The Theosophical Society,
The Writings of Alfred Percy Sinnett
Alfred
Percy Sinnett
1840
-1921
The
Occult World
By
A
P Sinnett
Chapter 5
Later
Occult Phenomena
This
Chapter was added
to the second English edition.
I CANNOT let a second edition
of this book appear without recording some, at least, of the experiences which
have befallen me since its preparation. The most important of these, indeed,
are concerned with fragmentary instruction I have been privileged to receive
from the Brothers in reference to the great truths of cosmology which their
spiritual insight has enabled them to penetrate. But the exposition even of the
little, relatively, that I have learned on this head would exact a more
elaborate treatise than I can attempt at present.[ Subsequently
published as Esoteric Buddhism. ] And the purpose of the present volume
is to expound the outer facts of the situation rather than to analyse a system
of philosophy. This is not entirely inaccessible to exoteric students, apart
from what may be regarded as direct revelation from the Brothers. Though almost
all existing occult literature is unattractive in its form, and rendered
purposely obscure by the use of an elaborate symbology, it does contain a great
deal of information that can be distilled from the mass by the application of
sufficient patience. Some industrious students of that literature have proved
this. Whether the masters of occult philosophy will ultimately consent to the
complete exposition in plain language of the state of the facts regarding the
spiritual constitution of Man, remains to be seen. Certainly, even if they are
still reticent in a way that no ordinary observer can comprehend, they are more
disposed to be communicative at this moment than they have been for a long time
past.
But the first thing to do is to dissipate as much as possible the dogged
disbelief that encrusts the Western mind as to the existence of any abnormal
persons who can be regarded as masters of True Philosophy -distinguished from
all the speculations that have tormented the world - and as to the abnormal
nature of their faculties. I have endeavored already to point out plainly, but
may as well here emphasise the reason why I dwell upon, the phenomena which
exhibit these faculties. Rightly regarded, these are the credentials of the
spiritual teaching which their authors supply. Firstly, indeed, in
themselves abnormal phenomena accomplished by the willpower of living men
must be intensely interesting for every one endowed with an honest love of
science. They open out new scientific horizons. It is as certain as the sun's
next rising that the forward pressure of scientific discovery, advancing slowly
as it does in its own grooves, will ultimately, and probably at no very distant
date, introduce the ordinary world to some of the superior scientific knowledge
already enjoyed by the masters of occultism. Faculties will be acquired by
exoteric investigation that will bring the outworks of science a step or two
nearer the comprehension of some of the phenomena I have described in the
present volume. And meanwhile it seems to me very interesting to get a glimpse
beforehand of achievements which we should probably find engaging the eager attention
of a future generation, if we really could, as Tennyson suggests -
-" sleep through terms of mighty wars,
And wake on science grown to more,
On secrets of the brain, the stars,
As wild as aught of fairy lore."
But even superior to their scientific interest is the importance of the lesson
conveyed by occult phenomena, when these distinctly place their authors in a
commanding position of intellectual superiority as compared with the world at
large. They show most undeniably that these men have gone far ahead of their
contemporaries in a comprehension of Nature as exemplified in this world; that
they have acquired the power of cognizing events by other means than the
material senses; that while their bodies are at one place, their perceptions may
be at another, and that they have consequently solved the great problem as to
whether the Ego of man is a something distinct from his perishable frame. From
all other teachers we can but find out what has been thought probable in
reference to the soul or spirit of man : from them we can find out what is the
fact; and if that is not a sublime subject of inquiry, surely it would be
difficult to say what is. But we cannot read poetry till we have learned the
alphabet; and, if the combinations b-a ba, and so on are found to be
insufferably trivial and uninteresting, the fastidious person who objects to
such foolishness will certainly never be able to read the " Idylls of the
King."
