The Esoteric Studies Research and Teaching Group
in conjunction with the
School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
at the
University of Queensland

presents the 3rd Annual Alternative Expressions of the Numinous Conference

Date: Friday 15 – Sunday 17 August 2008
Venue: School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, University of Queensland,
St Lucia Campus, Brisbane, Australia

Conference Chairs:
Dr Helen Farley
Julie Washington, and
Håkan Sandgren

Conference Website:
http://www.uq.edu.au/hprc/index.html?page=64294&pid=0

Keynote Speakers
Doug Ezzy – ‘Religion as the Etiquette of Relationships’

Douglas Ezzy's research is driven by a fascination with how people make meaningful and dignified lives. His most recent research is an international study of teenage Witchcraft with Helen Berger (West Chester University). It examines the interconnections of teenage spirituality, the mass media, and nature religion. He is particularly interested to supervise sociology postgraduates studying contemporary spirituality. He has published six books: Teenage Witches (with Helen Berger), Researching Paganisms (with Graham Harvey and Jenny Blain), Qualitative Research Methods (with Pranee Rice), Qualitative Analysis, Narrating Unemployment and Practising the Witch's Craft, along with numerous articles.

Nevill Drury – ‘Black Magic, White Magic and the Cosmology of Rosaleen Norton’

Nevill Drury has recently submitted his PhD dissertation on ‘Rosaleen Norton’s Contribution to the Western Esoteric Tradition’ to the University of Newcastle. His most recent publications include The New Age: the History of a Movement (Thames & Hudson, London and New York 2004), Magic and Witchcraft: from Shamanism to the Technopagans (Thames & Hudson, London and New York 2003) and The History of Magic in the Modern Age (Constable, London 2000). He also co-authored Fire and Shadow: Spirituality in Contemporary Australian Art (HarperCollins, Melbourne 1999).

Call for Papers:
Abstracts (250 words) are invited for, but not limited to, the following strands:

Esotericism
Mysticism
Alternative expressions of major religions
Religions of re-enchantment
Popular culture religions
Indigenous religions
Paganism and Neo-Paganism
New Religious Movements
Personalised religion
Alternative methodologies

Papers are also invited for a session to run in Second Life, to be run in parallel with the real life sessions.

Deadlines
Abstracts: Monday 30 June 2008

For more information contact:
Helen Farley
Conference Co-Chair
School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
St Lucia Q 4072
Australia
Ph: + 617 3365 6324 (Outside Australia)
07 3365 6324
Fax: +617 3365 1968 (Outside Australia)
07 3365 1968

Email: h.farley@uq.edu.au

Dr Helen Farley
Lecturer
Room E330 Forgan Smith Building
School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
University of Queensland Q 4072
Australia

Ph: 617 3365 6324
Mob: 617 401 878 880
Email: h.farley@uq.edu.au

Note: I took the term Magick from the book "True Magick: A beginner's guide" by Amber K. I strongly recommend reading this book. I'm working with magick for over 6 years and yet I have learned a lot by reading this wonderful piece of writing. Buy it here.

Definition

In short, Magick is the alteration of your environment by using the power of your own will. It's as easy as that... In theory. Practically speaking, there are a lot more issues involved. What if your will isn't strong enough? Or what if you cause things you didn't planned? What if other people disturb you while doing your magickal work?

Well, if your will isn't strong enough, you should train on that aspect before starting with magickal works. I can of course speak only for myself, but I'm just not in the mood for changing my surroundings by simple willpower if I'm ill or when I had a fight my girlfriend. You must always do magickal works when you are calm in your head and when you have set a goal for yourself.

When things happen you didn't plan, you are either in deep sh*t or either you have reached something higher than you originally have planned. There have been many situations in which I was in deep sh*t, but also in which I reached higher levels. (levels is maybe not a good word because it makes look magick like some sort of WoW-thingy, but you know what I mean.)

An example: A couple of years ago, my friends and I were celebrating Samhain, Celtic New year, but we were a bit irritated by another friend who called off at the last moment while he promised to join us that evening. We were working with the Druid tarot and we were speaking our mind about that friend of ours. I don't have to tell you we were a bit angry. The next day we heard that our friend had a car accident. Nothing serious, only his car was a trashed. Nothing odd you think because accidents happen every day, but the weird part is that he crashed his car on a calm road with only him driving there against a speed of 20 km/h. That's very slow and I think that there is no one who can crash his car while driving at a firm bicycling speed. Later, we realised that by working with the tarot we channelled our angry energy in tiny bits towards our friend by which he had this ridiculous accident.

Example 2: A couple of years ago I had an excellent relationship. I loved the girl with my entire being and yet we broke up because of stupid reasons like parents. We both went our ways and never talked again. This went on for a year or 2. The painful thing with relationships is that if you still love each other the break up is devastating. I was tired of these unfinished things and I meditated on that matter. While I was doing this meditation I gathered all my energy and will power and sent it into the Universe under the words: "If she wants to talk to me, let us then contact each other." As you can read, this is not a very specific question or goal. The word "she" could have meant anybody that is a woman. Nothing happened at first, but then a friend of mine told me that he met her and that she wished to talk to me again for clearing things out. Well, today, we are back a couple for over a year and I'm happier than before and we love each other more than we did back then because we know what it means to be apart from eachother.

As you can see, magick works in strange ways. So, if you ask me what Magick is, I just reply that Magick is a way to reach that what seems impossible, but which is in your own reach if you only want to and if you only want to use your will.

We did a new meditation last night and it took us up extremely high. I don't recall ever going that high in meditation before. Perhaps that in part, accounts for my feelings of strangeness today. No doubt some potent energies are flowing through my system as a result. This meditation is aimed at building the antahkarana - the rainbow bridge - between the brain/lower mind (mental unit), the soul and ultimately the higher mind (manasic permanent atom). This is linking the personality, the soul and the Spiritual Triad (which is itself the reflection of the Monad).

