Theosophical History

A Quarterly Journal of Research

Volume VIII, No. 5 January 2001 ISSN 0951-497X THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY A Quarterly Journal of Research Founded by Leslie Price, 1985

Volume VIII, No. 5 January 2001

EDITOR James A. Santucci The subscription rate for residents in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada is California State University, Fullerton $21.00 (one year) or $38.00 (two years). California residents, please add $1.62 (7.75%) sales tax onto the $21 rate or $2.94 onto the $38 rate. For residents ASSOCIATE EDITORS outside North America, the subscription rate is $25.00 (one year) or $45.00 Robert Boyd (two years). Air mail is $35.00 (one year) or $65.00 (two years). Single issues are $6.00. Subscriptions may also be paid in British sterling. All inquiries †John Cooper should be sent to James Santucci, Department of Comparative Religion, University of California State University, P.O. Box 6868, Fullerton, CA 92834-6868 (U.S.A.). Periodicals postage paid at Fullerton, California 92631-9998. POSTMASTER: John Patrick Deveney New York, NY Send address changes to Theosophical History (c/o James Santucci), Department of Comparative Religion, California State University, P.O. Box April Hejka-Ekins 6868, Fullerton, CA 92834-6868. California State University, Stanislaus The Editors assume no responsibility for the views expressed by authors in Theosophical History. Jerry Hejka-Ekins This periodical is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database, published by the American Nautilus Books Theological Library Association, 250 S. Wacker Dr., 16th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606, email: [email protected], world wide web: http://www.atla.com Robert Ellwood University of Southern California * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Antoine Faivre École Pratique des Hautes Études, GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Joscelyn Godwin The final copy of all manuscripts must be submitted on 8 1⁄2 x 11 inch stock, Colgate University double-spaced, and with margins of at least 1 1⁄4 inches on all sides. Words and phrases intended for italics output should appear in italics in the manuscript. The submitter is Jean-Pierre Laurant encouraged to send the article, communication, or review by attachment to email. École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris The email address is [email protected]. The submitter may also submit a floppy disk of the work in Microsoft Word (any version). J. Gordon Melton Bibliographical entries and citations must be placed in footnote format. The Institute for the Study of American Religion citations must be complete. For books, the publisher’s name and the place and University of California, Santa Barbara date of the publication are required; for journal articles, the volume, number, and date must be included, should the information be available. Leslie Price There is no limitation on the length of manuscripts. In general, articles Former Editor, Theosophical History of 30 pages or less will be published in full; articles in excess of 30 pages may be published serially. Gregory Tillett Brief communications, review articles, and book reviews are welcome. They University of Western Sydney, Nepean should be submitted double-spaced. All correspondence, manuscripts, and subscriptions should be sent to: Karen-Claire Voss San Jose State University Dr. James A. Santucci Department of Comparative Religion Theosophical History (ISSN 0951-497X) is published quarterly in January, California State University, P.O. Box 6868 April, July, and October by James A. Santucci (Department of Comparative Fullerton, CA 92834-6868 (U.S.A.) Religion, California State University, P.O. Box 6868, Fullerton, CA 92834-6868 FAX: 714-693-0142 Email: [email protected] U.S.A.) The journal consists of eight issues per volume: one volume covering a TELEPHONE: 714-278-3727 period of two years. The journal’s purpose is to publish contributions specifically Website: http://www.theohistory.org related to the modern Theosophical Movement, from the time of Madame and others who were responsible in establishing the original Theosophical Society (1875), to all groups that derive their teachings—directly Copyright ©2001 by James A. Santucci or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly—from her or her immediate followers. In addition, the journal is also receptive to related movements (including pre-Blavatskyite , , , and the philosophy of Composition by Robert Hütwohl, Santa Fe, NM. Emanuel Swedenborg to give but a few examples) that have had an influence Printed on acid-free paper on or displayed an affinity to modern Theosophy. THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY

Contents

January 2001 Volume VIII, Number 5

Editor’s Comments James Santucci ...... 151

Article Theosophy in A.P. Sinnett’s Pioneer Michael Gomes ...... 154

Book Reviews Ecrits pour Regnabit: Revue Universelle de Sacré-Cœur. Recueil posthume and Le Lièvre qui rumine. Autour de René Guénon, Louis Charbonneau-Lassay et la Fraternité du Paraclet. Avec des documents inédits Joscelyn Godwin...... 158

The Mystery of Manna—The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible Jean-Pierre Laurant ...... 160

Sex and Rockets: The World of Jack Parsons Robert Boyd ...... 163

The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture Robert Ellwood ...... 167

On the cover: A.P. Sinnett. Courtesy, Archives. The Theosophical Society, Pasadena, California. Editor’s Comments

In This Issue

A.P. Sinnett, although one of the pioneers editorship because of his increasing involve- who helped to shape and define Theosophical ment with Theosophy—a reasonable assump- teachings in the public mind from the early tion given the position of the owners and the 1880s, has not enjoyed the sustained popular- sentiment of the Anglo-Indian public. ity in the Theosophical Movement as have The author, Michael Gomes, is a frequent other leaders. This marginalization is due to a contributor to Theosophical History, and is the variety of reasons, one of which was his often author of The Dawning of the Theosophical Move- antagonistic rivalry toward the grande dame ment (Wheaton, IL: The Theosophical Publish- of Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky. The rivalry ing House, 1987), Theosophy in the Nineteenth between the two included disagreements over Century: An Annotated Bibliography (NY and selected Theosophical teachings, among which London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1994), and was the well-known -Mercury controversy an abridgement of Blavatsky’s Unveiled and Sinnett’s colonialist and elitist attitudes (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1997). He recently reflected in his preference to reserve Theoso- gave the Blavatsky Lecture on July 31, 2000, phy only for the upper classes of society. which is sponsored by the Theosophical Soci- Despite this competition existing between ety in England, entitled “Creating the New Blavatsky and Sinnett, it was Sinnett who, Age: Theosophy’s Origins in the British Isles.” as editor of the Allahabad-based newspaper, Other contributors to this issue include Jos- the Pioneer, played a major role introducing celyn Godwin (Professor of Music at Colgate Blavatsky to the Anglo-Indian elite. Michael University in New York), whose article “Lady Gomes, the author of “Theosophy in A.P. Sin- Caithness and Her Connection with Theoso- nett’s Pioneer,” documents this contribution of phy,” appeared in the last issue; Jean-Pierre Sinnett’s. A review of the issues, now located in Laurant (Lecturer in Religious Sciences at the the National Library of Calcutta, reveals a steady École Pratique des Hautes Études, the Sor- stream of editorials, articles, and letters—includ- bonne), whose book, L’Ésotérisme chrétien au ing some written by Blavatsky—from the March xixe siècle, was reviewed in the October 1995 3, 1879 to October 14, 1880 issues. By the end issue of Theosophical History; Robert Boyd, of 1882 Sinnett was removed from the editor- a frequent contributor to this journal; and ship of the paper by the new owners of the Robert Ellwood, Professor Emeritas, University paper, who were not at all sympathetic to the of Southern California. Theosophical Society or its founders. Perhaps as Sinnett surmised, he was removed from the * * *