So I return from the clouds to my patient record of phenomena, and to the incidents
which have confirmed the experiences and conclusions set forth in the previous
chapter of this book, since my return to
The very first incident which took place was in the nature of a pleasant
greeting from my revered friend, Koot Hoomi. I had written to him (per Madame
Blavatsky, of course) shortly before leaving
For some time the gift of the letter from Koot Hoomi in the way I have
described was the only phenomenon accorded to me, and, although my
correspondence continued, I was not encouraged to expect any further displays
of abnormal power. The higher authorities of the occult world, indeed, had by
this time put a very much more stringent prohibition upon such manifestations
than had been in operation the previous summer at Simla. The effect of the
manifestations then accorded was not considered to have been satisfactory on
the whole. A good deal of acrimonious discussion and bad feeling had ensued;
and I imagine that this was conceived to outweigh, in its injurious effect on
the progress of the Theosophical movement, the good effect of the phenomena on
the few persons who appreciated them. When I went up to Simla in August, 1881,
therefore, I had no expectation of further events of an unusual nature. Nor
have I any stream of anecdotes to relate which will bear comparison with those
derived from the experience of the previous year. But none the less was the
progress of a certain undertaking in which I became concerned -the
establishment of a Simla branch of the Theosophical Society -interspersed with
little incidents of a phenomenal nature. When this Society was formed, many
letters passed between Koot Hoomi and ourselves which were not in every
case transmitted through Madame Blavatsky. In one case, for example, Mr. Hume,
who became president for the first year of the new Society - the Simla Eclectic
Theosophical Society, as it was decided it should be called -got a note from
Koot Hoomi inside a letter received through the post from a person wholly
unconnected with our occult pursuits, who was writing to him in connection with
some municipal business. I myself, dressing for the evening, have found an
expected letter in my coat-pocket, and on another occasion under my pillow in
the morning. On one occasion, having just received a letter by the mail from
England which contained matter in which I thought she would be interested, I
went up to Madame Blavatsky's writing-room and read it to her. As I read it, a
few lines of writing, comment upon what I was reading, were formed on a sheet
of blank paper which lay before her. She actually saw the writing form itself,
and called to me, pointing to the paper where it lay. There I recognise Koot
Hoomi's hand-and his thought, for the comment was to the effect, " Didn't
I tell you so? " and referred back to something he had said in a previous
letter.
By-the-by, it may be as well to inform the
reader that during the whole of the visit to Simla, of which I am now speaking,
for several months before it, and until several months later, Colonel Olcott
was in Ceylon, where he was engaged in a very successful lecturing tour on
behalf of the Theosophical Society , in reference to some of the phenomena
which occurred at Simla in 1880, when both he and Madame Blavatsky were
present. Ill-natured and incredulous people -when it would be glaringly absurd
about some particular phenomenon to say that Madame Blavatsky had done it by
trickery of her own -used to be fond of suggesting that the wire-puller must be
Colonel Olcott. In some of the newspaper criticisms of the first edition of
this book, even, it has been suggested that Colonel Olcott must be the writer
of the letters that I innocently ascribe to Koot Hoomi, Madame Blavatsky merely
manipulating their presentation. But inasmuch as all through the autumn of 1881,
while Colonel Olcott was at Ceylon and I at Simla, the letters continued to
come, alternating day by day sometimes with the letters we wrote, my critics,
in future, must acknowledge that this hypothesis is played out.
For me myself -as I think it will also be for my appreciative readers -the most
interesting fact connected with my Simla experience of 1881 was this : During
the period in question I got into relations with one other of the Brothers,
besides Koot Hoomi. It came to pass that in the progress of his own development
it was necessary for Koot Hoomi to retire for a period of three months into
absolute seclusion, as regards not merely the body -which in the case of an
Adept may be secluded in the remotest corner of the earth without that
arrangement checking the activity of his " astral " intercourse with
mankind - but as regards the whole potent Ego with whom we had dealings. Under
these circumstances one of the Brothers with whom Koot Hoomi was especially
associated agreed, rather reluctantly at first, to pay attention to the Simla
Eclectic Society, and keep us going during Koot Hoomi's absence with a course
of instruction in occult philosophy. The change which came over the character
of our correspondence when our new master took us in hand was very remarkable.
