Colonel Fawcett, a Mystery in the Amazon

Modern Theosophy and the

Search for Ancient Secret Cities

Theosophy Magazine

Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett (left) and one of the films with “Indiana Jones”

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Editorial Note:

Colonel P. H. Fawcett (1867-1925?) was a brother of British

theosophist Edward Douglas Fawcett (1866-1960), a journalist

and personal friend of Helena P. Blavatsky who had several

articles published in a theosophical magazine while she lived.

The adventurous life of Colonel Fawcett - an explorer who

disappeared in the Amazon in 1925 - inspired Steve Spielberg

and George Lucas in creating by 1981 the character Indiana

Jones, a university professor and explorer interpreted by Harrison

Ford in various Hollywood films of great success. Most of the

movies of Indiana include ethical, theosophical and occult

elements, combined with humor and other factors of popular appeal.

The following article was first published at “Theosophy”

magazine in its February 1954 edition, pp. 158-164, under the

title of “Ancient Landmarks - The Mystery of Mato Grosso”.

The spelling of words in Portuguese language has been corrected.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

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Students of H. P. Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine are familiar with the theosophical teaching about the racial and national evolution of the human family on this globe, and her prediction that in the twentieth century discoveries will be made that will upset the notions of many a man of science. Of particular interest, therefore, is an article that appeared in the January 1933 issue of Blackwood’s Magazine, “The Lost City of My Quest”, by Colonel P. H. Fawcett, with the following editorial note by the publisher:

“When Colonel Fawcett set out in 1925 on the expedition into the unexplored interior of Brazil from which he has failed to return, he hoped to find a large ruined city of the remote past. In this article, written not long before his departure, he describes the original discovery of that city.”

While twenty years later, in 1953, Colonel Fawcett is still missing, his letters, manuscripts, and other records have been collected and published by his son, Brian Fawcett, in a volume replete with stories of adventure, of ghosts, magic and voodooism, and of the customs and practices generally of the aboriginal tribes of South America. (“Lost Trails, Lost Cities”, by Col. P. H. Fawcett. Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1953. 332 pages.)

The story related in both article and book concerns the history and fate of primeval races that peopled the high plateau regions of Mato Grosso, in Brazil. In the latter part of the sixteenth century, goes the legend, one Moribeca, half-Portuguese, half-Indian, who lived most of his life with the natives, displayed before the world such a wealth of gold, silver and precious stones, as to fill with envy the greedy Europeans. As the Portuguese authorities failed to obtain by trickery the secret of this wealth from either Moribeca or his son, numerous expeditions, some numbering as many as 1400 men, set out, only to disappear forever, as though they had been swallowed up by the wilderness.

In the year 1743, however, a native of Minas Gerais was hired to make a search for the lost mines of Moribeca. His party consisted of a few Portuguese, Indians, and Negro slaves. After ten years of hardship and wandering, while seeking a way out of the wilderness, the party discovered, quite by accident, what seemed to be the long-sought object of their labors. While scouting for food, they were led by a deer through a deep crevice in a precipice. Gaining the summit, they stood dumb at the view that spread before them. (We now extract from the Blackwood’s Magazine article, drawn up by Colonel Fawcett from material contained in a document left by the Portuguese explorer of over two centuries ago. [Manuscript No. 512, Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.] [1]

* * *

In the immediate foreground lay extensive plains brilliantly green, with patches here and there of silver water, changing to yellowish brown and dull greens as they drew near the foothills. On this was a sight that made the adventurers gasp and hastily draw back behind the crest-line. For, at a distance of some three or four miles, and so clear that buildings could be distinctly made out, was a huge city... Nothing could have been more unexpected than this extraordinary sight... The sun was well up, for it was scarcely past mid-day, and it was decided that two Portuguese and two Negroes, all well-armed, should reconnoiter as near the city as possible and discover what sort of people dwelt in this mysterious place... The scouts returned. They had not ventured too near the city, but from a distant point of vantage had observed neither inhabitant nor smoke.

To the Indians it was just as mysterious as to their more civilized companions. They had vague traditions and very definite superstitions regarding this part of the country which had kept it ‘tabu’, and they were fearful of they knew not what. One man was found, however, who volunteered to go alone and discover what there was. He started early next morning and returned about noon, obviously frightened, but asserting that there existed not a trace of living man.

On the following morning the whole party set off cautiously along the trail, an advance guard of four scouts preceding them by about half a mile. Drawing near the city the scouts rejoined the main body, corroborating the Indian’s account that there was no sign of human life. The whole party thereupon came into the open, and, disposed in strategic order, approached the walls.

The trail led directly to an entrance through three lofty arches built of gigantic stones, the middle arch towering above the others. The stupendous masonry was black with age, and the grandeur of the architecture tied every man’s tongue ... The overwhelming dignity of the design, the awesome silence and mystery of an old abandoned city possessed them, rough men as they were. High above the crown of the central arch, and deeply engraved into the weathered stone, were characters of some sort. They knew enough to realize that this was no familiar script. The arches were in a good state of preservation, but a few huge blocks had fallen from the summit, and portions had slipped somewhat out of plumb. Passing through the archway they found themselves in a wide street, littered with fallen masonry and broken pillars. They gazed in amazement. There was not a sign of human occupation. It was all incredibly old, and yet in its age amazingly perfect. Here were two-storied houses on either side, all built up of carefully squared blocks carved in elaborate time-worn designs. In many cases roofs had fallen in, in others great stone slabs still covered the dark interiors, and he who had the temerity to enter the windowless chambers through the narrow doorways and to raise his voice, fled at the echoes hurled at him by the vaulted ceilings and solid walls. Fallen stones and an accumulation of bat droppings covered any vestiges of human occupation, had there been such.