The Phoenix conference focussed a lot on the Monad - that highest spiritual aspect of ourselves. I can't quite conceive of that level of abstraction still being in the process of establishing contact with my soul. Still it seems to be coming to me - I am finding myself in circumstances where it is discussed and invoked so it must have some bearing on my current level of spiritual development.

It is all very scientific (which is what draws me to this particular approach and tradition). There is the Science of Meditation, the Science of Service and the Science of Right Human Relations etc. There are Laws, Rules and Principles that guide the way. It is technical and detailed and I grasp only about 1% of the whole, nonetheless, it fascinates me.

I love the group endeavour and have been so glad to get back into a group again. It has been years since there were any such groups in my area. Now, it seems it will be short-lived. Perhaps we can continue to meet as a group without our facilitators but it will not be the same. Still, everything happens for a reason.

Much is going on around me - on subjective levels if not in actual physical plane fact. No wonder I feel unsettled. Invitations to Darjeeling, high level meditations, impending loss of group dynamics etc. I continue to practise my esoteric meditations every day.  And the group energy in Phoenix was very intense and high level too. We are also coming up to the second Wesak full moon festival (next Tuesday). Wesak is the spiritual high point for my tradition and this year there are two of them (in Taurus). I can't expect to not be affected by all this.

I was honoured to receive the first UK Masters Degree in Western Esotericism, but someone beat me by 38 years to the B.A. and in a curious sense, served as my role-model for academic studies of the subject. I was delighted to find this again in my archives! It's from 1970 and is an article on Isaac Bonewits receiving a "Degree in Magic". Apparently, the University were so embarrassed by the resulting publicity they dropped any further inclusion of the subject from their Degrees. It's good to know that now three or four universities now study western esotericism with a more inclusive academic approach!

Gotta love that Pipe! Click on the image for a full-size version.

The heart of the essay begins when Jay employs Peter Bürger’s controversial distinction between modernism and the avant-garde. Jay uses dichotomy as linchpin throughout his piece to help contrast the views of Horkheimer and Kracuer. That is, Horkheimer sides with modernism because in its most esoteric forms it supposedly works outside of the marketplace, thus offering a sort of utopian oasis from mass culture. Conversely, Kracuer sides with exoteric avant-gardism because it works within mass culture hopefully galvanizing revolution. After establishing this dichotomy, Jay unpacks and clarifies these two views focusing first on Horkheimer and then Kracuer.

Jay associates Horkheimer with esoteric modernism in large part because of his remarks on the writing of Joyce and paintings like Picasso’s Guernica: “[They] abandon the idea that real community exists; they are monuments of a solitary and despairing life that finds no bridge to any other or even to its own consciousness” (372). Or, put another way, Horkheimer wants art to negate culture and communication and in this negation escape mass culture. With this in mind, we can understand why Horkheimer rejected film as an art form –– it was too real, too easy, and consequently always under the tent of mass culture (372 – 373).

The analysis of Kracuer offered by Jay associates him with the exoterically avant-garde because for Kracuer –– and the following is something very quirky for a member of the Frankfurt of School –– mass culture was not bad, but rather a necessary stage in a larger process of rationalization (i.e., the end of class struggle). So where Horkheimer wanted to break bridges of communication in art Kracuer wanted to create them to invoke revolution. Kracuer, then, like Benjamin, celebrates the avant-garde filmmakers Pudovkin and Eisenstein for their collective calling of the body politic to organize and revolutionize. Kracuer did not care if such films were superficial for in he thought in a certain regard his era was one were “we cannot gain access to the elusive essentials of life we see assimilate the seemingly non-essential…” (374). This is all evidenced his discussion of the Tiller Girls were he argued that they were a “mass ornament” whose “aesthetic reflex” was inspired by the rationality of capitalism, like Taylor modes of organization. This rationality, of course, was obscured but it was less obscured than myth and thus marked a movement in the right direction. It was, in one of Jay’s more memorable phrases, “a way station towards a rational future" (380).

The difference between Horkheimer and Kracueris’s views on the potential of art, then, is the difference between solitary and solidarity, isolation and community. But as different as their views might be, they in the end both realized neither esotericism nor exotericism could redeem mass culture. Horkheimer realized that even the most esoteric art would be absorbed into the market (387). And Kracuer later lost his radical leanings deeming any revolution in art or elsewhere impossible (379). For this reason, Jay concludes with an ambiguous cynicism: “the sobering lessons provided by their very different attempts to harness art for radical purposes make it difficult not wonder if its end may be near” (381).

Another very intriguing addition to the perception of the possible esoteric interests of Pope John Paul II came from a friend of my Alpheus web site in the form of a set of photos, one of which shows the pope sitting behind his desk with a stack of books. The bottom two books are arguably the 2-volume set of “Die Grossen Arcana des Tarot,” which is the 1983 German edition of the French original and out of which sections were taken and published in English as “Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism.”

The book was anonymously written by the Catholic writer and ex-Anthroposophist Valentin Tomberg and was published in 1972 just before he died. The eminent esotericism scholar Antoine Faivre states that in

terms of content and reception it has to be positioned among the foremost books in Western esotericism published in the 20^th century. (Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism, 112)

On closer inspection the images actually do not match up, for the books on the pope's desk have the arrows on the spine of the book pointing north-east (if you position the book straight up), ...