Every letter that emanated from Koot Hoomi had continued to bear the impress of
his gently mellifluous style. He would write half a page at any, time rather
than run the least risk of letting a brief or careless phrase hurt anybody's
feelings. His hand writing, too, was always very legible and regular. Our new
master treated us very differently: he declared himself almost unacquainted
with our language, and wrote a very rugged hand which it was sometimes
difficult to decipher. He did not beat about the bush with us at all. If we
wrote out an essay on some occult ideas we had picked up, and sent it to him,
asking if it was right, it would sometimes come back with a heavy red line
scored through it, and " No " written on the margin. On one occasion
one of us had written, " Can you clear my conceptions about so and so ?
" The annotation found in the margin when the paper was returned was,
" How can I clear what you haven't got I " and so on. But with all
this we made progress under M-, and by degrees the correspondence, which began
on his side with brief notes, scrawled in the roughest manner on bits of coarse
Tibetan paper, expanded into considerable letters sometimes. And it must be
understood that while his rough and abrupt ways formed an amusing contrast with
the tender gentleness of Koot Hoomi, there was nothing in these to impede the
growth of our attachment to him as we began to feel ourselves tolerated by him
as pupils a little more willingly than at first. Some of my readers, I am sure,
will realise what I mean by " attachment " in this case. I use a
colourless word deliberately to avoid the parade of feelings which might not be
generally understood; but I can assure them that in the course of prolonged
relations- even though merely of the epistolary kind -with a personage who,
though a man like the rest of us as regards his natural place in creation, is
elevated so far above ordinary men as to possess some attributes commonly
considered divine, feelings are engendered which are too deep to be lightly or
easily described.
It was by M--------- quite recently that a little manifestation of force was
given for my gratification, the importance of which turned on the fact that
Madame Blavatsky was entirely uninfluential in its production, and eight
hundred miles away at the time. For the first three months of my acquaintance
with him, M------ had rigidly adhered to the principle he laid down w hen he
agreed to correspond with the Simla Eclectic Society during Koot Hoomi 's
retirement. He would correspond with us, but would perform no phenomena
whatever. This narrative is so much engaged with phenomena that I cannot too
constantly remind the reader that these incidents were scattered over a long
period of time, and that as a rule nothing is more profoundly distasteful to
the great adepts than the production of wonders in the outside world. Ordinary
critics of these, when they have been thus exceptionally accorded, will
constantly argue, " But why did not the Brothers do so and so differently
? then the incident would have been much more convincing." I repeat that
the Brothers, in producing abnormal phenomena now and then, are not
trying to prove their existence to an intelligent jury of Englishmen. They are
simply letting their existence become perceptible to persons with a natural
gravitation towards spirituality and mysticism. It is not too much to say that
all the while they are scrupulously avoiding the delivery of direct
proof of a nature calculated to satisfy the commonplace mind. For the present,
at all events, they prefer that the crass, materialistic Philistines of the
sensual, selfish world should continue to cherish the conviction that "
the Brothers " are myths. They reveal themselves, therefore, by signs and
hints which are only likely to be comprehended by people with some spiritual
insight or affinity. True the appearance of this book is permitted by them, -no
page of it would have been written if a word from Koot Hoomi had indicated
disapproval on his part, - and the phenomenal occurrences herein recorded are
really in many cases absolutely complete and irresistible proofs for me,
and therefore for anyone who is capable of understanding that I am telling the
exact truth. But the Brothers, I imagine, know quite well that, large as the
revelation has been, it may safely be passed before the eyes of the public at
large just because the herd, whose convictions they do not wish to reach, can
be relied upon to reject it. The situation may remind the reader of the farceur
who undertook to stand on Waterloo Bridge with a hundred real sovereigns on a
tray, offering to sell them for a shilling apiece, and who wagered that he
would so stand for an hour without getting rid of his stock. He relied on the
stupidity of the passers-by, who would think themselves too clever to be taken
in. So with this little book. It contains a straightforward statement of
absolute truths, which, if people could only believe them, would revolutionise
the world; and the statement is fortified by unimpeachable credentials. But the
bulk of mankind will be blinded to this condition of things by their own vanity
and inability to assimilate super-materialistic ideas, and none will be
seriously affected but those who are qualified to benefit by comprehending.
