Observing The Modern Theosophical
Effort, In Its Threefold and Sevenfold Nature
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
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This article was first published
in FOHAT magazine, Canada
2008, Vol. XII, Number 3, pp. 57-60
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“We say and maintain that SOUND, for one
thing, is a tremendous occult power ; that
it is a
stupendous force, of which the electricity
generated by a
million of Niagaras could never counteract
the smallest
potentiality when used with occult knowledge.”
H.P. Blavatsky [1]
“If it is true (…) that everything in
Nature is
septenate, then words
and ideas are septenate...”
Robert Crosbie [2]
The power of Mantra is intimately
connected with the process of Emanation. “In the beginning was the Word”,
says John, I, 1, in the New Testament. And indeed, one can also say that
“in the beginning” of the modern theosophical movement “it was the Mantra”, the occult sound of Wisdom ; and the sound was
expressed in three levels, or vibration rates.
The
newly-born theosophical movement had a Spirit, a Soul and a Body.
H.P.Blavatsky and the other two main founders – W.Q. Judge and H.S.
Olcott – were but outer
instruments who helped others
in making the sacred sound
start amidst the rather noisy bulk of human karma. It was the keynote for a new cycle which was beginning to
vibrate.
These
three initial layers or notes loosely expressed themselves and their complex
impersonal interplay in the three recognized Sections of the movement.
In the
Rules and Bye-Laws established in India
“XI.
The [ Theosophical ] Society consists of three sections. The highest or First
Section is composed exclusively of proficients or initiates in Esoteric Science
and Philosophy, who take a deep interest in the Society’s affairs and instruct
the President-Founder how best to regulate them. (.....) The Second Section
embraces such Theosophists as have proved by their fidelity, zeal, and
courage, and their devotion to the Society, that they have become able to
regard all men as equally their brothers, irrespective of caste, colour, race,
or creed; and who are ready to defend the life or honor of a brother
Theosophist even at the risk of their lives.”
The
Third Section was probatory. All new fellows were on probation, “until their
purpose to remain in the Society has become fixed, their usefulness shown, and
their ability to conquer evil habits and unwarranted prejudices
demonstrated.” [3]
Such a triadic view of the movement as a whole
corresponds to the threefold microcosmic classification of the individual
levels of consciousness. The Movement has, 1) a Spirit, which provides the
vision and the teaching; 2) a Soul,
a central linking element; and, 3) a Body, an outer vehicle for its
manifestation in the world. These three levels also relate to the three
gunas or qualities of the manifested world. The First Section or Spirit gives the movement
the Satwa guna, rhythm and harmony. The
Second Section, its Soul/Mind,
gives it Rajas,
movement, passion, aspiration; it makes things happen. The Third Section,
the Body, is the
material aspect of the movement, and it corresponds to Tamas guna, which is stability
and, in its negative aspect, routine and decay.
In the
absence of the Spirit there is no Satwic rythm and harmony. As a
result, the Rajasic guna is poorly managed. Soon the Soul of the movement
gets confused by ignorance and personal ambitions. Such a wrong kind of
Rajas first provokes division and fragmentation. Later on it “calms
down” only to lead the movement into a long term Tamas of paralisis
and decay. The road to it is provided by an attachment to comfort and
routine. It certainly is not too difficult, nowadays, to see
Rajasic division and Tamasic paralisis, in many a sector of the movement.
In the
long run, if one is allowed to use the metaphor presented in the classic
work “The Dream of Ravan” [4],
we have the following view of the three sections or levels in the
movement, and some of their analogical correspondences:
*The
Third Section is the Body.
Its quality is Tamas; it corresponds to the Coal.
*The
Second Section is the Soul/Mind.
Its quality is Rajas; it corresponds to the Fire.
*The
First Section is the Spirit.
Its quality is Satwa; it corresponds to the Light.