Theosophical History VIII/5 151 Communication from sophical History. This has arisen because of problems in mail delivery in a few countries. Joscelyn Godwin If any reader has such problems, I would be Joscelyn Godwin wishes to make three correc- prepared to e-mail the issue in addition to tions to his paper on “Lady Caithness and Her the regular mailing. This would also apply to Contribution to Theosophy,” which appeared subscribers who may be in transit or on vaca- in the last issue. They have been kindly tion. Eventually, an electronic version will be pointed out to him by Leslie Price. placed on the web site for any subscriber who wishes only to receive the electronic version, Page 131: The Spiritualist was not entirely which would be offered at a reduced rate. I first with the news of HPB:The Spiritual Maga- would welcome your comments and sugges- zine carried a note about her in Cairo in 1872, tions concerning such an arrangement. as Mr. Price mentioned in Madame Blavatsky Unveiled? * * *

Page 133: The Medium and Daybreak was not the magazine of Emma Hardinge Britten, A New Theosophical but of James Burns. History Occasional Paper: Page 142: Annie Besant was not president The Unseen Worlds of of the Theosophical Society in 1894. H.S. Emma Hardinge Britten: Olcott remained in that capacity until 1907, Some Chapters in the History of after which Mrs. Besant became president. Western Occultism One of the lesser known and ignored found- * * * ers of the Theosophical Society and one of the prominent figures in Spiritualism, Emma Theosophical History Hardinge Britten (1823-1899) is the subject of Website a major study by Robert Mathiesen, Professor of Slavic Languages at Brown University in Rhode Island (USA). Dr. Mathiesen writes: The Theosophical History web site has a new address: http://www.theohistory.org. Emma Hardinge Britten (1823-1899) is, for Because of various problems with the old most people, a forgotten figure, who seems to addresses, a change in both address and serv- merit no more than a footnote in the separate ers was necessary. It is now hoped that the histories of Spiritualism, the Theosophical Soci- web site will remain at this address for the ety and nineteenth-century occultism. Only recently, due largely to Joscelyn Godwin and foreseeable future. One innovation that the John Patrick Deveney, has her historical impor- webmaster, Robert Hütwohl, and I are examin- tance begun to be reassessed. The present ing is to offer an electronic version of Theo- monograph is meant to broaden and deepen

152 Editor’s Comments our understanding of the several important Proposed Conference on roles which she played in public and in private throughout the years of her long life. Metaphysical Religions To this end, Professor Mathiesen includes chap- There is a possibility that a conference on ters on Hardinge Britten’s early life (1823-1856), metaphysical religion—including the philoso- her career as Spiritualist, the identity of the Che- phy of Swedenborg, Theosophy, New Thought valier Louis de B___, his role in the publication and New Age—will be held somewhere in Los of Art Magic and Ghost Land, the occult society Angeles County on Friday and Saturday, Octo- in which he was a member, the “Orphic Circle,” ber 26 and 27. The conference will be co-spon- and her involvement in the early years of the sored by ISAR (Institute for the Study of Ameri- Theosophical Society. Appendices include a can Religion) under the direction of J. Gordon chronology of Emma Hardinge Britten’s life Melton, SSMR (Society for trhe Study of Meta- and a bibliography of her books. An extensive physical Religion) under the direction of Dell bibliography and notes are also included. deChant of the University of South Florida, The Unseen Worlds of Emma Hardinge and Theosophical History. Any update will be (ISBN 1-883279-09-7) is approximately 90 pages placed on the TH web site. If you would like to in length. The date of publication is scheduled keep abreast of developments, please e-mail me for February 15, 2001. The pre-publication ([email protected]) for regular updates. price (postmarked prior to January 25) is $18.00 (£12.00); the full publication price of * * * $24.00 (£15.00) will take effect on January 25, 2000. For airmail, please add $3.50 (£2.50) and CESNUR/INFORM $2.00 (£1.40) for each additional copy. There is no extra shipping and handling charge except Conference for airmail. For California residents, please add 7.75% sales tax ($19.39 for pre-publication price; CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions $25.85 for publication price). Purchase of five Movements, Torino) and INFORM (Information or more copies will receive a 20% discount. Network Focus on Religious Movements) are planning the 2001 International Conference, Those interested in ordering this volume “The Spiritual Supermarket: Religious Pluralism should send a check or international money in the 21st Century, ” to be held from April order payable to Theosophical History in U.S. 19-22, 2001 at the London School Of Econom- dollars to ics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, U.K. James Santucci The conference, in co-operation with ISAR (Insti- 20733 Via Sonrisa tute for the Study of American Religion), USA; Yorba Linda, CA 92886 RENNER (Research Network on New Religions), Denmark; REMID (Religious Studies Media and * * * Information Service), Germany; FINYAR (For-

Theosophical History VIII/5 153 skning och Information om NYA Religiösa STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, rörelser), Sweden; MMMMM (Myth, Magic and MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION Miracle Meet Modernity), Norway; ISORECEA (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685) (International Association for the Study of Reli- 1. Publication Title: Theosophical History 2. Publication No.: 0951-497X gion in Eastern and Central Europe) will have as 3. Filing Date: Sept. 18, 2000 4. Issue Frequency: Quarterly its major themes the emergence of and changes 5. Number of issues published annually: 4 6. Annual Subscription Price: $21 (North America) $25 (Elsewhere) in new religions and new ways of ‘doing’ reli- 7. Complete Mailing Address of known Office of Publication: Department of Comparative Religion, P.O. Box 6868, California State University, Fullerton, gion; the relationship between new and old Orange County, CA 92834-6868. Contact person: James A. Santucci. Telephone: 714-278-3727 religions; societal responses to religious diver- 8. Complete Mailing Address of the Headquarters of General Business Offices of sity and pluralism; and religious pluralism and the Publisher: Same as 7 above. 9. Full Names and Complete Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing identity formation. Editor: Publisher: James A. Santucci, Department of Comparative Religion, P.O. Box 6868, California State University, Fullerton, CA 92834-6868. (Orange County) Editor: James A. Santucci, same address as Publisher. * * * * * Managing Editor: James A. Santucci, same address as Publisher. 10. Owner: James A. Santucci, same address as Publisher. 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning 1 percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages or Other Securities: None 12. Tax Status. (For Completion by Nonprofit Organizations Authorized to Mail at Special Rates). The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes: Has Not changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publication Title: Theosophical History 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: July 2000 (VIII/3) 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: Average No. Actual No. Copies Each Copies of Single Issue During Issue Published Preceding Nearest to 12 Months Filing Date a. Total no. of Copies 281 250 b. Paid and/or Requested Circulation (1) Paid/Requested Outside-County Mail Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541 140 139 (2) Paid In-County Subscriptions 2 2 (3) Paid Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Non-USPS Paid Distribution 0 0 (4) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS 60 58 c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation 202 199 d. Free Distribution by Mail (1) Outside-County as Stated on Form 3541 13 13 (2) In-County as Stated on Form 3541 1 1 (3) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS 0 0 e. Free Distribution Outside the Mail 1 1 f. Total Free Distribution 15 15 g. Total Distribution 217 214 h. Copies Not Distributed 64 36 i. Total 281 250 j. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation 86 % 86 % 16. Publication of Statement of Ownership: Publication required. Will be printed in the January 2001 issue of this publication. 17. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner

