Theos-Talk Archives (August 1994 Message tl00013)

Hi Bill --

Glad to see your intro.
We started (way back) with intro's like you just gave.
many of our's are buried in the archives... and many who
have joined recently have not given an intro.

we are glad to hear from you!

>         Anyway, this leaves me with a couple of questions.  First, is
>      it my imagination or has every theosophical mailing list message
>      been coming through Theos-L?  When I first signed up for the
>      mailing list, it seems to me that there were supposed to be four
>      of them:
>
quite true.  There are four lists.  Theos-L is the most active (by far).

they are there for various reasons.  Mostly to allow people who
wish to discuss singular issues a place to go without cluttering
up the bandwidth of Theos-L.  This is currently not a problem.

Feel free to use any of them as needed.


>      issue of The American Theosophist -- always hovering somewhere
>      around 5000.  It also seems to me that in one issue  of The AT,
>      the president at the time (I don't now remember if it was John or
>      his predecessor) was bemoaning the fact that membership, although
>      not declining, was not expanding the way that it could and that
>      we should all try to find ways to let other people know about the
>      ideas and philosophies behind theosophy to perhaps encourage the
>      many like-minded people in the country to give it a try, join The
>      Society, and see what it is all about.
>
> some stuff skipped ....
>
>      .. when an article I wrote comparing the theosophical idea of
>      multiple bodies to the more American idea of an OOBE was turned
>      down for publication by The Quest.  And, when I gave the same ar-
>      ticle to Joy Mills (on a visit to Krotona before she left for
>      Australia) to see if she could tell me why it might have been re-
>      fused, she complemented me on my depth of research but ...
>

You got it!  Welcome to TS politics!  I doubt that Quest would publish
the "Secret Doctrine" if it arrived as a new book for print!
Something to do with "Marketeering", no doubt. Don DeGracia has
similar stories to tell (and Paul Johnson probably does too!).

>         Any book written by any of the original theosophists has this
>      problem.  Whether it is H.P.B, Bessant, Ledbetter, Sinnet, anyone
>      -- they all "speak" using concepts and words that assume a level
>      of understanding by the reader.  Where is this understanding sup-
>      posed to come from?  Where is the theosophical dictionary or en-
> .....

there are actually a few good books on the terms.  Several published
by Vedanta press.  Also,  there is a book "Sanskrit Keys to the
Wisdom Religion" (Judith Tyberg) published by Point Loma.


Also the Wheaton Study Guides (Theosophy part I and II; and
Introduction to Esoteric Wisdom) can be a good source for
fundamental thoughts and ideas!

peace --

john e. m.