SEVEN
THE “DARK AGES” AND THE RISE OF WESTERN ESOTERICISM
In the earlier chapters we considered in general outline terms the principles of celestial (i.e., astrological) cycles and the way in which they served to influence the involutionary–evolutionary sequences of Creation. In this chapter we are going to follow on somewhat in the same direction, but applying the principle in a rather more direct way, to the history of human culture and civilization. This is with the aim of considering why—over the last four to five millennia of recorded history at least—“things” have turned out (or appear to have turned out) in the way that historians tell us, in relation to the world’s religions and philosophies in particular. However, we shall be taking into account a variety of issues and factors that the professional historian would either be completely unaware of, or would probably refuse point blank to consider. The main factor among these is that of the Spiritual Hierarchy positively influencing the course of human history as a whole “from behind the scenes.”
As we also saw earlier, the involutionary sequence in any particular cycle involves the generation in new forms of whatever constituted the evolutionary development of human cultural psychology in the immediately preceding cycle. Therefore, our first question must be where we currently stand in relation to the present cycle and what that cycle might be. That should then help us to put the period of known history into some reasonable degree of focus by assessing whether known history has actually taken humanity forward in any real cultural sense.
Therefore, taking our starting cue from the spiritual tradition that all history takes place in accordance with the preplanning of the Guides of the Race, who are said to work strictly according to cycle, we can perhaps carry out some speculative dating going back even further into prehistory. This, however, will necessarily be by reference to zodiacal Ages, which correspond with the 25,920-year celestial cycle known to us as the precession of the equinoxes but which, as already mentioned, was otherwise known to the Ancients themselves as the “Great Year of the Pleiades.”1
The beginning of the celestial year (the Egyptian Zep Tepi or “First Time” described by Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock in their book Keeper of Genesis) might be said to occur around the beginning of the Age of Leo, close to its cusp with Virgo, the last one being between 12,500 and 13,000 years ago.2 Hence this celestial solstice is matched by an equivalent celestial solstice quite close to the cusp of Pisces and Aquarius, which we are currently approaching. It consequently follows that one of the two celestial equinoxes of this same cycle would logically have reached its midpoint during the Age of Taurus, about 6,500 years ago (approximately 4,400 years BCE). This date is of particular importance because our own modern historians and archeologists place the formal origins of human civilization (in Sumeria and Egypt) not very much later. Nineteenth century archeologists placed them at virtually the same historic period.
It is otherwise interesting to note the great importance placed by Judaism (itself borrowed largely from Babylonia) and by Celtic tradition on the four “fixed” signs of the zodiac, that is, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. In the Judaic tradition, the associated figures of the bull, the lion, the eagle, and man are to be found in the so-called vision of Ezekiel, representing the manifestation of Deity. In the Celtic tradition, it is in these same signs that we find the four main festivals of each year: Lughnasad, Imbolc, Beltane, and Samhain. But when we look at these same signs in relation to the angle of the Zodiac relative to our own Earth’s solar orbit, it quite quickly becomes clear that our planet’s own solstices and equinoxes coincide with the greater celestial solstices and equinoxes just mentioned. In fact, the celestial winter solstice appears to coincide with the Age of Leo and the celestial summer solstice with the Age of Aquarius. It is then the latter that we currently approach.
We obviously know nothing about the history of the previous precessionary cycle of 25,920 years, which would have commenced some 42,000 years ago. However, we do know that the Egyptian priests indicated to the Greek historian Herodotus (484–425 BCE) that their civilization was well over two precessionary cycles in age,3 that is, going back between 60,000 to roughly 90,000 years. Blavatsky otherwise confirmed from her own sources among the Himalayan Adept Hierarchy that ancient Egyptian civilization of the Delta began nearly 100,000 years ago,4 perhaps set up, as I have suggested elsewhere, by the very ancient, red-skinned ancestors of the Tuaregs or Dravidians—peoples of originally late Atlantean stock.
Now, if there is indeed a Macrocosmic-microcosmic parallel in the cyclic unfoldment of human culture and civilization, as esotericists suggest, then these numbers of years should not cause us undue anxiety. This is notwithstanding the fact that they fly in the very face of modern anthropological dating. The latter, because based on very limited archeological findings, cannot (as yet) conceive either of a Homo sapiens sapiens much older than 200,000 years or of even primitive human urban civilization commencing much more than 10,000–12,000 years ago. However, I have dealt with these issues already in my previous book The Rise and Fall of Atlantis and so will not go over them again here. Our immediate concern, after all, lies purely with the current precessionary cycle and humankind’s further progressive development within it.
A FRESH APPROACH
In pursuing this idea, what I am now about to suggest will be regarded by many readers as somewhere between entire speculation and completely wishful thinking. However, it is based on a logic that is completely natural to esoteric thought and follows in the tracks of the ancient Vedic ideas of the human as a “sevenfold plant” (saptaparna in Sanskrit), thus that the cycle of human civilization and culture must naturally parallel the celestial year and its associated “seasons.” Our own Spiritual Hierarchy would be very aware of this cycle and would thus necessarily be directly constrained by it because of the very nature of the celestial influences available or not available to them during its various parts or stages. That logic involves the fact that what happens on our Earth is merely a shadowy replay and correspondence of what takes place within the parallel psycho-spiritual (hence celestial) world of being.
Hence, we might suggest, our Earth year of twelve months is a microcosm, contained within a celestial year of far greater magnitude. The last celestial “spring” equinox having taken place around 6,500 years ago (4,400 BCE), at or around the beginning of the Age of Taurus, as already suggested, we can perhaps imagine the last celestial “winter” coming to an end a little beforehand. Within that winter period, the “germs” or “seed souls” of human redevelopment for the next cycle would, quite naturally, have been carefully protected by our planetary Guides, together with the “hardy perennials”—those already well on the spiritual Path. Thus the first external signs of the renewal of human civilization would logically have occurred at around the same time as the celestial spring equinox, as just described.
In The Rise and Fall of Atlantis I suggested that the two celestial solstices of the Great Year of the Pleiades were inevitably accompanied by worldwide cataclysms. These were generated as our planet responded to the acute pressure generated on it by our whole solar system decelerating during its approach to the greater equivalents of the longest and shortest days of our (sidereal) year. The worldwide disruption to daily life, agriculture, and trade would have been almost unimaginable, particularly in relation to the celestial winter solstice period. It was at around this same time, some 12,500 years ago according to Plato, that the last Atlantean island of Poseidonis (together with widespread other landmasses around the world) was destroyed by huge volcanic and earthquake activity prior to its complete oceanic submersion.5 From what Blavatsky otherwise tells us, it was also from around this time that the ancient Mystery Schools of the previous Great Year “went underground,” in order to prevent their secrets from “leaking” out in the succeeding period of inevitable social chaos.
It would be wholly unrealistic to conceive of human civilization and culture recovering and returning to normality relatively quickly after such a prolonged period of worldwide cataclysm, which would have decimated human life and property on a really grand scale. However, some monuments (e.g., ancient Chaldean and Central American ziggurats, as well as Egyptian pyramids and some temples) would undoubtedly have survived from the previous historical cycle, to be taken over by the new civilizations, thereby explaining their lack of a new archeological “learning curve.”
