Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00570)

Jerry: "Going to a mesmerizer is no better or
worse than going to a witchdoctor, (or a medical doctor?). Where
is karma in all of this? She is pulling our leg here. This kind
of thing breeds fear, and Theosophists seem to have more than
their share, perhaps because HPB overdid this kind of stuff"

Bri.: The Secret Doctrine is a major source of fantasy images of Atlantis 
and Lemuria. The map of the world expanded with the rise of the 
modern age. 
Legislation in countries such as the newly founded United States of 
America made it possible for spiritual enterpreneurs to experiment with 
non-Christian doctrines and rituals and incorporate elements from 
various exotic creeds. 
A generic Orient, the belief in the noble savage and the veneration of 
ancient civilisations arose at different times and were supported by 
different spokespersons, yet were amalgamated into a common vision.

Each country referred to seems to have its own role in Esoteric 
historiography. Egypt is the land of initiation, of great mysteries; India is 
the source of concepts such as reincarnation, karma and the subtle 
bodies; Tibet plays the role of the homeland of sages and the repository 
of ancient scriptures. However the distinction between an Egyptian 
tradition and one based on a generalized india, is a scholarly 
construction. 
Thus the main impulse behind the study of the kabbala during the 
Renaissance and up to the 17th century combined with hermetism, was 
the belief that it heralded christianity. 

Theosophy and Esoteric science are clothed in scientific terminology and 
expressed by means of carefully selected bits and pieces of a scientistic 
bricolage. In an age where science is devoid of fundamentally appealing 
qualities such as goal, meaning and purpose, it remains tempting to 
claim "reality", status for what are essentially religious beliefs. 

The constuction of tradition, the bricolage from bits and pieces of such 
originally distinct historical sources, masks the novelty of Blavatsky's 
overall conception. Essentially, the Theosophical view of the 
transmigration of souls is not so much Oriental or Platonic, as a typically 
19th century construction. Three key ideas run through Blavatsky's 
description of the chain of rebirth. The first is the fact of Orientalism 
itself. The frequent references to India and the East rather than to 
Plotinus or Paracelsus are in themselves a phenomenon of the post-
Enlightenment era. The second is the placement of reincarnation within 
the most overarching meta-narrative of the 19th century evolutionism. 

The third element is the synthesis of these ideas with another meta 
narrative of the 19th century: the view that humanity is divided into 
races and peoples with clearly definable properties. A closer look at the 
purported ancient wisdom religion shows it to be a mythologization of 
ideas characteristic of late 19th century. 
Bri.