"surrounded by love and hatred, in the annals of world history her personality is coming immortal"
Schiller
There are people who come into the world with a clearly defined mission. This mission of serving the common Good makes their life a martyrdom and a feat, but thanks to them the evolution of humanity is accelerated. This was the mission of H. P. Blavatsky. More than a hundred years have passed since one May day in 1891. the heart of our great compatriot stopped beating. And only now we begin to comprehend the feat of her life.
None of those close to her, those who worked with her, people devoted to her, or her enemies knew all of her, with all her qualities. The variety of their opinions is amazing, as if before us is not one, but many personalities with the same name “Helena Petrovna Blavatsky”. For some, she is a great being who opened new paths to the world, for others, she is a harmful destroyer of religion; for some she is a brilliant and fascinating interlocutor, for others she is a vague interpreter of incomprehensible metaphysics; Now she is a great heart, full of boundless pity for everything that suffers and love for everything that exists, now she is a soul that knows no mercy, now she is clairvoyant, penetrating to the bottom of the soul, naively trusting the first person she meets. Some talk about boundless patience, others about her unbridled temper. And there are no bright signs of the human soul that are not associated with the name of this great woman.
But everyone, without exception, claims that she possessed extraordinary spiritual strength that subjugated everything around her. Her credulity and sincerity reached dimensions extraordinary for a soul that had collected such an unprecedented variety of life experiences: from a student of the Eastern sages to the no less unusual position of Teacher and herald of Ancient Wisdom, who sought to unite in a common esotericism all ancient Aryan beliefs and prove the origin of all religions from a single divine source.
“Living next to Elena Petrovna meant being in constant proximity to the wonderful,” wrote one of her biographers. She possessed the extraordinary abilities of a real Magician, surprising everyone with her erudition, deep holistic knowledge, and wisdom of the soul.
As one of her biographers says: “... She charmed and conquered everyone who came into contact with her more or less closely. She, with the power of her all-penetrating and bottomless gaze, performed the most incomprehensible miracles: flower buds opened before your eyes, and the most distant objects at just one call they rushed to her hands.”
“The whole history of literature,” writes Olcott, “does not know a more remarkable character than this Russian woman.”
Elena Petrovna was capable of incredible work and superhuman patience when it came to serving an idea, fulfilling the will of the Teachers. Her devotion to her Teachers was heroic, fiery, never weakening, overcoming all obstacles, faithful until her last breath.
As she herself said: “Nothing matters to me anymore except my duty to the Teachers and the Cause of Theosophy. All my blood belongs to them to the last drop. The last beat of my heart will be given to them...”
This Russian woman fought with great indomitable strength against the materialism that shackled human thought, she inspired so many noble minds and managed to create a spiritual movement that continues to grow, develop and influence the consciousness of mankind. She was the first to promulgate the sacred teachings on which all religions are based, she was the first to attempt to give a religious and philosophical synthesis of all centuries and peoples; it caused the awakening of the religious consciousness of the ancient East and created a world fraternal Union, the basis of which is respect for human thought, in whatever language it may be expressed, broad tolerance for all members of the single human family and the desire to embody not dreamy, but concrete idealism, penetrating into all areas of life.
Every century, the Teachers of Shambhala make an attempt to find a messenger through whom they can convey to the world part of the true ancient Teaching for the enlightenment of people.
In the 19th century, the choice fell on H. P. Blavatsky. “We have found one like this in 100 years on Earth,” wrote the Mahatmas.
H. P. Blavatsky was born on August 11, 1831. in Ekaterinoslavl, in an aristocratic family. Elena Petrovna's childhood and youth passed in very happy conditions, in an enlightened, friendly family with humane traditions. The second stage of life /1848-1872/ can be characterized by the words - Wanderings and Apprenticeship. 24 years of wandering, again and again renewed attempts to penetrate Tibet. This entire period of her life was first preparation for her apprenticeship, and then the apprenticeship itself.
The main obstacle was her temperament. Even with the Teachers, whom she admired, she was often militant, and for free communication she needed many years of self-education. “I doubt that anyone else has entered the Path with such difficulty or with greater self-sacrifice,” Olcott wrote. Teachers said: “In us, Blavatsky aroused special trust - she was ready to risk everything and endure any difficulties. More than anyone else, she had psychic powers, driven by extreme enthusiasm, uncontrollably striving for her goal, physically very resilient, she was for "We would be the most suitable, although not always obedient and balanced, mediator. Another, perhaps, would have had fewer mistakes in his literary works, but he would not have withstood, like her, seventeen years of hard work. And then much would remain unknown to the world." .
The 3rd period of Blavatsky’s life is a period of creativity that clearly bears the stamp of a certain spiritual mission /1873-1891/. In 1875 together with Henry Olcott, Elena Petrovna founded the Theosophical Society - one of the links in that chain of higher schools of secret knowledge, which were founded from century to century by employees of the Hierarchy, as needed, in one country or another, in one form or another. All these schools of higher knowledge were offspring of that One Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The task of the Theosophical Society is to unite everyone striving for the unity of humanity, regardless of race and religious beliefs, striving to understand the true nature of man and the Cosmos.
The seeds of higher knowledge sown by the Theosophical Society penetrated the consciousness of the people of the Western world and spread throughout the world. Such societies exist in all cultural countries; the Theosophical Society also operates in Moscow.
In the 70s of the last century, a wave of enthusiasm for spiritualism swept across America, Europe and Russia. Elena Petrovna writes: “I received an order to tell the public the truth about spiritualistic phenomena and their mediums. And from now on my martyrdom begins. All spiritualists will rise up against me, in addition to Christians and all skeptics. Let your will, Teacher, be done!”
She temporarily joined spiritualism to show all the dangers of mediumship sessions and the difference between spiritualism and true spirituality.
At the same time, Blavatsky was working on her first great work, Isis Unveiled. And then - the main work of Blavatsky’s life - “The Secret Doctrine” - 3 volumes, about a thousand pages in each /1884-1891/. The first volume reveals some of the mysteries about the creation of the Cosmos, the second - about human evolution, the third - about the history of religions.
The essence of the information given to humanity through Blavatsky in “Isis Unveiled” and in the “Secret Doctrine” that continues it, are revelations about the Great Creative Principle of the Cosmos, the creation of the Cosmos and man (microcosm), about the eternity and periodicity of Existence, about the basic cosmic laws by which life Universe. The teaching transmitted by Blavatsky is as old as humanity itself. So, the “Secret Doctrine” is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its Cosmogony alone is the most amazing and developed of all systems.”
The life of H. P. Blavatsky can be characterized in two words: martyrdom and sacrifice. More terrible than all the physical torment - there were many of them in her life - was the suffering of the soul that she endured as a result of collective hatred, misunderstanding, cruelty caused by her struggle against the ignorance and inertia of the human soul. For 17 years Blavatsky fought against ignorance and dogmatism in both science and religion. And all this time she was the center of attacks and slander.