... while on the clear picture of the original book the arrows point north-west:

Different book? Initially I was skeptical to find such a book on the desk of the pope while being photographed for a prominent magazine. Maybe there just was some semblance and based on that the person who found the images, Ed Manhood, just jumped to the conclusion that the two books were identical. My solution to that little conundrum was to test whether it was possible that the picture of the pope at his desk was maybe a mirrored picture. To determine that possibility from the appearance of the titles is impossible, because they are not clear enough. To actually find out I focused on the question of whether the pope wears his wristwatch on his left or right wrist. On the photo it is clear he is wearing it on his right wrist. But is that the wrist he usually wears it? Apparently not. I found through Google Images at least three clear photos where he is wearing his watch on the left. And here is one:

Based on this I have to conclude that the 1988 Weltbild photo is a mirror image of the original. Therefore, if you 'mirror' the photo back, the arrow will go from pointing north-east to north-west ...

... just as is the case on the spine on the clear photo (here turned 180 degrees to align them again), and the discrepancy is solved:

Therefore the original picture of the pope behind his desk was this:

Apparently the book landed on the pope’s desk as a gift from one of his Cardinals, the German Jesuit Hans Urs von Balthasar, who also had written its very laudatory foreword, which by itself is another startling addition to the emerging picture here of a Hermeticist-Catholic connection here.

A thinking, praying Christian of unmistakable purity reveals to us the symbols of Christian Hermeticism in its various levels of mysticism, gnosis and magic, taking in also the Cabbala and certain elements of astrology and alchemy. These symbols are summarised in the twenty-two so-called "Major Arcana" of the Tarot cards. By way of the Major Arcana the author seeks to lead meditatively into the deeper, all-embracing wisdom of the Catholic Mystery.

Firstly, it may be recalled that such an attempt is to be found nowhere in the history of philosophical, theological and Catholic thought.

And the connection is not secretive either. On the contrary. The American Cistercian monk and populizer of a practice named ‘centering prayer,’ Fr. Thomas Keating openly calls in a review for the book to become a fundamental Christian text.

With its firm grasp of tradition, its balance, wisdom, profundity, openness to truth, and comprehensive approach to reality, it deserves to be the basis of a course in spirituality in every Christian institution of higher learning and what would be even better, the point of departure and unifying vision of the whole curriculum.

Wow. What’s going on here? Specifically, my question would be: What are the possible spiritual-intellectual ways Wojtyla, Balthasar and Keating are relating to Tomberg’s book? Are they Hermeticist moles in the Vatican spreading esotericism amongst thinking Catholics? Or are they part of an agenda to subsume Hermeticism under Catholicism with possibly a sinister Jesuitical twist? Or are they ecumenical syncretists? Or are they a part, consciously or not, of a Mahatmic agenda to reform Catholicism along Occult lines? After all Blavatsky stated:

Like an immense boa-constrictor, Error, in every shape, encircles mankind, trying to smother in her deadly coils every aspiration towards truth and light. But Error is powerful only on the surface, prevented as she is by Occult Nature from going any deeper; for the same Occult Nature encircles the whole globe, in every direction, leaving not even the darkest corner unvisited. And, whether by phenomenon or miracle, by spirit-hook or bishop’s crook, Occultism must win the day, before the present era reaches “Sani’s (Saturn’s) triple septenary” of the Western Cycle in Europe, in other words—before the end of the twenty-first century “A.D.” (BCW XIV, p. 27)

Which of these possibilities might muster some proof? Is there anything in Tomberg's text that might give a clue? I didn't read the book, so I don't know. Anybody?

For sites in Russian and Italian, click http://fofway.narod.ru/ and http://laliberastrada.blogspot.com/ respectively.

For more information check Rick Ross and Steven Hassan.

This is where you can find the website of the Fellowship of Friends.

If you decide to interact as well as digest, feel free to start here.

And as always (and above else), enjoy and have fun.

See also

Wahid Azal

FORTHCOMING

• Christian mysticism is not occultism. It’s not about uncovering some long lost secret, à la The DaVinci Code.
• Christian mysticism is not magic. It’s not about wielding spiritual power or engineering our own experience.
• Christian mysticism is not esotericism. It's not about learning techniques for psychic development.
• Christian mysticism is not gnosticism. It's not about a program for personal, private enlightenment.
• Christian mysticism is not pantheism. It refutes the idea that the universe is one with God.
• Christian mysticism is not monism. It rejects the claim that the self is one with God.
• Christian mysticism is not syncretism. It is not about blending Christianity with the wisdom of other paths, even though Christian mystics have historically been very open to learning from non-Christian wisdom.

Brno, Czech Republic

Call for Papers

EASR conference Brno, 7.-11. September 2008

1.
Panel: ‘Ex Oriente Lux: The Presence of Western Esotericism in Eastern Europe’

Convenors: Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam) and Osvald Vasicek (University of Amsterdam), on behalf of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE)

In recent decades the academic study of esotericism in the west (particularly France, the Netherlands, Germany and the Anglo-Saxon world) has experienced a rapid growth. In academic institutions in Paris, Amsterdam and Exeter, specific chairs have been created, while increasing attention is given to this area of research also from other fields of religious, cultural, historic, and sociological studies.

Due to several difficulties – mainly linguistic, but also political until 1989 – the status of research of esotericism in Eastern Europe is for the greater part unknown. For this particular panel we are therefore looking for papers that will discuss the development of the study of western esotericism in Eastern Europe and/or single topics related to the presence of western esotericism in the same geographical area. We would especially like to encourage Eastern European students and academics to share their research, knowledge and insight.

The academic study of esotericism has developed mainly in a historical perspective, but we will also consider proposals from others perspectives, such as sociology, psychology, and anthropology. Topics may likewise vary from alchemy, astrology, magic, hermetism, theosophy, spiritualism, occultism, and range from medieval sources to contemporary esoteric movements.

If you are interested to propose a paper for this panel, please send an e-mail with abstract to: Osvald Vasicek, MA (o.vasicek@uva.nl). Abstracts should be limited to 200 words and should be accompanied by a short personal description of the author with academic affiliation and/ or other academic qualifications. PhD, and exceptionally MA, students are also encouraged to submit a proposal.

Deadline for proposal submission is 24 April 2008.

