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Contact Members' newsletter of the Brisbane Theosophical Society 2016 Issue 1 Jan, Feb, Mar

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Page 1: Contact - The Theosophical Society in Queenslandtheosophyqld.org.au/magazines/CONTACT-2016-1.pdf · The Book of Enoch – H P Blavatsky ... Brisbane Theosophical Society p 3 CONTACT

Contact

Members' newsletter of the Brisbane Theosophical Society

2016 Issue 1 Jan, Feb, Mar

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Brisbane Theosophical Society p 2 CONTACT Magazine 2016-1

Brisbane Theosophical Society 355 Wickham Terrace, Brisbane (opp. top of Albert St) Tel: (07) 3839 1453 (library times) Fax: (07) 3831 3692 Web: http://www.theosophyqld.org.au Email: [email protected]

BOOKSHOP & LIBRARY: (Closed on Public Holidays)

Monday, Tue, Wed, Thurs ….……………..10.30 am to 2.30 pm Friday……………… 1.00 pm to 4.00 pm & 6.30 pm to 7.25 pm Saturday ……….…………………..…………..9.00 am to 12 noon

‘Contact’ magazine is edited by Geoff Harrod and the President.

The programme of Lodge meetings is enclosed and is also placed on the Lodge website which will always be the most up-to-date source of information.

The Theosophical Society has no official statements of belief. It encourages members to seek the truth by various avenues, but always subject to respect for others. All views expressed in these pages are entirely those of the authors – not of the Society.

PRESIDENT’S RAVINGS The last year at Brisbane Theosophical Society has been a busy one and we have maintained our

program of lectures and study groups. The highlight was the visit of international TS lecturer Vic Hao

Chin, from the Philippines. Other notable visitors this year included our National President Linda

Oliveira, National Lecturers Barry Bowden and Dianne Kynaston, and our friends Brian Parry and

Marie Bertelle, now living in Sydney. Rod Bucknell conducted two meditation retreats for us at the

Theosophical Education and Retreat Centre at Springbrook.

Arranging the program and finding suitable theosophical speakers involves our Secretary, Phoebe Williams, in

considerable work. To lighten her load somewhat, our aim in the coming year is to make more use of up-to-date

DVDs from the USA Section, as well as those from our own National Conventions. An example of this was the

presentation this year to members, on one Saturday a month, of a series of Pablo Sender DVDs on the Secret

Doctrine. This proved highly successful.

Maintenance of the Lodge premises has engaged much of the Committee’s time. Work on the roof is ongoing – some

work has been done, but there may still be problems with water entry. The side stairs that act as a fire escape have

been closed for some time, after we were told they are unsafe. We are awaiting quotations for their replacement

from a builder experienced in dealing with heritage properties.

The State Department of Natural Resources and Mines have contacted us about the access lanes at the rear of our

building. These are likely to be re-aligned in the early months of the New Year, reducing the car parking available

to us. We may have to depend increasingly on street parking. So be warned!

At last, we are in the process of moving our office from the “dungeon” downstairs up to a room off the upper

auditorium. This move will enable us to install better internet, telephone and fax facilities. We will also be able to

install eftpos facilities. The new office will be up-and-running soon, pending resolution of some minor matters.

We wouldn’t be able to keep the doors of the Lodge open if it were not for our dedicated volunteers. During the

year, thanks to Phillipa’s organisational skills, we have been able again to open the library and bookshop every

weekday and Saturday mornings. Our library, by the way, is about the best lodge library in the country, thanks to

Patricia Ossenberg. We also depend on volunteer help for minor maintenance like keeping the grounds clean and

changing light bulbs. But we still need all the help we can get, so if you want to put up your hand, it would be much

appreciated.

Membership rose slightly through 2015, a gratifying trend. But we would still like to see more people joining the

Society as members. Remember, paraphrasing John F Kennedy, “ask not what the Society can do for you, but what

you can do for the Society.” To promote the Society, we have continued to give out postcards advertising our

library. For this, we thank especially another of our volunteers, Mira, who has distributed almost 1000 in the last

seven months – fantastic! The Committee also arranged for the production of two banners for hanging from the

front verandas of our building. We also have a volunteer, Michael Moreton, to set up an official facebook page for

us.

Finally, I am grateful for the help and support of the Executive Committee, especially the two Vice Presidents and

our long serving Secretary, Phoebe Williams. But thanks also to all the members of the Committee who have worked

hard throughout the year. Their dedication and enthusiasm keeps the TS going and helps

spread the message that such a thing as Theosophy exists.

Wishing you all a happy Christmas and a healthy and successful 2016. Thank you

In this issue...

President’s Ravings - Brian Harding ........................ 2

Brisbane Lodge News .............................................. 3

The Enigma of Music – David Allan ......................... 4

Enchanted Woods – W B Yeats ............................... 6

Unity – Phillipa Rooke .............................................. 7

The Book of Enoch – H P Blavatsky ....................... 8

A Reincarnation Story – Alanna Ketler. ............... 13

Words for God – Geoff Harrod ............................... 14

TOS News .............................................................. 15

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Brisbane Theosophical Society p 3 CONTACT Magazine 2016-1

BRISBANE LODGE NEWS

Program Listing

The Lodge program is in the form of a 3-fold A4 sheet as a pocket sized leaflet. The weekly groups are included in sequential context between the Friday night meetings, so that it is clearer what is on and when. The programme is enclosed with this newsletter. It can also be seen on the website, and downloaded as a PDF file. The web copy will always be the latest update.

Brisbane Theosophical Society Executive Committee for 2016

President: Brian Harding Vice Presidents: Phillipa Rooke, John Harris Secretary: Phoebe Wiliams Treasurer: Dianne Manning Committee: Christine Gwin, Robyn Rizzo, Geoff Harrod, Patricia Ossenberg

Sub-Committees - Library: Patricia Ossenberg, Phillipa Rooke, Phoebe Williams

Bookshop: Phoebe Williams, Patricia Ossenberg, Robyn Rizzo

Finance: Brian Harding, Phillipa Rooke, Dianne Manning, Patricia Ossenberg, Phoebe Williams

Programs: Phoebe Williams, Brian Harding, Phillipa Rooke

Property & Equipment: Brian Harding, John Harris, Dianne Manning, Phoebe Williams

Publicity: Robyn Rizzo, Christine Gwin, John Harris

End-of-year closure period

The Lodge, Library & Bookshop is closed from 11 December 2015 to 1 February 2016

New Additions to the Lending Library

The Sayings of the Ancient One ................... P G Bowen

The Art of Purring (Dalai Lama’s Cat) ........... David Michie

Matrix of Mystery ......................................... Herbet Guenther

TetraGrammaton .......................................... Donald Tyson

The World Around Us .................................. Radha Burnier

Dog ............................................................... Patricia Dale-Green

The Kabbalah .............................................. Voyen Koreis

The Fool’s Pilgrimage .................................. Voyen Koreis

Magick for Beginners ................................... J H Bruwain

Quite a few older books have been withdrawn from the shelves. They are available for sale cheaply in the bookshop

Australian TS e-Newsletters and ‘T-in-A’ magazine

The national magazine ‘Theosophy in Australia’ is now only posted in paper form to those members who pay extra for it when paying their annual dues. It is put on the national website www.austheos.org.au as a PDF file. To be advised by email when each new issue is available, register by sending an email to Gil Murdoch at [email protected]. Also ask Gil to add you to the e-Newsletter mailing list if you don’t already receive it.

Brisbane TS now has a Facebook page

Our member Michael Morton has kindly volunteered to set up and maintain a Facebook presence for Brisbane TS.