Readers of the latter class will readily appreciate the way the phenomena that
I have had to record have thus followed in the track of my own growing
convictions, confirming these as they have in turn been inferentially
constructed, rather than provoking and enforcing them in the first instance.
And this has been emphatically the case with the one or two phenomena that have
latterly been accorded by M------. It was in friendship and kindness that these
were given, long after all idea of confirming my belief in the Brothers was wholly
superfluous and out of date. M------ came indeed to wish that I should have the
satisfaction of seeing him (in the astral body of course), and would have
arranged for this in Bombay, in January, when I went down there for a day to
meet my wife, who was returning from England, had the atmospherical and other
conditions just at that period permitted it. But, unfortunately for me, these
were not favourable. As M----- wrote in one of several little notes I received
from him during that day and the following morning, before my departure from
the headquarters of the Theosophical Society, where I was staying, even they,
the Brothers, could not " work miracles; " and though to the ordinary
spectator there may be but little difference between a miracle and anyone of
the phenomena that the Brothers do sometimes accomplish, these latter are
really results achieved by the manipulation of natural laws and forces, and are
subject to obstacles which are sometimes practically insuperable.
But M------, as it happened, was enabled to show himself to one member of the
Simla Eclectic Society, who happened to be at
Then it passed across the open door of an inner room in which it had appeared,
in a direction where there was no exit; and when my friend, who had started
forward in its pursuit, entered the inner room, it was no longer to be seen. On
two or three other occasions previously, M----- had made his astral figure
visible to other persons about the headquarters of the Society, where the
constant presence of Madame Blavatsky and one or two other persons of highly
sympathetic magnetism, the purity of life of all habitually resident there, and
the constant influences poured in by the Brothers themselves, render the
production of phenomena immeasurably easier than elsewhere.
And this brings me back to certain incidents which took place recently at my
own house at
He was accompanied by a young native mystic, ardently aspiring to be accepted
by the Brothers as a chela, or pupil, and the magnetism thus brought to
the house established conditions which for a short time rendered some
manifestations possible. Returning home one evening shortly before dinner, I
found two or three telegrams awaiting me, enclosed in the usual way, in
envelopes securely fastened before being sent out from the telegraph office.
The messages were all from ordinary people, on commonplace business; but inside
one of the envelopes I found a little folded note from M-----. The mere fact
that it had been thus transfused by occult methods inside the closed envelope
was a phenomenon in itself, of course (like many of the same kind that I have
described before) ; but I need not dwell on this point, as the feat that had
been performed, and of which the note gave me information, was even more
obviously wonderful. The note made me search in my writing-room for a fragment
of a plaster bas-relief that M----- had just transported instantaneously from
" At about seven in the evening the following persons " (five are
enumerated, including Madame Blavatsky ) " were seated at the
dining-table, at tea, in Madame Blavatsky's veranda opposite the door in the
red screen separating her first writing-room from the long veranda. The two
halves of the writing-room were wide open, and the dining-table, being about
two feet from the door, we could all see plainly everything in the room. About
five or seven minutes after, Madame Blavatsky gave a start. We all began to
watch. She then looked all round her, and said, , What is he going to do ? '
and repeated the same twice or thrice without looking at or referring to any of
us. We all suddenly heard a knock -a loud noise, as of something falling and
breaking -behind the door of Madame Blavatsky's writing- room, when there was
not a soul there at the time. A still louder noise was heard, and we all rushed
in. The room was empty and silent; but just behind the red cotton door, where
we had heard the noise, we found fallen on the ground a
It will be understood, of course, but I
may s well explicitly state, that the evening to which the above narrative
relates was the same on which I found Mr. -----'s note inside my telegram at
Allahabad, and the missing piece of the cast in my drawer; and no appreciable
time appears to have elapsed between the breakage of the cast at Bombay and the
delivery of the piece at Allahabad, for though I did not note the exact minute
at which I found the fragment - and, indeed, it may have been already in my
