Theosophical Society,
H P Blavatsky
The Dual Aspect of Wisdom
By
H P Blavatsky
No
doubt but ye are the people and wisdom shall die with you.
JOB
xii. 2.
But
wisdom is justified of her children.
MATTHEW
xi. 19.
IT
is the privilege--as also occasionally the curse--of editors to receive numerous
letters of advice, and the conductors of Lucifer have not escaped the common
lot. Reared in the aphorisms of the ages they are aware that "he who can
take advice is superior to him who gives it," and are therefore ready to
accept with gratitude any sound and practical suggestions offered by friends;
but the last letter received does not fulfill the condition. It is not even his
own wisdom, but that of the age we live in, which is asserted by our adviser,
who thus seriously risks his reputation for keen observation by such acts of
devotion on the altar of modern pretensions. It is in defense of the
"wisdom" of our century that we are taken to task, and charged with
"preferring barbarous antiquity to our modern civilization and its inestimable
boons," with forgetting that "our own-day wisdom compared with the
awakening instincts of the Past is in no way inferior in philosophic wisdom
even to the age of Plato." We are lastly told that we, Theosophists, are
"too fond of the dim yesterday, and as unjust to our glorious (?)
present-day, the bright noon-hour of the highest civilization and
culture"! !
Well,
all this is a question of taste. Our correspondent is welcome to his own views,
but so are we to ours. Let him imagine that the
Our
age, we say, is inferior in Wisdom to any other, because it professes, more
visibly every day, contempt for truth and justice, without which there can be
no Wisdom. Because our civilization, built up of shams and appearances, is at
best like a beautiful green morass, a bog, spread over a deadly quagmire.
Because this century of culture and worship of matter, while offering prizes
and premiums for every "best thing" under the Sun, from the biggest
baby and the largest orchid down to the strongest pugilist and the fattest pig,
has no encouragement to offer to morality; no prize to give for any moral
virtue. Because it has Societies for the prevention of physical cruelty to animals,
and none with the object of preventing the moral cruelty practiced on human
beings. Because it encourages, legally and tacitly, vice under every form, from
the sale of whiskey down to forced prostitution and theft brought on by
starvation wages, Shylock-like exaction, rents and other comforts of our
cultured period. Because, finally, this is the age which, although proclaimed
as one of physical and moral freedom, is in truth the age of the most ferocious
moral and mental slavery, the like of which was never known before. Slavery to
State and men has disappeared only to make room for slavery to things and Self,
to one's own vices and idiotic social customs and ways. Rapid civilization,
adapted to the needs of the higher and middle classes, has doomed by contrast
to only greater wretchedness the starving masses. Having leveled the two former
it has made them the more to disregard the substance in favor of form and
appearance, thus forcing modern man into duress vile, a slavish dependence on
things inanimate, to use and to serve which is the first bounded duty of every
cultured man.
Where
then is the Wisdom of our modern age?
In
truth, it requires but a very few lines to show why we bow before ancient
Wisdom, while refusing absolutely to see any in our modem civilization. But to
begin with, what does our critic mean by the word "wisdom"? Though we
have never too unreasonably admired Lactantius, yet we must recognize that even
that innocent Church Father, with all his cutting insults anent the heliocentric
system, defined the term very correctly when saying that "the first point
of Wisdom is to discern that which is false, and the second, to know that which
is true." And if so. what chance is there for our century of
falsification, from the revised Bible texts down to natural butter, to put
forth a claim to "Wisdom"? But before we cross lances on this subject
we may do well, perchance, to define the term ourselves.
Let
us premise by saying that Wisdom is, at best, an elastic word --at any rate as
used in European tongues. That it yields no clear idea of its meaning, unless
preceded or followed by some qualifying adjective. In the Bible, indeed, the
Hebrew equivalent Chokmah (in Greek, Sophia) is applied to the most dissimilar
things--abstract and concrete. Thus we find "Wisdom" as the
characteristic both of divine inspiration and also of terrestrial cunning and
craft; as meaning the Secret Knowledge of the Esoteric Sciences, and also blind
faith; the "fear of the Lord," and Pharaoh's magicians. The noun is
indifferently applied to Christ and to sorcery, for the witch Sedecla is also
referred to as the "wise woman of En-Dor." From the earliest
Christian antiquity, beginning with St. James (iii, 13-17), down to the last
Calvinist preacher, who sees in hell and eternal damnation a proof of "the
Almighty's wisdom," the term has been used with the most varied meanings.
