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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The following article 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.
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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
in our associated websites the article “Life
and Writings of John Garrigues”.
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In September 2016, after a careful analysis of the state of the
esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students decided to form the Independent Lodge of Theosophists,
whose priorities include the building of a better future in the different
dimensions of life.
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