Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00081)

Bee to Eldon:
> I don't really expect to see devotional people in Theosophy as it
>appeals to the intellect and promotes the wisdom as knowledge to the
>intellect and then for intellectual people the devotion comes later. We all
>start a various levels and types of spiritual pursuits.

True. I used to wonder why after describing so many
gods and goddesses in the literature theosophists were simply
ignoring them. Finally I realized the reason is that gods and
goddesses are not appealing to the intellect. The polytheism
of theosophy is simply another intellectual doctrinal note in a
long list of others. In magical schools and in religions we
converse with these deities via either prayer or ritual. In
theosophy we pretty much ignore them.

Bee to Eldon:
>There are lots of people who do not see knowledge as an intellectual study
>to be their way of spiritual growth.

I am one of these. However I do love to read and study.
I see this as building the scaffolding so to speak to keep the mind
on some kind of sanity track. The human mind requires a structure
or pattern of some kind in order to make sense of one's experiences.
Without such a "mind map" or intellectual background it is easy to
go off the deep end and loose one's perspective completely. The
thought "Am I crazy?" must be answered in some way. However
it is important to remember that this scaffolding i.e. world view is
always subject to change.

Bee to Eldon:
>Rituals do a lot for devotional people as they relate to spirit in that way.
>Rituals also get imbued with certain vibrations that these people can use in
>their meditations and can be felt by sensitive people. Sometimes rituals are
>what opens them to the spiritual life and then they have to discover which
>way is the best for them to follow.

There are formal conscious and informal unconscious
rituals that we can conduct. If anyone thinks that they never do rituals
then they are simply done unconscious as every psychologist knows.
Most Buddhist meditations try to employ the body speech and mind
together. Thus these yogic meditations are really rituals.

Jerry S.
Member Theosophy International