ADDITIONAL NOTES

By A.L. Cleather

SUBTLE DEPRECIATION OF H.P. BLAVATSKY

Observe how cleverly H.P.B. is gradually pushed into the background; little hints and remarks, "damning with faint praise," being thrown out now and again - a well-known form of "suggestion."

We have no "evidence" for the existence of this "Tibetan Brother"; simply Mrs. Bailey's word, her own ipse dixit for everything. I am inclined to believe that if her "teacher" is not actually AB-CWL, it is someone behind all three, with a pseudonym cleverly adapted to conceal his identity with a certain Christian hierarchy, and by repeated "suggestion" plant in the minds of Mrs. Bailey's readers the concept of a TIBETAN origin for the "teachings."

The complete omission by this supposed member of the Lodge (!) of all reference to the true status and nature of the Buddha and his place in Evolution, as given by the Masters and H.P. Blavatsky, tends to bear out my theory.

Whether Mrs. Bailey believes whole-heartedly in her "mission" is not clear. She is evidently a psychic. Whatever may be the truth of the matter, the whole "plot" is most cleverly contrived , and she must surely be a willing "tool," if not a fully conscious agent.

Observe in this "new cycle teaching" there is no place for or mention of the necessity for the twin laws of Karma and Reincarnation, although they are often mentioned incidentally; nor of the great sweep of Cyclic Law through which they work. Nothing really definite, reasonable or rational; and, as a matter of fact, but little relation to the teachings of H.P.B. despite the constant references thereto.


THE SO-CALLED "NEW CYCLE OF TEACHING"

To such proportions has this new cult already grown that the following astounding assertions are boldly made in the May Occult Review (1928, p. 305) by H. Adams, in an article on Mrs. Bailey's latest book on Patanjali *): "the Tibetan Brother who is responsible for the impartation of Mrs. Bailey's previous works. . . ."

Fotnot *) The Light of the Soul: Its Science and Effect.

Mr. Adams then gives a few supposed facts culled from the book, and continues: "This authoritative statement. . . ." (The "authority" is Mrs. Bailey's invisible teacher, and for him we have only her own word) "emanates from the Brotherhood (!!), in that it has been produced by the express authority and under the personal supervision of the Brother specially appointed to communicate the new cycle teaching necessary at this point of evolution in connection with the second Ray impulse." The last few words are typical of her Cosmic Fire "teaching."

Note the piling up of assumption after assumption. First, he is "a Tibetan brother," then his pronouncements are forthwith identified with "the Brotherhood"! There is talk of their "ex press authority" and so on.

Boiled down, what does it all amount to? Simply Mrs. Bailey's calm, unchecked (and uncheckable) assertions, for the validity of which she claims the equally unchecked (and uncheckable) "authority" of her "Tibetan." The concluding sentences actually go the length of placing her on a level with H.P. Blavatsky.


ALLEGED INSPIRATION OF TIBETAN MASTERS

Mr. Adams further says: "In the midst of religious controversies on every hand emptying the churches and filling sincere and seeking souls with disquiet and eager (1) questioning, and our friends the Theosophists divided into half a dozen societies and pathetically asking one another 'What is Truth?' surely it is a great so lace and matter for thankfulness that the ever watchful (2) Brotherhood of Masters, ignoring all the petty issues, or, rather, (3) answering them most effectively by the voice of an accredited messenger, declares once again in clear solid English (!) the Science of the Spirit hidden in the Sutras." (Italics mine. - A.L.C.) Here we may note: (1) A clever touch, giving the idea that this new scheme has nothing to do with Theosophy or its societies; leading to the unblushing assertion (2) that this new teaching actually emanates from the Masters. Further (3) that the "accredited messenger," whether Mrs. Bailey or her supposed teacher, has been inspired by Them!

At the beginning of Mr. Adam's article H.P. Blavatsky is referred to only as the translator of The Voice of the Silence; his idea evidently being to blot out from the reader's mind the existence of her magnum opus, the Secret Doctrine, the teachings of which are in flat contradiction to some of the bewildering material we have found in Cosmic Fire.


DOCTRINE OF "RAY IMPULSES"

With reference to H.P. Blavatsky it should also be noted that Mr. Adams says on p. 306:

"An interesting point is made by Mrs. Bailey in her introduction to the effect that the coming spiritual impulse is a second Ray impulse and will reach its zenith towards the close of the present century, but it has no relation to the first Ray impulse which produced the work of H.P. B." This is, of course, one of Mrs. Bailey's usual arbitrary statements, not in the least what H.P.B. herself told us, but evidently made as part of the whole scheme to subordinate her and her work to the "new dispensation" of the Besant Leadbeater-Bailey cult.


