Thursday

BOOK “A TREATISE ON COSMIC FIRE” ANALYZED BY BASIL CRUMP



Basil Crump was a great knowledgeable on Theosophy and Buddhism, and about this book, he wrote the following:




INTRODUCTORY POSTULATES

These are stated to be “extensions of the three fundamentals to be found in the Proem in the first volume of The Secret Doctrine by H.P. Blavatsky.” But in reality Mrs. Bailey develops a whole cosmic scheme of her own, which includes a new set of so-called Stanzas of Dzyan, a Solar Logos also called “God,” a Triple Solar System consisting of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a Triple Human Being, and a triple Atom. Also Seven centres of Logoic Force, and Seven Rays which include those of “Love-Wisdom”, “Harmony, Beauty and Art,” and “Devotion and Abstract Idealism.”

The reader is constantly referred to passages in the Secret Doctrine, but very few of the terms used, e.g., “Love-Wisdom,” “Abstract Idealism,” “Logoic,” etc., etc., will be found there. My impression is that this is done to mislead the student into thinking that this work is on H.P. Blavatsky’s lines, whereas even a cursory examination shows that it is entirely different and is really designed very cleverly to lead the student away from the real teaching and confuse his mind with an imposing mass of apparently very learned information which really means little or nothing and leads nowhere.

The method is somewhat similar to, but less obvious and more clever than, that of C.W. Leadbeater, but I think that the power behind is the same, working with the same object on a different line for a more intellectual type of mind. It is of considerable significance that Leadbeater and Mrs. Besant are frequently quoted, and their Christ and World Teacher doctrines taken for granted.




MRS. BAILEY’S “TIBETAN TEACHER”

With regard to the source of Mrs. Bailey’s information, it has long been understood that she receives it in a psychic, telepathic, or inspirational form from a “Tibetan Teacher.” Referring to Cosmic Fire, a writer in the Canadian Theosophist for December, 1926, says:

“This material also has been received from the Tibetan Teacher – not by any automatic process but apparently in much the same way as The Secret Doctrine was written. . . . It is not a fanciful or arbitrary revelation, but rather a turning of what H.P. Blavatsky called the analogical key in the Secret Doctrine lock. The result is startling, almost as startling as the Secret Doctrine itself.”

He goes on to describe and praise Mrs. Bailey’s Arcane School, which is evidently intended as a successor to H.P. Blavatsky’s Esoteric School, with of course Mrs. Bailey as its “Outer Head” or mouthpiece for the “Tibetan Teacher.” The scheme for what one may call a new and improved (?) edition of H.P. Blavatsky’s work is therefore complete, and comment thereon is scarcely necessary. Conclusions may be drawn for the moment from the following notes:




GOD, THE LOGOS AND THE HIERARCHY

The word “God” is constantly used, and great stress is laid on the “Love Aspect of the Logos”; but the references given to the Secret Doctrine contain no such term. This sort of trick is found throughout the book; for in nearly every instance, on looking it up, the reference given uses different phraseology or has no application at all.

Thus, on p. 66, Fohat is stated to be “Love-Wisdom,” and a footnote refers to S.D. I, p. 100, 144, 155, (Besant Edition), but on looking them up one finds: p. 100 “Blazing Dragon of Wisdom”; p. 144, “Fohat, in his capacity of DIVINE LOVE (Eros) [“As in the oldest Grecian Cosmogony, differing widely from the later mythology, Eros is the third person in the primeval trinity: Chaos, Gaea, Eros. – S.D. I, p. 109.], the electric Power of affinity and sympathy”; p. 155, no mention of Fohat, Love, or Wisdom.

Next Mrs. Bailey says Fohat is “God” and refers to S.D. I, 167, but we there find in a footnote that what she calls “God” is “absolute Be-Ness, ‘SAT’.” And if we turn to p. 376 (352 Old Edition) we read: “When the Theosophists and Occultists say that God is no BEING, for IT is nothing, No-Thing, they are more reverential and religiously respectful to the Deity than those who call God a HE, and thus make of HIM a gigantic MALE.”

The question is dealt with at considerable length by The Master K.H. in Letter X, Mahatma Letters, p. 52, where he says “… we deny God both as philosophers and as Buddhists. We know there are planetary and other spiritual lives, and we know there is in our system no such thing as God, either personal or impersonal.”