Dumb with amazement, the party, huddled together like a flock of scared sheep, passed down the street into a vast square or plaza. Here they must have “looked at each other with a wild surmise”, for in the center of the plaza, dominating its surroundings in sublime majesty, was a gigantic black stone column set upon a plinth of the same rock, and upon it the statue of a man, one hand on his hip, the other arm extended with the index finger pointing towards the north - magnificent in design, perfect in preservation. In each corner of the plaza had been great obelisks of black stone covered with carvings. Three of them had been broken off short, the upper parts lying on the ground prominent amidst the litter of stone. The whole of the right hand side of the plaza was occupied by a building so magnificent in its design as to have been obviously a palace, its square columns intact, but walls and roof partly demolished. A vast entrance hall was approached by a broad flight of steps, much of which was displaced. The interior of this hall was rich in exquisite carving, and still showed signs of a brilliance of colouring comparable with some of the finest relics of Egypt. The interior exit from this hall was blocked by fallen masonry... At the junction of the street with the plaza, above what appeared to be the principal entrance, was carved in semi-relief the figure of a youth in excellent preservation. The figure was naked from the waist up, had shield in hand and a band across the shoulder. The face was clean-shaven and the head crowned with a wreath of laurel...

In the plaza opposite the palace was the ruin of another huge edifice, evidently a temple by its magnificent façade and general appearance. It was entirely unroofed, but on the weather-worn walls were still to be traced figures and designs of animals and birds ... Beyond the street and plaza the city seemed to be entirely in ruin, and much of it was buried. Gaping chasms in the ground, into whose fathomless depths a stone dropped without sound, left no doubt as to the agency of destruction. Around these dreadful gulfs great blocks of stone elaborately carved, slabs of rock, portions of stone and broken columns were piled in awful confusion. The explorers could imagine something of the ghastly tragedy of this unknown cataclysm, whose resistless force had displaced and thrown down monolithic stones of fifty tons and upwards and destroyed in less perhaps than one fearful minute the civilization of a thousand years.

On the far side of the plaza the city was open to a river some thirty yards or so in width ... Evidently there had been a highly decorative terrace to this river, but most of it had been swallowed up or lay beneath the waters ... About a quarter of a mile outside the city and standing by itself was a palatial building with a front of 250 paces, approached by a broad flight of steps of many-coloured stones. It was heavily columned all round, and the noble portico opened upon a vast hall, whose mural decorations and gorgeous colouring still remained more or less intact. From this hall opened fifteen smaller chambers, in each of which was the carved head of a serpent from whose opened jaws poured a small stream of water...

It was long before they could tear themselves away from these awesome ruins, for whose existence they could imagine no explanation. The grandeur and opulence of the place astounded them, but this feeling soon gave place to an intense lust for treasure, inevitable amongst ignorant men. If they could have filled their pockets with gold, they would willingly have destroyed every stone of this priceless relic of a lost civilisation. Their report reeks of this impulse. It is the buried wealth which attracts them, not the mystery ... The leader of the expedition was anxious to return better equipped for this purpose.

Having no notion where he was, but with every confidence that those Indians who remained with him would remember the country, the leader decided to follow the river down on a chance of striking some civilised settlement ... Soon after the departure of this party he found to the east of the fall unmistakable signs of mining. Shafts whose depths he had no means of plumbing excited his curiosity. On the surface of the ground were specimens of silver ore of great richness, presumably brought up from these shafts, encouraging him to believe that he had really discovered the lost mines of Moribeca. Further investigation revealed other features of interest. There were caverns hewn out of the solid rock, one of them sealed with a grey slab of stone ... No effort, however, could move the slab. Others were similarly closed ... Possibly they were the tombs of the priests and kings of the city. The party pictured themselves as rich men. They agreed that, excepting to the Viceroy, to whom their leader owed a debt of gratitude, they would say nothing, but return reconstituted, unearth the treasures and work the mines...

In the meantime the scouting section, after following the lower river for nine days without result, caught sight in a backwater of a canoe paddled by two white people with long black hair and dressed in clothing of some sort. But on firing a shot to attract attention, the canoe spurted ahead and disappeared. People of this appearance were reported again and again by Portuguese explorers up to about half a century ago, but no explanation has ever been vouchsafed... The leader then decided to march eastward through the forest and leave it to chance what part of the Atlantic coast settlements he eventually struck. Where he ultimately came out he does not say...

Whether the Indians deserted him from fear of the tabu and he lost himself, as so many did in these vast solitudes, or whether the insatiable greed of these early explorers ended in quarrels and tragedy, is unknown. Neither he nor a single member of his party were heard of again...

Meanwhile the Viceroy pigeon-holed the report, which never saw light again for upwards of half a century. The Government made some half-hearted attempts to find the place about the middle of the nineteenth century, but they failed to discover anything, and, truth to tell, the search was not conducted very intelligently...

Is the investigation worthwhile from a scientific point of view? Assuredly, yes. It must be doubtful if there is any archaeological and ethnological research more important today than the study of these ruins and the relics contained therein ... What is the significance of the hundreds of inscriptions scattered throughout the forests in characters resembling some of those contained amongst the oldest scripts known to us elsewhere, themselves as yet a mystery? May there not be somewhere another Rosetta stone? Who can estimate the value of such a discovery of ruins compared with which those in Egypt are modern?

