Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl01476)

At 09:21 AM 5/29/96 -0400, you wrote:

>>>>>>>>cut for brevity's sake<<<<<<<

 Worse, Joscelyn Godwin's The Theosophical
>Enlightenment, a truly wonderful book that is the best written
>in decades on Theosophy, has been also totally ignored by the
>Theosophical establishment.

That's true, but Paul there is one thing that is more important than that.
The "Theosophical Establishment" is completely irrelevant and so whether
they "ignore" a book or not, that too is irrelevant! They're terrified that
someone someday will tell the truth about what's happened to the
theosophical movement since about 1880, and also the truth about Leadbeater
etc. But no one knows that better than you, eh?

 There has been a circling of the
>wagons around Sylvia Cranston's biography of HPB as *the only
>acceptable approach to HPB* and a complete stifling of any
>less worshipful approaches to her.

But this fact simply proves how terrified they are, for this book is pure
(and shameless) hagiography which is all they'll permit.
>
>In short, members are hungry for new groundbreaking ideas, by
>and large.  But a minority of members and the majority of those
>in power positions are determined to squelch anything but an
>orthodoxy that they won't even admit to having.  Things really
>look grim in the short term.  But I keep wondering how long the
>holding pattern can last before organized Theosophy dwindles down to a
>small remnant of true believers and everyone who *was*
>interested in new ground finds it somewhere else.
>
Things look just as grim in the long term Paul. Unless, the iron clad grip
on power of the E.S. and it's functionaries can be broken. Those of us who
still care have about two years to do so and then it'll be too late. If
things haven't been rectified by the turn of the century then the T.S. will
not survive that date.

Of course, nothing lives forever, and perhaps the T.S. has outlived both its
allotted span and its usefulness. As it stands right now, the
Burnier-Algeo-Mills axis has become far more harmful than helpful. It's
doing absolutely no good in the world, it is being counter-productive among
the young people, and from being the epitome of Democratic thought when it
was founded is now basically totalitarian in thought and action.

alexis dolgorukii