Theosophy V7 1918-1919
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The Theosophical Movement The Brotherhood of Humanity The Study of Occult Science and philosophy, and aryan literature Vol. VII, 1918-1919 Published and Edited by THE UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA $2.00 PER ANNUM-SINGLE COPIES. TWENTY-FIVE CENTS Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-19 14:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hxnyzj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google Theosophy Brinton Jones. Business Agent A monthly magazine devoted to the promulgation of The osophy as it was given by those who brought it. The subscription price has been fixed at $2.00 per annum. Subscriptions may begin with any desired number. Infor mation as to Back Numbers furnished upon application. Contributions intended for publication should be sent in not later than the 15th of the month preceding issue. Writers should in all cases retain copies, as no manuscripts will be returned. Subscriptions, contributions, and communications of every nature, should be addressed to Theosophy 504 Metropolitan Building, Los Angeles, California. The Parent Theosophical Society was formed at New York, U. S. A., in 1875. by H. P. Blavatsky, with whom were associated William Q. Judge, Henry S. Olcott, and others. The defined Objects of the Society were as follows: I. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Hu manity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color. II. The study of ancient and modern religions, philoso phies and sciences, and the demonstration of the importance of such study ; and III. The investigation of the unexplained laws of nature and the psychical powers latent in man. Assent to the First Object only was obligatory on the part of all Fellows, the other Objects being subsidiary and optional Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-19 14:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hxnyzj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google 10V 20 191? The Study of Occult Science and Philosophy, and Aryan Literature NOVEMBER, 1918 No. 1 "Nothing is gained, but a good deal is lost by impatience tot only strength, but also sight and intuition". —WM. Q. JUDGE. CONTENTS Have Animals Souls 1 The Self 8 Conversations on Occultism 9 Secret Doctrine Extracts 10 The Mahomedan Tradition of Issa or lesus • - 11 Secret Doctrine Teachings 14 Questions and Answers 15 The Dream of Life 19 Queries and Answers 20 From the Secret Doctrine 24 Around the Table 25 On the Lookout 27 THE UNITED LODGE of THEOSOPHISTS LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 12 M PER ANNUM— SINGLE COPIES. TWENTY-FIVE CENTS Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-19 14:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hxnyzj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google Theosophy A monthly magazine devoted to the promulgation of The osophy as it was given by those who brought it. The subscription price has been fixed at $2.00 per annum. Subscriptions may begin with any desired number. Infor mation as to Back Numbers furnished upon application. Contributions intended for publication should be sent in not later than the 15th of the month preceding issue. Writers should in all cases retain copies, as no manuscripts will be returned. Subscriptions, contributions, and communications of every nature, should be addressed to the Business Agent of Theosophy, Wescott Clough, Metropolitan Building, Los Angeles, California. The Parent Theosophical Society was formed at New York. U. S. A., in 1875, by H. P. Blavatsky, with whom were associated William Q. Judge, Henry S. Olcott, and others. The denned Objects of the Society were as follows: I. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Hu manity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color. II. The study of ancient and modern religions, philoso phies and sciences, and the demonstration of the importance of such study ; and III. The investigation of the unexplained laws of nature and the psychical powers latent in man. Assent to the First Object only was obligatory on the part of all Fellows, the other Objects being subsidiary and optional. Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-19 14:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hxnyzj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google "For in bis passage to the next World, neither his Father, nor his Mother, nor his Wife, nor his Son, nor any of his Kinsmen will remain in his company; virtue alone adheres to htm. Single is each man born, single he dies; single he receives reward of his good, and single the punishment of his evil deeds. When he leaves his corse like a log or a lump of clay on the ground, his kindred retire with averted faces: but his virtue accompanyeth his Soul. Continually therefore and by degrees, let him collect Virtue for his guide, and he shall traverse a gloom now hard to be traversed." —Catechism of Brahmanism. THEOSOPHY Vol. VII NOVEMBER, 1918 No. 1 No Theosophical Society, as such, is responsible for any opinion or declaration in this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document. Where any article, or statement, has the author's name attached, he alone is respon sible, and for those which are unsigned, the Editors will be accountable. HAVE ANIMALS SOULS?