Quest Magazine

Realization, Enlightenment and the Life of Rapture

by A. E. I. Falconar. Dehra Dun
India: English Book Depot (15Rajpur Road, Dehra Dun 248001, India), for Non·Aristotelian Publishing, Isle of Man, 1994. Pp. (iv), vi, 208. ISBN 09510924 3 X. Hardback.

Ted Falconar is a longtime Theosophist who lives on the Isle of Man and travels frequently to India. His new book Realization, Enlightenment and the Life of Rapture is a delineation and interpretation of the spiritual path. It brings together the teachings of the Ancient Wisdom and other spiritual philosophies on the nature of the spiritual path, its difficulties, and ways to overcome them. Courageously, it attempts to describe the indescribable non-dual state of consciousness that has many names but is directly experienced by few.

Falconar says that achieving the non-dual state results in a life of rapture and the conquest of death. He suggests that the death of the desiring ego leads to a rebirth and the entering of the path to enlightenment and rapture.

Paradoxically, the author uses words to illustrate how verbalization gets in the way of achieving this state. He contends that linear, Aristotelian thinking is not only of little value in the quest but actually a hindrance. Western thought has gone down the wrong path in that it makes us more and more connected with the world instead of more detached, thus reifying the world of form and everything in it.

On the other hand, Eastern thought for millennia has taught the unreality of the conceptual world in which we exist and a method by which we can discover the real and thus gain Realization. This freedom, this liberation, is the ultimate aim of the seeker in the Eastern tradition. Realization can only be achieved by letting go and letting be.

Conceptualization and verbalization is not the path of letting go and letting be. Words and concepts are in fact a hindrance to nonverbal experience, which can only be achieved through opening the heart. The opening of the heart, in turn, is achieved through the devotional paths found in yoga, Sufism and other mystical traditions.

Falconer supports his thesis that our desiring egos and attachments are the cause of our suffering by quoting extensively from many of the great yogis, poets, Sufis, and spiritual philosophers, among them Sri Krishna Prem, Ramakrishna, Rumi, Kabir, Arabi and others who have written and spoken about this journey to rapture and the path to immortality:

Freedom can come only from Universal Consciousness for it is forever free, whereas lower selves are forever bound; only when we escape from our lower selves are we freed. [Sri Krishna Prem]

Falconar's discussion of how linear thinking and verbalization cause the main block to spiritual progress is enhanced by his use of nonverbal images, visualizations, and poetry to illustrate practically how we can go beyond the rational mind and so enter the state of rapture.

Happy the moment when we are seated in the palace,
thou and I,
With two forms and two figures but with one
soul, thou and I.
At the time when we shall come into the
garden, thou and I,
The stars of heaven will come to gaze upon us;
We shall show them the moon herself, thou
and I.
Thou and I, individuals no more, shall be
mingled in ecstasy. [Rumi]

One of the book's strongest points is its inclusion of many diverse spiritual traditions. Another is the use of poetry related to the spiritual path, which gives a deeper appreciation of both the poetry and the path.

Do not go to the garden of flowers! O Friend! Go not there.
In your body is the garden of flowers,
Take your seat on the thousand petals of the
lotus,
And there gaze on the Infinite Beauty. [Kalur]

Falconer describes the spiritual path in a logical and understandable way. And yet, while his writing style is direct, readable, and often quite beautiful, it occasionally demonstrates antagonism toward a scientific point of view. In addition, some might find an overabundance of illustrative quotations.

With this single caveat, I can say that Falconar describes the indescribable as well as I have ever seen it described. This book is a truly marvelous work by a Western mystic who brings to life the familiar Sanskrit petition: 

Lead me from the unreal to the real,
Lend me from darkness to light,
Lead me from death to immortality.

-ALEX PAPPAS

January 1997

Printed in the  Summer 2023 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Sender, Pablo,  "Participating in the Work of the Masters of Wisdom" Quest 111:3, pg 26-29

By Pablo Sender

Among the hitherto secret teachings that the Theosophical Society has brought to the attention of the modern world is the idea of the existence of enlightened men and women living in seclusion from the world. Theosophical literature generally refers to them as Mahatmas, adepts, or Masters of Wisdom.

Since this idea was first put forward publicly by H.P. Blavatsky nearly 150 years ago, a number of individuals and organizations have taken the concept and presented it in their own ways, sometimes departing significantly from the original description given by Blavatsky and other early Theosophists. (I have discussed this topic in “Mahatmas versus Ascended Masters,” Quest, summer 2011). In this article, I will focus on the teachings about the Masters of Wisdom found in Theosophical literature.

Let us start from a historical perspective. Blavatsky left her home when she was eighteen and started a pilgrimage around the world in a search for spiritual truth and enlightenment. During her journey, she met many wise people belonging to different religions until she encountered an enlightened Indian yogi living in Tibet, who is known by Theosophists under the pseudonym of Morya, or simply M. Blavatsky became a disciple of Mahatma M and soon learned the existence of an international community of enlightened beings living on various continents who work in a concerted way to help humanity in its evolutionary journey. This community is known as the Brotherhood of Adepts.

Blavatsky’s adept teacher told her that their Brotherhood had been planning an effort to inspire a new form of spirituality in the world that could bring Eastern and Western mysticism together and offer a more rational approach to spirituality. This effort eventually resulted in the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875.

