Theos-Talk Archives (August 1995 Message tl00419)

Rich:

>HPB **never taught** the doctrine of seven rays as personality types --
>that's Alice Bailey, and yet so many Theosophists today don't recognize this,
>and can't tell original Theosophy apart from later developments.

>You will find "seven rays" in The Secret Doctrine as occult energy aspects of
>the Sun, not as personality types. Alice Bailey chose to make this
>personality connection, and I believe she has made a mistake -- a big one.

I made a similar posting earlier this year regarding the idea of the seven
rays not being in the original Teachings, but first arising in the
Besant/Leadbeater
school. Subba Row introducted the idea, which Ernest Wood picked up on, and
through him, perhaps, the idea spread into the Besant/Leadbeater school?
(Wood was Leadbeater's personal secretary, and wrote materials like "Talk on
the Path of Occultism" from Besant's and Leadbeater's lecture notes.)

This is an example of one of the ideas that distinguishes this variant of
Theosophy. We can look for what parts of it we agree with, and where it goes
too far and needs correction. We also have to recognize that there are many
among us that believe in this idea, and it does them no good to hear someone
say "that's wrong!" When we disagree with an idea, we have to analyze it in
a philosophical sense, and discover what its shortcomings are.

>In ~The Inner Life~, a fifty page clairvoyant
>description of the Martian civilization was quietly removed in the edition
>immediately following the 1976 Viking mission to Mars. It reminds me of the
>scene in the movie ~1984~ where undesirable historical statements and events
>and people are removed from the official records--thus cease to exist. "

Someone might argue that although psychical investigations tend to be
unreliable, and although a certain percentage of materials that are come up
with are later shown to be false, this does not disprove the rest of the
materials. Each idea or "discovery" needs to be considered on its own
merits, apart from the fallible personality of the seer and the seer's
other perceptions. When we reject Leadbeater in totality, without considering
each idea on a point-by-point basis, we are really refusing dialogue with
people that believe in his materials. If we took a similar attitude to
Christians or people of other beliefs, rejecting their icons and cherished
beliefs, they'd never join us to study Theosophy. People don't see the error
of their ways by being told they hold false beliefs, but they will accept
useful ideas that are presented in a way that accords with where they are at.

-- Eldon