But St. James teaches two kinds of wisdom; a teaching with which we fully
concur. He draws a strong line of separation between the divine or noëtic
"Sophia"--the Wisdom from above--and the terrestrial, psychic, and
devilish wisdom (iii, 15). For the true Theosophist there is no wisdom save the
former. Would that such an one could declare with Paul, that he speaks that
wisdom exclusively only among them "that are perfect," i.e., those
initiated into its mysteries, or familiar, at least, with the A B C of the
sacred sciences. But, however great was his mistake, however premature his
attempt to sow the seeds of the true and eternal gnosis on unprepared soil, his
motives were yet good and his intention unselfish, and therefore has he been
stoned. For had he only attempted to preach some particular fiction of his own,
or done it for gain, who would have ever singled him out or tried to crush him,
amid the hundreds of other false sects, daily "collections" and crazy
"societies"? But his case was different. However cautiously, still he
spoke "not the wisdom of this world" but truth or the "hidden
wisdom . . . which none of the Princes of this World know (I Corinth. ii.)
least of all the archons of our modern science. With regard to
"psychic" wisdom, however, which James defines as terrestrial and
devilish, it has existed in all ages, from the days of Pythagoras and Plato,
when for one philosophus there were nine sophistae, down to our modern era. To
such wisdom our century is welcome, and indeed fully entitled, to lay a claim.
Moreover, it is an attire easy to put on; there never was a period when crows
refused to array themselves in peacock's feathers, I if the opportunity was
offered.
But
now as then, we have a right to analyze the terms used and inquire in the words
of the book of Job, that suggestive allegory of Karmic purification and
initiation rites: "Where shall (true) wisdom be found? Where is the place
of understanding?" and to answer again in his words: "With the
ancient is wisdom and in the length of days understanding" (Job xxviii, 12
and xii, 12) .
Here
we have to qualify once more a dubious term, viz: the word "ancient,"
and to explain it. As interpreted by the orthodox churches, it has in the mouth
of Job one meaning; but with the Kabalist, quite another; while in the Gnosis
of the Occultist and Theosophist it has distinctly a third signification, the
same which it had in the original Book of Job, a pre-Mosaic work and a
recognized treatise on Initiation. Thus, the Kabalist applies the adjective
"ancient" to the Manifested WORD or LOGOS (Dabar) of the forever
concealed and uncognizable deity. Daniel, in one of his visions, also uses it
when speaking of Jahve--the androgynous Adam Kadmon. The Church man connects it
with his anthropomorphic Jehovah, the "Lord God" of the translated
Bible. But the Eastern Occultist employs the mystic term only when referring to
the reincarnating higher Ego. For, divine Wisdom being diffused throughout the
infinite Universe, and our impersonal HIGHER SELF being an integral part of it,
the atmic light of the latter can be centered only in that which though eternal
is still individualized--i.e., the noëtic Principle, the manifested God within
each rational being, or our Higher Manas at one with Buddhi. It is this
collective light which is the "Wisdom that is from above," and which
whenever it descends on the personal Ego, is found "pure, peaceable, gentle."
Hence, Job's assertion that "Wisdom is with the Ancient," or
Buddhi-Manas. For the Divine Spiritual "I," is alone eternal, and the
same throughout all births; whereas5 the "personalities" it informs
in succession are evanescent, changing like the shadows of a kaleidoscopic
series of forms in a magic lantern It is the "Ancient," because,
whether it be called Sophia, Krishna, Buddhi-Manas or Christos, it is ever the
"first-born" of Alaya-Mahat, the Universal Soul and the Intelligence
of the Universe. Esoterically then, Job's statement must read: "With the
Ancient (man's Higher Ego) is Wisdom, and in the length of days (or number of
its re-incarnations) is understanding." No man can learn true and final
Wisdom in one birth; and every new rebirth, whether we be reincarnated for weal
or for woe, is one more lesson we receive at the hands of the stern yet ever
just schoolmaster-- KARMIC LIFE.