* * *

Were the legend of Mato Grosso the only one of its kind, the whole affair might be brushed aside as a fancy, but similar traditions prevail in other parts of the world. Readers of THEOSOPHY will recall, for example, the North American Indian tradition of the “mountain of mystery” in Arizona, as related in an article titled “The Spirits of Superstition Mountain”.[2] Also, the story of a mysterious city in the Cordilleras was told to Stephens by a Spanish Padre in 1838-1839 [3], which the priest swore that he had seen with his own eyes, and which the traveller firmly believed to be true:

“The Padre of the little village near the ruins of Santa Cruz del Quiche, had heard of the unknown city at the village of Chajul ... He was then young, and climbed with much labor to the naked summit of the topmost ridge of the sierra of the Cordillera. When arrived at a height of ten or twelve thousand feet, he looked over an immense plain extending to Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and saw, at a great distance, a large city spread over a great space, and with turrets white and glittering in the sun. Tradition says that no white man has ever reached this city; that the inhabitants speak the Maya language, know that strangers have conquered their whole land, and murder any white man who attempts to enter their territory....”

A story almost identical with the above was told to H. P. Blavatsky by an old native priest of Peru, whom she met there. Ostensibly a converted native missionary, the priest assured her that he was at heart as much a sun-worshipper as ever, and kept up his friendly relations with the conquerors and the Catholic religion for the sake of his people. He solemnly affirmed that he had been at Santa Cruz, and had visited the mysterious city, which he entered by a ‘subterranean passage’ unknown to the world at large.

Relics of ancient civilizations have been unearthed in every part of the globe, and more, doubtless, await the day when some open-minded and intuitive archaeologist will come upon their meaning. Meantime, words written by H. P. Blavatsky, in 1880, may provide food for thought for students:

“...all along the coast of Peru, all over the Isthmus of North America, in the canyons of the Cordilleras, in the impassable gorges of the Andes, and, especially beyond the valley of Mexico, lie, ruined and desolate, hundreds of once mighty cities, lost to the memory of men, and having themselves lost even a name. Buried in dense forests, entombed in inaccessible valleys, sometimes sixty feet underground, from the day of their discovery until now they have ever remained a riddle to science, baffling all inquiry, and they have been muter than the Egyptian Sphinx herself ... Of the long generations of people who built them, history knows nothing, and even tradition is silent. As a matter of course, most of these lithic remains are covered with a dense vegetation. Whole forests have grown out of the broken hearts of the cities, and, with few exceptions, everything is in ruin. But one may judge of what once was by that which yet remains.”

“Having well defined ideas as to the periodicity of cycles, for the world as well as for nations, empires, and tribes, we are convinced that our present modern civilization is but the latest dawn of that which already has been seen an innumerable number of times upon this planet.”

“Who knows, then”, wrote Dr. Heath, of Kansas City, in his Peruvian Antiquities, “but that Jules Verne’s fanciful idea regarding the lost continent Atlanta [4] may be near the truth? Who can say that, where now is the Atlantic Ocean, formerly did not exist a continent, with its dense population, advanced in the arts and sciences, who, as they found their land sinking beneath the waters, retired part east and part west, populating thus the two hemispheres?”

NOTES:

[1] Wikipedia examines Manuscript 512 in a Portuguese language text which includes a photo of the original. (Retrieved 27 December 2019.) (CCA)

[2] “Theosophy” magazine, volume 24, September 1936, pp. 504-508. (Note by Theosophy magazine)

[3] “Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatán”. (Note by Theosophy magazine)

[4] This “idea” is plainly expressed and asserted as a fact by Plato in his Banquet; and was taken up by Lord Bacon in his New Atlantis. (Note by Theosophy magazine)

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The above article was published in the associated websites on 27 December 2019.

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See the articles “The Ancient Theosophy in the Andes”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline, and “The ‘Popol Vuh’ of the Maya Tradition”, by John Garrigues.

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Men of Good Will

Wise People Concentrate Their

Minds on the Law and Their Duties

Theosophy Magazine

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A 2018 Editorial Note:

Written in the late 1940s as the Cold War began,

this anonymous article speaks to the 21st century.

It is reproduced from “Theosophy” magazine, Los

Angeles, USA, December 1947 edition, pages 49-51.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

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In a world ravaged by war and the fear of war, words of peace and brotherhood sound ever more distantly in the ears of men. The shibboleths of wishful thinkers rattle hollowly, and faint hearts are foremost at the council tables.

Who is there to affirm peace on earth, good will to men? Who can outface the mockery of human hopes, withstand the loss of human faith? Man asks, what is Brotherhood, that it can be so cruelly negated, and where is Compassion, that it cannot be multiplied in time of need?

This period of trial and transition, a testing of men and nations of men, is evidently one of the cyclic crises of human evolution. Like an ultimate moment in the life of any being - an intense concentration of karma - it manifests a philosophical need, and may bring into focus the vision of the soul. Then, the being may read as in a flash the meaning of events, the lesson of the law.

No moment of choice in human evolution has passed without a witness on the scene to point the way to those in whom the travail has awakened the will to know: the philosophy if Theosophy is present, in this age of transition, by design of great teachers. Their function, and the purpose of the knowledge they present and represent, is to draw the developing intelligence of mankind to “consider the great truths concerning the destiny of the soul”.

The teachers of Theosophy do not offer a patent nostrum [1] for the wasting disease that seems to have afflicted human ideals, hopes and aspirations. The fact that peace or harmony must be in the seeker, before it can be found in external relations, cuts away the ground beneath all who would legislate men into universal brotherhood.

Vicarious atonement has a perennial appeal for human nature, but no way has yet been discovered which will enable a man to secure the protection and benefit of the moral law, without invoking its processes upon his own head. Were it otherwise, peace could be - and would have been, down the ages - obtained by strife; brotherhood by conniving; and good will by propaganda, dogma, and force.