THE "WORLD –TEACHER" IMPOSTURE

It is clear that the efforts now being made by the enemies of the Masters is to focus the attention of the whole thinking world of the West on the "Christ-World-Teacher" idea originated by the Besant-Leadbeater cult, and here shown to be a leading feature in Mrs. Bailey's scheme, vide the specimens cited by Mr. Crump. Nor is it any less dangerous to the progress of humanity, although the intellectual form in which it is so ably presented tends to disarm criticism and conceal the cloven hoof.

The warnings of the Masters on the dangers of psychic communications and the work of the Dugpas – "the infamous Shammars" – the "Red-capped Brothers of the Shadow . . . whose pernicious work is everywhere in our way" (Mahatma Letters, 272, 284) must be applied to such cases as this. Also the extremely important letter in H.P. Blavatsky's Letters to Sinnett p. 230 re the work of the Jesuits, (which was evidently written by one of the Masters), especially the concluding paragraph on p. 233.


CLAIMS OF HIGH INSPIRATION BY PSYCHICS

In the same number of the Occult Review, at p. 354, is an advertisement of a book called Living Secrets by Luma Valdry.

It is described as follows: "Produced by automatic writing under the direct inspiration of a Master of the Wisdom, the authoress during its composition being in a dual consciousness. It is a prose poem of transcendental esoteric import. This book may well become the type of a new mode of communion...."

Here we have a precisely similar claim to that of Mrs. Bailey, and this sort of thing is quite common in spiritualistic and psychological literature. Mediums generally have a list of eminent "controls," and therefore it is quite natural for psychics who wish to appeal to those seeking new "occult teaching" should claim to get it in the same manner and from the same source as H.P. Blavatsky. Psychism is so little understood as yet that few realize how, especially in female psychics, the line is very difficult to draw between conscious and unconscious deception (which includes self-deception). Paracelsus is very illuminating on the power of the female imagination, and such imposing works as Mrs. Bailey's may quite well be the product of her own imagination, using occult ideas and terminology, and filtering into her brain as definite "teaching," spoken or inspired by an entity that calls itself "the Tibetan."


NOTES ON "INITIATION,
HUMAN AND SOLAR


By A.L. Cleather

Since the foregoing notes on Cosmic Fire were written, this earlier work has been sent to me for comment. I note that it was first published in 1922, a year earlier than the publication of the Mahatma Letters, from which Mrs. Bailey makes several quotations in Cosmic Fire, published in 1925. She has dedicated it "With Reverence and Gratitude to the Master K.H.," the idea obviously being to suggest that the contents were obtained, if not direct from the Master, at least gleaned from his teachings. That this was most certainly not the source of the ideas of Mrs. Bailey, or the "Tibetan," must be evident from the following parallels:


From Initiation, Human and Solar pub. 1922, Ch. I, p. 9:

"Initiation Defined. - The question anent initiation is one that is coming more and more before the public. Before many centuries pass the old mysteries will be restored, and in inner body will exist in the Church - the Church of the period, of which the nucleus is already forming - wherein the first initiation will become exoteric in this sense only, that the taking of the first initiation will, before so very long, be the most sacred ceremony of the Church, performed exoterically as one of the mysteries given at stated periods, attended by those concerned. It will also hold a similar place in the ritual of the Masons. At this ceremony those ready for initiation will be publicly admitted to the Lodge by one of its members, authorized to do so by the great Hierophant himself." (Italics mine. - A.L.C.)


From a letter to A.P. Sinnett by Master K.H. about 1881-2, in The Mahatma Letters, 1923, pp. 57-8 "

I will point out the greatest, the chief cause of nearly two-thirds of the evils that pursue humanity, ever since that cause became a power. It is religion under whatever form and in whatsoever nation. It is the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the Churches. It is in those illusions that man looks upon as sacred, that he has to search out the source of that multitude of evils which is the great curse of humanity and that almost overwhelms mankind. Ignorance created Gods and cunning took advantage of the opportunity . . . It is priestly imposture that rendered these Gods so terrible to man... It is belief in God and Gods that makes two-thirds of humanity the slaves of a handful of those who deceive them under the false pretense of saving them. (Italics mine. - A.L.C.)



