The Aquarian Theosophist Volume VI, No. 4.5 ULT BIRTHDAY ISSUE February 17, 2006 e-mail: [email protected] Archive: http://teosofia.com/AT.html Theorist helps develop first single molecule an umbrella of brotherhood : What is the “ult” anyway? Carlos Cardoso Aveline Some friends and associates of the started in 1909 by Robert Crosbie, John ULT complain from time to time: Garrigues and a few others. They say they rarely hear from or The lack of an aggressive read about the United Lodge of propaganda, the priority to silent forms of Theosophists. work, the absence of centralized and bureaucratic authorities make the task of At least one of such students, understanding the U.L.T. somewhat recently associated to the ULT, wrote that difficult for newcomers. he is happy to have "discovered" the ULT earlier 2005 after 22 years of experience For these people we say: within the "narrow walls" of the Adyar and after three "Examine these questions into your years as an independent student. own heart. Write to 'The Aquarian Theosophist' and someone will answer to But he added: "I would be STILL you. Knock at the door and it will be HAPPIER if I could have discovered the opened." ULT earlier this life." In order to help clarify at least in It sounded like he was thinking of part some of the most common doubts thousands of students about the ULT, we publish below a short worldwide who do not have a chance yet text by Dallas TenBroeck which discusses to know much about the ULT. the meaning of the ULT's Associate Card and related issues in everyday life. Indeed, many students nowadays may look around for an authentic TABLE OF CONTENTS umbrella to defend themselves and their What is the ULT, ANYWAY? 1 spiritual search from the heavy rain of ritualistic pseudo theosophy. If they see Theosophy, the ULT, and its nothing outside the Theosophical Society Associate Card 2 (Adyar), they may believe they are in a The ULT Declaration 3 worldwide desert. The ULT Associate Card 4 To The Man in The Street 4 Some experienced observers say that this need for alternatives is especially The Global Village 8 true now that the karma of the Adyar TS HPB Defense Fund Report 11 seems to get quicker. Every Challenge is an Opportunity 11 Correspondence 12 Yet the problem is not limited to not News from ULT — Athens, GREECE 14 knowing of ULT's existence. Genius 15 Students who do get in contact with Aethrobacy 21 the ULT, can't always and easily Dust Storms on the Moon 22 understand the nature of the endeavor The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 2