During those early years, some of these adepts were heavily involved in launching the organization. In that period, about forty members wrote of their encounters with these Mahatmas. This occurred at various times, in different parts of the world, and in connection with the work of the TS. In addition, a number of adepts (mainly from Egypt and Tibet) engaged in correspondence with a variety of early Theosophists. The original letters are preserved in the British Library and the archives of the TS in Adyar, and their contents have been published in several books.

Their Work

Because the Mahatmas engaged in a correspondence with early members of the TS, one may get the impression that these adepts have little to do except communicate with people on a comparatively public level. This is not the case. In their letters, they repeatedly state that this kind of communication was exceptional and would end as soon as the TS was firmly established.

When Blavatsky was asked about the work of the adepts, she said: “You would hardly understand, unless you were an Adept. But they keep alive the spiritual life of mankind.” She was then asked in what ways the adepts help people’s spiritual growth, and her answer was, “In many ways, but chiefly by teaching their souls direct, in the spiritual world. That is difficult for you to understand” (Blavatsky, Collected Writings, 8:401).

Blavatsky’s answers refer to what can be regarded as the main work of the adepts, which takes place primarily on the spiritual planes. Since at this point in evolution most of us are not aware of the reality of these planes, it is difficult for us to grasp the nature of this activity. C.W. Leadbeater elaborated: “The Adepts are dealing with the entire world in enormous comprehensive sweeps of power; They are influencing millions in their [souls or] causal bodies, or on the buddhic plane, and all the time steadily, though by almost imperceptible degrees, raising the higher bodies of the people on a wholesale scale” (Leadbeater, 42).

The adepts stimulate the unfolding of our spiritual nature by sharing with our souls the intense divine life that flows through these enlightened beings. Perhaps the idea of the “grace of the guru” may correspond to what the adepts do. However, while typical gurus affect their pupils on the physical plane, these adepts leave their physical bodies behind in meditation and operate directly from the spiritual planes, on which our souls dwell. This is one reason they live in seclusion from the world: it allows them to work undisturbed by external influences.

Because most of us are only aware of the physical, emotional, and mental aspects of our beings, there is a natural tendency to assume that if the Mahatmas are helping humanity, their attention and efforts should be focused on these levels. Thus people sometimes wonder why the adepts do not actively engage in social change.

There is evidence in Theosophical literature that the adepts do work at this level to some extent. In times of world crisis, they are forced to turn their attention to what may be happening on the physical plane, to give help and try to reduce suffering to the extent that human karma allows. Additionally, from time to time they either step into the public sphere as great spiritual teachers or inspire the formation of a spiritual movement. But these are not the main areas of their work. How we lead our lives on this level depends mainly on the degree to which our souls are awake. The root of most, if not all, human problems is that the majority of people are spiritually half asleep, and consequently their personalities show traits such as selfishness, cruelty, and materialism. The most effective way to help humanity is not by trying to change social structures, which will be spoiled again in time by selfishness and greed, but to nourish the development of the soul, whose influence trickles down to the physical personality, making it more loving, cooperative, and nonviolent.

This does not mean that the adepts regard whatever happens on the physical plane as unimportant: they are concerned with the totality of human experience. However, since humanity is only halfway through its evolutionary journey, the available number of adepts is necessarily small, and they cannot do everything. Therefore they are eagerly searching for people who, although not yet able to help their work on the spiritual planes, are willing to help humanity on the planes where they are aware: the mental, emotional, and physical levels. Let us explore this in more detail.

The Masters of Wisdom

 For these reasons, a small number of the adepts take on an additional duty, which was described by Theosophist Geoffrey Hodson as follows:

A vitally important part of the work of the Masters of the Wisdom, as some of Them are called, is to discover, to attract, accept, and train disciples, men and women, living out in the world of men like ourselves apparently, and those who become filled with an utterly selfless dedication to the loving service of their fellowmen without thought of reward. (Hodson, 3:150)

This specific group of adepts, known as “Masters of Wisdom,” are willing to take as disciples people who have the service of humanity at heart and who fulfill certain emotional, mental, and spiritual qualifications. The need for these qualifications becomes clear when considering that the blind cannot lead the blind. In other words, in order to be able to help with the problems that trouble humanity, the individual has to be beyond the grip of these problems.

Why would these adepts decide to divert part of their attention from the help they give to souls en masse and focus it on a few specific individuals? The world can clearly benefit by having more adepts, but the slow path of natural evolution will take millions of years to produce this result. However, there is the possibility of a much faster way, known as the “occult path,” in which the disciple makes a heroic spiritual effort to reach the evolutionary goal far in advance of the rest of humanity. The word heroic is here used purposefully, since the hero’s journey presented in many mythologies is an allegorical description of the occult path. This journey is depicted as a perilous one, full of dangers, temptations, sacrifices, and difficult tasks. Why is the occult path so demanding? It is only logical that if a person wants to accomplish a given task in an extraordinarily short time, it will require an extraordinary effort, dedication, and commitment.

The occult path cannot be trodden alone. It requires the intervention of a Master, because in order to stimulate the growth of a disciple, the latter has to be put under the action of special occult forces, which produce great physical and psychological pressure. By dealing with the additional strain and challenges that come up in daily life, the disciple’s growth is accelerated. Then disciples pass a series of initiations on the inner planes by means of which they become adepts in a short number of incarnations—if they can successfully tread this path of swift unfoldment.

One may ask, why would anybody want to make their daily lives harder by embarking on this perilous journey? Imagined spiritual rewards will never be a strong enough motivation to sustain the aspirant on this path. But for those who feel the suffering of humanity in their hearts, who find that the worldly rewards of the ordinary life have little meaning, who have weakened the demands of their egos and have developed a healthy measure of inner strength—for those, the path of personal sacrifice in order to be of service to these veritable “saviors of humanity” becomes an ever-inspiring motivation and ideal.