She had colossal, comprehensive, incredible versatility of knowledge.
Here is a brief summary of the Teachings conveyed by her in her numerous works:
GOD. For Blavatsky there is no personal God. She is a supporter of pantheism. She does not believe that anyone can represent God on Earth. But every human being, as consciousness develops, feels the presence of the Divine principle within itself. God is a Sacrament. A person can comprehend only what his mind can accommodate and therefore attributes to God those qualities that were considered the best in each era in different regions.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was opposed to any discrimination based on beliefs, because knew all their relativity in time and space. No one owns the entirety of the Truth, but only a partial distorted vision of it. She was opposed to any racism, especially spiritual racism.
COSMOGENESIS. In the teaching transmitted by her, the concept of COSMOS arises. In Neoplatonism there is a definition of the Cosmos as a huge living form, constantly renewing itself like the body of any mineral, plant, animal or human. Actually, a person in this Cosmos is one of the many manifestations of life on the physical plane. Space has no dimensions comprehended by the mind. Our knowledge of the Cosmos increases in accordance with our progress. As history progresses, our ideas about the Universe change. Beyond this era-appropriate knowledge that culture reflects, there are ancient teachings that were transmitted to people by higher cosmic civilizations.
H. P. Blavatsky mainly uses the Tibetan book Dhyan. It talks about the Cosmos as an extremely complex organism with an infinite number of forms of matter and energy. And moreover, it is said that in addition to “our cosmos” (i.e. physical), there are others, more or less similar to ours, inaccessible to understanding due to the limitations of the human mind. Parts of the Cosmos, and even the whole of it, are born, live, reproduce and die, like any living creature. It expands and contracts through the process of cosmic breathing, based on the harmony of opposites.
Ancient traditions teach that souls evolve, going through millions of reincarnations, moving from planet to planet in order to enter a more perfect body. Some of the planets she mentions no longer exist today, some will only exist in the future. As they say in ancient texts, neither the reason nor the reason for which the Cosmos exists, “even the greatest clairvoyant, who is closest to the sky, knows.” This is the Sacrament of Sacraments. The beginning and the end elude human perception.
ANTHROPOGENESIS. Blavatsky does not accept Darwin's ideas. She supports the ancient Doctrines regarding humanity “landing” on Earth from the Moon. Gradually, these creatures began to acquire a bodily shell as the Earth became denser. On Earth, man develops in the physical body for more than 18 million years, first as a giant with limited intelligence. 9 million years ago, man already became similar to modern man. A million years ago, the so-called “Atlantean Civilization” was in full bloom, living on the continent located between Eurasia and America. Among the Atlanteans, technical progress has reached a very high level. This continent, due to geological disasters caused by the excessive use of energy such as modern atomic energy, split apart. The last remaining island sank into the waters of the ocean, called the Atlantic, 11.5 million years ago. Reminds me of this disaster biblical story about Noah.
NATURE LAWS. Blavatsky mentions two basic laws - Dharma and Karma.
Dharma is a universal law that directs everything towards its destination. Any attempt to deviate from the Dharma is accompanied by suffering and is rejected. That which is consistent with purpose is not subject to suffering and rejection. A person has the opportunity to deviate, because he has relative free will. The Wheel of Transformation gives him the ability to act rightly or wrongly. Any of his actions in both directions generates Karma, i.e. a cause that inevitably leads to an effect.
Blavatsky does not believe in the forgiveness of sins, but in the fact that they can be compensated for by merciful actions.
All souls are different in their external manifestation, but essentially the same, since they have no gender, nation, or race. A human being is always reincarnated only into a human being of the race and gender that he needs to gain experience.
Everything disappears over time only to appear again, but in reality nothing disappears or dies, but only sinks and reappears cyclically. In our world everything happens cyclically, while in the transcendental world everything happens in a circle.
LIFE AFTER DEATH. For Blavatsky, human beings remain roughly the same whether they are in embodiment or not. They carry out the inevitable cycle of birth, life and death.
PARAPSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA. She treated them with disdain, believing that only those who were unable to comprehend the deepest truths could be carried away by them. She did not admit that some of these phenomena could supposedly stem from Good, and others from Evil; she considered them not something exceptional, but potentially characteristic of all people, regardless of their level of spirituality. In May 1891 Elena Petrovna died in her work chair, like a true warrior of the Spirit, which she was all her life. The day of her tranquility is celebrated as White Lotus Day.
“Let us not forget to express gratitude to those who imprinted Knowledge with their lives.” Looking back at the past of humanity, one can see a pattern of rejection of both discoveries and revelations that are ahead of their time. Until now, few people realize that not only the teachings she brought from the East, but also she herself, her personality, her extraordinary mental properties represent a phenomenon of the greatest importance for our era. It is not a theory, it is a fact.
“The day will come when her name will be written down by grateful posterity... at the highest peak, among the chosen ones, among those who knew how to sacrifice themselves out of pure love for humanity!” /Olcott/.
"...H.P.Blavatsky, truly, our national pride, the Great Martyr for Light and Truth. Eternal glory to her!" (E. Roerich)
IntroductionHierarchy
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Annie Besant
Ramakrishna
Alice Bailey
Vivekananda
Helena Blavatsky can be called one of the most influential women in world history. She was called the “Russian sphinx”; she opened Tibet to the world and “seduced” the Western intelligentsia with the occult sciences and Eastern philosophy.
Noblewoman from Rurikovich
Blavatsky's maiden name is von Hahn. Her father belonged to the family of the hereditary princes of Macklenburg, Han von Rotenstern-Hahn. Through her grandmother, Blavatsky's family tree goes back to the princely family of the Rurikovichs.
Vissarion Belinsky called Blavatsky’s mother, novelist Elena Andreevna Gan, “the Russian George Sand”
The future “modern Isis” was born on the night of July 30-31, 1831 (old style) in Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk). In her memoirs of her childhood, she wrote sparingly: “My childhood? It contains pampering and mischief on the one hand, punishment and bitterness on the other. Endless illnesses until the age of seven or eight... Two governesses - the Frenchwoman Madame Peigne and Miss Augusta Sophia Jeffreys, an old maid from Yorkshire. Several nannies... My father's soldiers took care of me. My mother died when I was a child."
Blavatsky received an excellent education at home, learned several languages as a child, studied music in London and Paris, was a good horsewoman, and drew well.
All these skills later came in handy during her travels: she gave piano concerts, worked in a circus, made paints and made artificial flowers.
Blavatsky and ghosts
Even as a child, Blavatsky was different from her peers. She often told her household that she saw various strange creatures and heard the sounds of mysterious bells. She was especially impressed by the majestic Hindu, whom others did not notice. He, according to her, appeared to her in dreams. She called him Guardian and said that he saves her from all troubles.
