p EOSOPHy /.Q.dUME CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A COLLECTION MADE BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 AND BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY llll Illl III! 3 1924 085 211 757 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924085211757 THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY BY WILLIAM Q. JUDGE ELEVENTH THOUSAND WE ARE FREE NEW YORK ELLIOTT B. PAGE & CO. 1900 COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THEOSOPHY AND THE MASTERS. Theosophy generally denned. The existence of highly devel- oped men in the Universe. These men are the Mahatmas, Initiates, Brothers, Adepts. How they work and why they remain now concealed. Their Lodge. They are perfected men from other periods of evolution. They have had various names in history. Apollonius, Moses, Solomon, and others were members of this fraternity. They had one single doctrine. They are possible because man may at last be as they are. They keep the true doctrine and cause it to reappear at the right time. Pages i to 13. CHAPTER II. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. A view of the general laws governing the Cosmos. The sevenfold division in the system. Real Matter not visible and this always known to the Lodge. Mind the intelligent portion of the Cosmos. In the universal Mind the sevenfold plan of the Cosmos is contained. Evolution proceeds upon the plan in the universal Mind. Periods of Evolution come to an end ; this is the Night of Brahma. The Mosaic account of cosmogen- esis has dwarfed modern conceptions. The Jews had merely one part of the doctrine taken from the ancient Egyptians. The doctrine accords with the inner meaning of Genesis. The general length of periods of Evolution. Same doctrine as Herbert Spencer's. The old Hindu chronology gives the de- tails. The story of Solomon's Temple is that of the evolution of man. The doctrine far older than the Christian one. The real age of the world. Man is over 18,000,000 years old. Evo- lution is accomplished solely by the Egos within that at last become the users of human forms. Each of the seven princi- ples of man is derived from one of the seven great divisions of the Universe. Pages 14 to 22. CHAPTER III. THE EARTH CHAIN. The doctrine respecting the Earth. It is sevenfold also. It is one of a chain of seven corresponding to man. The whole seven are not in a chain separated as to members, but they interpenetrate each other. The Earth chain is the reincarna- tion of a former old and now dead chain. This old chain was one of which our moon is the visible representative. Moon now dead and contracting. Venus, Mars, etc., are living members of other similar chains to ours. A mass of Egos for IV THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. each chain. The number, though incalculable, is definite. Their course of evolution through the seven globes. In each a certain part of our nature is developed. At the fourth globe the process of condensation is begun and reaches its limit. Pages 23 to 28. CHAPTER IV. SEPTENARY CONSTITUTION OF MAN. The constitution of man. How the doctine differs from the ordinary Christian one. The real doctrine known in the first centuries of this era, but purposely withdrawn from a nation not able to bear it. The danger if the doctrine had not been withdrawn. The sevenfold division. The principles classified. The divisions agree with the chain of seven globes. The low- er man is a composite being. His higher trinity. The lower four principles transitory and perishable. Death leaves the trinity as the only persistent part of us. What the physical man is, and what the other unseen mortal man is. A second physical man not seen but still mortal. The senses pertain to the unseen man and not to the visible one. Pages 29 to 34. CHAPTER V. BODY AND ASTRAL BODY. The body and life principle. The mystery of life. Sleep and death are due to excess of life not bearable by the organ- ism. The body an illusion. What is the cell. Life is uni- versal. It is not the result of the organism. The Astral Body. What it is made of. Its powers and functions. As a model for the body. It is possessed by all kingdoms of nature. Its power to travel. The real sense organs are in the astral body. The place the astral body has at spiritualistic stances. The astral body accounts for telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and all such psychical phenomena. ' Pages 35 to 44. CHAPTER VI. KAMA— DESIRE. The fourth principle. Kama Rupa. In English, the Pas- sions and Desires. Kama Rupa is not produced by the body but is the cause for body. This is the balance principle of the seven. It is the basis of action and mover of the will. Right desire leads to right act. This principle has a higher and a lower aspect. The principle is in the astral body. At death it coalesces with the astral body and makes of it a shell of the man. It has powers of its own of an automatic nature. This shell is the so-called "spirit" of stances. It is a danger to the race. Elementals help this shell at stances. No soul or con- science present. ' Suicides and executed criminals leave very coherent shells. The principle of desire is common to all the CONTENTS. V organized kingdoms. It is the brute part of man. Man is now a fully developed quarternary with the higher principles partially developed. Pages 45 to 51. CHAPTER VII. MANAS. Manas the fifth principle. The first of the real man. This is the thinking principle and is not the product of brain. Brain is