Therefore, the natural logic following on from this is that the next 6,500 years would necessarily have involved a prolonged period of basic cultural reorganization, plus spiritual retrenchment, as well as due preparation for the next era. In other words, it would have been an involutionary period. This might then perhaps be regarded as having a parallel correspondence to the underground root development and “rising of the sap” within the plant kingdom, which takes place between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. However, the celestial spring equinox occurs in the zodiacal Age of Taurus and not on the cusp of Pisces and Aries. Perhaps that is why the first reemergent cultures, on a worldwide basis, had the bull and its associated fertility cult at the center of their various religious symbolisms?
Fig. 7.1. The Assyrian bull-god (courtesy of the British Museum)
It makes wholly logical sense that, with a new generation of humanity, a new psycho-spiritual cycle of human culture would inevitably involve the necessity for a sequentially new re-presentation of Divinity. That in turn is based on the logical assumption that human culture and its higher perceptions must themselves evolve in due sequence within any greater cycle. So, if the worldwide Atlantean cataclysm of 12,500 years ago reduced the overall human culture of the time “to ashes,” so to speak, the idea of spiritual evolution back toward a divine state would itself have had to restart using very basic sociopsychological paradigms. In line with that same suggestion, the external regrowth of human culture and civilization might perhaps have been according to a sequence such as the following in relation to religious developments.
| Ages | Religious Developments | |
| Age of Taurus (circa 4300–2150 BCE) | Reawakening of a new religious culture with an astrological/celestial orientation | |
| Age of Aries (circa 2150–0 CE) | Awakening of an idolistic god-orientation | |
| Age of Pisces (circa 0 CE–2150 CE) | Awakening of astral (devotional)orientation | |
| Age of Aquarius (2150 CE–4300 CE) | Awakening of psychological (re-) orientation |
As a result of this, it is suggested, we might find a parallel development of public religion perhaps coinciding with the following sort of sequence:
Age of Taurus
Celestial/star worship, generating religious imagery of kosmic gods and involving allegorical stories of their interactions and escapades to awaken the subconscious spiritual nature.
The general use of mass external public ceremonials and ritualistic worship openly led by the initiated priesthood.
Widespread religious symbolic use of the sacred bull and cow to draw a direct connection with the constellation of Taurus (and also the Pleiades).
Widespread symbolic use also of the undying Sacred Flame. At this stage the Mysteries and the public religion would probably have been kept completely separate.
Age of Aries
Solar worship, involving the symbolism of solar fire and the concept of the gods descending to Earth to interact with humans, thereby generating the Age of Heroes and Demigods.
At this stage, the Lesser Mysteries now opened to involvement by the general population.
The Ram symbolism appears in Judaism (and in Egypt), the Mosaic rejection of the “golden calf ” indicating the spiritual urge to move on from the influence of the Taurean Age.
Exoteric religious priesthoods now appear.
Age of Pisces
The era of “lunar” orientation—that of the Mother aspect in Nature, this thereby generating mystic forms of religion in which the masses were able to participate in direct worship of Divinity through the mediation of their priests.
The suggestion of God-incarnate-as-Man.
The Lesser Mysteries discarded now in favor of open temple/church ritual. The real (higher) Mysteries cease to exist except in the few ashrams of initiated Adepts.
Initiation of individuals remains deeply esoteric but wider public education becomes increasingly evident as a prelude to the New Age.
Age of Aquarius
Our humankind arrives (through mass education) at the point of a personal Self-realization of direct progressive connection with the spiritual and divine in Nature.
Man at last recognizes himself (semi-scientifically) as an ensouled spirit—a potential god.
Old style temple/church worship accordingly becomes completely redundant. The new mass religion is invocative, based on a “scientific” (that is, rational) focus on the underlying group psychology of Nature.
The “initiations of the threshold” gradually become exoteric. The spiritual cycle of evolution now proceeds openly.
On the speculative basis that these concepts are taking us in the generally correct direction, let us next imagine the “flowering” of human culture in this greater cycle having taken place at some time during the Ages of Taurus and Aries, between about 4300 BCE and the current Piscean era, the latter commencing, so it is thought, some two thousand years ago. This covers the academically recognized era of the great historic civilizations of the Middle East—India, Persia, Chaldeo-Assyria, plus Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece. That would then have been succeeded by a preliminary period of “fruiting”—during the last two millennia—eventually producing the worldwide culture of the present era. However, as every gardener knows, not all the fruits on the tree come to full term because the tree always produces more initially than it eventually needs or can sustain. Consequently, at a certain point, it sheds large numbers so that the rest can survive and mature properly. That, it is suggested, is roughly the point at which we stand today, when the world population has reached an all-time unsustainable high of some seven billion people—another highly interesting septenary situation.
THE TIME OF REORIENTATION
The psycho-spiritual development of humanity since the celestial spring equinox has thus progressed under the influences of the zodiacal eras of Taurus, Aries, and Pisces. Perhaps unsurprisingly—in view of the progression from spiritual to mental to astral—the mass religions during this time have been correspondingly orientated toward the sustaining of purely personal human values and aspirations. Thus Divinity has been increasingly seen in terms of a purely superhuman “God,” transcendentally set at an inconceivable and permanent distance from humanity by often politically-motivated religious theologians, and given particular characteristics to maintain separative social mores. However, we now (in the forthcoming Aquarian Age) face an evolutionary move toward a conscious development of coordinated subjective faculties, with their much more directly spiritual orientation and focus on the wider group, involving all kingdoms of Nature.
Consequently, the general polarization of human consciousness has to shift in direct correspondence. No longer will the unfoldment of human civilization and culture be orientated from the transcendent to the immanent, but rather from the lower back toward the higher. That is why, it is suggested, the Spiritual Hierarchy must itself now (by Divine Law) externalize and mingle with humanity once again, as described in A. A. Bailey’s works. It is also why spiritual initiation as a wholly natural process of evolution has had to be openly described and explained, as a preliminary to that same (necessarily gradual) externalization process. With that in mind, it is suggested, the sequence of progressive psychological preparation of humanity over the last 6,500 years by the Guides of the Race begins to make much more rational sense.
Human spiritual tenacity develops as a result of experience and frequently harsh testing. That same inner tenacity is vital to the continuity of evolutionary progress. However, without some form of helpful educational orientation, humanity has no way of knowing which direction to follow, any more than a child does at school in the earlier classes without the help of teachers. It is because of this that each new generation of humanity (taking such a “generation” as equivalent to a 26,000-year cycle) needs the help of the Spiritual Hierarchy who, in turn, devise systems of teaching and experience in the form of culture and civilization, involving both religion and sociopolitical interaction.
During the Age of Taurus, it would appear that nascent humanity’s religious teaching involved a purely mystic approach. This had a definitely celestial orientation, inculcating the basic concept that divinity appears cyclically on Earth, although “seeded from the stars,” and that it is therefore in this same direction that humankind must maintain its subjective orientation and psychological commitment. Unsurprisingly, it seems to have been in this era that astrology was at the core of religious worship. During the succeeding Age of Aries, very roughly between about 2100 BCE and 0 CE, we find the orientation changing to the fulfillment of human interest via more general involvement of the population in the Lesser Mysteries. During the past two thousand years, the emphasis has changed again, this time toward a theoretically transcendent Deity and a humanistically orientated sense of good and evil, although right and wrong still involve (to many) an equally theoretical Devil. To the more humanistic, this has been rejected in favor of personal responsibility and civil law. The overall emphasis in all this has been to develop in man a sense of his own inner nature and faculties, thereby gradually liberating him from the thrall of purely mystic experience and subjective superstition.