As Elena Petrovna would later write, it was Mahatma Moriah, one of her spiritual teachers. She met him "live" in 1852 in London's Hyde Park. Countess Constance Wachtmeister, the widow of the Swedish ambassador in London, according to Blavatsky, relayed the details of that conversation in which the Master said that he “needed her participation in the work that he was about to undertake,” and also that “she would have to spend three years in Tibet to prepare for this important task."
Traveler
Helena Blavatsky's habit of moving was formed during her childhood. Due to the father's official position, the family had to frequently change their place of residence. After the death of her mother in 1842 from consumption, her grandparents took over the upbringing of Elena and her sisters.
At the age of 18, Elena Petrovna was engaged to the 40-year-old vice-governor of the Erivan province Nikifor Vasilyevich Blavatsky, but 3 months after the wedding, Blavatsky ran away from her husband.
Her grandfather sent her to her father with two accompanying people, but Elena managed to escape from them. From Odessa, on the English sailing ship Commodore, Blavatsky sailed to Kerch, and then to Constantinople.
About her marriage, Blavatsky later wrote: “I got engaged to take revenge on my governess, not thinking that I could not break the engagement, but karma followed my mistake.”
After escaping from her husband, the story of Helena Blavatsky's wanderings began. Their chronology is difficult to restore, since she herself did not keep diaries and none of her relatives were with her.
In just the years of her life, Blavatsky traveled around the world twice, was in Egypt, and in Europe, and in Tibet, and in India, and in South America. In 1873, she was the first Russian woman to receive American citizenship.
Theosophical Society
On November 17, 1875, the Theosophical Society was founded in New York by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Olcott. Blavatsky had already returned from Tibet, where, as she claimed, she received blessings from the Mahatmas and Lamas to transmit spiritual knowledge to the world.
The objectives of its creation were stated as follows: 1. Creation of the core of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, religion, gender, caste or skin color. 2. Promoting the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science. 3. Study of the unexplained laws of Nature and the forces hidden in man.
Blavatsky wrote in her diary that day: “The child was born. Hosanna!".
Elena Petrovna wrote that “members of the Society retain complete freedom of religious beliefs and, upon joining the society, promise the same tolerance in relation to any other conviction and belief. Their connection lies not in common beliefs, but in a common desire for Truth.”
In September 1877, the New York publishing house J.W. Bouton"a the first monumental work of Helena Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, was published, and the first edition of a thousand copies was sold out within two days.
Opinions about Blavatsky's book were polar. The Republican called Blavatsky's work "a large platter of scraps," The Sun called it "discarded garbage," and a reviewer for the New York Tribune wrote: "Blavatsky's knowledge is crude and undigested, her unintelligible retelling of Brahmanism and Buddhism based more on conjecture than on author's awareness."
However, the Theosophical Society continued to expand, and in 1882 its headquarters were moved to India.
In 1879, the first issue of The Theosophist was published in India. In 1887, the magazine Lucifer began publishing in London, 10 years later renamed The Theosophical Review.
At the time of Blavatsky's death, the Theosophical Society had more than 60 thousand members. This organization provided big influence on public thought, it consisted of outstanding people of their time, from the inventor Thomas Edison to the poet William Yeats.
Despite the ambiguity of Blavatsky's ideas, in 1975 the Indian government issued a commemorative stamp dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Theosophical Society. The stamp depicts the Society's seal and its motto: “There is no religion higher than truth.”
Blavatsky and race theory
One of the controversial and contradictory ideas in Blavatsky’s work is the concept of the evolutionary cycle of races, part of which is set out in the second volume of The Secret Doctrine.
Some researchers believe that the theory of races “from Blavatsky” was taken as a basis by the ideologists of the Third Reich.
American historians Jackson Speilvogel and David Redls wrote about this in their work “Hitler’s Racial Ideology: Content and Occult Roots.”
In the second volume of The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky wrote: “Humanity is clearly divided into divinely inspired people and lower beings. The difference in mental capacity between the Aryan and other civilized peoples and such savages as the South Sea Islanders is inexplicable by any other reason.<…>"The 'Sacred Spark' is absent from them, and they alone are now the only inferior races on this Planet, and fortunately - thanks to the wise balance of Nature, which is constantly working in this direction - they are quickly dying out."
Theosophists themselves, however, claim that Blavatsky in her works did not mean anthropological types, but the stages of development through which all human souls pass.
Blavatsky, quackery and plagiarism
To attract attention to her work, Helena Blavatsky demonstrated her superpowers: letters from friends and teacher Koot Hoomi fell from the ceiling of her room; objects she was holding in her hand disappeared, and then appeared in places where she had not been at all.
A commission was sent to test her abilities. A report by the London Society for Psychical Research, published in 1885, said that Blavatsky was “the most learned, witty and interesting deceiver that history has ever known.” After the exposure, Blavatsky's popularity began to decline, and many of the Theosophical Societies collapsed.
Helena Blavatsky's cousin, Sergei Witte, wrote about her in his memoirs:
“Telling unprecedented things and untruths, she, apparently, herself was sure that what she was saying really happened, that it was true - so I cannot help but say that there was something demonic in her, what was in her, to put it simply, something devilish, although, in essence, she was a very gentle, kind person.”
In 1892-1893, the novelist Vsevolod Solovyov published a series of essays about meetings with Blavatsky under the general title “The Modern Priestess of Isis” in the magazine “Russian Messenger”. “To own people, you need to deceive them,” Elena Petrovna advised him. “I understood these darling people a long time ago, and their stupidity sometimes gives me enormous pleasure... The simpler, stupider and cruder the phenomenon, the more surely it succeeds.”
Soloviev called this woman a “catcher of souls” and mercilessly exposed her in his book. As a result of his efforts, the Paris branch of the Theosophical Society ceased to exist.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died on May 8, 1891. Her health was negatively affected by constant smoking - she smoked up to 200 cigarettes a day. After her death, she was burned, and the ashes were divided into three parts: one part remained in London, the other in New York, and the third in Adyar. Blavatsky's memorial day is called White Lotus Day.
USA, 1878. In his many years of practice, Dr. Robert Hariot saw this for the first time. He was called to treat a sick woman, but the woman lying on the bed in front of him was dead. To make sure of this, he felt the pulse on her hand and did not feel a beat; he put the mirror to her lips - the glass did not fog up. Only one thing confused the doctor - the woman’s gaze was meaningful. She looked straight ahead like living people. And yet, by all formal indications, Helena Blavatsky was dead. The doctor picked up the phone and began calling the morgue to order a hearse. But as soon as he uttered the first words, someone’s hand snatched the receiver from him.
The patient to whom the doctors were called was an unusual woman. All over the world they knew her name - Elena Petrovna Blavatsky. Tens of thousands of people believed that she was capable of performing miracles. And the American doctor Robert Hariot believed only in the power of science and his own mind. He was convinced that miracles belonged on the pages of children's books, but not in real life. However, that day he had to reconsider his views. Colonel Henry Olcott snatched the pipe from the doctor's hands. He introduced himself as a friend of the patient. “I asked you to raise her to her feet, and not take her to the morgue,” the colonel shouted, “Elena is alive, she simply could not die!”