It would appear that Mrs. Bailey too hastily took in vain the name of the Master, and must have felt somewhat disconcerted (as did Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater) on the appearance in print of the Master's real views about "God" and "the Church," etc. Nothing daunted, however, and hearing in mind the sage advice to diplomats: "L'audace, l'audace, et toujours l'audace," she published Cosmic Fire in 1925, freely quoting from the Mahatma Letters, and peppering her pages with footnotes containing copious references to the Secret Doctrine which in most cases do not confirm her assertions, as anyone can see by looking them up.

Who is this "great Hierophant" of whom she speaks? Can he perchance bear any relation to Mr. Leadbeater's "Supreme Director of Evolution on this globe"?

The book abounds (like Cosmic Fire) with the usual unsupported assertions - typical of and common to the Besant-Leadbeater-Bailey cult - as to initiations, their number (1st to 6th, etc.) the "Planetary Logos," with a full description of his work; "The KING, the Lord of the World"; the "Master Jesus," who, it is stated (p. 56), "is the focal point of the energy that flows through the various Christian Churches," and who is "at present living in a Syrian body . . . is rather a martial figure, a disciplinarian, and a man of iron rule and will. He is tall and spare with rather a long thin face, black hair, pale complexion and piercing blue eyes".

Nor is this the only detailed description, for the Masters M. and K.H., and many others, are also dealt with and the character of their work fully described. Part of the Masters work, we are informed, is "to prepare the world on a large scale for the coming of the World Teacher".

This, of course, at once identifies the Bailey school (as we have already seen in Cosmic Fire) with the Besant-Leadbeater perversions and delusions. "Everywhere," says Mrs. Bailey, "They (the Masters collectively) are gathering in those who may in any way show a tendency to respond to high vibration, seeking to force their vibration and to fit them so that they may be of use at the time of the coming of the Christ .... " (Italics mine. - A.L.C.) Mrs. Bailey's idea of response to "high vibration" would presumably be identical with a "response" to her own "message," as she terms it in her opening chapter.

Another similarity with the Besant-Leadbeater school occurs in Chap. V, which contains the following: "At the head of affairs . . . stands the KING, the Lord of the World. . . . Co-operating with Him as His advisers are three Personalities called the Pratyeka Buddhas, or Buddhas of Activity. These four are the embodiment of active intelligent loving will. . . ." (Italics mine. - A.L.C.)

It will be remembered that in my Great Betrayal I dealt with Mrs. Besant's false statement correcting H.P.B.'s definition of the Pratyeka Buddha in the Voice of the Silence p. 109, note 25, in our reprint (and the Theos Glossary) which we find accepted all over the East as correct, i.e. that purely intellectual, selfish, solitary saint. There is here, too, no word of the Nirmanakayas, none of the "Masters of Compassion," or the "Great Renunciation" and above all of the "Two Paths."

Clearly, the Besant-Leadbeater teachings have largely inspired this later "false guide" - one more "blind leader of the blind." These people, in fact - especially Mrs. Bailey - possess some of the requisites of a writer of fiction. But, "Oh, the pity of it," that it should need but barefaced and entirely unsupported assertions, coupled with the detailed descriptions so greedily absorbed by the novel reading public, to completely impose upon the foolish multitude.

It is quite impossible to deal at any length with a work in which truth and error are so ingeniously mingled that to separate the chaff from the grain would need another volume of the same length. The very titles of the nineteen chapters show the nature of the subject-matter.

And for all the supposed "knowledge," or "teaching," contained in these nineteen chapters nothing is offered in confirmation, testimony, or excuse, save in the "Introductory Remarks," where the writer declares that she does not arrogate to herself "any credit or personal authority for the knowledge implied," and emphatically disavows all such claims or representations. She cannot do otherwise than present these statements as matters of fact." {Italics mine. - A.L.C.) The unsophisticated enquirer might not unreasonably ask, Why? The "claim," here so jesuiticaliy disavowed, is really there, though cleverly camouflaged. If these things are "matters of fact," why is no evidence whatever adduced?

Considered as an ingenious and highly imaginative work of occult fiction, the book possesses definite attractions. Other writers in the same field have produced actual novels dealing with the occult, e.g. A Brother of the Third Degree, Three Sevens, and many tales by later writers, all of which have won recognition from the fiction-reading public. But, with the exception of C.W. Leadbeater, Mrs. Bailey is the first writer on occult subjects who has had the wit to present Fiction as Fact, thus winning at one stroke and with the greatest ease a certain following among the credulous, and presumably the financial backing so necessary for advertising purposes these days. Her books, however, cannot be taken seriously by followers of H.P. Blavatsky's teachings, or as being any sort of contribution to genuine occult "knowledge."