drawer for some little time before I came home- the time was certainly between
seven and eight, probably about half-past seven or a quarter to eight. And
there is nearly half an hour's difference of longitude between
The shrewd reader -of the class of persons
who would never have been " taken in " by the man who sold sovereigns
on
The morning after the occurrence of the incident just detailed, B---- R-----,
the young native aspirant for chelaship, who had accompanied Colonel
Olcott, and was staying at my house, gave me a note from Koot Hoomi , which he
found under his pillow in the morning. One which I had written to Koot Hoomi ,
and had given to B----- R----- the previous day, had been taken, he told me, at
night, before he slept. The note from Koot Hoomi was a short one, in the course
of which he said, " To force phenomena in the presence of difficulties
magnetic or other is forbidden as strictly as for a bank cashier to disburse
money which is only entrusted to him. Even to do this much for you so far from
the headquarters would be impossible but for the magnetisms 0---- and B-----
R----,- have brought with them -and I could do no more." Not fully
realising the force of the final words in this passage, and more struck by a
previous passage, in which Koot Hoomi wrote -" It is easy for us to give
phenomenal proofs when we have necessary conditions " -I wrote next day, suggesting
one or two things which I thought might be done to take additional advantage of
the conditions presented by the introduction into my house of available
magnetism different from that of Madame Blavatsky, who had been so much,
however absurdly, suspected of imposing on me. I gave this note to B---- R-----
on the evening of the 13th of March -the plaster fragment incident had taken
place on the 11th- and on the morning of the 14th I received a few words from
Koot Hoomi , simply saying that what I proposed was impossible, and that he
would write more fully through
The account I have just been giving of the
instantaneous transmission of the plaster of Paris fragment from
For the details of the various incidents of the series, I may refer the reader
to the account published in Psychic Notes of March 30, by Mrs. Gordon,
wife of Colonel W. Gordon, of
Colonel Olcott, Mrs. Gordon explains in the earlier part of her statement,
which for brevity's sake I condense, had just arrived at
"dated Bombay the 19th, telling us
that something was going to be done, and expressing the earnest hope that she
would not be required to assist, as she had had enough abuse about phenomena.
Before this letter was brought by the post peon, Colonel Olcott had told me
that he had had an intimation in the night from his Chohan (teacher) that K. H.[
We had got into the habit at this time of using these initials for the
Mahatma's name. ] Had been to the Vega and seen Eglinton. This
was at about
" There is no veranda outside, and the window is several feet from the
ground.
" I now turned and picked up what had fallen on me, and found a letter in
Mr. Eglinton's handwriting, dated on the Vega the 24th ; a message from
Madame Blavatsky, dated at Bombay the 24th, written on the backs of three of
her visiting cards; also a larger card, such as Mr. Eglinton had a packet of,
and used at his séances. On this latter card was the, to us, well-known
handwriting of K. H., and a few words in the handwriting of the other' Brother,'
who was with him outside our window, and who is Colonel Olcott's chief. All
these cards and the letter were threaded together with a piece of blue sewing
silk. We opened the letter carefully, by slitting up one side, as we saw that
some one had made on the flap in pencil three Latin crosses, and so we kept
them intact for identification. The letter is as follows: -
"'S. S. Vega,
-At last your hour of triumph has come! After the many battles we have had at
the breakfast-table regarding K. H.'s existence, and my stubborn scepticism as
to the wonderful powers possessed by the " Brothers," I have been
forced to a complete belief in their being living distinct persons, and
just in proportion to my scepticism will be my firm unalterable opinion
respecting them. I am not allowed to tell you all I know, but K. H. appeared
to me in person two days ago, and what he told me dumfounded me. Perhaps Madame
B. will have already communicated the fact of K. H.'s appearance to you. The
"Illustrious " is uncertain whether this can be taken to Madame or
not, but he will try, notwithstanding the many difficulties in the way. If he
does not I shall post it when I arrive at port. I shall read this to Mrs. B----
and ask her to mark the envelope; but whatever happens, you are
requested by K. H. to keep this letter a profound secret until you hear from
him though Madame. A storm of opposition is certain to be raised, and she has
had so much to bear that it is hard she should have more.' Then follow some
remarks about his health and the trouble which is taking him home, and the
letter ends.
