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Review by M.R. Jaqua (in bold)
with comments by the editor (regular)
"Kuthumi on Selfhood" is a recent
re-release under new title of Elizabeth Clare Prophet's
1969 volume 12 of her "Pearls of Wisdom" series.
It is a series of short essays supposedly channeled from
the adepts behind the founding of the Theosophical Society,
Morya and Koot Hoomi (and a host of others from "Archangel
Michael" to Gautama Buddha) which are bound together
in one volume.
Anybody can have a subscription to these Pearls
of Wisdom. They are published somewhat irregular, but
every volume, which covers a whole calendar year, has between
45 and 60 issues. Currently the rate is $ 45 per year. Most
issues are dictations by different Masters, Archangels and
Cosmic Beings, which were mostly given during one of the
four quarterly conferences of C.U.T., which are open to
the public. Now that Mrs. Prophet is not transmitting
any new dictations anymore many of the previously unpublished
dictations are being released. All published Pearls of Wisdom
from the period 1958-1998 can be purchased on a CD-Rom.
First of all, any serious student of Theosophy
realizes that Clare Prophet's "Morya and Kuthumi"
are not the REAL Morya and Koot Hoomi since these two adepts
did not believe in the practice of mediumship.
Dictations are quite different from mediumship, which opens
the possibility that they are the REAL ones.
The impersonation of adepts by astral entities
is no uncommon thing as can be seen by Koot Hoomi's own
words on page 419 and other places in "The Mahatma
Letters."
Agree. At a Whole Life Expo in Los Angeles in the 90s not
less than eight persons were channeling Saint Germain.
While "The Mahatma Letters" (the
production of the REAL Koot Hoomi and Morya) is solid philosophy
throughout and obviously the production of great minds,
whether the critic be theosophist or not, the Contents of
Prophet's "Kuthumi on Selfhood" is nearly entirely
pollyannic gibberish, with undefined terms piled helter-skelter
upon each other from every area of religion and occultism
in such an irrational fashion as to make anyone attempting
to find even a focal point as a basis for critique to throw
his hands up in anguished despair.
Great polemical sentence and probably true for the reviewer's
point of view. I had similar experiences reading my first
book Dossier on the Ascension by Serapis Bey. I
could read Kant, Krishnamurti, HPB, Steiner and still decipher
what they were saying. Even Heidegger I could crack open.
But the Pearls of Wisdom were quite different. Very frustrating
experience. I don't know what made me understand them at
a certain moment. Discussions with other students, prolonged
exposure to the writings, deciphering its particular vocabulary,
illumination from within, Gnostic breakthrough?
Once again, as the case in most all channeling, the
discourses are an appeal to the emotions with only the barest
necessary trace of rhyme, reason and system.
After a while I found the rhyme and reason and discovered
that indeed they appeal to the emotions, though I rather
describe it as 'evocation of higher spiritual feelings,
with subtle intellectual content.'
One wonders how with any sense of conscience
Clare Prophet can for the last 30 years present her channelings
as from the same Morya and Koot Hoomi behind the original
Theosophical Society and responsible for most of Founder
Blavatsky's erudite writings. How could one suppose such
a drastic degeneration in style and complete about-face
on philosophic matters could come from the same men?
From a philosophical point these teachings can be a bit
disappointing. Nevertheless I believe with David Anrias
that the intellectual content of Blavatsky's Secret
Doctrine was too high for the average western student
to be beneficial. One of the reasons being that the life-style
most conducive to obtain a beneficial understanding of the
Secret Doctrine could hardly be maintained in the
frantic west. For this reason the Masters turned more to
other practices, like group rituals, to effect the changes
in Their students They first tried to accomplish by releasing
the Secret Doctrine. In this view it is not so
much the content of the Secret Doctrine which counts
but more its transformative effects. [See Adepts of
the Five Elements (London: Routledge, 1933) pp. 22-23:
"The Secret Doctrine was the chief object
of group-study, but the higher mental body of the average
bewildered western student was usually discovered to be
insufficiently equipped for the task. ... Therefore these
particular Masters effected a transference of occult force,
hitherto wholly confined to the higher mental plane, to
the lower mental, and later to the astral plane by means
of group ceremonial magic." (some
more excerpts) ]
Rudolph Steiner had a similar view of the philosophy of
Hegel and Fichte. According to Steiner they were kind of
Gnostic philosophers, not because they philosophied about
Gnostic doctrines--though in another sense that might be
true--but more because by reading them a Gnostic experience
could be effected.
