The Founder of the
Liberal Catholic
Church Reports
from the Red Planet
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Front cover of “The Fire”, and an
image of Mars
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The following text reproduces Chapter
Thirteen of
the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical
Literature”,
by Carlos Cardoso Aveline, The
Aquarian Theosophist, Portugal, 255
pp., 2013.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The
greatest absurdities can be said in the name of theosophy and done using
esoteric philosophy as an excuse. As to the existence of physical life on the
planet Mars, for instance, H.P.B. wrote in “The Secret Doctrine”:
“When the present
work was commenced, the writer, feeling sure that the speculation about Mars
and Mercury was a mistake, applied to the Teachers by letter for explanation and an authoritative version. Both
came in due time, and verbatim extracts
from these are now given. ‘… It is
quite correct that Mars is in a state of obscuration at present’ (…).” [1]
The words are clear enough. Yet Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater
thought, thanks to their talks to imaginary Masters, that they knew much better
than that.
Leadbeater, whose
lower self clairvoyance is
responsible for the “esoteric” structures in the Adyar Society, made
extraordinary statements about life on the Planet Mars. Presented in the first
editions of his book “Inner Life” [2], his Martian discoveries help
the readers see the true quality of his writings.
“Inner Life” was
first published in 1910. By then nearly all Adyar Theosophists believed the
Martian Expeditions to be true, as the author emphatically claimed.
His words were the
words of a divinely inspired being: few dared question him. After all, besides
travelling to other planets, Leadbeater had frequent personal conversations
with the “King of the World” and other great spiritual authorities whom he
himself had invented, with the political and clairvoyant help of Mrs. Annie
Besant. No one could think, therefore, that the contents of his books were
largely Pinocchian.
It was only
between the 1960s and the 1970s that the Adyar Society editors seemed to lose their faith, so to say, in his
Martian revelations.
They did not say
anything about it to the public, though. The editors tried to keep the bulk of
Leadbeater’s fraud still circulating. They made an effort to hide his Martian
trips, for this part of the fraud was unsustainable already. They quietly
removed C.W.L.’s Mercurian and Martian revelations from any new editions of his
book “Inner Life”.
Profoundly
Christian in a Jesuitic sense, Charles Leadbeater was the main founder of the
Liberal Catholic Church. During his several personal visits to Mars, he saw and
observed the development of daily life on the red planet. Deeply concerned with
spiritual matters, he reports that some Martians use metal sandals in their
feet, while others look like Norwegian citizens.
He writes in
“Inner Life”:
“The whole
civilised population of Mars is one
race, and there is practically no difference in features or complexion,
except that, just as among ourselves, there are blondes and brunettes, some of
the people having a faintly yellowish skin and black hair, while the majority
have yellow hair and blue or violet eyes - somewhat Norwegian in appearance.
They dress mostly in brilliant colours and both sexes wear an almost shapeless
garment of some very soft material which falls straight from the shoulders down
to the feet. Generally the feet are bare, though they sometimes use a sort of
metal sandal or slipper, with a thong round the ankle.”
Almost obsessed
about physical plane imaginary facts, the Liberal Bishop writes about the
flowers, gardens and cities of Martian citizens:
“They are very
fond of flowers, of which there is a great variety, and their towns are built
on the general plan of the garden-city, the houses usually being one-storeyed
only, but built round inner courtyards and straggling over a great deal of
ground. These houses look exteriorly as though built of coloured glass, and
indeed the material which is used is transparent, but it is somehow so fluted
that while the persons inside enjoy an almost unimpeded view of their gardens,
no one from the outside can see what is going on in the house.”
Out of modesty
perhaps, the remarkable seer does not tell his readers whether his own books
are being published already by Martian Publishing Houses. Yet it is certain
that he has an interest in the cultural life of the red planet’s inhabitants,
for he writes:
“They have two
methods of recording their thoughts. One
is to speak into a small box with a mouthpiece on one side of it, something
like that of a telephone. Each word so spoken is by the mechanism expressed as
a kind of complicated sign upon a little plate of metal (…..) which can easily
be read by those who are familiar with the scheme. The other plan is actually
to write by hand, but that is an enormously more difficult acquirement, for the
script is a very complicated kind of shorthand which can be written as rapidly
as one can speak. It is in this latter script that all their books are printed,
and these latter are usually in the shape of rolls made of very thin flexible
metal. The engraving of them is exceedingly minute, and it is customary to read
it through a magnifier, which is fixed conveniently upon a stand. In the stand
there is machinery which unrolls the scroll before the magnifier at any desired
rate, so that one reads without needing to touch the book at all.”
After saying that there is a secret society in Mars, the
wise bishop gets carried on by his own feverish imagination - or Pinocchian
inclination. He says: “Some at least of the members of the secret society have
learnt how to cross without great difficulty the space which separates us from
Mars, and have therefore at various times tried to manifest themselves through
mediums at spiritual séances, or have been able, by the methods which they have
learnt, to impress their ideas upon poets and novelists.”
At this point,
Leadbeater confirms the first-hand
character of his personal description of physical life on Mars.