As
long as one obtains a correct combination of the three factors above,
there is more light than smoke in the movement. Time and experience
show how best to keep the coal dry, and how to use the wind of
thought, so that Fire purifies Soul and Spirit enlightens Life.
Such a triadic view of the movement is not the only
way to look at it. After the first years of her public mission, H.P.B. started
teaching about the seven
principles of consciousness. She gradually unveiled the septenary
character of all things in the universe.
The
Sun light, and its energy, have seven aspects. Sound and music have seven
main notes in their scale, and these correspond to the seven sacred
planets, according to the Pythagorean Music
of the Spheres. The Earth chain has seven globes. Our humanity evolves
through seven races, and every human being combines in himself
seven different levels of reality, through his seven principles.
Humans are septenary inhabitants of a septenary planet, which
travels along the space of a septenary solar system. And the solar system
moves around the center of a Septenary Galaxy whose size is one hundred
thousand light years, according to present-day science. [5]
There
is a harmonious correspondence between the triadic and the septenary views of man. Atma and Buddhi, the two highest of
the seven principles, are the equivalent in the triadic classification to
Spirit. Manas and Kama ,
the two intermediary principles, correspond to the Soul. And Linga Sharira, Prana and Sthula Sharira, the three outer
principles, correspond to the Body.
Therefore
the movement is Three, and it is Seven. But it is also One, because, as
William Judge wrote, “it is to be found in all times and and in all nations”.[6]
Its inner constitution is not subject to outer bureaucratic divisions. It is a unique combination of several levels of
reality, consciousness, karma and universal good will, and it does not
obey to the limits of human institutions.
Our
Earth relates to the physical Body of man, or to his three lowest
principles, in the septenary classification. The Moon has a special link
to his Soul, or his
intermediary principles. And the Sun relates to his Spirit, his Nous, his highest
principles, his Monad. In “Isis Unveiled”, there is a long
quotation by Plutarch on this topic. And the ancient sage says, on the triad made of Nous (understanding),
Soul (feeling) and Body (physical vehicle):
“Of
these three parts conjoined and compacted together, the earth has given the
body, the moon the soul, and the sun the understanding to the generation of
man.” [7]
Besides
these three astronomical elements, one must also take into consideration
that the “sacred planets”, from the point of view of the Earth and Man,
are seven. Each of these three and seven lines of evolution has its
own rhythm, although they are all intimately interconnected.
In
“The Secret Doctrine”, one reads that the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are all
septenary, just as human beings are:
“The
last word of the mystery is divulged only to the adepts, but it may be stated
that our satellite is only the gross body of its invisible principles.
Seeing then that there are 7 Earths, so there are 7 Moons, the last one
alone being visible; the same for the Sun, whose visible body is called a Maya,
a reflection, just as man’s body is. ‘The real Sun and the real Moon are
as invisible as the real man’, says an occult maxim.” [8]
The
Mysteries have seven keys (see “The Secret Doctrine”, vol. I, p. 325).
Eastern Occultism has seven modes of interpretation for sacred scriptures
(“The Secret Doctrine”, vol. I, p. 374). The theosophical movement must
therefore have seven levels as well. But can we have a distinct glimpse of its
sevenfold nature?
H. P.
Blavatsky did not say much about this issue. Yet in November 1890 she made one
brief commentary on the seven principles of the movement, during a meeting with
students of her Inner Group in London
1) the
physical existence (sthula sharira); 2) the ‘physical’ vitality (prana)
; 3) the ‘astral double’ (lingasharira), and 4) the animal/personal
feelings (kama ).
H.P.B.
added further that the Esoteric Shool was the Lower Manas, and the Inner Group of the School was the Manas of the
movement. [9]
Of
course, such a statement was an en
passant , informal metaphor
containing hints about the occult
topography of the
movement. It was not to the Theosophical Society per se, or to the Esoteric School
Indeed,
soon after H.P.B.’s death in 1891, the original Theosophical
Society ceased to exist, due a perhaps unconscious treason led by Annie
Besant and others. H.P.B.’s London
Esoteric School
This,
of course, cannot change the central fact that the septenary
classification of principles does apply to the theosophical movement, a point
which can be better understood if one looks at the movement as a living process and not as a dead letter
bureaucracy. Wherever and whenever the movement is reallyalive, it
must be both triadic and septenary.