The doctor tried to argue with the enraged colonel, but Olcott stood his ground. Robert Hariot served as county health inspector. He was required to pick up the dead body from the apartment building. But before the doctor had time to take a step towards Blavatsky’s bedside, he suddenly felt a cold blade on his neck. “I’ll kill you...” hissed the colonel. Dr. Hariot forgot about his official duty and thought only about how to quickly get out of this madhouse. The men didn't even notice what was happening behind them. Finally, the colonel turned around and saw Elena sitting on the couch and calmly drinking tea.
This miracle changed Robert Hariot's life forever. He quit his medical practice and began to study occult sciences instead of medicine. The doctor soon realized that Blavatsky was not dying then, but was plunged into a deep trance, and her open eyes saw other worlds. The American doctor was neither the first nor the last person whose life was changed by a meeting with Helena Blavatsky. By the end of the 19th century she had tens of thousands of followers.
And today, more than a hundred years later, Blavatsky’s books are published in huge editions, and the Theosophical movement founded by her annually attracts hundreds of new followers. Theosophy was the first to reveal to Westerners the secret wisdom of the East. The most surprising thing was that the origins of Theosophy were not a man with a university education, but a Russian woman who did not even graduate from high school.
Elena Petrovna Blavatsky was born on August 12, 1831 in the city of Yekaterinoslav in the family of officer Peter Alekseevich von Hahn. Her father belonged to a famous aristocratic family. The mother came from the oldest Russian family of Rurikovich. Helena Blavatsky’s mother, a famous writer, died very early, and her last words were: “Maybe it’s for the best that I’m dying. You won’t have to see Elena’s bitter fate. I’m sure her fate will not be a woman’s, she will have to suffer a lot...”
The prophecy came true; Elena really had to suffer a lot. But her childhood was happy.
Her grandmother, Elena Pavlovna Dolgorukova, raised her in the best traditions of aristocratic families. Elena was an unusual child. Kind, smart, with strong intuition, sometimes bordering on clairvoyance. One day she was found in the attic with pigeons. And all the pigeons were in some kind of cataplexy state and did not fly away anywhere. Elena said that she puts them to bed according to Solomon's recipes. People were afraid of her sincerity; she always spoke only the truth. And in polite society this was considered a sign of bad taste. Indeed, how many people are there in the world who can only speak the truth? There are even fewer who are able to perceive the truth.
The most original trick of the young lady was her marriage. In 1848, a 17-year-old girl told her family that she was marrying 40-year-old Nikifor Blavatsky, who had been appointed vice-governor. Elena moved to Tiflis.
She confessed to her loved ones that she married Blavatsky in order to get rid of the control of her relatives. Girls of that time simply had no other option to leave their family. The marriage remained fictitious, but all attempts to get a divorce were unsuccessful and she ran away from her husband.
Elena runs away from Tiflis on horseback, crosses the Russian-Turkish border and “hares” on a ship to Constantinople. She left Russia and her loved ones forever. For eight whole years after her escape, she did not let anyone know about her - she was afraid that her husband would track her down. I trusted only my father. He realized that she would not return to her husband and resigned himself. Thus began a new free life. Elena gave music lessons, performed as a pianist, wrote books and articles. The young aristocrat risked everything. And for what? It is quite obvious that she was guided by some higher power. Many years later, she admitted that a mysterious friend, a spiritual teacher, was always invisibly present next to her.
The teacher's appearance never changed - fair face, long black hair, white clothes. He taught her in her sleep and, even as a child, saved her life more than once. And the relatives were amazed at what miracle saved their child? Much later she wrote: “I always had a second life, incomprehensible even to myself. Until I met my mysterious teacher."
This happened in 1851 at the first world exhibition in London. Among the Indian delegation, she suddenly saw someone who had appeared in her dreams for a long time. Elena was shocked; her teacher was a real person. She had a conversation with him, in which he explained which path she should follow next, about a matter related to the transfer of knowledge to humanity.
He said that she had important work ahead of her. But first, she must prepare for it and spend three years in Tibet. Blavatsky was only twenty years old and she understood what future was in store for her - the path of discipleship and service to the truth. Elena knew that the task that her teacher had set for her—to penetrate Tibet—was unusually difficult. She, of course, completed the task, but it took her 17 years to do it.
During this time, she makes two unsuccessful attempts to penetrate Tibet and commits two round the world travel. She faces mortal dangers, but every time someone helps her, protects her and, most importantly, teaches her. She described two trips to India in the interesting book “From the Caves and Wilds of Hindustan.” Several times Blavatsky became seriously ill and, without outside help, miraculously, is healed. After each illness, her supernatural abilities grow.
What abilities did Blavatsky have? According to eyewitnesses, she predicted the future, freely read sealed letters, and answered questions that were asked to her mentally. She could move seals and drawings from one sheet to another, and, at the request of people, she could communicate with their deceased relatives. She managed to summon wonderful music with one wave of her hand, which literally poured from heaven. In her presence, things began to move, and for some this caused delight, and for others fear. She always saw the dead on the day of their death, saw how it would happen. She wrote to relatives about what awaited them, and accurately guessed this date.
Blavatsky's amazing skills caused a lot of noise in Pskov, where she returned to her family after ten
years of absence. After living in Pskov for a year, Blavatsky left for Tiflis. On the way, she met with His Grace Isidore, Exarch of Georgia, later Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Novgorod. The Reverend questioned her, asked questions mentally and, having received sensible answers to them, was amazed. At parting, he blessed her and admonished her with the words: “There is no power that does not come from God. There are many unknown forces in nature. It is not given to a person to know all the forces, but he is not forbidden to recognize them. May God bless you with all that is good and kind.”
Blavatsky lived in the Caucasus for another four years. In order not to depend on anyone, she tried to earn money herself. A great skilled craftswoman, she made artificial flowers. At one time she had a whole workshop, and the business was very successful. She even came up with cheap way extracting ink and subsequently sold it. But the main work of life was ahead, and she knew it.
1868, Blavatsky is 37 years old. One of the most mysterious periods in her life begins - studying in Tibet. She talked little about this, but her letters contain the following lines: “Those to whom we wish to open up will meet us at the border. The rest will not find us, even if they marched on Lhasa with a whole army.” These words contain a clue to why no one still can find the country of great teachers - Shambhala. It is revealed only to a select few. The rest have no access there.
Nowadays a great number of magicians and initiates have proliferated. But it is not at all difficult to distinguish them from the disciples of Shambhala. A truly dedicated person will never talk about it. Initiates have no titles, they are simple in their lives and never boast of their knowledge. The truly initiated are under the influence of high rays of energy, and this happens only when their consciousness is ready to receive them. The old truth always remains unshakable - the teacher comes when the student is ready.