It’s at https://www.facebook.com/brisbanetheosophicalsociety

Visiting Speaker – John Vorstermans

John Vorstermans is a natural health educator with a diploma in Ayurveda Medicine. He has also been involved in Internet technology since 1989, having started New Zealand’s first Internet Service Provider. John came across Theosophy while travelling in the USA in the early 1980’s after picking up a copy of The Secret Doctrine, which is a life changing journey when the ideas presented are put into practice. John is currently National President of the New Zealand Section of the Theosophical Society and President of the Indo-Pacific Federation of the Theosophical Society.

John will be speaking at Brisbane on Friday 29 April, and also conducting the School of Theosophy at

Springbrook, 20 – 26 April

Cover picture: The mountain-top hermit caves in southern France (now built-in) where Mary Magdalene is reputed to have spent the last years of

her life. Now a pilgrim destination and retreat but still not easily found. Photo by Carolyn Harrod

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The Enigma of Music From a talk given by David Allan at the Brisbane Theosophical Society

It was said by the late musicologist and radio broadcaster Karl Haas in his book, ‘Inside Music’ [1], that ‘Music it is the best loved and least understood of all the Arts’. This is somewhat a provocative statement for as well as music we could think of Painting, Poetry, Sculpture and Drama. But more of the Arts later. The Oxford dictionary is more specific than Karl Haas when it defines Music as, ‘The art of combining vocal or instrumental sounds in a harmonious or expressive way’.

But then again is Music only an Art? It could also be called a Science as it fits the definition of Science as it has, ‘observable patterns and regularities that can be modelled’. It certainly can be expressed in a form of scientific language in scores which have tempo, rhythm, pitch, melody and harmony. Like many things Science models however it tells little about the underlying nature; and if it’s only a Science, why can’t people who have never learnt music or played an instrument, love and appreciate great music.

The hidden nature of Music was explored further in an issue this year of the journal Scientific American Mind [2]. The leading article called, ‘The Healing Power of Music’ describes reported healing effects on the brain and the emotions. Researchers first became interested in such effects of music when a popularly reported study in the 1990’s claimed that listening to Mozart could make you cleverer and pass exams easier. This was labelled in the press the ‘Mozart effect’. The claim has never been scientifically confirmed but many experts do think that music has longer term benefits on cognition. Certainly its effects on the emotions are indisputable. National Anthems are a good example and Christmas Carols in supermarkets are supposed put us in a joyous buying mood. Some years ago I was part of a tour group going through a Toyota car factory in Japan. It was fascinating to see the production line workers putting the cars together to the beat of a short repetitive tune which I couldn’t get out of my mind for a while.

From this research, the Scientific American Mind article claims that Music is a uniquely effective tool for treating neurological impairment because it recruits nearly every region of the brain. Imaging studies show that both listening to and making music spur activity and connections across brain regions involved in emotion, reward, cognition, sensation and movement. It is suggested generally that music makes our brains healthier as we age, but specifically can treat some common diseases, particularly in the aged.

Firstly Strokes; The treatment uses the observation that when

the stroke affects areas of the brain that control speech, victims they can sometimes sing words they cannot say. Speech therapists have created treatments recruiting undamaged areas of the brain to create alternative neural pathways.

Secondly, Parkinson’s disease; It has been found out that rhythm is the musical key to treatment of Parkinson’s, affecting roughly one in 100 people older than 60 years. The reason is still obscure but it is thought that rhythm’s timing mechanism helps the neural networks that govern co-ordination.

Thirdly, Alzheimer’s disease; It is believed that Music can be used to treat a feared disease of the elderly, Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Music activates neural areas of the brain stimulating normal emotional responses despite general cognitive decline. Some early trials have been encouraging.

Another is Autism; Autism occurs in 1% to 2 % of children,

mostly boys. The impaired social interactions tend to respond to music relating to social and emotional ways of thinking.

However the article stress some caution, since for any novel therapy, enthusiasm can sometimes outpace hard evidence and the new music based treatments must prove their efficacy against more established therapies. However music’s seemingly unique potential to address neurological disorders is spurring researchers to fully understand the science behind the power of music to heal.

So what are some other things that music does? Well to a significant extent it defines cultures. Think of Spanish music and one thinks of Spanish style dances with castanets. African music tends to be associated with drums and Jazz is rooted in the USA. This music then proliferates in a multicultural way as composers adopt native rhythms from other countries for their own works. A good example is the French composer Bizet’s adaption of Spanish style music for the opera ‘Carmen’.

Many of us are also interested in knowing whether music has the potential to aid one’s spiritual understanding and personal growth. Beethoven is quoted as having said that, ‘Music is a higher wisdom than philosophy’. Then again one would expect him to say this and while interesting, his comment throws little light on how or why. We get more insight from an article in the national bi-monthly journal, ‘Theosophy in Australia’ in 2011 entitled, ‘On the Beautiful’ by Linda Olivera [3]. Her article refers to a booklet written four decades ago by the English Theosophist, Dr Laurence Bendit entitled, ‘The Yoga of Beauty’.

But firstly what is beauty? The current Oxford Pocket dictionary defines it in two ways as; ‘A combination of qualities such as shape, colour, sound, etc. that pleases the senses’ – music certainly fits in here, or ‘A combination of qualities that pleases the intellect or moral sense’. Bendit says however that beauty may also have a quality that pleases the spiritual senses. The beautiful reaches us through the feeling aspect of the mind – specifically that aspect of the mind which responds to finer feelings and not coarser ones. The beautiful not only has an effect on us; it is actually transformative and Bendit says it has a buddhic or intuitive impact. Bendit’s claim leads into my main discussion of what music actually is.

So at this point let us take stock on what we have heard about music. Essentially what has been described are its attributes. While these are remarkable and are probably a surprise to many, what is still illusive is what it actually is. To summarize, it’s a form of art, has characteristics which can be scientifically modelled, has emotive and cultural characteristics, neurologically it has therapeutic and healing effects and it is a form of beauty which may lead to spiritual benefits. But what actually is it?

A few people have satisfactorily responded to this enigma. A good example is the eminent Theosophist and past international president, C. Jinarajadasa

Jinarajadasa’s career culminated as the 4th

international president of the Theosophical Society, from 1945 until 1953, when he passed away. He wrote an article dated 1915 when he was 40 entitled, ‘Art as a Factor in the Soul’s Evolution’ [4]. Jinarajadasa or ‘Raja’ as he was called, was evidently an outstanding person. Briefly, he was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1875 and came into contact with the leading Theosophist of the time at the early age. His education included the Universities of Cambridge and Pavia. He was fluent in many languages and had a career as an international lecturer for the TS. He was also head of the Manor in Sydney for some years in the thirties. He was acknowledged as a

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lover of Beauty and its expression by man as Art. He appreciated all forms of Art and above all Music, which he regarded as the highest of all the arts. One of his favourite themes was the essential oneness of Art, Science, Religion and Philosophy.

Some key points in his article are quoted or interpreted as I understand them. He states firstly that everything in the universe is directed by intelligence and that Evolution is in accordance with a plan by a Master Mind after a pattern existing from the beginning. He refers to Plato’s World of Ideas in which exists the Archetypes of things. Here he mentions the word ‘Archetype’, also employed by Jung, which is defined as an ‘original model’ or ‘prototype’. He says that the Divine Mind conceives the archetypal form and thence it exists as an absolute reality in the World of Ideas, but manifesting as particular forms in the long process of evolution. Slowly man evolves through experience and growing intelligence, but experience is a slow teacher so he is not left alone and perfected ones of the past appear to assist the growth of our souls.

