Isis unveiled, Volume 2 (of 2), Theology : $b A master-key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theologyBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
Isis unveiled, Volume 2 (of 2), Theology : $b A master-key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
The licentious performances of the thousand and one early Christian
sects, may be criticised by partial commentators as well as the
ancient Eleusinian and other rites. But why should they incur the
blame of the theologians, the Christians, when their own “Mysteries”
of “the divine incarnation with Joseph, Mary, and the angel” in
a sacred _trilogue_ used to be enacted in more than one country,
and were famous at one time in Spain and Southern France? Later,
they fell like many other once secret rites into the hands of the
populace. It is but a few years since, during every Christmas week,
Punch-and-Judy-boxes, containing the above named personages, an
additional display of the infant Jesus in his manger, were carried
about the country in Poland and Southern Russia. They were called
_Kaliadovki_, a word the correct etymology of which we are unable
to give unless it is from the verb _Kaliadovât_, a word that we as
willingly abandon to learned philologists. We have seen this show in
our days of childhood. We remember the three king-Magi represented
by three dolls in powdered wigs and colored tights; and it is from
recollecting the simple, profound veneration depicted on the faces
of the pious audience, that we can the more readily appreciate the
honest and just remark by the editor, in the introduction to the
_Eleusinian Mysteries_, who says: “It is ignorance which leads to
profanation. Men ridicule what they do not properly understand....
The undercurrent of this world is set toward one goal; and inside of
human credulity--call it human weakness, if you please--is a power
almost infinite, a holy faith capable of apprehending the supremest
truths of all existence.”
If that abstract sentiment called _Christian charity_ prevailed in
the Church, we would be well content to leave all this unsaid. We
have no quarrel with Christians whose faith is sincere and whose
practice coincides with their profession. But with an arrogant,
dogmatic, and dishonest clergy, we have nothing to do except to see
the ancient philosophy--antagonized by modern theology in its puny
offspring--Spiritualism--defended and righted so far as we are able,
so that its grandeur and sufficiency may be thoroughly displayed. It
is not alone for the esoteric philosophy that we fight; nor for any
modern system of moral philosophy, but for the inalienable right of
private judgment, and especially for the ennobling idea of a future
life of activity and accountability.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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