only its instrument. How the light of mind was given to mindless men. Perfected men from older systems gave it to us as they got it from their predecessors. Manas is the store- house of all thoughts. Manas is the seer. If the connection between Manas and brain is broken the person is not able to cognize. The organs of the body cognize nothing. Manas is divided into upper and lower. Its four peculiarities. Buddha, Jesus, and others had Manas fully developed. Atma the Divine Ego. The permanent individuality. This permanent individ- uality has been through every sort of experience in many bod- ies. Manas and matter have now a greater facility of action than in former times. Manas is bound by desire, and this makes reincarnation a necessity. Pages 52 to 59, CHAPTER VIII. OF REINCARNATION. Why is man as he is, and how did he come. What the Uni- verse is for. Spiritual and physical evolution demand reincar- nation. Reincarnation on the physical plane is reembodiment or alteration of form. The whole mass of matter of the globe will one day be men in a period far distant. The doctrine an- cient. Held by the early Christians. Taught by Jesus. What reincarnates. Life's mysteries arise from incomplete incarna- tion of the higher principles. It is not transmigration to lower forms. Explanation of Manu on this. Pages 60 to 69, CHAPTER IX. REINCARNATION CONTINUED. Objections urged. Desire cannot alter law. Early arrivals in heaven. Must they wait for us. Recognition of the soul not dependent on objectivity. Heredity not an objection. What heredity does. Divergences in heredity not recognized. His- tory goes against heredity. Reincarnation not unjust. What is justice. We do not suffer for another's but for our own deeds. Memory. Why we do not remember other lives. Who does? How to account for increase of population. Pages 70 to 78. CHAPTER X. ARGUMENTS SUPPORTING REINCARNATION. From the nature of the soul. From the laws of mind and soul. From differences in character. From the necessity for VI THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. discipline and evolution. From differences of capacity and start in life at the cradle. Individual identity proves it The probable object of life makes it necessary. One life not enough to carry out Nature's purposes. Mere death confers no ad- vance. A school after death is illogical. The persistence of savagery and the decay of nations give support to it. The ap- pearance of geniuses is due to reincarnation. Inherent ideas common to man show it. Opposition to the doctrine based solely on prejudice. Pages 79 to 88. CHAPTER XI. KARMA. Definition of the word. An unfamiliar term. A beneficent law. How present life is affected by past acts of other lives. Each act has a thought at its root. Through Manas they re- act on each personal life. Why people are born deformed or in bad circumstances. The three classes of Karma and its three fields of operation. National and Racial Karma. Indi- vidual un-happiness and happiness. The Master's words on Karma. Pages 89 to 98. CHAPTER XII. KAMA LOKA. The first state after death. Where and wnat are heaven and hell? Death of the body only the first step of death. A sec- ond death after that. Separation of the seven principles into three classes. What is Kama Loka ? Origin of christian pur- gatory. It is an astral sphere with numerous degrees. The Skandhas. The astral shell of man in Kama Loka. It is de- void of soul, mind, and conscience. It is the "spirit" of the siance rooms. Classification of shells in Kama Loka. Black magicians there. Fate of suicides and others. Pre-devachanic unconsciousness. Pages 99 to 108. CHAPTER XIII. DEVACHAN. The meaning of the term. A state of Atma-Buddki-Manas. Operation of Karma on Devaehan. The necessity for Deva- chan. It is another sort of thinking with no physical body to clog it. Only two fields for operation of causes — subjective and objective. Devaehan is one. No time there for the soul. Length of stay therein. Mathematics of the soul. Average stay therein is 1 500 mortal years. Depends on psychic impulses of life. Its use and purpose. On the last thoughts at death the devachanic state is fashioned. Devaehan not meaningless. Do we see those left behind? We bring their images before us. Entities in Devaehan have a power to help those they love. Mediums cannot go to those in Devaehan except in rare cases and when the person is pure. Adepts only can help those in Devaehan. Pages 109 to 116 CONTENTS. VU CHAPTER XIV. CYCLES. One of the most important doctrines. Corresponding words in the Sanskrit. Few cycles known to the West, They cause the reappearance of former living personages. They affect life and evolution. When did the first moment come. The first rate of vibration determines the subsequent ones. When man leaves the globe the forces die. Convulsions and cataclysms. Reincarnation and karma intermixed with cyclic law. Civili- zations cycle back. The cycle of Avatars. Krishna, Buddha, and others come under cycles. Minor personages and great leaders. Intersection of cycles causes convulsions. The Moon, Sun, and Sidereal cycles. Individual cycles and that of re- incarnation. The motion through the constellations, and the meaning of the story of Jonah. The Zodiacal clock. How the ideas are impressed and preserved by nations. Cause for earth- quakes, Cosmic Fire, Glaciation, and Floods. The Brahman- ical Cycles. Pages 117 to 126. CHAPTER XV. DIFFERENTIATION OF SPECIES— MISSING LINKS. Ultimate origin of man not discoverable. Man not derived from a