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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