For more information on the conference and registration see: http://www.phil.muni.cz/relig/easr2008
For more information on the academic study of esotericism see: www.esswe.org and www.amsterdamhermetica.nl.

2.
Call for Papers

EASR conference Brno, 7.-11. September 2008
Panel: ‘The Political Temptations of Western Esotericism’Convenors: Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam) and Osvald Vasicek (University of Amsterdam), on behalf of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE)

The relationship between Western esotericism and politics is certainly not virgin territory. Just to mention two examples, Auguste Viatte in his classic work on illuminism (Les sources occultes du romantisme, 1928) had discussed the political significance of esoteric ideas in the period preceding the French revolution; and James Webb explored the interplay of esotericism and politics in the 19th and 20th centuries in two important books (The Occult Underground, 1974; and The Occult Establishment, 1976). Furthermore, since the mid-1980s the French academic journal Politica Hermetica has devoted its annual issues to this complex relationship. However, there is still much that academic research can say on this topic. One of the avenues which still have to be explored is the relationship that the research field itself may have with politics in the formation and the discussion of its object. How political is the study of esotericism? Which political assumptions may lead scholars to define esotericism in a certain way instead of another? How political is the choice of defining esotericism as specifically ‘western’, as opposed to ‘non-western’ in a cultural climate impregnated by discourses on the ‘clash of civilizations’? During the 20th century esotericism has been often associated to radical politics, both left- and right-wing, revolutionary and reactionary. If esotericism has been for a long time a suspect and sensitive field of research in the academia, its relationship with politics has often created an explosive mixture. Is it possible to study this relationship while avoiding the Scylla of apology and the Charibdis of sensationalist condemnation?
For this panel, we are looking for papers that will explore the politics of studying esotericism in all its possible aspects. Papers dealing with historical instances of the relationship between politics and esotericism will also be considered. Possible areas of interest may be, for instance, the use of esoterical themes in the construction of national identities in the 19th and 20th centuries or political theories of social regeneration based on esoteric thought.

If you are interested to propose a paper for this panel, please send an e-mail with abstract to: Osvald Vasicek, MA (o.vasicek@uva.nl). Abstracts should be limited to 200 words and should be accompanied by a short personal description of the author with academic affiliation and/ or other academic qualifications. PhD, and exceptionally MA, students are also encouraged to submit a proposal.

Deadline for proposal submission is 24 April 2008.

For more information on the conference and registration see: http://www.phil.muni.cz/relig/easr2008
For more information on the academic study of esotericism see: www.esswe.org and www.amsterdamhermetica.nl.

For sites in Russian and Italian, click http://fofway.narod.ru/ and http://laliberastrada.blogspot.com/ respectively.

For more information check Rick Ross and Steven Hassan.

This is where you can find the website of the Fellowship of Friends.

If you decide to interact as well as digest, feel free to start here.

And as always (and above else), enjoy and have fun.

Around 6.30pm I felt someone staring at us. I looked up and there was another friend of mine who I hadn't seen for several months. He came and joined us and it was so lovely to see him. He also is a man I admire with great integrity and spirituality. He is one of the best astrologers in Australia (although he is an American). So the three of us sat there discussing astrology, Buddhist high tantra meditation and other esoteric subjects. I was in my element. I love talking to people about these things.

Another fabulous man told me recently that he saw my spirituality as the love of my life. This man is a clairvoyant (again originally an American) who now lives in Europe. I have spoken to him several times by phone. He is amazing. I love these kind of people. I like people who see the world in non-traditional, non-conservative ways. Especially if they have the good of mankind in mind. And I do believe that my spiritual and service practice are more important than my own petty, personal issues.

My astrologer friend mentioned that the energies have been really tough lately - especially over Easter. Partly it was the Aries full moon (energies are always more full on at this time with the Sun having direct access to the Earth) and partly the triggering of some recent eclipse points.

The afternoon and evening flew talking to these wonderful people. In just over three weeks time I will be in Phoenix, Arizona for a conference on these very topics. Ten days with a whole bunch of like-minded people from around the world. I may have mentioned before that this is all to do with the Ageless Wisdom teachings (also known as the Trans Himalayan Wisdom teachings) and the works of Alice Bailey. It is related to Theosophy for anyone who knows about that.

There is also a new project soon to be starting up here in Australia to do with passing on knowledge of this tradition. It will probably start with internet classes and a website and I have volunteered my services. I am very excited and looking forward to getting involved in a meaningful and worthwhile project. This is the sort of stuff I was born to do I think.  If only I can get my emotional/physical desire life under control.  ;-)

3rd Annual Alternative Expressions of the Numinous Conference
15 to 17 August 2008
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Website: http://www.uq.edu.au/hprc/index.html?page=64294&pid=0
Contact name: Dr Helen Farley

Conference Announcement / Call for papers

3rd Annual Alternative Expressions of the
Numinous Conference
15 to 17 August 2008
Brisbane, Australia

Themes include esotericism, mysticism,
alternative expressions of major religions,
religions of re-enchantment and popular culture,
indigenous religion, paganism, NRMs.

The deadline for abstracts/proposals is Monday 30
June 2008.

Enquiries: h.farley@uq.edu.au
Web address: http://www.uq.edu.au/hprc/index.html?page=64294&pid=0
Sponsored by: School of History, Philosophy,
Religion and Classics, University of Queensland
and the Esoteric Studies Research and Teaching
Group (ESRTG)

For sites in Russian and Italian, click http://fofway.narod.ru/ and http://laliberastrada.blogspot.com/ respectively.

For more information check Rick Ross and Steven Hassan.

This is where you can find the website of the Fellowship of Friends.

If you decide to interact as well as digest, feel free to start here.

And as always (and above else), enjoy and have fun.