The essence of H.P.B.’s septenary classification of principles is valid
today as it was in 1890; and so is the essence of the threefold
classification. If one puts in more general words the same
information given by H.P.B. in the 1890 meeting, so that it can more
clearly apply to the living
movement in any time and place, one will say:
*The
outer theosophical movement, that is, the variously organized sangha or community which gathers
students of the authentic
esoteric philosophy, corresponds to the lower quaternary of a more
complex, septenary, living process.
*The
esoteric level or “school” of such a movement is that environment or atmosphere
on which students can promote and share a long-standing process of
self-training whose aim is lay
discipleship or inner learning ; and this corresponds to
the lower Manas, or the lower aspect of the fifth principle in the
movement.
*One
level in the action of the most experienced, dedicated and insightful of such
students will correspond in its collective focus to Manas proper, the higher fifth principle which is basically free fromkamic bondage.
*As to
Buddhi, the sixth principle of the movement, it was not necessary for H.P.B. to
mention it. It corresponds to the action and influence of the Mahatmas
and Initiates, as they connect to the Movement and to Humanity through buddhic Compassion and Solidarity.
*Atma,
the seventh principle, corresponds to the Adeptic consciousness in itself, beyond
any specific actions or tasks.
In a
more specific approach, one may go back to the triadic view of the movement in order to
obtain some of the best evidences available, regarding the sixth
(buddhic) and seventh (atmic) principles of the theosophical
effort.
The
First Section, once contemplated in our bye-laws, corresponds to the “Monadic”
(Atma-Buddhic) level of the movement. As we saw, for some time
after 1875 Adepts and Initiates were officially considered part of the
organized movement, in its triadic structure. This is not so any longer:
yet they must be still be connected to the movement, and the nature of their
connection is well clarified by the study of the septenary vision of the movement. One
significant fact is that Atma and Buddhi are not within the organism
they inspire, as can be seen in the volume “The Mahatma Letters”.
In
August 1882, one of the Mahatmas wrote a revealing letter to A. P.
Sinnett and A. O. Hume. In a previous statement, the Master had told them that
“there is within man no abiding principle”. Sinnett had then asked: “How
about the sixth and seventh principles?”
The
Master commented:
“To
this I answer, neither Atma nor Buddhi ever were within man, – a little metaphysical axiom
that you can study with advantage in Plutarch and Anaxagoras. The later made
his – nous autocrates [10] – the spirit self-potent, the nous that alone recognized noumena, while the former taught on the
authority of Plato and Pythagoras that the semomnius or this nous always remained without
the body ; that it floated and overshadowed so to say the extreme part of man’s
head, it is only the vulgar who think it is within them. (. . . . .) The
permanent never merges with the impermanent although the two are one.”[11]
The
same statement is made, and with more explanations, in “Isis Unveiled”. [12]
By
using the law of analogy and applying this idea to the movement as a
whole, one sees that the higher principles of the modern
theosophical movement – that is, the adeptic and initiatic consciousness
– overshadow in some way its intermediary principles, which
correspond to the subtle atmosphere created by the efforts of
serious aspirants to the esoteric wisdom. It may also have some influence on
the movement’s Quaternary, that is, on its organized, visible action and
work.
Yet
this, of course, is never granted. It will always depend on the occult
quality of the individual work done by theosophists, and whether they have “a
clean life, an open mind, a pure heart”, besides a courageous endurance
of personal injustice and a constant eye to the ideal of human
progression and perfection.