Blavatsky never talked about the three years of her life spent in Tibet, and only once wrote: “There are several pages from the history of my life. I would rather die than open them. They are too secret..." It is reliably known that she lived not far from the residence of the Tashi Lama and became a student of two teachers. Much later, Blavatsky wrote: “Teachers appear among people at turning points in history and bring new knowledge to the world. Such teachers were Krishna, Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus. Jesus came to earth without the consent of others, driven by the desire to help humanity. He was warned that his timing was not the best. But he still went and was executed due to the machinations of the priests.”
Blavatsky also wrote: “Beyond the Himalayas there is a core of adherents of different nationalities. They act together, but their essence remains unknown to ordinary lamas, who are mostly ignorant.” No one knows how Blavatsky studied. She kept the secret, because secret knowledge can also be used for selfish purposes.
Three years have passed, training is completed. Blavatsky leaves Tibet and her service to humanity begins. The teachers set an important task for her - to reveal to people the secret teachings about the structure of the Universe, about nature and man. Eternal human values must resist materialism, cruelty and hatred.
In 1873, following the instructions of her teachers, she went to New York. There he meets his future friend, student and comrade-in-arms, Colonel Henry Olcott. This famous lawyer, journalist, highly educated and spiritual man, became her support for the rest of her life. The Theosophical Society was organized by Elena Petrovna and Colonel Olcott on November 11, 1875. It set itself three goals: 1) brotherhood without distinction of religions, races and nationalities; 2) comparative study of religions, science and philosophy; 3) study of unknown laws of nature and hidden human abilities.
The great spiritual movement quickly spread throughout the world within a few years and created a real revolution in the consciousness of people. In India and what was then Ceylon, the Theosophical Society contributed to the revival of Buddhism. Mahatma Gandhi fully embraced the idea of society and it had a great influence on the Indian independence movement. The activities of the society significantly influenced the pragmatic Western culture.
In Russia, Blavatsky's ideas were brilliantly continued by the Roerich couple and Russian cosmist scientists Tsiolkovsky, Chizhevsky, Vernadsky. Many people of various nationalities and religions became members of the Theosophical Society. After all, faith should not divide people.
What is God? Blavatsky wrote that God is a mystery of cosmic laws; he cannot belong to only one people. Buddha, Christ, Magomed are the great teachers of humanity. Religious wars are a grave crime against the laws of the cosmos and against all people. Forgiveness of sins is impossible; they can only be redeemed by merciful deeds. Blavatsky's first work, Isis Unveiled, written in 1877, was a stunning success.
Since 1878, Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Olcott have lived and worked in India. In the city of Adyar they found
the world famous headquarters of the Theosophical Society. It still remains the center of philosophers around the world. But it was in India that the persecution of Blavatsky began. It was launched by Christian missionaries, whom Elena Petrovna criticized more than once.
Blavatsky suffered from this, she was constantly sick and was close to death more than once. But Elena Petrovna was not afraid of death - she had not yet done everything for which she was sent to Earth. “There is no death,” Blavatsky wrote, “man continues to remain the same. After death, the soul goes into sleep, and then, awakening, goes either to the world of the living, if it is still drawn there, or to other, more developed worlds...”
Blavatsky is declared the fraudster of the century. This is due to the verdict rendered by the London Society for Psychical Research, published in 1885. Blavatsky was accused of the fact that her great teachers were a complete invention. They were accused of many other equally absurd sins. Having learned about all this, the Hindus bombarded her with letters. A message from Indian scientists with seventy signatures also arrived: “We are surprised to read the report of the London Society. We dare to say that the existence of Mahatmas is not invented. Our great-great-grandfathers, who lived long before the birth of Madame Blavatsky, communicated with them. And now there are people in India who are in constant contact with teachers. Society made a grave mistake by blaming “Madame Blavatsky.”
But it took a hundred years for this error to be corrected. It was not until 1986 that a report from the London Society for Psychical Research on Blavatsky's activities was published. It began with the words: “According to the latest research, Madame Blavatsky was convicted unfairly...”. However, for a hundred years there have been enough fabrications on the topic of Blavatsky. Surprisingly, her Russian opponents did their best. It even got to the point where she was accused of murder, witchcraft and apostasy from the foundations of Christianity.
She left India in 1884. Morally tired and terminally ill. She found her final refuge in England. Here in London, Blavatsky completed the main work of her life - The Secret Doctrine. This book provides such a synthesis of the teachings of different peoples, and presents such a scope of knowledge that scientists of that time did not possess. Amazingly, two huge volumes of The Secret Doctrine were written within two years. Such work can only be done by a large team of researchers, and these books were written by a woman who did not even have a special education.
Published in 1888, The Secret Doctrine becomes a reference book for the most progressive scientists. Students and teachers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA and professors of the New York Harvard Club have been researching the “Secret Doctrine” for several decades. The fact is that in this book Blavatsky predicted many discoveries in astronomy, astrophysics and many other sciences. Here is an example of a confirmed revelation: “The sun contracts as rhythmically as the human heart. Only this solar blood requires 11 years.” In the 20th century, this solar pulse was discovered by Alexander Chizhevsky.
Blavatsky's popularity in Russia, unfortunately, is not great. Although in America and Europe she is respected much more. Her works were studied by Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and many other scientists. Blavatsky explains the mystery of humanoid aliens and their mysterious appearances and disappearances as follows: “There are millions and millions of worlds invisible to us. They are with us, inside ours own world. Their inhabitants can pass through us, like you through empty space. Their homes and countries are intertwined with ours, and yet do not interfere with our vision."
“Not a single great truth was ever accepted by contemporaries, and usually a century or even two passed before it was accepted by scientists. So my work will be justified partially or entirely in the 20th century...” Blavatsky prophetically wrote in the second volume of The Secret Doctrine. And indeed, what Blavatsky wrote about was understood a hundred years later. Elena Petrovna died in England in 1891, having almost completed work on The Secret Doctrine. This extraordinary woman fulfilled her mission. She brought the great ideas of Shambhala to the pragmatic consciousness of man.
E.P. Blavatsky
In a very old letter from the Master, written many years ago and addressed to a member of the Theosophical Society, we find the following instructive lines concerning the mental state of a dying person:
At the last moment, our whole life is reflected in our memory: from all the forgotten corners and crannies, picture after picture emerges, one event after another. The dying brain drives memory out of its lair with a powerful, irresistible impulse, and memory conscientiously reproduces every impression given to it for storage during the active activity of the brain. That impression and thought which proves to be the strongest naturally becomes the most vivid and eclipses, so to speak, all the others, which disappear to reappear only in Devachan. No man dies in a state of insanity or unconsciousness, contrary to the assertions of some physiologists. Even someone who is insane or seized by an attack of delirium tremens has his moment of clarity of consciousness at the moment of death, he is simply not able to communicate this to others. Often a person only appears dead. But even between the last pulsation of the blood, the last beat of the heart and that moment when the last spark of animal warmth leaves the body, the brain thinks, and the ego relives its entire life in these short seconds. Speak in a whisper - you who are present at the deathbed, for you are present at the solemn appearance of death. You should be especially calm immediately after Death grabs the body with its cold hand.