Isis Unveiled was Blavatsky's first major work on theosophy, examining religion and science in the light of Western and Oriental ancient wisdom. Even though Isis Unveiled was considered to be an outstanding literary work when published in 1877, the book is more like a dark storage room for occult concepts, lacking the clarity of The Secret Doctrine which was published ten years later. Isis Unveiled was not penned to any dispositions or a plan, and the work was not intended the public save a theosophical group. There are several reasons why this grand opus contains more than a few unfortunate errors. One reason is that Blavatsky lacked insight of the procedures in book industry; the art of writing a book and prepare the manuscript for print and publication were all closed secrets to her. The main reason, however, was her shortages in the English language. She had never written one word in English, nor barely spoken English for over thirty year before she immigrated to America in 1873 (and became the first Russian woman to be naturalized American). Yet already the following year, she began penning down her intricate reflections in English, which resulted in the book Isis Unveiled in 1877, tree years later.

The final English formulation of Isis Unveiled does not owe her hand except the few sections she claimed was been dictated to her mentally by the Masters, and which proved to be formulated in perfect English. The rest of the text had such a sad condition that it drew upon the good will in many hours of literary labor by acquaintances and strangers who had no education in the esoteric matters therein (with exception of Professor A. Wilder). As a result, several of Blavatsky’s expressions fell out erroneous in the delicate context, which was further shuffled by the reorganization of the manuscript into two volumes (by Col. H. S. Olcott). The work would without doubt have been in better shape if Blavatsky had time to correct the final draft for more than three chapters before it went to print, but due to lack of funds, all the proof-reading and corrections were left to outsiders. In addition, there are quite a few typing errors which are not even been corrected in subsequent editions by a combination of economical and technical reasons, and copy rights. It was first in 1881 that Blavatsky read her book and realized the sad condition of her work, thence declaring Isis Unveiled less recommendable (but she did not renounce the material as such).

One of the main critics against early Theosophy is the assertion that there is a discrepancy between Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine regarding the doctrine of reincarnation. Initially, The Secret Doctrine was meant to be a consist clarification of the veiled teachings of Isis Unveiled (Blavatsky disapproved of the title ‘Isis Unveiled’ right from the start, however, the title was chosen due to commercial reasons), but while writing the work, it grew into its own Herculean life of 1500 pages in small prints. On these pages, Isis Unveiled is frequently quoted on several essential subjects, and in the context of reincarnation, The Secret Doctrine corroborates to the teachings we find in Isis Unveiled. The problem of motley insight of the theosophical texts is that the same teachings is presented in escalating details through time, which has led to that words and concepts were utilized more and more specific and often with other denotations. For example, the factor being identified as ‘spirit’ (in men) in early Theosophy was later on designated as ‘soul’, but now from a higher standpoint in the same nexus. This evolution in concepts, which goes from the mystical perspective to the occult viewpoint, has to be taken into careful consideration else it would confuse the idle reader and the careless student.

An important mission of the Isis Unveiled was to reintroduce the distinction between soul and spirit. The terms spirit and soul had become synonyms in Western thought, and in those rare cases where spirit and soul were treated as different factors, it were by a superficial and confusing manner. The teaching of the spirit in man was abrogated by the eighth ecumenical council (Constantinople, 869-870), thenceforth the human being consisted of a duality in rational soul and body as it was considered heretical to assume a threefold human constitution. Blavatsky had before her a jungle of concepts and prejudices to elucidate before anything else, and it was found wise to withhold the explicit teachings of the sevenfold constitution of man (although it is given hints on). The human psychological constitution was instead simplified as spirit and a dual soul. The dual soul denotes the rational mind, and on the other hand the irrational sensations (which in later Theosophy is identified as the astral body even though Blavatsky rarely utilized the expression ‘astral’ in this correlation, but to what is later known as the etheric body). The spirit (in Isis Unveiled) denotes the inner ego, the individual I in the truest sense, whereas the soul denotes the perishable psyche, which contains the worldly intellect and the mortal characters of man. This is why it is said that the soul is fashioning by the spirit in incarnation, and the soul is consequently a structure or a body of lower principles which the spirit has to free itself from in death. The eternal nature of the human being is thus spirit, the ego, and the mortal structure is the bodies that are known as the mental and astral vehicle, the embodiment of the lower principles which constitutes the lower man, the personality, kama-manas. The Secret Doctrine affirms that the human does not reincarnate with the same personality. It is this statement that had an alarming effect on many casual readers not realizing that the soul (as denoted in Isis Unveiled) does not contains that which is self-conscious in man, which is spirit, but only the sense-principles and qualities which the incarnating aspect of the spirit (the ray of the spirit) has falsely identified itself with, thus obtaining that partial consciousness which implies karmic incarnation. To be ignorant of this opens up many problems in reading Isis Unveiled as it then would appear that Blavatsky advocate annihilation of man in an universal evolution that holds no place for reincarnation, only by exceptional occasions.

On page 345, vol. I, reincarnation is nailed as fact in that;

‘This philosophy teaches that nature never leaves her work unfinished; if baffled at the first attempt, she tries again. When she evolves a human embryo, the intention is that a man shall be perfected – physically, intellectually, and spiritually. His body is to grow mature, wear out, and die; his mind unfold, ripen, and be harmoniously balanced; his divine spirit illuminate and blend easily with the inner man. No human being completes its grand cycle, or the "circle of necessity," until all these are accomplished.’