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154 Editor’s Comments Theosophy in A.P. Sinnett’s Pioneer1

Michael Gomes

rom their arrival in India on February 16, tor of the government’s position. While on a F1879, Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott trip home to London in 1875, he had become were news. The Indian newspapers were interested in Spiritualism and eventually heard never wanting in comments about the Theoso- about Mme. Blavatsky from his acquaintances phists. During Mme. Blavatsky’s stay in the there. On March 3, 1879, in an editorial on subcontinent until 1885, she was able to fill page one, he penned the first of his many the eleven large scrapbooks with press clip- pieces about Theosophy: pings about Theosophy. None of the cover- age received was as continuously favorable as The American Theosophists now at Bombay that from the Pioneer of Allahabad (the sole have come to India we understand, not to make a tour, but to stay in this country per- exception might be the Calcutta Indian Mirror, manently. which was run by Theosophist Norendranath One of the objects of the Society is to Sen, but it did not have the standing of the solve the mystery of man’s being, to get a Pioneer). comprehension of the creative cause and The Pioneer, started in 1865, was regarded so on. as a leading newspaper in British India. The The May 28th issue updated this notice, editor at the time of the arrival of the Theoso- saying “The American Theosophical Society of phists was Alfred Percy Sinnett (1840-1921). which mention has already been made in the Sinnett had been editor since 1872, coming Pioneer is actually at work among us,” and from the London Evening Telegraph. Because reviewed Olcott’s first public address in India, of his excellent relations with the Viceroys “The Theosophical Society and Its Aims,” deliv- sent from England, first Lord Lytton and then ered in Bombay on March 17, 1879. his successor Lord Ripon, the paper, a daily of The August 11th issue contained the news 20 to 22 pages,2 was widely read as an indica- that the Theosophists were planning to issue a journal, and commented, “The leading mem- 1 The writer wishes to thank the staff at the Newspaper Division of the National Library in Calcutta (the former bers of the Theosophical Society are known to Imperial Library) where copies of the Pioneer were be very advanced students of occult phenom- reviewed. ena already.” When the Theosophical monthly appeared in October the paper carried a noti- 2 The Pioneer usually ran seven to eight pages of news fication, adding that its editor and twelve to fourteen pages of advertisements. There were no Sunday issues.

Theosophical History VIII/5 155 Madame Blavatsky knows more, has thought The visit of Olcott and Blavatsky to Ceylon more, and, one is tempted to add, wrought from May to July 1880 was reported by a spe- more in connection with the supernatural cial correspondent from the island. Before side of things than any other person who has addressed the literary world on that their departure the editor gave an assessment extraordinary topic (October 11, 1879: 1). based on his contact with the Theosophists.

When the Theosophists held a special gath- The Theosophists . . . have come [to India] because they are filled with a loving enthu- ering on November 29, a correspondent from siasm for Indian religious philosophy and Bombay relayed the news mentioning espe- psychological science. They come neither cially that the crowd was made up of “several to rule nor to dogmatize, but to learn. They hundreds of the most influential natives of the regard the ancient civilization of India as city—bankers, merchants, mill-owners, pun- having attained to higher truths concerning dits, pleaders, etc.” (December 8, 1879: 4, “A nature and the human soul than have been conquered yet by the science of the West. Theosophical Jubilee.”) So far as they seek to teach or influence the At the invitation of the Sinnetts, Mme. native mind, they come to recall the heirs of Blavatsky and Col. Olcott came to Allahabad this ancient knowledge to a sense of dignity on December 4, 1879, staying until the end of of their own inheritance, this is the secret, the month. So impressed by their guests were apparently of their great success with the the Sinnetts, that they became members of the natives (April 28, 1880: 1). Theosophical Society. A public lecture by Col. Upon their return from Ceylon, which Olcott was chaired by A.O. Hume, an official the correspondent had described as having who had taken an interest in Theosophy. The “stirred the native soul of the island to its paper covered this event giving Olcott’s and depths”4 they visited the Sinnetts at Simla, Hume’s remarks. Another public meeting for where the Viceroy and chief government offi- the Theosophists on their return from Benares cials moved to escape the hot weather in was planned on the spot, and this was given Calcutta. During the two months spent there, on December 23 at 5.30 PM.3 Theosophical phenomena was to reach new Letters from Mme. Blavatsky soon began heights, and some of this filtered out to the appearing in the paper. The January 20, 1880 public. As a preliminary, a letter from Mme. issue included her letter on the Armenians in Blavatsky had been published in the Septem- Russia; on February 27, 1880, a letter from the ber 20, 1880 Pioneer, along with one from General Council of the Theosophical Society, her to the editor of the Bombay Review, point- replying to the “assault” made upon the Society ing out that Olcott and she had spent 20,000 by a missionary, T.J. Scott, in a previous issue; rupees of their money toward the mainte- H.P.B added her own views on the matter, “Mis- nance of the Society since leaving America. sionaries Militant,” published on March 22. A “remarkable statement” signed by Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett, A.O. Hume and his wife, and 3 “Local: The Theosophical Society,” The Pioneer, Decem- ber 16, 1879: 6; December 23: 6. 4 Pioneer, “Theosophy in Ceylon,” June 16, 1880: 3.

156 Theosophy in A.P. Sinnett’s Pioneer other guests at a dinner at Hume’s home on in court.7 Letters from A.O. Hume continue Sunday October 3rd, retailed the production to appear on items as diverse as local self- of a lost broach by Mme. Blavatsky.5 Perhaps government to vegetarianism, to which the because of this, Olcott’s lecture at the Simla Sinnetts had become converts. Hume’s letter United Services Institution was given to an in the issue of December 7, 1882 (“Vegetarian- “unusually crowded audience.”6 Explaining ism”: 5) gives a glimpse of their diet. the phenomena that had occurred at Hume’s We have breads, biscuits, oatmeal, soojee, the home, a correspondent in the issue of Octo- various dâls, rice, vegetables, fruit, butter, ber 14: 3, recommended readers turn to Bla- cheese, jams, honey, and more things than vatsky’s Isis Unveiled. I can enumerate. As to liquids, tea, not too hot, or strong, The theory which Isis Unveiled discloses is or sweet, milk, water, soda water, sherbets, that proficients in Indian philosophy have etc. may all be used. I do not recommend acquired and to this day exercise a control coffee or chocolate. over matter which seems supernatural to ordinary observers, but is really due to more The typical Anglo-Indian menu of the time advance acquaintance with certain of its began with a first course of soups, fish, and laws than is possessed by western science in the present stage of its development. side dishes. For the second course, a joint of meat or poultry or game with salad garnished This letter in turn produced a dozen let- with potato chips and watercress, savoury, ters to the editor over the next two weeks on and then sweet dishes, cheeses and desserts. occult phenomena. The last letter (from “A,” Oysters were served before the soup, and hors but probably Sinnett himself) was published d’oeuvres a prelude to the meal (“The Modern on October 27th, and revealed that note on Menu,” March 4, 1882: 3). pink paper had been received from the “Broth- Although her name was not in appearance, ers” and that an extra teacup had been phe- Mme. Blavatsky still produced unsigned pieces nomenally produced at a picnic in Simla. for the Pioneer on Russian subjects. A three After this event coverage about Theosophy part series on “The State of Russia” (May 4, diminishes, and, except for a letter in the May 18, and June 21, 1881), dealing with the October 20, 1881 issue from A.O. Hume to assassination of the Czar Alexander II, the the Saturday Review on the character of Mme. ensuing trial, and on the state of Jews in Blavatsky, her name is no longer mentioned. Russia, are identified in her Scrapbook Vol. XI, Anglo-India was more concerned about issues Part I, as being from her. Likewise, the transla- like the bill proposed by C.P. Ilbert that tion of “The Travels of Colonel Grodekoff,” would allow Indian judges to try Europeans which appeared in eleven installments through April and July 1880. An unsigned article, “The

5 “Occult Phenomena,” October 7, 1880: 3. 7 “The Jurisdiction of Natives over Europeans,” Feb. 25, 6 “Spiritualism and Theosophy,” October 13, 1880: 3-4. 1882: 1; March 2, 1882: 1; Feb. 8, 1883: 4.