The word "God" is used approximately
half a dozen times on each page of Prophet's work, while
in "The Mahatma Letters" K.H. and M. would not
use this term at all without qualification because of the
terms connotation of the Christian *Personal* Diety.
If you would study these teachings more in depth you will
find many qualifications of the term God. As I understand
it God is not to be equated with the Absolute, which is
his 'background,' and God is both personal and impersonal,
and many variations in between.
While it is stated repeatedly in the adept-produced
writings that it is hoped the Theosophical Movement will
avoid any sort of "churchism," Clare Prophet's
"masters" have instructed her to do this very
thing with her "Church Universal and Triumphant"
complete with bishops, et. al.
Well, the Masters made an exception for their Tibetan temples,
and later on also for the Liberal Catholic Church and now
for Church Universal and Triumphant.
"Morya" is even made to give a
wonderful Christmas sermon at one point and vicarious atonement
is promulgated at others - something that is the complete
antithesis of Theosophical Teachings.
Morya's letter is indeed wonderful. The Masters do not
teach the doctrine of vicarious atonement. The exoteric
doctrine that Jesus died for our sins and thus liberated
us from our negative karma is incorrect. C.U.T.'s esoteric
understanding is that Jesus, because of his spiritual attainment
and his office as Lord of the Piscean Age, temporarily carried
the bulk of humanity's karma so we could more easily grow
spiritually and be better prepared when this karma would
come due during the transition to a new age, which is happening
now.
"Jesus Christ" delivers a message
also, and in the adept's earlier Theosophical teachings
Christ was held to be an Avatar - a being created by white
magic which ceases to exist forever after physical death
- one wonders what he is still doing around.
Prophet teaches, as did CWL, that Jesus and Christ
were two different beings. Jesus, under tutelage of the
Masters, prepared his body and mind to be overshadowed by
the World Teacher and representative of the Cosmic Christ,
Lord Maitreya. The same was intended with Krishnamurti about
2000 years later.
Did Clare Prophet's "adepts" change
their philosophy from early Theosophical days, or does she
merely ignore the above discrepancies and the thousand other
paradoxes between her "new" adepts and the old,
genuine adepts - who were not "ascended masters"
at all (whatever this may be) but real living men.
Discrepancies can indeed be problematic. So far I found
some discrepancies solved by deeper study, or I chose one
side or the other--both not being infallible--or I just
have to suspend judgment. As far as the grander ideas and
principles concerned I do not see discrepancies, but mutual
reinforcement and, as an effect on me, a deepening of understanding.
More problematic for me are the discrepancies between theosophy
and Krishnamurti's teachings. Meanwhile, that is since They
were instrumental in founding the TS, the two Masters involved
made Their ascension at the turn of the century and were
later joined by Djwal Kul. They are still living men, but
without a physical body, though They could materialize one
if so desired. Concerning this issue I wrote in my pamphlet
"The
Masters and Their Emissaries:From H.P.B. to Guru Ma and
Beyond"
"Both Masters [M. and K.H.] took their fifth initiation,
the Ascension, at the close of the last century, thereby
becoming incorporeal Ascended Masters. And as Blavatsky
has written--referring to other saints, that, when “unburthened
of their terrestrial tabernacles, their freed souls, henceforth
united forever with their spirits, rejoin the whole shining
host, which is bound together in one spiritual solidarity
of thought and deed, and called the ‘anointed,’
”--the same glad tidings could be told, not only about
these two illustrious Masters, but also about many other
brave souls who followed them. [H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled
(Pasadena CA: Theosophical University Press, 1976), II,
p. 159]. For practical purposes the difference between an
Unascended Master and an Ascended one is not very great.
Both can work in the physical as well as in the spiritual
realm and both have a wide array of occult powers at their
command to guide Their pupils and help mankind. The difference
is that an Unascended Master has its base of operations
in a physical body and an Ascended Master in a spiritual.
To dismiss the latter as spooks, because They do not conform
to one’s idea of flesh-and-blood Masters, is to deny
oneself the great wisdom coming from the 'anointed.' ”
Review
(without comments)
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