Speak in a whisper, I repeat, so as not to disturb the calm flow of thought and not to interfere with the active work of the Past, projecting its shadow on the screen of the Future...
Materialists have repeatedly come out with active protests against the above opinion. Biology and (scientific) psychology insisted on rejecting this idea; and if the latter (psychology) did not have any proven facts to support its own hypotheses, then the former (biology) simply dismissed it as an empty “superstition.” But progress does not even bypass biology; and this is what they testify to latest discoveries. Not long ago, Dr. Ferre presented to the Biological Society of Paris a most interesting report on the mental state of the dying, brilliantly confirming everything that was said in the above quotation. For Dr. Ferré draws the attention of biologists precisely to the amazing phenomenon of memories of a life lived and the collapse of the blank walls of memory, which for a long time hid the long-forgotten “corners and crannies” that now emerge “picture after picture.”
We need only mention two examples that this scientist gives in his report to prove how sound from the point of view of science are the teachings that we receive from our Eastern Teachers.
The first example involves a man who died of consumption. His illness worsened due to damage to his spine. He had already lost consciousness, but with two successive injections of a gram of ether he was brought back to life. The patient raised his head slightly and quickly spoke in Flemish - a language that neither those present nor the dying man himself understood. And when he was offered a pencil and a piece of cardboard, he scribbled down several words in the same language with amazing speed, and, as it turned out later, without a single mistake. When the inscription was finally translated, it turned out that its meaning was very prosaic. The dying man suddenly remembered that since 1868, that is, for more than twenty years, he had owed a certain person fifteen francs, and asked that they be returned to him.
But why did he write his last will in Flemish? The deceased was a native of Antwerp, but in childhood he changed both city and country, without having time to really learn the local language. He lived his entire future life in Paris and could only speak and write French. It is quite obvious that the memories that returned to him - the last flash of consciousness, which unfolded before him, like a retrospective panorama, his entire life, right down to the trifling episode concerning a few francs borrowed from a friend twenty years ago, came not only from the physical brain, but mainly from his spiritual memory - from the memory of the higher Ego (Manas, or reincarnating individuality). And the fact that he began to speak and write in Flemish - a language that he could hear in his life only when he himself could hardly speak - serves as additional confirmation of our rightness. In its immortal nature the Ego knows almost everything. For matter is nothing more than “the last stage and shadow of existence,” as Ravaisson, an employee of the French institute, tells us.
Let's now move on to the second example.
Another patient was dying of pulmonary tuberculosis and was similarly brought to consciousness before death by an injection of ether. He turned his head, looked at his wife and quickly told her: “You won’t find this pin now, since then all the floors have been changed.” The phrase referred to a scarf pin lost eighteen years earlier, an event so insignificant that it could barely be remembered. Even such a trifle did not fail to flash through the last vision of the dying man, who managed to comment on what he saw in words before his breathing stopped. Thus, it can be assumed that all the countless thousands of everyday events and incidents of a long human life flash before the fading consciousness at the very last and decisive moment of disappearance. In just a second, a person relives his entire previous life!
A third example can also be mentioned, convincingly proving the correctness of occultism, which traces all such memories to the thinking ability of the individual, and not to the personal (lower) ego. One young girl, who walked in her sleep until almost twenty-two years of age, could perform a variety of housework while in a state of somnambulistic sleep, which she could not remember anything about after waking up.
Among the mental predispositions that she demonstrated during sleep was a pronounced secrecy, completely unusual for her in the waking state. When she wasn't sleeping, she was quite open and sociable and didn't care much about her property. But in a somnambulistic state, she had the habit of hiding her own things and things that simply came to her hand, and she did this with great ingenuity. Her relatives and friends knew about this habit, as well as two maids specially hired to look after her during her night walks. They did this work for years and knew that the girl never created serious problems: only trivial things disappeared, which were then easy to return to their place. But one hot night the maid dozed off, and the girl got out of bed and went to her father’s office. The latter was a famous notary and had a habit of working late. Just at that moment, he left for a while, and the somnambulist, entering the room, deliberately stole from his desk the will that was lying on it and a rather large sum of money, several thousand, in banknotes and bonds. She hid the stolen goods in the library inside two hollow columns, stylized as solid oak trunks, returned to her room before her father returned and went to bed without disturbing the maid dozing in the chair.
And as a result, the maid stubbornly denied that her young mistress had left her room anywhere at night, and suspicion was removed from the real culprit, and the money was never returned. In addition, the loss of the will, which was supposed to appear in court, practically ruined her father and deprived him of his good name, thereby plunging the entire family into true poverty. About nine years later, the girl, who had by then been free of the habit of sleepwalking for seven years, contracted consumption, from which she eventually died. And so, on her deathbed, when the veil that had previously hidden her somnambulistic experiences from physical memory finally fell, divine intuition awoke, and pictures of the life she had lived flowed in a swift stream before her inner vision, she saw, among others, the scene of her somnambulistic theft. At the same time, she woke up from the oblivion in which she had been for several hours in a row, her face was distorted by a grimace of terrible emotional experience, and she screamed: “What have I done?!” It was I who took the will and the money... Look at the empty columns in the library; it’s me...” She never finished the sentence, because this very violent outburst of emotions ended her life. However, the search was still carried out, and inside the oak columns - where she said - a will and money were found. This case seems even more strange due to the fact that the mentioned columns were so high that even if she stood on a chair and had much more time in reserve than those few seconds that the sleeping kidnapper had, she still would not be able to reach them tops of their heads to lower the stolen goods into their inner emptiness. In this regard, it may be noted that people in a state of ecstasy or frenzy seem to have abnormal abilities (See: Convulsionnaires de St. Medard et de Morzine) - can climb smooth, steep walls and even jump to the tops of trees.
Taking all these facts as they are stated, do they not convince us that the sleepwalker has a mind and memory of his own, separate from the physical memory of the waking lower Being, and that it is the former that are responsible for the memories in articulo mortis, since the body and the physical senses in this case, they gradually fade away, ceasing to function, the mind steadily moves away along the psychic path, and it is the spiritual consciousness that lasts the longest? Why not? After all, even materialistic science is beginning to recognize many psychological facts that vainly demanded attention some twenty years ago. “True existence,” says Ravaisson, “life, before which all other life seems only a vague outline and a faint reflection, is the life of the Soul.”