Theosophical History VIII/5 157 History of a Book,” by H.P.B. had also been apprehension that after next Wednesday or published in the Pioneer, March 12, 1880. next Saturday, as the case maybe, there will In November 1882, Sinnett received notice be nothing to put in the paper. . . . Here in Allahabad, when I think of the way the print- from the proprietors of the paper that his edi- ers every morning in all my long residence torial duties would be terminated. He believed have been standing with their beaks open that his growing public involvement with The- like young birds waiting to be fed, I am sur- osophy had caused his removal as editor of prised to think that there has always been the Pioneer.8 His intimate recounting of Mme. copy of some sort ready to be put into them. Blavatsky’s visit to him and extracts from the (February 12, 1883: 5, “Local: Dinner to A.P. Sinnett.”) correspondence with her Indian teachers had been published in 1881 as The Occult World. During the summer of 1883 Sinnett’s Eso- And the “Old Lady,” as Sinnett and his wife teric Buddhism was published by the London had come to call her, continued to be a regular company of Trübner, famous for its Oriental visitor, staying with him in Allahabad in 1881 series. Presenting a cohesive outline of the phi- and 1882. However, the proprietors of the losophy he received from Blavatsky’s Indian Lahore Civil and Military Gazette, and recent teachers, it was to be as successful as his procurers of the Pioneer, were critical of the earlier recounting of his involvement with Theosophists. They certainly would not have Theosophy, The Occult World. This fame has been amused. proved short-lived among Theosophists. Sin- Sinnett and his wife left for England on nett’s work at the Pioneer was also to be February 11th 1883, going first to Calcutta, eclipsed by another writer involved with the and then stopping in Madras to see Mme. paper, Rudyard Kipling. Blavatsky. On Saturday the 9th of February the members of his club gave him a farewell * * * * * dinner. In reply to their good wishes he looked back on his work with the paper:

At all events I have been ten years editor of the Pioneer, and during the whole of that time it has, at all events, continued to come out somehow. I do not think that anybody who has never had any personal experi- ence of working a newspaper, can realize how every now and then at times when contributors may be unproductive, and his own hands full or head empty, there comes over the editor at times a horrible squirm of

8 Autobiography of Alfred Percy Sinnett (London: Theo- sophical History Centre, 1986), 22.

158 Theosophy in A.P. Sinnett’s Pioneer Book Reviews

Ecrits pour Regnabit: Revue Universelle one of many anomalies in his career. He had du Sacré-Cœur. Recueil posthume. Edited, already written for an anti-Masonic journal presented, and annotated by PierLuigi Zoc- while being himself a Freemason, and now catelli. Pp. xii, 200. Milan: Archè/Turin: Nino here he was, author of two masterly books Aragno, 1999. ISBN 88-7252-216-1. Edition of in which he seemed to be an adherent of the 300 copies. Vedanta—though secretly he was an initiate into Sufism—writing for a stridently Catholic Le Lièvre qui rumine. Autour de René publication that was aimed at arousing popu- Guénon, Louis Charbonneau-Lassay et la lar devotion to the Sacred Heart of ! As Fraternité du Paraclet. Avec des docu- Charbonneau-Lassay put it after the smoke had ments inédits. By PierLuigi Zoccatelli. Trans. cleared, “This is Mr. Guénon’s real thesis: a Philippe Baillet. Pp. 147. Milan: Archè, 1999. super-religion reserved for an elite of Initiates Distribution: Edidit, 76 rue Quincampoix, who can pass without any difficulty from one 75003 Paris. ISBN 88-7252-215-3. religion to another, according to the regions in which they successively live.”(Le Lièvre, 66) ierLuigi Zoccatelli is a collaborator with A constant theme of Guénon’s earlier life PMassimo Introvigne’s CESNUR, and a spe- was the search for something that would arrest cialist in Christian esotericism. He is the author and reverse the catastrophe of the modern of Hermétisme et emblématique du Christ world. Eventually he turned his back on it, leav- dans la vie et dans l’œuvre de Louis Char- ing France in 1930 with the intention of going bonneau-Lassay (1871-1946) (Paris & Milan: to India, but in fact staying for the rest of his Edidit-Archè, 1996), and is responsible for the life in Cairo, where he married into orthodox Italian edition of the complete works of Louis Muslim society. Until that point, however, he Charbonneau-Lassay, known in English only was willing to give a chance to the few move- by an abridged translation of The Bestiary of ments that held to genuine spiritual goals, even Christ (New York: Parabola Books, 1991). The if this was from a narrow religious basis. Thus two publications reviewed here document the he could support the inside efforts to restore relations between Charbonneau-Lassay and initiatic values to , while joining René Guénon (1886-1951), and the latter’s the Catholic attack on its modern, secularized contributions to the Catholic monthly maga- form. He had not quite given up hope for the zine Regnabit. renovation of Christianity, the proper religion Guénon’s collaboration, which lasted from of Europe, but this could only be the conse- 1925-27 and produced nineteen articles, is quence of a renewed Christian esotericism.

