Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00056)

AEB
>Well, those potential high-flyers must have working
>wives support them while they pursue this course, or they manage
>to function without sleep.  Active holy orders would require
>their Sundays, not to mention clergy and vestry meetings.  Co-M
>is at least several hours once a month in this area.  I have
>no idea when the ES meets or how often.

JHE
Yes, the younger ones work or are supported by a spouse.  Older
ones are retired or live on investments.

AEB
>They also better be well off, as the clergy robes at
>the LCC have to be tailored to CWL's specs (unless you have a
>wife who is handy at sewing - but there's still the material.
>Linen is $10-15 a yard.)  And in the Co-M, you pay more the
>higher you climb through the lodges.  Is there a fee for ES?

JHE
That is where the women come in.  We had a woman in Los Angeles
who sewed all of the robes.  She did a beautiful job too--they
looked real professional.  No fee for the ES, but you are
expected to be active in a TS Lodge if possible.

AEB
I strongly suspect that the requirements to be a part of all
these groups were made at a time when people had more time.

JHE
Right.  People did have more time--even thirty years ago.  But
this expectation is for those who were to carry on the torch--so
to speak.  They called it "coming through the ranks."  It seems
that the whole thing is dying anyway, and the torch is not being
passed on.  The old guard is dying off and no one seems to be
replacing them, with the possible exception of Betty Bland and a
couple of people Radha favors.

AEB
>I had heard about the split, but was told it was about one group
>trying to take all the resources and form another group.  Are
>you saying that another Co-Masonic group that is not linked with
>TS is a potential threat?

JHE
Annie Besant was very involved with the Larkspur Co-Masons, which
was originally chartered by the Supreme Council of International
Co-Masonry in Paris France.  The explanation you heard that one
group is trying to take the resources to form another group is
one of those pat explanations they use to hide the fact that it
is another one of those shameful power struggles the TS can't
resist.  You might remember hearing it before as an explanation
for the Boston Lodge.   As for the details, I frankly haven't
been interested enough to look into it.  Regarding the link to
the TS, what I'm trying to say is that like the LCC, the Co-M is
an organization that TS leaders used to "come up through the
ranks" as I mentioned before.  But I also suspect that the TS
feels of lot of vested interest in the organization anyway
because of Besant's connection with it.

JHE
>> Perhaps the LCC will also eventually
>> split and the whole system in the TS will fall apart.

AEB
Numerous priests and clergy have gone off to start their own
churches or join other independent ones.

JHE
Another sign of the continuing decay of the old
Besant/Leadbeater/Arundale system.

>> JHE
>> Great.  I've noticed that the TS doesn't seem to be threatened
>> by Maharishi philosophy.  I wonder what would happen if Alice
>> Bailey people filled the church.

AEB
I'm not sure they'd be interested.

JHE
Nor am I.  As I understand the Bailey teachings, the whole thing
is regarded as a failed experiment.