Working with the Masters

How can the aspirant participate in this lofty task? An old axiom that says, “When the pupil is ready, the Master appears.” As mentioned, before the aspirant can be accepted as disciple by a Master of Wisdom, there are certain qualifications that must be fulfilled. These have been described in books such as At the Feet of the Master, Light on the Path, and The Voice of the Silence. A perusal of these books will reveal that these qualifications are not easy to achieve, but the aspirant must keep in mind that this preparation is not the work of a single lifetime. As we endeavor to live from the perspective given in these works, we will gradually develop the qualities, inner resources, and strength necessary to enter the occult path when the time comes.

Does this mean that we cannot participate in the work of the Masters until we meet all these requirements and become disciples? Fortunately, those who feel inspired by this ideal need not feel discouraged by the magnitude of the task. Being a disciple is not the only way to collaborate with the Masters. As Theosophist Clara Codd describes:

 They [the Masters] work on this plane through two kinds of agents: direct and indirect . . . Their direct agents are their accepted disciples, who work consciously with the Masters . . . [but] any person sincere and unselfish working in the line of the Masters’ work may receive their inspiration even if they do not know it. (Codd, 9)

Those inspired to help humanity and who work seriously to spiritualize their nature can become “indirect” agents of the Masters to the degree that their own limitations allow it. In fact, the Masters begin to pay attention to people several incarnations before they are ready to enter the occult path as a disciple. Geoffrey Hodson writes:

During many lives on earth, He [the Master of Wisdom] has watched and loved the pilgrim soul, invisibly has guided and inspired the inner man [or self]. Whenever by virtue of evolutionary progress an individual shows signs of spiritual awakening and the recognition of duty as the governing principle of life, he begins to come under more direct Adept surveillance, receives Adept aid. (Hodson, Initiate Life, 7)

When an aspirant shows earnestness to lead a spiritual life and serve humanity, the Masters begin to aid the individual’s growth. Here we should be careful not to trivialize this idea. The Masters should not be seen as modern replacements of the anthropomorphic God, to whom you can pray to grant your desires, make you healthy, young, or happy. This is not the kind of aid that the Masters provide. Quite the contrary. Once aspirants show that they have loosened the grip of their egos and desires, the Master begins to arrange some of the external circumstances in such a way that will challenge the aspirants’ weaknesses and blind spots, providing valuable opportunities for training, growth, and the testing of their resolution to participate in this work. The better aspirants respond, the more attention they gain from the Masters.

Notice also that the guidance and inspiration of the Master is described as being primarily upon the inner self. As a rule, the Masters do not give external signs of their presence, for several reasons. The Master’s influence manifests unconsciously to the person in the form of inner inspiration, ideas for service, or the strength to deal with karmic difficulties.

Thus the relationship of an aspirant, or even a disciple, with the Master should not be confused with the current idea of channeling, where the person seems to be constantly guided by an invisible entity, typically assumed to be a spiritual being such as an angel, a god, or a Master. One should avoid the simplistic view that whatever is not physical is therefore spiritual. There are actually three realms of nature—the physical, the psychic, and the spiritual. The astral and lower mental planes, which constitute the psychic realm, are not planes of truth and insight, but simply of nonphysical beings and phenomena. There are many types of entities in this realm—good, bad, and neutral—and the lower the entity, the more eager it will be to find suitable means to communicate with the physical plane, often impersonating high-sounding characters. This is why Geoffrey Hodson warned:

One thing that I would advise against is to not automatically take the word of a disembodied person that they are a Master. You see, the big problem is that the ordinary person cannot see and examine who they are communicating with, sometimes it is just an ordinary dead person on the astral plane who wants to develop a following without really knowing what they are talking about; it may even be an elemental who gets fun out of playing tricks on humans, or worse it could also be a dugpa or black magician who is trying to mislead the person concerned and trip them up causing them and others connected with them to fall off the Path. (Hodson, Mature Answers)

Whatever the source, communication in the psychic realm is still mediated by words and concepts, whose interpretation may or may not be correct. This is why Blavatsky advised aspirants not to seek a Teacher on these planes: “If freed thou would’st be from the Karmic chains, seek not for thy Guru in those Māyāvic [illusory] regions” (Blavatsky, Voice of the Silence, 111). “The astral region [is] the Psychic World of supersensuous perceptions and of deceptive sights—the world of Mediums . . . It is the world of the Great Illusion” (Voice of the Silence, 199‒200).

The spiritual realm, where the Master primarily dwells and acts, is constituted of planes in which most of humanity are still not aware. At this level, communication does not happen through words perceived through senses (whether physical or psychic). In fact, on the spiritual levels there is basically no separation between the Masters and our own souls, so their influence comes as if from within the aspirants: it is indistinguishable from the aspirants’ own inner activity until later in their career they learn how to sense the difference.

Theosophical literature clearly states that the door to discipleship is open to those who knock in the appropriate way and that no sincere aspirant ever fails to attract the attention of the Master. In an age of self-serving activity, those working unselfishly for the welfare of humanity become bright lights in the darkness. For those who may wonder whether they are able to participate in this sacred work, it is helpful to remember what Mahatma Koot Hoomi wrote: “We have one word for all aspirants: TRY” (Chin, 148).