single pair, nor from the animals. Seven races of men appeared simultaneously on the globe. They are now amal- gamated and will differentiate. The Anthropoid Apes. Their origin. They came from man. They are the descendants of offspring from unnatural union in the third and fourth rounds. The Delayed Races. The secret books on the question. Hu- man features of apes accounted for. The lower kingdoms from other planets. Their differentiation by intelligent interference by the Dhyanis. The midway point of evolution. Astral forms of old rounds solidified in physical rounds. Missing links, what they are and why Science cannot discover them. The aim of Nature in all this work. Pages 127 to 134. CHAPTER XVI. PSYCHIC LAWS, FORCES, AND PHENOMENA. No true psychology in the West. It exists in the Orient. Man the mirror of all forces. Gravitation only a half law. Importance of polarity and cohesion. Rendering objects in- visible. Imagination all powerful. Mental telegraphy. Read- ing minds is burglary. Apportation, clairvoyance, clairaud- ience, and second-sight. Pictures in the Astral Light. Dreams and visions. Apparitions. Real clairvoyance. Inner stim- ulus makes outer impression. Astral Light the Register of everything. Pages 135 to 146. V1U THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. CHAPTER XVII. PSYCHIC PHENOMENA AND SPIRITUALISM. Spiritualism wrongly named. Should be called necromancy and the worship of the dead. This cult did not originate in Am- erica. The practice long known in India. The facts recorded deserve examination. Theosophists admit the facts but inter- pret them differently from the "spiritualist". ( The examina- tion confined to the question of whether the dead return. The dead do not return thus. The mass of communications are from the astral shell of man. Objections stated to the claims made by mediums. The record justifies the ridicule of science. Materialization and what it is. A mass of electric magnetic matter with a picture upon it from the astral light. Or it is the astral body of the medium extruded from the living body. Analysis of the laws to be known before the phenomena can be understood. The timbre of the ' ' independent voice ". Im- portance of the astral realm. The Dangers of mediumship. Attempt to get these powers for money or selfish ends also dangerous. Cyclic law ordains the slackening of the force at this time. The purpose of the Lodge. Pages 147 to 154. PREFACE. N attempt is made in the pages of this book to write of Theosophy in such a manner as to be understood by the ordinary reader. Bold statements are made in it upon the knowledge of the writer, but at the same time it is distinctly to be understood that he alone is responsi- ble for what is therein written: the Theosophical Society is not involved in nor bound by anything said in the book, nor are any of its members any the less good Theosophists because they may not accept what he has set down. The tone of settled convic- tion which may be thought to pervade the chapters is not the result of dogmatism or conceit, but flows from knowledge based upon evidence and experience. Members of the Theosophical Society will notice that certain theories or doctrines have not been gone into. That is because they could not be treated without unduly extending the book and arousing needless controversy. The subject of the Will has received no treatment, inasmuch as that power or faculty is hidden, subtle, undiscoverable as to essence, and only visible in effect. As it is absolutely colorless and varies in moral quality in accordance with the desire behind it, as also it a<5ts frequently without our knowledge, and as it operates in all the kingdoms below man, there could be nothing gained by attempting to en- quire into it apart from the Spirit and the desire. No originality is claimed for this book. The writ- er invented none of it, discovered none of it, but has simply written that which he has been taught and which has been proved to him. It therefore is only a handing on of what has been known before. William Q. Judge. New York, October, iSpj. THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. CHAPTER I. P!3|||heosophy is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to shore of the evolu- tion of sentient beings; unfathomable in its deepest parts, it gives the greatest minds their fullest scope, yet, shallow enough at its shores, it will not overwhelm the understanding of a child. It is wisdom about God for those who believe that he is all things and in all, and wisdom about nature for the man who accepts the statement found in the Christian Bible that God cannot be measured or discovered, and that darkness is around his pavilion. Although it contains by derivation the name God and thus may seem at first sight to em- brace religion alone, it does not negledl; science, for it is the science of sciences and therefore has been called the wisdom religion. For no science is com- plete which leaves out any department of nature, whether visible or invisible, and that religion which, depending solely on an assumed revelation, turns away from things and the laws which govern them is nothing but a delusion, a foe to progress, an ob- stacle in the way of man's advancement toward hap- piness. Embracing both the scientific and the reli- gious, Theosophy is a scientific ' religion and a reli- gious science. It is not a belief or dogma formulated or invented by man, but is a knowledge of the laws which gov- ern the evolution of the physical, astral, psychical, and