Theosophical History VIII/5 159 In Guénon’s view, esotericism implied, Confucian doctrines, and their linkage with beside doctrine, the existence of initiation, i.e., a “primitive Revelation,” was seen as relativ- of some system by which qualified persons izing Christianity. Had not an earlier number could make an experiential leap in their spiri- of the journal (Ecrits, 68) bewailed the fact tual life. “Initiation” did not mean the same that there were over 30 Protestant missions in thing as “mysticism,” which has never been in China, and only two Catholic ones?! Priestly short supply. It was more an objective process, eyebrows bristled, and Charbonneau-Lassay handed down by tradition from the religion’s was asked by the editor what exactly was Gué- foundation, if not from the Primordial Tradition non’s position on “the obligation that the Cath- itself. That an initiatic system existed through olic Church imposes on its faithful to believe the Middle Ages seemed clear enough from the and confess that its doctrine is the most com- mythology of the Holy Grail, the Knights Tem- plete earthly expression of religious truth.” (p. plar, and some of the craft initiations (includ- 62 of Le Lièvre). That was the end of Guénon’s ing Masonry). But had any of them survived? It collaboration and also, it seems, of his friend- seemed very doubtful, but this is where Char- ship with Charbonneau-Lassay, who would bonneau-Lassay’s activity came in. write in a letter (admittedly to an Abbé) in Charbonneau-Lassay was a devout scholar 1946 that “It isn’t that Guénon’s book is really of Christian symbolism who had joined the dangerous, but its reader could get a taste for Sacred Heart movement emanating from Paray- the author’s theories and want to read the rest le-Monial—a story in itself. The monthly Reg- of his works, which could lead to regrettable nabit was an organ of this movement, which deviations of the mind [or spirit—esprit]” (Le enjoyed support in high places of the Catholic Lièvre, 66). hierarchy. It combined antiquarianism and an Mr. Zoccatelli’s two books gather all the interest in symbolism with the inner path of materials for studying and judging these events, devotion to the potentially esoteric idea of the including the original 19 articles in facsimile, Sacred Heart, while reaching out to Catholic which often diverge from Guénon’s later recy- families and schoolchildren. Charbonneau-Las- clings of their content. And there is more. say contributed many articles on symbolism, In 1925, Charbonneau-Lassay was told by an illustrated with his own drawings. Guénon’s aged priest whom he had known for many contributions on topics like “The Word and years of two initiatic orders, which the priest the Symbol” or “The Holy Land and the Heart now headed. One of these was the “Fraternity of the World” went a stage higher in their intel- of the Paraclete,” which had been founded lectuality and recondite knowledge of sacred around 1500 and continued until 1668. (Zoc- traditions. catelli confirms that this is historically true.) Guénon’s last article for the journal was The other, limited to twelve members, was the on “The Center of the World in Far-Eastern “Inner Star,” which inherited the Fraternity’s Doctrines,” and here his ecumenism went too papers after its demise and quietly continued far for his hosts. His analysis of Taoist and its initiations through the centuries. The priest

160 Book Review: Ecrits pour Regnabit & Le Lièvre qui rumine offered to give Charbonneau-Lassay initiation ing, with a veritable network of spying and into both orders, in case he should ever see betrayal.” (p. 53) Finally there is an essay on the possibility of reviving them. The latter did “The Paracletic Path” that is a most remarkable nothing about it until 1938, when he heard treatise on Christian esotericism. This alone is that Guénon’s followers who wanted initiation a warrant for the authenticity of the movement were failing to find it in Christianity and were to which Charbonneau-Lassay gave his alle- going over to Islam. giance. Mr. Zoccatelli, his translator Philippe After Charbonneau-Lassay’s death the Frater- Baillet, and his publisher Laszlo Toth have nity of the Paraclete was headed by Georges- all performed a labor of love in bringing this Auguste Thomas (a.k.a. G. Tamos). But the hitherto inaccessible material within reach of members soon became embroiled in a contro- the few readers who delight in such things. versy with Guénonists and followers of the young Frithjof Schuon, who proclaimed in Joscelyn Godwin 1948 that the Christian sacraments were initi- Colgate University atic in themselves. Such was the degeneration that on the last day of 1951 the Fraternity was * * * “put to sleep,” and that is as much as we know about it. Le Lièvre qui rumine (The Ruminating Hare —an allusion, I suppose, to something in Le The Mystery of Manna—The Psychedelic Bestiaire du Christ) is a fascinating collection Sacrament of the Bible. By Dan Merkur. of letters, rituals, documents, and Zoccatelli’s Pp.186. Rochester: Park Street Press, 1999. own explanations of this complicated web. ISBN 0-89281-772-0. $16.95 (pkb). Here is Guénon writing in 1929 about his book Le Théosophisme, histoire d’une pseudo- an Merkur explore dans cet ouvrage religion : “I have already thought of an English Dune voie qu’il avait abordée dans ses translation of ‘Theosophism,’ but up to now précédents travaux: la fonction traditionnelle it has not succeeded; in any case one would des hallucinogènes dans le monde judéo-chré- have to try to publish it in America, because tien de l’Antiquité classique et tardive avec it would be very difficult in England owing quelques incursions dans le Moyen-Age. Il se to the political support (especially from the présente comme une contribution à l’histoire police) which those people enjoy there.” (p. des religions qui s’attache à mettre en place 48) There are glimpses of a Guénon who is une grille nouvelle d’interprétation des Ecri- all too human: “. . . my wretched sister-in-law tures (Ancien et Nouveau Testament) perti- burst in here last Wednesday and whisked nente au niveau du sens littéral comme à celui away her daughter under absolutely revolting du sens figuré; une telle grille s’appliquant conditions. I learned things surpassing all imag- aux gloses de Philon aussi bien qu’ à quelques ination: I have been surrounded, all unsuspect- Midrashim rabbiniques, aux écrits kabbalis-

Theosophical History VIII/5 161 tiques médiévaux du Bahir ou du Zohar, dans le Temple de Salomon qui s’était substi- comme au texte syriaque chrétien du Pseudo- tuée à la pratique populaire de la consom- Hierotheos ou aux commentaires de St.Bernard mantion à l’époque de Moïse. le réformateur de Citeaux. Le choix de ces L’usage des drogues dans les mystères textes est orienté dans le sens de la thèse, d’Eleusis avait déjà été évoqué dans The Road of c’est-à-dire l’identification de la consomma- Eleusis (G.Wasson, C.Puck, A.Hofman) retrou- tion de la manne par les Hébreux dans leur vet-il dans en le rapprochant de prartiques traversée du désert à celle d’un hallucinogène shamaniques (Eliade), aussi D.M.retrouve-t-il au sens littéral ainsi qu’à l’approche de ce dans les écrits de Philon d’Alexandrie (milieu mystère sous des formes voilées et indirectes du 1è siècle ap. J.C.), au carrefour des deux au sens figuré ou allégorique. Une telle exé- cultures grecque et juive, des traces de cette gèse fait nécessairement place à la notion de tradition. Il utilise dans son analyse les travaux transmission secrète, un secret envisagé dans et les débats sur les mystères (Whitaker et la perspective ésotérique d’une démarche inté- Colson) relevant la même identification chez rieure de connaissance visant à la transforma- Philon entre la manne, le pain sans levain de tion de l’homme. la pâque et le pain de la présence du Temple L’argumentation repose sur l’association de ainsi que le rôle de l’ouverture et de la fer- la manne, dès ses premières mentions (Exod. meture de la bouche dans les mystères. Les 16: 7 et 8, 12) à la vision de la Gloire de rapports de la manne et de l’eucharistie sont Dieu. Lorsque les Israélites pénérèrent dans la abordés sous le même angle suivant les “types Terre promise, il est dit explicitement (Josh. et figures” de l’exégèse traditionnelle: l’eau et 5: 11-12) qu’ils ne mangèrent plus de manne le vin des Noces de Cana, la multiplication des mais le fruit de la terre de Canaan; le “Pain de pains et des poissons à partir des passages les la présence” doit alors être considéré comme plus connus des Evangiles (Matt. 14: 15-21; un substitut de la manne (1 Sam. 21: 4-6). Marc 6: 35-44; Luc 9:12-17; Jean 6: 1-15). La Cette continuité permet d’étendre à d’autres clef du débat entre Jésus et les autorités du passages des Ecritures l’association du fait de Temple tourne, selon lui, autour de la divul- manger à l’acte de connaissance: Eve et Adam gation du mystère par celui qui se présente croquent la pomme, leurs yeux s’ouvrent et comme le pain vivant. l’arbre de vie se dédouble en arbre de la con- Quel fut le destin de cette connaissance au naissance du bien et du mal; c’est une galette moment de la constitution du jdaïsme rabbin- de d’orge moisie qui renverse la tente des ique et de la mise en forme doctrinale du chris- ennemis dans le camp de Madian, elle est tianisme par les Pères de l’Eglise? D.M. pour- identifiée à l’épée de Gédéon, instrument de la suit son enquête à l’aide du quatrième Livre parole de Dieu dans Jug. 7:13-14. L’ensemble d’Ezra, de passages de Denys l’Aréopagite et de ces rapprochements permet à D.M. de con- du pseudo-Hierotheos syriaque du VIè siècle. clure à lexistence d’une tradition secrète, avec Il constate la permanence du type d’association très vraisemblablement ses rituels, enseignée vu précédemment dans des textes de mystique