THEOSOPHY, THE U.L.T. AND If we have grasped the eclecticism ITS 'ASSOCIATE CARD' of THEOSOPHY, we need not fear that by Dallas TenBroeck mere words will grade or separate individuals. That is not the concept of As far as I can see the signing of a Brotherhood. There is a vast spiritual form has a meaning only to the individual Unity in the Universe. who signs. The effect must be an immense and No "membership" list is kept. a radical one. In the first place they will People are "associates," and their change all our conceptions of time and Association Card is recorded. therefore of the relative values of the After studying the implications of events that move in time. the "DECLARATION OF THE U.L.T." The light of law will lift us forever one may, or may not offer to sign such an beyond the reach of fear, because we shall "associate" card. The decision means no know that a cruel or indifferent chance more than that which the individual has no part nor lot in our fortunes, that we intends in his own "Heart" to support and are masters of our fate and the captain of sustain. So there is no room for false our soul. promises. All signers determine for themselves what they will do. The We move forward in the light of a commitment is to THEOSOPHY, to one's law that is merciful because it is just, that own HIGHER SELF, and to no outside declares its presence in the least of the individual or "form." events of our lives, that holds the universe in its grasp for the sake of the human The U.L.T. will continue to offer its soul, that inflicts pleasure and pain for no free help and facilities to all-comers. other purpose than to point out the only road that leads to happiness. No questions asked of anyone. Freedom and independence: This is no philosophy for the elect. It demands no large learning for its "fearlessness, sincerity, assiduity in comprehension. It owes nothing to devotion, generosity, self-restraint, piety, authority or to revelation. Its appeal is to and alms-givings, study, mortification, every human being whose eyes are open and rectitude; harmlessness, veracity, and to the facts of his own life, who can take freedom from anger, resignation, but one step from the seen to the unseen. equanimity, and not speaking of the faults of others, universal compassion, modesty, Are we apprehensive that the and mildness; patience, power, fortitude, adoption of a spiritual philosophy will and purity, discretion, dignity, militate against what we call our "success unrevengefulness, and freedom from in life?" It would indeed be strange if conceit¯ these are the marks of him ignorance were more profitable than whose virtues are of a "godlike" knowledge, if weakness were a larger character." [Quoted from Chapter 16, advantage than strength. The greatest of Bhagavad-Gita] all success in life is reserved for those Some ask "What is THEOSOPHY?" who know what life is, its origin, purpose, laws and destiny. Work comes to those Some say that if we adopt for who ally themselves with nature, not to ourselves and for others rigid ideas of those who resist her: to those who keep THEOSOPHY we will fail to see the her laws, not to those who violate them. value of others' sayings and teachings. The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 3 WE ARE ALL ONE. the U.L.T. Declaration (see page 3). It is a brotherhood of ideas and, like The immediate work of the U.L.T. all sciences and philosophies, it has a few became twofold: basic concepts — since it is the most ancient wisdom, those concepts are The task of restoring the original universal, basic and apply to all who Theosophical teachings of Madame Blavatsky and William Q. Judge and profess to speak for THEOSOPHY, in making them available to the public. whatever language and in time or clime. Inaugurating a program of practical They give the same scope to all, and Theosophical education with regular public limit no one. meetings. These furnish the platform for interaction of seeking minds. ANCIENT WISDOM knew — and continues to know — deep and vast The “Declaration” has remained the knowledge about ourselves, our purpose guiding focus of work, and remains in life, nature, the universe, the highest unchanged. god-like principles, and man's long history on this earth. Although study and understanding of Theosophy are regarded by its advocates and Theosophy is the portion of that supporters as a lifetime undertaking, a ancient knowledge brought to us by H. P. general view of this philosophy is necessary Blavatsky toward the end of the 19th to a comprehension of U.L.T. The basic century, as taught to her by her Teachers. idea is that there is in every human being the latent capacity for self-knowledge, for self- reliant decision on all the great questions, and for progress in understanding through Or, as remarked on pages 3&4 of the study and application of philosophy in ULT: Its Mission and Its Future: daily life. While people may and do learn from one another and, indeed, learn better THE UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS and more rapidly in cooperative association is an association of students of Theosophy than in any other way—each individual is originating through the determination of a ultimately responsible for his own growth, small number of Theosophists to pursue the and is himself the only final authority objectives of the Theosophical Movement concerning what he will accept as without organizational distractions and knowledge and truth. It follows that the best formalities. The conception of U.L.T. association is one which provides a (United Lodge of Theosophists) as a vehicle maximum of individual freedom and at the for Theosophical work derives from the same time full opportunity for contact and experience and insight of Robert Crosbie, a collaboration with others who are man who, throughout a long association endeavoring to move in the same direction. with the original Theosophical Society, was witness to the schisms and divisions caused in the movement by organizational claims, controversy over “authority,” and the The U.L.T. Declaration competition of personal leaders. THE UNITED LODGE OF In 1909, with the help of a few others who shared his unsectarian view of THEOSOPHISTS: DECLARATION Theosophy, Mr. Crosbie formed the United The policy of this Lodge is Lodge of Theosophists—a body which was independent devotion to the cause of defined by a simple statement of intent — Theosophy, without professing The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 4 attachment to any Theosophical “Declaration, I hereby record my desire to organization, It is loyal to the great be enrolled as an Associate, it being Founders of the Theosophical Movement, understood that such association calls for but does not concern itself with no obligation on my part, other than that dissensions or differences of individual which I, myself, determine. opinion. The work it has on hand and the end it keeps in view are too absorbing and too lofty to leave it the time or inclination to take part in side issues. That work and that end is the dissemination of the Fundamental Principles of the Philosophy of Theosophy, and the exemplification in TO THE MAN IN practice of those principles, through a THE STREET truer realization of the SELF; a profounder conviction of Universal NLESS Theosophy has some- Brotherhood. thing definite to offer to the man U in the street it may as well It holds that the unassailable basis disappear from the field of human for union among Theosophists, wherever interest. If its mission is only to coteries and however situated, is “similarity of of learning or curiosity it is unworthy the aim, purpose and teaching,” and therefore devotion of those who promulgate and has neither Constitution, By-Laws nor defend it. If it is inadequate to any need Officers, the sole bond between its of humanity, if it retires baffled before Associates being that basis. And it aims any problem of fate and fortune, if it fails to disseminate this idea among to make life better worth living and death Theosophists in the furtherance of Unity. better worth dying, its advocates may admit that they have misdirected their It regards as Theosophists all who energies and dedicated their lives amiss. are engaged in the true service of But it is to the man in the street that Humanity, without distinction of race, Theosophy makes its chief appeal. It is to creed, sex, condition or organization, and the masses of humanity—not to the few It welcomes to its association all those nor the elect—that its chief gifts are who are in accord with its declared offered. It invites to its study all who purposes and who desire to fit would see an orderly law of life in the themselves,11 by study and other wise, to place of chaotic chance, all who would be the better ‘able to help and teach recognize the operations of an absolute others. “The true Theosophist belongs to justice dominant over human affairs, all no cult or sect, yet belongs to each and who would enter consciously into an all.” individual existence whose immensities are not limited by death or change. In protesting against the binding power of creeds we must not overlook the The ULT Associate card effect of belief upon action and upon character. Every deed of our lives is The following is the form signed by governed by our conceptions of self- Associates of the United Lodge of interest, although those conceptions may Theosophists: be as lofty as they are often debased. The Being in sympathy with the toiler among the poor is actuated by an purposes of this Lodge, as set forth in its exalted sense of self-interest that demands The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 5 service and compassion. The burglar cannot be thwarted. And if we perceive believes that he will benefit by his theft. the dominance of an unchanging and Cruelty, greed, and passion all are honest resistless law that moves inexorably in so far as they are interpretations, or towards its goal we shall have learned to rather misinterpretations, of self-interest. cast out fear from our hearts. All these According to our readings of life, of time, things are practical achievements. There and of divine law, so will be our actions. is no one whom they do not concern. Belief governs conduct. It is the They come within the scope of the yardstick by which we measure the import average human intellect. And they give of events and their value to ourselves. An to life a confidence, a strength, and a hour of sunshine is the life of a gnat, a tranquility that can come from no other cloud is its tragedy, a drop of rain its source. extinction. A span of minutes is its standard of values. Therefore it is evident that every man has some kind of a philosophy