Sources

Blavatsky, H.P. Collected Writings, Volume 8. Edited by Boris de Zirkoff. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, ​1990.

———. The Voice of the Silence. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 2005.

Chin, Vicente Hao, Jr., ed. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in Chronological Sequence. Quezon City, Philippines: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993.

Codd, Clara. The Way of the Disciple. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 2000.

Hodson, Geoffrey. The Initiate Life. Auckland, New Zealand: Theosophical Publishing House, 2018.

———. Mature Answers website; accessed April 3, 2023.

———. Sharing the Light: Further Writings of Geoffrey Hodson, Volume 3. Quezon City, Philippines: Theosophical Publishing House, 2014  

Leadbeater, C.W. The Masters and the Path. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 2002.

Pablo Sender, PhD, has been a member of the Theosophical Society since 1996. He has lived and worked at the international headquarters of the TS in Adyar, India, and at the national center of the TS in America, and is currently residing in the Krotona Institute of Theosophy in Ojai, California. He has presented programs and retreats around the world, both in English and Spanish. He is an author, and his latest book is Approaching the Secret Doctrine. His website is www.pablosender.com.

Printed in the  Summer 2023 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Smoley, Richard,  "The Reappearance of the Christ" Quest 111:3, pg 23-25

By Richard Smoley

The reappearance of the Christ is a frequent theme in certain metaphysical and New Age circles.

Although it bears some resemblance to conventional Christian doctrine, this view of the return of the Christ differs strongly from it as well. It does not picture Christ manifesting in the skies in a luridly obvious way. What it does mean, particularly in a Theosophical context, is worth exploring.

The central figure forecasting the return of the Christ in this manner was Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949). Bailey was originally a Theosophist, but in 1920 she and her husband, Foster, broke with the Theosophical Society for reasons that are differently described by various sources. One source of contention was her claim to be in contact with the Master Djwhal Kul, or D.K., often known as “the Tibetan”—identified with a disciple of the Mahatmas Morya and K.H. Much of Bailey’s voluminous work was ostensibly channeled through to her from D.K.

Bailey’s Christ is not the God-Man proclaimed by the churches. He is instead a member of the unseen Hierarchy that constitutes the secret rulership (or supervision) of the human race. He is the particular embodiment of the Second Ray force of Love-Wisdom, “Who—for the first time in planetary history, as far as we know—transmitted the divine energy of love to our planet and in a most definite sense to humanity” (Bailey, Reappearance, 6).

In Bailey’s view, the relation of the Christ to specific men in history is one of overshadowing: the divine presence of the “Avatar” takes over the personality and body of an individual. This view is similar to the doctrine of adoptionism in some versions of Christology, which teach that the human Jesus was not born the Christ but became so only when the Christ took over his body. This is usually assumed to have happened at Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. This doctrine was held by Rudolf Steiner, but it goes back to the earliest days. Some of the most ancient copies of the Gospel texts show variant readings suggesting that this may have been the original view of the some of the Evangelists, the texts having been altered later on to obscure this point.

Bailey’s early work Initiation: Human and Solar outlines the role of the Christ. He is the “World Teacher,” the “presiding head” of a certain wing of the Hierarchy. “He is that Great Being Whom the Christian calls the Christ; He is known also in the Orient as the Bodhisattva, and as the Lord Maitreya, and is the One looked for by the devout Mohammedan, under the name of the Imam Mahdi” (Bailey, Initiation, 43).

Here Bailey identifies the Christ with “the Lord Maitreya,” the “Bodhisattva.” She is alluding to a teaching in Mahayana Buddhism that there have been many Buddhas over the eons: the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, is only the most recent one. Another Buddha is to come, and his name is Maitreya.

This idea is rooted in the Buddhist doctrine of impermanence. All manifest things are impermanent and therefore doomed to perish. The same is true of the Dharma, the teaching of the Buddha: eventually it will be degraded and corrupted and forgotten. The bodhisattva Maitreya will at that point come to earth, achieve enlightenment to become the next Buddha, and reinvigorate and perpetuate the Dharma.

 In her late work The Reappearance of the Christ (1948), Bailey said that the world’s exigencies after the Second World War made it necessary for the Christ to manifest in human form on the earth: “This unique opportunity with which He is presented is brought about by certain world conditions which themselves are unique; there are factors in the world today, and happenings have taken place within the past century which have never before occurred” (Bailey, Reappearance, 15).

Bailey emphasizes that this manifested Christ will be a public figure. “He must again enter the public arena, play His part in world affairs, and prove the scope of His mission. . . . His major task is surely the establishing of right human relations in every department of human living” (Bailey, Reappearance, 56).

 We are also told that “the development of spiritual recognition is the great need today in preparation for His reappearance; no one knows in what nation He will come; He may appear as an Englishman, a Russian, a Negro, a Latin, a Turk, a Hindu, or any other nationality. . . . He may be a Christian or a Hindu by faith, a Buddhist or of no particular faith at all; He will not come as the restorer of any of the ancient religions, including Christianity, but He will come to restore man’s faith in the Father’s love, in the fact of the livingness of the Christ and in the close, subjective and unbreakable relationship of all men everywhere” (Bailey, Reappearance, 19).

It would be very difficult to associate this figure with anyone now known on the world scene.

One enthusiastic promoter of Bailey’s teaching was the Scottish visionary Benjamin Creme (1922‒2016). According to him, the Christ—whom Creme called Maitreya—is now alive and embodied on planet earth. He “has been based in the Asian community of London since July 1977, gradually emerging into full public view,” according to the website of Creme’s organization, Share International.