intellectual constituents of nature and of man. The religion of the day is but a series of dogmas man-made and with no scientific foundation for pro- a THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. mulgated ethics ; while our science as yet ignores the unseen, and failing to admit the existence of a com- plete set of inner faculties of perception in man, it is cut off from the immense and real field of expe- rience which lies within the visible and tangible worlds. But Theosophy knows that the whole is constituted of the visible and the invisible, and per- ceiving outer things and objedts to be but transitory it grasps the facts of nature, both without and with- in. It is therefore complete in itself and sees no unsolvable mystery anywhere; it throws the word coincidence out of its vocabulary and hails the reign of law in everything and every circumstance. That man possesses an immortal soul is the com- mon belief of humanity; to this Theosophy adds that he is a soul ; and further that all nature is sentient, that the vast array of objects and men are not mere collections of atoms fortuitously thrown together and thus without law evolving law, but down to the smallest atom all is soul and spirit ever evolving un- der the rule of law which is inherent in the whole. And just as the ancients taught, so does Theosophy ; that the course of evolution is the drama of the soul and that nature exists for no other purpose than the soul's experience. The Theosophist agrees with Prof. Huxley in the assertion that there must be be- ings in the universe whose intelligence is as much beyond ours as ours exceeds that of the black beetle, and who take an active part in the government of the natural order of things. Pushing further on by the light of the confidence had in his teachers, the Theosophist adds that such intelligences were once human and came like all of us from other and pre- vious worlds, where as varied experience had been gained as is possible on this one. We are therefore not appearing for the first time when we come upon this planet, but have pursued a long, an immeasur- able course of activity and intelligent perception on other systems of globes, some of which were de- ELDER BROTHERS AND INITIATES. 3 stroyed ages before the solar system condensed. This immense reach of the evolutionary system means, then, that this planet on which we now are is the result of the activity and the evolution of some other one that died long ago, leaving its energy to be used in the bringing into existence of the earth, and that the inhabitants of the latter in their turn came from some older world to proceed here with the destined work in matter. And the brighter planets, such as Venus, are the habitation of still more progressed entities, once as low as ourselves, but now raised up to a pitch of glory incomprehen- sible for our intellects. The most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never, then, been without a friend, but has a line of elder brothers who continually watch over the progress of the less progressed, preserve the knowledge gained through aeons of trial and experi- ence, and continually seek for opportunities of draw- ing the developing intelligence of the race on this or other globes to consider the great truths concern- ing the destiny of the soul. These elder brothers aiso keep the knowledge they have gained of the laws of nature in all departments, and are ready when cyclic law permits to use it for the benefit of mankind. They have always existed as a body, all knowing each other, no matter in what part of the world they may be, and all working for the race in many different ways. In some periods they are well known to the people and move among ordinary men whenever the social organization, the virtue, and the development of the nations permit it. For if they were to come out openly and be heard of everywhere, they would be worshipped as gods by some and hunted as devils by others. In those periods when they do come out some of their number are rulers of men, some teachers, a few great philosophers, while others remain still unknown except to the most advanced of the body. 4 THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. It would be subversive of the ends they have in view were they to make themselves public in the present civilization, which is based almost wholly on money, fame, glory, and personality. For this age, as one of them has already said, "is an age of transition ", when every system of thought, science, religion, government, and society is changing, and men's minds are only preparing for an alteration into that state which will permit the race to advance to the point suitable for these elder brothers to intro- duce their actual presence to our sight. They may be truly called the bearers of the torch of truth across the ages ; they investigate all things and be- ings ; they know what man is in his innermost nature and what his powers and destiny, his state before birth and the states into which he goes after the death of his body ; they have stood by the cradle of nations and seen the vast achievements of the an- cients, watched sadly the decay of those who had no power to resist the cyclic law of rise and fall ; and while cataclysms seemed to show a universal de- struction of art, architecture, religion, and philos- ophy, they have preserved the records of it all in places secure from the ravages of either men or time ; they have made minute observations, through trained psychics among their own order, into the unseen realms of nature and of mind, recorded the observations and preserved the record; they have mastered the mysteries of sound and color through which alone the elemental beings behind the veil of matter can be communicated with, and thus can tell why the rain falls and what it falls for, whether the earth is hollow or not, what makes the wind to blow and light to shine, and greater feat than all — one which implies a knowledge of the very foundations of nature — they know what the ultimate divisions of time are and what are the meaning and the times of the cycles. But, asks the busy man of the nineteenth century INITIATES MAKING HISTORY. 