But also, he says, evolving man has a higher facility than intelligence, called intuition or Buddhi. Beauty and love, he says, are dual manifestations of this, and through either it is awakened. The immortality within has a desire for everlasting possession of the good and the beautiful. Here then is a new factor to help his evolution. As he says, intuition transcends reason; wisdom comes from its exercise, not merely as knowledge, but by sensing the archetype itself. This leads to the place of Art as a factor in the soul’s evolution. Art in its highest manifestation always deals with archetypes. Music, Drama, Poetry, Sculpture, Painting and other branches of Art in their highest forms are true manifestations of Art; to the extent they fall short they are just playing with shadows.

The true function of Art is to put us in touch with Archetypical concepts. Sculpture shows us grace and reveals the function of the figure. Painting has more mental characteristics and when depicting emotions suggests the soul in its alternations; historical painting shows variations of humanity and portrait painting suggests a type of personality as an archetype. Landscape painting summons up the world of ideas through the beauties of nature and the harmony of light and colour. Poetry has much in common with sculpture and painting. It deals with concepts, depicting them with the music of words, to awaken our deeper intuitions from behind a veil.

No other branch of Art except perhaps Music, he maintains, can help man to rise to higher levels than Drama. For drama shows us the inner conflict in man. The true dramatist fastens on fleeting reflections of archetypes in humanity, materializes them and makes them live on the stage. With Architecture and Music we come, as in Landscape painting to the more impersonal manifestations of art. Architecture and Music are closely allied and the description of Architecture as frozen music shows us the relation. For Architecture is harmony in space and Music is harmony in time.

But what, he says, can be said of the greatest of all the Arts, Music. In ways not possible to other branches of art, Music makes us feel our immortality. As he says, it tells us of the archetypical world directly, of things of that world without their veils, tells of sorrow, not mine or yours but Sorrow itself – God’s Sorrow if you will; of Love, not mine but love of Love; for Music is the soul of Art and talks to us with the language of God.

True Art, he states, will always call forth a response in man from the higher intuition, the Buddhi, whose heritage is the archetypical world. It does not necessarily teach us our known ideas of ethics; but it will always show us through our intuitions how to look at man and the world from the standpoint of God; that is in their true relations. It will teach us to cast out the self, the true aim of Ethics, Religion and Philosophy. Art then is a means for the quickening of the Buddhi. Thus art can help the evolution of man when, in the endless life of the growing soul, there comes a time when an inner change takes place in him; life loses its old attractions and he seeks something more abiding than the world can offer him. He has come to the end of the Path of Out-going and begins to tread the Path of Return.

This, he says, is the reversal of motive and he yearns for things eternal. He passes from his life of worldliness and enters the higher way. For the higher path is not radically different from the lower where it was pleasant to live and love beautiful things; the higher is but the lower transformed into one of absolute beauty and happiness without the dross of mortality that made all things loveable transient so they fell short of our desire. I think you will agree that Jinarajadasa, whom I have quoted at length, has an inspiring way of expressing difficult spiritual concepts.

Another deep insight comes from a person many have possibly not heard of, Hazrat Inyat Khan. Inyat Khan was born in India in 1882 and had a distinguished international career as a musician, particularly in Europe during the early 20

th

century and who also founded a Sufi movement in the West. In a chapter extracted from a book he wrote on spiritual development through music and published in an anthology of such papers [5] he writes, in part;

‘What is wonderful about Music is that it helps man to concentrate independently of thought; and therefore music seems to be the bridge over the gulf between form and the formless. If there is anything intelligent, effective and at the same time formless, it is Music. Poetry suggests form, line and colour suggest form but music suggests no form. It creates also that resonance which vibrates through the whole being, lifting thought above the denseness of matter; it almost turns matter into spirit, into its original condition, through the harmony of vibrations touching every atom of one’s whole being.’

Finally, the new age philosopher and Zen popularizer Alan Watts took the concept of music into sound itself when he is quoted as having said [6]; ‘If you just listen, relating yourself to the world entirely through the sense of hearing you will find yourself in a universe where reality - pure sound - comes immediately out of silence and emptiness, echoing away as memory in the labyrinths of the brain. In this universe everything flows backwards from the present and vanishes, like the wake of a ship; the present comes out of nothing and you cannot hear the self that is listening. This can be done with all the senses but most easily with the ears. Simply listen, then, to the rain. Listen to what Buddhists call its “suchness”. Like all classical music it means nothing except itself, for only inferior music mimics other sounds or is about anything other than music. There is no message in a Bach fugue. So to when an ancient Zen master was asked about the meaning of Buddhism he replied; “If there is any meaning in it then I am not liberated’.

References; 1. Karl Haas - Inside Music (Macmillan Edition 1999) 2. William F Thompson & Gottfried Schlaug - The Healing Power of Music (Scientific American Mind, March/April 2015) 3. Linda Olivera – On the Beautiful (Theosophy in Australia, March 2011) 4. C Jinarajadarsa - Art as a Factor in the Soul’s Evolution (Brisbane Theosophical Society Newsletter, ‘Contact’ 2012 Issue 3,) 5. Jocelyn Godwin (Editor) – Music, Mysticism and Magic, (Arkana 1989, Chapter 56) 6. Anne Bancroft - Twentieth Century Mystics and Sages (Arkana 1989, Chapter 1)

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From The Celtic Twilight, by William Butler Yeats, [1893, 1902], at www.sacred-texts.com

ENCHANTED WOODS LAST summer, whenever I had finished my day's work, I used to go wandering in certain roomy woods, and there I would often meet an old countryman, and talk to him about his work and about the woods, and once or twice a friend came with me to whom he would open his heart more readily than to me, He had spent all his life lopping away the witch elm and the hazel and the privet and the hornbeam from the paths, and had thought much about the natural and supernatural creatures of the wood. He has heard the hedgehog--'grainne oge,' he calls him--'grunting like a Christian,' and is certain that he steals apples by rolling about under an apple tree until there is an apple sticking to every quill. He is certain too that the cats, of whom there are many in the woods, have a language of their own--some kind of old Irish. He says, 'Cats were serpents, and they were made into cats at the time of some great change in the world. That is why they are hard to kill, and why it is dangerous to meddle with them. If you annoy a cat it might claw or bite you in a way that would put poison in you, and that would be the serpent's tooth.' Sometimes he thinks they change into wild cats, and then a nail grows on the end of their tails; but these wild cats are not the same as the marten cats, who have been always in the woods. The foxes were once tame, as the cats are now, but they ran away and became wild. He talks of all wild creatures except squirrels--whom he hates--with what seems an affectionate interest, though at times his eyes will twinkle with pleasure as he remembers how he made hedgehogs unroll themselves when he was a boy, by putting a wisp of burning straw under them.

I am not certain that he distinguishes between the natural and supernatural very clearly. He told me the other day that foxes and cats like, above all, to be in the 'forths' and lisses after nightfall; and he will certainly pass from some story about a fox to a story about a spirit with less change of voice than when he is going to speak about a marten cat--a rare beast now-a-days. Many years ago he used to work in the garden, and once they put him to sleep in a garden-house where there was a loft full of apples, and all night he could hear people rattling plates and knives and forks over his head in the loft. Once, at any rate, be has seen an unearthly sight in the woods. He says, 'One time I was out cutting timber over in Inchy, and about eight o'clock one morning when I got there I saw a girl picking nuts, with her hair hanging down over her shoulders, brown hair, and she had a good, clean face, and she was tall and nothing on her head, and her dress no way gaudy but simple, and when she felt me coming she gathered herself up and was gone as if the earth had swallowed her up. And I followed her and looked for her, but I never could see her again from that day to this, never again.' He used the word clean as we would use words like fresh or comely.