“On 14 January 2010 Benjamin Creme announced that Maitreya had given His first interview, on American television, and that millions had heard Him speak both on television and the internet. Mr Creme explained: ‘He was introduced not as Maitreya, the World Teacher and Head of our Spiritual Hierarchy, but simply as a man, one of us. In this way He ensures that men follow and support Him for the truth and sanity of His ideas rather than for His status. He spoke earnestly of the need for peace, achievable only through the creation of justice and the sharing of the world’s resources,’” says the Share International site. Maitreya is claimed to have appeared, wearing white robes, in Nairobi in 2010 and in other nations as well. But since Creme’s death, the enthusiasm over the coming of Maitreya has abated, although people still report sightings.

I do not believe in prophecies of any kind: very few of them, from any source, have come true. So I put no great faith in the manifestation of Maitreya in a form portrayed by Creme and possibly Bailey.

On the other hand, to make a negative prophecy is itself a prophecy, so I can hardly state with assurance that such a thing will definitely not occur.

Nevertheless, I have my doubts. The largest one is inspired by the current state of the world media. Say someone resembling Creme’s Maitreya were to appear. He (or she) would almost certainly become yet another celebrity, arousing enthusiasm, controversy, doubt, and all sorts of other mass emotions. I find it hard to imagine that his message would be heard over the din. As adepts have known for millennia, one can accomplish much more working out of the public view.

I think that if the Christ is to reappear, it will occur in quite a different form. I believe that this reappearance will be a collective one—something that occurs within humanity (or a certain portion of it) rather than in the form of yet another charismatic figure.

I tend to sympathize with the comments made on this subject by H.P. Blavatsky in her 1887 article “The Esoteric Character of the Gospels”:

“The coming of Christ,” means the presence of Christos in a regenerated world, and not at all the actual coming in body of “Christ” Jesus; . . . this Christ is to be sought neither in the wilderness nor in the “inner chambers,” nor in the sanctuary of any temple or church built by man; for Christ—the true esoteric Saviour—is no man, but the Divine Principle in every human being. He who strives to resurrect the Spirit crucified in him by his own terrestrial passions, and buried deep in the “sepulchre” of his sinful flesh; he who has the strength to roll back the stone of matter from the door of his own inner sanctuary, he has the risen Christ in him. (Blavatsky, 173)

This passage—which concisely summarizes the central principle of esoteric Christianity—points toward what I believe to be the genuine reappearance of the Christ. It will be a collective awakening, shared by some, perhaps many, perhaps all—but not in any one single public figure.

Conceivably this awakening of the collective Christ is already taking place. But whether it is—and what stage it may be at—will be clear only in retrospect.

Today there is much anxiety about the state of the world; but then there is always much anxiety about the state of the world. Our difficulties are unprecedented; but then the difficulties of every generation are unique and unprecedented. We will not extract ourselves from them by seeking masters and leaders on the outside. This time it will take contact with the Master within.

Sources

Emphasis in all quotations is from the original sources.

Bailey, Alice A. Initiation Human and Solar. New York: Lucis, 1922.

———. The Reappearance of the Christ. New York: Lucis, 1948.

Blavatsky, H.P. Collected Writings, Volume 8: 1887. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1960).

O’Callaghan, Sean. “The Theosophical Christology of Alice Bailey.” In Olav Hammer and Mikael Rothstein, eds. Handbook of the Theosophical Current. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 2013: 93‒112.

Zavadski, Katie. “What to Do When Your Telepathic Leader Dies.” The Daily Beast, Dec. 18, 2016.

Richard Smoley’s latest book, Seven Games of Life and How to Play, was reviewed in the Spring 2023 issue of Quest. This article previously appeared in the winter 2023 issue of the British Theosophical journal Esoterica.

Printed in the  Summer 2023 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Hoeller, Stephan A.,  "Wise Men from the East: The Myth of the Hierarchy of Adepts" Quest 111:3, pg 18-22

By Stephan A. Hoeller

There is a strange and persistent legend that probably originates in the East. It proposes that in some hidden locations on the earth (generally the highlands of Central Asia, particularly Tibet, although other sites, such as the Andes and even some mountains in the U.S., such as the Grand Tetons and Mount Shasta, are mentioned at times), there exists a group of persons who possess both exceptional powers and a highly perfected character and consciousness. They are known variously as the Hierarchy of Adepts, the Great White Lodge, the Great White Brotherhood, the Masters, or simply the Hierarchy.

While most sources emphasize the Eastern (particularly Indian and Tibetan) nationality of these persons, Western embodiments of the legend are not unknown. Some have suggested that portions of this legend traveled westward during the Crusades or even earlier and that their sources are thus primarily to be found in secret and semisecret Islamic traditions.

Beginning with the publication of the mysterious Rosicrucian document Fama fraternitatis (“Rumor of the Brotherhood”) in 1614, the existence of certain “unknown superiors” or “Brothers of the Rosy Cross,” who live and work in secret and yet direct much of the spiritual destiny of the world, became a part of the beliefs of many Western esotericists. To these transmissions may be added diverse strands of legends connected with Arabian poetry, wise men wandering among the troubadours, the fabled kingdom of an adept priest-king named Prester John in the Orient, alchemical masters of an elusive and potent aspect led by Elias Artista, as well as the Templars and the esoteric Freemasons. By the nineteenth century, the foundations for a major unfolding of the adeptic myth were laid. This unfolding took place by way of the Theosophical movement, without which the entire myth would probably have remained forever in obscurity.

