Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00333)

On 191412 Ann E. Bermingham wrote

>To all members of Theos-l:
>
>Today I visited the web site of The White Mountain Education Association whose
>address was posted by someone on our mailing list. It was referred to as
>Neo-theosophy.
>
>An amalgation of HPB Bailey Sarayadarian and Roerich it seemed to lean more
>towards Bailey. I will leave each of you to review the page for yourself
>http://www.primenet.com/~wtmtn/index.html but I will say this. While I was
>scrolling through the material I got a clear view of it. It was "I've seen
>this all before." It was like knowledge was being repackaged and being
>distributed through another yet another organization. Good or bad idea?

The opening graphics of this website are copied from the Balyos book Three
Remarkable Women. I thought that book was a nice easy introduction to the
lives of ... well three remarkable women Blavatsky Roerich Bailey. The
Bailey influence is prominent as you mentioned. Saraydarian is the most
mentioned reference in the suggested reading list and the Agni Yoga
teachings Roerich show up most often in the posted summaries of the
monthly articles in the White Mountain publications.

As to whether or not it is "a good idea" -- that depends. One of the most
important IMO ideas being kicked around now on theos-l is What is the
mission statement of the TSA? That is literal from one of the earlier posts
unanswered I think but it is implied in all of the discussions of the
proposed ByLaws changes and the effects they could have on TS future activities.

But about good or bad -- while the Theosophical Society in America and
elsewhere tries to come to grips with its current purpose and the means to
best achieve it "neotheosophy" doesn't seem to have the same problem. All
of the neotheosophy "schools" or at least the ones on that website have
this in common: the two things which are *most useful* for a person to know are

1 the Constitution of Man and
2 the means for that person to take whatever is for them the next step
forward.

So if we believe the instructions of Bailey or Saraydarian or Agni Yoga can
help an individual or group take a step in the right direction then they
are definitely a good idea. If we believe that they are a "dilution" of
theosophy or wrong in their emphasis then it's probably a bad thing.

For myself I wish there was a stronger section on Blavatsky but then I
felt the same way about the book. To be fair there is a homepage for
"orthodox" Theosophy; I don't believe there are homepages for either Bailey
Lucis Trust Saraydarian or the Agni Yoga Society are there? There is a
homepage for World Goodwill [www.oneworld.org/worldgoodwill] which is one
of the affiliated Lucis Trust activities but it is an NGO associated with
the United Nations and is not itself an organ for the promotion of the
Bailey teachings. The World Goodwill website is tied to oneworld.org which
is btw one of my favorite sites on the Net.

Jim