In each instance, however, the original subliminal direction has been largely misinterpreted by humanity, resulting in all sorts of distortions. The celestial symbolism of the Taurean era seems to have given rise to idol worship; the Mysteries of the Age of Aries produced the appearance of priestly politics, widespread intertribal warfare, and the dehumanization of women; the humanism of the last two Piscean millennia has produced the divorce of philosophy, religion, and political government, plus (more latterly) the rise of rational science and technological materialism. All of these, however, are now increasingly apparent as a result of our capacity to analyze history from a present-day standpoint, where past errors of judgment more clearly stand out. However, continuing with the astrological association, let us take a moment or two to examine in slightly greater detail what has taken place over the last two millennia of the Piscean Age, as follows.
Each zodiacal epoch of 2,160 years is esoterically divisible into either seven parts of roughly 300 years each or three parts, each of 720 years. In relation to the latter, the first sees the implementation in cultural form of the understanding achieved in the previous epoch; the second sees its adaptation; the third sees its disintegration, precedent to the new and forthcoming cycle. This progression is akin to the sequence of involution–evolution–devolution mentioned in earlier chapters. Thus we can see in the last third of the Age of Aries (itself a sign of renewal in the overall zodiacal cycle), the progressive breakup and loss of influence of the Mystery Schools, which would themselves have originated at the very beginning of that same Age, some 4400 years BCE.
In the current Piscean zodiacal epoch, the Christian religion—with its emphasis on theology and mystical surrender on one side and political evangelism on the other—also started to disintegrate in the final, third stage commencing in the fifteenth century with the rise of humanism and the Renaissance. Interestingly, Islam (with its own sense of mystical surrender to “God”)—in its own era of 2,160 years—has just commenced its own final 700-year subcycle of synthesis and disintegration after 1,400 years. Its own “Reformation” is itself now underway with a vengeance and will undoubtedly continue for at least the next century. The fact that this is the last of the three “Religions of the Book” is also indicative of a major, all-round change in the world of orthodox religion.
The progression within these religions helps to confirm that the zodiacal cycle itself—which is only one of many different length cycles, each of different purpose and value—appears to be specifically orientated toward the progressive evolutionary cycle of human consciousness in the mass. In other words, public religion has been the main type of vehicle for developing human inner awareness. However, that is now giving way to the development of science-based psychology and a general familiarity with its use in all sorts of highly unethical ways, which themselves breed a dual sense of uncertainty and moral independence. That same general sense, it is suggested, would have been regarded as inconceivable only three to four hundred years ago.
THE SUBCYCLE OF NECESSARY DISINTEGRATION
Historians tend to regard the “Dark Ages,” so called, as having commenced more or less with the eventual dissolution of Plato’s Academy in 529 CE, by edict of the Roman Emperor Justinian, in deference to Christian political pressure. However, from the rather wider perspective of the esotericist, they actually started much earlier with the degeneration of the sacred Mystery Schools themselves—in particular those of India, Egypt, China, Persia, and Greece. It is difficult to date the degeneracy in India although it appears, quite logically, to have happened in parallel with the increasing rigidity of the caste system and the feudal self-isolation of the Kshatriya (warrior) and Brahmin castes as they broke away from a great and previously existing Indo-Persian civilization. In Egypt, it seemingly began with the so-called Intermediate Kingdoms beginning as far back as the third millennium BCE, when descent of the royal line was taken over by the ruling pharaoh from the previously ancient morganatic (mother-to-daughter) system and turned into a father-to-son dynastic system. In China, where the Mystery School involved the dragon religion, it apparently occurred at least one millennium BCE; in Persia, perhaps around 1500 BCE. Finally, in Greece, it seems to have commenced some several centuries before the time of Pythagoras (late sixth century BCE).
As we have already seen, the disintegration subcycle of the Age of Aries commenced some six to seven hundred years BCE with the appearance of Gautama Buddha, his spiritually reorganizing influence being closely followed by those of Lao Tse and Pythagoras in particular, followed by Confucius and Plato. That was then followed by the usefully destructive work of Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE), whose warring efforts cleared the way for major social, religious, and political changes throughout the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean. Behind that same destructive work and the eventual creation of the entirely new city of Alexandria as a cultural and philosophical “melting pot,” itself accompanied by the international Buddhist evangelism of the great Indian emperor Asoka (304–232 BCE),6 we can see (it is again suggested) the renewed influence of the Spiritual Hierarchy. However, what happened next is, I suggest, not quite so apparent to historians who tend to see only the objective effects of underlying causes. Let us see if it can be explained, or at least suggested, in logical terms, as follows.
The purpose behind the advent of Gautama Buddha clearly involved the restoration of a subjective order in our planetary consciousness following the destruction of the last bastion of Atlantean consciousness some 12,500 years ago, as Plato describes. What Plato did not describe, however, was the much further extent of geological cataclysm around the world that simultaneously accompanied the submergence of Poseidonis, as mentioned a few pages ago, or the fact that it was due to the conclusion of a major celestial cycle. As we have just seen, the new celestial cycle duly reached its vernal equinox during the Age of Taurus and the consequent reexpansion and acceleration of human cultural growth then had to be redirected into a new (definitely post-Atlantean) channel.
Fig. 7.2. The emperor Asoka
It was seemingly only then that the spirit known to us as “Gautama Buddha” arrived on the scene—by divine (i.e., higher celestial) Purpose, so we are told—evidently in order to reorganize and revitalize the Adept Hierarchy of our particular humanity first of all. They naturally describe him as “the patron of all the Adepts, the reformer and the codifier of the occult system.”7 The Hierarchy itself, by that time, seems to have organically produced no initiates higher than that of the fifth degree (Master of the Wisdom). However, this latter statement needs to be explained by reference to the suggestion that each greater solar cycle produces its own humanity in response to Divine Purpose, our particular humanity having first appeared on Earth some eighteen million years ago, according to the tradition described by Blavatsky’s magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine.
According to the same tradition (at least, as described in the later works of A. A. Bailey), the individual known to us as Maitreya Buddha was the most advanced of our particular humanity.8 As speculatively suggested elsewhere in this book, it was probably because he (while still only a Master) and other leading initiates could make no further purely self-generated progress in their own evolutionary development, that Gautama—an Intelligence from a far more advanced Hierarchy than ours—appeared in order to make that advance possible. On that basis and also because of Gautama’s own achieved subjective connection with the planetary center of Shamballa,*13 following his own attainment of moksha (liberation), this subsequently became established fact. By inference, it seemingly did so through the extraordinary and simultaneous alignment of his consciousness with that of Maitreya (the latter apparently overshadowing the body of Jesus and embodying the bodhisattvic Christ principle in fullness), which took place some two thousand years ago, thereby heralding the Piscean Age.