162 Book Review: The Mystery of Manna juive du Xè siècle (la manne et la gloire chez mystique manquent: Noë et ses enfants; le Rachi notamment) comme dans les grands personnage-clef de Melchissedech qui offre textes de la kabbale plus tardifs: le Bahir ou le pain et le vin comme sacrifice. Les cailles le Zohar où le lien avec l’ésotérique est net- se sont envolées et, surtout, le lait qui joue tement affirmé: la nourriture spirituelle dis- un rôle central dans les spéculations sur la tribuée dans le désert était celle des “princes transformation (les deux nourritures de St.Paul célestes” qui revient en partage aujourd’hui He: 5-12), lait et sang, lait du figuier et arbre aux “Fellows of the mystic lore, who study the du Paradis est absent. Chez St.Bernard c’est Torah day and night” (p.144). Dans le domaine la lactation directe du sein de la Vierge à sa chrétien médiéval, St.Bernard est utilisé pour bouche qui est le lien divin. La citation de ses liens avec l’Orient par la fondation de St.Paul importante en effet à propos de la l’Ordre du Temple et sa façon d’allégoriser le manne (dans 1Cor.10: 1-5) n’est pas liée au Cantique des cantiques de manière très “phy- récit de son ascension céleste (2Cor.12: 1-6). sique”; la chevalerie de Bernard renvoie égale- Les modes de transmission ésotérique enfin ment au cycle du Graal arthurien. L’ensemble qui auraient pu être communs aux Juifs et aux prouve suffisamment, selon l’auteur, la trans- Chrétiens demeurent problématiques. mission de ce mystère dans des milieux cul- Peut-être y aurait-il quelque chose à cher- tivant les spéculations de type ésotérique: cher du côté des traditions populaires locales. Eglise syriaque, kabbalistes, moines cister- Le récit du Voyage en Egypte en 1483 du ciens; la tradition celtique lui paraissant néan- Père Félix Fabri (Le Caire, Institut français moins avoir suivi des routes indépendantes. d’archéologie orientale du Caire, 1975, 2 vol.) L’ignorance ultérieure et jusqu’à nos jours lui fait état d’un commerce de manne des moines paraît donc avoir été volontaire, le fruit d’une de Sainte Catherine du Sinaï (qui truquaient occultation. la marchandise); Fabri explique ensuite com- Ce travail mené avec une incontestable ment il a ramassé dans le désert une rosée qui rigueur, tant dans la documentation que dans produit un givre sur les feuilles et certaines l’articulation des arguments, s’inscrit dans un pierres de cette région durant deux mois de renouveau de l’exégèse à la lumière des l’année, la consommation en est délicieuse. progrès de l’anthropologie ou de la psychanal- Le miracle était pour lui dans sa multplication yse. L’interprétation onirique de la vision du sous les pas des Hébreux tout au long de la char d’Ezéchiel par exemple a déjà été tentée route. avec succès; c’est la marque d’une tradition vivante; sa limite également. Jean-Pierre Laurant Si l’auteur constate lui-même l’absence de École Pratique des Hautes Études référence explicite, d’autres objections vien- (Sorbonne) nent à l’esprit, nous les lui soumettons. Cer- tains épisodes bibliques essentiels à la ques- tion de la nourriture spirituelle ou de l’ivresse * * *

Theosophical History VIII/5 163 Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack the famously occult figure , Parsons. By John Carter. Venice, California: with whom Parsons corresponded, and even Feral House, 1999. Pp. xxv + 229. ISBN his quondam post World War II house guest, L. 0-922915.56-3. $24.95. Ron Hubbard. The whole lot, along with schol- arly and newsworthy scientists who inspired nstead of waiting for time to resolve his him and acknowledged his contributions to Iproblems, Jack Parsons was an active “phil- the field of space rocketry, seemed to lead him osophical Utopian,” to borrow a phrase from to his death on 17 June 1952 in an explosion Grant Levi, who acted on an impulse to study at his home laboratory in Pasadena, California, both the physical and occult sciences, the latter during which he was in process of creating involving tantric sex practices, but whether a being of magical powers. Far from being to resolve psychic tension as the result of an the odd recluse L. Sprague DeCamp describes oedipal complex or anything else would be in his study of H. P. Lovecraft, Jack Parsons highly speculative, inadvisable even when the was a handsome, worldly chap with a yen for reader can marshal facts that serve to review women. Yet they both shared something in the facets of a personality complex enough common, namely their New England heritage. to better decide for himself what might have Growing up on Jules Verne’s tales and been. Let the pseudonymous author of this newly-minted sci-fi magazines led young Par- book describe the situation more aptly: sons and a friend to experiment with fire- works, which interest led them into small, It is appropriate that Parsons was fascinated solid-fuel rockets by 1928. In 1932 Parsons by and involved in not only rocket science joined the Hercules Powder Company and in but also science fiction, providing ideas 1933 graduated from a small private secondary about where humanity and the future are headed that can be acted upon and brought school owing to the fact that his grandfather to fruition. Science fiction and fantasy also was president of Allis-Chalmers Manufactur- bridge the two seemingly disparate worlds ing Company. He was born in Los Angeles on that Parsons occupied, i.e., the aerospace 2 October l9l4 and named Marvel Whiteside industry and the occult. The combination is Parsons. His father had migrated from Boston not so strange, however, as numerous scien- to find work as a salesman, and in becoming tists, engineers, researchers and other pro- fessionals also have had spiritual and reli- involved with another woman shortly after gious lives (82). the birth of his son, his young wife divorced him and took the boy to live with her parents Unraveling the details of Parsons’ life in nearby Pasadena. In the Spring of 1935 requires considerable attention to the cast of Parsons married Helen Northrup, a girl he marginal personalities who played their roles had met at a church dance, and who was the in it. They ranged from a former daughter of a local business owner. actress to aspiring and since famous science Later that same year, Parsons saw a notice fiction writers met at conferences as well as in the local newspaper in regard to a public