Others too have seen spirits in the Enchanted Woods. A labourer told us of what a friend of his had seen in a part of the woods that is called Shanwalla, from some old village that was before the weed. He said, 'One evening I parted from Lawrence Mangan in the yard, and he went away through the path in Shanwalla, an’ bid me goodnight. And two hours after, there he was back again in the yard, an' bid me light a candle that was in the stable. An’ he told me that when he got into Shanwalla, a little fellow about as high as his knee, but having a head as big as a man's body, came beside him and led him out of the path an’ round about, and at last it brought him to the lime-kiln, and then it vanished and left him.' A woman told me of a sight that she and others had seen by a certain deep pool in the river. She said, 'I came over the stile from the

chapel, and others along with me; and a great blast of wind came and two trees were bent and broken and fell into the river, and the splash of water out of it went up to the skies. And those that were with me saw many figures, but myself I only saw one, sitting there by the bank where the trees fell. Dark clothes he had on, and he was headless.'

A man told me that one day, when he was a boy, he and another boy went to catch a horse in a certain field, full of boulders and bushes of hazel and creeping juniper and rock-roses, that is where the lake side is for a little clear of the woods. He said to the boy that was with him, 'I bet a button that if I fling a pebble on to that bush it will stay on it,' meaning that the bush was so matted the pebble would not be able to go through it. So he took up 'a pebble of cow-dung, and as soon as it hit the bush there came out of it the most beautiful music that ever was heard.' They ran away, and when they had gone about two hundred yards they looked back and saw a woman dressed in white, walking round and round the bush. 'First it had the form of a woman, and then of a man, and it was going round the bush.'

I often entangle myself in argument more complicated than even those paths of Inchy as to what is the true nature of apparitions, but at other times I say as Socrates said when they told him a learned opinion about a nymph of the Illissus, 'The common opinion is enough for me.' I believe when I am in the mood that all nature is full of people whom we cannot see, and that some of these are ugly or grotesque, and some wicked or foolish, but very many beautiful beyond any one we have ever seen, and that these are not far away when we are walking in pleasant and quiet places. Even when I was a boy I could never walk in a wood without feeling that at any moment I might find before me somebody or something I had long looked for without knowing what I looked for. And now I will at times explore every little nook of some poor coppice with almost anxious footsteps, so deep a hold has this imagination upon me. You too meet with a like imagination, doubtless, somewhere, wherever your ruling stars will have it, Saturn driving you to the woods, or the Moon, it may be, to the edges of the sea. I will not of a certainty believe that there is nothing in the sunset, where our forefathers imagined the dead following their shepherd the sun, or nothing but some vague presence as little moving as nothing. If beauty is not a gateway out of the net we were taken in at our birth, it will not long be beauty, and we will find it better to sit at home by the fire and fatten a lazy body or to run hither and thither in some foolish sport than to look at the finest show that light and shadow ever made among green leaves. I say to myself, when I am well out of that thicket of argument, that they are surely there, the divine people, for only we who have neither simplicity nor wisdom have denied them, and the simple of all times and the wise men of ancient times have seen them and even spoken to them. They live out their passionate lives not far off, as I think, and we shall be among them when we die if we but keep our natures simple and passionate. May it not even be that death shall unite us to all romance, and that some day we shall fight dragons among blue hills, or come to that whereof all romance is but

'Foreshadowings mingled with the images Of man's misdeeds in greater days than these,'

as the old men thought in The Earthly Paradise when they

were in good spirits.

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UNITY

By Phillipa Rooke

Esoteric Philosophy is adamant that at the heart of manifested creation, beneath appearances, and underlying everything, there is a Fundamental Unity. HPB expresses it in the Secret Doctrine as the One Fundamental Law. It reads:-

“The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent part of compounds in Nature – from star to mineral atom, from the highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusorium, in the fullest acceptation of the term, and whether applied to the spiritual, intellectual or physical worlds – this unity is the one fundamental law in Occult Science.”(1)

So no matter what we see, be it a person, an animal, a so-called inanimate object, a galaxy, a tree, ALL have proceeded from only the one source.

For us as humanity, it therefore follows that we are physically, intellectually and spiritually also One – united, unified. This Unity is not doled out as a small bit for you and a big bit for me, it is not fragmented, it is only ONE THING of which we are all a part, just as the organs of the body, our limbs, out thoughts and our mind together are all part of the one body, even though they perform different functions. Why then can we not see this Unity?

The human mind remains for the most part, caught up in separative and fragmentary occupations, involved with thoughts and emotions of a transitory nature and in this state, the seeing of Unity, our real nature, is not possible.

As TS members we have agreed to the 3 objects, the first of which is of course “to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction…” Now if we take this seriously, as indeed we should, this in itself is no small task. It means that through relationship with each other, we have to come to a very human form of Unity. This requires self-examination in order for us to change, as change we must, and also a great deal of awareness in dealing with the stuff of our minds, and there will be sufferings and realisations along the way.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, when asked what it is that brings about change said, “With crystal clarity, see the need for change. This is all.” (2) Perhaps an intense self-awareness will provide that “crystal clarity”?

He also stated:-

“It is the person you imagine yourself to be that suffers, not you. Dissolve it in awareness. It is merely a bundle of memories and habits. From the awareness of the unreal to the awareness of your real nature there is a chasm which you will easily cross, once you have mastered the art of pure awareness.”(3)

So the movement, the change from the suffering of the separate self to realising our real unitive nature starts with awareness, awareness of ‘what is’, till we clearly see the need for change. And how, after mastering awareness of the ‘unreal self’, can we come to that ‘pure awareness’, the awareness of our real nature – unity with all creation in the ONE THING?

I would suggest that it is through meditation. Dr Pablo Sender has suggested an outline for meditation as being a reversal of manifestation, based on five discs of which HPB speaks, in the Proem of the Secret Doctrine. (4) It is:-

1. The swastika within the circle .............. the mind caught up in the play of the unreal (selfishness)

2. The cross within the disc ..................... watching the play of the mind

3. The horizontal line within the disc ........ watching the play of the mind – with no reactions

4. The disc with a central point ................ coming to a point of no-thought

5. The plain disc ....................................... pure awareness – resting in UNITY (5)

And that is the task!

References

(1) H. P. Blavatsky “The Secret Doctrine” Vol I p. 120 (2) Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj “I Am That” p. 402 (3) Ibid., p. 517 (4) H. P. Blavatsky “The Secret Doctrine” Vol I pp. 4/5 (5) Dr Pablo Sender. From the fourth DVD in a series of eight entitled “The Secret Doctrine, Esoteric Insights and

Spiritual Practice”, from the Australian School of Theosophy held at Springbrook, April 2013.

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THE BOOK OF ENOCH, THE ORIGIN

AND THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY

By H. P. Blavatsky

Taken from The Collected Writings of H P Blavatsky. Vol XIV.

Numbers like (p82) refer to the original book paging, and footnotes were at the foot of the original pages.

While making a good deal of the Merkabah, the Jews, or rather their synagogues, rejected the Book of Enoch, either because it was not included from the first in the Hebrew Canon, or else, as Tertullian thought, it was

. . . disavowed by the Jews like all other scripture which speaks of Christ.*

But neither of these reasons was the real one. The Synedrion would have nothing to do with it, simply because it was more of a magic than a purely kabalistic work. The present day Theologians of both Latin and Protestant Churches class it among apocryphal productions. Nevertheless the New Testament, especially in the Acts and Epistles, teems with ideas and doctrines, now accepted and established as dogmas by the infallible Roman and other Churches, and even with whole sentences taken bodily from Enoch, or the “pseudo-Enoch,” who wrote under that name in Aramaic or Syro-Chaldaic, as asserted by Bishop Laurence, the translator of the Ethiopian text.