THE EFFECTS AND THEIR DISTORTED REPORTAGE
The effect of this—following the same logic—was seemingly threefold. First of all, so we are told, Gautama achieved full spiritual liberation as a Dhyani Buddha, or Interplanetary Spirit,9 although still connected with our planet by virtue of that initiation still being incomplete. Secondly, Maitreya, the formative Christ or Bodhisattva, became a human Buddha, with rights of direct access to Shamballa at all times. Thirdly, the initiate Jesus (directly overshadowed by the Christ consciousness of the Chohan Maitreya) took the fourth initiation and became an Adept.10 However, so we are also told, it was the Christ (not Jesus) who, in this manner, indirectly aligned humanity with Shamballa itself, thereby himself achieving the first stage of “God” consciousness on behalf of our humankind, in a manner that we shall endeavor to describe in further (but necessarily outline) detail later on, in chapters 13 and 14.
It would appear that a small part of this truly amazing story subsequently became available to the outer world through somehow being made known to those lesser initiates of the time subsequently known to us as “gnostics.” One of these was the apostle St. Paul whose latterly derived gnosticism is clearly evident from several of his own reported statements,11 although he unfortunately endeavored to place undue emphasis on the concept of blood sacrifice rather than on resurrection—a legacy still with us today. In that sense, Christianity owes more to his brand of fiery evangelism than it does to the more compassionate nature of Jesus’s teaching and the example of the Christ. However, even St. Paul’s teachings took time to take root.
As will be explained in more detail in a later chapter, the psychological independence of most gnostics—despite involving idealism and personal behavior of the highest order—quickly came into direct conflict with much more materialistically (and politically) orientated early Christian individuals. The latter wished to set up a formal “church” with its own orthodoxy and its own internal hierarchy of bishops and deacons. It is their historical successors who were subsequently very happy to fall in with the political aims of the Roman emperor Constantine in making a literalized Christianity the sole religion of the empire, in order to help him maintain social coherence and the rule of religious law and order. Hence the origin of the Roman Catholic Church, which is essentially a political institution, despite its religious “clothing.”
It is because of this partial literalization of the full story, as suggested here, that later Christian theologians became so confused with setting up their own orthodoxy. As a direct result, we have subsequently been misguidedly saddled by them with the idea of Jesus as the Christ on the one hand and, on the other, with the even more absurd concept of the “Christed” Jesus being God manifest. The other curious and even later addition to this theological “camel” is the concept of the wholly allegorical Sophia (Divine Wisdom) borrowed by eastern Christianity from the gnostics and materially translated into the humanized concept of the Virgin Mary by Roman Catholicism.
ST. PAUL AND THE NEO-PLATONISTS
The development of neo-Platonic and neo-Pythagorean philosophy centered on Alexandria also saw a separate error of judgment on the part of their protagonists, who seem to have seen it as a major opportunity for reviving the Mystery School setup. Whereas the whole essence of Platonism involved an outward movement toward greater public dialogue, which directly incorporated reference to hitherto esoteric issues (including natural philosophy, the precursor to modern science), some neo-Platonists seemed to have seen this as moving too far too fast as far as the masses were concerned. In their view, the masses did not possess the intellectual potential to follow their concepts. However, in explaining themselves in writing, they unknowingly initiated the academic movement that, from one angle, can perhaps be seen as an intermediate staging post between overt religious mysticism and covert metaphysical philosophy.
It is therefore hardly surprising that the early gnostic Christian movement, under the main influence of St. Paul (himself apparently an initiate of the Great White Lodge*14), came into direct conflict with those who were politically motivated. St. Paul evangelically set about conveying the idea that there should no longer be a question of secrecy in the following of religion by the masses, that everyone should be regarded (and taught) as having direct subjective access to God. The basic follow-on from this, of course, is that priests or intellectual intermediaries were also unnecessary. However, that idea failed to materialize among the members of the early Catholic Church. It was also, in one sense, a direct threat to the then expanding, mainly male-dominated Mithraic intelligentsia of the time, the latter following a semi-secretive and hierarchically organized initiatory system.
The Mithraic and Christian movements eventually attained a roughly equivalent degree of political influence throughout the Roman Empire, with the former looking as though it would probably be the final political victor.12 As we now know, however, the Christian movement eventually took the upper hand by virtue of political maneuvering on the part of the Emperor Constantine, who made it the only religion of the empire and banned all others. This occurred at a time when Rome was so saturated with “New Age” movements and “Mystery Schools” in open conflict with the idolized worship of traditional Roman gods that it seemed as though the whole basis of Roman social culture was in extreme danger of falling apart. It appears as though the very openness and simplicity of worship promulgated by the Christians carried the day quite effectively.
However, the great problem facing the leaders of the Christian movement from the outset was that Christianity possessed no obvious theology to contrast with that of the neo-Platonists, so they had to set about creating one. This they did by progressively absorbing elements of various other sacred (gnostic) traditions from India, Persia, Egypt, and Greece, with which we are now very familiar, as well as building on their sacred sites.
Among these, as we have already seen in chapter 6, were the ideas of the virgin birth of the god-man (the Christos), his crucifixion, and his rising from the dead. However, whereas all these in their original form involved sacred allegories, the protagonists of Christianity literalized them all in the single figure of Jesus, thereby giving them a huge public relations advantage when presenting their doctrine to the still spiritually ignorant and devotionally gullible masses. The other, almost inevitable, backward step was that the leaders of the Christian movement turned themselves into a hierarchy of priests, with senior bishops and deacons who then began squabbling and politicking among themselves over the centuries, over which theological issues were generally acceptable to provide a united front to the rest of the world. More of this is dealt with in chapter 13, where we also look in greater detail at the issue of Jesus and the phenomenon of his supposed Christhood.
THE EFFECTS ON NEO-PLATONISM, NEO-PYTHAGOREANISM, AND GNOSTICISM
With the rise of an “orthodox” Christianity and the fall of neo-Platonism and gnosticism in general under the Roman Empire, progressively from the fifth century CE, it is hardly surprising that publicly accessible esoteric philosophy went into a period of steep decline, lasting for several centuries. The fragmented remains of neo-Platonism and neo-Pythagoreanism, plus the equally fragmented remains of ancient Egyptian sacred philosophy, seem to have been transferred eastward, first of all to Edessa in Mesopotamia, under the Nestorian or Eastern Church. Here a scientific and philosophical school existed until the late fifth century CE, when it was closed down by order of the then Byzantine emperor, Zeno.
Such studies then progressively moved to the intellectual center of the Persian Sassanid empire at Gondhishapur, near Baghdad, where students (from Greece and all over the Middle East, even from India and China) paid particular attention to research in medicine, mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy. These subjects were later continued under the banner of Islam, possibly through the intervention or involvement of Sufi Adepts, Sufism having long predated Islam itself, as we have already suggested. What remained of “natural science” in Alexandria and elsewhere in the West consisted for a while of pockets of alchemical practice and other unnaturally isolated aspects of what subsequently became known under the general banner of “magic” and “occultism.” That then diversified in the mid-eighth century CE with the extended influence of the Umayyad Caliphate into Andalusia (Iberia), as will be described in greater detail later in this chapter.