164 Book Review: Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons lecture to be given at the California Institute that was to change the entire course of his life. of Technology (or Caltech) by a graduate stu- Actually, Parsons and Crowley had something dent on the rocket experiments of the Austrian in common besides the practice of in Eugen Saenger, with speculation “(o)n the that Crowley had read organic chemistry at possibility of ‘stratospheric passenger carriers’, Cambridge for a short time before being sent i.e., ‘spaceships’” (8). To the moon, of course. down. Thereafter, he lived a relatively luxuri- That was the picture always in the public ous life with the money willed to him by his mind. After the lecture, Parsons inquired into father. the possibility of working there and owing to Crowley was granted a charter to form his thorough familiarity wit h powder explo- his own lodge within the OTO (Ordo Templi sives, was hired. Orientis) in 1912. It was a quasi-masonic ini- “NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory began in tiating body founded in Germany in 1902 by the 1920s and was known as the Guggenheim , an Austrian industrialist, and Aeronautical Laboratory, California Institute of , a Bavarian journalist who was Technology (GALCIT). GALCIT started as an also an initiate of the Hermetic Brotherhood aerodynamics research laboratory funded by of Light founded by P. B. Randolph around a member of the famous Guggenheim family 1870. T. Allen Greenfield has written the story and administered by Caltech” (8). of that organization published by the Look- It was GALCIT director Theodor von ing Glass Press in Stockholm in 1997. Kell- Kármán (1881–1963) who supported Parsons’ ner sought to reform the H.B.L. in Germany efforts in stationary tests of rocket motors that along tantric lines and it was he who chose led GALCIT to lease three acres of land from the term OTO before he died in June 1905. the city of Pasadena in the Arroyo Seco area Among the famous occultists who were given close to the San Gabriel Mountains where charters to operate OTO lodges were Rudolf NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is situated Steiner (1861-1925) and the Parisian pediatri- today. Parsons went back to work for Hercu- cian, Gerard Encausse (1865–1916), better les Powder Company and also tested solid known as Papus, whose lodge was chartered rocket fuel under Frank Malina’s supervision in 1908. Crowley joined the OTO in 1910 at GALCIT with success. It should be made and eventually re-wrote the OTO degrees to clear that the purpose of these experiments suit himself over the objections of Reuss and was “(t)he exploration of the properties of eventually assumed leadership of the order. near space” (32) beyond which sounding bal- Much of Crowley’s writing was done through loons could not ordinarily go. the mediumship of his first wife, Rose Kelley. But sometime around mid-November 1939, The focus of the OTO was primarily sexual in Parsons discovered English occultist Aleister nature. And it was toward this type of occult Crowley’s (1907) in the library esotericism that Parsons gravitated by way of of a colleague, Robert Rypinski, one-time car Crowley’s book that he found in Rypinski’s salesman and later staff member at GALCIT, library.

Theosophical History VIII/5 165 After familiarizing himself with Crowley’s couple reportedly shocked those living nearby work, Parsons introduced himself to Wilfred by renting out rooms to an opera singer and Talbot Smith, Crowley’s representative in Los several astrologers. Angeles in charge of the of the In 1943, Parsons divorced his wife Helen OTO, where “Parsons and his wife, Helen, and took up with her eighteen-year-old sister, began attending the various meetings of the aka, “Betty,” whom he never married although lodge, as well as the weekly performance they lived together. of the Gnostic Mass. The ‘Church of The- By August 1944, Parsons was in charge of lema’, which Smith had incorporated for this a program at Aerojet working on smokeless purpose, used the Gnostic Mass as a recruit- powder with aluminum perchlorate as oxi- ing ground for the OTO” (34). Parsons also dizer. And during that year, GALCIT changed attended meetings of the Los Angeles Science its name to Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Fiction Society, begun in l934. “After more With the close of World War II, it appears than a year of attending meetings and the that Parsons’ interest in the occult began in Gnostic Mass, John and Helen Parsons joined earnest. His thrill-seeking led him “(t)o devise the Agape Lodge on 15 February 1941, when a religious system of his own that addresses they simultaneously joined the A∴ A∴, taking fields Crowley seems to have stayed out of,” initiates names” (56). (99) which involved dangerous side phenom- Meanwhile, in Parsons’ professional life, ena, including the calling up of troublesome the GALCIT group had had its first big success elemental spirits. Just at that time, General in August 1941 with rocket motors, now called Tire bought out Aerojet Corporation (today Jet-Assisted Take-offs (JATOs) “(t)o avoid the it is known as GenCorp Aerojet), after which term rocket” (65). This owed mostly to Parsons Parsons was offered $50,000 and left to form having thought of “abandoning black powder Adastra Research, a small explosives company. and smokeless powder for more exotic solid That enterprise failed and Parsons then went fuels. . .” (70). The book’s author writes that to work for the Vulcan Powder Company in he was able to find only three patents Parsons Pasadena where he remained until 1946. held, those being for liquid-fuel rockets, not On 4 January 1946, Parsons began experi- solid. By 19 March 1942, Parsons was one ments using the Angelic language devised by of the founders of the Aerojet Corporation, John Dee and Edward Kelley in England in “(n)ow one of the world’s largest manufactur- the sixteenth century. While trying to create ers of rockets” (73). There he was “the project an “elemental” personality in human form, engineer in charge of the solid-fuels, although one, he thought, actually appeared in the form he wasn’t actually a degreed engineer (75). of Marjorie Elisabeth Cameron on 19 January By 1942, Parsons and his wife Helen were 1946, one night after the conclusion of his neighbors of Lily Anheuser Busch, widow of magickal working. Parsons married her on 19 beer baron Adolphus Busch, on Pasadena’s October that same year. She was born in cen- exclusive Orange Grove Avenue. There, the tral Iowa, served in the WAVES during World

166 Book Review: Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons War II and made her living as a photographer. dence, or rather, expired at Huntington Memo- Together, they tried, however unsuccessfully, rial Hospital at 5:45 PM; his mother committed to procreate a magical child which Crowley suicide shortly thereafter. But Cameron lived thought “(w)ould be the product of her envi- on to appear in Kenneth Anger’s short film, ronment, rather than her heredity, a develop- Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome in 1953, ment that distinguishes magical children from and in ’s 1961 horror film, the regular type” (152). . The author notes that the Theosophical Speculation has always been rife as to what Society made such an attempt at producing exactly caused Parsons’ death, but an investi- a messianic child when its leaders tried to gating detective “found a syringe filled with a raise the young Hindu Krishnamurti as their morphine-like substance leading to belief that own World Savior. Parsons wrote of a female Parsons’ drug use contributed to his mishan- messiah, however, who would “(m)ature in dling of explosives” (183-84). In any case, his a magically influenced environment” (152). role as a magician has been highly exagger- Nine years later, Cameron claimed to have ated despite his devotion to Aleister Crowley given birth on the astral plane. By that time, and his writings, owing to his personal, undis- Parsons “(s)tarted to look elsewhere for this ciplined and unorthodox procedure. ‘child’—to a physical incarnation embodied in Had this story been published as trade some unknown person” (153). paperback fiction, it might well have been After this experiment, which is thoroughly received as an interesting if implausible yarn. documented in terms of ritual magic, Parsons’ It is commonly said that eccentrics in any cat- career seemed to go downhill. He worked egory are able to live as they do because the for a time at North American Aviation in Ingle- times in which they live are less turbulent or wood, California, and then on to Hughes Air- for any of a number of other supposedly good craft in Culver City. After being investigated reasons. Not so. People will likely always live by the FBI for allegedly being involved with this way, some of them anyway. How much Israeli agents for the design, building and more implausible indeed was Parsons’ life as operation of explosive plants, that and his compared to that of Krishnamurti? relationship to the cult group he had formed caused him to lose his security clearance. The year 1952 found Parsons and Cam- Robert Boyd eron in rented rooms in the coachhouse of the Ojai, CA Cruikshank mansion in Pasadena, with part- time jobs at a service station and for the Ber- * * * mite Powder Company in Saugus, California “where Cameron helped him mix explosives” (177). On Tuesday, 17 June 1952 at 5:08 PM, Parsons nearly died in an explosion at his resi-