of It would seem then that religion, life, even though it be unformulated, even which is only another name for though he be unaware of its existence. philosophy, is actually a standard of Every man without exception is trying to values. A religious belief is a yardstick be happy, and his life is governed by by which we measure the import of some policy that he believes will conduce events. If we conceive of human life as to his happiness. Every man has some bounded by birth and by death, with time standard, usually the duration of his nothingness before and annihilation after, own life, or even the duration of his it is obvious that all the events of that life youth, by which he measures the will seem large in inverse proportion to importance of the things that happen to the brevity of the period. A child cries him. Theosophy thus makes a double for a broken toy because its conception of appeal to the average man. It tries to life is so narrow as to make the tiny show him how he may acquire a true and mishap seem a tragedy. Its standard of a permanent happiness. And it tries to values is inadequate. Enlarge our time furnish him with a new time standard so conceptions of life and we dwarf the that he may revise the relative values of relative magnitudes of its events and his daily experiences. But Theosophy completely change our angle of vision. In seeks to achieve its end, not by the the same way a religious or philosophic imposition of dogmas nor by the weight conception may change our entire of spiritual authority. It asks only for a estimate of self-interest. If we accept the courageous facing of known facts and for idea of a perpetual and conscious the inferences logically to be drawn from individual life, we must at once rearrange those facts. In other words, it appeals our computations of value. If we believe only to universal knowledge and to the that the perpetual and conscious indi- reasoning faculty. vidual life is governed by a precise law of cause and effect we shall be tranquil Let us then take the two groups of under the disabilities that we shall know facts most apparent to us, that is to say to be self-created, and we shall be hopeful the facts of consciousness and the facts of of a future in which there will be fewer experience. It is obvious that seeds of ill to fructify. If we recognize consciousness and character are being the unity of the life that sweeps through continually changed by events of the universe we shall be careful to injure experience. Every event that befalls us none of its manifestations, and we shall adds somewhat to the knowledge that recognize that fraternity is not merely a governs our future actions. In other sentiment but a compelling law that words it changes our character, however The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 6 slightly. And every such change that the limits of one earth life are increases our happiness, or detracts from pitifully inadequate for its completion. it. So true is this that every man has And it is a plan that can be completed made for himself a certain classification nowhere else but on earth, since it of the things that he must not do because concerns itself mainly with our bearing they bring unhappiness, and of the things toward our fellow men. We have been that he ought to do because they bring born with certain characters, that is to say happiness. He may be wholly wrong in with certain tendencies in our bearing his judgment, he may have based it upon toward others. As we live through our ignorance, but at least he has attempted to lives these characters have been gradually reach a judgment, and to discriminate changing by experience. Since between the things that are good for him experience is thus obviously the only and the things that are had for him. factor in a change of character it is evident that the character with which we And every experience whether good are born must have been fashioned at or evil has changed his character. It is some time by experiences of the same then evident that nature is trying to teach nature as those that are now changing it. him something, that inasmuch as his And since it is equally evident that our character is being constantly changed by characters are still unfinished structures, experience there must be somewhere in far short of nature's design, the process of the great mind of nature a destination, a experiencing must be continued, and plan, an intention. If we see the continued under, like conditions to the foundations and the framework of an present, that is to say, by human contact unfinished house we know them for under earth conditions. And so we reach exactly what they are, and we may even what may be called the central foresee the ultimate form and appearance Theosophic tenet, that all evolution has a of the house when the builder shall have destination, and that it proceeds toward finished his work. We know that that destination through a process of re- somewhere there is an architect's plan, a embodiment or reincarnation in which the blue print, that there is purpose and law of ethical cause and effect holds design behind every hammer stroke, that sway: "Whatsoever a man soweth that there is no detail too insignificant to find shall he also reap." And in this there is no its place. The acorn bursting in the dogma, no authority, no supernatural ground is the prediction of the oak tree. revelation. It is simply an irresistible Wherever there is motion or change there deduction from obvious facts. also there must be intention, a destination, and an architect's plan. Theosophy asks Now it would be possible to argue at the average man to look at the changes in great length in support of the his own character, at the praise and blame contentions of conscience which bring happiness and unhappiness, and so to ask himself what (1) that there is one, Universal Life is the intention of evolutionary nature sweeping through all the kingdoms toward him, what is it that nature would of nature and that we ourselves are have him be. In other words, what is the expressions of that One Life and architect's plan of this unfinished human separated from one another only by house. Surely there can be no other the illusions of the selfish question so practical as this. personality. And as soon as we recognize that (2) That the method of evolution is there is a plan, that we ourselves are through constant re-embodiments uncompleted structures, we see at once or reincarnations which are knit The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 7 together by the law of cause and now fill our tortured lives? Against that effect, such law assuming an stupendous background of time all these ethical aspect in human evolution things sink into insignificance and to their and producing such circumstances true values. They seemed large only in each earth life as have been when we viewed them against a earned by the thoughts and acts of background of a few score years, only the lives that preceded it. when we measured them by the false standards of a few score Years: Look at (3) That all evolutionary movements them now against the background of a are regulated by a precise and conscious eternity and forever they lose cyclic law, and that nowhere in the their power to wound. At last we learn universe or in human life can there the true value of events, and we are lifted be such a thing as chance or a by that new wisdom beyond the reach of permanent injustice. It would be personal sorrow. We are no longer as easy to show that these great children who cry over broken toys. postulates have been the basis of every religion that the world has But the Theosophic philosophy will ever known and that they are do more than this. The light of law will commended alike by reason and by lift us forever beyond the reach of fear, experience. But the present object because we shall know that a cruel or is not to argue about these things indifferent chance has no part nor lot in but merely to state them, to leave our fortunes, that we are masters of our them for consideration, and to fate and the captain of our soul. suggest the effect that they must have upon the lives of those who And how pitifully, how abjectly, we accept them as truths. now cringe before our fears. We are afraid of poverty, afraid of death, afraid The effect must be an immense and of disease. We imagine ourselves as a radical one. In the first place they will fortified citadels besieged by a pitiless change all our conceptions of time and and hostile nature. Terrors lie in wait for therefore of the relative values of the us in the dark places of life, and every events that move in time. Instead of corner has a foe. A perpetual paralysis of imagining ourselves as coming at birth fear destroys our strength and hides the from an impenetrable darkness, with sunlight by its baleful shadows. darkness for our destination, we shall now see ourselves as being's that have lived And how needless it all is! With for ever, and who will live for ever, and what new confidence we move forward in in whom consciousness can never be the light of a law that is merciful because extinguished even for a moment. The it is just, that declares its presence in the memory of the brain may fail to bridge least of the events of our lives, that holds the abysses of time, but somewhere the universe in its grasp for the sake of within the depths of our being, or rather the human soul, that inflicts pleasure and upon its heights, we shall recognize the pain for no other purpose than to point existence of a soul in which all memories out the only road that leads to happiness. of the past are stored, all knowledge and This is no philosophy for the elect. all power, and that nothing hides us from It demands no large learning for its that radiance except the self-imposed comprehension. It owes nothing to limitations of personality and the love of authority or to revelation. Its appeal is to self. In the presence of such a realization every human being whose eyes are open what room can there be for the paltry to the facts of his own life, who can take ambitions, greeds, fears, and griefs that but one step from the seen to the unseen. The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 8 Are we apprehensive that the Martes: 6:30 p.m. a 8:00 p.m. adoption of a spiritual philosophy will 6641 Easton Street, Este de , Ca. militate against what we call our "success 90022 in life?" It would indeed be strange if Entre Wittier Blvd. y Olympic cerca de, Garfield Ave. ignorance were more profitable than Tel. (323) 264 4065 Llamar entre, 4:00 p.m. y knowledge, if weakness were a larger 6:00 p.m. advantage than strength. The greatest of all success in life is reserved for those