––––––––––

* Book of Enoch. Archbishop Laurence’s translation. Introduction, p.v.

–––––––––– (p77)

The plagiarisms are so glaring that the author of The Evolution of Christianity, who edited Bishop Laurence’s translation, was compelled to make some suggestive remarks in his Introduction. On internal evidence* this book is found to have been written before the Christian period (whether two or twenty centuries does not matter). As correctly argued by the Editor, it is

. . . either the inspired forecast of a great Hebrew prophet, predicting with miraculous accuracy the future teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, or the Semitic romance from which the latter borrowed His conceptions of the triumphant return of the Son of man, to occupy a judicial throne in the midst of rejoicing saints and trembling sinners, expectant of everlasting happiness or eternal fire; and whether these celestial visions be accepted as human or Divine, they have exercised so vast an influence on the destinies of mankind for nearly two thousand years, that candid and impartial seekers after religious truth can no longer delay enquiry into the relationship of the Book of Enoch with the revelation, or the evolution, of Christianity.†

The Book of Enoch

. . . also records the supernatural control of the elements, through the action of individual angels presiding over the winds, the sea, hail, frost, dew, the lightning’s flash and reverberating thunder. The names of the principal fallen angels are also given, among whom we recognize some of the invisible powers named in the incantations [magical] inscribed on the terra-cotta cups of Hebrew-Chaldee conjurations.‡

We also find on these cups the word “Halleluiah,” showing that . . . a word, with which ancient Syro-Chaldaeans conjured, has become, through the vicissitudes of language, the Shibboleth of modern “Revivalists.” §

––––––––––

* The Book of Enoch was unknown to Europe for a thousand years, when Bruce found in Abyssinia some copies of it in Ethiopic; it was translated by Archbishop Laurence in 1821, from the text in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

† Op. cit., p. xx.

‡ Op. cit., pp. xx-xxi.

§ Op. cit., p. xiv, note.

–––––––––– (p78)

The Editor proceeds after this to give fifty-seven verses from various parts of the Gospels and Acts, with parallel passages from the Book of Enoch, and says:

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The attention of theologians has been concentrated on the passage in the Epistle of Jude, because the author specifically names the prophet; but the cumulative coincidence of language and ideas in Enoch and the authors of the New Testament Scripture, as disclosed in the parallel passages which we have collated, clearly indicates that the work of the Semitic Milton was the inexhaustible source from which Evangelists and Apostles, or the men who wrote in their names, borrowed their conceptions of the resurrection, judgment, immortality, perdition, and of the universal reign of righteousness, under the eternal dominion of the Son of man. This evangelical plagiarism culminates in the Revelation of John, which adapts the visions of Enoch to Christianity, with modifications in which we miss the sublime simplicity of the great master of apocalyptic prediction, who prophesied in the name of the antediluvian patriarch.*

In fairness to truth, the hypothesis ought at least to have been suggested, that the Book of Enoch in its present form is simply a transcript–with numerous pre-Christian and post- Christian additions and interpolations–from far older texts. Modern research went so far as to point out that Enoch is made, in Chapter lxxi, to divide the day and night into eighteen parts, and to represent the longest day in the year as consisting of twelve out of these eighteen parts, while a day of sixteen hours in length could not have occurred in Palestine. The translator, Archbishop Laurence, remarks thus:

. . . the region in which the author lived must have been situated not lower than forty-five degrees north latitude, where the longest day is fifteen hours and a half, nor higher perhaps than forty-nine degrees, where the longest day is precisely sixteen hours. This will bring the country where he wrote as high up at least as the northern districts of the Caspian and Euxine seas . . . the author of the Book of Enoch was perhaps a member of one of the tribes which Shalmaneser carried away, and placed “in Halah and in Habor by the river Goshen, and in the cities of the Medes ..”†

––––––––––

* Op. cit., pp. xxxiv-xxxv.

† Op. cit., p. xiii.

–––––––––– (p79)

Further on, it is confessed that:

It cannot be said that internal evidence attests the superiority of the Old Testament to the Book of Enoch . . . . The Book of Enoch teaches the pre-existence of the Son of Man, the Elect One, the Messiah, who “from the beginning existed in secret,* and whose name was invoked in the presence of the Lord of spirits, before the sun and the signs were created.” The author also refers to the “other Power who was upon Earth over the water on that day”–an apparent reference to the language of Genesis i, 2.† [ We maintain that it applies as well to the Hindu Narayana–the “mover on the waters.”] We have thus the Lord of spirits, the Elect One, and a third Power, seemingly foreshadowing the Trinity [as much as the Trimãrti] of futurity; but although Enoch’s ideal Messiah doubtless exercised an important influence on primitive conceptions of the Divinity of the Son of man, we fail to identify his obscure reference to another “Power” with the Trinitarianism of the Alexandrine school; more especially as “angels of power” abound in the visions of Enoch.‡

An Occultist would hardly fail to identify the said “Power.” The Editor concludes his remarkable reflections by adding:

Thus far we learn that the Book of Enoch was published before the Christian era by some great Unknown of Semitic [?] race, who, believing himself to be inspired in a post-prophetic age, borrowed the name of an antediluvian patriarch§ to authenticate his own enthusiastic forecast of the Messianic kingdom. And as the contents of his marvellous Book enter freely into the composition of the New Testament, it follows that if the author was not an inspired prophet, who predicted the teachings of Christianity, he was a visionary enthusiast whose illusions were accepted by Evangelists and Apostles as revelation–alternative conclusions which involve the Divine or human origin of Christianity.||

The outcome of all of which is, in the words of the same Editor:

. . . the discovery, that the language and ideas of alleged revelation are found in a pre-existent work, accepted by Evangelists and Apostles as inspired, but classed by modern theologians among apocryphal productions. * *

This accounts also for the unwillingness of the reverend librarians of the Bodleian Library to publish the Ethiopian text of the Book of Enoch.

––––––––––

* The Seventh Principle, the First Emanation [H.P.B.]

† Op. cit., pp. xxxvii, and xl.

‡ Op. cit., pp. xl-xli.

§ Who stands for the “Solar” or Manvantaric Year. [H.P.B.]

|| Op. cit., pp. xli-xlii.

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** Op. cit., p. xlviii.

–––––––––– (p80)

The prophecies of the Book of Enoch are indeed prophetic, but they were intended for, and cover the records of, the five Races out of the seven–everything relating to the last two being kept secret. Thus the remark made by the Editor of the English translation, that:

Chapter xcii records a series of prophecies extending from Enoch’s own time to about one thousand years beyond the present generation,*

is faulty. The prophecies extend to the end of our present Race, not merely to a “thousand years” hence. Very true that:

In the system of [Christian] chronology adopted, a day stands [occasionally] for hundred, and a week for seven hundred years.†

But this is an arbitrary and fanciful system adopted by Christians to make Biblical chronology fit with facts or theories, and does not represent the original thought. The “days” stand for the undetermined periods of the Side-Races, and the “weeks” for the Sub-Races, the Root-Races being referred to by an expression that is not even found in the English translation. Moreover the sentence at the bottom of page 150:

Subsequently, in the fourth week . . . the visions of the holy and the righteous shall be seen, the order of generation after generation shall take place, ‡

is quite wrong. It stands in the original: “the order of generation after generation had taken place on the earth,” etc.; that is, after the first human race procreated in the truly human way had sprung up in the Third Root-Races; a change which entirely alters the meaning. Then all that is given in the translation–as very likely also in the Ethiopic text, since the copies have been sorely tampered with–as about things which were to happen in the future, is, we are informed, in the past tense in the original Chaldaean MSS., and is not prophecy, but a narrative of what had already come to pass. When Enoch begins “to speak from a book”§ he is reading the account given by a great Seer, and the prophecies are not his own, but are from the Seer. Enoch or Enoïchion means “internal eye” or Seer. Thus every Prophet and Adept may be called “Enoïchion,” without becoming a pseudo-Enoch. But here, the Seer who compiled the present Book of Enoch is distinctly shown as reading out from a book:

––––––––––

* Op. cit., p. xxiii.