5 who reads the newspapers and believes in ' ' modern progress," if these elder brothers are all you claim them to be, why have they left no mark on history nor gathered men around them? Their own reply, published some time ago by Mr. A. P. Sinnett, is better than any I could write. "We will first discuss, if you please, the one re- lating to the presumed failure of the 'Fraternity' to leave any mark upon the history of the world. They ought, you think, to have been able, with their extraordinary advantages, to have gathered into their schools a considerable portion of the more enlightened minds of every race. How do you know they have made no such mark? Are you acquainted with their efforts, successes, and failures? Have you any dock upon which to arraign them? How could your world colledt proofs of the doings of men who have sedulously kept closed every possible door of approach by which the inquisitive could spy upon them? The precise condition of their success was that they should never be surprised or obstructed. What they have done they know ; all that those out- " side their circle could perceive was the results, the causes of which were masked from view. To ac- count for these results, many have in different ages invented theories of the interposition of gods, special providences, fates, the benign or hostile influences of the stars. There never was a time within or before the so-called historical period when our predecessors were not moulding events and ' making history ', the fadts of which were subsequently and invariably dis- torted by historians to suit contemporary prejudices. Are you quite sure that the visible heroic figures in the successive dramas were not often but their pup- pets? We never pretended to be able to draw nations in the mass to this or that crisis in spite of the gen- eral drift of the world's cosmic relations. The cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental and moral light and darkness succeed each other as day does 6 THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. night. The major and minor yugas must be accom- plished according to the established order of things. And we, borne along the mighty tide, can only mod- ify and dire6t some of its minor currents. " It is under cyclic law, during a dark period in the history of mind, that the true philosophy disappears for a time, but the same law causes it to reappear as surely as the sun rises and the human mind is present to see it. But some works can only be per- formed by the Master, while other works require the assistance of the companions. It is the Master's work to preserve the true philosophy, but the help of the companions is needed to rediscover and pro- mulgate it. Once more the elder brothers have indi- cated where the truth — Theosophy — could be found, and the companions all over the world are engaged in bringing it forth for wider currency and propaga- tion. -The Elder Brothers of Humanity are men who were perf ea^}j^Em^UiSSi£mMjSSSSiS^& TIiese periods of manifestation are unknown to modern evolutionists so far as their number are concerned, though long ago understood by not only the older Hindus, but also by those great minds and men who instituted and carried on the first pure and unde- based form of the Mysteries of Greece. The periods, when out of the Great Unknown there come forth the visible universes, are eternal in their coming and going, alternating with equal periods of silence and rest again in the Unknown. The , ob j ect of thes e njightx w^ves i s the production .of per f eel: ma n, the evolution of~souI7~aria they "alwayswitness tfie in- crease -of ffie~number of Elder Brothers ; the life of the least of men pictures them in day and night, waking and sleeping, birth and death, "for these two, light and dark, day and night, are the world's eternal ways. " In every age and complete national history these men of power and compassion are given different MAHATMAS ARE INITIATES. 7 designations. They have been called Initiates, Adepts, Magi, Hierophants, Zings of the East, Wise Men, Brothers, and what not. But in the Sanscrit language there is a word which, being applied to them, at once thoroughly identifies them with hu- manity. It is Mahatma. This is composed of Maha great, and Atma soul ; so it means great soul, and as all men are souls the distinction of the Mahatma lies in greatness. The term Mahatma has come into wide use through the Theosophical Society, as Mme. H. P. Blavatsky constantly referred to them as her Masters who gave her the knowledge she possessed. They were at first known only as the Brothers, but after- wards, when many Hindus nocked to the Theosophi- cal movement, the name Mahatma was brought into use, inasmuch as it has behind it an immense body of Indian tradition and literature. At different times unscrupulous enemies of the Theosophical Society