who know what life is, its origin, purpose, laws and destiny. Strength in our life work comes to those who ally themselves with nature, not to those who resist her: to those who keep her laws, not to those who United Lodge of Theosophist violate them. 3766 El Cajon Blvd [Theosophy, Vol. I, #5, pp. 169-73] San Diego, Ca 92105 (619)283-0142 E-Mail: [email protected] There must be truth and fact in that Sundays 10:45-12Noon which every people of antiquity accepted Theosophical Book Center Wednesdays — 11a.m.-1p.m. and made the foundation of its religion Wednesdays: 12 Noon to 1p.m. Psychotherapy of BhagavadGita and its faith. H. P. Blavatsky—In The Fridays: 7p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Basic Theosophy Secret Doctrine—Vol. II, p. 794.

There is no existence for that which does not exist, nor is there any non- Sarasota, Florida existence for what exists. By those who see the truth and look into the principles Theosophy Group of things, the ultimate characteristic of Meets Weekly on: these both is seen. —Bhagavad- WEDNESDAYS: — 7 - 8:15 P.M. Gita—Chap. 2. SUNDAYS — 11 AM – 12:30 PM We are a very friendly group of students with various religious and philosophical backgrounds. Our goals are to discuss and understand the universal truths of Theosophy.

On Wed. nights we are studying, The Ocean of Theosophy by W.Q. Judge, and on Sunday mornings we’re discussing by H.P. Blavatsky and Light On The Path by Mabel Collins.

Our address is: 2700 S. Tamiami Trail Suite#11B, Sarasota, Florida 34239 and our phone number is: 941-312-9494. http://www.theosophyusa.com 941-349-5151 T HE GLOBAL Please feel free to call Bob Waxman if you need any additional information.

VIL LAGE United Lodge of Theosophists 1917 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 All welcome No collections New Places for Spanish Study

EAST LOS ANGELES United Lodge of Theosophists The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 9

nd rd Robert Crosbie House NYC, NY (Bet. 2 &3 Ave.) 62 Queens Gardens London W23AH, UK Contacts: Tel +(44) 20 7723 0688 Http://www.geocities/theosophycircle/ Fax +(44) 20 7262 8639 [email protected] Contact us: [email protected] [email protected] MEETINGS ON SUNDAYS 7 PM [email protected] United Lodge of Theosophists Phone: 62 Queens Gardens London W2 3AL David - (718) 438-5021

Amedeo – (973) 697 – 5938 Classes are free and open to all

THEOSOPHY HALL 347 East 72 Street 020 7723 0688 www.ultlon.freeserve.co.uk New York, NY 10021 (212) 535-2230 Karma & Reincarnation E-mail: [email protected] The twin doctrines of Theosophy, a mode of All meetings are free. No collections, fees or dues. Discussion — Multi-Media living common to the great sages, adepts and Monday Night Masters who live by the Great Ideal - to benefit 7:30-9:00pm humanity. One humanity, one goal, one Truth Investigation of the unexplained laws of Universal Brotherhood means unity through diversity Nature, and the psychical powers latent in and mutual respect; its absence is the cause man. of violence and suffering. Free Study Materials Provided Individuality and Interdependence • Meditation & Raja Yoga “We should aim at creating free men & women, free • Dreams and the Dreamer intellectually, free morally, unprejudiced in • Karma and Reincarnation all respects, and above all things, unselfish.” • Places After Death • Spiritual and Psychic Realms “the rational explanation of things…” • A Relationship with God H.P.Blavatsky, a great Occultist of the modern age • Science and Psi Phenomena All welcome to study Theosophy THEOSOPHY HALL 347 East 72 Street, NY NY 10021 • Talks & meetings ~ discussions with questions Doors Open at 6:45PM • Study Group – Wednesdays 7pm from Oct 6th Phone: (212) 535-2230 Bhagavad Gita & Fundamental Theosophical studies Refreshments Served • Correspondence Course – by post or email Current topics: Contrasting ancient contact ULT at [email protected] theosophical teachings with the standard scientific view of the world, and current psi phenomena. Including distance viewing, crop circles, remembering past lives, etc. Texts include , Isis Unveiled and other original Theosophical sources. ______The Bhagavad-Gita From the Writings of Wed. Night — 7:30-8:45 HP Blavatsky & WQ Judge Free Study Materials Provided Interactive Study Class The ancient psychology of the East and its Every other Sunday 10:30 — 12:00 application in this “era of Western Occultism.” Located at: SPANISH STUDY CLASS rd “Ecos del Oriente”, by Wm.Q. Judge NY TS 240-242 E 53 Street, The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 10 Meets the first two Wednesdays of the month THEOSOPHY HALL 347 East 72 Street, NY, NY 10021 United Lodge of Theosophists Doors Open at 6:45PM 4865 Cordell Avenue, Suite 4 Phone: (212) 535-2230 Bethesda, MD 20814 THE United Lodge of Theosophists phone (301) 656-3566 “Maitri Bhavan” 4, Sir Krishna Rao Road, Near web: www.ultdc.org Lalbagh West Gate, — Basavanagudi, Bangalore-560 004. Meetings: Sundays 11 a.m. to 12 noon (Lectures followed by questions and answers, or group discussions.) ======THEOSOPHY Den TEOSOFISKA Secret Doctrine Classes Ursprungliga Undervisningen Sunday 10:30am - 12:00 UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS, Malmölogen