" In her note on the three visiting cards Madame Blavatsky says:
-' Headquarters, March 24th.
These cards and contents to certify to my doubters that the attached letter
addressed to Mrs. Gordon by Mr. Eglinton was just brought to me from the Vega,
with another letter from himself to me, which I keep. K. H. tells me he saw Mr.
Eglinton and had a talk with him, long and convincing enough to make him a
believer in the "Brothers," as actual living beings, for the rest of
his natural life. Mr. Eglinton writes to me: " The letter which I enclose
is going to be taken to Mrs. G. through your influence. You will receive it
wherever you are, and will forward it to her in ordinary course. You will learn
with satisfaction of my complete conversion to a belief in the
"Brothers", and I have no doubt K. H. has already told you how he
appeared to me two nights ago," etc., etc.. K. H. told me all. He
does not, however, want me to forward the letter in "ordinary
course", as it would defeat the object, but commands me to write this and
send it off without delay, so that it would reach you all at
" The handwriting on these cards and signature are perfectly well known to
us. That on the larger card (from Mr. Eglinton's packet) attached was easily
recognised as coming from Koot Hoomi . Colonel Gordon and I know his writing as
well as our own; it is so distinctly different from any other I have ever seen,
that among thousands I could select it. He says, William Eglinton thought the
manifestation could only be produced through H. P. B. as a "medium",
and that the power would become exhausted at
"This card was taken from his stock
today. Let it be an additional proof of his wonderful mediumship. ...K. H.'
" This is written in blue ink, and across it is written in red ink a few
words from the other 'Brother' (Colonel Olcott's Chohan or chief). This
interesting and wonderful phenomenon is not published with the idea that anyone
who is unacquainted with the phenomena of spiritualism will accept it. But I
write for the millions of spiritualists, and also that a record may be made of
such an interesting experiment. Who knows but that it may pass on to a
generation which will be enlightened enough to accept such wonders?"
A postscript adds that since the above statement was written, a paper had been
received from
As I began by saying, this phenomenon was addressed more to spiritualists than
to the outer world, because its great value for the experienced observer of
phenomena turns on the utterly unmediumistic character of the events. Apart
from the testimony of Mr. Eglinton's own letter to the effect that he, an
experienced medium, was quite convinced that the interview he had with his occult
visitant was not an interview with such " spirits " as he had been
used to, we have the three-cornered character of the incident to detach it
altogether from mediumship either on his part or on that of Madame Blavatsky.
Certainly there have been cases in which
under the influence or mediumship the agencies of the ordinary spiritual séance
have transported letters half across the globe. A conclusively authenticated
case in which an unfinished letter was thus brought from
Will the effort made and the expenditure
of force, whatever may have been required to accomplish the wonderful feat thus
recorded, be repaid by proportionately satisfactory effects on the
spiritualistic world ? There has been a great deal written lately in
For my part, I am glad to say that I not
only know him to be a living man by reason of all the circumstances detailed in
this volume, but I am now enabled to realise his features and appearance by
means of two portraits, which have been conceded to me under very remarkable
conditions. It was long a wish of mine to possess a portrait of my revered
friend ; and some time ago he half promised that some time or other he would
give me one. Now, in asking an adept for his portrait, the object desired is
not a photograph, but a picture produced by a certain occult process which I
have not yet had occasion to describe, but with which I had long been familiar
by hearsay. I had heard, for example, from Colonel Olcott, of one of the
circumstances under which his own original convictions about the realities of
occult power were formed many years ago in
Nothing happened that day nor that night.
The scrapbook remained lying on a table in the drawing-room, and was
occasionally inspected. The following morning it was looked into by my wife,
and my sheet of paper was found to be still blank. Still the scrapbook lay in
full view on the drawing-room table. At half-past eleven we went to breakfast;
the dining-room, as is often the case in Indian bungalows, only being separated
from the drawing-room by an archway and curtains, which were drawn aside. While
we were at breakfast Madame Blavatsky suddenly showed, by the signs with which
all who know her are familiar, that one of her occult friends was near. It was
the chela to whom I have above referred. She got up, thinking she might
be required to go to her room; but the astral visitor, she said, waved her
back, and she returned to the table. After breakfast we looked into the
scrapbook, and on my marked sheet of paper, which had been seen blank by my
wife an hour or two before, was a precipitated profile portrait. The face
itself was left white, with only a few touches within the limits of the space
it occupied ; but the rest of the paper all round it was covered with cloudy
blue shading. Slight as the method was by which the result was produced, the
outline of the face was perfectly well-defined, and its expression as vividly
rendered as would have been possible with a finished picture.