One may search in vain for Mrs. Bailey’s “Ray of Love-Wisdom” in the S.D., and the references (p. 74) given to it concerning the “Love aspect of the Logos” contain nothing of the kind. These are only a few out of dozens of such examples in the two volumes.

At p. 91 the “Fourth Creative Hierarchy” is “male”, but surely creative power is male in any case. The word “Love” is used ad nauseam throughout the work and even the Ego is called the “Love Aspect” (147).




ASSERTION AND PROPHECY

Confident assertions are made as to what exactly will take place in future Rounds, e.g. “The Logos of our scheme, Sanat Kumara, will take a major initiation in the middle of the Fifth Round, but is preparing for a minor one at this time” (p. 374). According to the S.D. I, p. 456-7 there are seven Kumaras, who are the Solar angels that endowed man with his immortal Ego. Sanat Kumara (see Theos. Glossary, p. 289) is the most prominent of these, and therefore it is misleading to apply the name to the Logos. See also post p. 34.

Observe particularly that the Bailey scheme entirely ignores the Buddha Hierarchy emanating from Adi-Budha (S.D. I, 570) substituting the Solar Logos, the Trinity, and Seven Rays, one of which (“Love-Wisdom”) includes “The Christ, the World Teacher.” It is obvious therefore that, like Leadbeater, Mrs. Bailey is really working in the interests of the Christian system by introducing its terminology and concepts into works that are ostensibly expositions of the Esoteric Philosophy of the Masters and H.P.B., but are really cleverly masked Christian propaganda.

For instance, the Seven Dhyani Buddhas here become Seven Rays, under three of which (those of “Aspect”) are grouped various Masters, including those mentioned by H.P.B. and several others. The Christ comes first under the “Love-Wisdom Aspect” and “the Master Jesus” under the “Intelligence Aspect.” See elaborate Chart of “Solar and Planetary Hierarchies” with key on pp. 1238-9.




“THE MASTER JESUS”

Cosmic Fire positively bristles with pronouncements concerning the “Master Jesus”, e.g. p. 757 et seq.:

“… the coming of Him for whom all nations wait.”

“The Son of Man will again tread the highways of man and His physical incarnation will be fact.”

“The Master Jesus will take a physical vehicle and … effect a re-spiritualization of the Catholic Churches … about 1980”. (Here we have the sure sign of a certain influence which is also evident in the Besant-Leadbeater Liberal Catholic Church scheme.)

“Christ occupied the body of Jesus. … Few are as Christ is, and have the power to make a dual appearance. This type of monad is only found on Rays two, four, six.”

Compare this with what is said on the Buddha’s powers in the Mahatma Letters, p. 43, 47. See also p. 344 concerning “the real Christ of every Christian” and “the man Jeshu.” Neither the Masters nor H.P. Blavatsky ever write of the Christ as an individual Being, but always as a principle in man.




THE LOGOS IN FACT AND FICTION

The “Logos” is a very Prominent feature of this book, in various forms, such as “Cosmic,” “Solar,” “Planetary,” about all of which we are given intimate personal details, as to their “initiations,” “incarnations,” etc. Nothing of this kind is ever assumed in the Secret Doctrine.

As most people, outside this branch of study, do not know what a Logos is, and as Mrs. Bailey prefers assertion to exposition, I will give H.P. Blavatsky’s definition from her Theosophical Glossary: “LOGOS (Gr.) – The manifested deity with every nation and people; the outward expression, or the effect of the cause which is ever concealed. Thus, speech is the Logos of thought; hence it is aptly translated by the ‘Verbum’ or ‘Word’ in its metaphysical sense.”

In the Secret Doctrine, I, p. 573 (1st Ed.) we are told that “The Logos is the Iswara of the Hindus which the Vedantins say is the highest consciousness in nature – ‘the sum total of Dhyan-Chohanic consciousness’ according to the Occultists.” It will at once be seen how greatly these differ from Mrs. Bailey’s limited and personal conception. S.D. I, p. 571-2 should also be studied in this connection. Needless to say, no such idea as the “Initiation” of a Logos is to be found in the S.D.

There is an immense amount of this sort of thing, very much on the Leadbeater lines of pure assertion with implied authority in the background. How different from H.P. Blavatsky, of whom the Masters say in the Mahatma Letters, p. 289: “She had to bring the whole arsenal of proofs with her, quotations from Paul and Plato, from Plutarch and James, etc., before the Spiritualists admitted that the Theosophists were right.” Mrs. Bailey scorns such a method – she is content to assert, or her “Tibetan” is.