What the public usually calls the "soul" we call the "regenerating ego." “To be means to live, and to live means to think and exercise will,” says this French scientist. But if the physical brain is really only a limited space, a sphere that serves to capture the rapid flashes of unlimited and infinite thought, then neither will nor thinking can be said to originate inside the brain, even from the point of view of materialistic science (remember the insurmountable chasm between matter and mind, the existence of which was recognized by Tyndall and many others). And the point is that human brain– it is simply a channel connecting two levels, psychospiritual and material; and through this channel all abstract and metaphysical ideas filter down from the level of Manas into the lower human consciousness. Consequently, no idea of the infinite and absolute enters or can enter our brain, since it exceeds its capabilities. These categories can only be truly reflected by our spiritual consciousness, which then transmits their more or less distorted and dimmed projections onto the tablets of our perceptions of the physical level. So, even memories of important events of our life often fall out of memory, but all of them, including the most insignificant trifles, are preserved in the memory of the “soul”, because for it there is no memory at all, but only an ever-present reality on a level that surpasses our ideas of space and time. “Man is the measure of all things,” said Aristotle; and, of course, he did not mean the external form of a person, molded from flesh, bones and muscles!
Of all the outstanding thinkers, Edgar Quinet - the author of La Creation - expresses this idea most clearly. Speaking about a person filled with feelings and thoughts that he himself is not even aware of or only vaguely perceives as some vague and incomprehensible motivating impulses, Quinet argues that a person is aware of only a very small part of his own moral existence. “Thoughts that come to our minds, but do not receive due recognition and design, being once rejected, find refuge in the very foundations of our being...” And when they are driven away by the persistent efforts of our will, “they retreat even further and even deeper - God knows in what fibers, to reign there and gradually influence us, unconsciously for ourselves...”
Yes, these thoughts become as invisible and inaccessible to us as the vibrations of sound and light when they go beyond the range available to us. Invisible and avoiding our attention, they nevertheless continue to work, laying the foundation for our future thoughts and actions and gradually establishing their control over us, although we ourselves may not think about them at all and may not even be aware of their existence and presence. And it seems that Quinet, that great connoisseur of Nature, was never closer to the truth in his observations than when, speaking of the mysteries that surround us on all sides, he made the following thoughtful conclusion about what is most important for us: “ These are not the secrets of heaven or earth, but those that are hidden in the depths of our soul, in our brain cells, our nerves and fibers. There is no need, he adds, to delve into the star worlds in search of the unknown, while right here - next to us and in us - much remains inaccessible... How our world consists mainly of invisible beings who are the true builders its continents, so is man.”
This is true, as long as a person is a mixture of unconscious and incomprehensible perceptions, vague feelings and emotions that come from nowhere, eternally unreliable memory and knowledge, which on the surface of his level turns into ignorance. But if the memory of a living and healthy person is often not up to par, because one fact in it is layered on top of another, suppressing and repressing the first, then at the moment of the great change that people call death, what we consider “memory” seems to return to us in all its strength and completeness.
And how else can this be explained, if not by simple fact that both of our memories (or rather, two of its states corresponding to the higher and lower states of consciousness) merge together - at least for a few seconds, forming a single whole, and that the dying person passes to a level where there is no past or future , but only one comprehensive present? Memory, as we all know, is strengthened by earlier associations, and therefore becomes stronger with age than, say, in infancy; and it is connected more with the soul than with the body. But if memory is a part of our soul, then, as Thackeray once rightly noted, it must necessarily be eternal. Scientists deny this, but we Theosophists affirm it. They can only give negative arguments to support their theories, but we have countless facts in our arsenal, similar topics the three that we described above as an example. The chain of cause and effect that determines the action of the mind still remains and will always remain terra incognita for the materialist. For if they are so firmly convinced that, following Pope's expression:
Our thoughts, shut up in the cells of the brain, rest;
But invisible chains always connect them...
- however, to this day they cannot discover these chains in any way, then how can they hope to unravel the secrets of the higher, Spiritual Mind!
Footnotes
- ...In a very old letter from the Master, written many years ago and addressed to a member of the Theosophical Society...– H.P.B. refers to a letter from Master Koot Hoomi received by A. P. Sinnett about October 1882 while he was in Simla, India. This is a very detailed letter containing answers to the questions that Sinnett addressed to Teacher. These questions and the Master's answers are published in Letters from the Mahatmas to A. P. Sinnett. Sinnett asks:
“16) You say: “Remember that we create ourselves - our Devachan and our Avici, and for the most part - during the last days and even moments of our sensory lives.”
17) So, the thoughts that come to a person at the last moment are certainly connected with the prevailing direction of the life he has lived? Otherwise, it will turn out that the character of a personal Devachan or Avici can be determined by the whim of chance, which unfairly brought some extraneous thought as the last one?
To this the Teacher answers:
“16) There is a widespread belief among all Hindus that the future state of a person before a new birth and the birth itself are determined by his last desire experienced at the moment of death. But this dying wish, they add, necessarily depends on the images that a person has given to his desires, passions, etc. during his past life. For this very reason, namely, that our last desire may not harm our future progress, we must watch our actions and control our passions and desires throughout our earthly life.
17) It simply cannot be otherwise. The experience of dying people - those who drowned or survived some other accident, but were brought back to life - in almost all cases confirms our doctrine. Such thoughts are involuntary, and we have no more power to prevent them than to prevent the retina from perceiving the color that most actively affects it.” (See “Letters from the Mahatmas to Sinnett.” – Samara: Agni, 1998.)
- 2. ...See: Convulsionnaires de St. Medard et de Morline...- It is quite possible that this French link points to de Mirville's writings "Des Esprits, etc." in that part of it that is dedicated to the possessed; however, this assumption has not yet been confirmed for certain.
- 3. Rapport sur la Philosophic en France au XlXme Steele.
- 4. Vol. II, p. 377-78.