“The information
which I have given above is based upon observation and enquiry during various
visits to the planet; yet nearly all of it might be found in the works of
various writers within the last thirty or forty years, and in all such cases it
has been communicated or impressed by someone from Mars, although the very fact
of such impression was (at least in some cases) quite unknown to the physical
writer.”
An important
aspect of the liberal Bishop’s mission to Mars had to do necessarily with
religion. He must have travelled there with a clear purpose. And he wrote:
“One of the most
remarkable things about this people is that they have absolutely no religion.
There are no churches, no temples, no places of worship of any sort whatever,
no priests, no ecclesiastical power.”
This inevitably
raises a question or two.
Is it possible
that, during his several visits to Mars, Leadbeater was secretly preparing a religious mission to that Planet, a
mission to be developed by well-trained priests of the Liberal Catholic
Church?
In that case,
could there be, right now, a group of L.C.C. priests enthusiastically
celebrating Mass and preaching the Holy Gospel to the good Martian citizens?
While there has
been no confirmation about that, it is certain that the degree of accuracy and
nonsense one can find in C.W. Leadbeater’s descriptions of life on Mars is
approximately the same as one will find in his descriptions of talks with
Masters of the Wisdom. And there is one
more thought-provoking fact: it is entirely on the basis of such clairvoyant
baloney that he and Mrs. Annie Besant created the several ritualistic schemes -
including the so-called “Egyptian Rite” (E.R.) - which even now exist and
govern the Adyar Theosophical Society behind the scenes.
Who is going to
firmly pronounce the mantra of truth and thus compassionately dismantle such
traps, built to capture good-willing and well-intentioned souls?
The question must
remain open.
In spite of the
homeopathical efforts made by some to distance the Society from the nightmare
of harmful ritualisms, the same old portrait-adoring and form-worshipping schemes keep many an
influential leader of the Adyar Society miles away from the real teaching of
universal ethics and Eastern wisdom.
Mrs. Radha
Burnier, the President, did what she thought she could. Since 1978, she
simplified the “Martian” structure of “promotions” and “degrees” in the fake
Egyptian Rite, which is secretly situated above the Besantian Esoteric School.
At the same time, Mrs. Burnier widely promulgated the teachings of Jiddu
Krishnamurti, who spent his whole life making severe criticisms to all kinds of
ritualism.
Being a new age
thinker, Krishnamurti did not know and did not teach real theosophy, as we will
see in Chapter 16. But at least he vigorously denounced churches, bureaucratic
organizations and blind belief. By adopting Krishnamurti as her main reference,
Mrs. Burnier did take a first step. Other measures could be taken by the Adyar
Society so as to liberate itself from those dysfunctional remains belonging to
the “clairvoyant” atmosphere of the 1900-1934 period.
One small example
should be mentioned. Out of the seven portraits of Masters used in meetings of
the Adyar Esoteric School, five are fake portraits fabricated by the Martian
“clairvoyant” or under his instructions. This is not the best way to show
respect for the two true Masters and
founders of the theosophical movement. On the origin of the fake portraits,
Adyar students can refer to C. Jinarajadasa’s text on them, which at least up
to 2003 circulated among third degree Pledged members of the Adyar Esoteric
School.
Life is cyclic:
after winter, springtime comes. No falsehood is eternal. A few courageous steps
toward the re-establishment of respect for truth can smoothly pave the way for
a second and deeper stage in the renaissance of classic theosophy that
is already taking place within the Adyar Theosophical Society. In the next
Chapter, we will examine the writings of Charles Leadbeater on Martian
Sociology and Politics.
NOTES:
[1] “The Secret Doctrine”, H.P. Blavatsky, Theosophy
Company, Los Angeles, vol. I, p. 165.
[2] All the quotations in the present Chapter which
contain the Leadbeaterian views on Mars are reproduced from the book “Inner
Life”, by Charles W. Leadbeater, Section 10. His text was published by
“Theosophical History” magazine, London, January 1988; see pages 144-148. I
have the same text in the Spanish edition of “Inner Life”, by C.W.L., published
in Buenos Aires by Editorial Glem (pp. 389-394). In later years, the USA T.P.H.
editions of the book “Inner Life” have silently eliminated this description, as
well as the brief but astonishing description of physical life on Mercury. Yet
a Brazilian edition of the book “The Solar System”, by Mr. Arthur Powell - a
follower of C.W.L.’s - can still be bought in Brazil with this description of
physical life on Mars.
Another author and leading Adyar clairvoyant, Mr.
Geoffrey Hodson, followed the same track at least up to the 1950s. In
1954-1955, Mr. Hodson delivered a series of talks and classes to students in
the international headquarters of the Adyar Society, in Madras/Chennai,
southern India. It was part of the “School of the Wisdom”. The content of his
lectures was published by the T.P.H. in India, in 1955, in two large volumes
under the title of “Lecture Notes - The School of the Wisdom”, with 616 pages
in the volume I and 582 pages in volume II. On pages 442-445 of volume I, Mr.
Geoffrey Hodson quotes and adopts, though in a somewhat cautious way, the same
vividly absurd description made by Mr. Leadbeater about a physical plane
civilization on the red planet.
000
On the role of the esoteric movement in the
ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by
Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in
2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist,
the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
000