In the West, however, small isolated pockets of neo-Platonic and neo-Pythagorean thought and written works persisted here and there. The Greco-Egyptian, Hermetic Stobaeus, which resurfaced in the seventh century CE, remained generally well known and very popular throughout Europe particularly because of its cryptic message “as above, so below,” thereby perpetuating the understanding that all magic was based on sympathetic association. Yet further west, one of the most important medieval works, The Key to Nature, came from the Irish monk Duns Scotus Erigena (1265–1308 CE), the first Western philosopher to use the term theosophia to describe any system of hermeneutically based association between Macrocosm and microcosm. Despite appearing to be an Aristotelian, he wrote about Macrocosmic Nature (the World Soul) having a structured existence based on different qualities of light; believing in God as a process of self-revelation in which every creature will ultimately be redeemed, he also taught that the human being, just like the World Soul, contained all the essences of Creation.13
Erigena’s contemporary, Meister Eckhart (ca. 1260–1327) (see fig. 7.3), believed in Man being a trinity of spirit, soul, and body, which, as Joscelyn Godwin observes, is also the foundation of the concept of spiritual alchemy, where the process of change takes place within the soul.14 He was followed by Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464)—a Catholic cardinal, strangely enough—whose ideas included the fact that each level of the universal hierarchy of beings contains all possible reality, in each case from a different aspect.15 Such a spectrum of concepts provided a highly fertile soil for the later European Renaissance, despite what Stephen Hoeller refers to as “the unholy alliance of Semitic moralising which invaded and conquered Christendom by way of the works of Thomas Aquinas.”16 They resulted in the appearance of other comparable but basically Hermetic ideas, such as those of Paracelsus (1493–1541) (see fig. 7.4), who obtained at least some of them (in the field of healing knowledge and practice) from his own travels in the Middle East.17 However, further fertile soil had already been provided over preceding centuries from other directions.
Fig. 7.3. Meister Eckhardt
Fig. 7.4. Paracelsus
THE POST-SEVENTH-CENTURY ERA
As suggested at the outset, the whole point of this chapter revolves around the central idea that the history of our constantly changing world culture owes much to the behind-the-scenes influence of the Adept Brotherhood. It is their concern constantly to generate a sense of evolutionary direction in the consciousness of humanity’s intelligentsia. This is achieved by the incarnation of often widely scattered lesser initiates of the Spiritual Hierarchy (like Paracelsus) who unconsciously pursue certain aspects of the overall Purpose with great vigor and idealism. Such an interaction is only possible, however, through these lesser members of the Hierarchy—who are not even aware of what is taking place—being psychically sensitive to the suggestions put to them by the wider ranging Intelligences of the Adepts and responding by applying their own personal force. It is they, therefore, who are responsible for initiating and pursuing the great cultural movements, which later historians then merely record. Let us now consider (necessarily rather briefly) the efforts of some of these.
With Christianity having been adopted on a wide front by northern and western Europeans, the Adept Hierarchy seem to have turned their main attention to finding a natural block to stop its further and too early expansion. That appears to have resulted in two main effects. First of all, with the decline of Roman authority, a tremendous resurgence of the Tuareg and Berber tribes of northwest Africa took place, eventually extending from beyond the western end of the Atlas Mountains all the way to Egypt. In my book The Rise and Fall of Atlantis, I have described these tribes as the remnants of the empire of pre-Roman Carthage, among them the Tyrrhenian “Sea Peoples” and “Barbarians” who continually caused the Egyptians and Romans (and even Alexander the Great) so much trouble with their constant warring incursions.18
One such incursion led, at the very beginning of the eighth century CE, to an invasion and occupation of the Iberian peninsula by an army of Berbers and Tuaregs from northwestern Africa. They were apparently from Mauretania, hence their becoming known as the “Moors,” although some modern historians irritatingly and quite mistakenly refer to this as a “Moslem” or “Arab” invasion. Interestingly, it seems to have been these same very tall, red-skinned “Tuaregs” from northwest Africa who evolved (phonetically, as well as literally) into the “Tuareks” or Turks who subsequently founded the Ottoman (originally Atum-man or Atman) Empire, which originated in Egypt. The latter fact is, however, contrary to orthodox history, which curiously sees the Turks as an oriental race, despite their non-oriental features.
When the prophet Mohammed (570–632 CE)—also apparently an initiate of the Great White Lodge19—managed to bring the warring Bedouin tribes of Arabia under localized control during the seventh century CE, he did so by means of the psychological constraints inherent in the laws of Islam, which he founded. One particular aspect of his teaching seems to have caught and spread like wildfire among neighboring neo-Carthaginians and others. That aspect was the idea of complete surrender to the Will of God. In addition, because Islam quite deliberately derived much of its authority from the Old Testament, shared by Judaism and Christianity alike, it is quite clear that Mohammed saw his efforts as orientated toward peace and friendship between all “Religions of the Book.” This is quite clearly confirmed by the Qur’an. However, Mohammed’s teaching that Jerusalem was the second most holy site in Islam—together with the Byzantine Empire’s refusal to give Islam access to it—later caused war between the two to break out. In the eleventh century, Moslems took control of Jerusalem, leading to the Christian world retaliating by starting the Crusades in order to regain it.
THE MEDIEVAL ERA
In Spain and Portugal (ancient Al-Andalus), the further continuing invasion from the south—this time by Islamicized Berber and Tuareg armies on behalf of an Umayyad Caliph from Syria whose mother was of Iberian parentage—resulted in the founding of the first great scholarly libraries and universities of western Europe. That is because the Caliph sent literally hundreds of Dionysii (stone masons and other craftsmen builders) needed to construct the associated public buildings—their much later successors extending their work to the first great European cathedrals. Through his innate idealism, the Caliph gave free access to the scholarly institutions to Christians and Jews as well as Moslems from the outset. This was continued by his successors for several hundred years. This again (it is suggested) was because of the background influence of the Adept Hierarchy. It was as a direct result of this—particularly in the Caliphate of Córdoba—that great scholars such as Albertus Magnus (1193–1280 CE), Raymond Lully (1235–1315 CE), and Roger Bacon (1240–1294 CE) were able to bring elements of ancient knowledge of esoteric and occult tradition into the field of Western thought as science, much of it through the medium of alchemical philosophy.
Fig. 7.5. Roger Bacon
Similarly, a parallel explosion of interest took place in the field of Kabbalism among the Spanish community of Jews, mostly arising out of sudden Messianic hopes.20 This later translated itself into the appearance of a Jewish nationalism in northern Europe—mainly in Poland and Germany. Regrettably, perhaps because Córdoba under the Caliphate actually overtook Constantinople as the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, the same broadmindedness and willingness to share failed to materialize between Christians and Moslems as had happened in relation to the then still holy places in Jerusalem.
Islam having originally been generated with the idea of a religious cooperation between “peoples of the Book” (the Old Testament), as just described, it was unfortunate that humanity (in this case, mainly originating with the Christian West) yet again managed to distort the original intention through greed and suspicion. As a result, centuries of mistrust and outright belligerence between Christianity and Islam have needlessly followed. The reaction of Christianity to the Moslems and Jews of Andalusia, resulting in the former being driven out by war and the latter by wholesale expulsion in 1492, followed the same regrettably paranoid pattern of behavior. Modern historians have not helped in this matter. Their general failure to draw proper distinctions between truly ethnic Arabs on the one hand and the Berbers, Tuaregs, and other tribes of northern and northwestern Africa on the other—all because Islam requires the common usage of Arabic—is really deplorable. It has caused wholesale distortions of the true history of the Near and Middle East.