Blavatsky and Her Masters

The position of current wisdom about the Masters is well stated by one of the better popularizers of esoterica, Richard Cavendish, who calls it “a glamorous simplification of the tradition common to both East and West from time immemorial, of the searching spirit who asked: ‘Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’” (Cavendish, 286).

This question, of biblical origin, is not without poignancy. As Jesus was regarded as a master of things relating to the life beyond earthly existence, so the Theosophical tradition of the last 150 years has looked to personages of superior insight and power to assist mortals in gaining consciousness of a greater life. Not only did it proclaim the existence and availability of such personages, but it also regarded them as the fount and origin of its teachings.

In one of the very first academic treatises on the subject, published in 1930 in a series sponsored by Columbia University, Alvin Boyd Kuhn wrote:

Theosophists tell us that before the launching of the latest “drive” to promulgate Theosophy in the world, the councils of the Great White Brotherhood of Adepts, or Mahatmas, long debated whether the times were ripe for the free propagation of the secret Gnosis; whether the modern world could appreciate the secret knowledge, without the risk of serious misuse of high spiritual forces, which might be diverted into selfish channels. We are told that in these councils it was the majority opinion that broadcasting the Ancient Wisdom over the Occidental areas would be a veritable casting of pearls before swine; yet two of the Mahatmas settled the question by undertaking to assume the karmic debts of the move, to take the responsibility for all possible disturbances and ill effects. (Kuhn, 2)

These two Mahatmas eventually became known as Morya and Koot Hoomi (or Kut Hurni), and their contact person par excellence was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.

The story of the colorful, controversial, erudite, and intuitive Mme. Blavatsky has been told many times, most recently and accurately by Sylvia Cranston in her biography. The issue of Blavatsky’s involvement with her adeptic inspirers has also been thoroughly investigated by a valiant researcher, K. Paul Johnson. Johnson’s work merits some comment here because in certain ways it represents a novel development of the treatment of the subject. It is Johnson’s thesis that figures living in Blavatsky’s lifetime, for whom she found suitable disguises in mysterious personae and a set of equally mysterious pseudonyms, under which they entered the mythos of Theosophy and of all modern occultism.

According to Johnson, Morya was a maharajah of Kashmir by the name of Ranbir Singh, while Koot Hoomi is identified with a Sikh spiritual leader, Sirdar Thakar Singh Sadhanwalia. Johnson also identifies other adeptic figures of Blavatsky’s, such as “the Chohan” (or Maha Chohan) and the “Master Djual Kul” (later publicized by Alice Bailey), with Sikh and Muslim gurus and leaders of the time.

The Living Masters  

It is not without interest that Johnson should pick so many Sikh personages as the models for Blavatsky’s occult Masters. The variety of Indian spirituality that is most comparable to modern Theosophy is perhaps the Sant tradition, which some scholars regard as a close relative of Western Gnosticism. This tradition has been allied with the Sikhs since the time of Guru Nanak in the sixteenth century. One embodiment, the Radhasoami movement, had just appeared on the scene in Blavatsky’s time in the person of Shiv Dayal Singh (1818‒78), who was well known in Indian religious circles and came to the attention of the Theosophists.

The Sant tradition has innumerable doctrinal similarities to Theosophy, including the teaching of the “living masters” who are the chief agents of the initiatory redemption of their followers, as Andrea Grace Diem observes in her book The Gnostic Mystery. It is regrettable that in spite of recognizing the Sikh connection, Johnson failed to trace it to the Sant tradition, where he might have found a far more valuable model for Blavatsky’s concept of the Masters. The subject is still in great need of exploration. We shall do so briefly here.

For a Westerner the term saint denotes a person in whom the ordinary human virtues have been exercised to a heroic degree. The ancient Greeks may be credited with having first established a category of humans known as heroes, who stood between mortals and the immortal gods. The Sant tradition recognizes persons of a similar kind. They are usually called sants (“saints” or “men of truth”) or satgurus (“true teachers”). Such persons have merged their own spiritual core with the Supreme Identity to the extent that they are no longer subject to any illusion or any sense of ego apart from the Divine.

As Diem says, “What we are confronted with in the [sat]guru is a classic hierophany: a profane object which manifests the sacred” (Diem, 6). The satguru is an embodied being, a human, not a disembodied god or angel and for this reason is known as a “living master.” Neither is it sufficient in this tradition to follow a teacher who has died:

According to the Sant tradition . . .one must follow a living guru. It is said that past Sants cannot take the soul back to God. This is due to two main reasons: (1) the original message of the Sants is believed to be misconstrued after the Sant passes away, while the teachings of a living Sant are pure and charged; and . . .  devotion to one’s guru aids one’s spiritual progress; (2) it is believed to be easier to love someone alive and tangible than someone who has been dead for centuries. (Diem, 7)

Let us compare this with some statements concerning the Theosophical Mahatmas. According to Blavatsky,

A Mahatma is a personage who, by special training and education, has evolved those higher faculties and has attained that spiritual knowledge, which ordinary humanity will acquire after passing through numberless series of reincarnations during the process of cosmic evolution . . . The real Mahatma is then not his physical body but that higher [mind] which is inseparably linked to the [spirit] and its vehicle. (Blavatsky, 239‒41)

We also have statements to this effect from what would appear to be the Mahatmas themselves. During Blavatsky’s residence in India after 1879, the Anglo-Indian journalist A.P. Sinnett became interested in her teachers. In 1880 he instituted a correspondence with Morya and Koot Hoomi. The replies to Sinnett’s letters have been preserved in the British Museum in London and have also been published in book form. In one of these letters, Koot Hoomi writes:

An adept—the highest as the lowest—is one only during the exercise of his occult powers. Whenever these powers are needed, the sovereign will unlocks the door to the inner man (the adept), who can emerge and act freely, but on condition that his jailer—the outer man—will be either completely or partially paralyzed. (Barker, 180).

