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mind, but on the contrary are seeking for those most active." Nothing can give
the student insight save the unfolding of his own inner powers.
Much of the Adept's writing to Sinnett has to do with the conditions of
probation and "chelaship" in the master science of soul-culture. He says there
are certain rigid laws the fulfilment of which is absolutely essential to the
disciple's secure advancement. They have to do with self-mastery, meditation,
purity of life, fixity of purpose. These laws, which at first seem to the
neophyte to bar his path, will be seen, as he persists in obedience to them, to
be the road to all he can ask. But no one can break them without becoming their
victim. Too eager expectation on the part of the aspirant is dangerous. It
disturbs the balance of forces.
"Each warmer and quicker throb of the heart wears so much life away. The
passions, the affections, are not to be indulged in by him who seeks to know;
for they wear out the earthly body with their own secret power; and he who would
gain his aim must be cold."28
A hint as to the occult desirability of vegetarianism is dropped in the
sentence:
"Never will the Spiritualists find reliable trustworthy mediums and Seers (not
even to a degree) so long as the latter and their 'circle' will saturate
themselves with animal blood and the millions of infusoria of the fermented
fluids."29
Arcane knowledge has always been presented in forms such that only the most
determined aspirants could grasp the meanings. K.H. interjects that Sir Isaac
Newton understood the principles of occult philosophy but "withheld his
knowledge very prudently for his own reputation." The "scientific" attitude of
mind is declared to be unpropitious for the attainment of clear insight into
truth, and the pretensions of modern scientists that they comprehend "the limits
of the natural" receive some of the Master's irony. "Oh, century of conceit and
mental obscuration!" he jeers.
"All is secret for them as yet in nature. Of man-they know but the skeleton and
the form . . . their school science is a hotbed of doubts and conjectures."30
Furthermore, "to give more knowledge to a man than he is fitted to receive is a
dangerous experiment." In his ignorance or his passion he may make a use of it
fatal both to himself and those about him. The Adepts, it appears also, have
their own reasons for not wishing to impart knowledge more rapidly than the
pupil can assimilate it. The misuse of knowledge by the pupil always reacts upon
the initiator; the Teacher becomes responsible in a measure for the results. The
Master would only hinder and complicate his own progress by indiscreet
generosity to his chela.
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As one means of lightening this responsibility the chela is required, when
accepted, to take a vow of secrecy covering every order he may receive and the
specific information imparted. The Master knows whether the vow is ever broken,
without a question being put.
The prime qualification for the favor of receiving the great knowledge is
rectitude of motive. Wisdom must be sought only for its serviceability to
Brotherhood and progress, not even as an end in itself:
"The quality of wisdom ever was and will be yet for a long time-to the very
close of the fifth race-denied to him who seeks the wealth of the mind for its
own sake, and for its own enjoyment and result, without the secondary purpose of
turning it to account in the attainment of material benefits."31
The applicant for chelaship is tested-unknown to himself-in subtle ways before
he is accepted, and often afterwards, too. It is not a system of secret
espionage, but a method of drawing out the inner nature of the neophytes, so
that they may become self-conquerors.
K.H. reminds Sinnett that the efforts of theosophic adherents to restore or
propagate esoteric doctrines have ever been met by the determined opposition of
the vested ecclesiastical interests, which have not scrupled to resort to
forgery of documents, alleged confessions of fraud, or other villainous
subterfuge, to crush out the "heresy."
"Some of you Theosophists are now wounded only in your 'honor' or your purses,
but those who held the lamp in previous generations paid the penalty of their
lives for their knowledge."32
He points out, too, the distressful state into which certain over-eager
aspirants have brought themselves by "snatching at forbidden power before their
moral nature is developed to the point of fitness for its exercise." He says:
"it would be a sorry day for mankind" if any sharper or deadlier powers-such as
those the high Adepts are privileged to wield-were put in the hands of those
unaccustomed to use them, or morally untrustworthy.
K.H. volunteers to explain the occult significance of the interlaced black and
white triangles in the circle which forms part of the monogram on the seal of
the Theosophical Society. The Jewish Kabbalists viewed the insignia as Solomon's
Seal. It is "a geometrical synthesis of the whole occult doctrine."
"The two interlaced triangles . . . contain the 'squaring of the circle,' the
'philosophical stone,' the great problems of Life and Death, and-the Mystery of
Evil."33
The upward-pointing triangle is Wisdom concealed, and the downward-pointing one
is Wisdom revealed-in the phenomenal world.
"The circle indicates the bounding, circumscribing quality of the All, the
Universal Principle which expands . . . to embrace all things."
The three sides represent the three gunas, or finite attributes. The double
triangles likewise symbolize the Great Passive and the Great Active principles,
the male and female, Purusha (Spirit) and Prakriti (Matter).34 The one triangle
points upward to Spirit, the other downward to Matter, and their interlacing
represents the conjunction of Spirit and Matter in the manifested universe. The
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six points of the two triangles, with the central point, yield the significant
Seven, the symbol of Universal Being.
Manifestation of the Absolute Life creates universes, and starts evolutionary
processes; but, says K.H. to Sinnett,
"neither you nor any other man across the threshold has had or ever will have
the 'complete theory' of Evolution taught him; or get it unless he guesses it
for himself. . . . Some-have come very near to it. But there is always . . .
just enough error . . . to prove the eternal law that only the unshackled Spirit
shall see the things of the Spirit without a veil."35
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