However, Judaism and Islam have also suffered extensively as a direct result of selfish distortions of original truths. Judaism (or, these days, Zionism to be more accurate) has continued to perpetuate the entirely false idea of the “chosen people” when, in fact, the “children of Israel” so-called, owe their name to the Vedic term Asur(a) plus the Semitic El, thus meaning the semi-divine spirits of all humanity; thus Israel being derived from Asur-El. The name Zion is itself also borrowed. It appears to have been an etymological corruption of the Tibetan dzyan (the same as the Sanskrit dhyan), meaning the perfected spiritual state in which the semi-divine (i.e., monadic) nature of Man is to be found. It also continues, in parallel manner, to be obsessed with the idea of “Jewishness” as a supposedly ethnic characteristic when in fact it is only a religious one, as described at length by the Israeli historian and author Shlomo Sand in his recent book, The Invention of the Jewish People.21
Islam, on the other hand, has allowed itself to remain largely stuck in a Middle Ages mentality. This has occurred by virtue of: its psychological obsession with the territorial success and magnificence of the medieval Caliphates and the Ottoman Empire; its obsession with a legal system (Sharia) based on hierarchically acceptable and largely feudal precedents; its largely secondary and extensively patronizing view of women; and its continuing tendency to turn a blind eye to various degrees and forms of slavery, all these being more obviously prevalent in some countries than others.
Interestingly, Islam has also unconsciously retained elements of other religious influences predating its own origin. For example, the mystic word ALM, which we find at the beginning of various chapters of the Qur’an, appears to have been derived from the invocative Sanskrit AUM22 and was originally used to denote an initiating appeal to Allat, the “universal Mother” and immaculate “Virgin of the Heavens.”23 This is so even though the deity of modern Islam has no female aspect. Such facts, however, have been progressively overlooked by modern theological scholars because of their uncomfortable origins, just as certain originally gnostic terms and concepts have been deliberately excluded by Christian theology. It is because of these characteristics that the forthcoming “Reformation” of Islam, which has already started, will be of particular interest over the course of the next two hundred years in particular.
European civilization and culture has “grown up,” not just as a result of its own largely selfish and clumsy efforts, but also because of Christianity’s (often grudging) willingness (frequently forced upon it by politico-economic influences) to evolve from within and thus move on from old, self-limiting ways and past mistakes. It has also come to demonstrate (after much historical pressure) a willingness to entertain and discuss different philosophical and religious viewpoints in public. In Judaism and Islam, open discussion of such matters is, for the most part, still “not done.”
For these reasons, we find that the predominantly Christian West—despite its dreadful modern tendency toward materialism—remains as yet the most generally open-minded and thus most capable of absorbing new and wider spiritual truths and of adapting ways to make them part and parcel of modern life. The way in which that has taken place, however, has been for the most part tortuous and often quite unnecessarily bloodthirsty. Paradoxically, however, it seems to be entirely because of the conflicting philosophical extremes within which Christianity has operated that European civilization and culture, in containing them, has managed to thrive and evolve.
Christianity itself has had no easy ride. Physically threatened with periodic invasion by ferocious eastern European and Mongol tribes between the fifth and fourteenth centuries, it also faced Berber and Tuareg (i.e., Saracen) territorialization from the south in Spain, Sicily, and the Balkans. The eastern expansion of European trade links (via Venice) and huge increase in mercantile wealth only really got under way in the fourteenth century. However, it is only since the fifteenth century that Western Europe has begun to develop a gradually more settled sense of its own character, once the threat of invasion from the East and West had finally been negated by concerted military action.
MODERN OVERSHADOWING INFLUENCE OF THE ADEPT BROTHERHOOD
It is obviously very difficult to even speculate about the precise range of ways the Adept Hierarchy worked behind the scenes during and subsequent to the Middle Ages to motivate western Europe toward greater political and economic unity. However, what is clear to the modern esotericist is the fact that specific psycho-spiritual Ray influences have been brought to bear since the Renaissance. These projections of archetypal kosmic influence, emanated downward into the field of our planetary Life by our particular Logos, have exerted themselves in the following general fields of human interest and endeavor:
Ray 1—Political development
Ray 2—Public education and interest in knowledge
Ray 3—Commerce and cultural innovation
Ray 4—Psychological development
Ray 5—Scientific research and technological development
Ray 6—Religious ecumenism
Ray 7—Industrial development and associated social reorganization
It would take far too long to analyze the history of the last six to seven hundred years in relation to each and every one of these, but we can perhaps suggest some examples by implication. It is also worth mentioning that the Renaissance itself was preceded by the monastic system becoming a focus of Adept attention. This involved the Hierarchy, from behind the scenes, encouraging the training of increasing numbers of young men and women in the West in the art of meditation and the pursuit of academic learning and research. Without that intellectual foundation, it is highly unlikely that the Renaissance and the later Enlightenment could have happened. Even so, by implication, it would seem that the effects of this type of monastic tutelage were somewhat fragmentary. We are nevertheless told that, toward the end of the fourteenth century, such efforts received a major boost to motivation in a longer-term direction by the orders of Tzon-kha-pa, the doyen of the Buddhist Adepts, to the Spiritual Hierarchy. These orders were for them to make a serious, combined effort to enlighten the barbarian West during the latter part of each century. Thus followed the European Renaissance.
ORIENTAL INFLUENCES AND THE SPREAD OF KNOWLEDGE
The sudden appearance in 1460 of ancient Hermetic texts from the Byzantine Empire in Florence sparked a Europe-wide revitalization of interest in esoteric and occult philosophy, particularly in the fields of spiritual alchemy and kabbalism.24 Initiated by Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), it was closely followed up in Europe by others such as Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522), Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516), and Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535). The spread of their thought was in turn aided and accelerated by the sudden appearance of machine-based printing (by Gutenberg in Europe in 1455 and by Caxton in England in 1476), thereby allowing the mass production of books and wider access to classical knowledge, political and psychological ideas (such as humanism and democracy), and discursive cultural thought, plus the pursuit of antiquarian and scientific research, among the lay intelligentsia of the time.
The sudden reappearance of Hermeticism also gave rise to the reemergence in Europe of interest in occult matters generally. These included magical theurgy (echoing down the centuries from the works of Iamblichus and Pythagoras) plus alchemy, the latter from ancient Egypt too, although reintroduced via Spain by its Moslem rulers and sages as Al-chemiya. The latter, in Christian hands, rapidly evolved into “spiritual alchemy,” visualizing man himself as the “lead” to be turned into “gold.” This otherwise succeeded in reinforcing the mystical humanism of the time, which was eventually to dethrone the Catholic Church before itself developing a materialistic bent during the later Enlightenment, in pursuit of “rational” science. This same spiritual alchemy was nevertheless to carry forward the ancient esoteric teaching as to the sevenfold structure of Creation, as we can see from the early seventeenth century engraving in fig. 7.6, itself appearing with the sudden emergence of Rosicrucianism.
Fig. 7.6. Michaelspaker’s alchemical allegory
While all this was taking place, there had occurred the rediscovery of the Americas by Columbus (in 1492) and other voyages of discovery by Western explorers around the Atlantic and Indian Ocean rims in search of commercial trade with the Far East. That in turn led to greater and much closer familiarization with oriental religion and belief systems, which eventually resulted in a later wave of academic research that brought elements of such knowledge (particularly from India) back to the West, for example through the agency of the more mystically and intellectually orientated members of the East India Company.