If we allow for certain differences in psychological orientation, such a statement could have readily come from a “living master” of the Sant tradition.

Adepts, Embodied and Disembodied

These considerations leave little doubt that Blavatsky’s mysterious teachers were regarded as living human personages, albeit of a highly unusual order. At the same time, it is necessary to recognize that along with the mythos of the embodied Masters, another mythos played an important part in the development of the idea of the adeptic Hierarchy. This was nineteenth-century Spiritualism, a movement that attracted great numbers and much publicity in its day.

Today Spiritualism is largely confined to the practice of attempting contacts with rather nondescript spirits. Professed Spiritualists are not very numerous, and their social and intellectual standing is on the whole unremarkable. But another kind of Spiritualism has become much more prominent: channeling. Here we primarily find attempts to disseminate occult information, often pertaining to humanity or the cosmos as a whole. Channelers in general do not have the personalistic preoccupations of Spiritualists, who often seem largely concerned with the exploits of their dead relatives in nonphysical realms. Channelers’ utterances are frequently doctrinal, prophetic, even at times archetypal.

It would be fair to say that Spiritualism has always possessed two sides, one personalistic and consequently shallow, the other revelatory and touching upon the numinous. The origins of the Theosophical adeptic myth are connected with the latter. At the time of the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875, there was a spirit entity who made frequent appearances in Spiritualist gatherings in America and England and who identified himself as “John King.” Blavatsky seems to have thought quite highly of this entity and said he was in some way connected with her adeptic superiors.

Although for some years Blavatsky engaged in an uneasy cooperation with the Spiritualists and had been ordered to break with them by her superiors in 1875, her relationship with “John King” remained close. Eventually she identified him squarely as a messenger of the adepts who inspired her to found the Theosophical Society (Jinarajadasa, 15‒16). It would seem that a disembodied spirit—and one who was, moreover, active in Spiritualist seances—could be an associate of the embodied adepts, who generally disapproved of the Spiritualists and their “spooks,” as Blavatsky called them.

Another interesting episode inspired the launching of a major esoteric revival in French occult circles, which still exists and has spread to several continents. Blavatsky had a friend living in France who was quite influential in the occult revival there. Her maiden name was Mary, Lady Caithness, and she was married to the Duc de Pomar. She resided in a large palace in Paris, complete with an ornate chapel in which occult activities were carried out.

In the fall of 1889, a former Catholic seminarian, high­ grade Freemason, and visionary poet named Jules Doinel was visited in this chapel by the spirit of the Cathar bishop Guilhabert de Castres, accompanied by the spirits of other medieval Cathars. The spirits, speaking through a seeress, commissioned Doinel to revive the Gnostic Church, of which he became the first patriarch. Detailed instructions for the organization of the Gnostic Church were given to Doinel at this time. This event marked the beginning of the Église Gnostique Universelle (Universal Gnostic Church, also known under other names), which became closely associated with the Martinist Order under Papus (Gérard Encausse). The church has many branches in France, Haiti, and other countries (Introvigne, 106‒08).

Doinel’s founding of the modern Gnostic Church may be taken as an instance of a certain kind of adeptic inspiration similar to that of Blavatsky, and possibly even known to her. Yet the messages here profess to come from disembodied beings who are of a different order from the entities encountered at most séances. As such they may be likened to some of the more valuable forms of contemporary channeling, such as A Course in Miracles.

The notion of spiritual guides who might or might not be associated with each other in some sort of mystical fraternity became widely accepted in many quarters. Even C.G. Jung, who was skeptical about many aspects of Theosophical and related teachings, was not immune to such ideas. In his Memories, Dreams, Reflections, he wrote at great length about a mysterious “phantasy figure” whom he called Philemon and from whom he received much instruction. He also recounted a conversation he had with a “highly cultivated elderly Indian, a friend of Gandhi’s,” who, after informing Jung that his own guru was Shankaracharya, the long-deceased founder of Vedanta, went on to say, “Most people have living gurus. But there are always some who have a spirit for a teacher.” Jung said he was immediately reminded of Philemon (Jung, 184).

A curious convergence between the Theosophical lore of embodied Masters and the channeling phenomenon occurred in 1972, when the British painter and medium Benjamin Creme, greatly influenced by Alice Bailey’s modified version of the Theosophical hierarchy of the Masters, began to channel messages stating that the appearance of the Lord Maitreya was imminent. (Maitreya, who is regarded in Buddhism as the coming Buddha, has been incorporated into the Theosophical hierarchy; early in the twentieth century, Jiddu Krishnamurti was said to be Maitreya’s vehicle.) Creme fixed 1982 as the year of the reappearance of Maitreya. It was foretold that the event would be accompanied by various technological miracles, including the use of all public media in the world by the returning savior. Although the phenomenon failed to occur, devotees remained undaunted.