Theosophical History VIII/5 167 The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture. doctrinal obscurity, the movement appealed Edited by Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal. Ithaca widely to feminists, philanthropists, and pro- and London: Cornell University Press, 1997. gressive reformers. But Carlson makes the Pp. vii + 468. ISBN 0-8014-8331-X (pbk). claim that, as presented in Russia, Theosophy $24.95. owed as much to such deeply Russian mysti- cal writers as Vladimir Soloviev, Fedor Dos- his collection of essays on Russian occult- toevsky, and Lev Tolstoy as to Indic or Tism will be of substantial interest to stu- other sources. One wonders to what extent dents of Theosophy as an international move- Blavatsky herself was “Russian” in the spiri- ment, particularly readers of Maria Carlson’s tual. pioneering No Religion Higher Than Truth”: A Theosophical historians will also be inter- History of the Theosophical Movement in Russia, ested in an article on a cognate movement, 1875-1922 (Princeton, 1993). The present book Renata von Maydell’s “Anthroposophy in fills in the pieces and more. Essays on the Russia,” and in Judith Deutsch Kornblatt’s background of Russian occultism in peasant “Russian Religious thought and the Jewish Kab- culture and the literary tradition are supple- bala,” treating of a major source of Blavatsky’s mented by studies of its late imperial “golden ideas. The important series of papers under age,” the little-known but fascinating story the heading, “Transformations of the Occult of its Soviet-era transformation into scientific in Stalin’s Time,” must also not be overlooked. utopianism, and its public resurfacing after Here one learns how much the “Socialist Real- 1989. ism” and the futurist utopianism of the Com- Theosophy is most centrally dealt with munist era were, in Mircea Eliade’s term, but in Maria Carlson’s own paper, “Fashionable “camouflages of the sacred,” in this case often Occultism: Spiritualism, Theosophy, Free- the occult sacred, whose symbols and motifs masonry, and in Fin-de-Siècle lie behind the images of a seemingly different Russia.” Essentially a brief summery of her reality. Two final papers on “The Occult since book, these few pages trace the story of Rus- Stalin,” especially Holly DeNio Stephens, “The sian Theosophy from the first informal adher- Occult in Russia Today,” demonstrate vividly ents in H.P. Blavatsky’s homeland to its formal how that tradition, including Theosphy, has chartering in 1908 after the lifting of certain come back very strongly in the freewheeling government restrictions made that possible, spiritual marketplace of post-Soviet Russia. and from then to the revolution. Like many A concluding essay by the editor, Bernice independent observers, Carlson appears some- Glatzer Rosenthal, “Political Implications of times perplexed by the apparent dissonance the Early Twenmtieth-Century Occult Revival,” between Theosophy’s liberal objectives and strikes a sterner note. While acknowledging the seeming dogmatic complexity of its teach- the complexity of the matter, Rosenthal pro- ing on such matters as races and the Masters, ceeds to connect occultism with some of the and the way in which, despite scandals and least savory facets of twentieth-century his-

168 Book Review: The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture tory, including anti-Semitism, racism, , (Nor are Jews or gypsies themselves root and extreme nationalism. In this she seems races.) Particularly, to associate Blavatsky almost as concerned with Germany and other with the racist, conspiracy-minded, and per- parts of Europe as with Russia, now viewing secutorial anti-Semitism of the Germany or modern occultism more as an international Russia of her day is a travesty of her attitude. than a national movement, and her final sen- Any difficult passages in her writings—which tance says it all: “Politically, the occult is dan- are usually related to her overall Gnostic gerous.” view of Judaism and Christianity—must be H.P. Blavatsky and Theosophy, especially balanced by the use she made of the Kabbala in connection with anti-Semitism and the con- (according to Olcott, not only bookish but sup- cept of Root Races, do not escape unfavor- ported by conversation with a learned New able attention. Rosenthal states that, accord- York rabbi), and by the poignant sympathy she ing to Blavatsky, “‘Archaic root races,’ such expressed in Isis Unveiled, possibly based on as Jews and gypsies, would die out naturally. sights she had seen in Russia, for Jews under Blavatsky did not advocate their extermina- persecution and the stalwart loyalty they none- tion. Although an anti-Semite, she was not theless maintained toward their people and obsessed by the ‘Jewish question’; her major their ancient religion. concern was ‘Jesuit plots’.” Like Steiner, she Any problems, though, are more than com- “believed that each race or nation (they used pensated for by the fine lode of original schol- the words interchangeably) had its own des- arship contained in The Occult in Russian and tiny” (394-95). Soviet Culture. This is familiar territory to browsers in the This book is recommended to all serious various books that seek to place Theosophy students of occult and Theosophical history. among the twisted roots of modern anti-Semi- tism and German National Socialism, though one appreciates that Rosenthal’s treatment of Robert Ellwood the themes is far more modified and nuanced University of Southern California than some. To deal with all the issues involved would require a major article or book in its * * * * * own right—one that should be written. All I can say here is that while anti-Semites and Nazis may have borrowed some Theosophi- cal language and paradigms, their usage con- siderably debased the Theosophical meaning. In Blavatsky and other Theosophical writers, races are impermanent and evolutionary; they change, intermingle, and finally become meta- phors for aspects of human consciousness.

Theosophical History VIII/5 169 THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY: OCCASIONAL PAPERS (ISBN 1-883279-00-3) Editor: James A. Santucci

VOLUME I Witness for the Prosecution: Annie Besant’s Testimony on Behalf of H.P. Blavatsky in the N.Y. Sun/Coues Law Case Introduction by Michael Gomes

VOLUME II Joan Grant: Winged Pharaoh By Jean Overton Fuller

VOLUME III Ammonius Saccas and His Eclectic Philosophy as Presented by Alexander Wilder By Dr. Jean-Louis Siémons

VOLUME IV W.T. Brown’s “Scenes in My Life” Introduction by Michael Gomes

VOLUME V Krishnamurti and the World Teacher Project: Some Theosophical Perceptions By Govert Schüller

VOLUME VI Astral Projection or Liberation of the Double and the Work of the Early Theosophical Society By John Patrick Deveney

VOLUME VII Cyril Scott and a Hidden School: Towards the Peeling of an Onion By Jean Overton Fuller

VOLUME VIII Franz Hartmann’s Some Fragments of the Secret History of the Theosophical Society Introduction by Robert Hütwohl

VOLUME IX The Unseen Worlds of Emma Hardinge Britten: Some Chapters in the History of Western Occultism By Robert Mathiesen [Projected publication in February 2001.]