The proposition is succinctly put in the “Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita”:

“Can a man go against the general will of nature and escape destruction, and also be able to desire wickedly with knowledge, and accomplish, through will, what he wishes?”

“Such a man can do all of these - except to escape destruction. That is sure to come, no matter at how remote a period.”

“He acquires extraordinary knowledge, enabling him to use powers for selfish purposes during immense periods of time, but at last the insidious effects of the opposition to the general true will makes itself felt and he is destroyed forever.  This fact is the origin of the destruction-of-the-worlds myths.....”. [2]

It is reported of Jesus that he wished peace on earth to men of good will, nor would this have been a vague blessing. Whatever his exact words, the “gentle Galilean Adept” was not alone among great teachers in limiting peace to those who know it in themselves, who keep it by natural right or karmic fitness.

Jesus came to bring not peace, but a sword - the sword of spiritual knowledge, the law of spiritual action. [3] But men set him apart as a god, and replaced his philosophy with a vague mysticism which permitted “false pietists of bewildered soul” to retire from the world of action and strive for purity through inaction.

Human weakness protected itself by counsels of imperfection, and men, protesting that God’s law could not be theirs, made a “success” of believing in their inability to practice spiritual action. Jesus was mummified in the winding tape of ecclesiastical dogma and ritual, with his example laid away beside him.

In the nineteen century the philosophy of Theosophy was not presented by an ostentatious “Savior”. From the standpoint of appearances, nothing could be more unlike a spiritual teacher than the person of H. P. Blavatsky, and whereas the accepted tradition about Jesus portrays him with a gentleness and a meekness unfathomable by human thought, Helena Blavatsky attempted no concealment of the warrior soul, and the most intuitional of her colleagues had deep knowledge of the “lion heart”.

The fact of divine beings was not a dogma or article of faith, but was shown to be inseparable from the principle of evolution, natural, human and spiritual. The theosophical adepts and Masters of Wisdom are lawful products of evolution, perfected in knowledge of this period of evolution: “The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits of no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations.” [4]

The theosophical adepts are presented as knowers and agents of natural law, rather than passive perfections. Pre-eminently active beings, they are denominated in the Bhagavad-Gita as “fortune’s favored soldiers”, engaged in the glorious unsought fight.

Spiritual warfare employs only creative, never destructive, energies, if we are to judge by the Commentary quoted in the “Secret Doctrine” (vol. II, p. 427), wherein is described the “destruction of the wicked” on Atlantis.

The doom of Atlantis, carried out by natural forces, illustrates how far removed are spiritual beings (“men of the good law”) from the dreadful malignity of Jehovistic retribution; there is no place in occult law for personal crusades by self-righteous “Angels”. Work “against” evil is unphilosophical because the laws of mental action and concentration determine that it shall inevitably be work with evil. The psychological effect of destructive activity cannot be other than destructive on the man’s own nature.

A man of good will has “only one single object, and this of a steady, constant nature”. Concentrating upon the law and the duties it presents to his understanding, he is content with his karmic opportunities. He works as those work who are ambitious, and achieves a higher happiness than that sought for by those who live for happiness. Since he neither campaigns for converts, nor attacks with righteous indignation those who do not follow the same law, his service spreads itself without diminution, and the pure in heart declare that he benefits the whole of mankind.

NOTES:

[1] Nostrum: an ineffective medicine prepared by an unqualified person. (CCA)

[2] “Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita”, Theosophy Co., 1986, Los Angeles, 237 pages, see pp. 37-38. (CCA)

[3] Click to see the text “Jesus Christ, the Warrior of Truth”. (CCA) 

[4] From “The Secret Doctrine”, H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, Volume I, p. 17. (CCA)

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The above article was published in our associated websites on 16 September, 2018.

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Conservation of Soul Energy

Students of Esoteric Philosophy

Should Preserve Their Inner Strength

Theosophy Magazine

In simpler days, before the age of specialization and travel, the issues of life seem to have been fewer and less complex. The battles men waged were nearer home. Except for occasional outbursts of controversy at times of national elections, the topics they discussed were usually those of the land, the family, and the community in which they lived.

But with the advent of the news-gathering agency, everyone’s business became everyone else’s, both individually and nationally. Radio, television, and the newspaper broke down the walls of isolation, it is true, but in so doing opened a Pandora’s box of issues which literally clamor for solution, and which few individuals seem either qualified to solve or concentrated enough to ignore.

One of the most difficult problems of this age, it may be, is that of knowing what is important and what is not, of determining which of the issues that confront mankind should receive attention, and which should not - of deciding, in short, just where, in one’s private and individual life, to draw the lines of battle. For it seems clear that no ordinary mortal can possibly undertake the burden of grappling with all the woes of the race, nation, and community to which he belongs.

Here, perhaps, lies the main trouble: too many people are attempting to do too many things, are trying to be authorities on too many subjects, are venturing too far from home, both intellectually and bodily, dissipating instead of conserving their energies. The adage that “every man’s business is no man’s business” leads one to question whether the mounting hosts of problems might not be due to the fact that we are overly-inclined to burden ourselves with the duties of other men, thus neglecting our own. “The duty of another is full of danger.”

Psychic energy [1], says H. P. Blavatsky, is like capital, so that if a man have a dollar a day and spend two, his account will show a $30,00 debit at the end of the month.

The point of the simile is obvious. For where is the individual who has not experienced the need, at some time in his life, for economizing? Where is the person who has not felt the pinch of over-spending, and resolved to live more simply and frugally in the future? Present-day emphasis upon business, however, makes it unusual for the average Western mind to make more than a single application - the monetary one - of the principle of economy, although it is absolutely universal in its nature. It is the law of sowing-reaping, of supply-and-demand, which is but an aspect of the one universal Law of Balance, or Karma.

The expenditure of psychic energy would yield greater return, no doubt, if men would apply the same principles of economy to their psychic, mental and emotional lives that they daily and yearly apply to their finances.

Where, then, shall the lines of battle be drawn? Where shall one’s energies be used? Shall one take up arms in the cause of better politics, and declare private war against each and every abuse he discovers in the hundred and one branches of government? Shall one fight for food reform, and awaken men’s minds to the fact that they are gradually being poisoned, all unconsciously to themselves, by the merciless prostitutes of chemistry? Shall he take up the pen against drunkenness, juvenile delinquency, war? Several lifetimes of devotion, a veritable fortune of psychic and creative energy, could be expended, no doubt, in the cause of better physical health; other lifetimes in the thankless task of trying to improve family life; while crusades against corruption in business could sap the vitality of the most energetic men.

Students of Theosophy have occasionally been criticized for not entering the fields of conflict that engage the attention of other men, for their “fanaticism”, as it is sometimes called, in devotion to their Cause.

“You Theosophists”, one man was heard to say, “are too much wrapped up in your philosophy, too indifferent to the issues of the day, too ready and willing to relegate a problem to the status of what you call a side issue. And these Mahatmas of yours, how can they remain so unconcerned about politics, having little care, evidently, as to which of the parties or candidates come into power?”

The answer seems simple.

Neither the Mahatmas, nor their humble students and co-workers, the Theosophists, are indifferent to anything. It is only that they are applying, or attempting to apply, the laws of economy, and have learned, at least in some measure, where their energies can best be expended for the greatest good to the greatest number of souls.

Individually, Theosophists are at perfect liberty - even if in their joint work for the Cause of Theosophy they are not - to sponsor any social or religious reform they may feel to be necessary, to campaign for any political party or candidate of whom they may approve, and to fight whatever battles they will. And some Theosophists, indeed, do engage themselves in the issues of the day and devote their energies, often-times to their regret, to causes which they have felt to be worthy.

But does this nullify the reality of the law of economy? Does it mean that every good cause, of which there are many in the world at all times, must have the personal and active support of everybody, regardless of karma, duty, and freedom of choice? Does it do away with the fact that psychic energy is limited in every man? Theosophists, of necessity, are the friends of all worthwhile movements in the world, and give moral support to every endeavor, by whomsoever made, that leads in the direction of human freedom and brotherhood. But once an individual has had some perception of the aim, purpose, and teaching of the present Theosophical Movement, once he gains the conviction that every man, karmically, has a duty to perform and that the law requires of each only that which he can and should do, he will realize the value of discrimination, frugality, and one-pointedness. He will then know the meaning of “side issues”, and will see the need for conserving his energies.

It seems seldom to have occurred to many people, even to some students of occult philosophy, that the battles most men wage nowadays are, for the large part, personal - having their beginnings and endings on the plane of Lower Manas - that is to say, on the plane of personal desires, emotions and half-truths. Rarely is a crusade undertaken in the cause of pure and equal justice for all, without regard for self, and without distinction of race, creed, sex, condition, or organization. Our battles, almost without exception, are instigated and sustained by personal, organizational, or national self-interest. Where is the nation, for example, which, in its cry for justice, is as solicitous of the rights of others as of its own? Where is the individual who, in his daily and hourly dealings with others, reduces personal feelings and opinions to a minimum, and commits himself solely to the cause of understanding, cooperation, and good-will? Where is the man or woman, of any race or nation, who proceeds on the principle that all true progress must have a spiritual or soul foundation, and that all issues are essentially moral? Controversy and argument, the pitting of one personal viewpoint against another, even when victorious, can only result in change - change from one lower manasic position to another. And “change”, said Abraham Lincoln, “must not be mistaken for progress.” “True progress”, he said, “is always in relation to the hearth.”

Many are the avenues through which the spiritual and dynamic energies of soul are dissipated - chief of these, perhaps, being the avenue of speech. Controversy, argument, fault-finding, gossip - each and all are manifestations of the lower mind, and each finds its expression through speech. And what of the almost universal habit of talking much, with little or nothing to say - is this a small and insignificant leakage of psychic force, do we think? Was it only for rhetoric that Krishna, in the twelfth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita, praises his beloved servant “who is of little speech”? To pronounce a word, according to the Secret Doctrine, is to evoke a potency - spiritual, psychic, and physical - for speech is sound, and sound is one of the fundamental forces of the universe.

Control of speech has long been considered an essential discipline on the path of moral and manasic evolution, a powerful factor in the conservation of soul-force. Success on this path may well be measured in terms of the degree to which energies formerly placed upon irrelevant or unnecessary pursuits are re-directed into channels of usefulness. For how can the individual who squanders his resources be equal to an emergency when it arises? How can the bankrupt, or the invalid, be expected to do his best and most efficient work? Students of esoteric philosophy owe it to themselves and to others to effect a balance in all departments of their being, to make it part of their discipline to obtain proper sleep, recreation and rest - “neither too much nor too little”, in the words of the Gita - and to extinguish their kama-manasic flares.[2] The energies of Soul may then be directed from the position of the Perceiver.

“He, O son of Pandu, who, like one who is of no party… who is of equal mind with those who love or dislike, constant… the same toward friendly or unfriendly side, engaging only in necessary actions, such an one hath surmounted the qualities.” (Bhagavad-Gita.)

It is not necessary action that wastes soul energy, but only those activities that are unnecessary. It is not the legitimate undertakings of men that lead to anxiety, worry, and fear, but only those pursuits they have taken upon themselves indiscriminately. Nor is karmic and obligatory duty ever a burden to the soul. Men create their own problems and exhaust their psychic capital daily by involvement when they should properly be detached, by speaking when they should remain silent, by taking sides when they should be “of no party”, and by arguing and contending on the plane of kama-manas when they should be seeking orientation in the true Self. Yet, it is possible, in the words of Walt Whitman, to “walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers nor anything that is asserted.” It is possible for any man, even amidst the turmoil of twentieth-century life, to rise internally above the din, to learn to discriminate vital issues from “side issues”, and thus consecrate one’s energies to the good of mankind.

Ishwara, the Higher Self, is perfectly aware of the numberless issues and problems that sap the vitality of ordinary men, but knowing them to be productions largely of the lower mind, is not concerned with them. Lower Manas is the dissipator of soul energy - Higher Manas the conserver.

“A hundred and one are the heart’s channels, of these, one passes to the crown. Going up by this, he comes to the immortal. The other leads hither and thither.” (Katha Upanishad.)

NOTES:

[1] In theosophy, the word “psychic” refers to the lower self or mortal soul. The higher self or immortal spirit corresponds to the “noetic” level of a being. While the word “psychic” comes from the term of Greek origin “Psyche”, the word “Noetic” derives from Greek term “Nous”. This article examines therefore the issue of the conservation of the energies of the lower self, or mortal soul. (CCA, in 2017)

[2] “Kama-manasic flares” - the impulses created by lower feelings and thoughts. (CCA, in 2017)

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The above text is reproduced from “Theosophy” magazine, Los Angeles, February 1961, pp. 168-172.

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Edward Bach, Herbalist

Flower Remedies Can Help Hasten

Our Purification and Enlightenment

Theosophy Magazine

Edward Bach, and his Office

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Reproduced from “Theosophy” magazine,

Los Angeles, April 1951 edition, pp. 245-251.

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“Disease is a kind of consolidation of a mental

attitude and it is only necessary to treat the

mood of a patient and the disease will disappear.

The remedies of the meadow and of Nature,

when potentised, are of positive polarity; whereas

those which have been associated with disease

[such as bacterial remedies] are of the reverse type…”

(Edward Bach)

One early morning in May, 1930, his biographer relates, as Bach “was walking through a field upon which the dew still lay heavy, the thought flashed into his mind that each dewdrop must contain some of the properties of the plant upon which it rested; for the heat of the sun, acting through the fluid, would serve to draw out these properties until each drop was magnetised with power.”

The thought-flash had come to a physician amply qualified to make practical use of the principle involved. It may well have been a reminiscence brought through from former lives, for even as a child Edward Bach [1] had been motivated by the conviction that there must be a simple form of healing which would cure all kinds of disease. He early and all during his life manifested that love of nature and of his fellow men, which was to culminate in his discovery of the healing faculties of the common herbs, flowers and trees so abundantly provided for man by Nature. As a boy in school, it is said, “He would also dream that healing power flowed from his hand and that all whom he touched were healed; and these were no schoolboy flights of imagination, but the inner knowledge of what was to come to pass, for ….. in after years he came to know he did indeed possess the power to heal, and many were the sick folk who were cured by his touch.”

The years between the dream and its accomplishment are briefly and simply recounted in the book from which these passages are taken: The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach, Physician, by Nora Weeks. Born in an English village in 1886, Edward Bach enrolled in Birmingham University at the age of twenty, and by 1914 had completed his medical training. He had decided to study all known methods of cure, but while practising, in turn, as a pathologist, bacteriologist, and homeopath, he never relinquished his aim of finding pure remedies to replace the complicated form of treatment which, for all their scientific validity, could offer no certainty of cure. Spending hours in hospital wards, he “saw how the process of healing was often painful, sometimes almost more painful than the disease itself, and this served to strengthen in him his conviction that true healing should be gentle, painless and benign.”

From the commencement of his career, Bach was searching for a more accurate and precise approach to diagnosis and treatment than ordinary medical methods afforded:

“As a medical student Edward Bach spent little time with his books; even then he felt that theoretical knowledge was not the best equipment for a physician, nor the perfect method of dealing with human beings who differed so greatly in their reactions to the diseases which affected their physical bodies.”

“To him the true study of disease lay in watching every patient, observing the way in which each one was affected by his complaint, and seeing how these different reactions influenced the course, severity and duration of the disease.”

“Through his observations he learnt that the same treatment did not always cure the same disease in all patients; for although perhaps five hundred persons, affected by a similar complaint, would react much the same way, yet there were thousands who reacted in a different manner, and the same remedy which would apparently cure some had no effect upon others.”

“Thus early in his search he had gained the knowledge that the personality of the individual was of even more importance than the body in the treatment of his disease.”

This perception recalls the philosophy of Paracelsus, who taught that “there is a great difference between the power that removes the invisible causes of disease, and which is Magic, and that which causes merely external effects to disappear, and which is Psychic [2], Sorcery, and Quackery.” (An interesting reversal of positions, for Paracelsus to consider that form of medicine which works solely with “external effects” as simply a form of Quackery!)

Bach had been serving as Casualty Medical Officer at University College Hospital, but he left his position and ventured into the field of bacteriology. He took with him his faith in his own intuitions, even when they conflicted with orthodox dicta, and he maintained his conviction that the personality of the patient was at least as important, if not more important, than the specific disease he suffered from. Concentrating on those chronic diseases which had hitherto defied the best efforts of the medical profession, Bach felt that he was on the track of a fundamental line of treatment when he discovered that persons suffering from chronic diseases had also a greatly increased number of certain bacteria present in the intestines.

After considerable investigation, Bach became convinced that a vaccine made from these intestinal bacteria and injected into the patient’s blood stream would cleanse the system of the poisons causing the chronic disease. While the results he obtained were “beyond all expectations”, he himself was dissatisfied with the injection method. Contacting Hahnemann’s Organon a few years later, however, he found himself in harmony with the homeopathic philosophy, and thereafter used the homeopathic system of preparation, administering his medicines orally.

Bach also succeeded in isolating seven distinct classes of intestinal bacteria and found, by working out the personality type in which certain bacteria predominated, that the bacterial groups corresponded to seven different and definite human personalities. This discovery naturally changed his method of diagnosis from one of physical examination of the disease, to a “mental” examination to determine the personality pattern of the patient. Miss Weeks remarks that “even at that time he was not at all pleased if he could not recognise the remedy a patient required in the time it took that patient to walk from the consulting room door to his desk.” Paracelsus, we will remember, made the same point, saying that if a physician knows nothing more about his patient than the patient himself tells him, he knows very little indeed. (We are informed by Miss Weeks that Bach had read Paracelsus with interest and profit.)

Although increasingly good results were obtained from his oral vaccines, named the Seven Bach Nosodes (which were enthusiastically received and used by allopaths and homeopaths alike), Bach himself desired more than a system of curing which employed the products of disease. In 1928 he began his studies in natural remedies, and put his whole faith in the healing powers of common herbs and flowers. At the age of 43, he resigned his profitable and highly- reputed work with the vaccines and devoted himself to devising a pure and effective method of potentizing herbs, committing himself utterly to his intuition that this was the right course to follow. Miss Weeks relates that he made a large bonfire of all the pamphlets and papers he had written on his former work, “smashed his syringes and vaccine bottles, throwing their contents down the laboratory sink.” Hereafter, Bach was to make no charge for his healing work, for he felt that what Nature gave so freely, he should likewise dispense without charge. This was his practice, henceforward, no matter what hardships it occasioned him personally.

Impelled by his own intuition, Bach joined the ranks of the mystics of all ages, among whom has ever prevailed a sense - when not a knowledge - of the unknown potencies of plants and stones. This knowledge is termed by H.P. Blavatsky a branch of Magic, and she wrote in Isis Unveiled (Theosophy Co., vol. II, p. 589):

“There are occult properties in many other minerals, equally strange with that in the lodestone, which all practitioners of magic must know, and of which so-called exact science is wholly ignorant. Plants also have like mystical properties in a most wonderful degree, and the secrets of the herbs of dreams and enchantments are only lost to European science, and useless to say, too, are unknown to it, except in a few marked instances, such as opium and hashish.”

The first three herbal remedies (Mimulus, Impatiens and Clematis) that Bach discovered, however, were incapable of producing as good a result as his vaccines did, and this he attributed to a difference in polarity, the vaccines possessing the required negative polarity, while the herbs were undesirably positive. That he considered polarity as an important factor is evident from his definition of disease: “Science is tending to show that life is harmony - a state of being in tune - and that disease is discord or a condition when a part of the whole is not vibrating in unison.” Theosophical students will recall that the subject of plant and mineral polarity is referred to in Isis Unveiled (vol. I, p. 137), where H.P.B. speaks of the varying susceptibility of both plants and animals to different rays of the spectrum, and terms these “differently modified electro-magnetic phenomena.” Space is given also (vol. I, pp. 264-265) to the polarity of precious stones.

How Bach finally discovered in a “flash” the secret of reversing the polarity of his remedies suggests his almost magical rapport with Nature. He collected from flowers sun-magnetized dewdrops, and so delicate were his sense perceptions that he was able to feel the vibrations and power emitted by any plant he wished to test, and his body reacted instantaneously. Miss Weeks tells us that “If he held the petal or bloom of some plant in the palm of his hand or placed it upon his tongue, he would feel in his body the effects of the properties within that flower. Some would have a strengthening, vitalising effect on mind and body; others would give him pains, vomitings, fevers, rashes and the like.” Toward the end of his life, he gained his last group of remedies in an entirely different way:

“For some days before the discovery of each one he suffered himself from the state of mind for which that particular remedy was required, and suffered it to such an intensified degree that those with him marvelled that it was possible for a human being to suffer so and retain his sanity; and not only did he pass through terrible mental agonies, but certain states of mind were accompanied by a physical malady in its most severe form.”

Since the laborious collection of individual dewdrops would be impractical, Bach evolved a new method of potentizing. He chose the best and brightest flowers of a field and floated them in a glass bowl filled with water (preferably from a clear stream nearby). When the flowers had stood in full sunlight for several hours of the morning, the water was impregnated with the power of the plant. Since the tincture thus obtained is prescribed in drops, one supply may last a life-time. A suggestive illustration of the absorptive powers of water is found in H.P. Blavatsky’s book Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge (Theosophy Co., pp. 143-144), where she describes ice as a “great magician, whose occult properties are as little known as those of Ether.”

Bach’s final philosophy, as summed up by Miss Weeks, deserves to be quoted at some length, for the truly phenomenal success of his Remedies in curing disease is squarely based on these premises:

“A small worry passing through the mind will cause a look of strain to appear upon the face, so a continued large worry will have a correspondingly greater effect upon the body; but in both cases so soon as the worrying thought has been removed and the peace and happiness of the mind restored, all the ill effects upon the body will go also.”

“Physical disease, being merely the results of the disorganisation of the function of the brain caused by such moods as worry, fear, shock, strain, was but a symptom itself, and therefore was no indication for the treatment a patient required. (…) ”

“Recognition of the fact that moods and states of mind were alone responsible for ill health would do much to dispel the fear of disease and of the dreaded names given to certain of them, so prevalent amongst both the sick and the healthy. Then, with the patient’s cooperation, his earnest desire to get well, there could be no incurable or chronic diseases, for fear of disease is one of the chief obstacles to be overcome in sickness, and the greatest hindrance to recovery.”

“The property of the new remedies would be that of so revitalising the whole personality that the patient would easily shake off his fears and worries, and with them the disease from which his body suffered.”

“The remedies used in medicine relieved the physical symptoms of disease, but they did not remove the underlying cause - the mood - and the patient was left without help to rise above his mental troubles. For most this was not easy, and for some almost impossible; hence the long-continued suffering of so many.”

“In acute disease, the result of violent or quickly passing moods, the disorganising effect upon the body was soon over; but when the mood was not so rapidly dispelled the disorganisation continued, gaining a stronger hold upon the organs and tissues, and the after-effects might become permanent, resulting in ‘chronic’ disease.”

“Yet even the so-called chronic and incurable diseases would clear up once the mind and brain regained their normal and wise control of the body.”

Edward Bach’s life was considerably shortened by his work, and so rigorous had been the demands on his final laboratory - his own body - that he died in 1936 at the age of fifty. In all, he had sought and found thirty-eight healing herbs, and he did not leave before fulfilling his aim of providing the layman with a simple method of preparing pure natural remedies for his own use. [3]

It is not much to say that Nora Weeks’ brief volume will be gratefully received by many students of H.P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, especially by those who wish to understand the laws of man’s connection with Nature and the powers exercised by human thought and feeling. Merely to read of the wholesome experiments carried out by Bach and continued by many who have benefitted from his discoveries, does much to restore one’s faith in man’s kinship with the greater universe. Bach was undoubtedly a mystic and a magnetic healer, for on numerous occasions he cured diseases by the laying on of hands, and Miss Weeks records many instances of the clairvoyant powers that seemed to blossom in him after he left his orthodox medical practice and retired to live and work with Nature. It is significant - and fortunate - that Bach did not rest with powers which were peculiarly his own and non-transmittable, but persevered in his attempt to uncover a system whereby each man could be his own physician and cure self-imposed sufferings.

The essentially philosophic approach of the Bach method is evident in the emphasis on the patient’s mental outlook as the determining factor in physical disturbance or disease. It is impossible to read The Medical Discoveries without realizing more deeply that a fundamental philosophy - a science of life - is the foremost remedy for human ills of whatever nature. All else may temporarily alleviate, the best of medicine will restore the patient “to himself” simply, naturally, and directly, but self-knowledge alone can cure. The Bach Remedy News Letter reiterates Dr. Bach’s central thesis that it is the patient who has the disease, and not the disease which has the patient. From this it follows, and experience has shown Dr. Bach and his “Team”, that “the time taken for a patient to show improvement depends upon the patient and not upon the nature of his complaint.” There is no attempt to invade the integrity of another, for Bach declared: “Flower healing demands no delving into the patient’s sub-conscious in an endeavour to drag to the surface the object of his fears. People fear many different things, but it is the fear that counts….. The patient’s mood is usually indicated by his reaction to his physical complaint; work on that and administer the appropriate Remedy.” The Bach theory of health may be epitomized in his own words:

“Illness and disease, if we can only look at it aright, is a healing process of refinement and purification. If we can look at it in this light, it loses its terror. The Herbs are given to hasten our purification, our enlightenment, and hence, the work of illness being done, we can return to health.”

NOTES:

[1] A Welsh name, pronounced baych. (Note by “Theosophy” magazine)

[2] A 2017 NOTE: “Psychic” and not “Physic” as Franz Hartmann wrongly has it, in a book from which Theosophy magazine seems to have taken the quotation. We follow Alexander Wilder, instead of Hartmann. See Wilder’s article “Animistic Medicine”, in “Metaphysical Magazine”, vol. 21, no. 7, November, 1907, pp. 385-394. The quotation will be found at p. 387. The magazine is available online. (CCA)

[3] The two short works entitled Heal Thyself and The Twelve Healers are concise herbal manuals and have been kept in print by C. W. Daniel Co., Ltd., which is also the publisher of The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach, Physician. “Dr. Bach’s Team”, located at Mount Vernon, Sotwell, Wallingford, Berks, England, carries on his work, and began issuing, in March 1950, The Bach Remedy News Letter. This small periodical - a quarterly - contains amplifications of Dr. Bach’s theory and practice, together with reports of the work being done with his remedies in all parts of the world. The editors of the News Letter state, for example, that the Bach remedies “have been proved instrumentally to carry definite and measurable radiations. (All things are in a constant state of vibration, each with its specific vibratory rate.) There are some Practitioners who prescribe the Remedies radionically, others by means of radiesthesia.” (Note by “Theosophy” magazine)

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On Paracelsus, who is mentioned several times in the above article, see in our associated websites the article “Paracelsus and the Book of Nature” (by Carlos Cardoso Aveline) and the short story “The Rose of Paracelsus” (by Jorge Luis Borges).

Read in our associated websites the booklet “Health and Therapy”, of various authors, and the articles “Food as Sacrifice”, “Mahatma Gandhi’s View of Food” and “The Meals of the Pilgrim”.

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