At first Madame Blavatsky was dissatisfied
with the sketch. Knowing the original personally, she could appreciate its
deficiencies; but though I should have welcomed a more finished portrait, I was
sufficiently pleased with the one I had thus received to be reluctant that
Madame Blavatsky should try any experiment with it herself with the view of
improving it, for fear it would be spoilt. In the course of the conversation,
M---- put himself in communication with Madame Blavatsky, and said that he
would do a portrait himself on another piece of paper. There was no question in
this case of a " test phenomenon" ; so after I had procured and given
to Madame Blavatsky a (marked) piece of Bristol board, it was put away in the
scrapbook, and taken to her room, where, free from the confusing cross magnetisms
of the drawing-room, M---- would be better able to operate.
Now it will be understood that neither the producer of the sketch I had
received, nor M-----, in the natural state, is an artist. Talking over the
whole subject of these occult pictures, I ascertained from Madame Blavatsky
that the supremely remarkable results have been obtained by those of the adepts
whose occult science as regards this particular process has been superseded to
ordinary artistic training. But entirely without this, the adept can produce a
result which, for all ordinary critics, looks like the work of an artist, by
merely realising very clearly in his imagination the result he wishes to
produce, and then precipitating the coloring matter in accordance with that
conception.
In the course of about an hour from the
time at which she took away the piece of Bristol board- or the time may have
been less -we were not watching it, Madame Blavatsky brought it me back with
another portrait, again a profile, though more elaborately done. Both portraits
were obviously of the same face, and nothing, let me say at once, can exceed
the purity and lofty tenderness of its expression. Of course it bears no mark
of age. Koot Hoomi, by the mere years of his life, is only a man of what we call
middle age; but the adept's physically simple and refined existence leaves no
trace of its passage ; and while our faces rapidly wear out after forty -
strained, withered, and burned up by the passions to which all ordinary lives
are more or less exposed- the adept age, for periods of time that I can hardly
venture to define, remains apparently the perfection of early maturity. M-----,
Madame Blavatsky's special guardian still, as I judge by a portrait of him that
I have seen, though I do not yet possess one, in the absolute prime of manhood,
has been her occult guardian from the time she was a child; and now she is an
old lady. He never looked, she tells me, any different from what he looks now.
I have now brought up to date the record
of all external facts connected with the revelations I have been privileged to
make. The door leading to occult knowledge is still ajar, and it is still
permissible for explorers from the outer world to make good their footing
across the threshold. This condition of things is due to exceptional
circumstances at present, and may not continue long. Its continuance may
largely depend upon the extent to which the world at large manifests an
appreciation of the opportunity now offered. Some readers who are interested,
but slow to perceive what practical action they can take, may ask what they can
do to show appreciation of the opportunity. My reply will be modelled on the
famous injunction of Sir Robert Peel: " Register, register, register!
" Take the first steps towards making a response to the offer which
emanates from the occult world - register, register, register; in other words,
join the Theosophical Society -the one and only association which at present is
linked by any recognised bond of union with the Brotherhood of Adepts in
The Theosophical Society,
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Lentil burgers, a thousand
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the daily 25 mile run may put
it off for a while but death
seems to get most of us in the
end. We are pleased to
present for your consideration,
a definitive work on the
subject by a Student of
Katherine Tingley entitled
Theosophy and the Number Seven
A selection of articles
relating to the esoteric
significance of the Number 7
in Theosophy
The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy
The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy
Classic Introductory
Theosophy Text
A Text Book of Theosophy By
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What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
An Outstanding
Introduction to Theosophy
By a student of
Katherine Tingley
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man? Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation Karma
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