Theosophy Discovery Circle, New York City Kungsgatan 16 A, 211 49 Malmö, tel. 0709 26 22 12 240-242 E. 53rd St [between 2nd & 3rd Ave.] Monday 7:30 to 9 pm TEOSOFISKA FÖREDRAG

nd Stiftelsen Teosofiska Kompaniet New York ULT 347 East 72 Street, NY United Lodge of Theosophists – Malmölogen Peter Bernin, Roslinsväg 6, 217 55 Malmö Wednesday 2 to 4 pm +46 (0)709 26 2212 Antwerp ULT, Belgium hemsida: www.teosofiskakompaniet.net Wednesday 7:30 to 8:45 pm email: [email protected] Los Angeles ULT Saturday 10 am to 12 noon — The Wind Horse Phoenix ULT Long Beach — First Saturday of every month THEOSOPHY HALL — -77 W. ENCANTO BLVD. Wednesday — Bangalore ULT, India PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85003 Wednesday: 6p.m. — 7.30p.m. Phone 602-290-0563 Athens 10680, GREECE PROGRAM - 2004―2005 60 Charilaou Trikoupi Str — 3rd floor SUNDAY EVENINGS 7:00 - 7:45 P.M. Universal Theosophy by Robert Crosbie LOGIE UNIE DES THÉOSOPHES 8:00 — 8:45 P.M. Loge Unie des Théosophes Study, read, question, discuss, discover, the Teaching and 11 bis, rue Kepler – 75116 Paris, FRANCE Philosophy of Theosophy Conferences Mercredis, 19 h 30 – 20 h 45 IN:

THE SECRET DOCTRINE by H.P. Blavatsky Loge Unie des Théosophes Douala Camaroon B.P. 11372 Douala Localisation Ndog - Bong Heures d’ouverture: mercedi 19h – 20 h 15 Samedi 19h – 20 h 15 United Lodge of Theosophists Toutes les activités de la Loge sont libres et gratuites 799 Adelaide Street Les reunions commencent et se terminent aux heures London, Ontario N5Y 2L8 précises indiquées CANADA La Loge est maintenue en activité par des participations bénévoles Wednesday Evening 7:30 to 8:45 PM Tel: 40-76-72 ______The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 11 A study of , the ”Proem” from The Secret Doctrine, and Raja Yoga and Occultism.

Sunday Nov. 20 “Karmic Law” Sunday Dec. 18 The Eternal Pilgrim” Sunday Jan. 15 “Evolution” Sunday Feb. 12 “The Sevenfold Man” Sunday March 12 “The Symbolic Egg” Sunday April 9 “Magic Through the Ages” Sunday May 7 “White Lotus Day”

Sunday Evening — 7:00 to 8:00 PM Isis Unveiled by H. P. Blavatsky

Email contact: Laura Gray at [email protected] HPB DEFENSE FUND REPORT $10,000.00 FUND RAISING EFFORT FOR PUBLISHING AN AUTHENTIC VOLUME I OF HPB’s Letters. Cumulative gifts as of November 10, 2005 ER 500.00 Anonymous 50.00 DLJ 50.00 EPB 200.00 MRJ 50.00 Desire no results which are forms of power. Desire only, in your efforts, to reach DLJ 100.00 nearer to the centre of life (which is the same in RD 250.00 the Universe and in yourself) which makes you Anonymous 50.00 careless whether you are strong or weak, learned PHX 500.00 or unlearned. It is your divinity; it is the Anonymous 20.00 divinity we all share. Anonymous 20.00 Master’s letter to Mr. Judge Anonymous 500.00 RD 500.00 THE AQUARIAN THEOSOPHIST is a GR 1,248.00 CR 50.00 computer generated magazine with a EPB 300.00 major issue and supplement each month. Anonymous 20.00 When received as an email attachment, it James & Sally Colbert 50.00 Anonymous 100.00 is free. Anonymous 25.00 APGr 500.00 The magazine has a small hardcopy DB 50.00 list to which one may subscribe at $30 per Friends in India 100.00 year, domestic; and $40 per year Pacific Rim Theosophist 10.00 international. All subscriptions outside GB 30.00 Anonymous 25.00 The United States travel airmail. It is GLS 500.00 NOT self-supporting and subsists on KS 500.00 donations to cover the shortfall. The Anonymous 200.00 address for articles, correspondence and Anonymous 200.00 subscriptions and/or donations is: A. B. 50.00 TOTAL AS OF December 15, 2005 6,748.00

The Aquarian Theosophist The HPB Defense Fund is specifically dedicated 245 West 33rd Street to the publication of an authentic Volume I of Madame Blavatsky’s letters. The proposed Los Angeles, CA 90007-4108 volume will have the fraudulent letters in the U. S. A. current Adyar edition removed and also take note of other authors who follow the practice of mixing lies side by side with truth as if they were equally relevant. It is our intent to equip the student and The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 12 inquirer with eyes to discriminate the authentic publicity as he can to the libels originally from the fraudulent, the clean from the corrupt. invented against H. P. Blavatsky more A good companion volume for a historical than one century ago. overview of the life of Madame Blavatsky. Is already in print: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of .” (600+ pages). These people typically write against This volume is by far the most readable and best those who live and who stimulate the 1 documented work available. — ED., A.T. search for inner learning or for lay

“She has no need of any man’s praise; but even she discipleship along the lines established by has need of Justice.” William Q. Judge H.P.B. and her Masters. Such efforts are not new, and they are not original. We have had persons of this type attacking HPB's work all the time since the mid-1880s. We also have had people successfully defending

THE INNER LEVELS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT: Theosophy all along. Yet — there is something sad about this. EVERY CHALLENGE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. The very existence of students who try to live up to the inner side of H.P.B.'s by Carlos Cardoso Aveline Teachings seems to gravely offend these Dear Editor, poor people. This is unfortunate. No sincere student could ever aim at that. One writer who presents himself as a student of Helena Blavatsky has written One can only wish that all these one or two articles in a website aggressive and anxious skeptics will suggesting that Mr. Robert Crosbie broke understand and accept the existence of the vows he had made as a student of the such a thing as an life and spiritual Esoteric School founded by H.P.B. in the path. 19th century. I wish they could see that there is an Such writers tend to appear from inner level of study and action which time to time in several countries. They must be kept to those who have freely tend to publish long, high-sounding decided to pledge themselves to their own articles about things of which they know hearts to try to improve themselves — and nothing. By doing this, they add extra who have made a commitment to help weight to the well-known verses in the each other along that old, steep and "Tao Te King": narrow way to Eternal Wisdom. "Those who know, don't talk. The lack of respect that these Those who talk, don't know." skeptics seem to show for the inner At least one of such persons has instances of the theosophical movement recently gone beyond discussing occult might be connected to a lack of respect facts of which he knows nothing. He has they have for their own inner been sending long letters to a number of consciousness and conscience. students in several countries, anxiously It follows that to wish them well, defending his decision to give as much and to send them good thoughts, is part of our task.

