Theos-Talk Archives (September 1993 Message tl00038)

Hello Friends,

I am happy to report that now we have a study group forming in the San
Diego area.  The "magic" seemed to work much faster this time.  Our
first meeting is next week and we'll be studying THE INNER GROUP
TEACHINGS OF H.P.  BLAVATSKY, a Point Loma Publication that greatly
intrigued me when I first heard about it.

Spierenburg, the compiler, was advertised by Point Loma as completing
three books: one on Buddhism, one on Christianity, and this one.  In
each of these books he gathered together all of H.P.B.'s references
throughout her collected writings on each subject.  So if you'd like to
see what H.P.B.  said in regards to Buddhism, Spierenburg has arranged
it so you can do this.  Likewise, in regard to the Bible, there are
many comments of hers found alongside the printed biblical version of
her references.  I believe this was strictly New Testament, which by
the way is at our home in L.A., so I can't check.

When I first saw the ad for his books, I thought what a simplified,
helpful, form to study from, so we got all three.  Since I have
completed from cover to cover the New Testament comments and THE INNER
GROUP TEACHINGS OF H.P.  BLAVATSKY, I can look forward to the interest
of the students in what is written.  The book containing the Buddhism
was a little difficult, probably because it's still a foreign
discipline to me.  I don't intend to pick it up again for awhile.

What are other people reading? Or is the list too long?

I'll try to keep the basics of the "Inner Group" short, so I can go on
a little about my reason for writing at this time.

We've all heard of the Esoteric School of Theosophy.  Well, within the
Esoteric School, eight months before her death, H.P.B.  founded an
Inner Group.  "Existing from August, 1890 until the last meeting in
April, 1891, they met in London in a room specially built for it, a
room which no one but Blavatsky and her twelve pupils ever entered.
Each had a place, the six men on H.P.B.'s right and the six women on
her left, in a semicircle during the instruction." (This is an excerpt
from the book H.P.  BLAVATSKY AS I KNEW HER by Alice
Leighton-Cleather.)

Besides the twelve members mentioned there were two "outside members:"
Rai B.  K.  Laheri and Dr.  William Wynn Westcott.  The book contains a
little biographical note on each member, but I shall just print the
names.  If there is anyone you are interested in, I shall be happy to
supply more of the text.
Annie Besant
George R.S. Mead
Alice Cleather
Isabel Cooper-Oakley
Laura Cooper
Emily Kislingbury
Countess Constance Wachtmeister
Herbert Coryn
Dr. Archibald Keightley
Walter R. Old
E.T.  Sturdy
Claude Falls Wright

(H.P.B.  said that the Inner Group was the Manas of the Theosophical
Society, the Esoteric School was the Lower Manas; the Theosophical
Society the Quaternary.- p.  27 -) Who knows how long that was
relevant!

As some of these members published or left notes on the instruction,
there were several sources that had to be cross-checked in order to
prepare the book.

Here is the letter H.P.B.'s secretaries, Annie Besant and G.R.S.  Mead,
sent to the probationers of the E.S.T.  on August 19, 1890 excerpted
from THE INNER GROUP TEACHINGS OF H.  P.  BLAVATSKY:

Dear Fellow Student,

     If you are ready to comply with the following conditions, H.P.B.
is prepared to admit you as a Probationer into the "Inner Group" of
the E.S.

1) That you observe strictly the rules of the E.S.

2) That you preserve the strictest secrecy on the instruction given,
and on the fact of your membership in the "I.G."

3) That you abstain from meat-eating and preserve absolute chastity.

4) That you agree to leave the Group immediately, if from any reason
your presence interferes with it perfect harmony.

5) That you attend regularly the meetings of the Group, on the day and
hour agreed on.

6) That you are prepared to take the following pledge:
     [text of the pledge not given]

Regulations
     Each member is expected to provide himself with a note book; and
     to prepare in writing from one to three questions which are to be
     handed to the Secretaries.  If you, therefore, can comply with all
     the above conditions, will you attend here at 8 p.m.  on Wednesday
     evening, August 20th.