have said that even this name had been invented and that such beings are not known of among the Indians or in their literature. But these assertions are made only to discredit if possible a philosophical movement that threatens to completely upset prevail- ing erroneous theological dogmas. For all through Hindu literature Mahatmas are often spoken of, and in parts of the north of that country the term is common. In the very old poem the Bhagavad-Gttd, revered by all Hindu seels and admitted by the west- ern critics to be noble as well as beautiful, there is a verse reading, ' ' Such a Mahatma is difficult to find. " But irrespective of all disputes as to specific names, there is sufficient argument and proof to show that a body of men having the wonderful knowledge de- scribed above has always existed and probably exists to-day. The older mysteries continually refer to them. Ancient Egypt had them in her great king- Initiates, sons of the sun and friends of great gods. There is a habit of belittling the ideas of the ancients which is in itself belittling to the people of to-day. 8 THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. Even the Christian who reverently speaks of Abra- ham as "the friend of God," will scornfully laugh at the idea of the claims of Egyptian rulers to the same friendship being other than childish assumption of dignity and title. But the truth is, these great Egyptians were Initiates, members of the one great lodge which includes all others of whatever degree or operation. The later and declining Egyptians, of course, must have imitated their predecessors, but that was when the true dodtrine was beginning once more to be obscured upon the rise of dogma and priesthood. The story of Apollonius of Tyana is about a mem- ber of one of the same ancient orders appearing among men at a descending cycle, and only for the purpose of keeping a witness upon the scene for future generations. Abraham and Moses of the Jews are two other Initiates, Adepts who had their work to do with a certain people; and in the history of Abraham we meet with Melchizedek, who was so much beyond Abraham that he had the right to confer upon the latter a dignity, a privilege, or a blessing. The same chapter of human history which contains the names of Moses and Abraham is illuminated also by that of Solomon. And thus these three make a great Triad of Adepts, the record of whose deeds can not be brushed aside as folly and devoid of basis. Moses was educated by the Egyptians and in Mid- ian, from both of which he gained much occult knowl- edge, and any clear-seeing student of the great Uni- versal Masonry can perceive all through his books the hand, the plan, and the work of a master. Abraham again knew all the arts and much of the power in psychical realms that were cultivated in his day, or else he could not have consorted with kings nor have been "the friend of God;" and the reference to his conversations with the Almighty in respe6t to the destruction of cities alone shows him to have been an SOLOMON AND MOSES INITIATES. 9 £&££& who had long ago passed beyond the n,eed, of ceremonial or other adven titious qids Solomon com- pletes this" triad and stands out in characters of fire. Around him is clustered such a mass of legend and story about his dealings with the elemental powers and of his magic possessions that one must condemn the whole ancient world as a collection of fools who made lies for amusement if a denial is made of his being a great character, a wonderful example of the incarnation among men of a powerful Adept. We do not have to accept the name Solomon nor the pre- tense that he reigned over the Jews, but we must admit the fact that somewhere in the misty time to which the Jewish records refer there lived and moved among the people of the earth one who was an Adept and given that name afterwards. Peripatetics and microscopic critics may affect to see in the pre- valence of universal tradition naught but evidence of the gullibility of men and their power to imitate, but the true student of human nature and life knows that the universal tradition is true and arises from the facts in the history of man. Turning to India, so long forgotten and ignored by the lusty and egotistical, the fighting and the trading West, we find her full of the lore relating to these wonderful men of whom Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Solomon are only examples. There the people are fitted by temperament and climate to be the pre- servers of the philosophical, ethical, and psychical jewels that would have been forever lost to us had they been left to the ravages of such Goths and Van- dals as western nations were in the early days of their struggle for education and civilization. If the men who. wantonly burned up vast masses of histori- cal and ethnological treasures found by the minions of the Catholic rulers of Spain, in Central and South America, could have known of and put their hands upon the books and palm-leaf records of India before the protecting shield of England was raised against IO THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. them, they would have destroyed them all as they did for the Americans, and as their predecessors attempted to do for the Alexandrian library. For- tunately events worked otherwise. All along the stream of Indian literature we can find the names by scores of great adepts who were well known to the people and who all taught the same story — the great epic of the human soul. Their names are unfamiliar