongst the frequent passages which later experience
has discredited. But, indeed, for all who have come into the movement in the
period succeeding the publication of the "Secret Doctrine," that book itself,
like so much that belonged to its wonderful authoress, is already tinged with
theosophical mythology.
I should have some curious explanations to give if I went at length, in
connection with the history of "The Secret Doctrine," into the subject of my
original correspondence with the Master - and Mme. Blavatsky's relations
therewith. Some - though by no means all - of the letters in question came to me
through Mme. Blavatsky's intermediation, and some - though by no means all -
were curiously amplified in transmission. I am the last person in the world to
underrate the powers Mme. Blavatsky exercised during the wonderful period when
the Theosophical Society was going through its early vicissitudes, though such
powers had nothing to do with the philosophical teaching then in process of
development.
With what motive, it may be asked, have I thus reviewed the strange history
of the movement to which the latter part of my life has been devoted? Recent
circumstances will suggest the answer. The stream of events which my own humble
efforts first set flowing has become a roaring torrent over which I have long
since ceased to have any appreciable control. And now it has taken a new
departure since the death of the original President, Colonel Olcott, under
circumstances which are regarded from different points of view with widely
different feelings. A lady of remarkable personal magnetism, unrivalled
eloquence, and unquestionable devotion to the theosophical cause, has been
accepted as the new President of the Society, on the nomination of the one who
has passed away, with enthusiastic approval by enormous majorities. Probably
that approval would have been quite unqualified had it not been that the
nomination is described as having been prompted by the appearance at the dying
President's bedside, under what the world at large would conceive to be
miraculous conditions, of two great Adept Masters undeniably associated with the
movement from the beginning, one of them being supposed to be the great teacher
from whom that early flood of occult information embodied in "Esoteric Buddhism"
originally emanated. It would be impossible here to set forth in detail the
reasons which induce some of those amongst theosophists of the largest
experience, to regard these alleged manifestations as having been - we know not
exactly what - but certainly not what they seemed. It is hardly necessary to say
that no one supposes they were the product of any contemptible imposture, of the
kind not infrequently associated with alleged appearances of materialised
spirits through the agency of mediums. I entertain no doubt whatever that two
figures closely resembling the Masters in question, actually stood by Colonel
Olcott's beside, materialised and visible to physical plane eyesight. But if
they were not those whom they represented, it is obvious that they may have been
in reality the result of occult activities distinctly antagonistic to the true
welfare of the movement. Should that view be a correct one - and I hold it to be
nothing less than my duty to declare that in my opinion the theory that they
were what they seemed is absolutely untenable - we may have arrived at a curious
turning point in the history of the great movement. It is premature as yet to
make any forecast as to the probable course of events. With these we can only
deal as they may arise, and amongst the possibilities of the situation, even
from the point of view of those who share the disbelief I have just expressed,
it will be recognised that loyalty of intention on the part of those concerned
with the direction of the movement on the physical plane, may, after all,
disconcert any attempts to misdirect its force proceeding from mysterious
superphysical agencies.
At the same time we must be prepared for the worst, even though the worst
need not be of very great moment. The Theosophical Society might vanish off the
scene like a burst soap bubble, but the literature that now embodies the results
of the last thirty years of occult research will remain for the service and
enlightenment of mankind throughout the coming generations, destined beyond any
possibility of doubt to play an enormously greater part in the thinking of this
century in its later decades than it has been able to perform for a generation
amongst which it has arisen. Those few of us who have been in touch with the
original sources of its inspiration have long been aware that the seed sown has
taken root. We have long been assured, and with advancing knowledge can now
understand the assurance, that within the current century all that body of
knowledge relating to human evolution, the conditions of its normal progress,
and the possibilities of its abnormal acceleration, will be the common property
of all cultivated thinkers in the civilised world. And the influence of such
knowledge on human welfare will be grandly independent of the fate that may
attend specific organisations of a transitory character, or individual
activities that may have contributed to the result. The final moral of all this
is, that the teaching concerning the great natural laws governing human
evolution, set afloat in the first instance under the conditions I have
described, and fortified by the manifold results and records of later
investigation, constitute, in fact, the Theosophical movement, the health and
future of which is independent of all personalities known to the world so far.
But even though it may be probable that, in the long run, future generations
will devise some better machinery for the promotion of theosophical study than
any which exists at present (and is more or less tainted with unhappy
traditions), it seems to be the business of those of us who have been working
with this machinery so far, to do the best we can with it, as long as our
present life's activities may last. For some reasons, looking back on the
curious record of my own experiences in its service, it would be a personal
relief to me if I could think it right to stand altogether aside, and leave the
future developments of theosophy to work out their own assured destiny, perhaps,
by shaking themselves altogether free from the embarrassments of the past - and
the present. But undoubtedly the great masters from whom, and from whom alone,
the teaching I have been able to put forward for the service of the world, has
come, have been interested in the Theosophical Society as a useful organisation
- though by no means blind to its defects and vagaries, as I have had the means
of knowing. I think they would wish all of us, who have had to do with its
beginnings, to work on in connection with it, each doing our best to guide it
into desirable channels.
At present its organisation is unhealthy and unpractical to a grotesque
degree. If it is destined to survive and be a leading influence in the religious
and philosophical thinking of the European and American worlds, it is ridiculous
to suppose that its affairs can be continuously controlled, and its government
carried on from so remote and inconvenient a headquarters as that at present
established in a suburb of Madras. It is absurd in only a minor degree that its
General Council should consist of members of diverse nationality, scattered all
over the globe and incapable of meeting. But it is unnecessary at this moment to
go into further criticism of its chaotic rules. It will be enough for those,
who, with myself, may be disposed to regard them in that light, to consider with
me, perhaps, at some future date (if circumstances should appear to prompt such
an attempt), the possibility of putting them on a more reasonable footing.
A. P. SINNETT.
July, 1907
Scanned by Alan Bain, July 1996