† Loc. cit.

‡ Chapter xcii, 9.

§ Op. cit., xcii, 4.

–––––––––– (p81)

. . .I have been born the seventh in the first week [the seventh branch, or Side-Race, of the first Sub-Race, after physical generation had begun, namely, in the third Root-Race] . . . But after me, in the second week [second Sub-Race], great wickedness shall arise [arose, rather] . . . in that week the end of the first shall take place, in which mankind shall be safe. But when the first is completed, iniquity shall grow up . . .*

As translated it has no sense. As it stands in the Esoteric text, it simply means that the First Root-Race shall come to an end during the second Sub-Race of the Third Root-Race, in the period of which time mankind will be safe; all this having no reference whatever to the biblical Deluge. Verse 10th speaks of the sixth week [sixth Sub-Race of the Third Root Race] when

. . . all those who are in it shall be darkened, the hearts of all of them shall be forgetful of wisdom [the divine knowledge will be dying out], and in it shall a man ascend.

This “man” is taken by the interpreters, for some mysterious reasons of their own, to mean Nebuchadnezzar; he is in reality the first Hierophant of the purely human Race (after the allegorical Fall into generation) selected to perpetuate the dying Wisdom of the Devas (Angels or Elohim). He is the first “Son of Man”–the mysterious appellation given to the divine Initiates of the first human school of the Manushis (men), at the very close of the Third Root-Race. He is also called the “Savior,” as it was He, with the other Hierophants, who saved the Elect and the Perfect from the geological conflagration, leaving to perish in the cataclysm of the Close† those who forgot the primeval wisdom in sexual sensuality.

––––––––––

* Op. cit., Ch. xcii, 4-7.

† At the close of every Root-Race there comes a cataclysm, in turn by fire or water. Immediately after the “Fall into generation” the dross of the third Root-Race–those who fell into sensuality by falling off from the teaching of the Divine Instructors–were destroyed, after which the Fourth Root-Race originated, at the end of which took place the last Deluge. (See the “Sons of God” mentioned in Isis Unveiled, Vol. I, pp. 593 et seq.)

–––––––––– (p82)

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And during its completion [of the “sixth week,” or the sixth Sub-Race] he shall burn the house of dominion [the half of the globe or the then inhabited continent] with fire, and all the race of the elect root shall be dispersed.*

The above applies to the Elect Initiates, and not at all to the Jews, the supposed chosen people, or to the Babylonian captivity, as interpreted by the Christian theologians. Considering that we find Enoch, or his perpetuator, mentioning the execution of the “decree upon sinners” in several different weeks,† saying that “every work of the ungodly shall disappear from the whole earth” during this fourth time (the Fourth Race), it surely can hardly apply to the one solitary Deluge of the Bible, still less to the Captivity.

It follows, therefore, that as the Book of Enoch covers the five Races of the Manvantara, with a few allusions to the last two, it does not contain “Biblical prophecies,” but simply facts taken out of the Secret Books of the East. The editor, moreover, confesses that:

The preceding six verses, viz., 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, are taken from between the 14th and 15th verses of the nineteenth chapter, where they are to be found in the MSS.‡

By this arbitrary transposition, he has made confusion still more confused. Yet he is quite right in saying that the doctrines of the Gospels, and even of the Old Testament, have been taken bodily from the Book of Enoch, for this is as evident as the sun in heaven. The whole of the Pentateuch was adapted to fit in with the facts given, and this accounts for the Hebrews refusing to give the book a place in their Canon, just as the Christians have subsequently refused to admit it among their canonical works. The fact that the Apostle Jude and many of the Christian Fathers referred to it as a revelation and a sacred volume, is, however, an excellent proof that the early Christians accepted it; among these the most learned–as, for instance, Clement of Alexandria –understood Christianity and its doctrines in quite a different light from their modern successors, and viewed Christ under an aspect that Occultists only can appreciate. The early Nazarenes and Christians, as Justin Martyr calls them, were the followers of Jesus, of the true Christos and Christos of Initiation; whereas, the modern Christians, especially those of the West, may be Papists, Greeks, Calvinists, or Lutherans, but can hardly be called Christians, i. e., the followers of Jesus, the Christ.

––––––––––

* Op. cit., Ch. xcii, 11.

† Op. cit., Ch. xcii, 7, 11, 13, 15.

‡ Op. cit., note, p. 152.

–––––––––– (p83)

Thus the Book of Enoch is entirely symbolical. It relates to the history of the human Races and of their early relation to Theogony, the symbols being interblended with astronomical and cosmic mysteries. One chapter is missing, however, in the Noachian records (from both the Paris and the Bodleian MSS.), namely, Chapter lviii, in Sect. X; this could not be remodelled, and therefore it had to disappear, disfigured fragments alone having been left of it. The dream about the cows, the black, red and white heifers, relates to the first Races, their division and disappearance. Chapter lxxxviii, in which one of the four Angels “went to the white cows and taught them a mystery,” after which, the mystery being born “became a man,” refers to (a) the first group evolved of primitive }ryans, (b) to the “mystery of the Hermaphrodite” so called, having reference to the birth of the first human Races as they are now. The well-known rite in India, one that has survived in that patriarchal country to this day, known as the passage, or rebirth through the cow–a ceremony to which those of lower castes who are desirous of becoming Brāhmans have to submit–has originated in this mystery. Let any Eastern Occultist read with careful attention the above-named chapter in the Book of Enoch, and he will find that the “Lord of the Sheep,” in whom Christians and European Mystics see Christ, is the Hierophant Victim whose name in Sanskrit we dare not give. Again, that while the Western Churchmen see Egyptians and Israelites in the “sheep and wolves,” all these animals relate in truth to the trials of the Neophyte and the mysteries of initiation, whether in India or Egypt, and to that most terrible penalty incurred by the “wolves”–those who reveal indiscriminately that which is only for the knowledge of the Elect and the “Perfect.”

The Christians who, thanks to later interpolations,* have

––––––––––

* Those interpolations and alterations are found in almost every case

–––––––––– (p84)

made out in that chapter a triple prophecy relating to the Deluge, Moses and Jesus, are mistaken, as in reality it bears directly on the punishment and loss of Atlantis and the penalty of indiscretion. The “Lord of the sheep” is Karma and the “Head of the Hierophants” also, the Supreme Initiator on earth. He says to Enoch, who implores him to save the leaders of the sheep from being devoured by the beasts of prey:

. . . I will cause a recital to be made before me . . . how many they have delivered up to destruction, and . . . what they will do; whether they will act as I have commanded them, or not.