Prophecies and bold statements concerning evolution on the Earth abound in the book: e.g. p. 390: “An entirely new group of human beings will sweep into incarnation in our Earth scheme. … Entities will come in from Mars. … Mercurian life will begin to synthesize,” etc., in regular Leadbeater style. Presumably we are to regard these as examples of “turning the analogical key in the Secret Doctrine lock,” although nothing of the sort is to be found in that work.

Notwithstanding the unsparing condemnation of Spiritualism in the Mahatma Letters, we read at p. 456 (footnote) that “Master Hilarian (sic), a Cretan Master, is interested in the Spiritualistic movement.” Also that a “Hungarian Master, Rakoczi, is the Regent of Europe and America under the ‘Great White Brotherhood'” – a term coined by the Besant-Leadbeater doctrine and never used by H.P. Blavatsky. (See post, p. 33)




IGNORANCE CONCERNING THE BUDDHA

Considering that these teachings are supposed to come from a “Tibetan,” a remarkable ignorance is shown about the Buddha and his real standing in the Occult Hierarchy. For instance, we are told, at p. 210: “The Buddha held office prior to the present World Teacher and upon his Illumination His place was taken by Lord Maitreya whom the Occidentals call Christ” (p. 211, note).

This World Teacher, who is also called here “the Great Lord, the Christ,” is a specifically Leadbeater invention; so is the identification of Maitreya (the next Buddha) with the Christ, the object from the Christian propaganda standpoint being evident. But the whole scheme is entirely foreign to the Oriental teaching of the Secret Doctrine.

One has only to turn to the Mahatma Letters and look up the references to the Buddha to see what a supreme position is given to him by the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood. I have collected and commented on these passages under the title “Tibetan Initiates on the Buddha” in Part III of our new book Buddhism the Science of Life (Peking, 1928), pointing out their significance in connection with present developments in Asia.




“THE PHENOMENON CALLED SEX ACTIVITY”

Mrs. Bailey even associates the Logos with Sex! Thus (p. 721): “The Law of Attraction … deals with the ability of the Logos to ‘love wisely’ in the occult sense of the term. It has relation to the polarization of the Logos in His astral body, and produces the phenomenon called ‘sex activity’. …” Is this another specimen of “turning the analogical key in the Secret Doctrine lock”? If so, the result is scarcely encouraging; and when we read (p. 905) of “the throat centre of a planetary Logos and of a Solar Logos” we realize that sheer anthropomorphism can go no further.

Moreover, the “Mahachohan” (as Mrs. Bailey writes the name) is stated (p. 907-8) to be directly connected with “the effect that the devas of the kundalini fire are producing upon man” in the direction of sex activity. The passage is too long and unintelligible to quote here; the point to note for anyone who has learnt from H.P.B. and the Masters something of the nature of the Maha Chohan, is the desecration involved in even mentioning his name in such a connection.

Another example of Mrs. Bailey’s ignorance of what H.P.B. really was occurs at p. 1037: “Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Harvey, and the Curies are, on their own line of force, light bringers of equal rank with H.P.B.” Confucius, we are told, is to reincarnate and superintend the work of “rendering radioactive some of the foremost thinkers. …” Our Chinese friends will appreciate this piece of information.

“Cosmic rapture and rhythmic bliss (sic) are the attributes of the Fourth Path. It is a form of identification which is divorced from consciousness altogether.” Those who follow this Fourth Way are called “the blissful dancing points of fanatical devotion,” which suggests nothing so much as dancing dervishes!




IMITATION STANZAS OF DZYAN

An alleged extract in “Stanzas of Dzyan” style “From the Archives of the Lodge” is given at p. 747-8, headed “The Coming Avatar.” The following is a specimen of the flamboyant language: “Greater the chaos becometh; the major centre with all the seven circulating spheres rock with the echoes of disintegration. The fumes of utter blackness mount upwards in dissipation. The noise discordant of the warring elements greet the oncoming One, and deter Him not.”

Again, at p. 1267, we find a set of “Seven Esoteric Stanzas from Archaic Formulas.” A note informs us that they “form only one true stanza out of the oldest book in the world, and one which the eye of the average man has never contacted” (sic). The last of them is headed, as one might expect, with “The Path of Absolute Son ship,” and ends suggestively with “To Him be glory of the Mother, Father, Son, as the One Who hath existed in the past, the now and That which is to come.” The “Finale” begins with “The morning stars sang in their courses” and ends with” the marriage song of the Heavenly Man.”

