The Key to Theosophy: Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science and Philosophy for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society Has Been FoundedBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
The Key to Theosophy: Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science and Philosophy for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society Has Been Founded
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
THEO. We must suppose so. I know I have. Owing to my familiarity for
over half a century with these invisible, yet but too tangible
and undeniable “influences,” from the conscious Elementals,
semi-conscious _shells_, down to the utterly senseless and
nondescript spooks of all kinds, I claim a certain right to my
views.
ENQ. Can you give an instance or instances to show why these practices
should be regarded as dangerous?
THEO. This would require more time than I can give you. Every cause
must be judged by the effects it produces. Go over the history of
Spiritualism for the last fifty years, ever since its reappearance
in this century in America—and judge for yourself whether it has
done its votaries more good or harm. Pray understand me. I do not
speak against real Spiritualism, but against the modern movement
which goes under that name, and the so-called philosophy invented
to explain its phenomena.
ENQ. Don’t you believe in their phenomena at all?
THEO. It is because I believe in them with too good reason, and (save
some cases of deliberate fraud) know them to be as true as that
you and I live, that all my being revolts against them. Once more
I speak only of physical, not mental or even psychic phenomena.
Like attracts like. There are several high-minded, pure, good
men and women, known to me personally, who have passed years
of their lives under the direct guidance and even protection of
high “Spirits,” whether disembodied or planetary. But _these_
Intelligences are not of the type of the John Kings and the
Ernests who figure in _séance_ rooms. These Intelligences guide
and control mortals only in rare and exceptional cases to which
they are attracted and magnetically drawn by the Karmic past of
the individual. It is not enough to sit “for development” in order
to attract them. That only opens the door to a swarm of “spooks,”
good, bad and indifferent, to which the medium becomes a slave for
life. It is against such promiscuous mediumship and intercourse
with goblins that I raise my voice, not against spiritual
mysticism. The latter is ennobling and holy; the former is of just
the same nature as the phenomena of two centuries ago, for which
so many witches and wizards have been made to suffer. Read Glanvil
and other authors on the subject of witchcraft, and you will find
recorded there the parallels of most, if not all, of the physical
phenomena of nineteenth century “Spiritualism.”
ENQ. Do you mean to suggest that it is all witchcraft and nothing more?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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