Of this, however, they shall be ignorant; neither shalt thou make any explanation to them, neither shalt thou reprove them; but there shall be an account of all the destruction done by them in their respective seasons.*

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. . . He looked on in silence, rejoicing they were devoured, swallowed up, and carried off; and leaving them in the power of every beast for food . . . . . †

Those who labor under the impression that the Occultists of any nation reject the Bible, in its original text and meaning, are wrong. As well reject the Books of Thoth, the Chaldaean Kabalah or the Book of Dzyan itself. Occultists only reject the one-sided interpretations and the human element in the Bible, which is an Occult, and therefore a sacred, volume as much as the others. And terrible indeed is the punishment of all those who transgress the permitted limits of secret revelations. From Prometheus to Jesus, and from Him to the highest Adept as to the lowest disciple, every revealer of mysteries has had to become a Chr‘stos, a “man of sorrow” and a martyr. “Beware,” said one of the greatest Masters, “of revealing the Mystery to those without”–to the profane, the Sadducee and the unbeliever. All the great Hierophants in history are shown ending

––––––––––

where figures are given–especially whenever the numbers eleven and twelve come in–as these are all made (by the Christians) to relate to the numbers of Apostles, and Tribes, and Patriarchs. The translator of the Ethiopic text–Archbishop Laurence– attributes them generally to “mistakes of the transcriber” whenever the two texts, the Paris and the Bodleian MSS., differ. We fear it is no mistake, in most cases.

* Op. cit., Ch. lxxxviii, 99, 100.

† Loc. cit., 94. This passage, as will be presently shown, has led to a very curious discovery.

–––––––––– (p85)

their lives by violent deaths – Buddha,* Pythagoras, Zoroaster, most of the great Gnostics, the founders of their respective schools; and in our own more modern epoch a number of Fire-Philosophers, of Rosicrucians and Adepts. All of these are shown–whether plainly or under the veil of allegory–as paying the penalty for the revelations they had made. This may seem to the profane reader only coincidence. To the Occultist, the death of every “Master” is significant, and appears pregnant with meaning. Where do we find in history that “Messenger” grand or humble, an Initiate or a Neophyte, who, when he was made the bearer of some hitherto concealed truth or truths, was not crucified and rent to shreds by the “dogs” of envy, malice and ignorance? Such is the terrible Occult law; and he who does not feel in himself the heart of a lion to scorn the savage barking, and the soul of a dove to forgive the poor ignorant fools, let him give up the Sacred Science. To succeed, the Occultist must be fearless; he has to brave dangers, dishonour and death, to be forgiving, and to be silent on that which cannot be given. Those who have vainly labored in that direction must wait in these days–as the Book of Enoch teaches–

––––––––––

* In the profane history of Gautama Buddha he dies at the good old age of eighty, and passes off from life to death peacefully with all the serenity of a great saint, as Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire has it. Not so in the Esoteric and true interpretation which reveals the real sense of the profane and allegorical statement that makes Gautama, the Buddha, die very unpoetically from the effects of too much pork, prepared for him by Tsonda. How one who preached that the killing of animals was the greatest sin, and who was a perfect vegetarian, could die from eating pork, is a question that is never asked by our Orientalists, some of whom made [as now do many charitable missionaries in Ceylon] great fun at the alleged occurrence. The simple truth is that the said rice and pork are purely allegorical. Rice stands for “forbidden fruit,” like Eve’s “apple,” and means Occult knowledge with the Chinese and Tibetans; and “pork” for Brahmanical teachings–VishŠu having assumed in his first Avatara the form of a boar, in order to raise the earth on the surface of the waters of space. It is not, therefore, from “pork” that Buddha died, but for having divulged some of the Brahmanical mysteries, after which, seeing the bad effects brought on some unworthy people by the revelation, he preferred, instead of availing himself of NirvaŠa, to leave his earthly form, remaining still in the sphere of the living, in order to help humanity to progress. Hence his constant reincarnations in the hierarchy of the Dalai and Teshu [Panchen] Lamas, among other bounties. Such is the Esoteric explanation. The life of Gautama will be more fully discussed later on.

–––––––––– (p86)

“until the evil-doers be consumed” and the power of the wicked annihilated. It is not lawful for the Occultist to seek or even to thirst for revenge; let him wait, until sin pass away; for their [the sinners’] names shall be blotted out of the holy books [the astral records]; their seed shall be destroyed, and their spirits slain.*

Esoterically, Enoch is the “Son of man,” the first; and symbolically, the first Sub-Race of the Fifth Root Race.† And if his name yields for purposes of numerical and astronomical glyphs the meaning of the solar year, or 365, in conformity to the age assigned to him in Genesis, it is because, being the seventh, he is, for Occult purposes, the personified period of the two preceding Races with their fourteen Sub-Races. Therefore, he is shown in the Book as the great grandfather of Noah who, in his turn, is the personification of the mankind of the Fifth, struggling with that of the Fourth Root-Race–the great period of the revealed and profaned Mysteries, when the “sons of God” coming down on Earth took for wives the daughters of men, and taught them the secrets of the Angels; in other words, when the “mind-born” men of the Third Race mixed themselves with those of the Fourth, and the divine Science was gradually brought down by men to Sorcery.

––––––––––

* Op. cit, Ch. cv. 21.

† In the Bible [Genesis iv and v] there are three distinct Enochs [žanÇkh]–the son of Cain, the son of Seth, and the son of Jared; but they are all identical, and two of them are mentioned for the purposes of misleading. The years of only the last two are given, the first one being left without further notice.

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Another Amazing Story of Reincarnation?

10 Year Old Boy Remembers Specific Details about Past Life March 23, 2015 by Alanna Ketler.

There are many stories of children who claim to vividly remember being someone else, but Ryan’s story is truly remarkable. No matter what your beliefs are in regards to what exactly happens after we die, this story is sure to make you question what you may think you already know.

It all began when Ryan was about 4 years old. He would often wake up with horrible nightmares, and by the time he was 5 he decided to confide with his mother. He said: “Mom, I have something I need to tell you, I used to be somebody else.”

He would talk frequently about “going home” to Hollywood and would beg his mother to take him there. He would tell his mother detailed stories about meeting stars like Rita Hayworth, dancing in Broadway productions, and working for an agency where people would frequently change their names. He even remembered that the name of the street he used to live on had the word “rock” in it.

Ryan’s mother Cyndi said: “His stories were so detailed and they were so extensive, that it just wasn’t like a child could have made it up.” Cyndi was raised Baptist and had never really considered the possibility of reincarnation. Worried that people would think her son was crazy, she decided to keep his so-called memories a secret, even from her own husband. She decided to check out some books about Hollywood from her local library, thinking that maybe something inside would catch her son’s attention and help him cope with what were sometimes troubling “memories.”

“Then we found the picture, and it changed everything,” said Cyndi.

Seeking Help

Ryan claims that when his mother turns to the page in the book he instantly remembers that’s me, that’s who I was! Finally Cyndi had a face to match with her son’s memories and finally decided to seek out help. She stumbled across Dr. Jim Tucker, M.D., the Bonner-Lowry Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia.

Tucker is a child psychiatrist who has spent more than a decade studying the cases of children, usually between the ages of 2 and 6 years old, who claim to remember details about a past life. His office contains over 2,500 files of cases of children who report this phenomenon. He has also written a book called “Return To Life” which details some of the cases he has studied over the years, including Ryan’s.

“These cases demand an explanation,” Tucker said, “We can’t just write them off or explain them away as some sort of normal cultural thing.”

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Uncovering More of Ryan’s Incredible Story

After a few weeks of research a Hollywood film archivist was able to confirm who the man was in the picture that Ryan had claimed to be. The picture was from a film titled “Night After Night,” and the man was Marty Martyn, who had been a movie extra and then later became a powerful Hollywood agent before passing away in 1964.

