The 1875-1891 Phase of the Theosophical
Movement Reveals the Cycle of an Adept
John Garrigues
John Garrigues
(1868-1944) and Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891)
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One of the founders of the United Lodge of
Theosophists in 1909, John Garrigues died May
24, 1944. The following article is perhaps among
the last texts he wrote. It was
first published by
“Theosophy” magazine, Los
Angeles, in May, 1944,
pp. 281-284. It had no indication as to the name of the author.
(C. C. A.)
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“The mission of
H.P.B. may be stated
simply: she came
to arouse a handful of men…”
(John Garrigues)
When, in 1875, H. P. Blavatsky took up the public labors of the Agent of
the Theosophical Movement of the nineteenth century, “the materials”, to borrow
from the Masonic formula, were far from “ready”, but the architect could wait
no longer. It was a case of necessity: unless the age-old truths about the
psychic and spiritual nature of man became known in the western world, the
moral confusion of the time would increase to the point of literal destruction
of the evolutionary hopes of the race. The Teacher, therefore, had to appear.
To carry on publicly the
work of an occultist in the nineteenth century - an age of intellectual
arrogance and unbelief - meant, as H.P.B. later wrote in The Secret Doctrine, “moral death to the revealer”, yet she was not
in the least deterred from her task by this fore-vision of the penalty that
would be exacted from her by those she came to help. That was her “vicarious
atonement”, the Promethean sacrifice offered willingly by every teacher who
comes among men in the dark age of Kali Yug. The spiritual germ of that sacrifice
lies latent in the heart of every one of the Manasaputras, who now wear the
garments of embodied existence, and who will one day awaken to the larger
meaning of their life on earth and begin to live for others.
The mission of H.P.B. may be
stated simply: she came to arouse a handful of men to inward perception of
their own divinity. “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all things shall
be added unto you.” The work of the Theosophical Movement must fail without
egos aroused to knowledge of the God within, souls in whom the magic of the
spiritual will has begun to establish that faith which cannot be shaken, that
knowledge and conviction which, when present in the world and recognized, will
surely generate the social energies that are needed to save the western world
from ruin.
Because she was a Great
Soul, H. P. Blavatsky was able to crack the hard shell of materialism, to
penetrate the foggy atmosphere of Spiritualism, to expose the canting claims of
theologians. Because men saw her teachings practically embodied in her life,
she found students and believers for the doctrines of the Wisdom-Religion.
Instructing aspiring occultists, she once wrote, “adapt your thoughts to your
plastic potency.” Her own plastic potency was equal to the great thoughts which
she transmitted to the West. That is why her words are infused with a living
strength; that is why, however recondite and obscure the lines of the
investigation recorded in her great works, the student always feels the
presence in them of knowledge, first-hand. Theosophists who wonder where their
“faith” comes from, and whether or not
they have “proved” the Teaching, may reflect on this direct evidence of
knowledge in the works of the Teacher. This is not a proof to be lightly set
aside.
The course of the
Theosophical Movement, from 1875 to 1891, is a progressive revelation of the
cycle of an Adept-Teacher - a cycle which also reveals on a grand scale the
task of discipleship, since, in time’s maturation, the Movement requires the
development of other such teachers.
H.P.B. began with Isis Unveiled. Here, as in all else, she
is the teacher, but not overtly. The work is in the style of criticism and
analysis; it is iconoclastic of the pervasive prejudices which distort the race
mind, exposing and ridiculing the presumptions of an age which acknowledged no
instructors but its own oracles. Yet throughout the two volumes of this great
work there run both the undercurrent and the overtone of a positive philosophy.
Isis contains an occult announcement
of the reality of a great body of spiritual knowledge, and of a great body of
knowers and teachers. That announcement is its soul, its sign-manual, and its
call to the slumbering intuitions of humanity.
All the knowledge of the
West is gathered together in the pages of Isis,
in essence if not in detail, arrayed, evaluated, and assembled as a vehicle of
archaic truth. Slowly the majestic temple of initiation is raised as an ideal
form, its noble arches of thought opening the way to the inward path of adeptship.
The work begun with Isis continued in India. There the
treasures of the East were re-presented and re-interpreted by H.P.B. as editor
of the Theosophist. In America she
had recreated into a textbook of occult instruction the crude materials of Spiritualism.
In India, the grand philosophic structures of antiquity were made to exhibit
once again the life which had first inspired them. What had been only
speculations and scholastic refinements to orientalists grew under her hand to
precise statements of occult metaphysics, demonstrable laws of man’s inner
being and the cosmic principles of the natural world.
When the preliminary work in
India had been accomplished, when the materials inherited from the past had
been worked up and made malleable to the Teacher’s will, H.P.B. moved to
England, where she founded the magazine
Lucifer. There began the cycle of instruction that was to provide the West
with The Secret Doctrine, The Key to Theosophy, The Voice of the Silence and the Theosophical Glossary. These texts
declared H.P.B. the Teacher. Now the apex of the cycle had been reached.
H.P.B.’s articles in Lucifer are the
forthright, practical instructions of an occultist. Now she is able to speak
with an authority that had accumulated from the beginning, out of progressive
demonstrations and the witness of the past.
She made no “claims”, it is
true, yet, to the intuitional, H.P.B.’s place in the great historical drama is
clearly enough defined. She pointed out how critical was the nature of the
period in which the race was engaged, and what was at stake for the future. Her
warnings and prophecies afford some intimation of the degree of responsibility
she willingly assumed, the powers she knowingly employed, and the trust she
consciously fulfilled.
On May 8, 1891, slain by the
betrayals and follies of those who called themselves theosophists, she left the
scene. Her work was done - done as well as it could be, under the circumstances
and with the materials at hand. The Teaching was recorded. A few earnest
disciples had been found and fostered. She had seen a
vision of the future, in which her labors were to be carried on by others into
the twentieth century - on to 1975. A nucleus had been formed, to live and
grow, seeing in little the vision that she had seen in large, and following the
road she had cut through the thickets of human prejudice, deceit and ignorance.
But whatever their achievement, her strength of soul made it possible. Her
egoic power made them seek within themselves an identical inspiration, and find
something of the stalwart courage that has been hers. For the genius of the
great Teachers is the genius of every human being, only, in Them, full-born to
the work of awakened souls.
It is the ever-present
knowledge of man’s divinity, and the unfailing determination to live and act as
gods on earth, the gods we all have been and may once more become. This
knowledge, this determination, makes of students chelas, of learners teachers,
and turns the sufferings of discipleship into the joy of altruism. Out of the
great affirmation of man’s life as soul, the growing realization of the rooted
spiritual existence of souls in the One Self, is born the conviction which can
not tremble from doubt, the resolve which waxes and strengthens on weaknesses
overcome.
Nothing less than the
aroused divinity in the few can awaken the slumbering humanity in the many.
Only the strong cry of souls who see, and who begin to know, can fan the
despairing hopes of the multitude to try, try again. But as the voice of conviction
grows, and as the clear and fitting symmetry of the teachings is revealed to
sight, in full support of that conviction, hearts and minds will be touched,
and wills inclined to return to the search for truth. That is what the
Theosophical Movement is for. That was H.P.B.’s purpose in coming, and will be
the purpose of the Teacher when He comes again. And that is the life, the hope,
the empire and the victory of the disciples of H.P.B.
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See the article “Life and
Writings of John Garrigues”.
It can be found in the List of Texts in Alphabetical Order at www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com, or at the Lista de Textos por Ordem
Alfabética in www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com.
Always visit www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com
, www.TheosophyOnline.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com .
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