The Golden Star
VISION 5
Spiritualism
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“And what happens to those who commit suicide, dear Messenger?” asked Ma-u. “Can they be helped in any way?”
“Éliphas Lévi says: ‘You may help the poor deserter of life with prayer—but that prayer must be one of action, not words. See whether he has not left something undone . . . and then try to accomplish the deed for him, and in his name.’
“In answer to this Madame Blavatsky says: ‘The Kabalistic theory is, that a man having so many years, days and hours to live upon earth and not one minute less than the period allotted to him by fate, whenever the Ego gets consciously and deliberately rid of its body before the hour marked, then must it still live, even as a disembodied suffering soul. The Ego, or the [negative] sentient individual [Higher Mind] is unable to free itself from the attraction of the earth and has to vegetate and suffer all the torments of the mythical hell in it. It becomes an elementary spirit; and when the hour of deliverance strikes, the soul [Higher Mind], having learned nothing, and in its mental torture lost the remembrance of the little it knew on earth, is violently ejected out of the earth’s atmosphere and carried adrift, a prey to the blind current which forces it into some new incarnation which the soul itself is unable to select as it otherwise might with the help of its good actions.’
“This does not mean that Lévi believed in the so-called Spiritualism. He derided both the Spiritualistic and the Spiritist theory of the return of the disembodied souls or spirits in an objective or materialized form on earth.
“It has been truly said that words mightily perplex the wisdom of the wisest, and like a Tartar’s bow shoot backwards into the minds of those that follow them. So it is when we discuss the great subjects now under consideration. It is possible to twist and rend any sentence or pronouncement in such a way that the very reverse is proved of what was the original intention of the speaker. You will discover that when you tell the world of what I have been showing you—if ever you do this, and I think that you will—that a horde of unbelievers will fall upon you and will endeavour to prove that all the truths I have been telling you are lies. You must be prepared for scoffers and calumniators, but let this not deter you, my children, for you will be doing a great service to mankind—or to those who are ready for these revelations of the ancient wisdom; the rest do not matter for the time being; they will learn their lessons in the distant future. When Dante produced his masterly Inferno, and placed in it several of his enemies, although they were then still alive on earth, he had some glimpse of the Astral Light, like every great Poet; but the malign influence of the then-prevalent superstition of the conditions of Hell utterly distorted his vision. These enemies of his had attached to them some of the elementaries described to you, and the secret knowledge of the ancient mysteries, which has always been in the possession of the Roman Church, may have been in the Poet’s mind also. The question as to where the disembodied spirit dwells in between his earthly incarnations is not a matter of Judgement; of Salvation or Damnation; or of Heaven or Hell; but solely the operation of the Universal Law of Affinity and Attraction; in other words of Attunement. According to this Law we find ourselves in that part of the Astral World with which our actions and spiritual tendencies have put us in tune. There it stays until the next rebirth, and it cannot—even if it would—span the abyss that separates its state from the earthly conditions.
“You will hear of spiritualists who are certain that they have received elevating messages from—say—their father, and they continue to tell you that he was a kindly and spiritually minded man who can never be classified amongst the ‘devils,’ which the Orthodox Church calls the entities that appear at séances. The truth of the matter is that such a person may have reached out to the spirit of his father, and not the reverse, as he thinks, by assuming that his father has descended into the earthly atmosphere. There is also the possibility of the highly intelligent but grossly material man whose shell dwells amongst the Elementaries, and who succeeds in dominating the weak mind of a medium, through which he sends intelligent messages instead of the usual gibberish. There is a further possibility of obtaining elevating and marvellous messages in the cases of fraudulent mediums. So long ago as the year 1881, in an article in The Theosophist it was written: ‘There are notorious trance mediums, especially women, who steadily work for their so-called trance orations, and these being really clever and working at good books, deliver essays of a respectable and at times almost first-class character. There is no spiritual influence at work here, the only apparently abnormal feature in these cases is that persons possessing such fair abilities should be willing to prostitute them, and that people who can talk so well and touchingly of truth and purity, should yet live such lives of falsehood and immorality...
