Where did we go wrong? When did the Theosophical Society make the wrong turn? I am inclined to think that the roots of the problem came at the very beginning, with the Masters.

Theosophists were not intended to be followers, respecters of doctrine, dogma, persons or authority. But the moment our beloved Countess Blavatskya said, "The Master said..." the groundwork was laid. People were unwilling to act or speak on their own, they needed the imagined approval of something outside of themselves. And others, followers, were willing to surrender their independence to that something.

From the Masters, it went to their mouthpieces, Annie and the Bishop and thence it would go to The World Teacher. And no one bothered to ask, "Why would anyone need a World Teacher in the first place?"

When that fell apart, it devolved to the society politicians. And one must ask why it would matter what Radha says or does? Who cares who is International President when all that really means is that the finances are cooked and lawn at Adyar gets mowed once a year? And the other societies are no better, scrunching everything into their interpretation of Blavatsky and Judge, again, authority and doctrine and dogma.

And the whole reason for the exercise is lost in the shuffle.

It is time to cut the past loose, throw the fake sanskrit over the side of the lifeboat along with the nonsense that has accrued over time. We know a hell of a lot more about how the universe works now than they did in HPB's time. The world is not the same as when Annie and the Bishop were boring people to death with their lunatic ravings. And George Arundale's hero, Adolf Hitler, lost, for which fact we are all grateful.

Surely by now we have learned the lesson that when authority speaks it is always wrong and to even listen to it leads only to damnation. It does not matter what the Masters said. It does not matter what the Buddha said. Their words are of the same value as the latest babble from Radha. Let us carve a new path and recognize that the only truth that matters is the one found in our own souls, in our own being. And let us build a new Theosophy, one that exists to help each to find that inner reality without the baggage of a world that no longer exists and the politics and control games that have gone along with it.