Whenever
the necessary conditions exist, the Sacred Presence will implicitly
overshadow in a more intense way both the “soul” and the “body” of the
movement. As “The Secret Doctrine” puts it:
“The
ever unknowable and incognizable Karana alone, the Causeless Cause of all
causes, should have its shrine and altar on the holy and ever untrodden ground
of our heart – invisible, intangible, unmentioned, save through ‘the still
small voice’ of our spiritual consciousness. Those who worship before it, ought
to do so in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their Souls : making
their spirit the sole mediator between them and the Universal Spirit, their good
actions the only priests, and their sinful intentions the only visible and
objective sacrificial victims to the Presence.” [13]
Seen
as a living organism, the theosophical movement is
like that Ashwattha tree which grows with its roots above,
its branches below.
As to
its leaves, they are not only the Vedas, as the Gita states.[14] They include every wisdom
tradition, and all philosophy, religion and science, if only one looks at
them from the viewpoint of the modern theosophical viewpoint.
H.P.B. writes:
“It
was the living tree of divine wisdom ; and may therefore be likened to the
Mundane tree of the Norse Legend, which cannot wither and die until the
last battle of life shall be fought, while its roots are gnawed all the time by
the dragon, Nidhogg ; for even so, the first and and holy Son of Kriyasati had
his body gnawed by the tooth of time, but the roots of its inner being remained
for ever undecaying and strong, because they grew and expanded in heaven, not
on earth.” [15]
The
true roots of the theosophical movement’s tree are indeed in heaven, or rather
in Atma-Buddhi, its sixth and seventh principles. At the right time in
every cycle, the Branches and Leaves of such a tree-movement will once more get visibly strong: there is no need to ask
about that. Yet perhaps the work for the movement is more meritorious
during the hard, silent times, than during the easy and noisy ones.
NOTES:
[1] “The Secret Doctrine”, H. P. Blavatsky,
Theosophy Company, Los Angeles
[2] “The Friendly Philosopher”, Robert
Crosbie, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles ,
USA
[3] “Principles, Rules and Bye-Laws as revised
in General Council at Bombay , December 17,
1879”, see “The Theosophist”, Adyar ,
India
[4] “The Dream of Ravan”, Theosophy Company, Mumbai , India
[5] H.P.B. wrote a great deal about the
significance of number seven and the septenary character of life.
See for instance her articles “The Number Seven” (“Theosophist”, June 1880),
“The Number Seven and our Society” (“Theosophist”, September 1880),
and virtually every chapter in “The Secret Doctrine”, especially chapter XXV in
volume II, “The Mysteries of the Hebdomad”. The reader will also find
many revealing passages in “Isis Unveiled”, including
volume II, pp. 417-419.
[6] In the article “The Theosophical Movement
“, “Path”, August 1895. See “Theosophical Articles”, W.Q. Judge,
Theosophy Company, volume II, p. 124.
[7] “Isis Unveiled”, H.P. Blavatsky, Theosophy
Co., Los Angeles
[8] “The Secret Doctrine”, H.P. Blavatsky,
Theosophy Co., Los Angeles
[9] “The Inner Group Teachings of H.P.
Blavatsky”, Point Loma Publications, 1985, p. 27. The exact sentence in
the minutes of the meeting reads: “H.P.B.
said that the Inner Group was the Manas of the T.S. The E.S. was the
Lower Manas; the T.S. the Quaternary.”
[10] In Greek letters in the original.
[11] “The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett”,
TUP, Pasadena Philippines
[12] “Isis Unveiled”, H.P. Blavatsky,
volume II, pp. 283-285.
[13] “The Secret Doctrine”, H.P. Blavatsky,
Theosophy Company, Los Angeles
[14] See the opening paragraph in the fifteenth
chapter, “Bhagavad Gita”, “The Theosophy Company”, Los Angeles/Mumbai, 1986.
[15] “The Secret Doctrine”, H.P.B., volume I,
p. 211.
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