“ ‘In the second place, in the case of pure and genuine mediums, who in a trance pass entirely under the influence of their own seventh principle [the spirit—an emanation from the absolute, uncreated, eternal, a state rather than a being] the Augoeides of the Greeks, the whole teachings come from the medium’s own soul, and it is very rare to obtain thus anything higher than the medium’s own intellect, when in a state of spiritual excitement, could produce.’
“This statement is absolutely true, and it is hoped that it will have the effect of a clarifying flame upon the subject.
“It is also possible, as in the case of those rare, high, because especially pure, mediums, whose Ego and Spirit or Soul and Higher Mind can soar together into the Astral Light when the rest of the combination is in a trance, that those can read there all highest thoughts that man has ever thought. But this can only be achieved when there is present the High Adept, under whose guidance this takes place.
“Remember to distinguish between the true Ego, or Soul and Higher Mind, or Divine Principle, which cannot penetrate into the earth’s atmosphere after bodily death, and the human astral remnants with which the medium can get en rapport; or who control the medium. This is important, for otherwise a seeming contradiction will arise and confuse the mind.
“With regard to the production of so-called inspirational ‘spirit-pictures’ often produced by the medium in total darkness without this medium—who may be conscious or in a trance at the time of painting or drawing—ever having produced such works before, there is the case of the young ecclesiastic, quoted by the Bishop of Bordeaux in a French Encyclopaedia, who in the dead of night and in perfect darkness wrote sermons and composed music; and there are many other examples of the exaltation of the mental and psychic powers in a somnambulistic state. Such cases need not be due to the agency of ‘spirit’ entities, but may be Soul-memories of individuals who in previous incarnations were artists, musicians, philosophers, or anything else. With the Mind in a completely relaxed condition, such as may happen in a trance, it is quite possible for the Soul to take complete control, and use brain and body to perform tasks of which the Mind in that previous incarnation was capable; for the memories of all we have thought or done are stored in the Soul.”
“But what of such cases as rappings, and dead husbands appearing in the form of ghosts to their wives and children, often accompanied by cold gusts of wind, and so on?” asked Ma-u.
“Such manifestations, my son, are never caused by a loving husband and father, or wife and mother. The real Ego, as I said before, has passed on, and would certainly not be so cruel—if he did love his wife and children—as to frighten them with such silly performances.
“No! Such phenomena may be caused by the half-crazy astral shell, still containing some of the animal forces, which, as an elementary, lingers on for a while. Your question is interesting, as it is an example of what the spiritualists will ask you if you ever make these teachings public. You will find that all your examples quoted will be ignored, and that you will be bombarded with further so-called ‘facts,’ ‘experiences,’ ‘manifestations’ and what not; all of them ‘proving’ that human entities can communicate after death! Should you explain all these phenomena in the light of our teachings, they will follow them up immediately with a fresh set; ad nauseam!!
“Are you prepared in the face of this to disclose to the world what you have seen in these regions and what I have told you?”
“Dear Messenger,” said Ma-u, “truth stands higher in our opinion than any earthly consideration ever will, and although we shall be genuinely sorry if we hurt the feelings of all those who regard Spiritualism as the ‘New Revelation,’ or the ‘Vital Message,’ and more than sorry if we injure these people’s ‘glorious faith,’ yet the truth as we have seen and heard it is more important than any attacks anyone may make on us. Therefore, we will go ahead as soon as we can and pass on your Message as we have received it from you.”
The Messenger smiled, and, stretching out a hand in benediction blessed Ma-u and Ma-uti; and he prayed that strength might be given unto them in every way, so that they would be able to carry out their intentions. He continued: “The force which the Spiritualists view as a thinking, intelligent Principle, a power that can never manifest outside the magnetic aura of a sensitive, is oftener a blind energy than the conscious production of any beings or spirits; and, also, this Force can be replaced by the conscious will of a living man, one of those Initiates, a few of whom may always be found in any part of the world. It is not possible to be content with the easy-going theory of returning spirits; it is against all the facts of Occult Science. Spiritualism is a hopeless groping about in the dark for truths that have been known for countless ages already. It literally rends asunder the intellect by the thousand-and-one conflicting ‘teachings’ of the supposed denizens of the so-called ‘Spirit-world.’ All that is learned in this way is a mass of generalities, all contradicting each other in the most confusing and unintelligent manner.
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