Following Marco Polo (1254–1324), one of the earliest Europeans who took advantage of this opening up of oriental thought was Theophrastus Paracelsus, who created a sensation in the field of Western medical practice between 1520–1540, as a result of his display of occult techniques of both diagnosis and treatment. These he had clearly learned during his travels in the Middle East. Accompanied by his books and open Hermetic teaching, they flew directly and very antagonistically in the face of the then academically and Aristotle-orientated medical establishment, thereby initiating a completely new and more thoughtfully scientific approach to the whole field of medicine.
That in turn was closely followed by other early scientists such as Nicolas Copernicus (1473–1543), who published his heliocentric theory (already long known in oriental circles) in 1543, also to the great discomfiture of the Roman Church. That theory was of course “rounded out” by Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), who published his work on the mathematical laws of planetary orbits in 1609.
In the early sixteenth century the emphasis of Adept interest in European development seems to have moved also toward the field of religious politics, resulting in the split in the Roman Catholic Church in 1517 caused by Martin Luther (1483–1546), which gave rise to the Protestant revolution in Europe. He was then succeeded by the mystically and metaphysically orientated Jacob Boehme (1575–1624), supposedly the first of the modern “theosophers” (although in many ways Paracelsus has a much better claim to this title), who might be described as having almost initiated the humanistic psychological analysis of Deity.
Also in the early seventeenth century (in 1610) we otherwise see the sudden appearance of the Rosicrucian phenomenon, which inflamed the interest of the intelligentsia of Europe from one end to the other. This appeared to die a sudden death after only twenty years due to political machination. However, to this day, there lies a suggestion that the Adept Brotherhood—whose existence is described to some extent in the legend of Christian Rosenkreutz—were behind it and were themselves so surprised at the force and extent of public reaction that they decided to withdraw it until other balancing aspects of their program became properly and more formally anchored in the European mind. The development and formalization of Freemasonry in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century is perhaps one example of the latter. Although generally assumed to be but a mystical outgrowth of European Craft Masonry, there is good reason—as A. E. Waite describes25—to suppose that it actually derived from the traditions of that far more ancient group known as the “Dionysian Architects.” As we saw earlier, they (based in Syria) had themselves originated the great municipal building program in Spain in the Middle Ages, resulting in the great libraries and universities of knowledge attributed to Islam, although their own tradition was actually far, far older.
Fig. 7.7. Martin Luther
The seventeenth century then saw the beginnings of the real Enlightenment, with its focus on the world of semi-scientific, semi-philosophical rationalism, itself mixed with metaphysical influences to begin with. René Descartes (1596–1650) was among the first with his concept of the simple division of the world of existence into that of the human soul (the animal supposedly having no soul) plus the duality of mind and body. Baruch de Spinoza (1632–1677), one of the earliest scientific rationalists, then demolished the dualistic philosophy of Descartes with the highly occult observation: “Matter and Mind are but two finite manifestations of one infinite substance which may be capable of an infinite number of other finite manifestations of which we can and do know nothing.”26 He thereby unconsciously paved the way for the humanistic materialism of the later Enlightenment.
Spinoza was quickly followed by Wilhelm Leibnitz, already mentioned in an earlier chapter because of his fascination with “monads” and the way in which mind caused the process of individuation in matter, thereby generating forms. Leibnitz was otherwise the architect of differential calculus. At the same time, we see the appearance of Isaac Newton (1642–1727) and his objective work in various fields of physics.
THE MODERN ENLIGHTENMENT
Also in the mid-seventeenth century, in England, we find the secretive formation of the “Invisible College” by enthusiasts in the field of “natural science.” This was shortly thereafter succeeded by the founding of the more formal and publicly recognized Royal Society, which in the later seventeenth century foreshadowed the beginnings of a modern scientific research establishment. We then have the age of technological invention leading to the Industrial Revolution and the rapid rise of economic materialism. We also have the American and French sociopolitical revolutions, heralding the rise of political democracy and the concept of socialism. In the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century we see the sudden reappearance of interest in practical occult science—via a combination of Archimedean engineering and alchemically orientated chemistry—plus various forms of Spiritualism. The latter—originally derived from the visionary researches of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772)—swept the Western world like a new religion, forcing skeptical humanists to look for other and more materialistic answers to human development in the fields of geology, archeology, and anthropology. This was, in turn, closely followed by the work of Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) in the field of healing and hypnotism, confirming the existence of invisibly parallel states of being and forces (electricity and magnetism), which could be accessed by rationally logical techniques once the accompanying psychology was understood.
All this and more in these same and other accompanying fields of science then heralded the dramatic appearance in 1875 of modern Theosophy, uniting East and West plus ancient and modern thought in historical, religious, scientific, and philosophical terms. Thereafter, in the late nineteenth century, the immensely important sciences of atomic physics and psychology emerged, giving rise to the appearance of radiation and cosmology on the one hand and anthropological-cum-ethnological research on the other. These were then duly followed in the twentieth century by the equally sudden rise of the worldwide ecological movement, of internationalism, plus preliminary interest in and development of space travel.
Fig. 7.8. Swedenborg
These are just a few of the major modern impulses that appear to have been quietly initiated or inspired by the Adept Hierarchy from behind the scenes. However, their effects have been nothing short of dramatic, helping to turn western European civilization and culture from mystic medievalism to a scientifically orientated psychology and also a definitely broad internationalism within the short space of seven centuries. There are of course those who will scoff at this idea and query why one should believe that such developments would need the assistance of the Adept Brotherhood in the first place. However, careful consideration of human psychology in the mass should very quickly show that humans predominantly resist all change and that, left to themselves, very quickly revert to type. We only have to look today, by way of example, at the inward tribal psychology of the hill peoples of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan, plus those of large parts of Africa, to see how “family” politics precludes a development of society at large toward the wider vision. It should be added that the same backward tendencies lie not very far below the surface even in the supposedly far advanced cultures of the West.
We should also mention here that, by virtue of their refusal to force humanity in any particular direction, the Adept Brotherhood are in no way involved in the initiating of intrigues leading to wars. Having said that, humanity’s own stupidity in generating wars (instead of sorting things out by peaceful means, through discussion and negotiation) often leads to the appearance of situations involving crisis and change, where the subsequent influence of the Adepts can be made of remarkably effective and innovative use. There have been many such events over even recent years and, although today’s political organizations are not prepared to invoke their assistance, because of continuing adherence to formal religion, we can perhaps envisage a time in the not-too-distant future when this might change.
NINETEENTH-AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY OCCULT MOVEMENTS
Some passing mention should perhaps be made in this chapter of the Golden Dawn movement which, in some ways, appears to personify the modern approach to occultism, although its own interest lay in the field of ritual magic, which is a very different thing altogether, much more limited in scope. Appearing in the 1880s at the same time that Blavatsky was setting up her Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society, its three founders—W. W. Westcott, S. L. MacGregor Mathers, and W. R. Woodham—had all previously been members of other movements, including the Theosophical Society and the Freemasons. However, their fascination with magic (and ritual magic in particular) sets them very clearly apart from both these other mainstream movements, each of which focused on the principle of brotherhood, although from different angles. The self-styled Golden Dawn “Magi” in fact applied the principle of initiation in a very limited manner by lacking reference to the wider range of spiritual concerns—as have modern Rosicrucians and Freemasons (in the short term), together with a range of far less knowledgeable “cults” of rather doubtful significance.