But
the world--the Western world, at any rate--knows nothing of this, and refuses
to learn anything. For it, any notion of the Divine Ego or the plurality of its
births is "heathen foolishness." The Western world rejects these
truths, and will recognize no wise men except those of its own making, created
in its own image, born within its own Christian era and teachings. The only
"wisdom" it understands and practices is the psychic, the
"terrestrial and devilish" wisdom spoken of by James, thus making of
the real Wisdom a misnomer and a degradation. Yet, without considering her
multiplied varieties, there are two kinds of even "terrestrial"
wisdom on our globe of mud--the real and the apparent. Between the two, there
is even for the superficial observer of this busy wicked world, a wide chasm,
and yet how very few people will consent to see it! The reason for this is
quite natural. So strong is human selfishness, that wherever there is the
smallest personal interest at stake, there men become deaf and blind to the
truth, as often consciously as not. Nor are many people capable of recognizing
as speedily as is advisable the difference between men who are wise and those
who only seem wise, the latter being chiefly regarded as such because they are
very clever at blowing their own trumpet. So much for "wisdom" in the
profane world.
As
to the world of the students in mystic lore, it is almost worse. Things have
strangely altered since the days of antiquity, when the truly wise made it
their first duty to conceal their knowledge, deeming it too sacred to even
mention before the hoi polloi. While the mediæval Rosecroix, the true
philosopher, keeping old Socrates in mind, repeated daily that all he knew was
that he knew nothing, his modern self-styled successor announces in our day,
through press and public, that those mysteries in Nature and her Occult laws of
which he knows nothing, have never xisted at all. There was a time when the
acquirement of Divine Wisdom (Sapientia) required the sacrifice and devotion of
a man's whole life. It depended on such things as the purity of the candidate's
motives, on his fearlessness and independence of spirit; but now, to receive a
patent for wisdom and adept-ship requires only unblushing impudence. A
certificate of divine wisdom is now decreed, and delivered to a self-styled
"Adeptus" by a regular majority of votes of profane and easily caught
gulls, while a host of magpies driven away from the roof of the
The
same is the case in the world of materialistic science, where we see a great
paucity of really learned men and a host of skin-deep scientists, who yet
demand each and all to be regarded as Archimedes and
Nevertheless,
if anyone would presume to call "unwise" or "false" the
world-chosen authorities, or declare their respective policies dishonest, he
would find himself promptly reduced to silence. To doubt the exalted wisdom of
the religion of the late Cardinal Newman, of the Church of England, or again of
our great modern scientists, is to sin against the Holy Ghost and Culture. Woe
unto him who refuses to recognize the World's "Elect." He has to bow
before one or the other, though, if one is true, the other must be false; and
if the "wisdom" of neither Bishop nor Scientist is "from
above"--which is pretty fairly demonstrated by this time--then their
"wisdom" is at best--"terrestrial, psychic, devilish."
Now
our readers have to bear in mind that note of the above is meant as a sign of
disrespect for the true teachings of Christ, or true science: nor do we judge
personalities but only the systems of our civilized world. Valuing freedom of
thought above all things as the only way of reaching at some future time that
Wisdom, of which every Theosophist ought to be enamored, we recognize the right
to the same freedom in our foes as in our friends. All we contend for is their
claim to Wisdom--as we understand this term. Nor do we blame, but rather pity,
in our innermost heart, the "wise men" of our age for trying to carry
out the only policy that will keep them on the pinnacle of their
"authority"; as they could not, if even they would, act therwise and
preserve their prestige with the masses, or escape from being speedily outcast
by their colleagues. The party spirit is so strong with regard to the old
tracks and ruts, that to turn on a side path means deliberate treachery to it.
Thus, to be regarded now-a-days as an authority in some particular subject, the
scientist has to reject nolens volens the metaphysical, and the theologian to
show contempt for the materialistic teachings. All this is worldly policy and
practical common sense, but it is not the Wisdom of either Job or James.