The inner man is atma-buddhi-manas, and the spirit (the inner ego) has to fulfill a cycle by a perfecting effort. Furthermore:

‘As the laggards in a race struggle and plod in their first quarter while the victor darts past the goal, so, in the race of immortality, some souls out-speed all the rest and reach the end, while their myriad competitors are toiling under the load of matter, close to the starting-point. Some unfortunates fall out entirely, and lose all chance of the prize; some retrace their steps and begin again. (Isis Unveiled, p 346. vol. I)

It is the phrase ‘lose all chance of the prize’ which has led to the notion that Blavatsky taught of annihilation of man in the race of immortality. However, Isis Unveiled clearly states that man is eternal, and it is only his vehicles, however subtitle, which is doomed to annihilation, even though the matter of which any vehicles is composed, is eternal. The lost soul does not imply the spirit within, the ego, but the habits of the former man let loose of the spirit to its own powers, feeding on other’s life force by vampirism in order to subsist. The animals possess no ego, which would, occult speaking, make animal a human, and the lost souls is just a ‘spiritual animal’ – there is nothing in it who can observe its own actions, no ego, just instincts based on a humanly past.

It is on this ground of terms that we obtain correct understanding of Blavatsky’s sharp critic of how the French spiritualists understood and presented reincarnation, for the spiritualists maintained that the human being is its very social character and it is this nature that reincarnates. It is true, however, that Blavatsky claims that the personality, as it is, could reincarnate as a psychic structure (and not only as skanda) after an abrupt death when the higher purpose of the incarnation did not come into fruition, as spirit and matter has to run parallel in the evolution. Usually the personality dissolves by the inner death process, but not the experiences through it as the human’s perpetual nature is the abstract thinker, the observer, the inner ego. It was by this insight that Blavatsky claimed that the spiritualistic séances often communicated energy forms which were nothing but souls where the inner ego is missing, yet colored by recognizable habits. The eternal individuality is the pirit, not the personality, and the former ego finds itself in a condition which is inaccessible to such emotional séances, dominated by the lower psychism that Blavatsky warned about.

In studying Isis Unveiled we have to take into consideration that we have to do with an occult treatise. The words are often utilized esoterically, and the literal meaning is often misguiding the mind. Every occultist knows that the word ‘planet’ is esoterically employed to represent ‘cycle’, and a cycle or circle (sphere) implicates incarnation of spirit or life. On page 346, vol. I, we read about Buddha instructing how to free oneself in the cycle of life (thus Blavatsky acknowledge reincarnation), yet on the following page, Blavatsky says ‘this former life believed in by the Buddhists, is not a life on this planet’ when it better, considering the public, should have been put, ‘in the same cycle’. This is palpable as the occult treatment of the world ‘planet’ corroborates with the rest of the same sentence, after the comma, where Blavatsky assert; ‘for, more than any other people, the Buddhistical philosopher appreciated the great doctrine of cycles’. Instead of the refutation of reincarnation that some critics claims Blavatsky culpable of, the text only states (in the cultural context) the occult doctrine of the inner ego’s proportion to its incarnations, and how these are related to each other as the circle itself. It clearly shows that it is not the personalities of the inner ego that incarnates as their next upon the planet or in the wheel of life (as Blavatsky’s strike against the French spiritualists), but it is the inner ego, the point within the wheel of life, which radiates the personalities (incarnations) simultaneously, because the inner ego, as Isis Unveiled asserts beyond doubts, is timeless, eternal and transcendent. As a circle signifies a simultaneous event relative to its center, what is the spirit to gain if the incarnations should only repeat the history of the next one on the same circle? There is no further incarnation for the personalities on the same planet or cycle, as the circle representing the only incarnation of the spirit, and Blavatsky’s comparison of the reincarnating personality as two-headed child is then accordingly more striking than ludicrous now that the statement is coming to its logical coherence. Man cannot realize his true nature’s inner dynamic by seeking forth and back on the circle of life, but by focusing the mind on the center, the point, which in Buddhism signifies nirvana. Nirvana is not a state or condition that exists outside the individual, but lays in the heart and core of the very being of man.

‘They, in whom evil desire is entirely destroyed, are called Arhats. Freedom from evil desire insures the possession of a miraculous power. At his death, the Arhat is never reincarnated; he invariably attains Nirvana -- a word, by the bye, falsely interpreted by the Christian scholars and skeptical commentators. Nirvana is the world of cause, in which all deceptive effects or delusions of our senses disappear. Nirvana is the highest attainable sphere.’ (Isis Unveiled, p. 346, vol. I)

On the page 346 we find the sentence which is the root to why so many have came to the conclusion that Isis Unveiled refutes reincarnation: ‘This is what the Hindu dreads above all things -- transmigration and reincarnation; only on other and inferior planets, never on this one.’ Let us hear what Blavatsky herself say to her defense:

‘The last "sentence" is a fatal mistake, and one to which the writer pleads "not guilty." It is evidently the blunder of some "reader" who had no idea of Hindu philosophy and who was led into a subsequent mistake on the next page, wherein the unfortunate word "planet" is put for cycle. Isis was hardly, if ever, looked into after its publication by its writer, who had other work to do; otherwise there would have been an apology and a page pointing to the errata, and the sentence made to run: "The Hindu dreads transmigration in other inferior forms, on this planet." This would have dove-tailed with the preceding sentence, and would show a fact, as the Hindu exoteric views allow him to believe and fear the possibility of reincarnation -- human and animal in turn by jumps, from man to beast and even to plant, and vice versa; whereas esoteric philosophy teaches that nature never proceeding backward in her evolutionary progress, once that man has evoluted from every kind of lower forms -- the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms -- into the human form, he can never become an animal except morally, hence -- metaphorically. Human incarnation is a cyclic necessity and law; and no Hindu dreads it -- however much he may deplore the necessity.’ (The Path, ‘Theories about Reincarnation and Spirits’, Nov. 1886)

Is Blavatsky reformulating the sentence to clear her name of an earlier awkward lack of knowledge of the Eastern philosophy? I don’t think so. The later formulation fits everything written on that very page smoothly as the text continues as;

‘But there is a way to avoid it, and Buddha taught it in his doctrine of poverty, restriction of the senses, perfect indifference to the objects of this earthly vale of tears, freedom from passion, and frequent intercommunication with the Atma -- soul-contemplation. The cause of reincarnation is ignorance of our senses, and the idea that there is any reality in the world, anything except abstract existence. From the organs of sense comes the "hallucination" we call contact; "from contact, desire; from desire, sensation (which also is a deception of our body); from sensation, the cleaving to existing bodies; from this cleaving, reproduction; and from reproduction, disease, decay, and death."’