TEACHING ON SEX OPPOSED TO H.P. BLAVATSKY'S

Moreover, Mrs. Bailey's presumably "inspired" views (one must not forget her alleged "Tibetan" teacher) on sex relations in their application to those who have entered, or are entering, on the serious study of practical Qccultism, are in direct conflict with the teachings of H.P. Blavatsky and her Teachers on the subject.

In the last chapter, "Rules for Applicants," she is far more definite on this point than in her later Cosmic Fire. Possibly the publication of the Mahatma Letters may have counseled more prudence on that head, if - as seems probable - she is anxious that the public should believe that the contents of her books are drawn from the same source as H.P. Blavatsky's, as shown by the constant references to the Secret Doctrine in Cosmic Fire. Like the followers of the Leadbeater dispensation, there are some who regard her works as an extension and expansion of the Secret Doctrine, which is of course almost grotesque.

Rule 11, p. 204, runs thus: "Let the disciple transfer the fire from the lower triangle to the higher, and preserve that which is created through the fire of the midway point."

Mrs. Bailey explains this as follows: "This means, literally, the control by the initiate of the sex impulse, as usually understood, and the transference of the fire which normally vitalises the generative organs to the throat center, thus leading to creation upon the mental plane through the agency of mind. That which is to be created must then be nourished and sustained by the love energy issuing from the heart center."

No words of mine could be half strong enough to condemn the advice here given to all and sundry in a printed book. The "transference" advised is probably the most dangerous in the process of Black Magic, which is distinguished from White by its use of the sex forces. It is found in such Tantrik works as The Serpent Power, by "Arthur Avalon" (the late Sir John Woodroffe an Indian Judge), against the terrible dangers of which H.P. Blavatsky so constantly warns her readers and pupils. In most cases she says that such an attempt as above described would have a fatal result. For this one passage alone Mrs. Bailey deserves the severest. condemnation. She is indeed playing with fire – the Fire of Kundalini, which, as H.P. Blavatsky says, "can as easily kill as it can create."

The following is the "lower triangle referred to:

1. The Solar Plexus.
2. The Base of the Spine.
3. The Generative Organs.

The "higher" is thus given:

1. The Head.
2. The Throat.
3. The Heart.

There is not the smallest recognition throughout this book of the tremendous gulf which yawns between "White" and "Black" Magic in Practical Occultism. And in these three pages (204-5-6) she unconsciously lays bare the real evil at the root of her teachings which, where Sex is concerned, are in direct opposition to those of H.P. Blavatsky and her Teachers.

For Mrs. Bailey's further detailed explanations as to the sex relationships of "Initiated Masters" parallel columns will again supply the necessary contrast:

Initiation, Human and Solar, Chap. XIX, pp. 204-5-6. Referring to the above quotation from p. 204.

"This might be interpreted by the superficial reader as an injunction to the celibate life, and the pledging of the applicant to abstain from all physical manifestation of the sex pulse. This is not so. Many initiates have attained their objective when duly and wisely participating in the marriage relation ....

"The physical plane is as much a form of divine expression as any of the higher planes... that it may be advisable at certain stages for a man to perfect control along any particular line through a temporary abstention is not to be denied, but that . . . will be succeeded by stages when - the control having been gained - the man demonstrates perfectly through the medium of the physical body, the attributes of divinity, and every center will be normally and wisely used, and thus race purposes furthered."

"Initiates and Masters, in many cases, marry, and normally perform their duties as husbands. wives, and householders, but all is controlled and regulated by purpose and intention, and none is carried away by passion or desire. In the perfect man upon the physical plane, all the centers are under complete control. . . the spiritual will of the divine inner God is the main factor.... The true initiate would be known by his wise and sanctified normality.... by the example he sets to his environing associates of spiritual living and moral rectitude, coupled with the discipline of his own life...." (Italics mine. - A.L.C.)













From "The qualifications expected in a Chela" (Theosophist, Vol.. IV, Supplement, July, 1883, p. 10)

"2. Absolute mental and physical purity."

"Remember, he who is not as pure as a young child (had) better leave chelaship alone." (The Master K.H.)

The Master M... to the Esoteric Students: "Bodily purity every Adept takes precautions to keep."

"The Self of matter and the SELF of Spirit can never meet. One of the twain must disappear; there is no place for both."

"Guard thou the lower lest it soil the Higher." Voice of the Silence.

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 exception, they are all on the highway to Sorcery." (H.P. Blavatsky in Occultism v. The Occult Arts.)