1 It is offered at a discount to subscribers: $20 for On the other hand, our mission also the hardback version; $15 for the softback; and is also available online at includes actively preserving the www.theosociety.org/pasadena/tup/-onl.htm movement and the Teaching from these The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 13 occult successors of the 19th century Information, since is presented as slanderers Vsevolod Solovyov, Emma Updated Information. Coulomb and others. 2. Discarded Information. Discarded It is not a coincidence that both many, many years ago. Solovyov and the Coulombs, as well as 3. Non Extant Information Physically. their 21st century successors, first infiltrated the theosophical movement, 4. Mixing lies, with Truth. and only then started to attack H.P.B. and The above makes me think they the Masters' work from inside the should better be considered as: theosophical circles. THE ALGEO LETTERS. As paradoxes are part of the occult life, there is a bright side to this. If he presents them as “true,” or “maybe true,” or “might be true,” or “I Esoteric philosophy states that great think they may be true,” or whatever opportunities are generally in direct words he may use, whether they are false proportion to the difficulty of challenges. or true, then the name becomes Therefore, putting a limit to the appropriate. slanderous action of "modern" skeptics John Charles Bartlett may be a golden opportunity now available to earnest students worldwide. Best regards, A letter from Odin to a correspondent------Carlos Cardoso Aveline, from Brazil. John, I enjoyed your article — certainly is apropos to the mass media controversy. But for my “elevated Theosophical taste” too much of a materialistic-existentialist bent. No allowance for life's little perplexities. Utility aside, bird nests are "imperfect" by strict geometrical and mathematical standards — yet it is their very imperfection (or can we say "lack of CORRESPONDENCE perfect symmetry") that endows them with their compelling natural beauty. Not “Revelator, priest, and dogmatist to mention intelligently designed. are foreign to the spirit of Theosophy.” You didn't address the Secret “THE ALGEO LETTERS” Doctrine position which is that Intelligent Design, although rejecting fortuitousness Dear Editor, The Aquarian Theosophist: is not a perfect process.

Regarding Mr. ’s work THE Reed Carson in the last BN HPB LETTERS Vol. I. TPH. As I understand Newsletter noted that Theosophy it, this work contains the following definitely grants to Darwinism the power characteristics: to explain some micro-evolution. But after that concession, it describes 1. Outdated information. Which fact Darwinism as only a "minor" law. makes them to become Tricky The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 14 “The fact is, that only the partial phenomenon is an evident purpose. Some truth of many of the secondary ‘laws’ of intelligence, human, alien or spiritual, is Darwinism is beyond question…" (SD ii, in the process of communication. The 662) secret circle-makers seem to be exposing us to a course of re-education, beginning Concerning “imperfections” the SD with the symbols of sacred knowledge teaches: and wisdom. “…it is those terrestrial spirits of Nature, They are too perfect to be who form the aggregated Nature; which, accidental. What shall we do? Just ignore if it fails occasionally in its design, is them because their origin cannot be neither to be considered blind, nor to be proved or disproved? taxed with the failure; since, belonging to a differentiated sum of qualities and Odin attributes, it is in virtue of that alone conditioned and imperfect.” (SD ii, 732-

3) NEWS FROM ULT — ATHENS, GREECE “As that process is not always perfect; and since, however many proofs Hello Will and Jerome, it may exhibit of a guiding intelligence behind the veil, it still shows gaps and LATEST NEWS FROM ATHENS: flaws, and even results very often in evident failures. I am looking forward to the beginning of W.J.C Course. Therefore, neither the collective Will, thank you for sending me your Host (Demiurgos), nor any of the working 1 powers individually, are proper subjects telephone numbers. for divine honours or worship. Chris Bartzokas' book, Compassion: It now becomes plain that there the truth at the heart of our universe, is exists in Nature a triple evolutionary already on line, on www.theosophy.gr, scheme, for the formation of the three wherefrom it can be downloaded by periodical Upadhis; or rather three anyone interested. Would you care to let separate schemes of evolution, which in it be known to the other ULTS? our system are inextricably interwoven Jerome, what would you say on it?2 and interblended at every point. I believe it is a well written Theosophical These are the Monadic (or spiritual), book. It is a compilation of selected the intellectual, and the physical excerpts from the Ageless Wisdom. evolutions.” Let me take the occasion to inform Each of these three systems has its you about Theosophical Studies Program own laws ... ‘Nature,’ the physical locally organised by the Athens ULT. I evolutionary Power, could never evolve am sending you the announcement so that intelligence unaided-she can only create you get a rough idea. I think it will be ‘senseless forms,’” (SD I, 182).

Care to take on the crop circles? 1 We gave them to Aspasia. The crop formations are the finest, 2 It is an excellent BOOK!!. A review of it will be most beautiful and original art forms of forthcoming. We heartily recommend it to any studnet for whom the word “Compassion” or

modern times, and they are totally “Nirmanakaya” causes a thrill in their heart. — ED., mysterious. Behind the crop circle A.T. The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 15 helpful for those who live away from visited us and assisted in two meetings. Athens. The husband has been an associate of the ULT since 1946 and he told us he had "Theosophy is the Spiritual made the acquaintance of Wadia. Knowledge conveyed to humanity and aiming at its intellectual and spiritual We have exchanged mailing advancement. The re-appearance of this addresses as well as pieces of information age-long wisdom through the but they had no idea about the work being Theosophical Movement and the writings done through the Internet. of H. P. Blavatsky, by directing the world's interest to esoteric knowledge, My warm regards has given today's researcher the Aspasia Papadomichelaki possibility to understand the conditions of ATHENS, GREECE both individual and universal evolution and, by so doing, to become aware of the purpose of life. In a series of monthly meetings, the "Theosophical Studies" program presents the most important Theosophical topics in a comprehensive and explicit way and intends to spread spiritual knowledge by helping ordinary people understand and assimilate it. The program comprises the following subjects: about the Soul, the law of Cycles, after death existence, devachan and nirvana, the causes of rebirth, occult evolution, rounds and chains, Masters of Wisdom, psychic phenomena, self-knowledge, Theosophy and science etc. The study is based on the writings of H. P. Blavatsky and W. GENIUS Judge. by H. P. Blavatsky The meetings will be taking place at the Athens ULT premises, from 10.30a.m. Genius! thou gift of Heaven, thou light divine! to 3.30 p.m. on the following Sundays: Amid what dangers art thou doom'd to shine. Oft will the body's weakness check thy force, January 29, Oft damp thy vigour, and impede thy course; And trembling nerves compel thee to restrain February 26, Thy nobler efforts to contend with pain; April 2, Or want, sad guest! . . . May 28, — CRABBE October 22, December 3, 2006. AMONG many problems hitherto Admittance Free" unsolved in the Mystery of Mind, stands prominent the question of Genius. If you want more information about Whence, and what is genius, its raison the above, I will gladly give it to you. d'être, the causes of its excessive rarity? Is it indeed "a gift of Heaven"? And if so, Last week we met a Greek- why such gifts to one, and dullness of American couple from the N.Y. ULT who The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 16 intellect, or even idiocy, the doom of keeps on weaving new life-woofs into the another? To regard the appearance of men web of reincarnation on the loom of time, and women of genius as a mere accident, from the beginnings to the ends of the a prize of blind chance, or, as dependent great Life-Cycle.1 on physical causes alone, is only thinkable to a materialist. As an author This it is that asserts itself stronger truly says, there remains then, only this than in the average man, through its alternative: to agree with the believer in a personality; so that what we call "the personal god "to refer the appearance of manifestations of genius" in a person, are every single individual to a special act of only the more or less successful efforts of divine will and creative energy," or "to that EGO to assert itself on the outward recognize, in the whole succession of of its objective form--the man of such individuals, one great act of some clay--in the matter-of-fact, daily life of will, expressed in an eternal inviolable the latter. law." The EGOS of a Newton, an Genius, as Coleridge defined it, is Æschylus, or a Shakespeare, are of the certainly--to every outward appearance, at same essence and substance as the Egos least--"the faculty of growth"; yet to the of a yokel, an ignoramus, a fool, or even inward intuition of man, it is a question an idiot; and the self-assertion of their whether it is genius--an abnormal aptitude informing genii depends on the of mind--that develops and grows, or the physiological and material construction of physical brain, its vehicle, which becomes the physical man. through some mysterious process fitter to No Ego differs from another Ego, in receive and manifest from within its primordial or original essence and outwardly the innate and divine nature of nature. man's over-soul. Perchance, in their unsophisticated wisdom, the philosophers That which makes one mortal a of old were nearer truth than are our great man and of another a vulgar, silly modern wiseacres, when they endowed person is, as said, the quality and make- man with a tutelar deity, a Spirit whom up of the physical shell or casing, and the they called genius. The substance of this adequacy or inadequacy of brain and body entity, to say nothing of its essence — to transmit and give expression to the observe the distinction, reader, — and the light of the real, Inner man; and this presence of both, manifests itself aptness or in aptness is, in its turn, the according to the organism of the person it result of Karma. informs. As Shakespeare says of the genius of great men — what we perceive Or, to use another simile, physical of his substance "is not here"— man is the musical instrument, and the Ego, the performing artist. The For what you see is but the smallest part. . . . potentiality of perfect melody of sound, is But were the whole frame here, in the former--the instrument--and no It is of such a spacious, lofty pitch, Your roof were not sufficient to contain it. . . . skill of the latter can awaken a faultless harmony out of a broken or badly made instrument. This harmony depends on the This is precisely what the Esoteric fidelity of transmission, by word or act, to philosophy teaches. the objective plane, of the unspoken