Details Ryan Provided Confirmed by Tuckers Research

Martyn had in fact danced on Broadway He worked at an agency where stage names were often created for new clients He travelled overseas to Paris He lived at 825 North Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills How many children Martyn had How many times he was married Martyn’s own daughter didn’t even know that her father had two sisters, but Ryan provided the information

These are just a few of the 55 incredible facts that Ryan remembers from his previous life as Marty Martyn

Now that Ryan is growing older and creating memories of his own, he says his memories of his past life are fading, but Ryan is happy to have had the experience and to now move on and enjoy being a kid – again.

Freedom of religion includes the freedom to laugh at it.

God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts!

Lord, protect me from those to whom You speak directly.

Always forgive your enemies. They HATE that!

God is too big to fit in just one religion.

A stitch in time would have confused Einstein.

神 Θεός Words for ‘God’ By Geoff Harrod

Contrary to what the Jehovah’s Witnesses say, ‘Jehovah’ is not the one name of God – unless your language happens to be Hebrew, although not even then usually. Every language has a different word to denote the same supreme deity or unknowable creator. God is only called ‘God’ by English speakers.

(Note that ‘Allah’ above is in a decorative way of writing Arabic rather than the R-to-L in-line text form.)

Christianity, Judaism and Islam – the three monotheistic religions – are so-called because they conceive of one supreme deity. There is much confusion, both by Christians and by Islamic English speakers, over the term ‘Allah’, which is just the name for God in Arabic, the language in which the Koran is written. Intriguingly, I noticed that in Christian churches in Indonesia, with services conducted in Indonesian, the word ‘Allah’ is used for all references to God. That’s because the Indonesian language was derived from Arabic, and hence its word for God is ‘Allah’.

The Koran says something like “There is only one unknowable supreme being and we call him Allah”. So Moslems and Christians are talking about the same concept. It’s a pity that Moslems speaking English usually keep the Arabic word. The current wave of Islamic extremist fanatics have a very faulty understanding of their own religion and discredit Islam greatly A similar situation existed with Christian fanatics over the centuries. The main difference is that back then they didn’t have access to such powerful weapons.

Here are some words used to denote the God idea (the same God) that I know of. There must be many more –

English: ‘God’. German: ‘Got’. Russian / Serbian: ‘Бог’ (Bog). Arabic / Indonesian / Malayan: هال .(’Allah‘) ل

Latin: ‘Deus’. Italian: ‘Dio’. Spanish: ‘Dios’. French: ‘Dieu’. Catalan: ‘Déu’. Welsh: ‘Duw’ (pron. ‘Deoo’).

Greek: Θεός (Theos). Japanese: 神 (Kami). Chinese: 神 (Shèn).

Page 15: Contact - The Theosophical Society in Queenslandtheosophyqld.org.au/magazines/CONTACT-2016-1.pdf · The Book of Enoch – H P Blavatsky ... Brisbane Theosophical Society p 3 CONTACT

Brisbane Theosophical Society p 15 CONTACT Magazine 2016-1

T.O.S. news Brisbane Theosophical Order of Service, 355 Wickham Terrace, Brisbane Q 4000 Phone: (07) 3839 1453 FAX: (07) 3831 3692 Email: [email protected] (Brisbane) [email protected] (Australia-wide) President: Geoff Harrod Vice-President: Dianne Manning

Annual General Meeting Report

The Annual General Meeting was held on Saturday 5 December, 2015. The office bearers for 2016 are: President: Geoff Harrod Vice-President: Dianne Manning Secretary: Janet Harding Treasurer: Carolyn Harrod. Geoff Harrod is the TOS Representative to the Brisbane Theosophical Society Committee.

TOS members work as volunteers in a number of areas, choosing ones of particular interest to them, such as community service, education, healing, animal welfare and environment. In addition, the group chooses several projects to support each year with donations and voluntary work. For information, talk to one of the committee or visit www.theosophyqld.org.au or http://australia.theoservice.org

Meetings in 2016

All interested people are invited to attend the planning meetings which are held quarterly from 10.00 to 11:30 am in the TS rooms. Planned meeting dates in 2016 are: Saturday 5 March Saturday 4 June Saturday 3 September and Saturday 3 December (the AGM).

In 2016, we will be commencing each meeting at 9:30 am with a meditation for peace that was developed by the

International TOS. This meditation can be used as an act of service and compassion for others. For those interested in using this meditation individually on a regular basis, we have printed it below.

The TOS Guided Meditation for Peace

Today we are gathered to invoke peace – peace in our hearts, peace in our homes, in our nations and in our world.

Let us close our eyes and take a couple of minutes to relax and centre ourselves by taking a few gentle, deep breaths.

If we experience difficulty calming down and focusing, let’s not judge ourselves; there is no need to feel dissatisfied or unworthy. We just need to return to our breathing, relaxing into the quiet rhythm of the in-breath and the out-breath.

Let’s start by giving thanks for what peace we have in our lives. Let that gratitude fill our hearts. Now let’s say this to ourselves silently as we breathe:

(Inhaling) "I am a channel for peace," (Exhaling) "I send peace to the world." (Inhaling) "I am a channel for peace," (Exhaling) "I send peace to the world."

As a channel for peace, let us send peace to the leaders of nations. May they carry out their duties with an open heart. We send peace to the United Nations and all its mediators. We send peace to countries in strife through war, corruption and natural disasters. We send peace to the citizens of these countries. We send peace to all sentient beings affected.

Now let us offer ourselves as a channel for peace to all who live within the bounds of our country that they may show love, mercy and justice:

May our elected officials govern with peace and compassion.

May our prisons become places of rehabilitation and our prisoners have the courage and strength to reconstruct their lives.

May peace be with those suffering oppression, exploitation or abuse in any form.

May peace be with them all.

We affirm our belief in a world of peace, a world where fear and greed will no longer reign. We put our trust in the power of good to overcome evil and the power of love to overcome hatred. We renew our pledge of service to the human family and all creatures on the planet.

(Please rise and face outward, maintaining our circle formation. Raise the arms parallel to shoulders in front of you, extending hands outward.)

Holding an image of the earth in our minds, we ask that the love and strength of the Great Ones flow through the Theosophical Society and through us to the world. May there be peace on earth.

Please turn back to the centre. (Join hands)

As our meditation comes to a close, we ask that through the power of our hearts and minds, spiritual energy may continue to flow through us, bringing light and peace to all we meet.

Let us depart in peace.

Thanks for Supporting our TOS Fundraising Concert and the TS AGM Collection

Our TOS Concert in October 2015 was a great success both as a musical and social experience and as a fundraiser. As a result we are well on the way to raising the $1,100 needed to support our Literacy Home-school in Pakistan for another year.

Thanks to the generosity of TS and TOS members, the collection at the TS AGM at the end of November enabled us to donate $825 to the Queensland Country Women’s Association’s Rural Crisis Fund. Through the fund they provide personal, practical assistance in the form of store credit, payment of bills directly and grocery store gift vouchers. They ensure that not only is the recipient assisted but that the money stays in the local community, supporting local businesses. The QCWA operates one of the few charities where 100% of monies raised is donated back into regional, rural and remote communities, in much the same way as the TOS projects supported internationally.

O Powers of Love!

An invocation by George S. Arundale

O Powers of Love! We pledge to you our faithfulness, knowing that only love can redeem the world.

We invoke your blessing on all who strive to serve you.

We invoke your blessing on all who endure suffering, that they may discover their enfoldment in your love even in the midst of their affliction.

We invoke your blessing on all who inflict suffering that they may be moved to return to you and serve you.