to western ears, but the records of their thoughts, their work and powers remain. Still more, in the quiet unmoveable East there are to-day by the hundred persons who know of their own knowledge that the Great Lodge still exists and has its Mahatmas, Adepts, Initiates, Brothers. And yet further, in that land are such a number of ex- perts in the practical application of minor though still very astonishing power over nature and her forces, that we have an irresistible mass of human evidence to prove the proposition laid down. And if Theosophy — the teaching of this Great Lodge — is as said, both scientific and religious, then from the ethical side we have still more proof. A mighty Triad acting on and through ethics is that composed of Buddha, Confucius, and Jesus. The first, a Hindoo, founds a religion which to-day em- braces many more people than Christianity, teaching centuries before Jesus the ethics which he taught and which had been given out even centuries before Buddha. Jesus coming to reform his people repeats these ancient ethics, and Confucius does the same thing for ancient and honorable China. The Theosophist says that all these great names represent members of the one single brotherhood, who all have a single doctrine. And the extraordi- nary characters who now and again appear in west- ern civilization, such as St. Germain, Jacob Boehme, Cagliostro, Paracelsus, Mesmer, Count St. Martin, and Madame H. P. Blavatsky, are agents for the doing of the work of the Great Lodge at the proper MESSENGERS CALLED IMPOSTORS. II time. It is true they are generally reviled and classed as impostors — though no one can find out why they are when they generally confer benefits and lay down propositions or make discoveries of great value to science after they have died. But Jesus himself would be called an impostor to-day if he appeared in some Fifth avenue theatrical church rebuking the professed Christians. Paracelsus was the originator of valuable methods and treatments in medicine now universally used. Mesmer taught hypnotism under another name. Madame Blavatsky brought once more to the attention of the West the most important system, long known to the Lodge, respecting man, his nature and destiny. But all are alike called impostors by a people who have no ori- ginal philosophy of their own and whose mendicant and criminal classes exceed in misery and in number those of any civilization on the earth. It will not be unusual for nearly all occidental readers to wonder how men could possibly know so much and have such power over the operations of natural law as I have ascribed to the Initiates, now so commonly spoken of as the Mahatmas. In India, China, and other Oriental lands no wonder would arise on these heads, because there, although every- thing of a material civilization is just now in a back- ward state, they have never lost a belief in the inner nature of man and in the power he may exercise if he will. Consequently living examples of such powers and capacities have not been absent from those peo- ple. But in the West a materialistic civilization hav- ing arisen through a denial of the soul life and nature consequent upon a reaction from illogical dogmat- ism, there has not been any investigation of these subjects and, until lately, the general public has not believed in the possibility of anyone save a supposed God having such power. A Mahatma endowed with power over space, time, mind, and matter, is a possibility just because he is 12 THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY. a perfected man. Every human being has the germ of all the powers attributed to these great Initiates, the difference lying solely in the f acl: that we have in general not developed what we possess the germ of, while the Mahatma has gone through the training and experience which have caused all the unseen human powers to develop in him, and conferred gifts that look god-like to his struggling brother below. Telepathy, mind-reading, and hypnotism, all long ago known to Theosophy, show the existence in the human subject of planes of consciousness, functions, and faculties hitherto undreamed of. Mind-reading and the influencing of the mind of the hypnotized subject at a distance prove the existence of a mind which is not wholly dependent upon a brain, and that a medium exists through which the influencing thought may be sent. It is under this law that the Initiates can communicate with each other at no matter what distance. Its rationale, not yet admitted by the schools of the hypnotizers, is, that if the two minds vibrate or change into the same state they will think alike, or, in other words, the one who is to hear at a distance receives the impression sent by the other. In the same way with all other powers, no matter how extraordinary. They are all natural, although now unusual, just as great musical ability is natural though not usual or common. If an Initiate can make a solid objedt move without contact, it is because he understands the two laws of attraction and repulsion of which "gravitation" is but the name for one ; if he is able to precipitate out of the viewless air the carbon which we know is in it, form- ing the carbon into sentences upon the paper, it is through his knowledge of the occult higher chemis- try, and the use of a trained and powerful image making faculty which every man possesses; if he reads your thoughts with ease, that results from the use of the inner and only real powers of sight, which require no retina to see the fine-pi