Some further passing mention should also be made here of Freemasonry (the English Grand Lodge having been founded in 1717), because of its core principle (like that of the Rosicrucians) of an interdisciplinary brotherhood, directly linked to the intelligentsia of the era. Within its movement, Freemasonry was concerned not only with the practice of a ritualized esoteric philosophy guiding its increasingly scientific orientation, but also with that firm sense of brotherhood, in pursuit of an altruistic as well as a philosophical ideal. However, devoid of the practical responsibilities and ideals of Dionysian Craft Masonry, its intelligentsia (more particularly in Europe) managed to become entangled in all sorts of political and financial webs of national and international intrigue. That in turn—particularly following the widespread fascination with ancient Egyptian culture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century—led to a more than somewhat self-centered fascination with colorful initiatory ritual and public ceremonial, just for its own sake. This is yet another area of human distortion that remains to be sorted out in the future.
Fig. 7.9. Main Chamber, Freemasons’ Hall, London (courtesy of the Grand Lodge)
In late feudal times, despite the basic Christian precept of “love thy neighbor as thyself,” the ideal of common human brotherhood in Western society was a very limited phenomenon merely associated with the commercial guilds and literate intelligentsia of the time. The Theosophical Society, on the other hand, was concerned from its inception in 1875 to spread the principle of universal brotherhood throughout humankind as a fact of life in Nature and not as a mere ideal, using knowledge of esoteric philosophy and occult science as an ancillary form of proof. When we look slightly further back into modern history we can see that this idea has developed over the last few centuries (since the 1391 “Peasants’ Revolt” in England against feudalistic oppression) in hitherto limited because merely political terms, leading to the appearance of parliamentary democracy and the concept of “universal rights,” as put forward by the UN and UNESCO. Over the last century it has become more widely accepted on a social or cultural basis, but it would seem that it still has a long way to go before it is generally recognized in the sense intended by the Adept Hierarchy itself.
The very direct involvement of the Adept Hierarchy in the literary work of H. P. Blavatsky, leading to the publication of both Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, must also be mentioned here as it clearly had the most momentous effect on nineteenth century scientific thought, particularly in the fields of anthropology, chemistry, physics, and astrophysics. When we look at the extraordinary developments in these fields alone over the thirty or forty years after publication of The Secret Doctrine in 1888, by comparison with the direction and speed of scientific thought in the preceding half century, we can see just how much acceleration has taken place in human intellectual potential. However, it is only now being realized that all such development actually owes its origins to esoteric philosophy. So, as that derives directly from the knowledge of the Adept Hierarchy, is it not reasonable to acknowledge their probable influence? And, if that is so, does it not then follow quite logically that more consideration needs to be given to understanding their capacities and role in helping with the evolutionary development of all the other kingdoms of Nature, as well as the human?
THE FUTURE
The new millennium is clearly one in which the natural interrelationship between all human beings, irrespective of their politics and religions, is being seen as the basis of a new world order. Such a situation has come about, however, not just because of media technology but because the psychology of our modern humanity has broadened and deepened quite extraordinarily. The principle of universal human rights and opportunity, irrespective of caste, creed, gender, and skin color, has become so successfully enshrined in our world consciousness as a pure fact of life that now to suggest anything to the contrary is immediately seen—at least in the West—as psychologically backward and socially antipathetic.
The old, restricted Eastern mystic attitudes and Western religious theology, perhaps ideal for their times, are now clearly being seen as having had their day and needing to give way to a broader spiritual perspective. It is for this reason that the West, with its more enforcedly open political, legal, and commercial culture, was—despite the associated materialism—made to become the main theater of interest. But the new world order and its civilization will of necessity be an international one, covering the globe in its entirety and uniting all peoples in a broadly common socio-spiritual culture.
What we now see in front of us, for the next few hundred years—not just the next century—will necessarily involve the natural rooting out of remaining backward cultures (both sociopolitically and spiritually) around the world. But this in turn will result in a retaliation (which has already started) where the current of expansive modernization is crudely let loose without due thought for traditional spiritual issues being taken into consideration in concert with the needed political changes. Major change—particularly that initiated on a worldwide front by the Spiritual Hierarchy—takes time to effect and settle down. In addition, the old spirituality and maternal culture of the East needs a new vehicle to contain and nurture it. At present, the West is not capable of providing it and much damage will be done before the West (the United States in particular) realizes it. It is because of Western Christianity’s sociopolitical clumsiness and lack of wider spiritual perspective that both Judaic and Islamic extremism have been unconsciously encouraged in their development over the past fifty years.
PRESENT DAY POLITICO-RELIGIOUS CONFLICT
One of the major causes of current conflict in the Middle East, for example, is actually due to extreme (i.e., fundamentalist) American evangelical literalism, which has managed to persuade itself that it has a duty to help bring about the “spiritual apocalypse” allegorically described in the New Testament chapters of Revelations, with Jerusalem as the focus. As a direct result, working in concord with equally literal-minded and wholly self-centered Zionists (much to the astonishment of the latter), they are deliberately intent upon fomenting and encouraging Israeli-Palestinian conflict in every way possible. To the Western world, as presented by the journalistic media, this is not the way the current, supposedly “political” situation is usually presented, but it is so and it poses a great threat to world religious and political peace. This, however, is where the new and more open teaching on esoteric philosophy (particularly as regards the actual basis of divinity) comes into its own and where it must play a major (but very carefully passive) role over the forthcoming seven or eight generations in particular.
The Adept Hierarchy has made it clear that the intended new religion for the masses—somewhat described in chapter 15—will be based upon a spiritual science of ritual involving invocation and evocation of planetary and extraplanetary influences for the benefit of all kingdoms of nature, not just the human.27 For that (eventually) to come about, however, it is essential that many learn the fundamental rules of esoteric and occult philosophy—but only after they have developed the highest capacity for universally altruistic and principled behavior on a day-to-day basis. There is no doubt that the Adept Hierarchy will be watching very closely to see how the present situation improves through the influencing efforts of those already “on the Path,” working on their behalf.
This highlights the fact that what will be needed in the new era is an increasingly large caucus of spiritually motivated and esoterically knowledgeable people who will be seen actually to inspire through their lack of self-centeredness and their practical approach to both local and world problems. They will also need to show that they can be relied upon by the masses for what they represent and what they truly are. That needs to be considered on an international basis—country by country in some cases—although international religious and political affiliations will also doubtless play their roles as well. Bearing in mind the widely different stages of politico-economic as well as social development reached in some Third World countries, this is not going to be a simple or brief task and will require much patience and goodwill. Furthermore, an equally great problem facing a prospective sea change of this sort is that of the attitude of natural or self-induced mystics, whose very instinct is to resist that which questions their experiences. Mystics, however, are merely ecstatics who are not really interested in the “why?” of their transcendental experience. They are merely concerned with finding and re-pressing the “trigger mechanism” that gave rise to it, or otherwise of conveying a secondhand vision of it to others who are then left to interpret what they have been told as best they can. That thereby often foments further unhelpful religious division and argument. Consequently, that approach too needs to be very firmly set aside. In what ways these particular issues might be approached will thus be considered in the next chapters, covering initiatory progress itself.