In the following paragraph, Blavatsky concludes:

‘Thus, like the revolutions of a wheel, there is a regular succession of death and birth, the moral cause of which is the cleaving to existing objects, while the instrumental cause is karma (the power which controls the universe, prompting it to activity), merit and demerit.’ (Isis Unveiled, p 346, vol. I)

The succession of death and birth by karma as the instrumental cause – could reincarnation been put clearer? And yet even more unmistakably when this is followed up by; ‘At his death, the Arhat is never reincarnated; he invariably attains Nirvana’ (Isis Unveiled, p. 346, vol. I). Are Blavatsky deranged, even raving mad, to affirm that Arhats does not reincarnate any more by karma, still the previous incarnations have not take place? Attributable to some critics, this has to be the point, yet absurd to her sincere students, for as Blavatsky herself sees it:

‘By rejecting reincarnation must necessarily reject KARMA likewise! For the latter is the very corner-stone of Esoteric philosophy and Eastern religions; it is the grand and one pillar on which hangs the whole philosophy of rebirths, and, once the latter is denied, the whole doctrine of Karma falls into meaningless verbiage. Nevertheless the opponents, without stopping to think of the evident "discrepancy" between charge and fact, accused a Buddhist by profession of faith of denying reincarnation, hence also by implication -- Karma.’ (The Path, ‘Theories about Reincarnation and Spirits’, Nov. 1886)

The hermetic axiom ‘as above, so below’ alone should bear witness on reincarnation in Isis Unveiled, as Logos is said to incarnate periodically into universal manifestations. In a footnote, page 301, vol. I, Blavatsky is telling us that the;

‘Animals have only the germ of the highest immortal soul as a third principle. It will develop but through a series of countless evolutions; the doctrine of which evolution is contained in the kabalistic axiom; "A stone becomes a plant; a plant a beast; a beast a man; a man a spirit; and the spirit a god."’

In regards to this five states of development, how could the monad progress through ‘a series of countless evolutions’ and then abrupt in a passing human incarnation secure the extreme moral status of an Adept?

The most palpable indication of that Blavatsky resolutely believed in the doctrine of reincarnation lays in the fact that she entitled the doctrine the ‘Circle of Necessity’.

Importantly, Boehme, as with others in the hermetic tradition, considered the physical world to be composed of signs, thus placing emphasis on images, i.e. visual information. Faivre also points out the relationship of the words “image,” “imagination,” and “magnetism,” so that the imaginative faculty does not result in delusion but revelation: “..rather it is a kind of organ of the soul, thanks to which humanity can establish a cognitive and visionary relationship with an intermediary world…” What an analogy for the imaginative enterprise that is “Lost,” a unique television series that never arrives at a set point but is constantly unraveling – that uses visual clues that bear repeated viewing. [Boehme’s writings influenced the original “Lost,” i.e. Milton’s “Paradise Lost."]

For previous parts of the discussion please visit AnimamRecro or the Main page of this blog.

For more organized reading check out The Fellowship of Friends WikiSpace.

For sites in Russian and Italian, click http://fofway.narod.ru/ and http://laliberastrada.blogspot.com/ respectively.

For more information check Rick Ross and Steven Hassan.

This is where you can find the website of the Fellowship of Friends.

If you decide to interact as well as digest, feel free to start here.

And as always, enjoy and have fun.

VILLA FARNESINA
La Rome astrologique depuis les recherches de Fritz S axl (1934) :
visite guidée de la villa Farnesina par David Juste vendredi 18 avril

Programme du colloque « Musique et ésotérisme : l’art et la science des sons face aux savoirs occultes »
« Musica e Esoterismo : L’arte e la scienza suoni si incontrano con i saperi occulti »
« Music and esotericism: Art and science of sounds facing the occult knowledge»

ACADEMIA BELGICA, ROME, 14-18 avril 2008

lundi 14 avril
16-17 h 30 Accueil des participants

mardi 15 avril
Astrologie, magie et musique de Proclus à Khunrath
Président : David Juste, Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Sydney

10 h Conférence d’ouverture, à déterminer.

10 h 30 Maël Mathieu, Polytechnicien, Belgique
« Musique, cosmologie et connaissance de l'Âme chez Proclus »

11 h 00 Karen Claire Voss, Lecturer, Fatih University, Istanbul
« The Tradition of Orphic Music »

11 h 30 discussion
12 h – 13 h 30 pause déjeuner

13 h 30 Charles Burnett, Professor, Warburg Institute, London University
« Arabic musical instruments and technical terms as an esoteric element in Latin texts ? »

14 h 00 Daniel Gregorio, Maître de Conférence, Université de Valenciennes
« Du mythe à la pratique, musique et magie dans l’œuvre alphonsine »

14 h 30 Amandine Mussou, Allocataire Monitrice Normalienne à l'Université Paris IV-Sorbonne
« Évrart de Conty et la musique : le médecin et les sons »

15 h 00 Peter J. Forshaw, Birkbeck, University of London
« ‘O harmoniam mirandam Macro & MicroCosmi Regeneratoriam!’: Alchemy, Cabala and Music in Heinrich Khunrath’s Oratory and Laboratory »

15 h 30 discussion

19 h Concert et conférence de Z’EV, musicien
« RHYTHMAJIK: Practical uses of Number, Rhythm and Sound »

20 h 00 buffet à l’Academia Belgica

mercredi 16 avril
Musical Esotericism in Renaissance Philosophy,
Esoteric Philosophy in Renaissance Music
Président : Charles Burnett, Warburg Institute, London

