Theos-Talk Archives (October 1993 Message tl00109)

Following is an interesting quote that expresses in words
better than mine some of what I've been writing about:

----

    There is but one Occultism; one Truth. The Fountain of
Wisdom on this earth is the School of Occultism of the Masters
of Wisdom and Compassion. It is the one supreme source from
which have been drawn all the aspects or facets or particles
of truth that the various religious and philosophical schools
or systems of teaching existing in various ages of the world
contain. It is the Mother of innumerable schools of Occultism
that have existed in the past, that exist presently, that will
exist in the future.

   The schools which have arisen at various times among
students of this fundamental Truth are virtually as numerous
as men are themselves; though existing more particularly in
past times, there are even in the present no small number of
schools of so-called 'occultism.' In some of these schools
there is a certain amount of the Ancient Wisdom taught, as it
has been seen through the distorting mental prisms of
individuals who have wandered from the Fountain of Wisdom of
this earth, which Fountain is the only school of Occultism
that I know of, the only one worthy of the name, that of the
Masters of Wisdom and Compassion and Peace.

    What are then some of these so-called Schools? They have
existed in all times. The Mysteries of the Greeks were one
such School. The Mysteries of the Persians were one, and those
of the Egyptians were one. The Mysteries practiced in the
ancient New World among the Peruvians and among the Mayas,
were two other Schools. The Rosicrucians of medieval ages were
a mystic and quasi-esoteric School, and originally were
virtually Theosophists. The Martinists of France, existing
even today, form one of these so-called occultistic Schools.
The Vedanta of Hindustan is essentially a School of Occultism,
although it is a system of exoteric philosophy also. The
Lamaism of Tibet is one more. Then there are the so-called
Alchemical bodies; but these last, whether in India, whether
in the Hither East, whether in Europe, when all is said,
Companions, while possessing a modicum of spiritual aspiration
and a certain proportion of aspiration after genuine
esotericism, nevertheless yearn even more for 'powers,' for
'phenomena.'

    There are, moreover, in the East today, and in the East
both Far and Hither, a number of mystical, quasi-esoteric,
quasi-occult bodies, some larger, some smaller, who study in
their own way the different remnants of esoteric or mystical
literature which past ages have brought into being in those
countries. With a very, very, very--three times 'very'--few
exceptions, all these bodies of students have been more or
less hungering after the lower siddhis, which H.P.B., using
the Pali term iddhis, speaks of in *The Voice of the Silence.*
In India they are represented by the different Schools of
Yoga-practice, or by extremely philosophical and metaphysical
study, some of which is most excellent, and approximates in a
few cases closely to our own Theosophical studies in their
esoteric aspect.

    In the Hither East, to wit, in Persia, Egypt, Syria, and
in parts of Turkey, the same type of student exists, the same
type of quasi-esoteric or quasi-occult bodies exists, often
extremely exclusive. Usually nothing is heard of them, and
virtually all are devoted to what in the West it has become
customary to call 'Occultism,' and phenomena-hunting. Such
quasi-occult, quasi-esoteric societies or associations or
schools or bodies or groups, do a certain good work in their
way; and the same can be said of them all in every country and
in every age.

    Some of these quasi-esoteric societies have much truth in
them,and therein lies the danger, because all truth is
beautiful, attractive, even seductive at times. Yet none of
these are what our Masters would call the E.S. started by
H.P.B., either in its lower or higher Degrees, in which the
concentration is entirely on the things of the spirit and of
the higher intellect, and upon an aspiration to lead the life
bringing about an ever greater manifestation of the inner god
in one's being.

    There is one supreme Source of Truth and that Source is
our Holy Order, at the Head of which is the Silent Watcher of
our Planet, our Supreme Head, the Fountain of spirituality on
this earth. Our own Great Teachers, the Masters who founded
among us our own Oriental School, and who originally sent
forth H.P.B. to strike anew the keynote of spirituality and
wisdom in the hearts of men, are but the Servants--even as we
are the Servants--of our supreme Chief.

    This Mother-School exists in that mystic region called
Sambhala, ...

    [quoted from "The Esoteric or Oriental School: Steps in
the Initiatory Cycle," by G. de Purucker, Point Loma
Publications, pages 2-3.