The flame of genius is lit by no anthropomorphic hand, save that of one's own Spirit. It is the very nature of the 1 The period of one full Manvantara composed of Spiritual Entity itself, of our Ego, which Seven Rounds. The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 17 divine thought in the very depths of man's Bible as "Princes")--whose official duty it subjective or inner nature. Physical man was to prepare the city for such may — to follow our simile — be a processions, were ignorant of the true priceless Stradivarius or a cheap and significance of the alleged "worship"? cracked fiddle, or again a mediocrity between the two, in the hands of the Verily was Paul right in declaring Paganini who ensouls him. that "we speak wisdom . . . not the wisdom of this world . . . which none of All ancient nations knew this. But the Archons of this (profane) world though all had their Mysteries and their knew," but the hidden wisdom of the Hierophants, not all could be equally MYSTERIES. For, as again the Epistle of taught the great metaphysical doctrine; the apostle implies, the language of the and while a few elect received such truths Initiates and their secrets no profane, not at their , the masses were even an "Archon" or ruler outside the fane allowed to approach them with the of the sacred Mysteries, knoweth; none greatest caution and only within the "save the Spirit of man (the Ego) which is farthest limits of fact. in him." (Ib. v, II.)

"From the DIVINE ALL proceeded Were Chapters II and III of I Amun, the Divine Wisdom . . . give it not Corinthians ever translated in the Spirit in to the unworthy," says a Book of Hermes. which they were written — even their 1 Paul, the "wise Master-Builder," (I Cor. dead letter is now disfigured — the world III, 10) but echoes Thoth-Hermes when might receive strange revelations. telling the Corinthians "We speak Among other things it would have a key Wisdom among them that are perfect (the to many hitherto unexplained rites of initiated) . . . divine Wisdom in a ancient Paganism, one of which is the MYSTERY, even the hidden Wisdom." mystery of this same Hero-worship. And (Ibid. II, 7.) it would learn that if the streets of the city that honoured one such man were strewn Yet, to this day the Ancients are with roses for the passage of the Hero of accused of blasphemy and fetishism for the day, if every citizen was called to bow their "hero worship." But have the in reverence to him who was so feasted, modern historians ever fathomed the and if both priest and poet vied in their cause of such "worship"! We believe not. zeal to immortalize the hero's name after Otherwise they would be the first to his death--occult philosophy tells us the become aware that that which was reason why this was done. "worshipped," or rather that to which honours were rendered was neither the "Behold," it saith, "in every man of clay, nor the personality--the Hero manifestation of genius — when combined or Saint So-and-So, which still prevails with virtue — in the warrior or the Bard, on the Roman Church, a church which the great painter, artist, statesman or man beatifies the body rather than the soul-- of Science, who soars high above the but the divine imprisoned Spirit, the heads of the vulgar herd, the undeniable exiled "god" within that personality. presence of the celestial exile, the divine Who, in the profane world, is aware that Ego whose jailor thou art, Oh man of even the majority of the magistrates (the matter!" Archons of Athens, mistranslated in the Thus, that which we call deification applied to the immortal God within, not to the dead walls of the human tabernacle 1 A term absolutely theurgic, masonic and occult. Paul, by using it, declares himself an Initiate that contained him. And this was done in having the right to initiate others. tacit and silent recognition of the efforts The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 18 made by the divine captive who, under later, and the more it will have been the most adverse circumstances of suppressed and hidden, the greater will be incarnation, still succeeded in manifesting the flood of light thrown by the sudden himself. eruption. On the other hand artificial genius, so often confused with the former, Occultism, therefore, teaches and which, in truth, is but the outcome of nothing new in asserting the above long studies and training, will never be philosophical axiom. Enlarging upon the more than, so to say, the flame of a lamp broad metaphysical truism, it only gives it burning outside the portal of the fane; it a finishing touch by explaining certain may throw a long trail of light across details. road, but it leaves the inside of the building in darkness. It teaches, for instance, that the presence in man of various creative And, as every faculty and property powers--called genius in their collection-- in Nature is dual — i.e., each may be is due to no blind chance, to no innate made to serve two ends, evil as well as qualities through hereditary tendencies-- good — so will artificial genius betray though that which is known as atavism itself. Born out of the chaos of terrestrial may often intensify these faculties --but sensations, of perceptive and retentive to an accumulation of individual faculties, yet of finite memory, it will antecedent experiences of the Ego in its ever remain the slave of its body; and that preceding life, and lives. For, though body, owing to its unreliability and the omniscient in its essence and nature, it natural tendency of matter to confusion, still requires experience through its will not fail to lead even the greatest personalities of the things of earth, earthy genius, so called, back into its own on the objective plane, in order to apply primordial element, which is chaos again, the fruition of that abstract omniscience or evil, or earth. to them. And, adds our philosophy — the cultivation of certain aptitudes throughout Thus between the true and the a long series of past incarnations must artificial genius, one born from the light finally culminate in some one life, in a of the immortal Ego, the other from the blooming forth as genius, in one or evanescent will-o'-the-wisp of the another direction. terrestrial or purely human intellect and the animal soul, there is a chasm, to be Great Genius, therefore, if true and spanned only by him who aspires ever innate, and not merely an abnormal onward; who never loses sight, even when expansion of our human intellect--can in the depths of matter, of that guiding never copy or condescend to imitate, but star the Divine Soul and mind, or what we will ever be original, sui generis in its call Buddhi-Manas. creative impulses and realizations. The latter does not require, as does Like those gigantic Indian lilies that the former, cultivation. The words of the shoot out from the clefts and fissures of poet who asserts that the lamp of genius-- the cloud-nursing, and bare rocks on the highest plateaux of the Nilgiri Hills, true If not protected, pruned, and fed with care, Genius needs but an opportunity to spring Soon dies, or runs to waste with fitful glare— forth into existence and blossom in the sight of all in the most arid soil, for its — can apply only to artificial stamp is always unmistakable. genius, the outcome of culture and of purely intellectual acuteness. To use a popular saying, innate genius, like murder, will out sooner or The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 19 It is not the direct light of the cultivation," says one; "Genius is vain Manasa putra, the "Sons of Wisdom," for and self-sufficient" declares another; true genius lit at the flame of our higher while a third will go on defining the nature, or the EGO, cannot die. divine light but to dwarf it on the Procrustean bed of his own intellectual This is why it is so very rare. narrow-mindedness. He will talk of the Lavater calculated that "the proportion of great eccentricity of genius, and allying it genius (in general) to the vulgar, is like as a general rule with an "inflammable one to a million; but genius without constitution," will even show it "a prey to tyranny, without pretension, that judges every passion but seldom delicacy of the weak with equity, the superior with taste!" (Lord Kaimes.) It is useless to humanity, and equals with justice, is like argue with such, or tell them that, one in ten millions." This is indeed original, and great genius puts out the interesting, though not too complimentary most dazzling rays of human to human nature, if, by "genius," Lavater intellectuality, as the sun quenches the had in mind only the higher sort of human flame-light of a fire in an open field; that intellect, unfolded by cultivation, it is never eccentric, though always sui "protected, pruned, and fed," and not the generis; and that no man endowed with genius we speak of. Moreover such true genius can ever give way to his genius is always apt to lead to the physical animal passions. extremes of weal or woe him through whom this artificial light of the terrestrial In the view of an humble Occultist, mind manifests. Like the good and bad only such a grand altruistic character as genii of old with whom human genius is that of Buddha or Jesus, and of their few made so appropriately to share the name, close imitators, can be regarded, in our it takes its helpless possessor by the hand historical cycle, as fully developed and leads him, one day to the pinnacles of GENIUS. fame, fortune, and glory, but to plunge him on the following day into an abyss of Hence, true genius has small chance shame, despair, often of crime. indeed of receiving its due in our age of conventionalities, hypocrisy and time- But as, according to the great serving. As the world grows in Physiognomist, there is more of the civilization, it expands in fierce former than of the latter kind of genius in selfishness, and stones its true prophets this our world, because, as Occultism and geniuses for the benefit of its aping teaches us, it is easier for the personality shadows. with its acute physical senses and tatwas to gravitate toward the lower quaternary Alone the surging masses of the than to soar to its triad--modern ignorant millions, the great people's philosophy, though quite proficient in heart, arc capable of sensing intuitionally treating this lower place of genius, knows a true "great soul" full of divine love for nothing of its higher spiritual form--the mankind, of god-like compassion for "one in ten millions." suffering man. Thus it is only natural that Hence the populace alone is still confusing one with the other, the best capable of recognizing a genius, as modern writers should have failed to without such qualities no man has a right define true genius. As a consequence, we to the name. continually hear and read a good deal of No genius can be now found in that which to the Occultist seems quite Church or State, and this is proven on paradoxical. "Genius requires their own admission. It seems a long time The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 20 since in the XIII century the "Angelic legends attaching themselves to so unique Doctor" snubbed Pope Innocent IV who, a character, dogging and even surviving boasting of the millions got by him from him. the sale of absolutions and indulgences, remarked to Aquinas that "the age of the Yet it is the unsophisticated alone, Church is past in which she said 'Silver and therefore only the so-called and gold have I none'!" "True," was the uneducated masses, just because of that ready reply; "but the age is also past when lack of sophistical reasoning in them, who she could say to a paralytic, 'Rise up and feel, whenever coming in contact with an walk'." abnormal, out-of-the-way character, that there is in him something more than the And yet from that time, and far, far mere mortal man of flesh and intellectual earlier, to our own day the hourly attributes. crucifixion of their ideal Master both by Church and State has never ceased. And feeling themselves in the While every Christian State breaks with presence of that which in the enormous its laws and customs, with every majority is ever hidden, of something commandment given in the Sermon on the incomprehensible to their matter-or-fact Mount, the Christian Church justifies and minds, they experience the same awe that approves of this through her own Bishops popular masses felt in days of old when who despairingly proclaim "A Christian their fancy, often more unerring than State impossible on Christian Principles." cultured reason, created of their heroes Hence — no Christ-like (or "Buddha- gods, teaching: like") way of life is possible in civilized . . . . The weak to bend, the proud to pray States. To powers unseen and mightier than they . . .

The occultist then, to whom "true This is now called SUPERSTITION . . genius is a synonym of self-existent and infinite mind," mirrored more or less But what is Superstition? True, we faithfully by man, fails to find in the dread that which we cannot clearly modern definitions of the term anything explain to ourselves. Like children in the approaching correctness. In its turn the dark we are all of us apt, the educated esoteric interpretation of Theosophy is equally with the ignorant, to people that sure to be received with derision. darkness with phantoms of our own creation; but these "phantoms" prove in The very idea that every man with a no wise that that "darkness" — which is "soul" in him is the vehicle of a genius only another term for the invisible and the will appear supremely absurd, even to unseen — is really empty of any Presence believers, while the materialist will fall save our own. So that if in its foul of it as a "crass superstition." As to exaggerated form, "superstition" is a the popular feeling — the only weird incubus, as a belief in things above approximately correct one because purely and beyond our physical senses, yet it is intuitional, it will not be even taken into also a modest acknowledgement that there account. are things in the universe, and around us, of which we know nothing. In this sense The same elastic and convenient "superstition" becomes not an epithet "superstition" will, once more, be unreasonable feeling of half wonder and made to explain why there never was yet half dread, mixed with admiration and a universally recognised genius — reverence, or with fear, according to the whether of one or the other kind — dictates of our intuition. And this is far without a certain amount of weird, more reasonable than to repeat with the fantastic and often uncanny, tales and The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 21 too-learned wiseacres that there is nothing while.’ And the Earth strengthening "nothing whatever, in that darkness"; nor her status, none to her detriment, sent can there be anything since they, the her genius to breathe of her breath on wiseacres, have failed to discern it. Simon, while he breathed on her; and the stars rejoiced to be visited by the E pur se muove! Where there is mighty One.” smoke there must be fire; where there is a steamy vapour there must be water. Our The starting-point here is the claim rests but upon one eternal axiomatic recognized electro-chemical principle truth: nihil sine causa. [Lt. There is that bodies similarly electrified repel nothing without a cause] Genius and each other, while those differently undeserved suffering, prove an electrified mutually attract. “The most immortal Ego and Reincarnation in our elementary knowledge of chemistry,” world. As for the rest, i.e., the obloquy says Professor Cooke, “shows that, and derision with which such while radicals of opposite natures theosophical doctrines are met, Fielding combine most eagerly together, two — a sort of Genius in his way, too — has metals, or two closely-allied covered our answer over a century ago. metalloids, show but little affinity for Never did he utter a greater truth than on each other.” the day he wrote that "If superstition The earth is a magnetic body; in fact, makes a man a fool, SKEPTICISM MAKES as some scientists have found, it is one HIM MAD." vast magnet, as Paracelsus affirmed some 300 years ago. It is charged with Lucifer, November, 1889 one form of electricity — let us call it positive — which it evolves

