Wednesday

BOOK “INITIATION HUMAN AND SOLAR” ANALYZED BY ALICE CLEATHER




Alice Cleather was one of the most outstanding disciples of Blavatsky, and on this book she wrote the following:



I note that it was first published in 1922, a year earlier than the publication of the Mahatma Letters, from which Mrs. Bailey makes several quotations in Cosmic Fire, published in 1925.

She has dedicated it "With Reverence and Gratitude to the Master Kuthumi," the idea obviously being to suggest that the contents were obtained, if not direct from the Master, at least gleaned from his teachings.

That this was most certainly not the source of the ideas of Mrs. Bailey, or the "Tibetan," must be evident from the following parallels:


Alice Bailey wrote:

« The question anent initiation is one that is coming more and more before the public.

Before many centuries pass the old mysteries will be restored, and in inner body will exist in the Church - the Church of the period, of which the nucleus is already forming - wherein the first initiation will become exoteric in this sense only, that the taking of the first initiation will, before so very long, be the most sacred ceremony of the Church, performed exoterically as one of the mysteries given at stated periods, attended by those concerned. It will also hold a similar place in the ritual of the Masons.

At this ceremony those ready for initiation will be publicly admitted to the Lodge by one of its members, authorized to do so by the great Hierophant himself. »
(Initiation Human and Solar, 1922, p.9)


On the other hand Master Kuthumi wrote:

« I will point out the greatest, the chief cause of nearly two-thirds of the evils that pursue humanity, ever since that cause became a power. It is religion under whatever form and in whatsoever nation. It is the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the Churches.

It is in those illusions that man looks upon as sacred, that he has to search out the source of that multitude of evils which is the great curse of humanity and that almost overwhelms mankind. Ignorance created Gods and cunning took advantage of the opportunity.

It is priestly imposture that rendered these Gods so terrible to man.

It is belief in God and Gods that makes two-thirds of humanity the slaves of a handful of those who deceive them under the false pretense of saving them. »
(Mahatma Letters, 1923, p.57)


It would appear that Mrs. Bailey too hastily took in vain the name of the Master, and must have felt somewhat disconcerted (as did Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater) on the appearance in print of the Master's real views about "God" and "the Church," etc.

Nothing daunted, however, and hearing in mind the sage advice to diplomats: "L'audace, l'audace, et toujours l'audace," she published her book A Treatise on Cosmic Fire in 1925, freely quoting from the Mahatma Letters, and peppering her pages with footnotes containing copious references to the Secret Doctrine which in most cases do not confirm her assertions, as anyone can see by looking them up.


Who is this "great Hierophant" of whom she speaks?

Can he perchance bear any relation to Mr. Leadbeater's "Supreme Director of Evolution on this globe"?


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

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

This, of course, at once identifies the Bailey school (as we have already seen in the book A Treatise on Cosmic Fire) with the Besant-Leadbeater perversions and delusions.

Mrs. Bailey says:

« Everywhere, They [the Masters collectively] are gathering in those who may in any way show a tendency to respond to high vibration, seeking to force their vibration and to fit them so that they may be of use at the time of the coming of the Christ. »
(Chapter 6)


Mrs. Bailey's idea of response to "high vibration" would presumably be identical with a "response" to her own "message," as she terms it in her opening chapter.

Another similarity with the Besant-Leadbeater school occurs in Chap. V, which contains the following:

« At the head of affairs stands the KING, the Lord of the World. . . . Co-operating with Him as His advisers are three Personalities called the Pratyeka Buddhas, or Buddhas of Activity. These four are the embodiment of active intelligent loving will. »
(Chapter 5)


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

Clearly, the Besant-Leadbeater teachings have largely inspired this later "false guide" - one more "blind leader of the blind."

These people, in fact - especially Mrs. Bailey – possess some of the requisites of a writer of fiction. But, "Oh, the pity of it," that it should need but barefaced and entirely unsupported assertions, coupled with the detailed descriptions so greedily absorbed by the novel reading public, to completely impose upon the foolish multitude.

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

And for all the supposed "knowledge," or "teaching," contained in these nineteen chapters nothing is offered in confirmation, testimony, or excuse, save in the "Introductory Remarks," where the writer declares that she does not arrogate to herself "any credit or personal authority for the knowledge implied," and emphatically disavows all such claims or representations. She cannot do otherwise than present these statements as matters of fact.

The unsophisticated enquirer might not unreasonably ask, Why?

The "claim," here so jesuiticaliy disavowed, is really there, though cleverly camouflaged. If these things are "matters of fact," why is no evidence whatever adduced?




CONCLUSION

Considered as an ingenious and highly imaginative work of occult fiction, the book possesses definite attractions. Other writers in the same field have produced actual novels dealing with the occult, e.g. A Brother of the Third Degree, Three Sevens, and many tales by later writers, all of which have won recognition from the fiction-reading public.

But, with the exception of C.W. Leadbeater, Mrs. Bailey is the first writer on occult subjects who has had the wit to present Fiction as Fact, thus winning at one stroke and with the greatest ease a certain following among the credulous, and presumably the financial backing so necessary for advertising purposes these days.

Her books, however, cannot be taken seriously by followers of Blavatsky's teachings, or as being any sort of contribution to genuine occult "knowledge."




(This text is part of the book “The pseudo-occultism of Alice Bailey” by Alice Leighton Cleather and Basil Crump.)














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