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. Then, if infinite—_i.e._, limitless—and especially if absolute,
how can he have a form, and be a creator of anything? Form implies
limitation, and a beginning as well as an end; and, in order
to create, a Being must think and plan. How can the ABSOLUTE
be supposed to think—_i.e._, to have any relation whatever
to that which is limited, finite, and conditioned? This is a
philosophical and a logical absurdity. Even the Hebrew Kabala
rejects such an idea, and therefore makes of the one and the
Absolute Deific Principle an infinite Unity called Ain-Soph.[14]
In order to create, the Creator has to become active; and as
this is impossible for ABSOLUTENESS, the infinite principle had
to be shown becoming the cause of evolution (not creation) in an
indirect way—_i.e._, through the emanation from itself (another
absurdity, due this time to the translators of the Kabala)[15] of
the Sephiroth.
ENQ. How about those Kabalists, who, while being such, still believe in
Jehovah, or the _Tetragrammaton_?
THEO. They are at liberty to believe in what they please, as their
belief or disbelief can hardly affect a self-evident fact.
The Jesuits tell us that two and two are not always four to a
certainty, since it depends on the will of God to make 2 x 2 = 5.
Shall we accept their sophistry for all that?
ENQ. Then you are Atheists?
THEO. Not that we know of, and not unless the epithet of “Atheist” is
to be applied to those who disbelieve in an anthropomorphic God.
We believe in a Universal Divine Principle, the root of ALL, from
which all proceeds, and within which all shall be absorbed at the
end of the great cycle of Being.
ENQ. This is the old, old claim of Pantheism. If you are Pantheists,
you cannot be Deists; and if you are not Deists, then you have to
answer to the name of Atheists.
THEO. Not necessarily so. The term “Pantheism” is again one of the many
abused terms, whose real and primitive meaning has been distorted
by blind prejudice and a one-sided view of it. If you accept the
Christian etymology of this compound word, and form it of παν,
“all,” and θεος, “god,” and then imagine and teach that this means
that every stone and every tree in Nature is a God or the ONE
God, then, of course, you will be right, and make of Pantheists
fetish-worshippers, in addition to their legitimate name. But you
will hardly be as successful if you etymologise the word Pantheism
esoterically, and as we do.
ENQ. What is, then your definition of it?
THEO. Let me ask you a question in my turn. What do you understand by
Pan or Nature?
ENQ. Nature is, I suppose, the sum total of things existing around us;
the aggregate of causes and effects in the world of matter, the
creation or universe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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