continuously by spontaneous action, in its interior or centre of motion. Human bodies, in common with all ÆTHROBACY, is the Greek other forms of matter, are charged with name for walking or being lifted in the the opposite form of electricity — air; levitation, so called, among negative. That is to say, organic or modern spiritualists. It may be either inorganic bodies, if left to themselves conscious or unconscious; in the one will constantly and involuntarily case, it is magic; in the other, either charge themselves with, and evolve the disease or a power which requires a form of electricity opposed to that of few words of elucidation. the earth itself. Now, what is weight? A symbolical explanation of Simply the attraction of the earth. æthrobacy is given in an old Syriac “Without the attractions of the earth manuscript which was translated in the you would have no weight,” says fifteenth century by one Malchus, an Professor Stewart; * “and if you had alchemist. In connection with the case an earth twice as heavy as this, you of Simon Magus, one passage reads would have double the attraction.” thus: How then, can we get rid of this attraction? According to the electrical “Simon, laying his face upon the law above stated, there is an attraction ground, whispered in her ear, ‘O between our planet and the organisms mother Earth, give me, I pray thee, upon it, which holds them upon the some of thy breath; and I will give thee surface of the ground. But the law of mine; let me loose, ‘O mother, that I gravitation has been counteracted in may carry thy words to the stars, and I many instances, by levitations of will return faithfully to thee after a persons and inanimate objects; how The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 22 account for this? The condition of our nevertheless, there are phenomena in physical systems, say theurgic which, by means of material forces, philosophers, is largely dependent gravitation is overcome. In several upon the action of our will. If well- diseases — as, for instance, nervous regulated, it can produce “miracles”; fever — the weight of the human body among others a change of this seems to be increased, but in all electrical polarity from negative to ecstatic conditions to be diminished. positive; the man’s relations with the And there may, likewise, be other earth-magnet would then become forces than material ones which can repellent, and “gravity” for him would counteract this power.” have ceased to exist. It would then be A Madrid journal, El Criterio as natural for him to rush into the air Espiritista, of a recent date, reports the until the repellent force had exhausted case of a young peasant girl near itself, as, before, it had been for him to Santiago, which possesses a peculiar remain upon the ground. The altitude interest in this connection. “Two bars of his levitation would be measured by of magnetized iron held over her his ability, greater or less, to charge his horizontally, half a metre distant, was body with positive electricity. This sufficient to suspend her body in the control over the physical forces once air.” obtained, alteration of his levity or gravity would be as easy as breathing. Were our physicians to experiment on such levitated subjects, it would be The study of nervous diseases has found that they are strongly charged established that even in ordinary with a similar form of electricity to somnambulism, as well as in that of the spot, which, according to mesmerized somnambulists, the the law of gravitation, ought to attract weight of the body seems to be them, or rather prevent their levitation. diminished. Professor Perty mentions And, if some physical nervous a somnambulist, Koehler, who when in disorder, as well as spiritual ecstasy the water could not sink, but floated. produce unconsciously to the subject The seeress of Prevorst rose to the the same effects, it proves that if this surface of the bath and could not be force in nature were properly studied, kept seated in it. He speaks of Anna it could be regulated at will. Fleisher, who being subject to epileptic fits, was often seen by the Superintendent to rise in the air; and was once, in the presence of two Dust Storms on the trustworthy witnesses (two deans) and Moon others, raised two and a half yards An old Apollo experiment is telling from her bed in a horizontal position. researchers something new and surprising The similar case of Margaret Rule is about the moon. cited by Upham in his History of Salem Witchcraft. “In ecstatic December 7, 2005: Every lunar subjects,” adds Professor Perty, “the morning, when the sun first peeks over rising in the air occurs much more the dusty soil of the moon after two weeks frequently than with somnambulists. of frigid lunar night, a strange storm stirs We are so accustomed to consider the surface. gravitation as being a something The next time you see the moon, trace absolute and unalterable, that the idea your finger along the terminator, the of a complete or partial rising in dividing line between lunar night and day. opposition to it seems inadmissible; That's where the storm is. It's a long and The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 23 skinny dust storm, stretching all the way Even more surprising, Olhoeft continues, a from the north pole to the south pole, few hours after every lunar sunrise, the swirling across the surface, following the experiment's temperature rocketed so terminator as sunrise ceaselessly sweeps high--near that of boiling water--that around the moon. "LEAM had to be turned off because it was overheating." Never heard of it? Few have. But scientists are increasingly confident that Those strange observations could mean the storm is real. that "electrically-charged moondust was sticking to LEAM, darkening its surface so The evidence comes from an old Apollo the experiment package absorbed rather experiment called LEAM, short for Lunar than reflected sunlight," speculates Ejecta and Meteorites. "Apollo 17 Olhoeft. astronauts installed LEAM on the moon in 1972," explains Timothy Stubbs of the But nobody knows for sure. LEAM Solar System Exploration Division at operated for a very short time: only 620 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "It hours of data were gathered during the was designed to look for dust kicked up by icy lunar night and a mere 150 hours of small meteoroids hitting the moon's data from the blazing lunar day before its surface." sensors were turned off and the Apollo program ended. Billions of years ago, meteoroids hit the moon almost constantly, pulverizing rocks Astronauts may have seen the storms, and coating the moon's surface with their too. While orbiting the Moon, the crews of dusty debris. Indeed, this is the reason Apollo 8, 10, 12, and 17 sketched "bands" why the moon is so dusty. Today these or "twilight rays" where sunlight was impacts happen less often, but they still apparently filtering through dust above happen. the moon's surface. This happened before each lunar sunrise and just after each Apollo-era scientists wanted to know, how lunar sunset. NASA's Surveyor spacecraft much dust is ejected by daily impacts? also photographed twilight "horizon And what are the properties of that dust? glows," much like what the astronauts LEAM was to answer these questions using saw. three sensors that could record the speed, energy, and direction of tiny particles: one It's even possible that these storms have each pointing up, east, and west. been spotted from Earth: For centuries, there have been reports of strange LEAM's three-decade-old data are so glowing lights on the moon, known as intriguing, they're now being reexamined "lunar transient phenomena" or LTPs. by several independent groups of NASA Some LTPs have been observed as and university scientists. Gary Olhoeft, momentary flashes--now generally professor of geophysics at the Colorado accepted to be visible evidence of School of Mines in Golden, is one of them: meteoroids impacting the lunar surface. But others have appeared as amorphous "To everyone's surprise," says Olhoeft, reddish or whitish glows or even as dusky "LEAM saw a large number of particles hazy regions that change shape or every morning, mostly coming from the disappear over seconds or minutes. Early east or west--rather than above or below- explanations, never satisfactory, ranged -and mostly slower than speeds expected from volcanic gases to observers' for lunar ejecta." overactive imaginations (including visiting What could cause this? Stubbs has an extraterrestrials). idea: "The dayside of the moon is positively charged; the nightside is Now a new scientific explanation is gaining negatively charged." At the interface traction. "It may be that LTPs are caused between night and day, he explains, by sunlight reflecting off rising plumes of "electrostatically charged dust would be electrostatically lofted lunar dust," Olhoeft pushed across the terminator sideways," suggests. by horizontal electric fields. The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. VI, #4.5 ULT-Birthday Issue February 17, 2006 Page 24 All this matters to NASA because, by 2018 or so, astronauts are returning to the Moon. Unlike Apollo astronauts, who never experienced lunar sunrise, the next explorers are going to establish a permanent outpost. They'll be there in the morning when the storm sweeps by.

The wall of dust, if it exists, might be diaphanous, invisible, harmless. Or it could be a real problem, clogging spacesuits, coating surfaces and causing hardware to overheat.

Which will it be? Says Stubbs, "we've still got a lot to learn about the Moon."

Authors: Trudy E. Bell & Dr. Tony Phillips | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA