by Marcus Katz
Though the methods of our Order are different the Spirit is the same, and unless we have learned indifference to physical suffering, and have become conscious of a Strong Will, a will which fears nothing fate can do to us, we can never receive a real Initiation.
These ceremonies in the lower grades of Our Order are principally active in disciplining our minds; they lead us to analyse and understand ourselves. They deal with the Four states of Matter, the Four Elements of the Ancients which with their synthesis answer to the five Senses. Our Senses are the paths through which our Consciousness approaches the central power which for want of a more accurate word I will call the Will.
It is the object of our lives as initiates to bring this Will to such a state of perfection, strength, and wisdom, that instead of being the plaything of fate and finding our calculations entirely upset by trivial material circumstances, we build within ourselves a fortress of strength to which we can retire in time of need. The natural Man is a chaotic mass of contradictory forces. In the higher grades of the First Order, (by presenting a perfectly balanced series of symbols to the senses) we endeavour to impress upon the imagination of the initiates, the forms under which they can obtain perfection and work in harmony with the world force.
In the 0°=0° Ceremony the principles most insisted on are Secrecy and Brotherly Love. Apart entirely from the practical necessity for secrecy in our Order, it is the fact that Silence is in itself a tremendous aid in the search for Occult powers. In darkness and stillness the Archetypal forms are conceived and the forces of nature germinated. If we study the effects of calm concentration we shall find that in silence, thoughts which are above human consciousness clothe themselves with symbolism and present things to our imagination, which cannot be told in words.
The more thought and concentration of purpose that precedes an action, the more effective and effectual it will be. Again in talking on subjects such as these, there is always a terrible danger of personal influence or obsession coming into action. The Eagle does not learn to fly from the domestic fowl ‘nor does the Lion use his strength like the horse’, and although knowledge is to be gained from every available source the Opinion of others should receive the very smallest attention from the true student of Life.
Free yourselves from your environments. Believe nothing without weighing and considering it for yourselves; what is true for one of us, may be utterly false for another. The God who will judge you at the day of reckoning is the God who is within you now; the man or woman who would lead you this way or that, will not be there then to take the responsibility off your shoulders. ‘The old beauty is no longer beautiful; the new truth is no longer true’, is the eternal cry of a developing and really vitalised life.
Our civilisation has passed through the First Empire of pagan sensualism; and the Second Empire of mistaken sacrifice, of giving up our own consciousness, our own power of judging, our own independence, our own courage. And the Third Empire is awaiting those of us who can see – that not only in Olympus, not only nailed to the Cross, – but in ourselves is God. For such of us, the bridge between flesh and spirit is built; for such among us hold the Keys of life and death. In this connection I may mention that the 0°=0° of the Grade of Neophyte has a deep significance as a symbol; a 0 means nothing to the world – to the initiate in the form of a circle it means all, and the aspiration of the Neophyte should be ‘In myself I am nothing, in Thee
I am all; Oh bring me to that self, which is in Thee’.
Having so far considered some of the thoughts that the practice of silence may bring you let us proceed to the subject of brotherly love. We must of course take the word, as we take all higher teaching, as a symbol, and translate it for ourselves into a higher plane. Let me begin by saying that any love for a person as an individual is by no means a Hermetic virtue; it simply means that the personalities are harmonious; we are born under certain influences, and with certain attractions and repulsions, and, just like the notes in the musical scale some of us agree, some disagree.
We cannot overcome these likes and dislikes; even if we could, it would not be advisable to do so. If in Nature, a plant were to persist in growing in soil unsuited to it, neither the plant nor the soil would be benefited. The plant would dwindle, and probably die, the soil would be impoverished to no good end.
Therefore brotherly love does not imply seeking, or remaining in the society of those to whom we have an involuntary natural repulsion. But it does mean this, that we should learn to look at people’s actions from their point of view, that we should sympathise with and make allowances for their temptations. I would then define Hermetic or Brotherly Love as the capacity of understanding another’s motives and sympathising with his weaknesses, and remember that it is generally the unhappy who sin.
A crime, a falsehood, a meanness often springs from a vague terror of our fellows. We distrust them and ourselves. It is the down-trodden and the weak whom we have to fear; and it is by offering them sympathy and doing what we can to give them courage, that we can overcome evil.
But in practising Hermetic Love, above all things conquer that terrible sting of love – jealousy. The jealousy of the benefactor, the jealousy of the lover, or the friend, are alike hateful and degrading passions. Jealousy is deeply rooted in human nature nourished by custom, even elevated to a virtue under the pretence of fidelity.
To see human nature at its very worst you have only to listen to the ravings and threats of a person who considers his monopoly of some other person’s affection is infringed. This kind of maniacal passion is the outcome of the egotism á deux, which has been so fostered by romance.
But it is natural to wish to help and be necessary to those we love, and when we find others just as necessary or helpful, to feel bitterly that our ‘occupation’ is gone; but these regrets will be impossible to us when we can live in the world realising from day to day more fully that the highest and best principle within us is the Divine Light which surrounds us, and which, in a more or less manifested condition, is also in others.
The vehicle may be disagreeable to us, the personality of another may be antipathetic, but latent light is there all the same, and it is that which makes us all brothers.
Each individual must arrive at the consciousness of Light in his own way; and all we can do for each other is to point out that the straight and narrow path is within each of us. No man flies too high with his own wings; but if we try to force another to attempt more than his strength warrants, his inevitable fall will lie at our door.
This is our duty towards our neighbours; our duty towards God, is our duty towards ourselves; for God is identical with our highest genius and is manifested in a strong, wise, will freed from the rule of blind instinct.
He is the Voice of Silence, The Preparer of the Pathway, The Rescuer unto the Light.
Sermons Through Stones: The Secret Masters
“Travellers have met these adepts on the shores of the sacred Ganges, brushed against them on the silent ruins of Thebes, and in the mysterious deserted chambers of Luxor. Within the halls upon whose blue and golden vaults the weird signs attract attention, but whose secret meaning is never penetrated by idle gazers, they have been seen, but seldom recognised. Historical memoirs have recorded their presence in the brilliantly illuminated salons of European aristocracy. They have been encountered again on the arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara, or in the caves of Elephanta. They may be found everywhere, but they make themselves known only to those who have devoted their lives to unselfish study and are not likely to turn back.”
- H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled[52]
In this section we will introduce the concept of the Secret Masters, also known as the Hidden Chiefs, to which we will return much later in the work of The Magister, in Volume 9. As this concept was picked up by the Golden Dawn through theosophy, it is to that latter path that we will first turn our attention.
Theosophy, as developed by H.P. Blavatsky, H.S. Olcott and those who
followed – such as Annie Besant, C.W. Leadbeater, Katherine Tingley, Anna Kingsford, and A.P. Sinnett – may be considered one of the most voluminous and dense of esoteric movements. The claims of the movement to be in contact with Hidden Masters, variously termed Mahatmas, Adepts, etc., who precipitated communications remotely from Tibet through occult means, is possibly one of the most contentious issues in esoteric circles. The debate within and without the movement, stretching over a century, has resulted in an astonishing amount of material arguing the very existence of these Masters and their nature, both as historical personages and as adepts informing – from the East – the Western esoteric tradition.
As such, it might be considered that the existence and nature of the Masters is indeed a question at the very heart of the Western esoteric tradition. To question their existence and nature is to question all who practice the tradition which ultimately promises similar adepthood to those who achieve a mastery of the disciplines of esoteric schools. And many contemporary schools claim a ‘contacted’ nature; that is to say that they assert their own connection to Hidden Masters.[53]
As this section suggests, the concept of the Masters and their identity is fundamental to the WEIS, and not unique to the theosophical movement. It should be stated that this examination can only briefly touch upon certain issues, which remains wide-ranging and awash with unusually detailed, elaborate and obtuse claims and counter-claims – even for esotericism.
It is also proposed that the concept of ‘Hidden Masters’ might be considered an intrinsic component of the WEIS. Those components described by Faivre certainly are supportive of the concept, and the concept itself presupposes those components. It is the intention here to elucidate the context – and to suggest, indeed, a certain necessity – of the ‘Masters’, specifically in regard of the Theosophical Society. The scope will be limited to specific configurations of that society, and other occurrences of the concept will be referenced to support the intrinsic nature of the concept to the WEIS as a whole.
We will begin by reviewing the occurrence of the Masters in the work of H.P. Blavatsky and significant others in the theosophical movement, such as A.P. Sinnett. We will see the role of the concept in esoteric thought, and its necessity. Furthermore, we will note how the appearance of the Masters pre-dated Blavatsky in the accounts of early theosophers, and has outlived her in contemporary occultism. The esoteric context in which the Masters exist will be touched upon, in particular the ideas of evolution, reincarnation and degrees of reality. To conclude, we will comment upon approaches to the subject, in particular the quest to answer the question of the identity of the Masters, by mundane physical identification.
Madame Helena Petrova Blavatsky (1831-1891), founder of the Theosophical Society, related first having met a Master in 1843, at the age of 13, after a fall off a runaway horse in Asiatic Russia. There she was cared for by an ‘extraordinary’ man who suddenly appeared and who disappeared just as suddenly. She afterwards saw him sporadically in visions.
However, Blavatsky admits that her reports of later encounters with the Masters are poorly recalled. She writes of that period:
Everything is hazy, everything confused and mixed. I can hardly remember where I have been or where I have not been in India since 1880.
And goes on to say:
I saw Master in my visions ever since my childhood. In the year of the first Nepaul Embassy (when?) saw and recognised him. Saw him twice. Once he came out of the crowd, then He ordered me to meet Him in Hyde Park. I cannot, I must not speak of this. I would not publish it for the world.[54]
There is a confused debate about these reports, including another account of a diary entry which has Blavatsky referring to Ramsgate rather than London, which she later referred to as a ‘blind’ to the truth. There is argument as to her debt to the writings of the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and her possible relationship to the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, another esoteric movement. Whatever the nature of the truths behind the argument, for which particularly see Webb[55] and Johnson,[56] the centrality of these Masters is unarguable in the tenets of the theosophy movement.
So, firstly, what – rather than whom – are these Mahatmas? Blavatsky writes:
A Mahatma is an individual who, by special training and education, has evolved those higher faculties, and has attained that spiritual knowledge, which ordinary humanity will acquire after passing through numberless series of reincarnations during the process of cosmic evolution, provided, of course, that they do not go, in the meanwhile, against the purposes of Nature and thus bring about their own annihilation.[57]
However, these individuals, though human, are described as transcending their humanity in immeasurable ways, including those of physical limitations. In the inner teachings of the Theosophical Society, Blavatsky spoke about the Masters’ relationship to physical manifestation:
The Masters’ bodies are, so far as they are concerned, illusionary, and hence do not grow old, become wrinkled, etc.[58]
The location of the Masters in Tibet has been a question of some consideration. One Theosophical writer remarked that this location was obvious:
The reason why the Mahatmas live in remote mountain regions is easily stated. In such high places the atmosphere is naturally the purest and most refined on the earth’s surface, and therefore suitable to the cultivation and development of psychic powers. The powerful magnetism engendered and thrown off by ordinary humanity, especially when crowded together in cities, is extremely trying to the sensitive natures of the Adepts.[59]
Blavatsky did not wholly elaborate the structure of the Masters’ organisation – a Great White Brotherhood – nor the concepts of Rays, the nature of the living quarters of her Masters, or many other elements that later accreted to this central concept of superhuman development.
The sudden appearance of a guiding Master is not uncommon in theosophical literature. Early theosophers such as Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) and Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) both received such appearances. In the case of both men, a mysterious guide is present to initiate their teachings. In Boehme’s case, a stranger who appears at his master’s shop and calls the young Jacob out into the street, to tell him that he will become a great man and cause wonder in the world. In Swedenborg’s case, in the account given by Carl Robsahm, a man who appeared to Swedenborg in a vision was clearly identified as Christ.[60]
Precedents to the concept of the Masters may be found in earlier literature outside of theosophy. It has been suggested by Hanegraaf that a precedent is in the ‘unknown superiors’ of the high-degree masonry of the Strikte Observanz (18th century) which, in turn, may have derived from the Rosicrucian mythos first made public in 1614.[61]
However, the Masters described may not be of the same typology. The unknown superior of the Strict Observance is that of Karl Gotthelf Hund (1722-1776), founder of the Rite, about whom Jean Ursin questioned, “There is a debate over whether or not he made a voyage to England, or if it was in Paris that he was received into a Templar Chapter, in the presence of Lord Kilmarnock, by a mysterious knight of the red feather, Eques a Penna Rubra ...”[62]
It is claimed by the less-than-sympathetic Peter Washington that the “immediate source for this idea in Western esotericism was almost certainly the English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), whose work she [Blavatsky] knew well. It would not be unjust to say that her new religion was virtually manufactured from his pages.”[63] Of course, Lytton was familiar with the esoteric current through wide reading of Boehme, Swedenborg and Mesmer, and working with Eliphas Lévi (1810-1875).
In a listing of the various terms for prophets and seers within the literature of esotericism, the theosophist Geoffrey Farthing refers to “Adepts, Initiates, Rishis, Mahatmas, Maha-Gurus, Masters of Wisdom.” However, he closes the paragraph with the statement:
What is more, they affirm that the knowledge and powers which they possess and demonstrate are accessible to all who will undergo the disciplines by whic
h, and by which alone, such attainment is possible.[64]
It might be stated that if the Masters did not exist, they would have to be invented, in order to demonstrate that the discipline of esoteric science leads to some worthwhile attainment.
William Wynn Westcott, Freemason and co-founder of the Golden Dawn Society, in speaking of the Rosicrucians to the Theosophical Society, was keen to draw parallels between the two movements. In particular, on the Hidden Masters he states:
My intention is the more admissible because H. P. B. ever declared that the school of learned men who instructed HER to promulgate their doctrines, has been in continuous existence for ages; and that they have at several times, notably in the closing twenty-five years of each century, authorised and guided some effort at the spread of true occult philosophy.[65]
The development of the Masters into a wider brotherhood was a gradual revelation. In 1925, C.W. Leadbeater dealt with the subject at length, in particular identifying the Masters with the Great White Brotherhood, whose whole object is “to promote the work of evolution.”[66]
The connection of theosophy with the Masters is stated in clear terms by Annie Besant in her address to the Theosophical Congress held at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, entitled ‘Theosophy is a System of Truths Discoverable and Verifiable by Perfected Men’:
These truths [are] preserved in their purity by the great brotherhood, given out from time to time as the evolution of man permits the giving; so that we are able to trace in all the religions the source whence they flow, the identical teaching which underlies them.[67]