Shall
it be then regarded as too far fetched, if, basing our words on a life-long
observation and experience, we venture to offer our ideas as to the quickest
and most efficient means of obtaining our present World's universal respect and
becoming an "authority"? Show the tender regard for the corns of
every party's hobbies, and offer yourself as the chief executioner, the
hangman, of the reputations of men and things regarded as unpopular. Learn,
that the great secret of power consists in the art of pandering to popular
prejudices, to the World's likes and dislikes. Once this principal condition
complied with, he who practices it is certain of attracting to himself the
educated and their satellites--the less educated--they whose rule it is to
place themselves invariably on the safe side of public opinion. This will lead
to a perfect harmony or simultaneous action. For, while the favorite attitude
of the cultured is to hide behind the intellectual bulwarks of the favorite
leaders of scientific thought, and jurare in verba magistri, that of the less
cultured is to transform themselves into the faithful, mechanical telephones of
their superiors, and to repeat like well-trained parrots the dicta of their
immediate leaders The now aphoristical precept of Mr. Artemus Ward, the showman
of famous memory-- "Scratch my back, Mr. Editor, and I will scratch
yours"--proves immortally true. The "rising Star," whether he be
a theologian, a politician, an author, a scientist, or a journalist--has to
begin scratching the back of public tastes and prejudices-- a hypnotic method
as old as human vanity. Gradually the hypnotized masses begin to purr, they are
ready for "suggestion." Suggest whatever you want them to believe,
and forthwith they will begin to return your caresses, and purr now to your
hobbies, and pander in their turn to anything suggested by theologian,
politician, author, scientist, or journalist. Such is the simple secret of
blossoming into an "authority" or a "leader of men"; and
such is the secret of our modern-day wisdom.
And
this is also the "secret" and the true reason of the unpopularity of
Lucifer and of the ostracism practiced by this same modern world on the
Theosophical Society: for neither Lucifer, nor the Society it belongs to, has
ever followed Mr. Artemus Ward's golden precept. No true Theosophist, in fact,
would consent to become the fetish of a fashionable doctrine, any more than he
would make himself the slave of a decaying dead-letter system, the spirit from
which has disappeared for ever. Neither would he pander to anyone or anything,
and therefore would always decline to show belief in that in which he does not,
nor can he believe, which is lying to his own soul. Therefore there, where
others see "the beauty and graces of modern culture," the Theosophist
sees only moral ugliness and the somersaults of the clowns of the so-called
cultured centres. For him nothing applies better to modern fashionable society
than Sydney Smith's description of Popish ritualism: "Posture and
imposture, flections and genuflections, bowing to the right, curtsying to the
left, and an immense amount of male (and especially female) millinery."
There may be, no doubt, for some worldly minds, a great charm in modern
civilization; but for the Theosophist all its bounties can hardly repay for the
evils it has brought on the world. These are so many, that it is not within the
limits of this article to enumerate these offspring of culture and of the
progress of physical science, whose latest achievements begin with vivisection
and end in improved murder by electricity.
Our
answer, we have no doubt, is not calculated to make us more friends than
enemies, but this can be hardly helped. Our magazine may be looked upon as
"pessimistic," but no one can charge it with publishing slanders or
lies, or, in fact, anything but that which we honestly believe to be true. Be
it as it may, however, we hope never to lack moral courage in the expression of
our opinions or in defense of Theosophy and its Society. Let then nine-tenths
of every population arise in arms against the Theosophical Society wherever it
appears--they will never be able to suppress the truths it utters. Let the
masses of growing Materialism, the hosts of Spiritualism, all the Church-going
congregations, bigots and iconoclasts, Grundy- worshippers, aping-followers and
blind disciples, let them slander, abuse, lie, denounce, and publish every
falsehood about us under the sun-- they will not uproot Theosophy, nor even
upset her Society, if only its members hold together. Let even such friends and
advisers as he who is now answered, turn away in disgust from those whom he
addresses in vain--it matters not, for our two paths in life run diametrically
opposite. Let him keep to his "terrestrial" wisdom: we will keep to
that pure ray "that comes from above, " from the light of the
"Ancient."
What
indeed, has WISDOM, Theosophia--the Wisdom "full of mercy and good fruits,
without wrangling or partiality and without hypocrisy" (James iii, 17)--to
do with our cruel, selfish, crafty, and hypocritical world? What is there in
common between divine Sophia and the improvements of modern civilization and
science; between spirit and the letter that killeth? The more so as at this
stage of evolution the wisest man on earth, according to the wise Carlyle, is
but a clever infant spelling letters from a hieroglyphical, prophetic book, the
lexicon of which lies in eternity."
First
Published in Lucifer, September, 1890
1
See "The Deadlock of Darwinism," by Samuel Butler, in the Universal
Review for April, 1890.
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