In the biblical legend of the Three Wise Men from the East, we have an archetypal prefiguration of the myths and speculations about the mysterious adepts who are involved with the fate of the world. The term “Secret Directorate” was coined in this regard by British author Ernest Scott, who, drawing primarily on Islamic sources, has made an impressive plea for the reality of an assembly of men known in some Middle Eastern circles as the “Friends of God” or “People of the Secret.” Although the Theosophical dispensation of esotericism may have brought the subject into prominence, even now, when Theosophy functions mainly as a grandfather movement to innumerable teachings and organizations, the idea of the adepts is far from outmoded.

In this still quite vital idea of a hierarchy of adepts, we are faced with a mystery that no one has succeeded in solving. Recent efforts, such as K. Paul Johnson’s, have shed light on a few dark corners but have failed to illumine the whole subject. While new dimensions have been opened up, others remain obscure. The following thoughts are offered as feeble attempts to penetrate the mystery.

First, is there evidence that the events of cosmic or terrestrial development, particularly the affairs of humankind, are subject to direction by a hierarchy of superhuman intelligences and that these intelligences have made contact with humanity at certain times? The answer, it would seem, is no. The sorrowful course of history, the fierce expressions of a “blind world-creating will” (to use Schopenhauer’s words), does not intimate the handiwork of such intelligences. If there is an “inner government” or a “secret directorate,” it would have to be a rather ineffectual one.

By the same token, it is possible that some people possessing a high form of gnosis may indeed labor in concert, not as a hierarchical government but as a band of enlightened and compassionate helpers. Some of the statements purporting to have come from such personages (notably in connection with Blavatsky) would point to this possibility. Notions of godlike, omniscient beings pulling the strings of history from their secret residences may be inspiring to some of us, but they have little warrant in reality. Certainly Blavatsky’s Masters never claimed to be of that species. (Schools of occultism, such as the Alice Bailey movement or the descendants of the “I Am” movement of the 1930s, who strenuously insist on the deific and all-powerful of such beings, are generations removed from the original impulse of these teachings.)

On the other hand, the image of the adept, whether as a living master or as a disembodied spiritual instructor, carries definite connotations of what might in Jungian terms be called an archetypal being. Some might counter that such a description is tantamount to substituting one mystery for another. Still it is undeniable that behind all science and mysticism, behind all the approaches of West and East, there is but one area of reality and realization: the human psyche. Whatever preternatural realities might make themselves known to us, they must do so by way of the psyche or else go unnoticed.

The psychic reality of archetypes may thus be taken to be of great relevance to the subject at hand. Archetypes possess many of the characteristics of numinosity, authority, and commanding power attributed to the adepts. When indicating to her disciples how they might come closer to the greater mysteries of being, Blavatsky once stated that she “could tell them how to find those who will show them the secret gateway that opens inwardly only.” Is it so difficult to imagine that those who open such inner gateways must dwell at least in part, if not wholly, in the inward recesses of the psyche?

And if the assembly of archetypal being resides largely within us and not in the Himalayas or on some secret plateau in Afghanistan, might it not also be present in the immediate environment of our lives? Certainly some have thought so. One was the French poet and esotericist Maurice Magre, who, in the epilogue of his book The Return of the Magi, wrote:

There have been men whose names are unknown because they cared little for fame, and truth radiated from them without knowing it. There have been revealers who were unaware of the revelation that was in them; modest sages who mingled their wisdom with their daily lives. We have all of met, at least once in our lives, one of these unheralded initiators, and received from them a priceless gift, by a kindly word, a certain look of sadness, a sincere expression in the eyes. (Magre, 223‒24)

It is in this direction that we might direct our inquiries if we desire the greatest reward. Be that as it may, the myth of the adeptic assembly may still have secrets to disclose that might benefit us beyond measure.

Sources

A.T. Barker, ed. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett. 2d ed. London: Rider, 1948.

Blavatsky, H.P. Collected Writings, Volume 6. Los Angeles: Blavatsky Writings Publication Fund, 1954.

Cavendish, Richard. Encyclopaedia of the Unexplained: Magic, Occultism, and Parapsychology. London: Routledge, 1974.

Cranston, Sylvia. H.P.B.: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Mme. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the Founder of the Theosophical Movement. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1992.

Diem, Andrea Grace. The Gnostic Mystery: A Connection between Ancient and Modern Mysticism. Walnut, Calif.: Mt. San Antonio College Press, 1992.

Introvigne, Massimo. II ritomo dello Gnosticimo. Carnago, Italy: SugarCo, 1993.

Jinarajadasa, C., ed. The Golden Book of the Theosophical Society. Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1925.

Johnson, K. Paul. The Masters Revealed: Mme. Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1994. An earlier version of this work was In Search of the Masters: Behind the Occult Myth. South Boston, Va.: privately published, 1990.

Jung, C.G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Edited by Aniela Jaffe. New York: Vintage, 1965.

Kuhn, Alvin Boyd. Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom. New York: Henry Holt, 1930.

Magre, Maurice. The Return of the Magi. Translated by Reginald Merton. London: Sphere Books, 1975.

Scott, Ernest. The People of the Secret. London: Octagon, 1983.

Stephan A. Hoeller was born and raised in Hungary and was educated for the monastic priesthood in his earlier years. A member of the Theosophical Society since 1952, he has lectured in the U.S. as well as in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. He served as a professor of religion at the College of Oriental Studies for a number of years and is the author of four books published by Quest Books: The Fool’s Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot; Jung and the Lost Gospels: Insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library; The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead; and Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing. He has been associated with the Besant Lodge of the TSA in Hollywood for many years and has been a bishop of the Gnostic Church (Ecclesia Gnostica) since 1967. This article first appeared in Gnosis: A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions, summer 1995.