"No Adept ever marries." - H.P. Blavatsky.

"It is true that the married man cannot be an Adept." (The master K.H. in The Mahatma Letters, p. 17.

Ibid. (p. 272 by Master M): - "The Dugpas and the Gelugpas are not fighting in Tibet alone: see their vile work in England among the 'Occultists' and 'Seers'! Hear your acquaintance - preaching, like a true 'Hierophant of the left-hand,' the marriage of the 'soul with the spirit' and getting the true definitions topsy-turvy, seek to prove that every practicing Hierophant must at least be spiritually married if for some reason he cannot do so physically, there being otherwise a great danger of Adulteration of God and Devil! I tell you the Shammars (Dugpas, Or Black Magicians) are there already, and their pernicious work is everywhere in our way."







Not only did H.P. Blavatsky tell us that true Adepts of the Right-Hand Path never marry or enter into any sort of sex relation, but she also said that certain Black Magicians well-known in occult annals were the offspring of high occultists who broke their vow of celibacy. Thus of Cagliostro she wrote (Theos. Gloss. 72): "Yet his end was not utterly undeserved, as he had been untrue to his vows in some respects, had fallen from his state of chastity and. yielded to ambition and selfishness" (cf. "Great ones fall back, even from the Threshold").

The evil is a great one, for in this particular instance, teaching on one of the greatest dangers in Occultism - SEX – is given out which is subversive of all that H.P. Blavatsky and the Masters stand for. In H.P. Blavatsky's Occultism v. The Occult Arts from which I quote above (and at greater length in my Great Betrayal) the true occult teaching on this subject is clearly and unequivocally set forth. It forms a complete refutation of the false and dangerous ideas put forward with such a show of authority by Mrs. Bailey, which are common to all the charlatans of Occultism, whether conscious or unconscious. Many other examples, besides C.W. Leadbeater, might be given of this.

A point of interest in connection with the large number of Adepts mentioned by name in Mrs. Bailey's books is that H.P. Blavatsky says in "Lodges of Magic" (Lucifer, 1888): - "The personage known to the public under the pseudonym of 'Koot Hoomi' is called by a totally different name among his acquaintances. . . . The real names of Master Adepts and Occult Schools are never, under any circumstances, revealed to the profane."

Among the Besant-Leadbeater "Masters" adopted by Mrs. Bailey, but nowhere to be found in the Blavatsky literature so far as I am aware, is "Rakoczi," referred to ante p. 12 (See Initiation, Human and Solar, p. 58, and Cosmic Fire, p. 455). According to Mrs. Besant, he was previously incarnated as Rosenkreuz, Bacon, St. Germain, and others, only achieving adeptship as "Rakoczi" (The Masters, pp. 75-76. Krotona, 1918). H.P. Blavatsky, on the other hand, calls St. Getmain "the greatest Oriental Adept Europe has seen during the last centuries" (Theos. Glossary, p. 309, also p. 214 under "Mesmer") See "Influence of Occultism on Revolutions" in our Buddhism the Science of Life, 2nd ed., p. 110)

Finally, with reference to Mr. Crump's remarks (ante, p.10) on the application of the name Sanat Kumara to the Logos, it may be added here that four of the seven Rumaras are exoteric and three are esoteric. (Secret Doctrine, I, 457 old ed.) Sanat Kumara is one of the former. One of the esoteric Rumaras is Sanat Sujata, after whom the Sanat Sujatiyan of the Mahabharata is named (See The Crest Jewel of Wisdom: Translated by Mohini Chatterji, verse 324 and footnote, p. 80).



"The Pseudo-Occultism of Mrs. A. Bailey" has been reproduced verbatim from the pamphlet issued by International Studycentre for Independent Search for truth. It can be purchased from:

The H.P.B. Library,
c/o M. Freeman,
R.R.I. Site No. 19, Comp. No. 2, Vernon. B.C.
Canada V1T 6L4


THE LAST WORD


The Pseudo Law of Self Preservation

". . . is a 'pretended' law indeed, as far as the human family is concerned, and a fiction of the most dangerous kind. 'Self preservation' on these lines is indeeed and in truth, a sure, if slow suicide, for it is a policy of mutual homicide, becuse, man, by descending to its practical application among themselves, merge, more and more, by a retrograde reinvolution, into the animal kingdom. . . Once that this axiomatic truth is proved to all man: the same instinct of self-preservation only directed into its true channel will make them turn to ALTRUISM - as their surest policy of salvation."
– Blavatsky