Well, friends, this is all I can provide that is of interest at this
time.  Now for my meanderings.

Occult Chemistry.  Well, this is a topic I was very pleased to see.
Fractals, too.  I hope we haven't forgotten the content of some of the
first letters on the board.  I've been pondering how to approach the
subject of occult chemistry with you and I think I have a few comments
that may stimulate a few responses.

Besant and Leadbeater, true, have been around the theosophical movement
long enough for every theosophist to have discovered them.  But I'll
never understand why the difficulty with their work.  Here we have a
political activist and a priest who warmed up the subject of theosophy
by their own perspective and walked boldly into an arena never before
entered.  SCIENCE! Do you know how many love it, but will never be a
part of it? I, for one, can't keep up to the level of the medical
students in Chemistry or Biology, but I don't want to be forced to give
up all contact with the subject.  I still would like to learn it even
now when I'm out of school.  I'd like to discover that key that could
bring it all into focus for me.

I don't feel the same reverence at all for an "occultist" such as we
find in the Point Loma tradition and the Pasadena school, who made a
place for themselves as a learned "occultist".

Besant and Leadbeater gave me courage to say that I could study
something I had previously been uninspired in.  I can study science and
benefit my fellow man from what I learn in it, as backwards as I may be
when compared to the great scientific discoverers and theoreticians.
And regardless of how the other occultists (only?) might be able to
present a clear and accurate picture to the minds of their followers,
here were two souls who attempted to teach me (remember when we all had
to specialize in college?) how to perform and learn from areas I had
all but been banned from.

Granted, our karma will provide the past one experiences one might need
to be an able student of the sciences, but we are in control of our own
destiny and what will start people on a path of science if they don't
have the past lives that predict it.

I have a little story, that is more like a play on words, but will
strike some chord with a fellow occultist, I think.

Upon awakening this morning, I was preparing to embrace my daughter's
life after her sojourn with us last night to some fellow theosophists'
home for an evening meal and visiting.  The newest member of their
group has wed their only daughter within the last year or so and we
have only been presented to him twice within the last six months, as we
didn't attend the wedding.  In fact, he and our three year old had been
singly in each other's company the first time as he posed as babysitter
for an afternoon.  As most young men are, he is challenging and at this
I felt a bent toward observing him (and her) from their reciprocal
points of view.  Well, most moms, too, are somewhat protective, and my
observation (looking back) of their interaction was one of "weight."
Had he questioned her or investigated her inner nature by posing some
"resistance" which could result in an "awakening" or "insight" for them
both?

In any event, my picture of the interaction was one of "weight".  Not
exactly as if he were sitting on her, but it was as if his whole being
was on the scale.  While it appeared to me as almost something
measurable, weight does have to do with resistance, and all I would
have to do in order to measure it would be to make myself the opposite
resistance (Oh, if only I had a dial.) or gravity.  So here I am
hiding, in the past, as gravity, and trying to come up with a number so
that when I repeat the process I can compare it.  Of course, to be
gravity itself is quite a trick, but I remembered the verses in THE
SECRET DOCTRINE that refer to the many forms that fohat takes.  If I
were, say, light...  If light were my true nature, could I transform
into the other signs of energy, heat, motion, electricity, etc.  Well,
for my benefit, I was light turned into gravity, but the other light
forms such as "wife" did not seem to increase or decrease the amount of
"weight" that I felt, possibly because weight in this case was a
resistance-attraction variable, and they had not converted themselves
from light into anything measurable in this way.

Okay, so you see the chemistry association.  But the fun part is that
my daughter is still able to respond independently of what I say for
her to do--all I have to do is "wait." There I am "waiting" out her
response, which was fine, by the way (of course this is the next
morning), and thinking this certainly could lead to some breakthrough
in occult chemistry, weight being very important in viewing and
perceiving an element containing something known as "atomic weight."

So can anyone tell me why, for God's sake, calculations require that we
reduce any element to a "mole"? If I remember correctly, there is a
method of calculating a mole and the mole can then be used across the
board in certain other calculations independent of which element it is
we are considering.

I am, awaiting your reply,

Brenda