10 h 00 Stephen Clucas, Reader in Early Modern Intellectual History, Birkbeck, University of London
« Gradus quatuor super mundum supernum constituentium: harmony and Pythagorean numerology in John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica »

10 h 30 Concetta Pennutto, Assistante, Université de Genève
« Giambattista della Porta e l'efficacia terapeutica della musica »

11h Marjorie Roth, Assistant Professor, Nazareth College of Rochester, New-York
« Prophecy, Harmony, and the Western Esoteric Tradition: The Secret of Lasso’s Chromatic Sibyls »

11 h François Baskevitch, ingénieur en télécommunications, doctorant en histoire des sciences, Université de Nantes
« Phénomènes sonores mystérieux : ‘magie naturelle’ ou ‘effets spéciaux’ chez della Porta et Kircher »

12 h discussion

12 h 30 – 13 h 30 pause déjeuner

Musica e astrologia nel pensiero filosofico del Seicento
Président : Brenno Boccadoro, Université de Genève

14 h 30 Ornella Pompeo Faracovi, Direttrice del Centro Studi Enriques, Collaboratrice, dipartimento di Filosofia, Università di Pisa
« L’oroscopo del perfetto musicista secondo Mersenne »

15 h 00 Marta Moiso, Doctorande, Università di Turino
« Campanella e la musica: fra magia, medicina e superstizione »

15 h 30 David Juste, Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Sydney
« Théorie musicale et fondements astrologiques chez Kepler »

16 h 00 Brigitte van Weymeersch, Professeur, Université Catholique de Louvain
« Représentation ésotérique et pensée scientifique. Le cas de la vibration par sympathie chez les savants et théoriciens de la première moitié du 17e siècle »

16 h 30 discussion

21 h possibilité d’assister au concert de Krystian Zimerman, Auditorium Santa Cecilia, réserver ses places.

jeudi 17 avril
Classical and Romantic Perspectives in Music and Esotericism
Président: Paolo Gozza, Università di Bologna

10 h Giuseppe Iacovelli, Doctorant, Freie Universität, Berlin
« Manifestazione del soprannaturale nell'opera italiana fra Settecento e Ottocento »

10 h 30 Judith Crispin, Lecturer in composition and musicology at the University of Southern Queensland
« Evoking the mystical: the Esoteric Legacy of Ferruccio Busoni »

11 h Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Professor, University Amsterdam
« The Unspeakable and the Law: Music as Esoteric Language in Anton Webern »

11 h 30 Andrea Malvano, Università degli Studi di Torino
« L’ésotérisme du langage musical de Debussy »

12 h 00 discussion

12 h 30-13h 30 pause déjeuner

Esotérisme musical au XIXème et XXème siècles
Président : Steven van den Broecke, Professeur, K.U.B., Bruxelles.

13 h 30 Jacques Amblard, Maître de conférence en musicologie du XXe siècle à l’Université de Provence
« Quelques philosophes du XIXe siècle et la musique. La tentation de l’ésotérisme implicite »

14 h Anny Kessous Dreyfuss, Docteur en Musicologie (Paris IV) et titulaire du post-doctoral en sciences religieuses de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
« L'oeuvre de Charles Valentin Alkan, d'une lecture littérale à une lecture ésotérique ».

14 h 30 Gianluca D’Elia, Collaboratore scientifico, Università degli Studi "La Sapienza", Roma
« Musica e Massoneria: da uso rituale ad uso celebrativo »

15 h 00 discussion
15 h 30 pause

16 h György E. Szönyi, Professor of English and intellectual history, University of Szeged, Central European University, Budapest
« Music, Magic and Postmodern Historical Metafiction: Helmuth Krausser's Magische Melodien (1993) »

16 h 30 Jean-Jacques Velly, Maître de conférences Université Paris-Sorbonne
« Manfred Kelkel (1929-1999) et les différents systèmes compositionnels à
fondement ésotérique utilisés dans ses oeuvres, au travers des exemples de
Laterna magica, Tabula smaragdina et Castalia »

17 h Tim Rudbøg, PhD student, Exeter University
« The Mysteries of Sound in H. P. Blavatsky’s ‘Esoteric Instructions’»

17 h 30 discussion

18 h Walter Corten & Laurence Wuidar, Université Libre de Bruxelles, F.N.R.S., synthèse et perspective du colloque « Musique et ésotérisme : l’art et la science des sons face aux savoirs occultes »

18 h 30 coda musicale. Concert des œuvres de Judith Crispin : Garden of the Sufi (piano), Gurdjieff's enneagram (piano)…

vendredi 18 avril
La Rome astrologique depuis les recherches de Fritz Saxl (1934) :
visite guidée de la villa Farnesina par David Juste

Collected and assembled by UnoAnimo.

For previous parts of the discussion please visit AnimamRecro or the Main page of this blog.

For more organized reading check out The Fellowship of Friends WikiSpace.

For sites in Russian and Italian, click http://fofway.narod.ru/ and http://laliberastrada.blogspot.com/ respectively.

This is where you can find the website of the Fellowship of Friends.

If you decide to interact as well as digest, feel free to start here.

And as always, enjoy and have fun.

Welcome to the Fellowship of Friends Discussion.

For previous parts of the discussion please visit AnimamRecro or the Main page of this blog.

For sites in Russian and Italian, click http://fofway.narod.ru/ and http://laliberastrada.blogspot.com/ respectively.

If you decide to interact as well as digest, feel free to start here.

And as always, enjoy and have fun.

For previous parts of the discussion please visit AnimamRecro or the Main page of this blog.

For sites in Russian and Italian, click http://fofway.narod.ru/ and http://laliberastrada.blogspot.com/ respectively.

If you decide to interact as well as digest, feel free to start here.

And as always, enjoy and have fun.