About the state of a suicide after death
Article by Eliphas Levi in the comments of H.P. Blavatsky
Translation – K. Leonov
We are pleased to offer our readers the first article in a series of unpublished works by the late Eliphas Levi (Abbé Alphonse Louis Constant), one of the great teachers of the occult sciences of our century in the West. A former Roman Catholic priest, he was defrocked by the Roman ecclesiastical authorities, who do not tolerate any belief in God, the Devil or Science outside the narrow circle of their limited dogmas, and anathematize any soul oppressed by their creed who succeeds in freeing himself from his mental slavery. “It is in reason that knowledge increases and faith decreases; therefore those who know the most always believe the least,” said Carlyle. Eliphas Levi knew much, much more than even the privileged minority among the greatest mystics of modern Europe; therefore he was slandered by the ignorant majority. He wrote these ominous words: “The revelation of the great secrets of true religion and ancient science magicians, showing the world the unity of universal dogma, destroys fanaticism through scientific explanation and discovery of the meaning of any of the miracles,” and these words sealed his fate. Religious fanaticism persecuted him for his lack of belief in a “divine” miracle; fanatical materialism - for using the word “miracle”; dogmatic science - for trying to explain what it could not yet explain itself, and which, therefore, it did not believe. The author of the books: “Dogma and Ritual of High Magic”, “The Science of Spirits” and “The Key to the Great Mysteries” died in poverty, like his famous predecessors in occult art - Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus and many others. Of all the countries of the world, Europe stones its prophets most cruelly, while false prophets very successfully lead it by the nose. Europe will prostrate itself before any idol, provided he flatters her favorite habits, loudly extols her arrogant intellect, and appeals to him. Christian Europe will believe in divine and demonic miracles and in the infallibility of a book that was condemned by its own lips and consists of legends long ago debunked. Spiritualistic Europe will be delighted by the vision of a medium - unless it is a sheet or a clumsy mask - and will remain completely confident in the reality of the appearance of ghosts and spirits of the dead. Scientific Europe will ridicule Christians and spiritualists with contempt, destroying everything and building nothing, limiting itself to compiling arsenals of facts with which in most cases it does not know what to do, and the inner nature of which is still a mystery to it. And then all three, disagreeing on everything else, agree to join forces to suppress time-honored science and ancient wisdom, the only science that can make religion scientific, science religious, and free the human mind from the thick web of CONCEPT and SUPERSTITION.
The following article was brought to us by a respected member of the Theosophical Society and a student of Eliphas Levi. Our correspondent and disciple of a great teacher of occult science, who had lost his dear friend (who committed suicide), asked him to give his views on the state of the soul of the felo-de-se [suicide]. He did it; and with the kind permission of his student we are now translating and publishing his manuscript. Although we personally are far from sharing his ideas in everything - for, being a priest, Eliphas Levi never freed himself until last day from our theological predilections, we are still ready to listen with respect to the instructions of such a learned Kabbalist. Like Agrippa and, to some extent, Paracelsus himself, Abbot Constant may be called a biblical or Christian cabalist, although Christ was, in his opinion, more ideal than a living god-man or historical figure. Moses or Christ, if they really existed, were, in his opinion, people initiated into the secret mysteries. Jesus was the symbol of regenerated humanity, the divine principle who took human form only to prove the divinity of humanity. The mysticism of the established church, which seeks to absorb human nature in the divine nature of Christ, is strongly criticized by its former representative. But more than anyone else, Eliphas Levi is a Jewish Kabbalist. Even if we really wanted to change or correct the teachings of such a great master of occultism, it would be more than simply indecent today, since he is no longer alive and he could not defend and explain his position. We will leave this unenviable task of kicking the dead and dying lions to the donkeys, those willing undertakers of all ruined reputations. Therefore, although we personally do not agree with all his views, our opinion agrees with the opinion of the literary world that Eliphas Levi was one of the cleverest, most learned and interesting authors among those who dealt with this most difficult question.
The state of a suicide after death
Voluntary death is the most incorrigible of all sinful acts, but it is also the most excusable of crimes, due to the painful effort required to carry it out. Suicide is the result of weakness, which at the same time requires great mental strength. It can be caused by strong attachment, as well as selfishness, and often occurs due to ignorance. If only people knew what kind of solidarity binds them together, such that they live in other people just as other people live in them, they would rejoice instead of grieve, having discovered a double share of the suffering they have determined in this life; for, understanding the eternal law of universal equality and harmony, they would then realize the double measure of bliss and happiness due to them, and consequently they would be less willing to reject the value of their work on the pretext that their work is too rude. I sincerely feel sorry for my unfortunate friend, although this is for him and for him people like this words of consolation may be addressed: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
They ask me what can be done to help his suffering soul? Of course, I cannot advise you to turn to the church for consolation. Although she does not prohibit hope, she considers the suicide to be forever excluded from Christian communion; her harsh laws make her always curse him. You can help the poor deserter in life with “prayer” - but this prayer must be action, not words. See if he left anything unfinished, or perhaps he did not do something better on earth than he managed to do, and then try to complete things for him and in his name. Give alms for him, but reasonable and unobtrusive alms, for it bears fruit only when you help the crippled and the old, those who are unable to work; and money devoted to charity should serve to encourage work, and not to approve and support laziness. If this unfortunate soul excites your very strong compassion and you feel great sympathy for him, then exalt this feeling and you will become a providence and a light for him. She will live, so to speak, in your intellectual and moral life, not receiving in that great darkness into which she was carried away by her deed, any light other than the reflection of your good thoughts about her. But know that by creating such a special bond of unity between your spirit and the spirit of the sufferer, you expose yourself to the risk of feeling the reflection of similar suffering. You may experience great despondency, doubts will attack you and you will feel discouraged. This poor creature you have received can probably cause you the same torment as a child makes its mother suffer on the eve of its birth. The last comparison is so accurate that our predecessors in our holy science (occultism) gave this “adoption” of suffering souls the name “EMBRYONATE”. I touched on this topic in my work "The Science of Spirits", but since this question now concerns you personally, I will try to make this idea more clear.
A suicide can be compared to a madman who, in order to avoid work, would cut off his own arms and legs, and thus force others to transport him and work for him. He deprived himself of his physical limbs before his spiritual organs were formed. In this state, life became impossible for him; but what is even more impossible for him is to destroy himself before his time comes. If, however, he is fortunate enough to find a person devoted enough to his memory to sacrifice himself and provide him with refuge, he will live through the life of this person, not like vampires, but like a fetus that lives in the body of its mother, without weakening him, for nature compensates for the loss and rewards those who spend a lot. In its intrauterine state, the child is aware of its existence and already manifests its will through movements independent and undirected by the will of its mother, and even causes her pain. The baby does not know the thoughts of its mother, and the latter does not know what her child may be dreaming about. She is aware of two existences, but not of two different souls within herself, since their two souls are one for her feeling of love; and believes that the birth of her child will not separate their souls, as will happen to their bodies. It will only give them (if I may use this expression) a new polarization (like the two poles of a magnet). It is the same in death, which is our second birth. Death does not separate, but only polarizes two souls that were sincerely attached to each other on this earth. Souls freed from their earthly bonds raise our own to themselves, and in turn our souls can pull them down with a force similar to that of a magnet.
But sinful souls undergo two types of torment. One of them is the result of their imperfect liberation from the material bonds that chained them to our planet; the other is caused by the absence of a “heavenly magnet”. The latter becomes the lot of those souls who, having given themselves up to despair, have violently broken the chain of life, and therefore their equilibrium, and must subsequently remain in a state of absolute helplessness until some noble soul clothed with a body volunteers to share with them its magnetism and its life, and thus help them to return in time to the stream of universal life, providing them with the necessary polarization.
You know what this word means. It is borrowed from astronomy and physical science. Stars have opposite and similar poles, which determines the position of their axes, and this is as natural as with artificial magnets. The law of polarization is universal and governs the world of spirits as well as the world of physical bodies.
Eliphas Levi