A specimen of the alleged “Stanzas of Dzyan” may also be given: “Riseth the cave of beauty rare, of colour iridescent. Shineth (sic) the walls with azure tint, bathed in the light of rose. The blending shade of blue irradiates the whole and all is merged in gleaming.” Stanza VII, p. 22.

What a contrast to the genuine Stanzas in the S.D., e.g. I, 35:

1. The Eternal Parent (Space), wrapped in her ever invisible robes, had slumbered once again for seven eternities.

2. Time was not, for it lay in the infinite bosom of Duration.

The statement at p. 749 that H.P.B. was “overshadowed” by “One greater than an Adept” scarcely agrees with what we glean about her occult status in the Mahatma Letters and elsewhere. However, at p. 757 she is described as “a true psychic and conscious medium,” which is the spiritualistic theory above which A.P. Sinnett likewise was never able to rise, especially after her death.

At the close of this century, we are told, the “Avatar … will come as the Teacher of Love and Unity, and the Keynote He will strike will be regeneration through love poured forth on all.” Imagine H.P.B. or the Masters writing this kind of sentimental stuff, such as one reads in Christian tracts or the “Order of the Star” literature.




INSTRUCTIONS FOR WOULD-BE MAGICIANS

Pages 996-1026 contain “Fifteen Rules for Magic” in the section “Thought and Fire Elementals.” They are in Mrs. Bailey’s usual verbose and pseudo-Apocalyptic style, and are led up to by a clever touch concerning “an old book of magic, hidden in the caves of learning, guarded by the Masters”! from which some “appropriate words” are quoted:

“The Brothers of the Sun, through the force of solar fire, fanned to a flame in the blazing vault of the second Heaven, put out the lower lunar fires, and render naught the lower ‘fire by friction’.”

“The Brother of the Moon ignores the sun and solar heat; borrows his fire from all that triply is, and pursues his cycle. The fires of hell await, and lunar fire dies out. Then neither sun nor moon avails him, only the highest heaven awaits the spark electric, seeking vibration synchronous from that which lies beneath. And yet it cometh not.”

In case the reader should fail to make any sense of this gem of “magic,” he is told that “the terminology is in the nature of a blind, which ever carries revelation to those who have the clue, but tends to perplex and to bewilder the student who as yet is unready for the truth.” It need hardly be added that nowhere in this entire “labyrinth of words,” running to a total of 1282 pages, is the exact nature of the ‘clue’ more than darkly hinted at, as in the present instance. An old and common trick, usually employed to conceal the complete absence of either clue or meaning.

“Rule I” runs thus: “The Solar Angel collects himself, scatters not his force, but in meditation deep communicates with his reflection.” Why this is termed a “Rule” is not quite clear.

The other fourteen Rules are of course equally meaningless and obscure – without the “clue.” These Rules are given with over thirty pages of copious comments which make confusion worse confounded, containing such terms as “the magician” (for whose use they are formulated), “Solar Angel,” “Egoic Lotus,” “the Illuminator,” “the eye of the Magician,” “the Agnichaitans,” “the Agnisuryans,” etc.




ESOTERIC INTERPRETATION OF COLOUR

“The ‘Eye of Shiva,’ when perfected, is blue in color” (R. VI, p. 1011), “and as our solar Logos is the ‘Blue Logos,’ so do His children occultly resemble Him; but this color must be interpreted esoterically.”

This last is a specimen of the sort of weird jumble which constitutes the major part of this book, in which H.P. Blavatsky and her Secret Doctrine are much quoted and referred to in footnotes, more as a blind to the reader than as bearing any real relation to Mrs. Bailey’s own scheme. Familiar words and phrases are twisted from their proper and original setting and use, in an effort to compile an imposing work which may appear on the surface to continue the same line of teaching, but is really quite different.

The language is certainly not such as any “Tibetan,” or indeed any Oriental, would use. In fact, as I have shown, it is distinctively Christian; and Mrs. Bailey’s inspirer, if a separate entity at all, is much more likely to be an ecclesiastic of that faith who (like many of them nowadays) has familiarized himself with the literature of Occultism and is trying to make it fit the Christian scheme. It has even been suggested, not without some justification, that the “Tibetan” is merely a misleading generic term for a council of astute theologians for whom Mrs. Bailey is the mouthpiece and scribe.



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












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