* i. "Continually soaked with blood, the whole earth is but an immense altar upon which ail that lives has to be immolated —endlessly, incessantly" .. —Comtb Joseth De Maistke. (Soiries 1 ii, 86). are the "antiquated religious superstitions" of the East MANYwhich Western nations often and unwisely deride : but none is so laughed at and practically set at defiance as the great respect of Oriental people for animal life. Flesh-eaters cannot sym pathize with total abstainers from meat. We Europeans are nations of civilized barbarians with but a few milleniums between our selves and our cave-dwelling forefathers who sucked the blood and marrow from uncooked bones. Thus, it is only natural that those who hold human life so cheaply in their frequent and often iniquitous wars, should entirely disregard the death-agonies of the brute crea tion, and daily sacrifice millions of innocent, harmless lives ; for we are too epicurean to devour tiger steaks or crocodile cutlets, but must have tender lambs and golden-feathered pheasants. All this is only as it should be in our era of Krupp cannons and scientific vivi- is it sectors. Nor a matter of great wonder that the hardy Euro pean should laugh at the mild Hindu, who shudders at the bare thought of killing a cow, or that he should refuse to sympathize with the Buddhist and Jain, in their respect for the life of every sentient creature —from the elephant to the gnat. if But, meat-eating has indeed become a vital necessity —"the if !" — tyrant's plea among Western nations : hosts of victims in every This article was first printed by H. P. Blavatsky in The Theosophist for January, Generated for deveneyjp (University of Chicago) on 2015-11-19 14:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hxnyzj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google 2 THEOSOPHY November, 1918 city, borough and village of the civilized world must needs be daily slaughtered in temples dedicated to the deity, denounced by St. Paul and worshipped by men "whose God is their belly:" —if all this and much more cannot be avoided in our "age of Iron," who can urge the same excuse for sport? Fishing, shooting, and hunting, the most fascinating of all the "amusements" of civilized life— are cer tainly the most objectionable from the standpoint of occult philoso phy, the most sinful in the eyes of the followers of these religious systems which are the direct outcome of the Esoteric Doctrine- Hinduism and Buddhism. Is it altogether without any good reason that the adherents of these two religions, now the oldest in the world, regard the animal world —from the huge quadruped down to the infinitesimally small insect —as their "younger brothers," how ever ludicrous the idea to a European? This question shall receive due consideration further on. Nevertheless, exaggerated as the notion may seem, it is certain that few of us are able to picture to ourselves without shuddering the scenes which take place early every morning in the innumerable shambles of the so-called civilized world, or even those daily en acted during the "shooting season." The first sun-beam has not yet awakened slumbering nature, when from all points of the com pass myriads of hecatombs are being prepared to salute the rising luminary. Never was heathen Moloch gladdened by such a cry of agony from his victims as the pitiful wail that in all Christian coun tries rings like a long hymn of suffering throughout nature, all day and every day from morning until evening. In ancient Sparta— than whose stern citizens none were ever less sensitive to the deli cate feelings of the human heart —a boy when convicted of tortur ing an animal for amusement, was put to death as one whose nature was so thoroughly villainous that he could not be permitted to live. But in civilized Europe —rapidly progressing in all things save Chris tian virtues—might remains unto this day the synonym of right. The entirely useless, cruel practice of shooting for mere sport countless hosts of birds and animals is nowhere carried on with more fervour than in Protestant England, where the merciful teach ings of Christ have hardly made human hearts softer than they were in the days of Nimrod, "the mighty hunter before the Lord." Chris tian ethics are as conveniently turned into paradoxical syllogisms as those of the "heathen." The writer was told one day by a sports man that since "not a sparrow falls on the ground without the will of the Father," he who kills for sport —say, one hundred sparrows — does thereby one hundred times over—his Father's will! A wretched lot is that of poor brute creatures, hardened as it is into implacable fatality by the hand of man.